BillsFan4

Wow. Quite a bold move. I am very excited to see what Peterman can do. He was making anticipatory throws before the receiver was actually open last Sunday, finding holes in the coverage and putting the ball there. When you watch the breakdown tape of Peterman's game it really shows how impressive some of his throws were. I think he earned this shot with his play Sunday. Keeping my expectations realistic though. He is a rookie in his first ever start... Boy though, if this change is permanent, what in the world are some of the posters here going to do now that they can't argue for/against Tyrod all day? lol (j/k).

They still can trade Tyrod. He signed a 2 year deal. So he is still under contract next year. Lets not jump jump the gum here anyway. Peterman hasn't even started a game yet. I hope like crazy that Peterman grabs the starting role, does great and never looks back. But Tyrod starting again is not an impossible scenario as of right now. Plus, IMO it would have been a pretty dirty move to renegotiate his contract and then immediately trade him afterwards... and I don't think anyone was trading for him when he had that 5 year $90M (or whatever it was) contract extension. It was the right move bringing Tyrod back on that renegotiated contract. Who else did the Bills have on the roster at the time? Nobody...

Carolina's defense had a bunch of injuries last season (LB (Luke Kuechly), defensive line, secondary), some at key positions. They also lost their #1CB and 3/4 of their starting secondary from the year before (when they were the #6 defense in the NFL) and were starting 2 rookies (and both were later round picks IIRC). Plus the offense struggled big time, too. It put the defense in a lot of tough situations. Cam wasn't himself late year. He was playing injured for much of the season IIRC. There's also that "Super Bowl hangover" factor... Its not like Carolina's defense wasn't successful when McDermott was there. He had a top 10 defense 4 of the last 5 years, including a #2 ranking and #6 ranking. Last year was just an unusual down year for that D. I'm not surprised that they are rebounding this year. It took McDermott until part way through year 2 to get that Carolina defense playing very well. Then in year 3 they really took a big step forward. He has very little talent on his Bills defense right now, outside of a few guys. Let's wait and see what he does once he gets some more talent to fill key roles... Belichick had full control and was both head coach and (de facto) GM from day 1 in New England. He did bring Scott Pioli with him from the Jets as his director of player personnel (I believe he was first named asst director of player personnel in 2001, and then director in 2001). Pioli never held the title of GM in NE though (nobody buy Belichick has since BB was hired) or had more power than BB. It's actually somewhat similar to what McDermott did with bringing Beane here. He brought someone he has total faith in and respect for to work with. Except Beane is the actual GM and seems to have all the power a GM has. I do think McDermott played a huge role in his hiring but that doesn't mean he is a puppet GM and I don't at all get the impression he is. He seems to be making the trades and personnel moves since he was hired. Also, just Look at the front office, personnel and scouting staff he put together. There's a lot of what I would call big names. I can't see all those guys leaving their current jobs (Gaine being a more/less lateral move) to work for a puppet GM. IMO McDermott and Beane are working hand in hand. Everything seems to be a collaboration, and (again, IMO) that's how it should be. Just because McDermott wanted to work with Beane doesn't mean Beane is his puppet. In fact, I think it's quite the opposite. I think McDermott wanted to work with Beane because he has full faith/trust in him and his ability to run a team, and really respects his opinion. I agree that McDermott seemed to initially have been given quite a bit of power for a 1st time head coach, especially while Whaley was still GM. I also know that it is more the exception than the norm for a coach to help hire his GM. But since Beane was hired, it seems like a very normal GM and coach combo to me. Both seem to be in their normal, defined roles. Coaches having more power/say seems to be a trend. Sean McVay and Les Snead both work very closely together and McVay plays a big role in decisions. Dan Quinn was given a big say in Atlanta. Kyle Shanahan is a 1st time head coach, was technically hired before Lynch and ownership made sure Kyle Shanahan like Lynch and felt he would work well with him before they would hire Lynch (I would assume Shanahan played some role in his hiring, but that is more/less speculation on my part). Both Pete Carrol and Andy Reid basically hired their own GM's (granted both were more experienced at the time). I think it's crucial that the HC and GM are working in perfect sync with each other and are on the exact same page. I think that's the way to have true sustained success. I think that is how most good organizations are run.

