ShakAttack

Up until the jets game nobody really had an answer for gailey's spread offense. Rex Ryan came up with the recipe to shut it down by pressing the receivers and the quick pass game that fitz and gailey relied on to win would never work again. The rest of the NFL forced the bills offense to adjust and they could not. I do not blame that on coaching as much as fitz' limitations and the fact that there was hardly any talent on offense especially when Freddy got hurt. I mean, we talk about a lack of talent now but I would argue that roster was even less talented on offense.

All I know is that I'd feel a LOT better about this team and its chances if our receivers were on par with 90% of the NFL. I'm sure I am not alone on that. Hopefully Zay Jones has a breakthrough after the bye and plays up to his talent, Jordan Matthews stays healthy and one of the other receivers will take advantage of the fact they are getting more of an opportunity in Buffalo than they would anywhere else. There is a lot to like about our defense, but we need to have a passing game and I may be in the minority but I actually believe Tyrod has a chance at being a pretty good QB if he could actually get good play and continuity out of his receivers. Derek Carr has to be the prime example here. He's been throwing to Crabtree and Cooper for 3 years now and they might have missed 1 game between them? This is why he makes those throws into coverage that we all want Tyrod to make. You need to know your receivers and their in-game tendencies first. I don't believe it's Tyrods fault, I believe it is because he has not had the opportunity to establish chemistry with any one receiver on this roster since becoming our starting QB. In 2015, he and Sammy were starting to click and it was a thing of beauty, but they never had a chance to build on that. When Sammy was out, Tyrod and Robert woods finally started to get it going and Woods had the huge game on MNF against Seattle..... and then he gets hurt. But anyway, that is most of the reason behind my pessimism towards the Bills. And I want to believe that playing "weaker" defenses in the coming weeks will benefit our passing game like people are suggesting. But I'll have to see it to believe it. Yes, Starting with Tampa Bay...

Listen, all week I kept hearing about how we are approaching the "easy" part of our schedule, and a lot of folks making that claim put emphasis on the Bucs & Raider games. All I'm saying is that is no longer the case with the Raider game, not at all. With their backs against the wall, they just beat the team that many considered the best in the NFL. Maybe I should have re-phrased it, but my point was this... The Oakland Raider team that most people expected them to be going into 2017.... is back.

Maybe I should have mentioned that I live in Oakland, so I hold the Bills-Raiders matchups a little closer to heart than most probably do and our teams were in the same boat for 10+ years so I am admittedly envious of their franchise turning it around while we remain in mediocrity. But as far as your smart bills fan comment, are you implying that the "smart fans" are all the homers that convince themselves the Bills are going to win every single week? As if they hadn't followed the team once in the past 16 years? Or whatever number we are on; I've honestly lost count. I am a frustrated Bills fan, and that's completely reasonable

Well... looks like Oakland is back to being an L Tonight's game epitomized how raiders kept winning last season. And it also emphasized how important it is to have receivers that actually have talent in the 4th quarter of a game. The Bills are an overachieving team that has to count on their opponents screwing up to win games. The Raiders are back on a mission and the east coast factor is no longer even an advantage for us when they have extreme momentum and extra rest going in their favor Oh and did I mention they have hardly any injuries? Probably biggest advantage of all. Carr might still be "recovering" but he just threw for 400 including a game winning drive so he's fine

I think we did play him when he was with Titans, but I guess I'd have to double check. Thought it was Titans, Texans, Jets... and Bucs would be the 4th if I'm right EDIT- You are right he did not play the Bills while being a titan..bummer the "IF YOU CARE ABOUT ME PLAY HARD FOR ME" pre-game speech in his first appearance against the Bills was indeed as a Texan

Hoping Jameis is out next week... ...just so Fitz can play us on his 4th different team since leaving

It's all Tyrods fault. Yet if you look at statistics (aka facts) you find that Tyrod actually put up very respectable numbers when he had a healthy Watkins & Woods in the lineup (aka a "normal" 1 and 2). How many QBs are going to look good throwing to: - A likely second round bust - The oakland raiders' 5th WR from last season (who is now our #2) - 2 career special teamers - No more Charles Clay Seriously. The thing that excited me most about Watkins FINALLY being healthy this season was "WOW! Tyrod is FINALLY going to have some continuity with his #1 receiver and might even have a chance of developing chemistry with him like he started to in 2015!" .....aaand he's GONE! I think the sad reality is that most QBs would do worse than Tyrod with these receiving options because they can't get open and/or catch the ball (Zay Jones) but at least Tyrod can sometimes make plays on his own even though the system he is in discourages him to do so.

Like I said earlier it's not gonna be someone like AJ Green but I guarantee you they can get something better than they have right now which ain't hard to do and would help a lot. Can't tell me there are no receivers out there like that. When Raiders had a winning record and their QB went down they traded for Carson Palmer. When the vikings looked promising and their QB went down more recently they traded for Sam Bradford And there are a lot less QBs than there are WRs in the NFL. So no, they are out there, and 2nd rounders have huge value in the NFL, even 3rd rounders can. But are the Bills willing to be aggressive enough and take advantage of the opportunity they have now? Or will they throw away the huge upsets against Denver and Atlanta and just hope for the best and bring back Philly Brown for a 10th time? We'll see very soon.

