Gray Beard

At half time I was optimistic. Sanchez was intercepted (almost twice) and sacked. There were some broken plays, and he looked rattled. Unfortunately, he got into a groove in the second half. A sack early in the third quarter would have been huge. Oh well. Maybe next time.

I agree with your comments. I don't mean to be as arrogant as it seems. I think the Jets were better in too many facets of the game for the Bills to handle them this week. I believe the Jets are good enough to go deep into the playoffs this year. When watching the game, it's too easy to have 20/20 hindsight and start thinking that the coaches are overlooking things that seem so obvious. Clearly there are reasons why they are coaches and I am a couch potato. Things like injury details, film study, and practices are things that most fans don't have access to, which makes it kind of foolish to try to second guess things that happen in the game. For example, I think Fitz may be hurting more than he is letting on.

If I was a coach with a guard who has a sore shoulder playing tackle, I would have a blocking tight end (Smith) or a back (McIntyre) helping him on most plays. I rarely saw that. Is it really that complicated?

The challenge flag turns a 30 second time out into a three or four minute time out. I was ok with that. Not using Spiller and Smith was weird. I don't understand that. Fitz is putting together a string of bad games. (The Redskins game doesn't count) Bad ref calls are common, and usually they balance out for both teams. Lack of pushing off calls and phantom PI calls were especially bad today. Isn't Lee Smith a blocking tight end? He was barely on the field, even though Levitre is a guard playing tackle, and has a bad shoulder. Using Fred after he was hurt doesn't make sense.

Kyle Williams - When he is healthy and lining up next to Dareus... Bama and LSU side by side. How cool is that?

She is waaay cuter when the eagles lose and she pouts.

I know that this thread is about the defense, but I worry that the offense is also not sustainable. I think it would make the game more interesting if Stevie would drop the ball occasionally. Being confident that he is going to catch the ball every time takes away a lot of the excitement of the game. And consistently catching the ball to keep the drive alive is not sustainable.

I've been guilty of whining about the lack of sacks. I should man up and admit that I was premature in being a doubter about this group. I know Washington does not have a good o-line, but that was still impressive. In fact, maybe somebody should start a thread for people to admit that they underestimated this defense based on the play of the past few weeks.

Did you see Wilson try not to laugh? He was trying to give a dirty look to whoever threw that ball, but then he started to laugh.

Where was Spiller late in the game? In the fourth quarter I saw Brad Smith in as a receiver but not Spiller. I hope he isn't hurt. He had a few good plays today.

My dog gets walked every day at 4 o'clock, and it's usually my job on the weekend. Today I sweet talked my wife into walking the dog so that I could watch the game without having to miss any of it.

I agree with this assessment, and I appreciate the response. I guess I'm just a little surprised that the Bills are as poor as they are at pressuring the QB. I know they don't have the best personnel in the league, but I am too hard headed to think that they can't figure out a way to do at least a little bit better than they are when it comes to getting a few sacks.

I made a statement just like this in some other thread a week or so ago. Somebody responded by saying that my input was hilarious. I have no idea what that was supposed to mean. I have been wondering for weeks why people think Wanny will be some sort of savior. If he is the assistant head coach, then he has the right/obligation to fix things that don't work. When is he going to start doing that? I hope it happens soon.

When I saw the thread name, I was thinking that you were referring to the sixth game of this season... the Giants game. Fitz threw that second interception and that pretty much ended any hope for a comeback. My heart sank just about as much for that as it did for any other game in recent memory, playoff or otherwise.

"Sucked" is a little harsh. Otherwise, I think you have summed things up pretty well.

I think the frustration is that the Bills have no pass rush. Eli Manning had all day to throw. Maybin is irrelevant, his sacks just give people a chance to vent about the Bills lack of pass rush. Some people think it's because of personnel, some people think it's because of poor coaching. Whatever the reason, people are just using Maybin's sacks as a way to focus their frustration. At least, that's my guess/opinion. I could be wrong.

The fact that Maybin just made yet a another sack for the Jets speaks volumes about the ineptitude of the Bills' coaching. I agreed with the idea of cutting him, and I am shocked that the Jets are able to make use of him. However, if the Bills couldn't do anything with him, who is at fault? I am convinced that the Bills have the talent to rush the quarterback but the defensive coaching, schemes, and techniques are just not getting the job done. I also believe that Wannstadt has been on the team long enough to be able to make suggestions and help guide the defense. I really hope this bye week gives the coaching staff the opportunity to figure out what is going on and fix the problem.

Before the season started, would anyone have predicted that the Bills' pass rush would be so bad? Based on the names on the roster, I would have thought the pass rush would have been pretty good. I never thought that Merriman would return to "Lights Out" but I thought that Moats, Carrington, Dareus, Williams, Barnett, and even Kelsey would have been able to pressure the quarterback pretty well. I also assumed that some of the other rookies would show signs of pass rush ability by now. What was the smoking gun that would cause Nix to realize that the pass rush would be so bad? On paper, before the season, it looked ok to me, and probably to most other people as well. I wish all the people who are slamming Nix for not being more proactive would show some evidence that they predicted the lack of pass rush that we have been seeing lately.

:worthy:

I was thinking of adding Marvcus Patton to the conversation. Good player, great name.

Fitz did not have a good game against the Giants. The Eagles and Bengals games weren't all that great. The Chiefs, Raiders and Patriots games were pretty darn good. Which is the real Fitz? I can understand the feeling that they should wait a few more weeks to see how things unfold. Disclaimer: I personally think Fitz is a better than average QB and should be paid accordingly.

Antoine Winfield. First round 1999. Not too shabby his rookie year. I agree that Dareus may be the best first round pick I can remember in my 30 years of fandom.

I'm pretty sure they tried to trade McCargo to the Colts but he failed the physical.

Thanks for the answer. I forgot about him. He's not that bad. It makes me feel a little better to know that there is still somebody left on the depth chart.

What if somebody got hurt in the game. What would happen? Would they put one of the next biggest guys in there, like Carrington? I am asking out of total ignorance.