The Voice of Truth

I live in Indianapolis and am going to the game tomorrow. I have tickets 7 rows back on the 50 yard line of the Colts sideline. I'll be wearing my Bills gear so you might be able to see me on camera. We need this Bills victory. I don't want to get heckled all game about how we're losers!

Nice post. You make a good argument. I am also a Buddy fan and this solidified that further. I have always been a fan of going for big players who can push their opponent around. It drove me crazy when we were bringing in undersized guys all the time during the Jauron era. Buddy's philosophy player wise is a big improvement and the correct one. The only area I would disagree is that we are the same or better at cornerback.

Andrew Luck has 12 interceptions and 12 touchdowns as well as 8 fumbles. He is 3rd in the league in total QBR. The stat blows. Jake Locker is 7th in the league in total QBR. The stat blows. Need I continue my case?

Haha, no. Talk about egocentric. The Bills were far from his mind. His team was simply superior and the Colts lost their will after being demoralized early. Billy has crushed us for a decade. He certainly doesn't think about us in the middle of a game against another team.

I am not a fan of the Total QBR stat. I believe ESPN is the one that created it. I have just noticed it to produce too many extremes. For example, I have seen ratings extremely low (in the single digits) and some extremely high. It seems to produce polarizing evaluations; either a QB had a horrendous game or an axceptional one. It's rare that I see a QB with a 60 total QBR or a 40. It is always at the extremes for individual games. I still prefer QB Rating which isn't perfect but better IMO. Total QBR blows.

CJ had a good night and is clearly a beast but to the point: He was the feature back tonight. He got over 20 carries and was used more traditionally. He averaged 4.1 yards per carry. When catching the ball he had 3 receptions (not being used traditionally) for 39 yards. One point to the quoted argument.

Spiller just tweeted this: Wanna let everyone to tune in tonight as @nflnetwork did a special on me n my uncle that was murdered it will be showing before the game Thought some of you might be interested. I am.

I too share some sentiments that ESPN has become too celebrity, story generated. At the same time, if what they are doing has more people glued to the television, then who can blame them? Once enough people reject what they are showing by not watching, they will either have to change or a competitor will start to rise. This will likely not happen. Most people don't want pure sports, even when they bash ESPN and claim they do. All a network would be able to do with that is keep reeling off highlights evenly of every game and league regardless of popular interest. That will never trump the ratings of the way they currently operate at ESPN. I like to tell myself that I don't want hyped up, spun news, but guess what, I don't watch PBS. I watch channels that make it more interesting. It's the same with ESPN. I don't like everything they have done, but I still watch it a lot. And to be quite honest, what they're doing probably works on me to watch them more. Until the people reject what they're doing by not watching, they won't change. And clearly people are watching.

Either your math skills are outrageously bad or you don't fully understand something about what was said. The original post said Spiller is getting the ball 12-15 times per game. In TWO games the other guy referenced he had a total of 34 touches. That equates to an average of 17 per game. Maybe I was raised on a different planet, but I never new 17 was almost double 12-15. You can't just come up with an arbitrary number of time he should get the ball. Chan (not a real quote obviously but a sarcastic one) "I will get CJ the ball 23 times this week. That's our gameplan. Let's go play." You have to have find effective ways of getting him the ball as a result of how teams gameplan against him. How would you get him the extra touches? Like a traditional back; I-Form handoffs up the middle?

Once again, read the post. It talked all about "touches", not "rushing attempts". Because you need to use Spiller uniquely, a lot of his "touches" come from receptions. Through 9 games, he has 87 attempts and 28 receptions for a total of 115 touches. Divide this by nine games and you get 12.8 "touches" per game. Also, he has been knocked out of games, or limited in some due to injury (knocked out of Browns game, then they were nursing him back from injury for a week or two). If you account for that, a healthy Spiller is getting more than 12.8 touches per game. Thanks Dopey. You saved me a few minutes by taking all the words right out of my mouth.

No, hell no. While Bills fans are known to be wise football fans, that really makes me worry about the rest of the league

One word. "Yes"

Gotta love CJ: “This is familiar territory to me,” Spiller said Monday. “I’m not worried about how many times I touch (the ball). Like I said I’m just from here on out just worried about wins. Everybody is concerned about whether I can touch it 25 times, but at the end of the day if I do that and we lose that means nothing. I’m just trying to help my team win so we can experience what it’s like to play in the playoffs.”' Yeah in the perfect scenario. When the defense is getting off the field with a lot of three and outs you can get them that many touches. When the Bills are converting on third downs, thus, giving the offense more plays they can get those touches. Yeah, in a perfect world when the game goes exactly as planned, but you have a team on the other side trying to make sure that you don't dictate how the game goes. Has it been absolutely perfect play calling? No. Nobody's is. But, overall Chan has used Spiller smartly.

Great post. Just a couple observations: It was actually 2nd down on that play, so, if they went to Spiller and didn't get the first down, it would have been third down, with less time on the clock. I will say that in the moment (not in hindsight), I felt we should have been going for the first down. That being said, it looked like a lot of Pats defenders were guarding that area. To me, the ball looks catchable if Graham had cut in front. It probably would have been challenge quickly and it may have been dislodged as a result, but I think it would have been reasonably catchable.

