yungmack

I have been critical of EJ to the point that I've stated the Bills need to very seriously consider drafting a QB in the first round this spring. However, whatever his shortcomings are, EJ was NOT the problem yesterday. When the O puts up 31 points and is in the position to add more at the end of the 4th quarter, how can the critics pound on EJ? Yesterday, the heart of the loss was squarely on the D, on Chandler, on Stevie. And toss in some horrible, horrible calls by the refs near the end. They simply cannot be loose with their D calls for the entire game then suddenly start calling them strict. The calls on A. Williams and Robey were horrifically bad and game killers.

If reports are accurare, then Bon Jovi will be the Magic Johnson in the purchase...a very small percentage owner who is the jolly public face for a large corporation, Magic for Guggenheim/Dodgers, Bon Jovi for Rogers Communication/Bills.

I've been enjoying the UB Bulls games on ESPN and particularly loving Bo Oliver. I swear that every time he runs into the line, several tons of players wind up on top of him. And then, like magic, he pops out on the other side of them. It's uncanny. The guy is short but not small, but how he gets through all those defenders time after time, team after team is beyond me. But it's fun. I've even laughed out loud a couple of times watching him befuddle the defense. It must drive them nuts when four or five or six of them converge and pile on him and then there he is beyond the pile. It's like a Loony Tunes cartoon. I doubt there's a slot for him on the Bills but I hope someone gives him a shot at the next level.

I couldn't find any other threads discussing this statement from Coach Marrone about signing Unga to be a guard so I thought I'd throw it out there. This is from Chris Brown's blog: “What we like to do is build a bigger team,” he said. “My philosophy has always been that this is a big man’s game. So when we have the opportunity to better ourselves we have to go ahead and do that no matter what time of the year it is. That’s what we were trying to do. We were trying to get bigger.” In those old 1950s sci fi movies, atomic bombings caused creatures to grow to enormous size. Marrone's statement reminded me of that.

Maybe a two-point conversion?

A horrid game last week, a good game this week for EJ...That's about the same sort of season Geno Smith has had. So you might want to wait until sometime in December before gloating.

Going into Saturday's games, Alabama's schedule was rated 66th. I'd love to see them play FSU and a bunch of other teams as well. I just don't believe they're the best team in the nation.

Here's what I read around here about Stevie: He's hurt all the time, he drops passes in key situations, he's not a #1 receiver. Let's say all that's true. Do you think the other teams around the league don't have the same "book" on him? So if they do, why would they trade a decent pick or player for such an "inferior" player? Looks like we're stuck with him, and I'm glad.

The weather should be nasty, swirling winds, alcohol-drenched fans howling, maybe lightning, wheels-in-the-sky, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse floating in over Lake Erie, an eclipse of the sun and moon, who knows what. In other words, a perfect day in the Ralph. Now let us all go pray before our blood-drenched idols for delivery from our bondage of losing to the Jets.

All EJ has to do Sunday is to "manage the game." If he calms down and relies on the running game, the O should be adequate. The bigger challenge for the team will be the defense, especially the front 4, who were knocked around by the Jets in the first game. The Bills need a big game out of Dareus and KW, and Mario has to find a way to make a difference.

This season, there have been moments where the defense stumbled, where special teams was anything but, and puzzling coaching decisions were made. But by and large, those three areas have been good enough for the Bills to have won about 7 games. The single overriding theme for the failures of the Bills this season is QB play. And a lot of that can be attributed to 4 key injuries: Kolb's 2 before the season, EJ's in training camp and most devastating for the team and the player, the knee injury in Cleveland. As some have pointed out, EJ was regarded as being raw, in need of training, but having a tremendous upside. I have no way of definitively proving this, but I believe the plan was to start Kolb and have EJ sit this season, or most of it, much like the Packers did with Rodgers. Well, that blew up in their faces and maybe it was always foolish to expect Kolb with his history of injuries to be the starter. In any case, it seems to me that a very imperfect EJ was forced into a situation he really wasn't ready for just yet. Yeah, he did okay but the flaws were there all along as has been amply dissected here and in the press. Could EJ turn out to be the "franchise QB" we all hoped? If this was last August, I would have been optimistic about his chances. Now, I'm not so sure. After the last injury and a month off, he appears to have massively regressed. Right now he looks lost out there. And this week could be even worse without Woods and Stevie and facing Ryan's defense. So, based on the promise of just a few weeks ago, I'm willing to withhold final judgment until the end of the season in hopes that he turns it around. As a Bills fan, it would be a wonderful thing if he did. But if he doesn't make a strong improvement, drafting a QB moves to the top of the off-season "To Do" list.

