Dan

That pretty much sums it up. Well said.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say... TPeg verbally told Marrone that he was open for extending him and any staff that stayed. However. He wanted to hire a "consultant" and make the final decisions on staff at that point with input from his consultant. Essentially, we like what you've accomplished and we want to ensure longterm stability for all staff we retain. But this isn't the time to discuss it.

And then if Marrone states: I want to keep my OC and OL coach, and I want a $2mill/yr raise for those 3 years. And you say, let's not discuss raises yet. Now the reports are that you didn't want to negotiate yet.

I imagine they're going to contact and interview just about every potential candidate out there. Now... If you believe the rumors about Whaley not listening to his HC, how do you think that plays out with Shan-I-want-my-Han-in-everything?

And I think that sounds entirely reasonable and plausible. Whaley has always seemed like someone with a level head that listened to the people arund him. It makes this whole power struggle and idea that Whaley needs to listen to his HC even more baffling. Unless I conclude that Marrone was a complete egomaniac and insisted every player be his, even the ones he knew little of and every assistant remain, even if they were coaching historically inept systems. What's puzzling as well... When did Polian and Marrrone become BFFs?

I agree with that and it got me thinking that this whole notion that Marrone wasn't given what he needed is crap. Now, sure, maybe Marrone wanted player A and Whaley wanted B, so they selected B. That might piss Marrone off. But, both players are guards. Unless Whaley is a complete control freak (which nothing about him has ever projected as such), he was working with Marrone to bring in the players he wanted/needed. I just can't see Marrone saying I need a better RT as a priority; and Whaley then drafted everyone but a tackle until the 7th round. I think the problem was in the details. Marrone wanted guard A, Whaley got him guard B. But, Whaley has the scouting department to back him up and split the tie. Or in the case of FAs, he's talking to the agents and such and knows who he can actually get versus getting wishlist guys (kinda like posters here befuddled at why we haven't signed Rodgers yet). And Marrone was too stubborn to see why he didn't always get his guy. In the end, it's becoming more and more.. obvious.. Marrone and Whaley spent the last year in a power struggle. Marrone wanted a Chip Kelly type deal, and likely benched players this season to prove his point. If so, I'm really glad he's gone. He's not yet shown himself to be a great coach, let alone talent evaluator and team builder. And if Polian really wanted to stand pat with Marrone, his assistants and Orton; then bring in AJ Smith over Whaley... well, I'm really glad he's decided to stay with ESPN. Nothing about that team structure sounds good.

The line ..was.. a disaster this season, but I contend that it was more to do with bad coaching than bad players. It was Marrone who bucked traditonal wisdom and said continuity on the line doesn't matter, and then proceded to jumble everyone not named Glenn or Wood in various positions well into the regular season. High draft picks got little time, Pears moved to a position he had never played before, Henderson prepped the entire offseason for one spot only to switch to the opposite side, Urbik was benched for no reason... those were all coaching decisions. And when they played poorly? It was like a self fulfilling prophecy of proof that we needed better players. Between the pop warner blocking schemes and play design and line shuffling, its no wonder our run game suffered all season, culminating with a 13 yard performance. To achieve ineptitude like that, it takes a full effort by everyone... players and coaches. Whaley has addressed the line and I fully expect he will again this off season. But, to lay all the offensive ineptitude at his feet for player acquisition is overlooking the huge dysfunction that was our coaching staff.

Players do it as part of the contractual process. They play, become free agents, then get to renegotiate or leave for a higher offer. But, that player full filled his commitment to the team, first. In the few cases when a player wants a new, higher contract a year or two after he signed; most all fans have called him out as well. Hughes, for example, didn't quit (even if he leaves this winter). He played out his contract, worked his butt off, now its up to the team to re-sign him. Marrone, on the other hand, is in the middle of a 4 yr contract. He didn't accomplish what he said he would - playoffs. He wanted to renegotiate and when the owner said not yet... he quit. What made that a viable option for him was his opt out clause, most people don't have a clause that says they get a year's pay if they quit. But, none the less, he took the money and ran. He didn't full fill the terms of his contract, nor did he accomplish his stated goals. He quit.

I became highly skeptical he would be successful the day he hired Hackett. Since then, I've been back and forth trying to find good in his tenure and withhold judgement. I officially disliked him the moment he quit on the team. That's when he finally put himself above the betterment of the team.

I agree... I wasn't completely in the camp that Marrone had to go. He did some good things here. But, he also did some bad things. If he wanted his offensive coaching staff to stay in place... with extensions.. well, good riddance. Because, the one thing I think we can all agree on is that no one on the offensive side of the ball should be given anything... players and coaches.

ok... that was funny.

This is entirely to rational, logical, sensical to ever actually happen. unfortunately.

