Nihilarian

You can't look at one position on a team in a vacuum as it is a team game and no one player is more dependent on a supporting cast around him then the QB! When the Bills had a better compliment of receivers Taylor played better and put up more yards. It's a fact! For some reason the GM allowed Chris Hogan to leave for the Patriots and he burned the Bills for a deep TD. Hogan 4 catches for 91 yards, one TD. The Patriots have two of the leagues best TE's in Gronk and Bennett in which opposing teams have great difficulty covering both players. The Patriots also still have two clutch first down playmakers in Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola to go along with Hogan. Tyrod Taylor had only Robert Woods and Charles Clay who were still somewhat injured along with the rest of a craptastic receiving corps in which Walter Powell was the leading receiver, really? Clay injured during this game. Powell looked like he was getting hurt on almost every pass play. Walter Powell 3 receptions, 8 targets! Robert Woods 4 receptions, 7 targets! Reggie Bush 2 receptions, 3 targets Jerone Felton 2 receptions, 3 targets Brandon Tate 2 receptions, 3 targets Nick O'Leary 1 reception, 1 target Mike Gillislee 3 receptions, 3 targets Justin Hunter 1 reception, 5 targets Charles Clay 2 receptions, 6 Targets The young QB spread the ball all over to every receiver with no INT's and I gotta wonder how many passes were dropped vs off target. You would think if that many passes were off target that he would have been intercepted at least once. It was raining so that was a contributing factor in both throwing and catching today. The Patriot defenders were also hitting the receivers hard after every catch and almost every Bills receiver looked beaten up today. 1st bad pass- listed as overthrown to Hunter, it actually hit him in his hands over his head and it could have been caught. heavy rain a contributing factor. 2nd bad pass- 1st and goal pass thrown away due to pressure... late hit 7 yards out of bounds might have had an effect on Taylor as he came down hard on a surface between the stadium wall and field. 3rd bad pass- overthrown and glances off of Reggie Bush's hand in the end zone. (Clearly too high to catch) 4th bad pass- off the hands of Charles Clay (should have been caught) 5th bad pass- on a 3rd down and 6 Taylor hits Brandon Tate in the hands on the sideline (wide open) for a first down and HE DROPS IT! 6th bad pass- overthrown to Powell, way over his head 7th bad pass- on 2nd and 24 because of offensive penalties pass to Clay and Taylor lucky the pass wasn't picked off! 8th bad pass- deep ball to Charles Clay and defender his him about the same time he tried to catch the ball that went thru his hands (could have been caught) Clay hurt on this play 9th bad pass- deep pass to Justin Hunter and interference for a 1st down 10th bad pass- Taylor under pressure rolls out and throws to Felton (underthrown?) looks like the ball hit him but he didn't hold on 11th bad pass- deep ball to Hunter thrown out of bounds, uncatchable 12th bad pass- to Robert Woods, looked to be thrown behind him but could have been a bad route by Woods who didn't come out of his break properly (still, has issues with his foot) 13th bad pass- long ball to Powell who stopped the ball with his right hand but couldn't get his left hand up to catch it. Kind of overthrown 14th bad pass- underthrown to Woods on the sideline. 15th bad pass- thrown wide and behind Hunter 16th bad pass- overthrown to Powell and it looked like interference as the Patriots defender Coleman pushed him in the back and fell on his legs. should have been a penalty in my view 17th bad pass- Taylor under pressure throws it away out of the end zone 18th bad pass- Taylor under pressure by an unblocked defender on 4th down overthrows Clay in the end zone 19th bad pass - Taylor under pressure throws the ball away out of bounds 20th bad pass- Taylor under heavy pressure throws it away and takes a hard hit. Patriot defenders coming unblocked EJ in. On one play Taylor hands off to Reggie Bush who looks to throw it and instead tosses it backward to Taylor who is forced to recover it, meanwhile Tyrod takes a knee to his helmet. This young QB took a hell of a beating in a losing effort and if he had better receiving options he might have been able to pad his stats in garbage time like Blake Bortles does. Taylor was under heavy pressure for a lot of the second half and still managed to make plays with both his arm and legs. I have a deeper respect for Tyrod after watching him attempt to make something out of nothing most of the day while getting beaten up with late hits and unblocked defenders. Bottom line: I only saw about 7 out of 20 passes that were literal over throws or bad passes. The Bills should have kept pounding the rock despite being behind in points simply because it would wear out that defense and eat up the clock while playing keep away from Brady. The Bills OC should have realized that with such a beaten up, depleted receiving corps the Bills would have been so much better off just running the ball as Gillislee was averaging 7.1 yards per carry. No way should Taylor be throwing the ball 38 times vs 26 rushes.

