Utah John

The Bills are fairly consistent from week to week. The Jets are wildly inconsistent, and it usually comes down to whether good Geno or bad Geno shows up. I realize the Vegas experts have to set a betting line but if Geno is the QB I'd almost take their games off the board. If Geno played against the Bills like he did against the Pats, it would have been a different game. I'm assuming the ridiculous play calling that Hackett inflicted on us was just a matter of not doing anything to interfere with the Jets self-destructing. No turnovers, no freebies, play good solid field position, score a few times, and watch the other guys shoot holes in their feet. If the Bills needed to move the ball more, they could have done so easily by passing almost every down. Every single run up the middle was a waste of a down. The Bills O line can't block the Jets' good D line, and I will have no idea whether Brown or Dixon is a legitimate runner until they get a chance to run through an actual hole.

I haven't read all the posts on this topic so I apologize if I'm repeating something, but keep in mind that the Bills gave up a lot in the trade for Rob Johnson, and there's always a push from the front office to make their deals work out. I think I remember that Ralph Wilson was personally involved in the trade for Johnson, after watching Johnson look incredible with his former team in ONE GAME (I think he went 22 out of 24 passing). So there was always this controversy, that by playing Flutie the Bills were holding back on developing Johnson. Flutie was a great competitor and leader, and we remember when he found ways to pull out a miracle win. We don't remember the losses or the times he didn't get the job done, when a more traditional QB like Johnson might have succeeded. We will never resolve this but the outcome was a big contributor to the disaster of the last decade.

Geno Smith has good games from time to time. Hard to predict when the good ones will be. If he's on, our mediocre DBs will be the difference. If not our D line will devour him. That's why they play the game, because you never know how it will go.

There are a couple hundred pitches in a baseball game so the players have a chance to adjust if the strike zone is different than usual. A football game has fewer plays, but more to the point a given particular situation will come up only a few times. If holding is going to be called or not called for a particular technique, there is no chance to know that ahead of time, and the impact could be a drive stalling or being kept going. The point is there's a real need for consistency all the time, in all the games, because there aren't enough chances during a football game for the players to know what the rules du jour are.

Well there were two teams on the field. The Vikings were playing the role that the Bills usually play, finding a way to lose. The Bills are simply a better team than Minnesota, which was usually the case in the past when the Bills snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Nice to be on this side of the divide. Talking about capriciousness, Scott Norwood probably makes that SB kick 7 or 8 times out of 10. But he only got to try it once.

Branch was a very good DT on a Bills team overstocked with great DTs. I'm surprised no one else has picked him up.

Thanks for reminding me of the name of the guy we traded for Hughes. I had to google it before I saw your post. For all the dumb personnel moves the Bills have made, that one sure panned out. A completely lopsided win for the Bills. So I wonder how long the Bills can keep this D line together? Mario Williams is locked up for several years. Can the Bills afford to pay both Dareus and Hughes? There are younger and cheaper (and not quite as good) DT replacements for Dareus already on the team, and very few DEs, so my guess is we let Dareus go if one of them has to. But what a loss that will be. And does anyone know how long Kyle Williams is signed for? I think the professionals in the NFL, much more than the casual fans, recognize KW's value, so it could be expensive to keep him too. I would keep him over Hughes actually because he's the locker room leader on defense. I'm guessing Fred Jackson might have one more year left and he's the other leader on the team. Bad mojo to let both leaders go.

I was going to mention Shula's position on the rules committee but noticed you had done so. I am old enough that my football consciousness goes back further than that, and I recall the Bills going 0 for the 70s at the same time that Shula had that position. Now the Bills are losing almost as regularly to the Pats. Probably coincidence. I'd be shocked, shocked otherwise.

It's interesting that Marrone benched his second-year QB who was stinking up the place while learning on the job, while he's letting his rookie O-linemen stink up the place while they learn on the job.

The title of this threat indicates Orton made a ton of unforced errors. In truth he played pretty well. Probably a B or B+ considering the last drive and what he had to overcome. If you saw Fitz stinking up the place last night, or recall EJ against the Texans, you have to feel pretty good about Orton.

He picked the Jets to sweep both the Bills and the Dolphins, and to beat Pittsburg, but to lose to the Vikings. Really?? Granted the Steelers aren't a top 10 team this year, but the Dolphins and Bills have both beat teams the Jets have lost to. Just like the Bills played down to a weak team but won last week, the Jets played hard against the Pats and the Broncos two weeks ago and still found a way to lose. I have seen this movie enough times with the Bills in the starring role to recognize a sequel when I see one. I am not saying the Jets will end up 1-15, but 7-9 as this guy predicted seems crazy.

When Watkins breaks all of Andre Reed's records and gets into the HOF his first year of eligibility, will we stop talking about this then? Geez. The draft is a crap shoot. The Bills are lousy at picking first rounders. There is no reason to believe the pick they would have saved next year would have been better than Losman, McCargo, or Maybin. For that matter, Manuel, who was also a first rounder. You can make a case that the Bills paid too much to move up just a few slots, but only for now -- once Watkins reaches his full potential that discussion will be moot. The Bills had no first rounder in either 1988 or 1989, and did pretty well -- not having first rounders is not necessarily the kiss of death. Jones' injuries are keeping him from his full potential but he could still turn out great. And, take a look at what Cleveland did with all the picks they got. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/16/greg-littles-release-leaves-browns-with-one-player-left-from-julio-jones-trade/

Before I google Tanner Mayes please warn us whether she's NSFW.

