hondo in seattle

I used to be an officer in the army. Articles written about our operations by Monday morning quarterbacks were always good for a laugh. Folks pretending to know what they're talking about, with little knowledge of the actual situation or mission, offering up pronouncements on how to do better - the foolish arrogance of it all! We're all expert at something. We all know what it's like when rank amateurs pretend to know better. If you think you can manage an actual NFL game better, I think maybe a little holiday cheer has clouded your judgment. Maybe you could if you had years of training and experience. But not right now. It looks easy from the outside, but it's not.

Once it got going, the offense was impressive today. We passed effectively. We ran effectively. We piled up yards and scored a lot of points. But did we see the Tyrod of the future today? Or will he regress to his inaccurate, happy-feet self once more? I won't pretend to know the answer. I get why some see signs of promise in today's performance. And I get why others are more cynical.

Here's what's impressive. Thrown unexpectedly into the job. Never an OC before. No RT worth mentioning. No franchise QB. Playing 2nd and 3rd string WRs - even street FAs (when the starters do play, they're banged up). Yet we're 7th in points and 12th in yards. Has he earned a HC position? I don't think so. Not yet. But he is off to a good start.

I once read Bill Walsh broke blocking down into 30 unique, individual skills and then developed multiple drills that 49er offensive linemen practiced relentlessly until they were mastered. Gilmore is a good cover DB but has exhibited poor tackling technique his entire career. I have to assume the Bills coaches are not good at teaching tackling techniques. Too often we have guys in the right places but not making the play because of poor tackling fundamentals.

Status quo? #12 in the NFL in yards per game. #7 in points per game. Despite lacking a NFL caliber RT. Despite no franchise QB. Despite playing 2nd and 3rd string receivers. I'm not sure what you want from a 1st year OC.

A Lynn has done a wonderful job with this offense. He was given a QB with accuracy problems. An OL with some weaknesses, And a WR corps decimated by injuries. He took all that and put up a ton of points. Yes, there were too many 3 and outs. Yes, the passing attack didn't put up enough yards. Yes, we didn't win enough games. Still, you gotta be impressed with Lynn's first year as an OC.

Clayton is a bright guy. He knows some teams pretty well: Seattle (where he lives now), Pittsburgh (where he used to live). But he's usually pretty clueless about the Bills.

Except for the occasionally true insider information, the national media guys don't know as much about the Bills as fans here do. We're a non-playoff team in a small market. We're irrelevant. I only pay attention to the national media guys when they claim to have an inside source. And even then I'm careful in what I believe.

That was how I understood Whaley's comments.

Those of us who have lived through Jim Ringo (3-20), Harvey Johnson twice (2-23), John Rauch (7-20), Kay Stephenson (10-26) and Hank Bullough (4-17) don't automatically assume a new coach will be better than Rex. Convince Cowher or Dungy to come out of retirement and I'm all for a coaching change. But, otherwise, I lean toward continuity.

So many of his interceptions seemed more luck than skill. For example, he'd be out of position but the ball would get tipped to him. I was never a huge Byrd fan - unless we're talking about Butch Byrd.

TBN's only agenda is revenue. To generate revenue, they need readers. So the safe guess is that the sports editor has decided that negativity generates clicks. And maybe he or she is right. But I hate any reporting that isn't balanced. Negativity is dreary and depressing. Pollyanna positivity is goofy and unrealistic. Can't we get a little bit of both?

What I've seen is that there's often a negative slant or assumption in the questions. And when the interviewee refuses to respond, they keep pushing pointlessly, as if intentionally trying to annoy the interviewee. But worst of all, in the end they fail to get a meaningful, insightful interview. I'm guessing that most players and coaches would agree to longer interviews if the interviews actually involved intelligent conversation about things that matter.

Agree. Lynn's background is in running the ball. He played running back. He's coached running backs. Running is pretty much all he knows. Unless he hires a passing game coordinator, I have trouble imagining Lynn developing a potent passing attack. It's just not in his DNA. On the one hand, Roman's QBs are sometimes efficient but rarely highly productive. It's not a surprise that Tyrod isn't throwing for a lot of yards per game. On the other hand, Tyrod has some obvious problems beyond scheme. It's not the fault of Roman's scheme when Tyrod bails early or misses a wide open receiver. None of us know what Lynn's scheme will look like if he's OC again next year. But, given his background, it will probably be run-heavy again.

I've seen this asserted a lot. I've never seen a credible source, though. And personally I don't believe it. As soon as Whaley took the title officially, he made some big changes in the personnel department. If he was already the acting GM previously, why didn't he make the changes sooner? Yep, if you didn't actually hear Mike Stratton's "Hit Heard 'Round the World" - or if you never sat in the stands yelling "Lookie, Lookie, Hear Comes Cookie!" - you're just a newbie!

I haven't watched any recent pressers but I've seen the same thing in the past. Amateur hour.

Good fuel for the continuity crowd. Good fuel for a Head-Coach-is-only-as-good-as-his-QB crowd, too.

QBR is indeed flawed. But so is the old-fashioned passer rating system used by NFL.com and other sites. Passer rating doesn't account for plays a QB makes with his legs. Maybe, as a rough estimate, you put the two ratings together. TT is rated 30th in one and 12th in the other. Combine them and he's 21st - that sounds about right. I'd like to see a stat that measures how many yards a QB produces - on average - each time he drops back to throw. This would include completed passes, incomplete passes, sacks, and scrambles/runs.

Interesting idea. Most HCs are either the de facto OC or the de facto DC. A football guy like Toub with reputedly good leadership skills could hold his OC and DC accountable for their results. A typical HC isn't usually good at holding himself accountable in his coordinator role.

I don't like that approach. We don't want a guy who's unlike our current coach. We don't want to a offensive or defensive minded coach. We don't want a coach with prior Buffalo connections. We don't want a coach with a blue-collar sensibility who can understand Buffalonians. We want a coach who will win. It's the only thing that matters and Coughlin didn't do enough of it. So, yeah, I read the article and still don't get the logic of hiring Coughlin.

Hmmm... You say Whaley has done a poor job but you also say this is a 7-9 to 9-7 roster. So, in effect, both Whaley and Rex have been mediocre. Whaley has built a .500 team and so far Rex has led them to a .500 record. Therein lies the problem. Neither is bad enough to fire. Neither is good enough to build a playoff team. I say give them both another year. If we miss the playoffs again, hire a new GM who has the authority to hire a new HC.

Thanks for the map. Living in Seattle, I've long ago given up on seeing the Bills on national TV with any regularity. I stream the online version of NFL Sunday Ticket to catch all the Bills games. It's crazy to spend that much money to get upset at the outcomes - but I do.

Great response.

We could even bring Marv back. If there's any truth the Pegulas talking with Coughlin, maybe it's more along these lines.