We just set a club record with 35 first downs. The previous club record comes from last year with 34 first downs. Both under Gailey. He has high offensive accumen. I think we're doing something right.

Early in the season, Fitzpatrick looked horribly. He was a big problem no doubt about it. While I am encouraged by the past couple of games, I am worried he could regress again. We definitely need to bring in an elite prospect next year at QB. Hell, if Fitz plays well for two or three years, then all the better. We can develop the prospect under him. I would be surprised if Fitz proves to be a consistently good QB at this point though. I do have a some concerns on defense. Our linebackers seem to be suspect, though I will not call them busts yet. Our cornerbacks seem to be suspect despite having two early first round picks (McKelvin & Gilmore) as well as a very early 2nd rounder (A. Williams). Couple this with the lack of pressure by the front four and we're in a defensive quandary. My only hope is that the defensive coaching is what is lacking. I pray that is what it is because then it is fixable in one year. Considering all these factors, the likelihood of your optimistic outlook becoming real isn't good IMO. Hopefully, that's wrong though.

Usually I would really agree with you. Coaches often times can't see the forest for the trees with their decision making. It is something I have stated on this forum before and is a real pet peeve of mine. However, IMO we have a case here where the seemingly obvious solution (give Spiller the ball a ton) is not the best one.

If you read my entire post before, you would know that I was fine with 15 touches. I stated he is getting about 12-15 touches per game.

He had 29 carries and 5 catches in the first two games. That's an average of 17 touches. That's not many more. He did get injured in his third game as primary against the Browns as well. That's got to be a concern.

While it seems nearly every Bills fan is calling for CJ Spiller to get massively more touches, his chance comes this Thursday. Spiller is clearly an elite NFL talent. His speed and explosiveness set him apart from a league filled with world class athletes. The obvious conclusion would be that you give him the ball tons of times per game. IMO, however, Chan Gailey has been using him correctly. When Spiller is in the game, the defense is so keyed in on him, that if you use him traditionally, his effectiveness would decrease. Because the Bills offense has shown they are not consistently capable of beating you with passes downfield, when a running weapon like Spiller is on the field, he is far and away the focal point for the defensive players. I've seen it every Sunday. The second Fitz gets into the I-Form and hands it to him, the defense is swarming to Spiller. While I would like to see more play action out of this, it is one of my only critiques of how he has been used. Because of this extreme keying in by the defense, you can't run him like a traditional back. You can't ground and pound 25 times a game. You have to find unique ways to get him the ball in space. Because you can't come up with 25 unique ways per week to get him the ball (your entire offense would be gimmick based), he gets 12-15 touches. You can rest assured he affects more plays as a decoy though as well. Jerry Sullivan today, wrote something to the effect of "Spiller is averaging 7+ yards per carry. When are they going to determine that this is a trend and not an exception?" Well Jerry and others, you get your chance this Thursday. While I expect a talent like Spiller to have a big game, I think his effectiveness per touch will drop with more touches. Chan has been using him correctly.

I'd take him as DC in a heartbeat. The problem will be gettinfg him to Buffalo; very unlikely. I think we could use him in terms of telling us what some of our weaknesses are offensively as well. He seems to gameplan well for the Bills. Keep Chan as HC and bring in Rex. Draft a high level QB. If we did this, I'd again be naively excited for next year haha.

Fair point. Sadly, I would take a playoff team at this point though. I can barely fathom a championship team in Buffalo. It's been so long since we were competive. I just want a team that gets a little respect. We're pushovers and laughing stocks.

I was really rooting for a victory even more after this Fitz/Spikes incident. I loved how he got in his face with his helmet off and just told him off straight up. I felt like the Bills were playing tough and even though they were behind all game to a team that has a big psychological edge on them, they kept hanging around. It would have been big mentally to get a win @ Foxborough and then we would have been 2-2 over the past four games. Plus, our QB went hard *ss to one of their players. It would have been big mentally. Of course, it wasn't to be though. Given Bills history, I'm just surprised Spikes wasn't the one to get the interception that sealed the deal. That would have been true to Bills form.

Him and Kyle Williams are tied for leading the team in sacks. Even though he is overpaid, I'm still happy we have him. After all, if we didn't sign him, we would have a worse player at that position and Ralph would have $100 million more in his estate. Which would you prefer? Stop bitching about how we shouldn't have signed him every week. You're embarrassing to Bills fanhood.

I too liked the fire I saw out of Fitz when he took that dirty hit. It was nice to see a Bills player pissed off and show it. I thought the team might rally behind his "F U" comment as it was probably seen by a lot of the players. One thing I have got to give to Fitz as well is he is a tough cookie. He never leaves games. He never shows when he is hurt. He got his bell rung bad by Spikes on that play and got up and told him off not wearing a helmet. No matter what happens in his time in Buffalo, I respect his toughness. I also wanted to take you up on your comment that Fitz will never make the big play. It's simply not true. He has had 6 4th quarter comebacks in his career. That's respectable. Fitz has shown improvement since early in the season. He seems to have his arm back. I'm a bit more optimistic about what he can do. He may just be good enough to allow a guy to develop under him next year. If he consistently plays like he did today and somehow our defense becomes even a fraction of what it was supposed to be, then the Bills are decent. Too bad we're 3-6 as this year is pretty much over.