transplantbillsfan

Hey man... everyone makes mistakes, including PFR, apparently

Then why were the numbers you posted incorrect?

The 3rd and 11 pass to Jordan Matthews over the middle that gained 14 yards (is 14 yards a short and simple throw, to you?) was one of the most difficult and impressive plays and throws (QB running to his left and throwing a dart to a WR with defenders all around) you'll see from a QB. There were other plays that were those intermediate timing routes slanting to the middle designed for YAC like the 1st play of the Bills 2nd series to Zay Jones. 21 yard gain. 7 YAC after the ball was caught 14 yards beyond the LOS. Do you want your QB doing headstands while he's throwing the ball or something? If you didn't include so much definitive and ridiculous hyperbole in some of your posts, you'd sometimes sound reasonable.

No, he didn't. This is where you lose everyone else. Yesterday Taylor was throwing pretty consistently (I haven't gone through and analyzed play by play, yet, but I plan to go have a look) to the middle 1/3rd of the field beyond 5 and 10 yards... that whole "intermediate" portion folks are so critical of. They were hardly "short and very simple throws." If that's really what you think, you weren't paying attention. Taylor was really good using the middle of the field yesterday. Any objective observer could see that. That's why you see so many nationally are recognizing that from the game. If Taylor's play from yesterday is an indicator of things to come for the rest of the season, brace yourself for Taylor being our QB again in 2018, at the very least.

Didn't I say virtually any other QB? Didn't I specifically mention Aaron Rodgers by name? Yeah, I'd include Russell Wilson in there. Mariota isn't elusive in the same way Rodgers, Wilson and Taylor are.

Taylor in 2015 and 2016 was one of the 10 best QBs in the NFL at converting 3rd and long. You're just lost and Taylor isn't good enough for you and never will be. That's fine. But your perception on him is based on pretty lofty expectations even great NFL QBs don't really meet. If you think there's many QBs in the NFL (other than Aaron Rodgers probably) who could have converted that 3rd and 11 to Matthews in the middle of the field towards the end of the 1st quarter, you're selectively watching games only for plays you aren't happy with and ignoring the great plays. That was a great play that's a sack for virtually any other QB. Why are you using some random secondary website? Go to NFL.com and click on the play by play for the game and do it yourself. Don't be lazy and post some link that could easily be wrong. Go count it up. It doesn't take long.

I counted 7-14 in total 3rd down conversions after going through the play by play. In reality it was 8-15. Taylor was 4-9 on 3rd down passes (5-10 if you include the DPI called on the attempted pass to Holmes on 3rd down) and 3-5 on 3rd down runs. I don't know if you were trying to count team rushing, but even your team rushing numbers were wrong. 5/10 on 3rd down conversions passing certainly isn't failing. If Taylor were to end the year with a 50% 3rd down conversion % when passing the football, I guarantee you he'd be near the top of the league.

Hokie.... you and I are on the same page. YPT is a stat I legitimately think the NFL should be tracking. And if you calculate those out, Taylor would have 6.7 YPT (In truth, we should probably take out any kneeldowns at the end of halves or games so Taylor's actual YPT if you took those out would be 7.4 YPT... but I'm not bothering to figure out kneeldowns for other QBs, so we'll go with 6.7) vs. other QBs like Alex Smith: 8.3 YPT Aaron Rodgers: 5.8 YPT Carson Wentz: 6.8 YPT Tom Brady: 6.0 YPT Derek Carr: 7.0 YPT

I agree that we saw Taylor do a lot of good he's been crucified for in the past: maybe his best game so far passing over the middle, multiple plays where you could see him going through multiple reads, and better than 50% in 3rd down conversions. But I'll wait 3 or 4 more games to decide whether he's actually better. What's obvious and clear and contradicts so many of the loudest most "knowledgeable" posters here from the preseason: Taylor can run this offense just fine as the offense we saw in preseason wasn't the offense we're seeing in the regular season.

Agreed.

Not worked up. Just talking. That's Taylor's 3rd down conversions on his own

If I'm the North Pole of the Taylor supporters and I said he wasn't amazing, just good or really good, then I think that just increases the veracity of what I said before regarding Extreme vs Middle even more

Also, Taylor was 7/13 (54%) in converting 3rd downs. I don't think folks can really call him a 3 & out machine in that game.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-refocused-game-recaps-for-all-the-week-1-matchups I know folks are gonna love this so this will be entertaining, but according to PFF, since Thursday among the 24 teams and 12 games, Taylor's "refocused: game recap" grade was the 3rd highest, behind only Alex Smith and Matthew Stafford.

Nope. You lose any semblance of logic with your last statement. Saying or implying in any way that Taylor somehow shares equal fault with a TE who had a catchable ball in his hands that he didn't pull in is crazy talk. That ball should have been caught. Saying it any other way is twisting this because you want to make Taylor look bad. And I'm not even saying you're wrong in your description of the play, which I have yet to rewatch. I just think this is reaching the point of being stupidly nitpicky about a play that should've been a touchdown rather than an interception. Should have been a catch by any NFL TE of Clay's ability.

Jesus. Unhappy whiners who don't seem to understand that there were at least 3 dropped passes (way above the norm for an NFL QB) all by Clay and that once this team went up by 2 scores early in the 4th, the gameplan was RUN RUN RUN!!! Taylor was 15-26 for 220 yards at the very beginning of the 4th quarter when the Bills scored their final TD and clearly took their foot off the gas. They ran 15 more plays on offense after that point. Only 2/15 of those plays were passes. Sorry, are we looking for a QB who can help lead the team to Ws or are we looking for a QB who piles up fantasy stats? Taylor was the former pretty clearly today. Just don't draft him in fantasy if that's what you care about

Great points. This, I thought, was obvious. It was the Jets, so it's not going to matter. But there are clearly lines drawn at this point. 2 lines and 3 different camps: One Extreme: Taylor is no good. You're going to see the obvious ones in this camp along with the not-so-obvious in those folks who (in this thread, for example) posters are trying to mask their bias as they pin the faults of the WR on the QB or just completely disregard any discussion of WR faults at all. Disturbing how many are in this camp. Middle: Most of us. We think Taylor's been good enough to warrant more playing time and, if he plays well enough, could prove to be our long term answer. We're able to consider circumstances with situation. Those of us here, which is most of us, thought Taylor was good or really good considering what he was given and asked to do. Those of us here also expected this to be a throwaway week and anticipated the excuses in the faction above regarding team played or not enough done on Taylor's part or whatever. So, onto next week... Other Extreme: Taylor's an Elite or Amazing QB. They may exist. But there are very few of them. So, largely, this dialogue on Taylor has been between variations of factions perceiving Taylor from one extreme and from the middle. And I think a lot of that's really coming out right now

Decent, you mean?

Umm... no. The Int was on Clay. Pretty clearly

This. Ask the Steelers or the Falcons or the goddamn Patriots how easy it is to Win in the NFL against teams you're supposed to win against. Love the pic. Perfectly encapsulates all the Eeyores we clearly have here.

Lots of over the middle throws. Not surprised by your reaction, though. Onto next week

As far as the stat line goes, you're absolutely right. Taylor's play was really good today. Nothing spectacular, but really good. And today he had a number of passes "over the middle" and a number of plays where he progressed through his reads. I figured this would just be a warm up game, anyway. Clearly it was from the attitude of most.

Interesting take. Has he had any bad passes? Have you seen all the drops?

Taylor's been really good, not amazing. It'd be nice if Clay caught the 3 balls he should have caught