The Frankish Reich
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Posts posted by The Frankish Reich
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I don't care about Gilmore. He's "fine." There's no need to want him gone--he just didn't live up to the hype that he'd be a true shutdown corner. The Bills problems are on the other side of the ball.
I wonder what the rushing yards average is from the shotgun. It must suck. The Bills appear awful from the gun. I noticed it last year especially with EJ. This year it's the same thing. The Bills were in shotgun seemingly 90% of the game. In the 4th quarter was the only time they weren't.
Among other things, shotgun takes away all flexibility and creativity in the running game. Play action is virtually nonexistent as are any kind of pitch or roll out (not that Orton is a rollout QB). But it limits the offense terribly. This is one of my biggest Hacket peeves. Put the QB under center.
Also, I am damn glad Manziel didn't come in earlier. The energy he brought to the Browns was real. He had the bad play on the fumble-TD-reversed but I did not like the way he was playing at all. Good luck to the teams that might face him in the coming weeks.
I often hear the sports pundits saying things like "to run the ball effectively requires a commitment to the run." I've always been skeptical, but ... watching the Broncos over the last month kind of proves the point. The running game had faded into irrelevance. And then what happened? They added an extra blocker to the already re-worked O line, and they started playing with a mission to establish the run. Last 2 weeks, CJ Anderson (a third stringer coming into the season) has 160 yards in each game. And that's with Peyton still working out of the pistol/shotgun virtually every play. No, we're not the Broncos on offense, so it's not as easy to do (establishing the run is easier when the D still has to be preoccupied with the likes of D. Thomas, Sanders, and Welker, and Orton is not Peyton), but the Broncos have made me a believer in the whole commitment to the run thing.
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I wonder if this was the hopes for Dennis Dixon? Dorin Dickerson?
I don't know about that, but I think EJ Manuel just saw his future!
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I wish my roomate was here to knock this fat guy out.
I like it ... We have a winner!
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My concern is that he should have trucked Leonhard on both plays and left critical yardage on the field (who knows, he might have gone to the house). A TE that shies away from contact on the field could be why this guy has circumnavigated the NFL. I hope I'm wrong, but those plays looked a bit kitty at the end. He's wearing Rosie's number, and Rosie NEVER shied away from the big hit.
That was weird. I don't know if we have anyone who watched Minnesota Gophers football who can tell us more about his running style, so for now I'll assume it was just contact avoidance that was learned as the Gophers QB. If so, it's time to unlearn that fast.
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I have to check the Two Bills Drive TOS to see if it is okay to like the fact a former Bill who was a great guy did well.
From what I've seen this is definitely not o.k., particularly when the former player used his Harvard trickery to con the Bills out of $50 million. Do not take advantage of a bumbling old man like Buddy Nix, you Ivy League one percenter, you!
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And all it took was an injury to Chris Gragg for Marrone to know there is a possible better option in the offense than Lee Smith and Chris Gragg.
Not sold on Gray, but I gotta admit he did more in one game with the Bills than Gragg has done in 28.
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I do think our DL can get pressure on Manning, I'm just not sure (in fact I'm doubtful) that it'll be enough pressure to keep them from scoring at least in the high 20s, and I don't know how our offense can put that many points on the board without some major Broncos turnovers/mistakes on special teams, etc.
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With all due respect, they are a lot closer than most Bills fans want to admit. Orton has a slightly better arm but he is completely immobile.
Right. If I'm starting from scratch in spring, same salary, etc., I choose Orton over Fitz. But it's close. It's not being a defeatist to state the obvious: in retrospect, we'd probably be better off today if we had stuck with Fitzy rather than embarking on the EJ experiment and the Orton emergency change of course, if only because we'd have saved a lot of money that could've been applied to the O line, and we'd have used last year's #1 for someone who could be playing right now.
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Not good news for us that the Broncos seem to have that whole O line thing fixed. It took some guts to try the musical chairs thing they did 3 weeks ago (Manny Ramirez, a natural guard, moving to RG from C, Louis Vasquez from RG to RT), and it didn't begin to show dividends until last week. Plus with Julius Thomas out (a very weak blocker as a "tight end", really more of a WR), they've been using either a 6th lineman or some other additional blocker formation. They'll be running right at Mario next week -- let's hope he comes up big again.
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Sounds about right. 3 points for being the home team, about a touchdown favorite on a neutral field. But we'll find out a lot about the Broncos tonight in a cold weather night game in KC!
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Cardinals did lose Carson Palmer for the season. Big difference between him and Stanton.
Correct. The "luck" thing with them has more to do with winning a lot of close ones, something that tends to even out over time.
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You know what's fun about the NFL now? You can take all the advanced stats/analytics guys to the bank (or betting window if you prefer). Cleveland: soft schedule, overrated journeyman QB. Proven correct. Cardinals: good team, benefited from a lot of situational luck. In the process of being proved correct as Atlanta blows them out today. Rams: really solid team suffering from horrible luck (including QB injuries) vs Raiders (crappy record because they are a crappy team): proven correct today.
