2003Contenders

Schobel did play in the Arizona game, which is where he aggravated the injury. Looking back, they should have held him out of that game.

I think part of it is that he is very conservative by his very nature. A good, early statement yesterday, for example, would have been going for the the TD on 4th and goal from the 1.

As someone said, that wasn't Turk's best game by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I almost wonder if his putting Jackson in wasn't an attempt to outsmart the Dolphins with a package that maybe resembled more of a pass formation than a run formation with Lynch in there. That is the sort of out-thinking that hurt us so badly with prior OCs, whom I choose to leave unnamed...

I think the root cause is the absence of a real pass rush. The team is incapable of applying consistent pressure with the front four. That means that the DBs have to hold coverage for FAR too long. I also believe that the pad that the CBs are giving the WRs is a crutch because the coaches realize the anemia of the pass rush.

Does anyone know when Schobel acquired his foot injury? The first I remember hearing of it was the week leading up to the Arizona game. He was ineffective that day and on the bench since then. He didn't register but 1 sack in the first 4 games; however, he was at least applying pressure. Chad saw very little pressure yesterday -- unless blitzers came at him.

Honestly, I was not especially impressed. We have all seen Chad enough to know that a game like that from him was an aberration. Every aspect of the Bills team underperformed yesterday. However, given the following: 1. Pennington and Ginn having career games 2. No Schobel and, therefore, no pass rush 3. No Josh Reed for most of the 2nd half 4. A totally reshuffled OL by the 4th quarter 5. Probably the worst overall Special Teams we have seen (except for Lindell) 6. Turning over the ball on 5 straight 4th quarter possessions (counting the safety as a "turnover") 7. Trent having probably his worst game, since being named starter 8. The Dolphins, as Chad Pennington admitted after the game, realizing that this game was their season 9. A horribly coached game all the way around (abandoning the run, not pulling McGee, playing DBs 10 yards off the WRs, etc) If I had told you that all of these things would be true, you would have figured a blowout loss -- rather than a game that was undecided until the final few minutes. I hope the coaches burn this tape and just move forward. The team played probably their worst game of the year (even worse than in the Cardinals game, where they were clearly simply outclassed) against a team that played probably as well as they are capable of playing. Nothing more.

I think they are trying to help preserve him for the long haul. When the weather turns bad, the offense is going to need to be able to run the ball. Also, if other defenses follow the Dolphins' strategy of dropping 8-9 guys into coverage, we are going to need to aggressively run the ball. Remember, also, that Marshawn hit that proverbial wall at then end of his rookie season.

Does anyone have a breakdown of how well the offense has done this year when facing the blitz? It seems to me that the Raiders and Rams blitzed quite a bit -- and then backed off in the 4th quarter, which also coincided with the offense getting its acts together. I know the Cardinals blitzed quite a bit, but that was primarily with JP in the game, and he has always had problems reading the blitz. The reason I ask is that I have a feeling that the Dolphins are probably going to try to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Trent, especially after having seen how the Chargers REFUSED to blitz -- and Trent wound up virtually untouched. From what I have seen, Trent certainly seems smart enough to be able to identify when it is coming, but have he and the receivers been able to make the necessary sight adjustments thus far this year to beat it?

You know, this could just be another match-up situation. I suspect that the coaches are more worried about Ricky and Ronnie this week than they are of the Chad. Thus, they are more inclined to want the larger bodies crowding the line of scrimmage as opposed to the sleeker guys in the deep secondary. Just a thought.

I wonder just how severe this injury to Schobel is. Last week they led us to believe that it was really no worse than it was leading up to the Arizona game. I wasn't too surprised to see him sit last week, since I suspected that the coaches decided it was best to avoid the chance of a set-back against a non-division foe like the Chargers -- with three straight division games on the horizon. Well, the Miami game is here, and it doesn't sound like he is playing again this week. Considering how well he has played against Miami and Pennington, I would have thought that Schobel would be chomping at the bit to get back on the field. That leaves me wondering if the injury isn't much more serious than we were initially led to believe. After all, it started up before the Cardinals game, rested during the bye, rested last week -- so we are now 4 weeks into it.

