Mikie2times

You resign Zach, wait and see on Ragland and ask that question about Brown

This isn't a game we typically win. At some point you gotta give Rex credit. Especially that defense. It only seems to be getting better as the offense stays on the field and shows some life.

While this point of view is commonly expressed it's never been quantified or measured as far as I'm aware. I'm certain it would be easy to point out situations in which the exact opposite occurred. Not trying to sound like a d-bag, just a lot of deduction based on little actual evidence.

Yes......my brother is an ICE officer. On commercial flights he just walks up and shows credentials. He boards the plane like everybody else but he always has a loaded gun. Surprised me the first time I flew with him. I'm like dude, they just let you on the plane with that thing? "Yes, in his sarcastic tone". I imagine it's pretty common to have multiple guns on one flight given Federal agents can carry when both working and not working. The second portion can't be true. The first portion could be true. Please don't ask me to find my source. My brother has flown with me on multiple commercial flights and it's faster for him to get on a plane with a gun then it is for me to get thru screening. All he does is show credentials. None of the 2nd portion have ever been valid in our flights together. Both were from Detroit Metro to Las Vegas.

Right. I like how it sets up for us, getting them off a loss to ARZ might have had them slightly more focused. That said, no way we should be favored in this one. The Bills are +3/-3 away/home against 75% of the league right now. Rams probably have the best DL in football.

He's so perfect for this system. Rex's defense is designed for ILB's to run sideline to sideline and not get disrupted by OL. He is the fastest MLB in the NFL, he ran a 4.45 at the combine and broke North Carolina's record for the 60 meter dash in college. At over 240 pounds he ran track for UNC. Crazy athlete.

IF Shaq and Ragland get healthy and pan out, can you imagine that LB core? Dear god..

He had a great rookie year with good pedigree coming out of the 2nd round. Last year was his return year after missing all of 2014. He had a good 2015, but not like his rookie year in which he had career high's across the board. 92 TKL's, 5.5 Sacks, 3 INT's, 2 TD's as a rookie. He's only 26 and this is likely the first season off the Pec injury in which he feels like he's in top form. He's trending toward 208 combined tackles which would more than double his rookie numbers. I will assume we will make every attempt to retain him. He's playing at a pro bowl level.

Brissett will not pass for over 150 yards in this game. BB needs turnovers and a quick start to focus on the run. He didn't get either. Unless they beat themselves the Bills have this one.

In regards to the comments Sammy made, he was young, frustrated, and used a poor choice of words. No grudge here. That said, I actually disagree. Money won't always give you back your health and money can't be used to buy extra years. I wouldn't take a big pay day to play professional football. If poverty was my alternative, perhaps, but I'm sure plenty of people on the forum make enough to feel the same way. Enough being not having to be rich. Just enough.

I went on a rant, but I don't think what I said was completely without merit. We have a lot of conditional talent right now, which is why I think I feel uneasy about the roster. Sammy is elite, can he give us consistency at that status? Dareus is elite, can he avoid another suspension? Gilmore is very good to elite, will we retain him? Kyle Williams is on the back 9 Richie is on the back 9 McCoy is very good, but also expensive and trending down for a few seasons now Aaron Williams will need to play for awhile for us to think he can stick. Everybody loves his intensity, but his concussion and injury issues make him very volatile. Clay plays stiff. He had one good season with Miami, one average season with us. Maybe a new offensive approach allows him to show more, until that point he's above average but not currently a difference maker So when you look at the nucleus of the team, Glenn, Darby, and Hughes are probably the only rocks we have. I'm hopeful Shaq and Ragland can join that group, maybe Miller can too. I just get freaked out over that. Most of our nucleus has something hanging over them that makes them contributing or maintaining a high level of play a question mark.

I think people that say how long they have been bills fans with their handle are insecure about being fans

You know what TBD, screw you Love you all, not trying to be a Nancy. I shifted to a slightly more rational place. Thank you for that.

I like 20 years of misery. Can we not go there? Anybody who is a Bills fan is part of a special group of people. Sane or not, emotionally stable or not. You're a Bills fan or you aren't. We don't get to pick teams in the way you make it sound. Sound like most are bullish on the talent, much more so than I. So be it. I do like what Alexander has done, even if he isn't considered a high level contributor, more a FA steal that has stepped up. He's good for Rex, Rex can get more out of inferior talent on the defensive front 7 than most. Miller and Bryant intrigue me as well, flashing good signs. So we could call them neutral positive?. Watching other NFL teams the last few weeks, something I tend to not focus on at a high level. It seemed like they could execute and do things we just aren't capable of. For a talented roster, that would not seem to sync up. At the least, something isn't syncing up.

