Nihilarian

The only thing I can think of is when you don't let the offensive starters play a lot in preseason then they have a lot of rust to work off in the first few games.

Yikes...

While you might not be worried about the player. I still am concerned about his protection and the right side of that line. How many years does it take to fix that right side?

"He's going to be on the field. He's going to play. He's probably going to be targeted an awful lot," Schefter said. "But he is not 100 percent after undergoing offseason foot surgery. In fact, about a week or so ago, that foot got tired on him during practice." Even though he will play Sunday, it is reasonable to think Watkins could be limited, and there continue to be concerns about his ability to stay healthy all season. http://www.rotoworld.com/sports/nfl/football

So glad he decided to sign with New Orleans!

If this year is anything like last years opener then Rex will have the Ravens offense thoroughly scouted and his defense prepared to play. The thing is that the Ravens see a very similar defense going against the Steelers 2x a year and they should be ready for anything. Pass rush is a key issue and this year's team can't be last in QB pressures again this year and be successful. If preseason stats have any meaning at all the Bills were #10 in total defense and the Ravens #9 and both teams had around the same amount of penalties. I look for the Ravens to throw a lot against a very good Buffalo secondary so turnovers could win this for the Bills.

The Bills purposely set up that 3-4 so Bruce could be the main pass rusher as Tally behind him at OLBer would take up the slack and wasn't a rusher. Bennett on the other side was used as a rusher and it's that pressure from both sides that helped the Bills pass rush become so good. Bruce probably would have flipped out had the team asked him to stop rushing the passer and become a gap control DE... and it would have been plain stupid to do that. Kinda like last year. Most NFL teams in a 3-4 generally use a one-gap scheme and the 2015 Buffalo Bills played mostly in a two-gap run-stopping scheme. "To sum things up there is a world of difference in playing a DE in a 4-3 and being asked to mostly rush the passer VS playing in a 3-4 two-gap scheme in which the DE reverts to an OLBer and is asked to control his gaps. Also, in that two-gap scheme, the linebacker is asked to wait for the play to develop and then read, react to the play instead of just rushing the passer. To the ordinary eye, this might look like that OLBer is sitting on his hands while doing nothing. Yet he is doing precisely what the scheme calls for in waiting, reading, reacting. This was also something that the player* was not used to doing at all. " (* referring to Maro)