and yet you have games like this where all his playmakers are injured or out and all he has are mostly scrubs to throw to... The penalties abound and the defense gives up 4 TD passes to Brady and another TD on the ground and all fans can think of is the QB. How about this, Gillislee was averaging 7.1 yards per carry in the game and the gameplan to run the ball went out the window when the team fell behind in points so he only saw 12 carries all game. Let's face it, Taylor didn't have Hogan (7/11) Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, Rob Gronkowski, Martellus Bennett or anyone playing even close to that talent today. When you have some top talent all over the field it opens up other areas because no team can cover all those receivers. When you have one or two sorta receiving threats on the offense it's really easy for opponents to double up on them and make any QB look bad. Like I said, I'm more upset about how poorly the defense played with Dareus and Shaq Lawson in there with the defense only missing AW. Then I am over Tyrod without most of the offense on the field and the players on the field all dinged up.

While I agree with most of this. After only starting 22 game starts and winning half of those he isn't all that bad. The late great Bill Walsh used to say it takes around four years of development before a rookie QB realizes his potential. This is a run first team and it was without its star RB who made that offense work so well in the wins. We knew the QB was going to be in trouble today without his star RB, without his star WR in Watkins or even his long ball catcher in Goodwin, with an injured backup RB and #2 WR, a TE who always seems to be dinged. For the love of god look at the scrubs that Tyrod was forced to throw to today. I kinda think it would be damn near impossible for any NFL QB to throw for 300 yards with the receiving corps the Bills started that game with! Now think about how pissed Brady gets when he has a new receiver out on the field who isn't always in perfect sync with him. Then, almost every Bills offensive skill player was injured at some point in the game. I'll tell you what, so many Bills fans will be crying in their beer when the Bills start a rookie QB who starts throwing INT's over and over. Geno Smith anyone? In my view, this team needs a better defense almost as badly as it needs a better QB. And 41 points to any team at home is more unacceptable to me than the play of the QB attempting to play with half an offense.

Yea well, somewhere Karl Dunbar is laughing too.

Have some patience! 2019 isn't that far away. The defense was missing two players and even those two had they played it wouldn't have made much difference. Tom Brady had his way as usual with 300+ yards passing and 4 TD's.

Like someone else said, basically an entire team. Bills fans were talking about the lack of depth in so many areas on this team for a lot of the off season and it shows up every year. Even with a fully healthy offensive roster the Bills offense couldn't keep up with Brady and the defense was fully healthy and couldn't contain him 300+ yards passing and 4 TD's!! It's games like this one that shows this team isn't even close to being competitive enough to even get to the playoffs much less win a playoff game. Who keeps drafting and bringing in free agent players that can't stay healthy or have injury issues? The Patriots had more injuries that most teams last year and still almost made it to the SB. Overpaying for star players that can't stay healthy and limits the cap so there is little or no quality depth.

Wow, what a dreamer is right! Did you not just watch Brady rip the Bills defense for over 300 passing yards and 4 TD's? Or the week before a basically unknown Miami RB rush for 215 yards against that Buffalo D! That Buffalo defense that was supposedly improved this year is currently ranked 20th in the league before the NE game. This team will never improve as long as the team needs to keep upgrading and drafting for the defense just like the Jets did in Ryan's 6 years there. Every first round pick went to the defense and yet in his final season he went 4-12. Around 2019 the new owners might think about changing things up. i

And the Bills defense was ranked #20 in total defense before the Patriots game and 27th in pass defense. I can't wait for the Rex Ryan fan boys and team shills to keep defending this steaming pile of dog crap we see on the field against the better teams.

Even if the entire offense was healthy that defense wasn't going to stop Brady and not many NFL QB's could keep up with him in scoring 41 points

Romo? A QB that has been injured more often than not the last two years and even when he was healthy he choked in the big games. keep developing Jones who may take three years to develop only to find out he isn't the answer? This team needs a complete reboot and flush. Obtain people that have actual experience in building a winning team and not rookies and old farts fresh off a 4-12 season

Colten for MVP

Thanks for updating For the less involved. Current Total defense rank 20th. Pass defense 15th. run defense 27th The Bills are #2 in turnover differential at +8. The Bills are currently 3rd sacks with 21..which BTW equals last years total after only 7 games.

Whoa, I didn't think they would promote Hackett. But then who else do they have...hrmm Marrone was the OC for the Saints. I dunno, I guess this would allow Bradly to stay and fire his offensive staff. When the Bills play the Jags at least we know what to expect in either a pass happy QB or runs right up the middle. Either way, it won't be a very sophisticated offensive scheme.

