Last Guy on the Bench

I'm not sure he's the right fit for this team at this time, though it would be fun to find out, and I kind of doubt he'd want to come here anyway. Atlanta makes a lot more sense for him. BUT, I love that dude. Here's a long-former from Grantland - an entertaining review of his whole history with the Jets. A great read. (Sorry if posted elsewhere. I didn't see it.) http://grantland.com/features/rexs-last-stand/ Now let's go eat a goddamn snack!

That was interesting, thanks. I think John Harbaugh is one of the best two or three coaches in the game, but he seems to fly under the radar. The Ravens are always in it - they have a solid QB but not a HOFer. They come to play against the best teams. Between Harbaugh and Ozzie, the Ravens are always gonna be competitive. I hope the Pegulas can land a coach like that and I hope Whaley turns into that kind of consistent GM (or that that they find someone else who can do it). Also, that was very gracious of Belichick to support Harbaugh in that way.

Agreed. I didn't mean popular opinion on this board or among Bills fans. I think most of us are impressed with how consistent the D has been. The only time they really haven't looked like themselves to me, was the second half of the Pats game. Even in the San Diego game I thought they played pretty well. I meant more the fans of opposing teams who seem to like to attribute our D's performance to having played Geno Smith/Michael Vick twice.

Interesting. We are actually #1 in weighted defense which gives more weight to recent performances and less weight to early season performances, better capturing how a team is performing currently (while still giving some weight to how they performed over the whole season). We are also the sixth most consistent team in terms of variance. Meaning that contrary to popular opinion, we haven't built our whole rating on waxing the Jets twice. So overall, we have been a consistently strong defense that is getting slightly stronger as the season progresses. I'm so interested to see what happens when we take this D into Denver. I have no idea what to expect really. I would only be surprised if they really fell apart, as that has not been their MO.

I would say both Detroit and Miami are "legitimate" teams.

Fitzgerald came into the league three years before Johnson.

Yeah, I noticed that. At first, it seemed like the throw was a tad behind Woods, but when you realize he chucked it before Woods even made the break, you see it was a fantastic throw. The DB had no chance to get his head around to make a play - even though the ball was so close to him - because of how early Orton threw it.

Wow. And the Jets actually looked like they had a good chance in the game going into halftime. How angry at his own life does a person have to be to scream at someone else over and over again you're garbage or you're a disgrace just because they are getting beat in a GAME by another professional team? I'll admit my mood is slightly different on Mondays after wins than on Mondays after losses, but Good God, get some perspective on your life.

Interesting. I loved Moncrief before the draft. Nice to see him doing well. I wasn't at all sold on Benjamin. Looks like I was way wrong about that so far. What a draft class (potentially) for WRs. And yet, if he doesn't get too much blowback for the hotdogging missed TD, Sammy can make a good argument for offensive rookie of the week AGAIN. How does 52.3 yards per reception hit you?

I'm with you, Coach. I never get the Ryan disdain from some people. I think he's a terrific coach and also a very interesting personality. I like the dude. But more importantly, to my eye he has regularly overachieved with that Jets roster, present season temporarily excepted. I'm on the fence about Marrone right now. I'm not that optimistic about him, but he definitely needs a little more time to convince me one way or the other. If we do make a coaching switch, though, I would be very, very happy with Ryan.

Yep. You could also see that he got up WAY less gingerly from the hits he took this week. In previous games his whole body was wincing after even normal looking tackles. It's been amazing to see how good he's looked even when feeling like that. He looked like ROY material with bad ribs. I'm hoping he looks like Pro Bowl material with good ribs. (What am I saying? He already looked like Pro Bowl material last week. And let's not forget, he's only 15 years old.. Still lots of room to grow.) Supernatural Sammy. Can't wait to see what he turns into.

Perfect. He does look like he's wearing his dad's suit. Love it. Sure it's premature, but that is a legendary photo right there, you have to admit.

Don't love that either. He is a grabby, physical CB. Seems to work for him overall (when he is not wearing a cast), but it burns him pretty regularly. I'm not arguing he is an elite CB. But I think he is solid. Maybe he'll get better, I don't know. But solid CBs are hard enough to come by that I'm happy to have him for a long time, even if the level he is playing at right now is his peak (debatable).

Nope I would not agree. I don't think he's a pro bowler right now. But he is a solid player. Every game he disappears for huge stretches of time - which is a great thing for a DB. You don't hear anything about him play after play. Or how about what is happening on the back end of all of those sacks? Camera doesn't show it, but the DBs are doing something right. As for draft position, half of top-ten draftees are busts. Would I be happier if he played like Peterson or Sherman? Sure I would. But I don't think that every top-ten pick who isn't an obvious stud is a bust or even a wasted draft pick. I also think people overreact to the times they see DBs (on their own team) getting beat. Again, even the best defenses give up a couple of hundred yards passing per game. And all those catches ain't being defended by linebackers.

