Livinginthepast

Ultimately Orton is not a viable QB going forward (next year), but for now he is the best we got. He is better than EJ and better than Fitz. He is however who we thought he was. A journeyman QB who can win some games by himself but is mediocre overall. I was curious if the Bills could do a Trent Dilfer with him and win with him managing the game and rely on their defense. The Ravens team that won the SB with Dilfer had a better defense though.

The only way RG3 is effective as a QB is if he puts his body on the line every play and gunslings it or scrambles. This type of playing gets wins but resulted in so many injuries for him in year 1 that he is now a shawdow of himself. He is slower than he was and is only going to get worse.

Heres a simple question. When was the last time that the Bills got a really bad call in their favor that resulted directly in their winning the game unfairly? I know there probably have been a couple through the years but I cannot recall one remotely recently.

Orton cannot run at all. He would have made it 2ft from where he was before he got creamed! He is that slow!! Why not a sneak? Why is there never a sneak in that situation? They finally do an Orton sneak at the end of the game and it works. But they avoid that play like the plague!!

Orton's lack of speed on scrambles is embarrassing. He looks like an 80 year old man out there. Not to mention Orton cannot throw on a rollout to save his life. He has to stay in the pocket and throw otherwise disaster strikes. Yesterday though he was way to slow in his reads (or the coverage was good) and he took too many sacks. He is not as bad RJ was for not sensing pressure but he has some of the same tendencies.

The phantom and incompetent calls are bad enough but the fact that CBS and FOX regularly DON'T show replays of these calls which have a major impact on the game's outcome. This happens time and again. Both the Bills INT plays had huge returns called back by phantom calls. I tried to replay both to see if I could see where the foul occurred but I couldn't see anything obvious at all. You have to wonder, has the NFL directed the networks not to focus on the penalties or is this just bad decision making by the guys in the production truck? Why do the commentators not insist on seeing replays for calls that they know change the game??

The standard of the refs in this league has reached a new low. They are completely incompetent and feel the need to constantly make phantom calls as if to validate themselves. The PI calls on the first broncos TD drive and those completely bogus calls on both Bills INT returns even the call on Chandler for pushing off at the end, all ridiculous.

Amongst all the crap that we have had to put up with over the last couple decades as Bills fans. The Bills in Toronto series was by far the most loathsome. The fact that Ralph took the money from Rogers and prostituted the team to Toronto for all those games was an absolute disgrace. The good people of Western NY and the Bills fans from the surrounding area (including Canada) were cheated out of game at the Ralph and had the soulless cavern of the Skydome trotted out in its place. A total slap in the face to Bills fans at one of the lowest ebbs in their history. The games were horrendous as well. I am going to try to blot this disgraceful chapter of the Bills history out of my mind!!

One of my fav Bills from the SB years. The guy sacrificed his body for this team and city. I find it outrageous that the NFL would not honour his disability claim for such petty reasons esp after so many vets have deteriorated in health in their later years. Some of comments on here are also sickening "I can't have it so why should he" BS. Yeah he led great life when he was a player but would you trade your life for his right now????

I actually feel for Rex. His team got their asses whooped and they barely showed up. Whoever in the Jets front office thought that Vick had anything left in the tank was sadly mistaken. They were pathetic.

I dont mind Marrone going for it there. What I mind is throwing to the end zone when they should have tried for the first down first!. Why were there no quick slant routes on that series of downs, no runs. That was the stupid playcalling!

Great post! exactly right!! All these people coming out of the woodwork to defend the refs calls! WHY?? This isnt a Refs are against the Bills conspiracy thread. I think its more the refs are incompetent leaguewide thread. The false start call on the Bills came as a result of the Chiefs players gestures and a guess by the refs.

Exactly!! The refs knee jerked themselves and called the Bills because they were sold on the call by KC. There's no way that the Refs saw the twitch of the leg. These old guys they have reffing the games would never be looking for that. They are watching the heads and the hands of the O Line. In the end though, Marrone (or whoever made the playcall to draw them offside) is a complete wuss. Sneak the damn ball and get a first down! dont rely on the refs to make the correct call when you know they suck anyway!!

