mjt328

The doom and gloom is all about EJ Manuel. Football is a team game, but everyone knows that QB is the most important piece on the team. We've certainly had some talented players over the last 14 seasons. But the main reason we've missed the playoffs over and over is because of our struggles under center. Rob Johnson, Drew Bledsoe, JP Losman, Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick. None of these guys were good enough. It's easy to see talent on the 2013 Buffalo Bills. CJ Spiller, Fred Jackson, Stevie Johnson, Cordy Glenn, Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Marcel Dareus, Kiko Alonso, Stephon Gilmore and Jairus Byrd. These guys all have the ability to play at a Pro Bowl level in the NFL. Eric Wood, Robert Woods, Manny Lawson, Leodis McKelvin and Aaron Williams are solid enough to start on most teams. The HOPE of every true Bills fan is that EJ Manuel will become the guy that Johnson, Bledsoe, Losman, Edwards and Fitzpatrick couldn't. I think most of us were expecting a bumpy ride for his rookie season. But very few of us were expecting Manuel to look this terrible throwing the ball. No accuracy. No touch. No feel in the pocket. No anticipation. Etc. Etc. He looks like a player learning how to throw a football for the first time. Not a guy learning how to translate from college to the pros.

It's the same groin injury that has popped up 2-3 times this season. He's trying to play through it, and reaggravated it a couple times. But he wears his hat backwards and seems to be having a good time, so he's clearly a selfish me-first player. The Bills should cut him and sign more guys like Chris Hogan.

Bad quarterback play. It drags the entire team down. Roethlisberger has a worse team around him, but he's made 5-6 great throws that extended drives. His touchdown pass was a beautiful fade. EJ tried the same pass in the 1st quarter and threw it out of bounds.

Bad quarterback play. It drags the entire team down. Roethlisberger has a worse team around him, but he's made 5-6 great throws that extended drives. His touchdown pass was a beautiful fade. EJ tried the same pass in the 1st quarter and threw it out of bounds.

Yep. That's Hackett. He calls a good game (Baltimore, Kansas City) and you get optimistic that he's improving. Then he's right back to this crap.

Blame rust. Blame inexperience. Whatever. EJ has issues throwing a football. No accuracy. Too much air when he needs to thread the needle. Rifles it when he needs touch. This guy doesn't just look "raw". He looks like a large man, learning how to throw a football from scratch.

You can't run the ball effectively when you are unwilling to throw the ball more than 10 yards downfield.

Game over.

I'm quickly losing my faith in Stephon Gilmore. What happened to this guy becoming a shutdown corner?

STUPID HACKETT!!! Again, we get a 3rd and 1. Again, we line up in SHOTGUN. Again, we throw a short pass with our inaccurate rookie QB. Again, we punt.

One more score will probably ice the game for Pittsburgh. No way this offense puts up more than 10 in the second half.

I've been wondering the same thing. Either way, it's a really bad sign for our "franchise" QB.

There is a difference between taking "smart" check-downs, and playing scared. The first is what made Tom Brady and Joe Montana all time greats. The second is why Trent Edwards sucked. And it's what we are starting to see from EJ. You absolutely HAVE to be willing to take shots downfield. If you don't, it kills your running game and makes it impossible to sustain drives.

Why does everyone call Manuel "poised" ??? He seems scared.

Trent Edwards reincarnated.

Quit running the read-option!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the downfall of this offense is the read-option. NFL defenses figured it out. Period. Not to mention that EJ is terrible at it. We've abandoned the read-option for the most part over the last couple weeks. EJ comes back and we are doing it again.

I really like the Lawson signing back then, and I was actually hoping we grabbed him back in 2012 (when he signed the 1-year deal with Cincinnati). Branch and Hughes were both surprises to me. I didn't expect either guy to do much.

Excellent post. I would really like to see more study done into schemes and tendencies (as opposed to just records) to see how the Bills matchup against certain teams. You are right how they always seem to struggle with the Jets at the LOS. I remember the Trent Edwards years when our offense always struggled horribly with 3-4 base defenses. Last year, our defense struggled bad against everyone. But they couldn't stop the read-option to save their lives.

This article was spot on. A very accurate assessment of the team from top to bottom. In my opinion, the problem with ESPN and other sports-news outlets isn't objectivity. It's that 99 percent of the writers/announcers don't know anything about the Bills. In fact, they don't seem to know anything about ANY teams and players that aren't in the top quarter of the NFL (New England, Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, etc...)

I don't believe in moral victories. And I'm extremely disappointed in our record. However, I agree that we are a MUCH better team than our record indicates. We spent the first 5 games with an absolutely decimated secondary. Stephon Gilmore and Jairus Byrd were both hurt. Leodis McKelvin and Ron Brooks missed quite a bit of time. Forced to start guys like Justin Rogers. Forced to move Aaron Williams back to a position he stinks at. Those injuries contributed heavily to our losses to New England and New York. We have spent the last 4 1/2 games being led by our 3rd/4th string quarterbacks. Jeff Tuel's play certainly cost us the game yesterday, and probably the loss at Cleveland too. The front office certainly deserves some blame for the lack of depth. However, it's extremely rare (outside of Buffalo at least) for any team to get ravaged by injuries this bad. Most teams would pack it in when the starting QB goes down for a significant period of time. We were on our 4th option Sunday and seriously outplayed a 9-0 team. I'm very impressed with the 2013 rookie class. And I've seen great improvement over the last 2 weeks from Nathaniel Hackett - who I felt was dragging the team down with terrible play calling. If EJ can continue to develop, we are close. Real close.

I believe you are thinking of Marquise Goodwin's fumble Week 1. It was a very similar play.

Re-post this 100x. I've read some insane stuff on message boards (not just this one). And I know that a lot of Bills fans hate Stevie for no good reason. But this topic absolutely takes the cake. Our WR gets open in the endzone. And it's his fault. Really? Yeah. Personally, I blame CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson. If they hadn't gashed the Chiefs for 70+ yards on the drive, we could have just punted. That would have saved the INT return.

Some of you have no idea HOW or WHEN to assign blame. I've blasted Hackett a lot this year, but you can't blame him for this one. His "terrible" play call got Stevie Johnson WIDE FREAKING OPEN in the end zone. If Tuel takes a split second to scan the defense, instead of blindly rifling it a spot, it's a touchdown. 17-3 lead. It was a bad throw by a 4th string QB. End of story.

Let's review: > Buddy is secretly recorded by pranksters voicing his displeasure in Fitz, effectively killing our chance to re-negotiate with him as a quality backup. > Kevin Kolb is sacked and injured by a wet mat in training camp. He returns to pre-season action just in time for a concussion to end his career. > UDFA Jeff Tuel - though clearly not ready for real NFL action - plays just good enough in training camp, that our front office is forced to keep him on the active roster. > Our first top QB draft pick in a decade injures his knee twice in roughly 5 games worth of NFL action. > Thad Lewis (3rd/4th string) actually plays well enough to give us a chance. So naturally, he goes down with the season on the line. Yeah. Cursed sounds about right.