I don't think so. I believe this is the perfect example of the coaching staff trying to use the best personnel on hand to match up against the opponent. Namely, Fewell and Jauron saw Scott being a better match-up against Antonio Gates because of his size. Next week against Miami, who knows what kind of formation they will want to use to combat what they perceive to be Miami's top weapon(s). The idea of using all 45 guys that dress that day in a specific role is something that the Patriots have worked to their advantage the past several years. It's good to see the Bills doing the same.

Also liked the play where Jackson stiff-armed two defenders.

Who cares about who has the strongest arm? Jim Drunkenmiller may have had the strongest arm of any QB EVER -- and it didn't do him a lot of good.

Actually SD headed into the game with 17 sacks, good for 5th in the NFL. I wouldn't worry too much about the "low" score either. The Bills could have easily made it at least 26 if not 30 points but elected to be classy, safe and smart at the end of the game. As for stats, we out-gained San Diego (#1 offense in the NFL) by about 100 yards yesterday.

Wrong! The first turnover came just a couple of plays after he came in for Trent. The Cardinals went on to march down and score the first TD -- and everything continued to go south from there. Might the entire tone of the game been different if the first drive for the Bills had ended with a score and the Cardinals were not playing with a lead? Now, I blame that turnover more on the OL (Fowler in particular), than on JP -- but still...

I have a feeling that the foot injury may have had something to do with his less that stellar performance in earlier games this year. Hopefully resting it two full weeks will have him ready to roll on Sunday. He's had some career games going after Pennington.

I'm sure that good ol' Joey Porter will provide plenty of bulletin board material. The bottom line is that if this game is played mano y mano, the Dolphins do not stand a chance. The Bills just need to prepared for the trick plays that the Dolphins are sure to throw at them.

For all of those who point out that the Bills have faced teams at the "right" time (i.e. Seahawks with injured WRs, Jags with banged up OL, Rams and Raiders in turmoil, and Chargers looking ahead to the UK), the opposite can be said of the match-up against the Cardinals. The Bills picked the absolute wrong time to play the Cardinals -- coming home after an embarrassing loss to the Jets, where Warner was nailed for 6 turnovers, largely because he held onto the ball too long. Against the Bills, he played a near-perfect game (much like Trent Edwards did against the Chargers yesterday.) The MO for our defense is to disallow the big play and force the opposing QB to be patient and march down the field accordingly. Warner was able to do that -- Rivers wasn't. Some credit certainly has to go to Jauron and Fewell for using the extra week wisely to hatch some new schemes and giving Rivers some looks he hadn't seen before.

Agreed. That actually looked like a pretty good size hole that may have gone for a big gain if Marshawn hadn't tripped.

Yes, he did. I don't recall him making anay plays, but he was definitely on the field for at least a few plays.

Surprised that I haven't seen anyone here comment on his request to be traded. Obviously the trading deadline is over now, so it is moot for this year. Does anyone think he is worth pursuing in the off-season for a late-round draft pick? Or is he too much of a head case? (No pun intended)

I will have to say that the Chargers showed some class yesterday in defeat. Even Rivers was complimentary of the Bills.

Very cogent points. He was far from invisible. In fact, I seem to remember a big third down tackle on either Sproles or LT2 yesterday on what looked otherwise to be a big gain.

It's just shocking to see a mock where we are drafting as late as 29 in the first round!

Now Youboty is listed as a game time decision too: http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2008/10/17/injury-update-2/ Ugggg. That places an even bigger onus on McKelvin and Corner. Maybe stocking up on DBs wasn't such a bad idea after all. Also, what did Brown mean about Simpson's starting job being in jeopardy?