K-9

What a bunch sentimental crap. Peterman never should have been put in a position he spent his entire athletic life preparing for? Go to another team that will give him the "proper time and tools to develop?" Spare me. The world is littered with nice guys who just weren't good enough to cut it. There's no reason why Peterman ever should have become a national punchline, regardless of his ability as a QB or not. And that's on us as a society. But there's no reason to offer up excuses for his performance, either. That's the last thing Peterman needs and, given his apparent abundance of character, the last thing he'd ask for.

Not sure the staff can reduce it much more than KB decided to reduce it himself already. Regarding McKenzie, I think Daboll sees him as his Tyreek Hill/Tarik Cohen type player in his offense. He looked good on a couple of those sweeps on Sunday; an immediate infusion of speed that got the defense running around. I hear the knock on him is fumbles and if that's true if he doesn't clean that up he won't last long.

That's you on the left, correct?

John in Riverside says, "SCHWING!!!"

Legitimacy is a week to week proposition but I will say this defense is impressive given the amount of plays they’ve faced (8th most) vs. the yards they’ve given up. I don’t consider them a dominant defense and there is a ton of room for improvement, but the pieces are clearly there.

He was in one on one coverage because #40 was his key and the Jets split him wide. Teams have isolated him in coverage several times this year.

I suspect the video review wasn’t kind.

Almost identical to Polian’s formula except after the pass rusher who chases the QB, he proritized the OT that could protect your passer from the guy that chases your QB.

Like the old axiom says, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Thank you Hutton and thank you goal posts. Good game to gauge where we are and, as suspected, we aren’t ready to compete with the big boys in this league. That said, I said I’d be happy to come away with four out of eight points against the next four teams we face beginning tonight and we are half way there after game one. Gotta be pleased with that.

He was losing ground before he got hurt, too.

Good point. Especially with that Jax front upcoming.

Coaches tinker, it’s what they do. But we are a team starved for secondary scoring as it is. I just don’t see how this move helps that situation. Especially because Reinhart appears to have warmed up a bit lately.

Any time you can get a 5th round pick for a QB that couldn’t beat out Nathan Peterman for the job, it’s a good trade. “AJ wasn’t who we thought he was”, speaks volumes.

HC always has final call, but the position coaches have a lot of input.

Lines from morning skate appear to indicate Reinhart replacing Pominville on the top line. The more I think about it, I’m convinced that hurts Sobotka and Rodriguez more than it helps Skinner and Eichel. Won’t matter if our D corp doesn’t get its collective heads out of their ***** vs. Tampa. Tonight is a four point statement game for this team. Eager to see how they come out. I don’t think there was any way Pommer could have continued his pace at his age. But I don’t think his “run” was over, either. If Reinhart does what Pominville did for that line, making his living at the net front dirty area, I think it can flourish. But Samson wasn’t doing that to start the year which is why Housley took him off that line after a few games. I love his game from below the red line, but that isn’t what Skinner and Eichel need. Then again, given Housley’s need to shake things up all the time, it won’t be long before another change is made.

I wasn’t aware that the Skinner, Eichel, Pominville run had ended. While I can understand Housley wanting to reward Reinhart’s good play over two games, I gotta wonder if putting Reinhart on the top line helps that line more than it hurts Rodriguez and Sobotka.

Please, football Gods. Make this so.

Well, we will have to agree to disagree as I think there’s a vast difference between missing an assignment vs. being manhandled and/or outfinessed when attempting to pass protect. I don’t fault the coaches at all for giving him some time to learn the game a bit and develop before playing him. Moot point a anyway as he has earned the coaches trust and is now in the lineup.

He was a disaster in pass protection in the preseason, both in games and in camp. That combined with the sheer amount of playbook digestion required of a rookie OLman and it's perfectly understandable why it took him a while to be inserted into the lineup.

Still confident in Nate? I'm confident in Nate, too. As in I'm confident he has no place on this roster unless Derek Anderson decided to hang 'em up again during the bye week. And I wouldn't blame him if he did decide to retire again. It took a ton of coaxing to get him off his couch to begin with and coming back only to get concussed might have him reevaluating his priorities. But back to Nate: he is fourth on the depth chart. If Anderson stays, Nate is gone.

He's most effective as a slot corner, where there is a much more field to defend. And a guy with that kind of nose for the ball needs to be closer to it at the snap. I think half his game would be wasted as a boundary CB.

Outstanding debut as a starter to say the least. It helped that the offense was in manageable down/distance most of the game and the defense had to respect that. Not sure I understand the criticism for not starting him earlier. While his run blocking has always been strong, he was a mess in pass protection in preseason and it was obvious he needed work in that area. And the shear amount of learning and playbook study required for an OLman, especially for rookies, is a lot to absorb as well. Looks like his technique has improved greatly; certainly enough to earn the coaches' confidence moving forward. As much as we want to castigate Castillo, his work with Teller and the improvement seen would suggest he's not as clueless a coach as we might think.

Barkley should have come out after his junior year as he would have been picked in the top 10. He would have been exposed and eventually been seen as a bust, but he would have made some coin in the process. Instead, he chose to stay in school (something I appreciate, btw), his senior exposed him, and then the combine and pro day workouts confirmed what scouts had suspected: he simply didn't have a major league arm. His high interception ratio bears that out as well. But as we all know, there is a lot more to the position than just an arm and Barkley showed that yesterday. Perhaps we've solved our backup QB problem.

Yep. And vs. a team we are chasing in the standings. These games earlier in the season really matter and they have to play with a sense of urgency. That can be hard to impart to a younger player who might think it's a long season and we have time to get it done. The good teams bank these points early in the season and if the Sabres really want to convince themselves they've taken a step forward, this is a game they need to win.