Doesn't matter. To be considered good, NFL DBs must never give up any plays whatsoever. (Where the 300 yards that even the best defenses usually give up are supposed to come from, I don't know.) But clearly, if I see a DB get beat in any way, then that DB is below average and should be replaced as soon as possible. It's not like the WRs and QBs they are facing are among the best athletes in the world or anything.

Seriously. Live, I thought he bobbled it. But in the replay you could see it was a mile behind him and headed straight for the DB. UnBILLievable catch. And so was that one where he totally reversed the angle of his body backward against the grain of the way he was running. And so was the one where he caught the mfer with his fingernails. That dude is supernatural. I am so happy.

I don't want to pile on, and like many people here, I really like EJ. BUT, it is getting painful to watch. What has convinced me that he may need to sit sooner than later (maybe even next week, I don't know) is that we have open wide receivers all the time. I think our WR core is capable of some greatness - or at least goodness. They are not getting the chance right now, and it has to be eating at them. As others have pointed out, their body language is not good. The defense is clearly playoff caliber - capable of keeping us in any game, even if they are not shutdown scary. The line isn't great, but a QB with a more decisive trigger would make them look a lot better. The WRs are loaded with talent. The RBs are good. Special teams is killing it. This team will win games with a competent QB. I don't know if we have one, but I'd be taking Mr. Orton out for a test drive to find out. He needs some first team practice reps this week at any rate.

Kenny Davis is a Mac Daddy. I would go apes%#t if Kenny led the team out. One of my all time favorite Bills.

That seems reasonable. I expect something similar and would be quite happy with a 4-2 start this year, especially if we keep seeing the signs of individual and team development that we've been seeing. I would not at all be surprised to see them lose to the Bolts this week. I think San Diego is the more mature team and Rivers will probably be able to do enough to thwart even a solid defensive effort. But man would I love to be wrong. In any case, this is a fun team to watch so far - that's really all I ask for (and often don't get).

Yep. I almost voted for Fuller, but then my nepotistic, Bills-infatuated self got the better of me, and I popped the chad for Sammy. Not that he is undeserving. Loved Fuller before the draft. I think he is going to be a special player.

Thank you. I'm not even sure that he had lost control when it hit the pylon. But either way it does look like it broke the plane before that. There is certainly not clear evidence to suggest otherwise and overturn the call on the field.

Don't forget several times when the play by play guy said a Miami player's name when describing a play that a Bill's player had just made. I remember that happening on at least one Bills run (I'm pretty sure I know the name of all of our running backs) and on one Bills pass defense play (I'm also pretty sure I know the name of all of our DBs - in fact, I'm pretty sure I know the name of everyone on the roster except the punter whose name hasn't found a neural resting spot in my brain yet - love him nonetheless).

I am no football technologist, but to my half-informed eye it seems like EJ is definitely throwing more to space - leading receivers better or throwing before their cuts - even when he doesn't end up connecting. If so, it shows increasing comfort with the offense and increasing sync with his WR corp. As a number of people have pointed out already, that missed TD opportunity to Watkins seemed less like an errant throw than like a moment when EJ and Sammy weren't on the same page. Whether Sammy ran the route too vertically or EJ failed to adjust the throw based on the DB's position, I'm still heartened that EJ is trusting his guys to get to the right spaces rather than waiting for them to look open to the naked eye.

I thought I was losing my eyesight. It seemed so obvious to me several times, but I kept thinking there is no way the refs could miss what I think I'm seeing - maybe I'm missing the snap of the ball. I don't know why I gave them the benefit of the doubt over my own eyes, given how many blown calls we routinely see. These were particularly weird, though, as I don't think we typically see a lot of blatant missed false start non-calls. Oh well. 2-0 and everything goes down a little easier.

Don't forget the rest of what he said. It's even better: “I want to play today,” Williams said, too excited to wait for the question to finish. “The chance to be in front of our fans, and now with all the – not extra incentive – but … emotion involved in the deal, I’m excited about it. I told our team, we need to prepare the way that we did all week last week, really focus on what we’re doing, because if we can win on first and second down, get them behind the eight-ball, our fans will win the game for us. They might blow the roof off this place – or the upper deck.” http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/sale-to-pegulas-has-bills-players-seriously-pumped-20140910?