RichVP

Also they love to talk about the Nelson drop but forget to mention if Gilmore held on he would have scored on the interception. Or the other pick if it wasn't dropped. Should have had 4 picks on Rodgers on the day.

This is a terrible list. How can Dareus be 2nd team DT or Mario not even mentioned as a DE?

You do realize that this thread was 5 pages and going prior to my post and had almost 10 replies while I typed my first response calling for it to end. My post did not change that.

Why does this thread still exist? Time to walk away from those who are only a fan of failure since they want / need players on this team to fail to redeem there own self worth. Why wouldn't you hope for players on this team to succeed. It would only benefit this whole team your a fan of. You want them to cut bait from a sub par QB draft to draft in the next one when the next one is getting compared to that same years sub par QB draft. Is this your diabolical plan to have the next crusade against the next QB we draft? This thread needs to die.

ESPN thinks it was a forward pass as well. I'm wondering if anyone saying it was a forward pass actually watched it. You can tell it was not a pass real time, as the refs initially called. You didn't need a review or slow motion to know what we saw.

Well now we have two forward passes to *$%*$ about. Happy this didn't have an impact on us winning though.

Deion Sanders flat out says that's a horrible call and questions how anyone could say that was a pass.

I think we would have not only started but also ended the Manziel Era for the Browns if he did this. I do like how our defense has forced three starting Quaterbacks to be benched so far this year.

Ridiculous. I remember talk prior to this season, maybe near the end of last season, of needing to cut the rule book down and simplify it. Where did that sentiment go? The rules this year seem so muddled and arbitrarily applied that it is getting hard to watch. If I wasn't, if most of us weren't, such serious Bills fans I wouldn't be surprised if most of us wouldn't watch it.

That is my biggest gripe. Secondly though Manziel and the entire Browns offense had there helmets off as if they knew it was a foregone conclusion that it was a touchdown. The look on Johnny's face when they said incomplete wasn't of happiness it was of shock and disbelief. In my opinion anyway. As little as that counts for.

Our receivers are young and unheralded. Unless it's a major incident the corner back will get the benefit of the doubt. I expect us to get called a lot. Our corners played best physically.

I am not a first time poster but still very new to contributing on various topics. If some can call it that. But I have been a fan since I started watching football in 2007. It rubbed off from some room mates my first year in college that were die hard Bills fans. If I watched a game with them and they won I was required to be there the next week. Drinking the same drink. Out of the same cup. Sitting in the same spot. I have since stalked this forum for the majority of my information and, sadly, depression. I do however disagree with your assertion that we drafted a 3rd round QB in the 1st as a fact. Around the time of the draft the QB that was moving up ALL mock drafts was EJ Manuel. There was significant talk about Philly being interested. There was very little chatter about the Bills and EJ though. Everyone was too willing to connect the dots with Nassib. It only takes a couple out of 32 teams to become enamored with a well spoken, hard working natural leader QB for him to sneak into the first round as EJ did. Obviously Buffalo was worried he would not be there any later with Philly coming up shortly. It's completely unknown where he would have been drafted if the Bills didn't take him. So realistically he is just a 1st round pick. No asterisk or caveat needed. It is what it is now. I also had little reason an overwhelmingly talented roster would not contend for a play off spot until the Patriots game. We have had abysmal performance on the offensive side of the ball. So completely surprised, no, not based on how the offense has looked. With all the close games we knew it was going to cost us wins. But disappointed after expectation were not met, absolutely. But here's to the Bills magically solving the elusive red zone and at least have us playing with the play off calculator to get the best tie breaker scenarios for us. -Rich Added clarification on EJ point.

It's a pretty simple bottom line. Strong defense and a strong running game leads to shorter, slower pace, lower score and thus less enthusiasm from fans. So the rules favor the flash.

An interesting tidbit for the AFC East in general is we may very well be the worst division in the NFL at Red Zone Offense. As much as I am not a fan of his reporting. Per Mike Rodak's Stat Check we see that our red zone woes may not be a huge disadvantage coming up Thursday. For the AFC East to have 3 teams in the bottom 4 is pretty astounding. Here's to hoping we see some corrections with a short week where Hackett can't out think himself in the game plan.

Well said. I agree. EJ's issue to me was he was pressed into a role he was clearly not ready for. He came in raw and not confident in his abilities. The smallest hesitation at the professional level of any sport and you will lose that play. When you're not confident you end up playing it ultra conservative and hesitate on the important and clutch plays because you're no longer trying to make a play rather than trying not to screw up. My biggest issue was bringing in a raw, talented, and hard working QB with no QB coach to get his proper footwork, mechanics, and reads down before they became even worse bad habits that a year later they are going to take more time and effort to correct. Now that we have a better surrounding cast of coaches I believe if EJ can get out of his own way we will have a great young prospect. If he can't he will forever struggle to be average. Which is why the comments of playing more aggressive and cutting it loose is very encouraging to me. As for wanting OBD to cut ties and move on to the next prospect I just don't understand those people. We drafted EJ. He is still under contract. I want him to succeed as long as he is on this team. Because that is whats best for this team. Not to give up on a draft pick less than 2 years later. Especially on a prospect many thought would take a few years to get "it."