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manzel = flutie....he is nothing more than a novelty act that will be figured out within 3-5 games.....
kyle williams is an absolute beast
hogan & woods are awesome
i am among the biggest Buffalo optimists around but I dread next week, i see 0% chance walking out with a win, or even a close loss, sorry
i love bill in nyc's posts and am glad to see them back, especially on this, the last day of 30 Days of Dead 2014 at http://www.dead.net/30daysofdead
Cue the half dozen "Flutie could have won it all for us" regulars ...
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It's only gay if you follow it up with a stiff one.
Hah! Sounds like the Marquis de Gray's favorite digestif
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1) All Preston Brown, Bradham and Spikes did today was kick peoples asses. This is one trio of tough, badass linebackers.
2) The pick by Orton in the early second quarter (in the end zone) was a bad one. It actually looked like a rookie mistake. More on Orton to come.
3) Gilmore was getting beat on short passes in the entire first half. I must however say that he came around and had an all around good game.
4) I am concerned about Cordy Glenn. He looked like a plodding Right Tackle today imo. I don't know what his problem is but it is a concern.
5) I live in a silver mine,
and I call it Beggar's Tomb.
I got me a violin
and I beg you call the tune.
Anybody's choice,
I can hear your voice.
Wo-oah what I want to know-oh,
How does the song go?
6) Sammy Watkins is hobbled. There is no debate here. I really do hope that his condition doesn't get worse.
7) A few have you have taken me to task about my praise of Mr. Searcy. Don't get me wrong, I love the dialogue but there is no longer any doubt how much value he brings to this football team. Once again, he will be a head coach some day. This man is PURE football.
8) This game appeared to be slow today in terms of the footing. Nobody looked THAT fast. Do you agree? In the Alabama game last night players on both teams were flying all over the field. Maybe it was be me.
9) In the credit where it is due department, Orton came around and was able to hit Woods with some truly nice passes. The TD to Hogan was also a great play.
10) The passes to Gray were very good, however strange, no? The guy looks like Hercules and ran out of bounds. Plus, he seemed to be alone on both of his big plays. I admit it, I didn't know that the man was on our football team. I had really no idea what was going on lol.
11) This defensive line reminds me of the one in which Bryce Paup had 17 1/2 sacks and was the NFL Defensive MVP. They take turns having great games and feed off of what is happening with each other. Mario was doubled all day and I think held more often than not. His fellow linemen were able to take advantage of this. How great is that?! My hope is that the Bills offer a big contract to Hughes right now. He is a modern day Bryce Paup imo.
12) I really like Marrone, but I am not his biggest fan in terms of being a head coach. That said, he was great today. It was his best game ever in terms of taking control and managing game and the clock, or so I think.
13) I am on a personal quest to be a better person. I won't go into this but I am going to regress just a bit. Watching KW knock that little obnoxious twit on his ass was a sight to behold.
14) Congrats my friends. We truly do deserve good days.
15) GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I missed this weekly thread. Welcome back!
6. I hope you're right (Sammy is hobbled) because the other explanation is more disturbing, being "Sammy has trouble getting open." Or "the league seems to have figured out Sammy."
10. Gray was a nice surprise, but I have to agree -- I thought he was going to lower the boom on the open field tackler; instead he slowed down, tried the stiff arm, and cruised out of bounds.
12. Marrone. I'm o.k. with the game plan, but sooner or later someone has to take the heat for the lack of preparedness on those delay of game/which 11 players should be on the field issue. The one delay came after a penalty on the Chiefs -- no reason to not be ready in that situation. And that 5 yards was costly.
3. I thought Gilmore did fine. He gave Gordon a big cushion, and Gordon caught a lot of short passes underneath. But Schwartz and Co. put it on Hoyer to make a big play, and he never did. It can be frustrating to watch, but it worked.
13. Yeah! Welcome to the NFL, Johnny. (I can't stand Johnny, but he'll make football more fun to watch, so in a weird way I'm pulling for him)
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Strangely enough, of the "3 automatic losses" remaining on the schedule this year, I think we have the best shot at an upset against Denver. They have stumbled more than once this year. Green Bay is one hell of a team and NE has our number.
For some reason if we are going to pull off a miracle upset I see it being against Denver! We'll find out soon enough how it plays out.
I agree. In the category of "things to watch for tonight", I'll go back to the comments I made in the first (premature) Bills at Broncs thread that some fool started last week, with updated comments in bold:
I've lived in Colorado for a long time, and I think I know the following about this edition of the Broncos:
1. They are a really poor bad weather team. Early December (unfortunately) is generally a pretty low-risk month for really foul weather. But it can be cold, and Peyton don't like cold. At all. KC will be cold by the second half tonight. Watch how Peyton's throwing looks.
2. They don't do well against teams with a dominant defensive line. They've had all kinds of O line trouble. Hey, they even waved the 2014 version of the O Line Desperation Flag: they brought in Richie Incognito. The line looked a lot better against Miami last week, but it's still shaky with a big musical chairs thing they did with the existing starters. If you can generate pressure on Peyton without blitzing, he's a completely different (and very beatable) QB. And our main strength is definitely the DL, lining up across from their main weakness.