Being a Montreal Alouettes fan as well as a Bills fan, I can attest that Trestman is an excellent coach who makes informed decisions on everything. He deserves better from Cutler and his players. Unfortunately he has lost that room and his days are numbered!

Have I missed something here? Why do we never do a sneak? Is our O line that terrible? Do they not get a good push? Are our Qbs that fragile? When Tom "princess" Brady can do them so effectively (without damage) it seems kind of ridiculous that we would worry about QBs getting hurt. There were at least 3 or 4 instances in that game (ESP the false start play) when Orton should have snapped the ball quick and sneaked it. I cannot even remember when we last did a sneak in a regular season game! So what gives here?

Although Schwartz did a great job most of the game, the failure to bring the house on a couple of the 3rd downs really bit us in the butt. The 3rd and 17 play to name one. This was mystifying IMO. As for Marrone, Mike Schopp made a good point on the post game show about Marrone being tentative on the 4th downs. Marrone appears to not really know the odds on going for it. He doesn't make sense on some of his decisions. Is there no analytics/ stats guy on the coaching staff that Marrone and Hacket can turn in game to? Shouldn't they know this stuff or maybe Hackett should know at least?

No we are going with the Refs are too incompetent to see the flinch and are easily swayed by a KC player pointing at their line and by the way the Chiefs are just too well coached to have actually made that error so it had to be the Bills theory. I know .. run on sentence... grammar deduction mark.

I watched the NFL for the past 35 years. In that time period I have noticed the officiating has plummeted in quality esp in the last decade. Instant replay has taken care of a lot of bad decisions when it comes to turnovers etc but the real problem still lies with the penalty calling. The refs have shown themselves to consistently incompetent on their interpretation of the rules. Phantom calls, bad calls etc. Granted the game is faster and the guys are bigger so it has to be a harder job to see what actually happened on any given play. BUT why are these refs still so old? Quite honestly they seem to be out of position and they miss stuff all the time. Would younger refs do a better job? Well they couldnt do a worse one. It seems to me that the NFL really needs to upgrade the training of these guys, hire younger guys or if not make a coaches challenge for penalties.

The easy answer to that is that it wasnt spotted. The refs totally blew the call. Once the Chiefs moved the guilty player immediately started pointing at the Bills line and sold the call. There's no way in hell that the refs were looking at the Bills Oline's legs. No way!!

How in the hell did the Dolphins beat the Chargers 37-0!!!!???

I almost felt sorry for Rex in this game. It was embarrassing offensive performance for the Jets. Seeing Michael Vick implode like that with fumbles and INTS all I could think of was early in his career with the falcons watching a game on Sunday Night football, Where Patrick, Maguire and Theismann were practically ejaculating in their praise of him like the second coming of Christ in football. That seems like a million years ago now.

Do you think maybe we could do the occasional "gadget play" if your want to call it that. Maybe a reverse? Do we not have the personnel for at least something non vanilla? Why not get Watkins the ball on a reverse?

I agree! First time in years I have seen a Bills QB with some zing and some touch on passes. EJ had no touch on his passes, Fitz had no arm and Trent Edwards?? OMG could he throw past the first down marker?

Actually they can .....in the CFL. The league allows coaches to challenge penalties. The catch is that only PASS INTERFERENCE is challengeable. No other penalties can be challenged. In addition you can challenge for pass interference even when the ref doesnt throw a flag. The coaches can challenge that the ref should have made the call. The challenges use instant replay to review the call and the refs go under the hood just like in the NFL. I watch both leagues quite a bit and I think this would work in the NFL. It doesnt really slow down the games that much and it has reversed a lot of bad calls this season. Its not made the refs any better at calling PI and refs will stay make phantom calls on plays. Scary thing that I have noticed particularly in this Bills season is that the CFL refs are actually much better quality than their NFL counterparts!

Wow after all the monster hits CJ has taken in the past 3 years he breaks his collar bone bouncing on the turf? Utterly bizarre!! I thought for sure that the Minny players slap at his leg broke his ankle or something to that effect.