Very good points. I' m no expert, but I've read in many places that nginx is the way to go. The other advice, I was just given by the guy that runs our web server is... go big on the ram. SQL uses that to store the data. Generally you want at least twice the memory as the total size of the MDF files on the hd (I'm not exactly sure what the MDF files are but that was his advice. Then he started suggesting tweaks based on the page life counter and... That's when I said good enough for now.

If you want full back up, don't you need 2 drives in raid 1 configuration? Maybe that's how you save $100/mo, not having the raid? SSD is definitely the way to go with hard drives, however I'm not sure if the speed of the HD is the cause of the slow down. I think... You want as much free memory as possible for your server cache settings, so is 200gb enough vs the trade off for higher speed. I'm not up to date on the latest server processors, but hasn't Sandy Bridge been replaced by Ivy? There might even be advances since Ivy. I can look into that, if needed. I think you get better performance with the newer generation stuff, but of course it costs more. So, my initial thought is what's more important the latest processor board or big, fast hard drives. As far as Dallas vs DC goes, I don't think it matters where the machine sits. As long as it has a good connection to the net and isn't going to be taken out by a hurricane/tornado/disaster, then I wouldn't worry too much about that, personally.

I keep reading this notion that if Orton started we would have won the Houston game. How is that? He couldn't beat a 2 win Raiders team or an average Dolphins team or KC. So why is it a forgone conclusion that he beats Houston? There wasn't a single game, that we were a lock to beat, with or without Orton. And this last statement was my issue with Orton all along. You need a top 10 QB in this league, there' still hope that EJ could develop and become good. But, Orton has proven over the course of his career that he's not. So, why play him all season? Because he gives us the best chance to win? And look what that got us... 9 wins, no playoffs, no QB, and here we sit in pretty much the exact same spot as last year. As I see it, playing Orton all year did nothing but give Marrone the opportunity to puff out his chest and say all he cares about is winning. And in the end, it just wasted a year. Because today our offense is in the exact same position as last year.. With no viable QB on the roster. awesome

Exactly... He's not playing well behind that same OLine that people say is so bad you can't judge our OC's play calling. Yet, a RB is supposed to be fine running behind it. Not to mention.. Has he really looked that much worse than any of the other 3 RBs on the roster?

So Orton misses training camp, yet plays for 12 straight weeks, and people wanna give Hackett and him a pass because he needs to be given a chance. CJ just missed half the season and in his 2nd game back is expected to be a game changer? If he leaves, we'll be watching him score TDs ala Lynch. Yay us.

Earlier this season with Manning struggling and injured and a poor running game, the Broncos adapted by using an extra lineman and getting their RB some holes. They won several games with this mid-season offensive adjustment and are currently on the cusp of being the #2 seed. The Bills struggling to run the ball and with a struggling QB, did.... Nothing different. No adjustments to their offense at all. They loses a couple of winnable games and are currently cleaning out their lockers for the season. Coaching staffs that can adjust during the season and during a game are what good teams have.

I think you mean bench... Not couch. Ultimately, I have no problem with Marrone staying. But he also has to recognize that the offense is not NFL caliber and take some ownership of the horrible offense... That we've seen for 2 consecutive years. He needs to replace Hackett with someone that's not learning on the job... Something he used as an excuse for not playing EJ. If Hackett and this offense remains status quo, I'm pretty sure next year is wasted again.

That explains a lot!! And makes total sense

What pissed me off about today.... We finally ran an end around reverse to Watkins. and We finally motioned Freddie out of the backfield, spread the defense out and then ran Boobie up the middle for a TD on 3rd and short. 2 plays on our 2nd scoring drive. 2 plays I'be waited all season to see! So why did it take all season to bring out these two, well-designed plays?

We're staring 8-8 right in the face, and can only hope for 9 wins if the Pats rest 3/4 of their team. Forgive me for not being all giddy over finally getting 1 more win than the Jauron years. We're not the best D in the league. Currently, we're #4 overall; 5th against the pass, 13th against the run. Yeah, we're good but still not good enough to stop a bad team on 3rd and 22 when the game if not entire season was on the line. I really appreciate your infinite optimism, Promo. I do. But, I just can't look at our offense over the last 2 years and realistically expect them to get it fixed. Sure, I guess we could sign Rodgers and an all star cast for the line. But, until that happens, please don't hold it against me for being skeptical with our current coaches' ability to coach on the same level as the best in the league.

