vegas55

Ralph Wilson paid $25,000 for this team. It's now worth 900 million. Additionally he has made a huge operating profit in just about every year he has owned the team. HE CAN AFFORD to have a few seasons where he loses money. I mean how much money does he need to make off this team? His children's children's children will never be able to spend the money this guy has made from owning the team. Is it asking too much to have a few years where winning is put ahead of making money he will never be able to even spend?

Thank you for clarifying the ineptness/cheapness of this organization. Wasted a year where they had so much room to use. As per usual

Buffalo News had article today about our pending free agents, which reminded me that Overdorf managing our cap is reminiscent of that captain piloting the Titanic. Can anyone explain to me why the Bills chose to spread Fitzpatrick's signing bonus/dead cap space into the 2014 season. Why not take the entire hit this year, when the team is 20 million + under the cap? So now dividing that cap hit effects the money available to sign free agents in 2014. The cap space saved for 2013 , by spreading it into 2014 was completely unnecessary. It's this type of mismanagement that has been a constant and consistent theme with this organization. Of course Russ Brandon is on WGR once a week, every week during the season. Do you think the brilliant radio hosts could have just once asked him about this and other cap management miscues?

It appears the Bills lack in this area; that is leadership and discipline generated by players/ team leaders. The Marcel D tardiness issue is a glaring example - it's disappointing that the coach has to intercede. Can you imagine it coming to this in a Teddy Bruschi led clubhouse. The best leadership/discipline comes from the players themselves. Mark Kelso was once asked about Marv Levy and his leadership qualities. He basically answered that Marv was fine, but that the reality was that Kelso looked to Leonard Smith for leadership and accountability. He dared not disappoint Leonard! As for our current defense - Neither Mario or Kyle are those type of leaders. Not a knock on either player, just a fact of life. We need a Leonard Smith, or a Teddy Bruschi. Leadership from within.

Of course winning the turnover battle is a great thing. And of course the stat that shows NFL teams that win the turnover battle most often win the game, is a valid and important stat. The point is why is this Bills team such an anomaly, why are they losing so many of those games. This should be Marrone's focus. Is it because his offense is too conservative ie plays not to turn the ball over? I just thought it ironic that he trotted out his favorite stat, a stat that for much of the season did not apply to his team.

Thought it was interesting when asked about the disappointing 6-10 season and what the Bills need to do better, the first thing out of Coach Marrone's mouth was his tried and true stat about the key to winning is winning the turnover battle. I doubt that he appreciates the irony. He is just coming off a loss to the Patriots in a game where his team won the turnover battle. In fact, in the season opening loss to the Pats his team also won the turnover battle. And lost several more games this season when they won the turnover battle. On top of all that, right before latest loss, on WGR, Coach M gave out another key stat - that the Pats have a terrible record in games where they don't force a turnover. Well Coach, they did not force a turnover on Sunday but still clobbered your team. Look I like Marrone and think he is a good fit with the Bills, but it's clear through his interviews etc that he does not really buy into cutting edge analytics. So he trots out these old school tried and true stats, that certainly have some validity but did not work or apply to the team he coached this year. And it's my hope that he will embrace a more analytical, self analysis type approach in figuring out why his team, and his offensive approach results in his team losing so many games where they win the turnover battle. Contrary to his statement, the key to the Bills winning games this year had relatively little to do with the turnover stat, and he needs to figure out why that was.

Actually I had hoped anybody who viewed the game would catch the typo in my OP. I guess you did not watch the game, my friend. The Bills had the ball on the 20, not the 2, my bad on the typo. So I believe your point, which would have been a good one, is not relevant. Yes it is - Bills had ball on the 20, not the 2.

I believe Marrone to be a good coach and a very good fit for this Bills team. But, as is true with many NFL head coaches, good, strategic clock/game management continues to elude him. his most recent mess was the end of the first half in last weeks Dolphins game. Bills get the ball on their own 2 with just a little over a minute left in first half, Dolphins have two timeouts left. Bills have dominated first half, lead 10-0 on a cold, wet and windy day. Plus they are getting the kickoff to start second half. It's pretty clear they would be happy to take that lead into halftime. It should be very clear that allowing Miami to score would be a disaster. The correct strategy should be to take a knee three times. This would avoid the possibility of a fumble, and leave Miami with at best enough time to run one Hail Mary play. But no, the choice is to run the ball three times, and even though we avoided a fumble, a bone head play by Spiller gives the Dolphins enough time to score. Indeed, Wallace is left one on one on a deep sideline pass that could have scored a TD. Bills dodged a bullet, but it was totally unnecessary if the game was managed correctly. And it's not impossible, based on recent history, for a Bills player to fumble in a big situation, especially in those conditions. This is how games are lost in the NFL, even when your team outplays the opponent. And this is in part why a team with such a high ranked defense has only 6 wins.

