Mike B. in VA

Indeed. The Bills have a track record of success with lineman other teams think of as marginal (Jason Peters and Jonas Jennings immediately spring to mind as two guys that got big free agent deals when leaving), so the planning aspect of it had some history. Reinhardt was a no-name journeyman when he got here, and IIRC two teams had decided Pears was marginal at best. I still think they should have spent a little more for depth, though the FA class was kinda meh, other that guys like Vasquez (who cost more than AL would have!) Sometimes stuff doesn't pan out in the NFL - ask the Steelers how letting Medenhall go played out when their starter went down.

Nice work! These are all things I've noticed, too, but they're all fairly normal rookie issues. I keep wondering how much of his not getting his feet set is being worried about his knee? Guess we'll find out now. Regardless, it's all correctable. Rodgers had this same "happy feet" issue coming out of college IIRC. I agree that he needs to look to step up more often, but in the case you document he at least did the smart thing and threw the ball away rather than forcing a throw that could have ended in disaster (a la Tuel). Overall, though, good analysis.

Because they called illegal contact, so I guess it happened before the ball was thrown (and before he went out of bounds). I'd love to see the all-22 on that.

McGahee had a few successful plays, but 2.8 YPC (I believe it was) I can certainly live with. He performed like a veteran who knows he's lost his speed, but you can't hang this game on the run D. The secondary - well, the Aaron Williams part of it - was atrocious. Yeah, I wish they'd have called PI, because it would have been overturned on review, since Cameron stepped out. I also can't believe they didn't call the block in the back at the end of the punt return TD, since it so blatantly obvious. What was up with Jackson's two taunting penalties, for that matter? Neither one really killed them, but... Regardless, this game was winnable, and probably would have been if EJ didn't get hurt. I don't understand the doomsayers, though - this is exactly the kind of game a team this young and this hurt loses. They still look better from a long-term perspective than either of the last two regimes' teams did.