WIDE LEFT

Will be in Hermosa Beach area for a while and am asking here about bars where I can watch Bills game. I am aware of the locator, and the Bills backer bar in Santa Monica. Was actually looking for a place less crowded and closer, even if it's just a sports bar that shows all NFL games. Help anyone? And for So Cal Bills backers, how crowded and crazy does your Santa Monica bar get?

Gee last time I checked the NFL was far and away the most popular sport in America. By light years. And we are lucky to be only one of 32 cities in the entire US with an NFL franchise. So how is that reflected on WGR, the flagship station of the Bills? Well from 10 till noon today we had a talk show devoted exclusively to the very very mediocre Sabres. Jim Rome from noon to 3. At three pm Snoop and the Puppy dog come on and talk exclusively about the Sabres for the first hour and a half. Four and half consecutive hours devoted to a mediocre franchise in the NHL in October! While we are in the heart of the NFL season. My theory is they do this because the 3:00 pm guys are uncomfortable with the NFL, because they know so little about football and have never bothered to develop a source (ex coach, executive) to help them along. Snoopy and his puppy dog have seriously suggested on several occasions that the Bills draft a QB in every one of the 7 rounds of the NFL draft. Seriously. I guess if thats the level of your football knowledge, you probably should stick to the NHL, even if its October, 70 degrees and your hockey team sucks. I know, I know - don't listen to them.

I was of course completely overstating the case when titling this post as completely blaming the coaches. I like this coaching staff and think the Bills are lucky to have them. My main point was that when Manuel went down, our defensive strategy should have changed to slow the game down and limit Tuel's time on the field. With a seven point lead playing two safeties deep to take away the long ball, and forcing Browns to rely on short passing game to move the ball (and eat up the clock). Instead we give up two long passes and in a blink of an eye the game is tied and Tuel is back on the field. The defensive call left Aaron Williams all alone, with no safety help, on the Browns # 1 receiver. I have less of a problem with that call if our offense had not lost its number one receiver and QB. I just thought the defensive strategy did not change one iota, despite the radical changes that took place during the game. And after all it was this coaching staff who determined that Aaron Williams was more suited for the safety position than cornerback, then leave him out there with zero safety help.

Marrone failed to challenge an obvious fumble; then later challenges a play that can't be challenged. Nice. Pettine, knowing that we have a back up QB in, allows Browns to travel 75 yards in 4 plays. Leaves Williams alone on Browns best receiver; Williams who 2 weeks ago was a safety. Nice. This was the worst performance of a coaching staff I have ever seen. Is it asking too much for Marrone, with his 7 figure salary, to actually know what the NFL challenge rules are. And Pettine needs to figure out a defense that can stop a third and 18, since our first line offense can't seem to pick up a third and 3.

Very vocal last week, defending their hero, good old Stevie. So how did our highest paid receiver respond today, in a very big game. One catch for one yard. A dropped pass that became an interception. And yet another studio penalty, holding when the play was 5 yards past him. Lets hear now from the Stevie groupies, who were so vocal last week, about their hero and his pathetic performance this week.

The Rhodes scholar will point out that Stevie is judged via the criteria of being ( and signing a contract as) a number one receiver. And it's very true he does get open; but that's half the battle. You also have to catch it, and make catches at critical times. That's the standard for a # 1 receiver. But what we see are dropped passes at critical times and stupid penalties at bad times. Over and over again. Hey genius, wasn't this guy benched last year after yet another stupid penalty. But with his history of big drops and stupid penalties, we are 3 games into the 2013 and he has already produced a huge dropped pass and yet another stupid penalty. It's too bad that you are offended when someone points out repetitive and dumb mistakes that never seem to end. So put aside your hero worship and accept the fact that at this level and for this type of money this particular player should be held accountable for his inability to avoid the big drop and/or the stupid penalty.