Just listen to Marrone - the decision to sit EJ is not a medical decision wherein the team doctor says he can't play. He is medically cleared to play. You don't have to be the team doctor, all you really have to do is pay attention

EJ is certainly healthy enough to play (by NFL standards) so the choice to go with Thad is interesting. I was at the Miami game but just watched the replay on NFL rewind and I have to say that Thad Lewis was very impressive. Extremely decisive with the ball. Willing to make the downfield throws into tight windows, something that has eluded EJ so far this year. Now no doubt EJ is the future of this franchise, but I have to believe Marrone thinks Thad gives him his best chance to win this Sunday, and a marginal injury to EJ gives him a convenient reason to go with Thad.

Look I believe Marrone is the right man for the Buffalo job and I continue to believe he will be successful here. But there are some red flags/concerns. It was in the preseason, right before New England game, Marrone made a huge deal about the importance of winning the turnover battle - key to victory right? And the overwhelming percentages say he was right. But then his team goes out and loses two early season games where they had won the turnover battle. Even worse, against Baltimore, they win the turnover battle by a factor of two, rush for over 200 yards, but need a miraculous Alonso pick to keep that game from going into OT. So what's going on? Well the whole turnover scenario is not valid if you play a hyper conservative offense ie play not to turn the ball over. We saw a lot of that in the Jauron era. I mention this now because on WGR this morning Marrone came up with a new one - he stated that key to beating Pats is this stat - Pats have a losing record when they don't force a turnover. Well thanks coach, but really, your key to victory is taking Thad or EJ into Foxboro and hoping your team does not turn the ball over even once? So we went from hoping to win the turnover battle ( a realistic expectation) to never turning the ball over - good luck with that plan. The actual plan should be to win the turnover battle without having your offense go into a shell. Can't win that way - you have one of the top ranked defenses in the league but you have only 6 wins to show for it. That has to tell you something about your offensive philosophy. And let's not put all the blame on Hackett; Marrone is the de facto O coordinator, that's his NFL experience and I doubt if he has much input into Pettins defense.

Not to mitigate the terrible personal tragedy suffered by Stevie Johnson, but what does it say about Bills future plans for Johnson. I mean his mom dies one day before Jags game, he chooses to play, but 8 days later he cannot play. It suggests the Bills could care less whether he plays or not.

I have to say that I am always taken aback when I hear something like, "Oh let's just draft a guy". As if drafting somebody is anything close to a guarantee that the guy will actually make it in the NFL. The harsh reality is that no matter which team is drafting, most draft choices are a bust. A Cordy Glenn is the exception, not the rule, and in fact a rare find. Glenn has played well, and certainly would resent a move to guard, which pays much less than a left tackle. He has earned his LT position, and the draft is a crapshoot in terms of finding someone who is as successful as Glenn. Don't mess with a rare success, and as has been noted previously, guards are less important and much easier to find.

What Is Marrone telling us about his faith in his #1draft pick and the most important player on his team? He chooses to take a shot on a very long field goal instead of going for it on fourth and three from the 36. And then, just needing a first down to seal the win, he runs it three straight times up the middle. This on a team that has no shot at the playoffs. So it's either he has zero faith in his QB or he ignores every analytics stat out there. Or both. I define a train wreck as a team that needs a fumble at the half yard line and a interception in the end zone when the QB is trying to throw it out of bounds just to secure a win against a banged up 4-9 loser of a team. Nice job Doug. And accountability? Your special teams commits several stupid penalties every single week!!! Just when does that get corrected?