Considering the Bills track record at drafting first round picks, the odds are that next year's pick would have been a middling success or a bust. The Bills hardly ever strike gold in the first round. Spiller wasn't worth it. EJ wasn't worth it. Dareus is coming around finally. Torrell Troup might have been worth it but he got hurt, and we coulda had Gronkowski instead. So we could have had a good WR or TE this year and maybe bilge next year, or Watkins this year when the Bills might be in position to make the playoffs. The Bills didn't count on Kiko getting hurt -- what a difference it would have made to have him and Spikes and Bradham and Preston Brown cycling through. So I think the Bills thought it was worth the chance to explode on the scene this year, and to position themselves for several years with what could be the best WR in the game. Unless Watkins gets hurt, you betcha this was the right thing to do.

Seriously? You could even be thinking that? Who cares what race a player is?!!?

Every time Albert does a Bills-NJJ game he makes a point of saying the Jets are really a New York team. He's a homer who can't face up to the facts that they play in a different state. The announcers yesterday, like all the Fox announcers we've endured this year, know the NFC teams and players much better than they do the AFC. I'm sure the AFC announcers aren't as good when they do NFC games. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Who among us would NOT watch a Bills game because the announcers were bad? It could be Fran Drescher calling the game and Sarah Palin doing color, and I would still watch.

I think most successful teams have a Bobby Chandler / Wes Welker / Wayne Chrebet kind of guy. They're tough, they work their butts off, they find ways to make plays when the prototype WRs don't.

We've all got first-hand experience rooting for bad teams, or should I say teams having bad years. Even in the worst of times the Bills would rise up on occasion and fight hard against a better opponent, sometimes winning and sometimes losing. Anyone remember what happens next? Collapse, which starts with C which rhymes with T which stands for Trouble. The Browns beat the Steelers, then tanked against Jacksonville. Come on. The Jets played about as well as they can against the Pats. But they're a bad team, rotten at the core, without the intestinal fortitude to keep coming back week after week with a strong effort.

It was a fumble. He wasn't far from being down with the ball in control, but he didn't make it. Welcome to the NFL, 7/11, and watch out for those strippers.

So KO has more turnovers than EJ. That's bad. But how many drives did Orton keep alive with a good, competent, professional completion to a slightly open receiver, when EJ checked down, missed completely, took a sack, or ran for 3 yards less than needed for the first down?

The ironic thing is he's been playing the last couple of weeks like he was trying not to get hurt, to keep his re-sale value up. So he breaks a long one, gets caught FROM BEHIND (geez how fast was that Viking) which probably surprised him, lands wrong, and now he's injured anyway. Spiller might be back, but only if the numbers work for everyone. He loves Jackson but Fred might not be back either -- I love that guy but some RBs get old quick -- so if one half of a happy couple leaves the other probably will too. Let's see how Brown does against the Jets. That's a tough intro for a RB -- running into the NJJ D-line which is quite good, behind our O-line which isn't. If Brown finds a way to excel in this situation, that will be a push in the back out the door for CJ.

Look at it this way. The Bills are 2-2 in New York State and 2-1 outside the state, with wins at Chicago and Detroit and the only loss coming when EJ finally reached rock bottom against the Texans. Since this game is in New Jersey, the Bills are odds-on favorites.

There is always a ref on the spot for catches at that part of the field, including yesterday. There was a ref right there watching the catch to see if it was a completed reception, in bounds. Why that ref didn't place the ball properly is a mystery.

Years ago, when the Bills were great and Bill Polian was the GM, he had a show on a local channel. After an unimpressive win, I remember a situation where he was responding to a question like this discussion and he turned to one of the fans in the studio audience, and asked the fan what the important thing to accomplish during the game is. The fan answered, "Win the game." Polian just turned to whoever had asked the question and said something like, "See, he gets it. He knows." You can go back to the Bills glory days and find 3 or 4 wins each year when they pulled one out of their butts. So what. Winning those games was the difference between not making the playoffs and getting home field advantage through the playoffs. Yesterday they didn't start out great, considering Hogan's early fumble, but that followed a good initial stop by the D and a sharp drive by the Bills' O. After Hogan's fumble the whole team started having a little trouble, and the Vikings started playing better. After Jackson and Spiller both went down, the O had serious problems. I think they didn't get Dixon prepared to be the only RB and so the O couldn't run a lot of plays. Getting limited to basic plays is a bad thing, especially with a rotten O line. I think the defensive game plan was an experiment by Schwartz. He had been focusing on the run so much that the pass D wasn't very good. He tried balancing things and ended up not stopping either very well. Good thing the Vikings O is bad. The Bills made Jennings look a lot better than he really is. I think Brown was acquired as Spiller's replacement assuming Spiller would leave after this year, and Brown will be the featured back against the NJJ. The running game will be a lot more capable, and that will help address one problem from yesterday. But LG, RG, and RT are still going to struggle against the Jets D line. The Bills have a fighting chance to win next Sunday but they're weak where the opposition is strong, and the Jets have been off since Thursday night. Tough game next Sunday, and the Bills will need to elevate their game.

The placement was definitely wrong, and I had the same thought, that if it was closer they could have tried to run it in. The problem with the booth replays in the last two minutes is that an official timeout for the review would have been a huge advantage for the Bills, who were desperately trying to stop the clock. And then once the next play was snapped (the spike) it was too late to review the previous play (the catch). Maybe the rule about not reviewing a play after the next play starts can be modified for this situation.