Week 17: Buffalo Bills vs New England Patriots Sunday, December 28, 2014 at 1:00pm TV Network: CBS (TV Map) Announcers: Spero Dedes, Solomon Wilcots DirecTV: 713 Bills Radio: On the call: John Murphy (play by play), Mark Kelso (analyst), Sal Capaccio (sideline) Flagship: Buffalo – WGR550 (550AM); Toronto - 590 The Fan; Rochester - WCMF (96.5) and WROC (950AM); Syracuse - WKRL (100.9/WKLL 94.9) Sirius/XM: 108 (Internet 803) ================================================================= Game Preview: The New England Patriots have Super Bowl aspirations every season, and clinching the top seed in the AFC playoffs is simply an expectation fulfilled as they pursue their ultimate goal. New England (12-3) did its part by surviving with a 17-16 victory at the New York Jets last week, and it wrapped up home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs when Cincinnati beat Denver on Monday night. Buffalo (8-7) was eliminated from playoff contention for the 15th straight season with last week's 26-24 loss at Oakland, extending the longest active playoff drought in the NFL. Read more at ESPN game preview... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Harbaugh leads top 10 head-coaching candidates QB Index: Which QBs will be available in 2015? NFL.com Preview: Bills at Patriots NFL.com Game Center Team Stats: Bills Patriots Total Yds/Game.... 321.9 372.5 Total Rush............. 91.9 107.4 Total Pass............. 230.0 265.1 Points/Game.......... 21.7 30.6 Time of Poss.......... 29.8 29.5 ---------------------------------------------- Yds/Gm Allowed... 315.7 349.2 Rush Yards........... 105.8 104.3 Pass Yards........... 209.9 244.9 Points Allowed........ 18.7 19.7 Source: NFL.com Overall Offense: Bills - 24th; Patriots - 10th Overall Defense: Bills - 4th; Patriots - 13th MatchUp Comparison via SportingCharts.com Injury Report: Buffalo Bills NAME POSITION INJURY WED. THU. FRI. GAME STATUS Carpenter, Dan K Right Groin LP LP LP Probable Dareus, Marcell DT Knee DNP DNP DNP Doubtful Gilmore, Stephon CB Concussion DNP DNP DNP Doubtful Williams, Aaron S Hip LP LP LP Probable Source: BuffaloBills.com New England Patriots NAME POSITION INJURY WED. THU. FRI. GAME STATUS Sebastian Vollmer T Back Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Tom Brady QB Ankle Full Participation in Practice Probable Jonas Gray RB Ankle Did Not Participate In Practice Out Chandler Jones DE Hip Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Danny Aiken LS Finger Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Shane Vereen RB Ankle Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Brandon Browner CB Groin Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Dont'a Hightower LB Shoulder Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Rob Ninkovich DE Heel Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Alfonzo Dennard CB Hamstring Limited Participation in Practice Out Brandon LaFell WR Shoulder Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Kyle Arrington CB Hamstring Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Julian Edelman WR Thigh Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Jamie Collins LB Hip Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Dan Connolly G Knee Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Chris White LB Ankle Limited Participation in Practice Questionable LeGarrette Blount RB Shoulder Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Cameron Fleming T Ankle Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Source: NFL.com Practice Status Game Status DNP = Did Not Participate in Practice Out = Player will not play LP = Limited Participation - Less than 100% of normal reps Doubtful = 25% chance a player will play FP = Full Participation - 100% of a player's normal repetitions Questionable = 50% chance a player will play Out = Player will not play Probable = 75% chance a player will play (-) = Not Listed = No practice status available (-) = Not Listed - No game status available The Odds: Line: Patriots -3.5 Over/Under: 44 Source: The LineMakers Up to date lines... if you're in Vegas. My Thoughts on the Game: Well here we sit at the the precipice of another off season. Once again, we're not in the playoffs. Once again, we leave the season with nearly as many question marks as we had when we entered. Once again, we have a bitter taste in our mouth as the Patriots move on to be the darlings of the NFL. Once again, we hope... for next year. So, who really cares about this game? The Players say they do. The Coaches say they do. But, will any of them actually show up and play like they care? Will they play like they should have last week. Did the coaching staff put in overtime, sleeping in their offices figuring our how to beat the Patriots? Do they really care? I guess we'll see soon enough. I'll be watching because: 1. It's the last time I get to see the Bills play till next August. I hate this time of year for that. 2. Just to see if anyone on this team looks like they give two cents about their jobs. My guess is we'll see the same boring game plan and apathetic offensive effort we've seen all season. Then afterwards, we'll get boring coach speak about executing and watching some tape, just before they all go home and relax knowing they don't have to pretend to work anymore for a while. 3. I want to see if Hackett gets fired.. like right as the team is lining up to punt from the 40 in the 4th quarter as they're down by 3 scores ..fired. 4. It's what I do. I watch the Buffalo Bills. I love my team. I can't help it. Go Bills.

If there are no changes to the coaching staff... It's time to tune out, because there is absolutely no reason to believe that the status quo will suddenly figure out how to put together an NFL caliber offense.

That's what it seems some people expect as unrealistic as it is.