Lost in the shuffle of Jets game was yet another selfish, unforgivable blunder by good old Stevie Johnson. Failing yet again to learn from the recent and the not so recent past, produced this Stevie gem; at a very critical point in the 4th quarter of Jets game, a Jets penalty which would have given the Bills a big first down was wiped out by a Stevie special, a taunting penalty which negated the Jets penalty and put the Bills in a terrible position. A later Jets penalty kept this drive alive, and took the spotlight off yet another Stevie special, but it does not change the fact that our high paid veteran big mouth continues his loser ways. Stevie Johnson represents much of the problem with this team; he is a joke. And the jokes on us.

A shout out to Chicago Bills backers bar Lincoln Station. A weekend trip to Chicago ended with a visit to Lincoln Station, where a very large and very loud crowd made a Bills loss a bit more bearable. Great bar, great crowd, cheap beer. Very good stuff.

Well I guess it's so very obvious to you, but not to Marrone or Hackett.

Conventional wisdom is that the team that wins the turnover battle wins the game; and statistics bear this out. So the Bills lose two games this season despite winning the turnover battle in each game. So what's going on? Well what you usually see in games where a team wins the turnover battle but loses the game is that the team employs an ultra conservative offensive game plan. The Bills in the Dick Jauron era were famous for this, winning the turnover battle but losing games, or winning the turnover battle by a wide margin but just squeaking out a win. Of course Jauron set offensive football back about 3 decades, with his god awful conservative, simpleton offenses. OC Hackett is guilty here. Jets ( and Pats) stacked the box and dared the Bills to throw, but OC Hackett wasted way too many offensive downs by running the ball into the teeth of the defense, very predictably on first and second down. Wasted opportunity after opportunity. And I love the often articulated (but very wrong) strategy that you have to establish the run to set up the passing game. It rests on the idea that with the defense playing up to defend the run, the passing game opens up. But the Jets (and soon the rest of the league) is already playing run first with their defenders up, so why are we running into the teeth of that. If the defense is playing run first, why do we continue to run first? It's a recipe for failure, and even winning the turnover battle cannot overcome this flawed offensive game plan.

I mean, sometimes you have to ask yourself where the Bills find theses guys. Lee Smith, for example. A tight end whose only job is to block. Doesn't play that much, isn't asked to catch passes. Finally gets in the game, and what does this guy do - he commits a holding penalty, wiping out a long CJ run. Just block, that's all you are asked to do, and you are not asked that often. And Fullback Frank, also not asked to play or do much, commits the dumbest penalty of the year, holding on a 4th and 15 punt. Talk about creative. He then goes on to completely whiff on his blocking assignment, causing the EJ fumble. Aaron Williams personal foul was dumb as well, but at least he was flying around the field, making plays It's frightening how close these dumb penalties came to costing us this game.

So the Jets defense had absolutely nothing to do with; the Pats just played like dog crap for their home opener on Thursday night football. . Sure. And Tampa played like crap the week before and couldn't do jack against Jet defense. The Jets defense which was the 5th rated defense in the NFL last year. I guess most of the offenses they faced last year just played like dog crap. Just all one big coincidence.

You mean like the Patriots spanked them. It is not a bad football team. The Jets have a great defense, which makes any team very competitive.

It's obvious a defensive coordinators main objective/strategy is to limit the other teams scoring, and holding a team to a field goal is always better than giving up a TD. I have to wonder whether defensive coordinators adjust this basic strategy to fit the changing game situations. A classic example is the Bills Monday night loss to Dallas, when Dallas had only one choice, to throw a quick sideline pass to get some yards and stop the clock, but our DC never adjusted to take that away, and worse yet, when questioned about it after the game did not seem to even understand the question. I note this because as much as I like Mike Pettine, I have to question whether he really understood the game strategy at the end of Pats game. With the Pats driving and within (long) field goal range, I noted,when watching NFL game rewind, that he continued to play his safeties 15-20 yards off the line of scrimmage. Although its usually the case that giving up a field goal is preferable to giving up a TD, the opposite was true in this game situation. The correct strategy, based on that unique game situation, was to play the safeties up, take away the short pass, and force Brady to beat you with a long pass downfield. A quick TD at least gives you the ball back and a chance, conceding short passes is a slow death that never gives you a chance It just appeared that our DC failed to appreciate in that unique game situation that giving up first downs was worse than giving up a long pass. He simply failed to adjust to the game situation. Disappointing.

