yungmack

First rate analysis.

How about this: cut to the chase. What in god's name are you trying to say?

The offense was about how I thought it would be. Actually, not terrible. You can see the (dim) outlines of what they're planning to do. The line did a pretty darned good job overall. I think it will be all right by the Miami game. Which, before anyone goes nuts, is not the same as saying it's going to be great. Better than last year but not great. The defense on the other hand was shockingly awful. Very, very worrisome. Doesn't look like something that Poz or Mitchell correct by returning. It was truly bad, worst I've seen in years. Oh, and the refereeing was in mid-season anti-Bills form. One example: A pass interference call was overturned because,,,"the ball was uncatchable." Which it was because Evans was being pounded, held and tossed out of bounds beyond the five yard limit. Another: a roughing the passer call on what was a pretty clean shot to McNabb by, I think, Maybin. Arm across the chest, well below the head, more of a pull down than anything else. I stopped counting the bad calls before the first quarter was out...there were just too many questionable ones.

per Chris Brown at BB.com, Jackson hurt his hand and is out for the rest of the preseason (Let's hope that's all) and the severity of Lynch's injury is not yet known. http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2010/08/13/j...t-of-preseason/

And was cut too.

My admittedly vague memory is that, yes, the Bills under Jauron threw loads of short passes. But the difference as I see it between his approach and Gailey's is that the short passing game was the result of checking down (not all the time but quite often). The short pass then The Last Option, more of a desperation pass than anything else. It also meant the line (a not very good or cohesive line) was being asked to protect longer than it was capable of doing. To me, the difference in Gailey's approach is that the short pass is the intended pass from the start, not a matter of checking down and looking for someone, anyone who's open. One of the big advantages in that approach is that the line doesn't have to protect the QB very long at all. I don't expect much at all out of the Bills tonight. It's too early, with too many key injuries. But by the third preseason game we should have a clear idea of what Gailey intends to do with this squad. I suspect a lot of his offense will be designed to mask the shortcomings of the O line and, to a certain extent, of his QBs.

The majority of voters elected him, unlike GW Bush in 2000. Funny, I didn't hear a lot of the fascist right wingers screaming about conspiracies and "wanting THEIR country back" in those days. Bunch of sore loser nitwits. Remind of Red Sox fans.

I know the tape we see from camp is edited for highlights, but it does seem to me that the QBs are getting rid of the ball much, much quicker than in years past. And yet no practice goes by without the QBs hitting several long gainers. What I take from this is that Gailey is strongly emphasizing throwing to spots. And that implies a big change of mindset. In the past, the QBs, TE in particular, were waiting, waiting, waiting for the receivers to come open. The thought process seemed to be, "Is he going to get open so I can throw the damned ball?" It's early yet but now the thought process seems to be, "He will get open so let me unload to where he's going to be." This means the QB and the receivers have to be precise. Not to mention that they have to have complete confidence in each other. IF that's what's happening (and I believe it is), this represents a huge, huge change in approach and attitude. It's the difference between the timid, low risk, "play not to lose" style, and an aggressive, high risk-high reward style. It also means a mediocre O line doesn't have to hold its protection nearly as long as in the past. Correct recognition of the D and accuracy in throws are critical to this method and that's where it could get iffy. With Wood and Bell not ready to go yet and Easley and Hardy out, the Skin's game won't tell us much. What I will be watching is how sharp the routes are run and how accurate the throws are.

The guy undermines any credibility he might have in his first sentence...."no longer able to support an NFL team." WNY and southern Ontario have several million people. Compare that to Green Bay for example. Then run a population base on all the other NFL markets. Then compare season ticket sales and overall attendance. I think you'll find that the Bills have a fairly stable market. According to a recent Forbes article, the Bills are worth just under a billion (!!!) dollars and are in the top 50 sports franchises in the world. So after getting the most fundamental aspect wrong -- the value of the market -- why would anyone listen any further to his maunderings?

Come on, you already know the answer: Dick Jauron.

One of the keys to an effective passing offense with a team like the Bills, with relatively inexperienced linemen (and TEs), and maybe a shortage of talent, is to get the passes off quickly. Really, really quickly. You can't afford to stand around and wait for the play to develop, or the receiver to get open before unloading. But you can defeat a pass rush by throwing the ball to a spot where you know the receiver is going to be from the second the ball is snapped. This works on a three-step drop as well (in fact, in might work even better). It doesn't matter how good or fast the pass rush is if the ball is already gone. In order for this to succeed, the QB and the receivers have to be intelligent enough to rapidly identify the defense, have complete confidence in each other to react correctly to the D, and be precise in the throws and route-running. Go back and look at Montana/Rice and this is often what they were doing (it's pretty much fundamental to the West Coast offense). Do this properly and the edge a good defense has against a mediocre offensive line is largely neutralized. Based on the reports coming out of camp so far, it seems to me that Gailey is stressing this approach. Now, I'm not talking about The Bomb, where the line has to hold while the QB waits and waits for the receiver to turn the defender around. I'm talking about a much quicker, shorter pass, with the receiver hitting top speed right off the line. And I think that's a big reason why Spiller was drafted, why Roscoe is so high on the depth chart, and why Stevie Johnson will likely beat out Hardy (who, by all reports, does not run his routes properly...can't have that with this approach). I don't expect to see much of this in the exhibition season but I've come to believe that this will be a fundamental part of the Bills approach in the regular season.