Ok the short version with no explanation: Trade a 2nd or 3rd rounder for a wide receiver now. Nothing that we could really know as fans, but I'm sure there are some available. Some teams have a lot of depth at WR (I know this is hard to fathom as a Bills fan). But I'd hope we start making a lot of phone calls to find out....

3-2 going into the bye week. Say what you want about today, but that's still a better record than anyone expected (on a side note.. Jets at 3-2 is even more of a shocker. The 2 teams said to be "tanking" before the season started have winning records going into week 6!?) We have a good defense that will keep us in games even if our offense does nothing like today. We also saw the difference between the Bills and Bengals today: AJ Green, a legit #1 wide receiver. Now, we aren't going to find an AJ Green right now, but I guarantee you that if the Bills want, they can find SOMEONE that is much better than what we have now. We have an abundance of draft picks and should be aggressively looking to trade one of our 3rd round picks (or even a 2nd rounder if that's what it takes) to bring in a #1 receiver. Next week is our bye so it is now or never. It's up to the Bills if they want to throw away this opportunity that we have with a 3-2 start, tied for 1st in the division, in a conference with very few "stand out" teams. They need to be honest with themselves and realize 2 things: 1. Getting a WR or two off free agency will not solve a damn thing 2. You traded Sammy for a 2nd rounder and that was a bad decision, so now you are going to have to admit that bad decision, and give up that same 2nd or 3rd for the same position, and it might not even be a WR as good as Sammy, but at the end of the day this league is about winning and nobody wants to hear about trying to win in the future, when your team is winning right now. Get someone decent in a trade and in a week or two after the bye we get Jordan Matthews back and, what do you know? We might actually have a "normal" WR1 and WR2 for the rest of the season. To me, this is the only solution, and I know it's a long shot but I hope it happens. We've seen a lot of bad decisions from the Bills FO this off-season IMO. Time for a good decision to be made....

Do I need to remind you who Peterman would have to be throwing to? Without Charles Clay, he would be throwing to the worst group of receivers in the NFL. Is it even fair to evaluate any QB in that situation? Need I remind you this is a team sport? Most good QBs in the NFL have a solid group of receivers and/or a dominant receiver (AJ Green) that can make 2 plays that will decide a game. Sammy Watkins was finally healthy this season and Tyrod could have finally had a premium receiver that he could depend on being in the lineup every week. But the Bills got rid of that for what looks like a very low first 2nd round pick.... because the LA RAms are playoff bound (and the Chiefs are the best team in the NFL too)

Its a shame but this is true. Last season I believe at one point Tyrod's numbers with a healthy Woods & Watkins were significantly better than his numbers without them. The problem was that there were not too many games with Woods & Watkins healthy. We had an opportunity to have a healthy Watkins this season. He was CLEARLY healthy in the pre-season and most of his injuries have been of the bad luck variety as opposed to a player that is injury prone with the same recurring injuries over and over. that's why I hated our decisions from the moment we did not pick up his extra year option. But it was okay because the Bills weren't supposed to be good in 2017 and the Rams 2nd round pick was going to be more like a late first rounder, right? And it was never really a big deal that our WR position was thin because we were looking to the future. But what if it just so happens the Bills start winning and it becomes clear as day that having Sammy Watkins could have been the difference between the Bills finishing something like 7-9 again vs. FINALLY snapping the playoff streak? The difference between the Bengals and Bills today was AJ Green. Andy Dalton wouldn't have had those numbers without AJ Green and hell, he probably wouldn't even have had his career if not for AJ Green, and these are precisely my two points: 1. Can you really evaluate a QB that has had to throw to special teamers at WR by week 5 seemingly every season?? There are only 3 qbs in this league that MIGHT be able to work with the horrid WR/TE (minus Clay) that Tyrod had to deal with today and that's Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers. Which means I would highly doubt a rookie QB is going to solve this problem for us next season. 2. Is there any question that the Bills would not be at least 4-1 or even 5-0 if they had kept Sammy? There shouldn't be. Because there is proof that Tyrod is a MUCH better QB with a healthy Sammy and it's obvious that our offense lacks the big play ability that every winning team has to have every now and then (just look at how the Bengals just beat us.. 2 plays from AJ Green) This isn't just hindsight... getting rid of Sammy was always an incredibly unpopular decision among fans especially considering he was finally healthier than he had ever been since we drafted him! It seems like we knew much better than the front office on that one... So I guess the "good news" is that we seem to have a decent defense and stock pile of draft picks but A) the KC and LA picks are not looking nearly as good as we hoped they would be (hell, even our own pick isn't looking as good as we hoped!) and B) I don't think Beane/Mcdermott have done anything to really earn our trust to the extent we should have faith in them having a good draft next season.

This is where I'm still irked by the Watkins trade, a trade that was made for our "future". Well guess what we are 3-1 at present and Watkins was back to 100% for the first time since perhaps his rookie year? It would be hard for me to believe that we wouldn't have won the Carolina game with Sammy in there and there's no doubt we would be in much better shape right now. Not to mention, that Rams pick is looking closer to a 3rd rounder than a low 1st.... I love what the Bills are doing on the field, but that trade will never stop bothering me, especially after this.. And by the way wasn't this such a Bills thing to have happen? Come out of Atlanta with the best win we've had in at least a few years, but instead of being able to fully enjoy it, we have to worry about having no wide receivers by Week 5 yet again!