Naa, the Bills just need to hire someone that actually knows how to scout a college and pro prospect at QB. Then have the knowledge on how to properly build an offense to support him. Look at what TT is going into New Era stadium to face the best team in the NFL with him on Sunday. The starting three WR's all injured with two out, one on IR and the last questionable. The starting RB's injured and both questionable. The starting LT questionable with the right side of that line getting owned last week by the Dolphins. Quality player depth is a very serious issue with this team. Anyway, Andy Dalton was a 2nd round pick, Derek Carr was a second round pick. Russell Wilson was a 3rd rounder. Dak Prescott was the second fourth rounder. Trevor Siemain was a 7th rounder. There have been many, many free agent QB's over the years and about the only one I know that the Bills actually offered some value for was Alex Smith and the Chiefs gave up more to get him.Like Drew Brees, Carson Palmer, Peyton Manning, Sam Bradford. If the Bills scouts knew their craft the team wouldn't have needed to use two first rounders on a WR or 6 mill on a free agent RB that are supposedly a dime a dozen nowadays. Plus, over-paying for an oft injured TE and other offensive players who seem to be constantly injured. The team wouldn't need to depend on the HC to find a decent LG or starting QB. I know lots of fans love the status quo in the FO at OBD. I think the team needs some real help in this area in the form of a team president of football operations with enough NFL experience to make the proper final decisions.

Sad news indeed

No doubt, he helped! The real issue is with the Jags OC in Greg Olsen who has a storied history as an NFL OC...just not, a good one! The Jags attempt to throw 293 attempts vs 134 runs (yikes) and this is forcing that young QB to attempt to win games with his arm. He is putting up some good numbers at times but sadly it's all in garbage time. Blake Bortles is the king of garbage time stat padding http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/10/28/blake-bortles-is-the-king-of-garbage-time-stat-padding/First quarter: 1,598 yards, 4 touchdowns Second quarter: 2,356 yards, 15 touchdowns Third quarter: 1,912 yards, 13 touchdowns Fourth quarter: 3,364 yards 26 touchdowns Gus Bradly being an ex-Seahawks DC he really isn't clued into what's happening with his offense.

Interesting article from the Patriots website on how the NFL grades players. http://www.patriots.com/news/2016/02/23/nflcoms-grades-top-prospects-nfl-combine 9.00-10 Once-in-lifetime player 8.00-9.00 Perennial All-Pro 7.50-7.99 Future All-Pro 7.00-7.49 Pro Bowl to All-Pro ability 6.50-6.99 Good NFL starter with Pro Bowl potential 6.00-6.49 Chance to become good NFL starter 5.70-5.99 Could become early NFL starter 5.30-5.69 Backup or eventual starter 5.15-5.29 Developmental prospect or special teams potential 5.01-5.14 Back end of the roster 5.00 50/50 chance of making the roster Both Goff 6.7 & Lynch 6.4 both got low grades. Gonna be interesting to see what the grades look like for this year's class of QB's Other sites, http://www.powerhousegm.com/blog/nfl-draft-prospect-grading-systems

The OP (Oldtimer1960) must be suffering from Alzheimers as he made this thread at 11:38 today and then made it again at 12:27 I wonder how long it will take the mods to merge the two threads?

He will get the brunt of anything bad that happens. The way of the world.

I'll fire Gus after a few more games ...Jags are currently 2-5, PF 139- PA 196 @ KC L Houston L @ Detroit L @ Buffalo Denver Minnesota @Houston Tennessee @Indy He should be gone by the Buffalo game and won't last the season at this rate.

While the 2016 Buffalo Bills are still looking really good right now at 4-3 after seven games -187 PF vs 130 PA and currently are #2 in the AFC East. The Bills are entering the most difficult part of their season against the Patriots and Seahawks and this without their best offensive player in LeSean McCoy who helps make the entire team win games. A depleted WR corps with the #1 WR on IR, the #2 WR back from a foot injury who was "limited" in practice this week and is 50-50 to even play. Meanwhile, the #3 WR is out with a concussion!'' This leaves Brandon Tate, Justin Hunter, Walter Powell, and just up from the PS Ed Eagan as the wide receivers. Not to mention that starting TE Charles Clay was also "limited" in practice as was the backup RB Mike Gillislee "limited" Let's say we revisit this thought towards the end of the season.