An extra 30 minutes on top of what is already a very demanding and time intensive career. I would not be surprised that each football player spends 70-80 hours a week before any "extra" time. The discipline and demand of staying in the shape most of these players are in requires a lot of time each week before any football related activity. It is an extraordinary amount of talent, time and proper coaching needed to be in a position of success for this league. This extra 30 minutes they were talking about is strictly an extra 30 minutes with his quarterbacks coach. This does not speak to his work ethic or time spent outside of that 30 minute period with his coach. One thing Kevin Durant said that I like and in my opinion relates to EJ Manuel is "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." Everything we've heard about EJ leads me to believe he will do much better a second time around. I believe he was trying to protect the ball and didn't trust himself enough. He has the talent and he works hard. As a Bills fan I can't do anything but root for this young man and hope he succeeds here. Why would I hope for anything less? I don't see the sense in that as a Bills fan.

I believe this was talked about on the John Murphy Show during the off season.

The painfully awkward Rob Lowe is pretty bad as well. "I hope it's not a girl... Or a guy." Anyway. As with all statistics and analysis that tries to turn a game into a series of numbers you can make things say what you want them to say or poke holes into it to prove a point. But the goal and use of many of these stats is to get as close to, as Brian Billick says, predictive success. This is not an end all be all stat and may not dictate how well we do the rest of the year but is certainly a nice piece to the puzzle to look at and take it for what it is. Which is the Bills being #1 in something.

I agree.

The one thing to keep in mind is not every team has played 8 games as the bills have. Our current pace is very much boosted by our games against Miami and the Jets as well as our propensity to avoid big plays on the Defense. It took 8 weeks for a rushing touchdown to be scored on us and somewhere around 5 weeks before a run of 20 or more was done against us. The differential may not be as high in the second half of the season but I don't see our defense letting it fall to much lower than the pace it currently is.

Sorry if this is shown elsewhere but I found this article particularly interesting and worthy of it's own thread. This bills sit ranked at #1 with a toxic differential of +20. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000419687/article/toxic-differential-watch-out-for-bills-texans-in-the-second-half Discuss...

Good luck. I hope the Bills win.

Mine would be announcers that try to tell you what the player is thinking or feeling, for example, when a player does a slant route and drops a poorly thrown ball that was still able to be caught and the announcer says "Well, you see, there he heard the footsteps and was thinking about the hit he was about to receive" or "In this situation the quarterback is feeling the pressure to do something on this drive" when it's the second quarter and a one score game. I understand some may have played the game before but I don't like trying to assume a players mindset and trying to portray it to millions of people with no factual basis to point to. The main culprit that I hear do this the most is Chris Collinsworth. It's hard to watch any of his broadcasts for me. Just not my style.

Amazing. Such a great story and legacy.

I have an amazing dog. He is great on walks and walks next to me without pulling or any interest in anyone else. Just two days ago he walked past a group of 5 or 6 small dogs with multiple growling and attempting to get to him. He does not bark, growl or show any signs of aggressiveness as I've seen numerous breeds show to him. Including Golden Retrievers, Poodles and Labs. Yes he is a Pit Bull. Yes pit bulls were bred and honed in to be good at fighting other dogs but the vast majority of them were still born as non aggressive loving dogs. These dogs were the ones used as bait. These dogs were the ones Michael Vick tortured and Killed as an attempt to make them into worthy animals for the Pit. Dogs aren't typically born with an innate desire to hurt others. It's a learned ability from owners that are not responsible. Those type of owners can create dogs that harm others from any breed of dog. A dog bite in and of itself is extremely dangerous because of it's ability to get infected and if not treated properly lead to amputations or worse. I look at my dog as a kid. He is the dog I create him to be as he grows. He has shown to be less aggressive than a Black Lab I grew up with and did bite me. He was being used as a dog for a Golden Retriever to ease her into being friendlier to other dogs. But I am also careful. I know the reputation Pit Bulls have, however unfair, and you have to protect them and put them in good situations. Please don't make snap judgements about a breed based on a few irresponsible owners. Sadly there's far too many of those owners out there and they don't just own Pit Bulls but since it is by far the majority dog as well as the most recognizable it will be blamed for more than it's share of problems. Please visit here if you are in the Rochester Area and have any thoughts on adopting. http://www.pittyloverescue.org/ There is great info provided by these people included clarification of Myths and Truths about the breed. Breed specific legislation has also led to the death of numerous animals mistaken to be pit bulls but are actually not. It is just not as easy to determine breed as some may think.