I hope the Bills are scouting more than Manziel. FYI, here's a bit from Chris Dufresne's column in today's LA Times. If you want to read the entire column, here's the link. He raises some interesting questions, like why is Alabama in first place with the 66th most difficult schedule: http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/football/la-sp-1114-dufresne-college-football-20131114,0,1290855.column?page=2#axzz2keBykerc "• Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M and Gary Nova of Rutgers have each had 11 passes intercepted this season. Only five major college quarterbacks have thrown more interceptions than Manziel and Nova. • Why did Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota's Heisman campaign get flushed just because his team dropped to No. 6 after a loss to Stanford? Mariota played with a sprained knee ligament and still threw for two touchdowns in a six-point defeat. Mariota has 22 touchdown passes this season and no interceptions. Manziel and Mariota are both third-year sophomores. Manziel has four career losses, all at home. Mariota has two career losses, by nine total points. • Why does Manziel deserve to win a second Heisman before Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron wins his first? You could understand it last season because McCarron threw a key interception in the Crimson Tide's loss to Texas A&M. But McCarron defeated Manziel this season, in College Station. McCarron finished with four touchdown passes and no interceptions. Manziel had five touchdown passes and two interceptions. There have been only three Alabama games this season in which McCarron has had a pass intercepted. There have been only three Texas A&M games this season in which Manziel has not had a pass intercepted. McCarron is 34-2 as a starter with a career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 68 to 11. He has won two national titles and is on his way to a third."

By starting EJ last week -- which I think was a foolish mistake -- Marrone, and by extension Whaley and Brandon, have made it clear that finding out what they have in Manuel is more important than winning right now. And the reason they would do that, I think, is to come to a decision about drafting a QB in May which is shaping up to be a much better QB class than the past one. Instead of the back and forth about EJ's future, his shortcomings, his need "to develop," etc. that's going on around here, maybe the best way people on both sides of the pros and cons about EJ could get some clarity is to ask yourself this question: if EJ were coming out this year and the Bills had a real shot at drafting Mariota, Manziel, etc., would you pick EJ? If your answer is No, then that tells you all you need to know about your true beliefs about him. And it indicates exactly what the Bills should do in the next draft. There's an old adage that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. So if what you have with EJ is a guy with a lot of (obvious) shortcomings, why would you expend a whole lot of effort and time on trying to improve him (which may never happen) when you could (maybe) draft someone without those shortcomings? If EJ doesn't show real, vast improvement from here to the end of the season, I think the FO has to bite the bullet, admit they made a mistake, and move on.

Here's a mantra that will soothe your soul and set you free of the angst of the moment. Repeat and repeat, "Marcus Mariotta."

Whether or not you hate Flutie or love him, or hate RJ or love him, this statement is all that needs to be said. It wasn't like Flutie was playing like Tuel that season so there was no reason to bench him in favor of a guy who was generally inept or fragile or panicked whenever he was in, especially in the key game of the season. It was just completely stupid. BTW, can anyone cite another example like this by any other team in a similar situation?

Much of the mess on Sunday is right on Marrone's head in my opinion. Just because EJ was cleared to play doesn't mean he should play. He was having troubles before his injury and then he sits for a month, gets a few passes in practice and he's starting a game. I truly believe they would have been better off working with him through Pitt and NYJ games, then prepping him over the bye week. No way was EJ ready to play last Sunday. He was a complete mess out there, from his vision to his mechanics to his footwork. Plain and simple, he wasn't ready. I understand that this season is all about "teaching him up" and so you willingly accept mistakes and poor games. But you don't do the kid any good if you put him out there when he's not ready. Now things are worse than if you'd kept him in street clothes another week or two.

I liked the pick from the beginning and now like Williams even more, and just because he likes junky music I am not changing my opinion.

What goes unreported is the huge number of concussions suffered by soccer players. I don't remember the figures but compared to Pop Warner, it was much higher. I don't know of studies on hockey, lacrosse, rugby, field hockey, etc., but they must up there too. You can add boxing, MMA, et al. Fact is, head injuries are wide spread throughout sports and many other activities. For some reason I don't understand, football has been singled out.

What's also cool is he's kind of a local guy. He was a Bills fan growing up and his first NFL game he attended was at the Ralph.

Did you see any players last night who you'd want on the Bills roster?

Let's see...what to do in the woods of Oregon tonight? (Sound of crickets). I guess we can go to the game. Or clean out the basement. Sure us better up here than down in the San Francisco Bay area.

The They ought not to do that...my intent posting this was for Bills fans to "scout" some other players for next May's draft, Mariota in particular. Living in LA, I watch a lot of PAC 12 football so it is no surprise to me that Woods, Robey and Alonso are doing so well. But it seemed to shock a whole bunch of people around this site. So, here's a chance to "not be surprised" in the spring.

Because so many fans on the east coast don't see a whole lot of PAC 12 games (10:00 PM Saturday night start times for east coasters isn't exactly fan-friendly) I wanted to alert you to this one. There are a whole bunch of guys on both teams who will be playing in the NFL including Marcus Mariota who I think is likely to win the Heisman and go Number 1 overall in the draft. I would love to see him in a Bills uni. The game is at 9:00 EST/6:00 PST tonight on ESPN.

I wouldn't bring him back until he's had at least a week to sharpen up after the layoff. Better to start him after the bye-week.

Nine games in, does anyone know how many times the Bills have had a 4 down series inside the 10 yard line? It seems to me they have at least one a week. And every time Hackett calls the same series of plays. And every time they fail. Maybe it's just faulty memory, but that's what it appears like to me. We all know the old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And when is Marrone going to sit him down and correct this insane "strategy"? Someone on ESPN called the endzone interception "the worst interception in the history of interceptions." On the local sports news (Fred Roggin at 11 last night for those of you in LA), he was laughing about it. Freakin' embarassing. Oh, yeah, and the Jets beat a Saints team that dominated the Bills last week. What a Monday this is.