snafu

I can guarantee it that Rex in his interview with the owners and the GM didn't tell them that he was going to take their top tier defense and alter the style of play that would accentuate the players's weaknesses and and diminish their strengths. Without a doubt he expounded on how he knew defenses and that he would make this very good defense even better. The Pegulas were not equipped to discuss football topics related to schemes and philosophy. Rex is very glib and has an expansive personality. As an employee candidate he was much more appealing to work with than the dour former HC who to put it mildly lacked interpersonal skills. I understand why the Pegulas found him appealing. But acing an interview is acing an interview. He had a six year record in NY that was not stellar. He left the Jets in shambles. The Pegulas did not properly do their "due diligence" with this respective hire. To be blunt I had little regard for Rex when he was with the Jets and was very troubled when he was hired for the job in western NY. I consider him to be a self-promoting huckster who lacks the intelligence and flexibility to smartly adjust in a job that requires adjustment to changing circumstances. Words that have never been associated with Rex are discipline and smart. I did not expect Rex to take the players he inherited and apply schemes that took them out of their comfort zone to the extent that he did. He made players such as Dareus, Mario and collectively the LBs conform to his comfort zone by taking them out of their comfort zone. You need to recall that Dareus was such an interior force last year that he earned him a gilded contract. In Rex's scheme he was a shell of himself. Mario was a pass rushing force that opposing teams had to account for. His presence on the field positively impacted his line mates because he received so much attention. This season on the field he was invisible. Let's remember that Rex was present with the team when they participated in last year's draft and free agency period. The staffing on the defensive side of the ball barely changed. The first pick was used for Darby, a CB. The defensive lineup stayed the same. If he was so determined to change the scheme then there should have been more personnel changes on the defense to accommodate his scheme. I'm not talking about brilliant football minds here. I'm talking about the lack of common sense. A dumb person tried to outsmart others. That is a recipe for failure. The outcome was predictable. The Pegulas are mostly to blame for hiring this huckster. If you asked the Pegulas if it would have been smart to hire someone who would take an asset (the defense) and make it a turd they would have said no. They certainly expected that this glib talking and jovial personality to use a little more common sense. Ultimately they made the hire and they got what they deserved. Rex is Rex. And that is exactly what they got. I'm obviously speculating on this: the Pegulas seemed to have ignored football sense in favor of making an immediate big decision splash. Probably helped along by the marketing mind of Russ Brandon. Look what it did for season ticket sales. Usually a coaching change happens because a team wants to "move in a different direction". But that too often gets confused with bad fits between scheme and personnel when there are better coaching fits to be readily found. My gut reaction was to hate the hire, too. When you talk about Dareus and Mario, I can start the excuses to mitigate the Rex hate, too. Marcel plays much better with Kyle next to him and vice versa. Mario can be a bit of a diva and if he doesn't like his role he can be pouty. There's also the fact that the linebackers can't keep up. I wonder what things would have looked like if Schwartz stayed and Spikes left and these same linebackers had to play in that system. Maybe not such a good result. I'm not trying to defend Rex at all. It is just starting to get monotonous with a lot of the same perspective. Everyone around here is so pissed off that they're losing the handle on all of the reasons for the regression.

Since you raised the point that a lot of people make around here (and your posts are usually pretty well articulated) my questions are pointed to you, but they are not limited to you. Did you expect Rex to abandon his scheme? That simply wasn't going to happen. No coach the Bills have brought in has ever said "I've been doing things one way for years, but I think I will change it up this year". Or did you expect Rex to make the players that were already here do different things? This is what historically happens. It rapidly becomes the same problem nearly every time coaches are changed. Maybe the exception is when the protégé takes over for the retiring coach. Perhaps it is a coaching failure on Rex's part, but shouldn't most of the blame lay at the feet of the people who hired a guy who was most certainly going to drastically alter a very good defense?

They lost to New England playing one way. Then they lost to New England playing the other way. They beat Houston, They beat Miami twice. I'm having a difficult time trying to understand the point. Is it that if they pressure the quarterback, then they will win by bigger margins and lose by smaller margins?

And probably a safety. Especially if A. Williams hangs it up.

