jad1

All right, genius, compare Best to OUR feature back... how does that play out? Or am I going too far in comparing the Bills to the powerhouse Lions? Do we have the permission of the apologists like yourself to compare Maybin to Orkapo or Mathews, or is that too soon for you also?

Well if they have guys who can't make plays downfield, they shouldn't be in the NFL, period. Put those guys on the bench and give their backups a chance. And if those backups can't make plays, hit the waiver wire. The purpose of this season is quickly turning out to be finding 5 or 10 players the Bills can spend the next few years building around. It's pretty easy to see already that some of the starters don't fit into that plan.

Want to feel even worse? Take a look what Jahvid Best is doing for Detroit, and then compare that to Spiller.

Edwards is just incapable of making the plays needed to win games.

Yeah, three of those teams made the playoffs last year (one won the Super Bowl), so they have the history to believe that they'll work things out. Washington won a hard-fought divisional game after winning 4 games last season under a new coach with a couple of Super Bowls on his resume. The Bills offense has spent the last six or seven years ranked in the bottom third of the league. So, yeah, Buffalo has nothing to worry about.

That's a good point.

That's why I don't buy the whole 'blow things up to get a high draft pick' theory. If the Bills made better decisions with their draft positions they could have been a much better team. And it's not like these criticisms are based on hind sight. The Bills needs dictated that they take guys like Ngata and Oher instead of the players they chose, who were recognized as reaches when they were drafted. Oh, by the way, Matt Schaub went in the 3rd round (90th overall)in 2004; the year that the Bills traded back into the first round to pick Losman. Both Losman and Schaub were identified as options for Buffalo at QB, but Donahoe made the deal with Dallas because he liked Losman's upside better than Schaub's. Dallas picked DeMarcus Ware with Buffalo's 1st round pick in 2005.

Hopefully Chan tires Matthews out by making him tackle Lynch and Jackson 20-30 times during the game.

Because half the fun of being a fan is following them from suckitude to greatness. I won't say that this team sucks yet. Sure they sucked today, but they sucked as a pass-first team, which we can all agree that they're not right now. This game, unfortunately, was a throw-away. I'm reserving judgement on how good or bad the team is until we see them run the ball 30 or 40 times in a game. That's what it looks like they're built for. If they are as inept then as they were today, then I'll admit that they're in serious trouble.

I think that he realizes that he over-estimated his passing game and will make adjusments in the future. I don't think that will result in a win next week, or the week after that. But before long, Gailey will prove that he's a good coach.

Why not try to pass? Hmmm, let's see...The QB is mediocre, the WR corps are thin, the TEs are subpar, the guards are better than the tackles, and oh yeah, the team is loaded at RB (if you have two 1st round RBs on your roster, you better use them). Chan would be more than a genius to make this gameplan work, he'd be a magician, because there's no way in hell the Bills are built right now to support a 2:1 pass/run ratio. This gameplan was as bad as Jauron believing that he had the personnel to run the no-huddle last season. But it's the first game, and who knows, maybe Jackson and Lynch are more injured than the team is letting on. Hopefully over the next few games Gailey will increase the number of runs in the gameplan.

So you're saying that the gameplan is to set up the run with the pass, and not the other way around? If that is really the philosophy, considering how this team is built, the Bills are doomed to finish 2-14 this year.

The solution, regardless of who the QB is, is not to have a 2:1 pass/run ratio in future games. As for Edwards, he brings nothing to the game that will be missed if he is benched.

No doubt, but as Edwards' coach, Gailey should have realized this and protected the team with a better gameplan.

If putting 8 guys in the box immediately renders the Bills offense ineffective, this team is going to go 0-16. The Bills should have lined up in the power-eye, pounded the Dolphins inside, and then run play-action passes.

So how did the Steelers manage with Roethlisberger and the Falcons with Ryan? As crazy as it sounds, rookie QBs who start their first year can be effective. It's all about picking the right guy. The Bills had a shot at Matt Schaub, but they targeted Losman, who spent a year behind Bledsoe, which didn't help. And because they had Losman, they let Rodgers fall by them the next year. It's all about the evaluation process. If you have scouts and a GM who know what they're doing, it's a hell of a lot easier to draft a QB, or RB, or LB. And it's not just the Bills. Hell, Miami had two shots at Brees, in the draft and when he was a free agent, and they passed on him twice, choosing to sign Culpepper as a FA. Hopefully when the Bills decided to pick up their next QB, Nix and Co. know what they're doing. Because if the Bills whiff on their next choice, the Bills could be looking at 15-20 years of missing the playoffs.

The TD pass was also on 4th down. I don't have any problem with those decisions. I didn't totally agree with the safety, but I can't argue with it. The thing I have a problem with is playing out of the shotgun the entire first half.

Of course Gailey deserves more than one game to prove himself, but he did whiff on the gameplan for this one. The Dolphins were geared to stop the run, so he should have built the pass game off of play-action instead of coming out in the shotgun. So the Bills start the season 0-1 in the division and at home.

I would say that the offense was completely pathetic today. If Gailey doesn't change his gameplanning, this is definitely a doom and gloom game.

At the same time, Edwards completely missed an OLB blitz read, couldn't get the ball past the DL on screens, and hit two DBs in the hands who dropped sure pick-sixes. He also checked-down on an early 3rd and long play when he had more than enough time to find a deeper receiver. And at the end of the game, Edwards had more than enough time to throw the ball downfield, and he didn't. Say what you want about the o-line and coaching, but Edwards has proven that he lacks the awareness, instincts, and intangibles to be an NFL QB.

Right, put him on the bench and put the game in Edwards hands, that'll work.

Maybe we should wait until Spiller gets more than 7 carries before sending him any messages.

Despite the closeness of the score, I'm not really happy with the game at all. The score was close, but Henne sucked out loud and the Phins WRs were dropping passes all day. The secondary did play well, and maybe they caused those mistakes, but I get the feeling that if the Bills were playing a better team, the score would have been worse. Also, the Dolphins DBs dropped two pick-sixes, which would have put the game further out of reach. Even with that though, the score was close, but yet again the Bills did nothing to take control of the game. They completely blew the opportunity to win a winnable game. This has been the script for the Bills the last 10 years, especially in the division. And finally, there was the gameplan. The Bills had two strong runners on the roster, but decided to draft a stud running back, and yet only managed 17 rushes? The Bills could have a dynamic inside/outside rushing game, and yet our coach channeled his inner Mularkey and built a gameplan around Trent Edwards in the shotgun. My guess is that the Bills would be a better team with a run-first mentality. I'm not sure, though, if the coach is willing to gameplan around that strategy. The fact that we have to wait another week to see if Gailey is willing to run 30-40 times a game is disappointing.

If you think Edwards has the ability to be the franchise QB, then no, you don't replace him. If you don't believe that he is the franchise QB, then you start the audition process, and you start with guys on your bench. Can Brohm or Fitzpatrick lead a comeback in a winnable game? By the end of the season the Bills coaching staff should have a complete understanding of the abilities of the guys on the roster. Either one of these guys is next franchise QB, or they go shopping in FA or in the draft. No more of this, 'he'd be good if he had a real coach, or offensive line, or receivers, or whatever.' If this is a rebuilding year, then we should see guys being cycled throughout the lineup the entire season.

You do understand that some of the criticism is legitimate, right?