joey greco

Well, that must have been the one adjustment he made, because for a lot of the game he had the DB's playing 10 yards off the line of scrimmage when the Jets were clearly in short timing patterns with minimal qb drops every passing play when it mattered. Really, fantastic coaching from a long-time veteran.

Really most of these are the same problems as last year. Receivers don't get separation-was true most or all of last year. Fitz completed a lot of holy shi- throws last year if you look back at the good run. Balls that shouldn't have been thrown or would be picked off 98 out of 100 times. He just spent all his luck in 6 games. He also had at least one a game like the Cromartie play that were dropped or called back on penalties. Fitz is what he is the receivers are what they are. We've seen it, no real reason to believe it will change. Secondary can't cover anybody. More same old, same old. We changed the names, results are the same. Very inconsistent at safety, and Aaron Williams hasn't shown any real signs that he has a future as a starter in this league. The running game continued to be a positive. Repeat from last year. The one real new positive to take away was the run defense, which is vastly improved. They knew the Jets were running the whole second half, but that wouldn't have mattered in the past. Unfortunately it won't mean much if they continue to have zero ability to defend the pass. Gilmore should improve some, but really there are way too many holes to expect much in this area. So really, this is about what we should have expected. Having one NFL starting caliber receiver is a joke in a passing league. Failing to address this obvious issue should be enough to get rid of Nix if Wilson really felt that the rest of the team was near winning.

Thanks, came here to post this, probably from a different angle though. There is no meaningful analysis that can be drawn from these numbers, they aren't apples to apples comparisons since those first teams all had varied playing time/plays. Points per play or series might be somewhat more useful but still bad. Yards per play for starters would say something. Points in preseason are the thing that are literally meaningless, and most subject to the realities of preseason play and small sample size.

At least one of Hagan and Martin will make it for special teams

jesus christ just practice the wildcat the rest of the game. at least it will shorten the game and put this embarrassment to an end.

Thank god Thigpen was around to play this game. Another zero that can't be gone too soon.

I can't !@#$ing wait for Easley to get cut. Can't remember another player that was overrated this much based on absolutely nothing on this team. Nothing against him, more the numbnuts who proclaimed him an answer at #2 receiver all offseason.

Well, the way you worded the op does lead to the conclusion. The front four was "pulled' and it was an "odd decision". It wasn't odd at all, they were gassed from being pushed back 60 yards and unable to substitute at all because they couldn't force even an incompletion for so long. When you term their replacement an "odd decision" it makes it sound like you believed that they didn't play most of the drive for some odd reason, not that they played for the vast majority of the drive and were subbed out because they were gassed. Also your other posts last night on this same matter lead to the same conclusion. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/149138-anyone-see-an-intensity-difference-tonight/#entry2540885

I know, just trying to return the snarky remark with a little snark.

The defense played soft all night on distance downs. It bit them big time on that drive. Add to that a little bit of adversity (as mentioned by Chan at halftime), a good qb, and bingo you get a td.

There seems to be a myth on this board that the backup defensive line played most of that drive. They did not. And I think in that context the poster meant vaulted as in locked up, buried. Because that's what they were on that drive. Great for most of the half, but definitely locked in the vault on that drive.

Yes, the cause for concern is that the same weaknesses we saw last year continue to plague this team. Gilmore looked pretty good for a rookie, but Williams was not up to the task. Receivers were continually getting a step on him very quickly, which led to some success on short drops as the first half went on. Yea, the names are different, but once again the defense doesn't have good enough corners. The tackling was bad. Just bad. Lots of yards after first contact, lots of poor form (shoulder blocks, etc) not wrapping people up. The o-line was poor. Freddy has some success when he was able to get outside, but there wasn't much push and the pass protection was atrocious, and that's probably a generous assessment. Lots of hands free to knock down passes. The couple of screens they tried in the first half were not well blocked (one in particular to FJ should have been big but the linemen were not positioned well). Poor recognition and getting beaten physically at every spot on the line. Ugly. Fitz was not very accurate. I think the hands in his face was a factor, as he didn't make many attempts over the middle. He was out of sync with SJ, but he definitely wasn't putting it where he wanted to. Receivers unable to get open. You see that little bit of space Steeler receivers were able to get themselves? This team isn't able to do that with any consistency. SJ can do it sometimes, which is all you can ask, but otherwise they are forced to find ways to get a mismatch-like Polamalu on Nelson on the td. Those aren't that easy to come by against good/well-coached teams. This team badly needs a better receiving corps. Graham is giving me some hope that he might be able to be that type of guy, and Nelson used wisely can be good. Still need more athelticism and ability at the spot. Lack of rushes. Possibly by design, but again, as with each of these issues, something we saw last year. Terrible depth. This is where Nix's talent should be shining through. Our backups should be showing much better than they have been. There will be injuries. Outside of a couple of defensive linemen this team's depth sucks. Absolutely sucks. Injuries will absolutely happen, and these guys will be exposed again. Team is better, but not that much. I'd bet against them having a tear on offense like they did early last year. 7-9 or 8-8.