That is true that Tom Brady has a very quick release and so does Ryan Fitzpatrick who the Bills beat 2x last year. Fitz might even be a bit quicker too. The thing is that quick release didn't help Brady in the second game in NE when the Bills were able to put more pressure on him then he had seen the last seven years and to the tune of about 50% of his dropbacks. It was really all about the game plan and effort that went into each game plan in my view. From ESPN after that first NE game. "Rex Ryan, Dennis Thurman and defensive coaching staff: Ryan told his team that this loss was on his shoulders, and so he's a natural place to start in the "down" column. Ryan's defensive game plan couldn't put pressure on Tom Brady-- the Bills disrupted (a sack, batted ball, passed defense or interception) only 9.8 percent of Brady's dropbacks, a lower rate than in any of the Bills' 2014 games -- and he never seemed to have an effective plan for stopping either Rob Gronkowski or Julian Edelman." http://espn.go.com/b...defensive-staff Mario wasn't as productive because Ryan asked him to eat a crap sandwich most of the season and he simply refused to eat it all the time. Mario still had five sacks last season which were as many sacks as Jerry Hughes, so he must have been giving some effort. You, like many others, didn't even bother to read the link I provided that discusses why it looked like Mario gave up in many games. An ex-NFL player in Stephan White wrote an article for SB Nation talking about why Dareus and Mario disliked Ryan's defensive scheme against Cincinnati and listed the reasons why he agreed with them. Some excerpts, http://www.sbnation.com/2015/10/21/9581575/mario-williams-marcell-dareus-rex-ryan-buffalo-bills-defense "Both Dareus and Williams griped about how much the Bills pass rushing (and highly paid) defensive line was being asked to drop into coverage instead of rushing the passer. It was way too much in their estimation. I had the exact same complaint after watching them lose to the Bengals." "But, there was more to it than that. Both Williams and Jerry Hughes, the defensive end/OLB opposite Mario (who also just got paid), dropped quite a bit more than I thought was beneficial for the Bills against the Bengals. Sure, they can do it, and hey, neither one of them got really exposed in coverage -- aside from one time that Hughes was covering Bengals running back Jeremy Hill in space and missed the tackle on the sideline that turned into a 13-yard touchdown. "The point is why would you not use your high-priced, elite pass rushers (Kyle Willaims don't come cheap either, bro) to do what they do best? Especially when the Bills -- the guys who blitzed Luck 25 times on 55 pass dropbacks in Week 1 -- only blitzed the Bengals 13 times the whole damn game. Yes, that means those guys were dropping sometimes when there wasn't even a blitz coming." "It's much worse than just Ryan having his best pass rushers dropping into coverage too much rather than actually, yanno, pass rushing. One edge guy, either Williams or Hughes, generally gets to stand up and either set the edge/pass rush on the edge or drop into coverage when they line up in a base 3-4. The other edge rusher often has to line up on the offensive tackle rather than being on an edge. That's pretty much the opposite of an ideal situation for most highly skilled pass rushers. Even having Mario Williams, a human cheat code with his ridiculous combination of size, strength and athletic ability, two-gapping an offensive tackle is a pretty dumb thing to do on a regular basis because it's obvious he doesn't like doing it! I greatly admire Williams' game, but he's just not that guy who wants to be lined up head-up and wrestle with a 300-pounder all game. "Look, I'm seriously dumbfounded trying to figure out what Rex Ryan is trying to do from game to game. Where is the big, bad loudmouth who gets off the bus calling blitzes? Where is the dude who was going to play to his players' strengths? Where is the cat who said he was going to turn the Bills into bullies?! Because, real talk, that was a dude I liked a lot. That was a dude I could see winning big consistently in Buffalo, even without a top quarterback. That was a dude I thought could coach his ass off if given the right pieces. "After watching this film, I have no idea who this version of Rex Ryan is. And that is unfortunate. As tacky and inadvisable as it is for players to call out their coaches to the media, I do think Ryan should do himself a favor and actually start listening to what they are saying. The reason is simple, they are not wrong." To sum things up there is a world of difference in playing a DE in a 4-3 and being asked to mostly rush the passer VS playing in a 3-4 two-gap scheme in which the DE reverts to an OLBer and is asked to control his gaps. Also, in that two-gap scheme, the linebacker is asked to wait for the play to develop and then read, react to the play instead of just rushing the passer. To the ordinary eye, this might look like that OLBer is sitting on his hands while doing nothing. Yet he is doing precisely what the scheme calls for in waiting, reading, reacting. This was also something that the player was not used to doing at all. Not to mention that the Bills coaches themselves were content with Mario's play, Ryan. Defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman. Defensive line coach Karl Dunbar. Coaches have supported Williams all season long – possibly to a fault. Their message has never wavered. Dunbar, all smiles, praised the veteran on Thursday. Asked how one of this generation’s best pass rushers can last 54 snaps without one tackle, one hit, one sack, Dunbar reiterated they’re pleased with Williams’ play. He’s doing a good job of coming off the edge and the quarterback’s getting rid of the ball,” Dunbar said. “It’s kind of hard because the defense we play is predicated on what they give us and who’s going to be the hot guy. Yeah, you wish you had more tackles, you wish you had more sacks. But I think he’s helping our defense based upon the things he’s doing.” Dunbar cited linebacker Manny Lawson’s hit on Dallas’ Kellen Moore – the team’s only registered QB hit in the game – as one such play. Williams covered tight end James Hanna out of the backfield, eliminating the hot read and Moore was walloped. "The coach asserts Williams “has been around the quarterback” and didn’t hesitate on if Williams has been giving his all. “Yeah, I think so,” Dunbar said. “He’s out there doing the things we’ve asked him to do. … It’s a little bit different than what he’s done in the past, but I think it’s working for us.” http://bills.buffalonews.com/2015/12/31/marios-swan-song-with-bills-is-near/