Does the Raiders game not count? I thought our defense was fantastic without Dareus in that game. Plus he only played 26, 30, 30 and 33 % of the defensive snaps in 4 of the 6 games he played here this year. The other 2 he played in 56 & 58 % of the defensive snaps. I agree about Tolbert. We need a better #2 RB desperately. But It's WAY too early to even think about the possibility of firing Beane. He came in and specifically said we would build through the draft. Then he went and assembled what looks on paper to be an all star front office, personnel and scouting staff, and has amassed a bunch of draft picks for them to use. How can we even discuss firing him before he's even had his first draft? He didn't even have a full free agency as Bills GM. He came in a couple months after free agency had started IIRC. IMO This year is more about getting rid of guys who aren't on board and changing the culture in the building. Next year will be more about bringing in the replacements. This is just the very beginning of the rebuild - getting rid of guys and collecting draft picks. Next year the actual rebuilding phase starts. So IMO it's just way too soon to be talking about firing the GM or head coach. They need 3-4 years bare minimum, and I want to see them get more like 5 years. Continuously firing people and changing the plan has got the Bills to where they've been the last 17 years. We need to stick to a plan for a change.

Tyrod 9/18 56 yds. through just over 3 & 1/2 quarters. Peterman 7/10 for 79 yds. in roughly 1/3 of a quarter.

Glad to have Clay back (was great to see him running out of the tunnel in that video above) and Benjamin playing. Sucks about Gaines though. We really could have used him today... Even if we do re-sign him, I think we have to address the starting CB spot still. He just doesn't seem to be reliably available.

Happy Birthday!

Well, we are officially in last place in the East, and 2nd to last place in the entire NHL. The only team with a worse record is the 2 win Coyotes. I dont understand why the Sabres keep making the same mistakes over and over again every game, and it's been happening year after year. This isn't a coaching issue IMO, it's a player issue. Is is it just all the young players, and lack of good veterans? No veteran leadership? Lack of overall talent? Is there bad apples in the room? Is it the losing culture that developed during the tank? A combination of all these things? We keep adding new players (11 new guys this year, 7 last year etc) yet we still have many of the same problems year after year. Why is it such a struggle to just stick to a game plan for 60 minutes? Or make a clean tape to tape pass? Or transition the puck? Their transition game is TERRIBLE much of the time. They have a hell of a time getting the puck out of their end and when they do they just turn the puck right back over in the neutral zone and set the other team up to go right back on the attack again. When they do actually get time in the offensive zone they have no idea how to score. They just cycle the puck along the boards and behind the net, then turn it over (with bad passes or bad shots). Nobody goes to the dirty areas, or gets in a position to take the higher percentage shots/scoring chances. The frustrating part is that Housley can usually immediately tell you exactly what the Sabres were doing wrong. He's obviously telling the team the same things during the game, and practicing these things all week. The team even tells you what they are doing wrong. They just can't seem to put it all together on the ice for an entire game, and when they finally do (put it all together) for a game they collapse the following game. Consistency is a huge issue with this team. They'll play a good period and then fall apart. Botterill and Housley sure have their work cut out for them... When Darcy Regier said we'd be in for some suffering, he wasn't kidding. Full tear down rebuilds are painful, and unfortunately they're usually painfully long (as we are experiencing now).

This is what I was worried about @Kelly the Dog Housley needs to learn to keep his mouth shut on these injuries until they know more. This has happened multiple times now. Bogosian, Nylander (who were both said to be day to day and have yet to play a game this year), now Ristolainen... I just hope Risto doesn't turn into another Bogosian/Nylander situation. http://buffalonews.com/2017/11/09/sabres-ristolainen-downgraded-to-week-to-week-with-injury/ 'The Sabres are going to be without Rasmus Ristolainen for longer than originally planned. "It's more of a week-to-week situation right now," coach Phil Housley said Thursday.'