This qualifies for the worst theme of the offseason. And the competition was intense too.

The bigger point might be that they were playing outdoors in the rain in the first place.. I hated that Jauron ran for the field house every time the wind blew. If you're going to play the games in The Ralph in November, December, January, then you need to practice out of doors. I love it that Gailey's been doing that from the beginning.

See, that's the problem. There aren't any hot chicks at this dance, just four Plain Janes. So your choice is to either go home and wait for the next get-together, or enjoy yourself with what's available. For myself, I intend to accept that this is "who we are" and to enjoy the season as much as possible. So long as this year's team plays hard, plays intelligently and plays to win.

All the constant griping about TE, justified or not, just gets old after awhile. Whether we like it or not, the Bills starting QB is already on the roster. Ain't nobody else coming in to take the job, not Jimmy Clausen, Jim Kelly or Andrew Luck. These are our guys this year. And out of that group, Trent Edwards seems to be the best man for the job in the eyes of Gailey. So all the woulda, shoulda, coulda hand wringing and condemnation of TE is just "shakin' the monkey." Either he, or Brohm or Fitz or Brown is "the man." Time to cowboy up, drop the fantasizing, and accept that this is who we have. So let's hope that TE really is confident, that Gailey can get his head (and his mechanics) straightened out, and that the scheme in place plays to his strengths and away from his weaknesses. Ya gots ta dance with the one that brung ya.

I too live in Pac-12 (gotta keep up with the times) country and absolutely agree with you about Luck.

Well, thank you.

There are a lot of factors that go into the making of a great NFL QB. But the three indispensable ones are: Quick and correct recognition of the defense; quick release, and accuracy. And it goes without saying that you must do those things consistently. Without those three, all the leadership, all the toughness, all the powerful arm, all the size in the world mean nothing.

And Wade Phillips as D-coordinator....

I was just reading a Stieg Larrson novel in which his protagonist noted that another character was "richer than a troll." Who knew trolls were the standard for wealth in Sweden? So stand up proudly, all you trolls.

Very on the money assessment. One of the worst things ever done to the city was Main Place, which not only caused many historic buildings to be destroyed, it was/is an eyesore that makes all of downtown look awkward, out of balance and in no way welcoming. And that idiotic trolley that accomplishes virtually nothing sure doesn't help. Most of the degradation to the core of the city was done or begun in the '50s when Urban Renewal was all the rage. Cities all over the country were ripped apart, highways cut through their hearts, new and often ugly buildings were erected, and on and on. That's one reason Buffalo has the Skyway, and Fr. Baker Bridge, and freakin' freeways in the worst places. And why so many of the old brick and stone buildings (which would now be worth a fortune) were leveled. The waterfront is a mess, and probably can't be changed. I'm thinking of the decisions to, first, put low income housing right on the lake and river, instead of going the other way and making the whole waterfront the focus of more upscale development. And, second, the lack of money to buy out private interests. Third, there seems no real vision among the political and social leaders for the waterfront. Look at what other cities have done (think of Boston, and Baltimore, and Chicago and even Milwaukee). As to a stadium on the waterfront, I think that would be an awful mistake for reasons I won't go into here. But I wonder if you know that the current stadium was supposed to be in Lancaster? That made much more sense than Orchard Park (closer to Rochester for one thing, and easier to get to from Ontario) but the locals got up in arms about it. And did you know that the stadium originally planned for the Bills was a dome? That got defeated because of costs. But it did finally get built...in New Orleans. Yep, that's the stadium originally designed for the Bills. Or so I've been told.

Small quibble: Nashville already has an NFL team. And several of the cities mentioned are already tied to an NFL team, making it extremely difficult to bring in another franchise (San Jose for example would impinge on both the Niners and Raiders "territory"). Personally, I think the NFL has peaked along with the US. What's ahead for both is a long decline as the US becomes poorer and its population stabilizes and shrinks. Twenty years from now, most of the US will be able to say something like, "We're all Buffalo (or Cleveland, Detroit, etc) now."

Muggins, please pay attention to this so you don't repeat your incorrect opinion: The Bills Pass Defense ranked: 1st in the NFL by a very wide margin in opponents passer rating (which has nothing to do with how often their opponents passed the ball) 2nd in the NFL in interceptions (in spite of the fact that they faced FEWER passes than 19 other teams) 2nd in the NFL in average gain per pass play (which has nothing to do with how often their opponents passed the ball) 3rd in the NFL in opponents completion percentage (which has nothing to do with how often their opponents passed the ball) The only other team which approached the Bills in pass defense was Darrelle Revis and the New York Jets who were outstanding against the run and thus were able to force opponents into obvious passing situations. In fact the Jets were the top ranked defense in the NFL last year in yards allowed. Back to my main point, the Bills were outstanding against the pass and it had little or more likely, nothing to do with their weakness against the run. Superb breakdown from my fellow Cali Bills fan. Now, if that pass D does at least as well this season (actually, it should be better) and if the run defense improves to at least a reasonable level (gotta feelin' it's going to be even better than that), then look out.

I don't quite understand the juvenile need to boost one choice while denigrating the other. Both were excellent receivers, both were clutch, both were durable. And both were indispensable to their teams in their day.