So the OP's statement is that the read option is rendered ineffective if the QB never runs the ball. It's what makes the read option offense so effective (for the rest of teams that run it), that, is the additional threat of the QB running with the ball. If EJ never takes off with the ball, our read option will be ineffective, as it certainly was in today's game. But our genius here blathers on about free tickets and doozies, because he does not have an actual football take as to how you can run a read option offense but never, not one time, actually have your QB run the ball. A number of third and short opportunities were missed today, first downs that could have been picked up by our big and mobile QB.

Well sure, lets not provide any criticism at all of the highest paid wide receiver on the team, who has a disturbing habit of dropping passes at the worst time. If memory serves me right, this is not the first pass he has dropped in a critical situation. But god forbid, lets not "rehash" it. Because this board is only here for the purpose of praising these players, not for criticizing them. After all they only play this game for the love of it, and should never be called out for mistakes, no matter how many times they happen.

It's nice to have a veteran presence like good old Stevie Johnson, who drops yet another critical ball in a clutch situation. Hey Stevie, instead of running your mouth, how about helping your rookie QB, and your team, by catching a routine, 4 yard pass.

Okay the read option simply does not work if the QB NEVER runs the ball. So we cannot pick up a third and three because our OC will not allow our 240 lb QB to run just one time. Terrible

Tim Graham took to twitter yesterday to comment on the fact that that the Bills wanted a 3 week exemption for Byrd so that they could sit (and not pay)him on opening day. Graham' s take was that it was his "sense" that the Bills wanted to sit Byrd on opening day not because he would not be ready, but just out of "spite". If you take this at face value, what Graham is suggesting is that Brandon, Whaley etc are lying when they say the organization is totally committed to winning/excellence, and would actually make a decision like this out of spite, even if it compromised Bills chances to beat the Pats. Of course, Graham offers no evidence or substance of any kind to support his "sense". It is, in fact, nonsense and a very cheap shot, totally unsupported by anything but his imagination. This is the quality of reporters we have covering the Bills. Yikes.

Stake Out is probably the closest to MGM

Well he proved exactly nothing in his first preseason game. And I hope the starting job in Buffalo is not determined by freak (or lack of) freak accidents. I hope and pray EJ is the real deal, and I tend to think he is. The only point was that the Colts game did not show that one way or the other. And practices are not NFL games.

Could be the case. But I hope he actually proves himself wins the starting job on merit, rather than just being handed the starting job regardless. But I recognize there are many (like you) who believe he should and will be starting QB no matter what.

Believe me, I would love to see E J emerge as the clear and convincing winner of the QB competition and start on opening day. But it's not a done deal. I missed the original broadcast of Colts preseason game and after hearing all the hype about the 95 yard drive at the end of the half, I could not wait to see the replay. I did note that the national media was much less enthused about EJ performance than our local media. Upon seeing the replay, I could see why. I mean, please, a third string defense playing the softest prevent defense imaginable produced one easy read and one easy pass after another. The TD toss was pretty good though. But this was nothing that a rookie Trent Edwards could not have done in his sleep. So I retain high hopes for EJ, but there was little in that preseason game that sheds any light as to just where he is as an NFL QB.

It's more than a little frustrating reading how the Bills are struggling all training camp with weak play at the left guard position. There have not, in recent years and beyond, been very many successful draft choices. Levitre was a great choice, and after finally hitting on a good draft pick he is gone after four years, just as he enters the prime of his career. I don't know how you build long term success when you let your few successful draft choices walk. I wonder if Byrd is next. So now a weakness exists where there was a strength. And Bills sitting 20 million plus under the cap. This is not to argue that the Bills should have matched the mega contract Levitre got, but rather that they should have recognized a quality player and extended his contract early on, where the cost would have been manageable, something akin to what Pats did with Gronkowski.