I've been very vocal about Rex Ryan's Buffalo Bills 2015 defensive scheme since that week two debacle against the Patriots in which in looked like the Bills were playing in a prevent type defense from the start of the game. Meaning the DB's were playing 10 to 15 yards off the line of scrimmage and there was little or no blitzing, pass rush on Brady. Brady set a Buffalo franchise worst for yards allowed by a single passer. Some posters here have been adamant about defending the Rex Ryan's defensive scheme since the 2015 training camp when Marcell Dareus starting griping about how he was being used and became even more defensive after that week two Patriots game. Some fans are just such homers that they refuse to look at anything to do with the Buffalo Bills objectively and the entire blame goes to the players. More specifically at Mario who took the 2015 season off because he had a bad attitude. Nevermind the fact that playing as an OLBer in a mostly two-gap scheme that he usually lined up over the OT to attempt to control the gap while waiting for the play to develop so he can read and react to the play had nothing to do with his overall performance. That is when he wasn't being asked to drop into pass coverage as an elite pass rusher. Also, nevermind the fact that when opposing teams are drawing up their game day plays that they might choose to have the play move towards the 6'2'' 262lb player rather than the 6'6'' 290lb player. There is little doubt in my mind that if Jim Schwartz had been retained as DC the 2015 Bills defense would have been right up there with Denver in the sacks department and might have been even better than #4 overall with the addition of Ronald Darby at CB. I certainly don't want Miami to beat the Bills this year and I don't want Mario Williams to play great against us. However, I really don't like it that Mills is the best answer at RT, even if he does get help. READ THIS to help understand why Mario wasn't very productive in Rex's scheme. http://www.sbnation.com/2015/10/21/9581575/mario-williams-marcell-dareus-rex-ryan-buffalo-bills-defense

Man, I've never seen such a Bills fan favorite fall so fast. From 14.5 sacks to 5 and everyone thinks it's all because the man wasn't trying. I think the guy got a bad rap in a bad scheme and he takes the brunt of Rex Ryan's failure to produce sacks like the previous to DC's in Pettine and Schwartz. It wasn't just Mario who had a bad year in Ryan's defense and that defense sure made it easier to dump that 100 million dollar fan favorite. The way I look at things is when an elite player is asked to perform in a scheme he can't play at his best in. Then that player easily gets discouraged after a certain amount of games. Bruce Smith would have been much more vocal in Ryan's two-gap run-stopping scheme and I'd think he would want out just as badly as Mario did at the end. It's gonna be really easy to see this year if it was the man or the scheme.

I'm also a big fan of a 3-4 one-gap scheme defense like Wade Phillps ran last year in Denver. However, what I really dislike was last years Bills defense in which Rex Ryan ran more of a two-gap run-stopping scheme when he clearly didn't have the proper personnel to run it. Which when you think about it makes little sense when those highly paid pass rushers were more suited to...you know...pass rush! http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2014/6/25/5841992/playing-the-run-on-defense-1-gap-vs-2-gap-schemes The biggest difference between the schemes is the one-gap the players are asked to rush and penetrate and in the two-gap the players are asked to read and react to control their gaps. Combine this scheme with not calling many blitzes and you can see why the sack total fell to the worst in team history in 2015. We can expect the communication between players to be improved this year as we have seen this in the preseason. What we don't know is what scheme Ryan will mostly run and if the other problems are fixed. Like the penalties, the late player substitutions and late incoming play calls. The poor game day management in some games. Most importantly will the defensive game plans prove fruitful In all games and not just the ones Ryan wants revenge in or just against the AFC East teams. Like I've been saying, Ryan has a lot to prove this year.

It's not just about motivating a single player. It's about putting all the players in a situation to best utilize their talents and last year's coaching staff not only failed to do that but also managed to get both the best players on that all pro D-line upset about how they were being utilized. So upset that both Mario and Marcell went to the media to vent their disdain. In my view, Mario was nothing more than the Bills fans scapegoat in defending a bad HC hire that took a team with playoff-caliber talent on both sides of the ball and only managed 8-8. Some Bills fans are still defending a coach who ruined a great defensive line with the wrong scheme and now expect things to change just because it's a different year. I'll believe it when I see it on the field.

This Ole Miss hurry up offense kinda reminds me of those 90's Bills and how they kept a defense off balance and out of breath in attempting to keep up with the offense. Chad Kelly playing well in that offense and against that #4 Fla St team.

For the life of me, I don't get why more Bills fans can't see this? Mario was great the years before the 4-12 Jets HC got to Buffalo and he made the pro bowl in 2013 under Pettine with 13 sacks. Made the pro bowl under Schwartz with 14.5 sacks. There was a real reason why the thread count reached the highest I've ever seen in this forum about signing an elite pass rushing free agent DE and when the team did sign him the gave him a 100 million dollar contract. Last season the new coaching staff not only failed to properly motivate an elite player and made him so unhappy that he wanted out of a previous great situation. Is it the player's fault that the coaches improperly used him in a bad scheme to the effect that he went public with his disdain about the entire situation. Asking an elite pass rusher to not rush the passer and to stay in place to handle a 300+ LB OT while playing gap control and when he wasn't doing this he was asked to drop into pass coverage far too often. Even HoF Bills QB Jim Kelly was questioning his misuse in the new defensive scheme under Ryan. Anyway, losing the very best pass rusher this team has had since Bruce Smith will have a negative effect on the defense and now the team has only one decent outside pass rusher! Plus, lost it's best inside rusher for the first four games due to a suspension. It will be up to this year's defensive coaching staff to do the job they are getting paid to do and that is coach up the players they have and put forth an effective game plan that will work to stop the opposing offense. Hopefully, do a better job than they did last year in being the worst team in the league in QB pressures. This coaching staff and the Ryan Bro's have a lot to prove this season!