Should be interesting. I'm going to watch for sure. Thanks.

Yeah I watched hard knocks too and remember everyone raving about what a great leader he was. I thought he was ok, but I seen him doing things that I felt could rub guys the wrong way or turn guys off to him. At least that's how I felt about some of the stuff he did. I also felt that he was maybe trying too hard at times and/or being almost overly vocal and pushy. Especially considering that he really hasn't done a whole lot on the NFL field yet. I always think back back to that quote by Jack Eichel about how you can try to be a leader but "who's going to follow you if you're not performing (on the ice/field)?". I think that is probably pretty true. I know it was that way when I played sports. I was captain of several different hockey teams I played on, and it sure was a lot easier to get guy to fall into line when I was performing well on the ice...

I hope so. The reason I worry is that they originally said Bogosian was day to day, too (and that was just over a month ago now). http://www.buffalohockeybeat.com/sabres-zach-bogosian-day-day/ Our blue line line has taken a beating so far this year.

Oh no. Hope Risto is back soon...

Great job with the new site. You can really tell that you've put a lot of thought and research into this. Well done sir. Change tends to be hard, so I was expecting to dislike the change to TBD until I got used to them. But that hasn't been the case at all. I love this new site. Thanks for everything you do SDS.

Boy I hope this wasn't the prevailing attitude in the locker room before the game. If it was, we know why the Bills got their butt's handed to them.

IMO, anyone putting the majority of blame on Tyrod for last night has a clear agenda against him. The O line was horrendous. Tolbert is not a RB. The defense was garbage. Nobody could tackle. We took a million dumb penalties. Basically, the Bills turned into Rex Ryan's team of the past 2 years... doing their absolute best to beat themselves in all phases of the game. Now, if you were expecting Tyrod to all the sudden become Tom Brady and put the entire team on his back and force a win while the rest of the team was playing like crap, then obviously you're going to be disappointed in TT. That's not who he is. He's a middle of the road starting QB. Sure, he could have done some thing better last night but he was FAR from one of the main issues.

Totally agree. It's funny how some only come on here to post when things aren't going well. That makes no sense to me. Why wouldn't they want to celebrate wins? (to be fair, I'm only talking about a small segment of posters, some that I'd love to call out by name but I won't...). Lol about Rex. I said the same thing during the game last night. It was like Rex was dropped onto the sidelines to coach that game. That was his old Bills team doing everything they could to beat themselves, that's for sure. It was bound to pop up again eventually. The good thing is now Sean gets a chance to correct it. This team has trouble handling prosperity... but again, the good thing is now it's a coachable moment. Like McDermott said, you have to go through adversity to continue growing as a team. If everything just goes perfectly, then they won't be ready when those adverse moments eventually happen. Let's see how this team grows from this game. I have faith in this coaching staff to get it corrected, and quickly. Honestly, I never had any real expectations for this season anyway. I expected it to be a transition year and have been pleasantly surprised so far. The Bills have so many holes and lack depth at many positions. Some of that showed last night, as I figured it would eventually. I still feel very confident that we are headed in the right direction though.

Does anyone else feel like Rex Ryan dropped in to coach the game tonight? These are Rex's Bills right now.

Our o line looks so out of sync tonight. They keep blowing assignments and are just getting manhandled in general. The whole team looks out of sync tonight, defense too. Way too many mistakes, penalties, etc. We are not playing smart tonight. If McDermott can't get it corrected quickly, we are going to lose tonight. I knew All that praise all week was making me nervous for a reason... lol.

We are blowing this game. If we lose, nobody to blame but ourselves. This has all the classic Bills-y signs of a huge letdown game, guys.

Nice play Tyrod! Nice catch Holmes!

We are just beating ourselves tonight.

Our fricking o line needs to get their **** together. They look horrible so far tonight. We don't stand a chance if they don't start protecting TT.

Oh man, poor Zay. That didn't look good.

They sure are so far. Also, Ducasse is terrible on any bull rush. He just gets pancaked. Wilkerson just made him look silly there.