He said that when the Bills replaced the line after an incompletion at about the Bills 40. It was the first chance they had to sub them out. They then came back into the game with about 20 seconds left and the ball at around the 14 or so. The starting line was in for most (around 70%) of that drive.

The back ups were in for about 30 yards of that drive, it was the starting four for the bulk of it.

They've got winnable games (Jax although i don't think they'll be as bad as you do, same with AZ), but...I did miss their game with Indy when I first looked at their schedule. Never mind

The offense had a hot stretch-it had to open things up to play catchup in games, and also had several things go its way early. KC was ready to implode all preseason-a couple of tough calls and Berry's injury was all it took and they mentall forfeited. Fitz also had many completions into ridiculous coverage and dropped picks in those games. As the year went on the law of averages caught up to him and those interceptions were being made and his stats reflected it. I love Fitzpatrick but I would bet against him ever replicating his early 2011 numbers and even approaching them again in his career.

It's tough to find spots on the Vikings schedule that look like wins either, sad as that fact is today.

Missed tackles? Yea, not a problem in the regular season, game planning will take care of that. A step slow. Another bad tackle. Giving up big plays. Well I didn't see that happen last year, not worried. Poor football instincts and bad decision-making? Wanny will solve that as soon as he starts trying to coach. He's just not bothering, there's no point working with a young player until the regular season starts. That's the time to work on these types of issues. No issues on these, the defensive line was good and its possible that the lack of audibles was a game planning issue. Yea, things that have been ongoing issues for this team. Total lack of an answer for a short passing scheme, terrible coverage from the linebackers, physical errors, etc, etc, etc. lol, watching the scoreboard instead of what's actually happening during the run of play during the preseason. NObody is complaining about the score, only what they're actually seeing on the field. LOL, think you already did that buddy.

These are consistent mistakes that the Bills have made for several years. Missed tackles, a step slow, poor decision-making and football instincts. Inability to deal with short passing schemes and poor single coverage. Your analysis backs up the contention that the Bills physical talent is not good enough and that the problem has little to do with any type of scheme or gameplanning (except possibly the lack of audibles/recognition of the run blitzes). Then you hang your hat on the score? That's the one thing that actually doesn't matter in the preseason. Who gives a **** about the score? What matters is what we all saw-other than the defensive front four, the Bills were getting waxed in every aspect of the game. It's troubling, or at least it should be.

I applaud your self-awareness. If this was the first year, not the 12th consecutive, that opponents' receivers were consistently wide open, Bills' receivers couldn't create space for themselves, and the offensive line looked entirely overmatched physically, you might have been on the right track. The only bright spot is that for the first time in many years the defensive line doesn't look physically overmatched. None of this is about scheme, it's about ability and physical talent, and the team continues to struggle there. They may be able to make up for these deficiencies when the games start, but experience has taught us otherwise. The final score of these games doesn't matter, but the clear inability of this roster to physically impose themselves against very inferior opponents (which, make no mistake, the Vikings are, especially without AP) 1st team vs. 1st team, or even 1st team vs. second team, continues to be troubling. Good teams do not look like this-they can string some basic plays together whether they're scheming or not. They have at least a couple of go-to plays that they run perfectly every time by this point in the preseason. They can cover recievers. They can find an open reciever once in a while. They can at least move the ball a little bit, even if they can't string together a long drive. They definitely don't make inexperienced QB's look like Tom Brady week in and week out. This is a joke.

Throw "death panel" in there and it might work. The two problems I still see with it are 1) Romney and Ryan are too patrician to effectively demagogue the issue. They'll both go for an attempt at rational explanation, which is a losing tactic atm. 2) Something between a third and a half of the populace (and growing every day) are direct dependents of the federal government. If they have the capability and attention span to actually look at the plans, what they'll see is one plan that requires them to make a choice, have some small measure of responsibility, and another in which daddy.gov tells them what's going to happen, just like in every other aspect of their lives. It's all bread and circuses for these people-asking them to make choices and take some responsibility for themselves is anathema.

You're substantively correct, but I doubt it will have any effect on the election. There's so little future-time orientation in the electorate that if it's not happening in the next 6 months it may as well not exist. The left will just keep running ads telling the sheep that Paul Ryan is going to line up every old bag in the country and toss them off a cliff the day after the election and they'll eat it up.

Is the problem that they're focusing on inherently ridiculous trends rather than broad cultural trends that is making this sooo much worse than the Beijing ceremonies?

Holy schitt this is bad. Maybe its because China's was so great that this looks so awful. It's just so small scale, requiring the cameras to focus on individuals doing ridiculous things. China's was wonderfully collectivist..they just do that sort of thing much better, its more reflective of their society. This is an incoherent mess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd1rJuQGbMI&feature=feedf