3. The defense was much improved this year. Was. Past tense. Miami moved the ball really well against them, and I wouldn't call Miami some kind of offensive juggernaut. Even the weak STL offense moved the ball pretty well. (And of course the Pats destroyed them, but that's not so relevant since, well, Kyle Orton is not that guy with the hair plugs and Scott Chandler's resemblance to Gronk starts and ends with his height.)
The last time the Bills visited Denver, Trent Edwards and Co. pretty much put the final nail in the Mike Shanahan era with a surprise win. Kyle Orton can do the same thing to John Fox. Should the Broncos win this one? Absolutely. Are the Bills capable of pulling off the big upset? Damn right they are!
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Looks like they passed on him again. I wonder if this was a payback game. It sure looked like it. Welcome to the Bills dude.
And I learned that his first name is pronounced "Marcus." Which seems like an awfully complicated way to go if you want to call your son Marcus (no apostrophe needed!) But he looks like a good athlete who may find a position with the Bills, so I'm all for giving him playing time.
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I'm excited to see his next set of guys we should've cut to keep moeaki- maybe a coach or scout will make the list since we've already hit practice squad and IR.
There could've been an argument to keep him as your 53rd if you were confident in the injuries timeline but if trainers were (in hindsight accurately) saying 2+ months it's hard to complain
OK, OK, I didn't want to go there, but you leave me no choice. Jordan Gay.
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Yikes - well that's not something you like to see from your owner. Harbaugh was asked about it in his post game but didn't address it.
@JedYork: Thank you #49ersfaithful for coming out strong tonight. This performance wasn't acceptable. I apologize for that
The sound of the window of opportunity closing ever so slowly. You wake up one day and all of that amazing young talent isn't so young anymore, and it's kind of expensive to keep around too ...
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Let Moeaki play more then 3 games successfully in a 5 game stretch. He is on a team which plays to his strengths, short yards and no long ball behind a game manager at qb.
Big difference here in buffalo is we are a Ru. First team. So is Seattle but that is at the distaste of Carroll and Co who want to gunsling it and don't value runners.
But Moeaki was regarded as maybe the best blocking tight end in his draft class. I think folks are missing my point here (maybe my joking was to blame): the point is that bringing Moeaki in last year was a good idea even though no one had any expectation that he'd be able to contribute last year. And the fact that he didn't make it back in preseason shouldn't have surprised anyone either. It was a longer-range play, and a smart one. But it isn't smart when you give up on that longer-range play too soon, which is what happened here. If they'd stayed the course with him that would've meant injured reserve time, and yes, it would have meant losing someone else. But sticking with Moeaki made some sense since (1) tight end is an exceptionally weak position on this team; (2) and even knowing that, we chose not to draft a tight end other than Gragg very late in the draft last year (while drafting two WRs) or this year (while drafting one WR). Given all those new WRs, signing Mike Williams was probably the mistake that drove some other mistakes. Williams won't be back, Goodwin likely won't be back, Lee Smith (I hope) won't be back, there'd be nothing lost if all of them weren't on this year's team at all.
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Lee's college DUI gives the team street cred
Hah! (I actually didn't know that) I see that Moeaki is a Mormon, so this makes some sense ...
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I would think practice squad players are there for a specific purpose and to think they are interchangeable is very naive. These are players that learn our system and are very close to being on the active roster. I don't think you want to be changing that roster too often.
I don't deny that. But we've also kept Jonathan Meeks on the roster even though he missed 3/4 of last year and has not played at all this year. The idea that you can't keep an injured/talented player who fills a need on injured reserve for half a season is belied by many, many examples every season. Look, I started this thread half seriously, half jokingly (in another thread it was pointed out that every former Bill who has a good game immediately gets a thread like this one). But the serious point is Moeaki was drafted as one of the best blocking tight ends in the draft back in 2010, and he can catch the ball a little too. He wouldn't have made a big difference this year given his injuries, but he would be a more complete tight end right now than either Smith (all block, and not so great at that either, and no catch) or Chandler (all catch, and not so good at that either, and no block). And we're also carrying Mike Williams and Marquis Goodwin all year because they look good in the team photo or something.
That is right we could have kept him on active roster by letting go a practice squad player Jeff Tuel.
Or Travis Harvey, another practice squad player.
Or Caleb Holley an injured practice squad player.
Where did you get your GM lessons in a Cracker Box?
Very appropriate!
OK, I give you Jonathan Meeks.
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Wrong.
How so?
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He was injured again this year. He would've been carried in the 53 hurt for like half the season. Not crazy, but seemingly not realized by you? Seattle gotta sign him once healthy, in November. A luxury we didn't have.
I guess I stand corrected. We would have risked losing Caleb Holley! (Question: who the hell is Caleb Holley?). Or Jeff Tuel. Or some wide receiver named Travis Harvey. Are we certain that Caleb Holley and Travis Harvey are actually 2 different players? My point: there's always fungible practice squad guys out there. They're like the utility infielder AAAA guys in baseball. You should never worry about finding them, and you should never let actual talent go to keep one of them. Or Lee Smith for that matter.
Anyone going to Denver?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Same here. I was kind of hoping aftermarket prices would drop a bit, but they're still pretty steep.