See, it's OK for the super-homers to talk about the past seasons in putting down arguably the very best defense this franchise has seen in a decade. But when anyone brings up what happened to last years defense they deflect into an OMG, we're still talking about the past again! We all want the Bills to be in the playoffs this season. All we have at this point is hope.

The Kool-aid is strong in this one! That was a super bowl winning Patriots team the Bills faced in 2014 and the Bills had 3 turnovers they gave to NE in that first game. If the Bills OC didn't suddenly go pass happy and the Bills attempt to run the ball more like they did in the first two games then things might have gone differently in that game. Rivers went 18 of 25 for 256 and one TD so it's not like he dominated the Bills D. But you're right as fans should not be looking at the past. That includes Rex Ryan boosters who can't seem to remember that the last time that Ryan had a winning season was way back in 2010. That's 5 NFL seasons without a winning record! Not to mention that this same HC went 4-12 with his last Jets team. I'm more bitter than kdiggz is about how a top NFL Buffalo defense in 2014 was made to look inept by a so-called defensive guru the very next year with the very same players. Wanna talk about the Patriots beating a Bills defense let's go look at that first game by a Rex Ryan defense against Tom Brady in which Brady set a Bills 50+ year franchise worst in yards allowed by a single player!! Rex Ryan has so much to prove to this Bills fan and all the homers can point and say things will be different this year and it changes nothing! History says that Ryan's rookie QB's fall on their face in their second season and I really hope honest to god this doesn't happen to Tyrod Taylor. I want what every Bills fan wants and that is this year's team to make the playoffs, but I bought into the Ryan hype last year and I'm not about to be fooled again. Rex Ryan needs to prove he deserves to be an NFL head coach by putting a winning team on the field this year! NO EXCUSES!

Why shouldn't we base it off last year when the coaches took an all pro line that led the NFL in sacks and castrated it with a bad scheme. A scheme so outdated and bad that it had two of those all pros going public vocally complaining about how they were being utilized in that scheme. It's one thing when the fans say something about the scheme and when the players themselves say it then fans should believe it. The best pass rusher on the team was forced to stay put and read the offense before committing to the play and if that wasn't bad enough he was being asked to drop into pass coverage far more than he should have been. Which were about 14 times in the first six games! Paying the man 100 million dollars to rush the passer and a new coach comes in and decides to limit the number of times he will rush the passer in a game was blatantly moronic. The team hardly blitzed and when they did they were usually burned by big plays. To some of us fans nothing is a given this year considering how badly the coaching staff performed last season. They need to show that they can correct all the problems. I'll believe things are better when I see it on the field during the regular season and after a few games! To some of us the 2016 Buffalo Bills do have enough talent to make the playoffs and they had enough talent to get into the playoffs last season too...and only went 8-8! The simple truth is after you get past the few star players on this team the depth is terrible at certain positions and the dropoff in that talent won't win many games.