It's early of course, and I still have high hopes for EJ as franchise QB. But it is fairly easy to see what his biggest weakness is, simply by observing how NFL defenses are choosing to defend him. They are employing the Cover 2, even teams that rarely use that scheme. It's easy for QBs to make the short, safe pass. It's less easy, but a very easy "read" to throw the long ball when a receiver is one on one with no safety help. Any QB can do this. What separates the franchise QB from the riff raf is the ability to throw the medium deep pass, or the deep pass into a tight window. So many failed QBs (Trent Edwards a great example) simply could not "see" that window. They don't see or anticipate the opening and fail to consistently pull the trigger, and bail out to a safety valve. Fitz was actually very good at seeing the window and trusting what he saw; he just did not have the NFL caliber arm to consistently get it there. So the cover 2 defense more than any other forces a QB to throw into that tight window. That's why EJ is seeing so much of that defense. You can measure his progress by observing how successful he is in finding those windows and throwing it there.

One of Marrone's favorite buzzwords - accountability. But it's becoming clear that Bills players are not really grasping the concept. It's no surprise that Stevie does not hold himself accountable " that dropped pass (alligator armed, caused interception), happened early, so it doesn't really matter". But Eric Woods statement on poor O line play "down 21-3 in second quarter, no O line can play well in those circumstances" was a shocker. Talk about a lack of accountability. Hey Eric, you were only down 14-3 for the vast majority of 2nd quarter. And even if the defense is teeing off to rush the passer with a big lead, it does not explain your inability to run block or your dumb motion penalties. Be accountable; lame excuses are for losers.

It goes without saying that the players on the field have to produce and make plays in crunch time. But the play calling in critical situations has hurt this team. Specifically the play calls when Bills have the lead late in the game. In the first place, if you exclude the situations where the Bills are way behind and/or running a 2 minute drill at end of half, the Bills are running the ball on first down between 70 - 80 percent of the time. So when they take a 31-24 lead over Atlanta in the 4th quarter it's no surprise to anyone, especially Atlanta, exactly what the Bills were going to do when they got the ball. Bills had two offensive possessions after taking that 31-24 4th quarter lead, and went three and out both times. Each possession the 1st down call was a run up the middle, into the teeth of a defense expecting the run, and it produced a one yard gain and a three yard loss, which helps explain the 3 & out. Same thing happened in the Patriots game, hanging on to a late lead Hackett call three straight runs. Even the win over Ravens, a game we dominated, Hackett tried to sit on a huge halftime lead and ends up scoring just 3 points in second half and squeaking out a 3 point win. This is a passing league. You can't run on first down 70+ percent of the time. You cannot sit on 7 point leads. You cannot run into 9 man fronts. This explains why the Bills have a worse won/loss record than a year ago at this time, despite the fact they have a mind boggling 15+ turnover/takeaway improvement from last year. The conservative play calling is keeping the other team in the game until the end, and as we have seen, bad things can happen when you allow an outplayed team to stay close. Put the foot on the throttle and play (call) to win!!

Actually what I believe is you need to establish the passing game to set up the run. I believe it is now a passing league, and has been for some time. I agree with much of what you are saying, but it's clear, contrary to your statement, that at least some teams feel they need to establish the run to set up the pass. The Bills appear to be one of those teams.

Well I watch as many NFL games as you, and more importantly, I listen to what today's NFL coaches, who watch more film than any fan, actually say. And what they consistently say about establishing the run is what I posted. I think they know a little bit about what's happening in today's NFL In any event, if a defense stacks the box from the very first play, then according to you it's because of a failure to establish a vertical threat. If so, the answer is to keep running into the teeth of the stacked box on first down? You establish a vertical threat by actually throwing the ball vertically, not running on every first down.

It's conventional wisdom in the NFL that you need to establish the run, so as to force the defense to respect the run first, force them to bring a safety up in run support etc. We are told this is necessary to open up the passing game. Well okay - but what we often see, and what the Bills have often faced, is a defense that stacks the box, brings the safety up, plays run first from the very first play of the game. So before the Bills have even run a play, the box is stacked and establishing the run is not necessary to accomplish the goal of making the defense play run first. But the Bills response to this is curious; they continue to constantly run on first down, into the teeth of a stacked box. In an effort to do what? Force the other team to respect the run and stack the box to stop it? They are already doing that. This explains in large part the mediocre results the Bills running game has produced in recent games.

The OP states in the first sentence that Marrone is a great coach. And it's agreed that the game plan is usually very good and that Pettine has done wonders. But that has nothing to do with game day management