That still doesn't sway the fact that the team entered the season with basically three rookie QB's on the roster as Kolb was injured and placed on IR Aug 30th. I think the team also signed Matt Flynn and even Matt Leinhart for a short time too. It still doesn't deter that the team went forward with literally no help for those three young QB's besides a guy who had no NFL experience as an NFL OC, QB coach in Hackett! The blind leading the blind comes to mind. Lewis was an undrafted FA by the Rams in 2010 and the Browns claimed him off waivers 2011 where he spent 2012 on their practice squad. Lewis did actually play in one NFL game for Cleveland against Pittsburgh in 2012 so he did have one game start in one single game. He was waived by the Browns in 2013 and picked up by Detroit for their practice squad. So no, he wasn't an actual rookie. But he sure wasn't a veteran QB that could have helped teach the real rookies. Jeff Tuel was a waste of a roster spot and any veteran QB in the league would have been so very helpful in showing EJ and Lewis the NFL ropes during that season. This was also Marrone's fault for not hiring a decent QB coach too. Just saying that as a first round draft pick EJ was put into a very, very difficult position to develop his craft and about as bad as it could get with no veteran QB help, no NFL QB coach, an NFL offensive coordinator with no NFL experience as an NFL OC. This with a bad offensive line that graded at 22nd because the LT was playing above average and was near worst in the league at other positions. It doesn't get much worse for a rookie QB than that.

Marquise Goodwin (concussion) is out for Week 8 against the Patriots. He was the only source of offense for Buffalo last week against the Dolphins. The Bills are at least getting Robert Woods (foot) back in the lineup, but Goodwin was their field stretcher on the outside. Woods mans the slot, and now Justin Hunter will likely have to play more snaps against Malcolm Butler. http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/8461/marquise-goodwin LeSean McCoy (hamstring) is doubtful for Week 8 against the Patriots. McCoy didn't practice at all this week and isn't going to play. Because the Bills were stupid enough to push McCoy to play against the Dolphins last week, they're now without him in a much tougher game. Mike Gillislee should get the start at running back and handle 15-18 carries at the very least. Oct 28 - 12:17 PM EDIT: Robert Woods (foot) was "very limited" in Thursday's practice. The word comes straight from coach Rex Ryan, who did add that Woods "looks better than he did last week. Woods is shaping up as truly 50-50 to play against the Patriots. If Woods does suit up, he'll be a bottom-barrel WR4. Source: Joe Buscaglia on Twitter Oct 27 - 1:55 PM

Great points and agree with it all. It is crazy that some NFL GM's just don't see what they are doing with their high-value draft picks. Now, think about the offense that Doug Whaley expected his first round draft pick to perform in with college coaches in Marrone, Hackett attempting to develop EJ and this with no QB coach at all on the team and no senior NFL QB on the team to help the three QB's on the Bills roster that year in rookies Thaddeus Lewis, Jeff Tuel, EJ Manuel. Not to mention that the team had just allowed their best O-linemen in Andy Levitre to walk away and then attempted to replace a decent OG with complete scrubs in Colin Brown who graded neg -30. before the team dumped him after the first six games and replaced him with another scrub in Doug Legursky. That 2013 Bills O-line graded at 22nd in the league and that was mostly because Glenn graded so high. The rest of the line besides Wood, Glenn stunk! So yeah! And people wonder why a first round QB prospect didn't pan out... Cleveland has to be the epitome of rookie QB's lost to a crappy scheme with crappy coaches and bad surrounding players.

While some say this is unfounded... Brady threw for 466 yards against Rex Ryan's defense in that 2015 first game and set a Bills franchise-worst amount of passing yards to a single player while doing it. Given that without LeSean McCoy that the Bills didn't even attempt to run very much last week against a Miami defense that was 30th in rushing yards allowed (Bills rushing 22 for 67). The 2016 NE Patriots defense is 11th in rushing yards allowed and #4 in overall points allowed and #14 in overall yards allowed. Meanwhile, Buffalo is 20th in overall total defense. Currently, the Patriots have the #5 team in total offense (yards) Buffalo is 22nd overall in offense and 30th in passing. Should the Bills not establish a strong run game against NE I can see the Bills defense out on the field all game just like we all saw against the NY Jets in week two. Jets ToP 39:12 vs 20:48 Buffalo (Fitz 374 yards passing) and against Miami ToP 37:02 vs 22:58 Buffalo. While we watched the Dolphins rush for 256 yards and Ajayi had 214 by himself and with a total of 454 yards to the smelly 2-4 fish. If McCoy can't do his Barry Sanders impressions this week I can see Brady having a field day against the Bills defense this game...