It's not just the injuries with this year's team. That said, the team is paper thin at some positions and should certain starters go down it could mean disaster in specific areas of the entire team. TE-WR-O-line-LBer-QB. The dropoff behind CB's Gilmore and Darby is another area of concern. While many say the depth is good, the talent level between the starters and backups isn't even close. IMO We all saw what those backup O-linemen looked like and should an injury strike the left side the offense could be in real trouble. Rex's defensive scheme, what will we see this year? 1.)This is hypercritical as last year the defense didn't blitz much at all and when they did blitz it usually resulted in a big play for the opposing offense. If the team does blitz more, will they get it right this year or will more big plays follow? 2.) Will the Bills have an effective pass rush and will they get pressure on the QB? Many times during the preseason I noticed that while the defense was playing better overall they still didn't manage much pressure on the starting QB and at times those QB's had all the time in the world to complete a pass...not good! Lacking to get pressure on the QB will eventually lead to breakdowns in the Bills secondary over a 60-minute game as no DB's can maintain coverage with little or no help from the pass rush. 3.) What scheme will the team mostly run this year as the roster still isn't setup properly for that 3-4 two-gap and be much better off in a one-gap scheme! Will the team stop dropping Dareus and Kyle into pass coverage? 4.) The Ryan Bro's have been running a dinosaur of a defensive scheme that has been figured out and defeated for a few years by the better teams. Will the 2016 Buffalo Bills defense be innovative and be in the top ten again in all areas? Not just good in yards allowed or points allowed while stinking in other areas? 5.) The 2014 & 2013 Buffalo Bills were the #1 & #2 team in sacks in the entire league and while many here claim that sacks simply aren't important are in major denial as the 2015 Bills under Ryan fell to 31st in sacks and want to justify this colossal collapse! The #1 team in sacks in 2015 also won the super bowl helped by getting unstoppable pressure from both sides. 6.) Will Buffalo being the #2 team in the NFL in penalties in 2015 be fixed in 2016? 7.) Will the special teams become special again as they fell off the map last year! 8.) The Bills offense led the league in big plays with help due to all that rushing from the RB's and QB. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around many teams were worn down and susceptible to big runs later in the game. The guy that made a lot of those late game runs ate himself off the team for this year. Will opposing defenses be able to counter all that rushing by stacking the box and force the Bills QB to beat them with his arm? Something no Bills QB was able to do last season. So many questions to be answered gives me pause to wonder if this coaching staff will put forth the effort into every NFL game this season and not just AFC East games against teams they have experience in beating. For me, it's easy to see why someone might think this year's team won't make the playoffs.

NFL.com has the Bills at #23 http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000694532/article/seahawks-top-atnfl-preseason-power-poll #2 Patriots, Vegas book 7-1 #14 NY Jets, Vegas book 60-1 #23 Bills, Vegas book 75-1 #27 Miami, Vegas book 70-1 We all want the Bills to be great this season and yet if the defense doesn't get back into the top ten it's going to be a long season despite how good the offense will be. More specifically will the Bills pass rush step back up to where Schwartz and Pettine had it. No matter how good the Bills secondary is they can't be left out hanging all game with no QB pressures and last season the Bills were the very worst in getting pressure on the QB. The Ryan Bro's have a lot to prove this year.

Some have been talking about this for awhile and if something happens to any line starters this years offense could be in real trouble. Hate to see TT needing to scramble all game.

That was very true of a QB that suffered a severe neck injury and has had problems with his arm / elbow in the past in Manning. Sadly, Tom Brady has taken diet, exercise and staying in top shape into almost a new profound religion in which he is very devout. At this rate, Brady could play another 5 years and win another 1 or 2 super bowls which would make all Bills fans want to literally go off a cliff.

I've been attempting to get this same thought through to some fans and a few won't let it get by their hate for EJ. The simple truth is that a strong run game when it's working, is the best help you can give a young QB and when forced to throw more then they run it, it usually ends in a loss. Eventually down the road, once they have adapted to the scheme and play calls, that young QB should start to develop into a stronger passer who can throw more when needed. EJ was 21 of 39 for 221 yards, 1 INT. while the team ran 30 times for 144 yards which is a decent balance in my view. I think the Bills FO should be pleased with his progress so far. I feel that he would have done better with the starting O-line and Watkins, Woods and Clay in there too.

My opinion is Polian purposely had the team tank to get Andrew Luck, a once in a decade type player. When you look back at the Colts in the 2011 offseason all he had on the roster were inexperienced scrubs at QB (Curtis painter 0 starts & Dan Orlovsky from Detroit) and he didn't bring in an established veteran QB until two weeks before the season started in Kerry Collins. This is the same time that Peyton's longtime mentor Tom Moore retired from the team so the OC in Clyde Christensen only stayed as OC through 2011 and then he was replaced by Bruce Arians the next year. Curtis Painter 0-8 Dan Orlovsky 2-3 Kerry Collins 0-3 What's interesting is that Collins started the first three games and then was replaced by Painter who didn't have much playing experience. So, the Colts were already 0-11 before the guy who actually had a chance to wins some games for them got a start. It cost him his job but Polian got his QB.

It wasn't a stupid decision to start the starting QB of the team against the 28th ranked defense to have him and the #1 WR get in sync before the opener. What was stupid was going forward with all those backup scrubs on the O-line.

I agree and hope that this game might just give some pause to the Bills FO in bringing in some better players for that line. Starters on the right side and depth need to be a concern going into the season and last time I looked the Redskins had the 28th ranked defense. So, it's not like the Bills played Denver or Seattle.