I'm with you on all of this (except the Gailey part, but I get your point). I'm in NYC and saw Rex's show here for 6 years. I was disappointed when they announced the hire. I was hoping that he would have had some amount of introspection about his flaws and perhaps tried to fix them. I'm talking mostly about the fact that you can count on a Rex team to make at least three really bad timed, stupid mental errors every game. The fact that he can't manage a clock very well and the fact that he struggles with in-game awareness. I'm resigned to the fact that he's coming back next year. Let's see how it goes. Can't control it. Can only hope he starts to "get it". He is about to complete his seventh year as a head coach, so my hopes certainly aren't high. They're going to have to win in spite of his crappy game management. I've seen him focus on getting defensive guys he wants in his off-seasons. I expect him to get the defense to play better. If he can't, then it should be one more year and gone.

I don't care what Shady did after the game, but he pissed me off during the whole week leading up to the game. Couldn't say "no comment" and just go out and play football.

Agreed. There have been six Defensive Coordinators in the past 10 years: Perry Fewell, 2006–2009** (under Jauron) George Edwards, 2010–11 (under Gailey) Dave Wannstedt, 2012 (under Gailey) Mike Pettine, 2013 (under Marrone) Jim Schwartz, 2014 (under Marrone) Dennis Thurman, 2015-present (under Ryan) Not only that, it hurts the defense even more when each coordinator brings a different style (3-4 vs. 4-3 vs. wide 9) and expects the players to fit in and play. Then that begets changing the players who don't fit in and then the job is never completed where the defensive personnel fit the scheme. A lot of that pendulum-swinging can be laid at the feet of upper management who could have and probably should have insisted that each new coordinator bring in the same scheme as his predecessor. There are enough coaching candidates each offseason to get that accomplished each time the team needs a change. At a minimum the team should choose a style of play and then stick with it - no matter who the coach eventually is. Major changes should only be made when absolutely necessary IMO.

Geez, I thought show me the baby was part of the lexicon around here. It refers to Buddy Nix's first press conference when he became GM. He was talking about having no excuses for how to get to success "just show me the baby". Nobody ever really expounded on what that meant. It can mean a lot of different things to differing minds And Lord knows that minds differ around here. All I know is that I haven't seen any "baby" from One Bills Drive yet. And to a point made above - I don't expect that any team will go from not making the playoffs to winning the Super Bowl. I was just trying to say (and see what others think) when it is that I'd be satisfied. Would you like me to start another Rex Sucks thread instead?

To me it is win it all, but the baby might arrive at different times for different people. I'm just curious whether there's a consensus.

Wow, looking at the upcoming games the Sabres will have six straight days off between Chicago on the 19th and Boston on the 26th. Strange scheduling right there.

A half gallon of Epsom salt.

Fixed.

Omaha steaks? A lovely wine and cheese basket? Something would be nice.

Yikes! Are we sure that's a female? Reminds me of that Nuns on the Run movie.

Yeah, sure -- compared to this list of guys. I'm all for letting Tyrod develop. But the Bills better make sure that they have a competent backup for the inevitable periods of time that he will miss due to injury because of his size and style of play. Todd Collins Alex Van Pelt Doug Flutie Rob Johnson Drew Bledsoe J.P. Losman Kelly Holcomb Trent Edwards Ryan Fitzpatrick Brian Brohm EJ Manuel Thad Lewis Jeff Tuel Kyle Orton

Christmas Gift idea! Get her a 10 year calendar so she can circle the date of the next party.

Almost every a**hole has a sibling. Apparently you are the sibling of an a**hole. Call his selfish b.s. bluff and tell him that his freeloading bird-of-a-feather a**hole girlfriend wasn't invited and she can pay her own way. If he doesn't show up then he can explain it to your Grandmother why (after you get to her first). P.S.: if she were his wife, then maybe my answer would be a little different. She's a girlfriend, however, and she should never become his wife for your sake.

I cant believe I stopped re-ironing my underwear to read that article.

Ralph is cheap.

I hate to see the Broncos win but I love to see the *Pats lose.

Ya think there's too much time left on the clock?

That's an Avian civilization. Aliens present different problems.

There were two third and short plays which were terrible calls. First was when everyone knew Taylor was going to keep it and Woods was left to block Chandler Jones. Second was at midfield and everyone knew that they were going to hand off when instead two QB sneaks (if necessary) would have done the job.

I'm okay. Defense seems to be coming along nicely. They play better on the road than at home. Kansas City is going to be rough on our offense. If the line holds up (50/50 proposition) then we should come away with a win.

That's one of the problems I have with the offense's play calling. The defense was lights out - one missed tackle by Graham and one bad mistake by Duke Williams. Since we were playing with house money we should have taken a lot more chances when we had the opportunity, especially in the second half. The running game stopped working. This was the game to go into "shoot out mode" against the Pats. They couldn't match us if we did that.