No, single man coverage is a given. That's just what he does. That was the first time since that game that our corners got attacked with a similar approach as the Panther game and it looked exactly the same. I don't think Fitz "played out of his mind". Decker is 6"3, Enunwa is 6"2, and Marshall is 6"4. Gilmore is 6'0 and Darby is 5'11, and that 5'11 seems very generous. Fitz playing out of his mind consisted of repeated throws to his taller WR's playing jump ball, isolated, against our smaller corners. They did it all game. They did not play us like that last year, nor did they have Enunwa.So I don't see the relevance. Corners- Sure, can we resign Gilmore? MLB's- Preston Brown and Zach Brown, yes, a real strength. Real sideline to sideline guys that cover in space. Edge Rushe ®/OLB- Hughes- I'll give you Hughes, who else are you talking about? A street free agent Rex said he didn't want to have to start in Alexander? Kyle WIlliams, who while productive, is at the end and out of position? Our Rookie End? OL- Glenn is currently not playing, if he was, sure. Richie, sure, how long? Who knows. Wood, never really saw him being above average and the right side certainly isn't, nor do we have any evidence that it will be yet D-Tackles- We have Bryant, who I like, but amounts to a 3-4 NT run plug. You can't count a guy who was willing to get suspended for 4 games and assume he isn't willing to get suspended for more. Sammy plays in pain and he's no pansy, but he can't be himself for more than 8 weeks, until he can show that, I can't trust him, certainly not when you put nobody behind him Clay had one good season in Miami, outside of that he plays stiff and has been either underutilized, over promised, our overpaid. Safeties- Aaron Williams is a concussion away from being out half the year. Duke Can't step up. Corey Graham is a reliable vet, not a difference maker ST's- Dan Carpenter, I really don't have to say anything else In my initial post I put "Injured" to contribute in describing our depleted talent, you include many injured players. I took that qualifier off and still don't see what type of foundation you're looking at. Contract, Disciplinary, Injury, Age issues. This team is on the brink of rebuild.....

Then elaborate. What areas on the team do you feel good about, injuries or not.

I don't know what the temperament is around here lately. Hate Rex, hate Sammy, hate Tyrod, hate people who hate people, love people who hate people. In any event, I found this interesting to me. Perhaps a week late, but interesting. In watching the Patriots in week 3, I couldn't help but notice what strategy they brought to the table against the Texans. The Patriots are defensive polygamists. They aren't married to one system. The only system they're married to is the one that best matches up against the opponent they face. BB wanted to force Brock to throw short passes and drive the field. He played two safeties back the entire game. His corners always had help over the top. They took the deep ball away completely. Rex is in an exclusive relationship. He will attempt to dictate what the offense does, not the other way around. In his first preseason game as Bills coach we saw what we witnessed in the Thursday night game against the Jets. Carolina has BIG WR's. At the time, Benjamin was not hurt, Funchess also got the start, another very tall WR. In the first quarter of that game it was the start of the Ronald Darby panic show. Cam picked off Bills corners in single man coverage multiple times on either deep passes or intentional under throws. Our corners looked lost against larger WR's. If Rex's system has any concentrated flaw it's in the way he utilizes corners in today's passing game. The Jet's ended up Panthering us in the worst way and it's scary to me that we refused to respond or attempt to adjust. The Jet's gameplan was not in anyway complex or hard to copy. We know you will not double our WR's, our WR's are much bigger than your corners, we will play catch all game long. That's exactly what they did. Fortunately for us we didn't see the size at WR with the Cardinals and we won't with the Patriots. Jet's figured us out and we just kept letting them throw passes to a guys over 6'2 against guys under 5'10. Go figure, playing catch worked. The genius was simplicity. It frustrates me that we got torched by tape you could review the first preseason game Rex was our HC. If anything, it's shocking we didn't get attacked more with that angle last season. I don't use pitch forks on Rex. Reality is, this team is very low on talent right now. Injuries have buried us. Even in saying that, I'm just frustrated we don't adjust at times. We have to dictate, even when it's to our detriment we will keep trying to dictate. We saw similar things last year. Again, it was Rex saying this is our system. It wasn't what is the best system for these players? Very few excel at changing and adapting styles as well as the Patriots do. Very few seem to be so married to styles in the way Rex Ryan is. A simple HC change isn't changing our course anytime soon. Not with this talent level. That said, we need to get with the times. This isn't an era of the 46 defense where you impose your will against offenses. It's an era of match up football.

I think it's grown so much because they have been caught doing some things over the years and I think many people believe BB would do anything he felt he could get away with. I'm inclined to agree with this. Not so black and white as I paint it, this would be the middle ground. Certainly possible, game of inches, and they just win every inch in every area and then a little spice on the top. I think many people just kept saying when Brady retires it's over. To your point, it certainly doesn't feel like the horror show ends with Tom.

Ernie Adams, yes. That said, if the information was this powerful as far as the edge it provides, wouldn't enough people have to be aware of it to keep the odds of it remaining a secret very low? This is what I will probably do all thread. If the first post said they don't cheat I would probably ask what reason would you say is the biggest factor in why BB can seem to defy the laws of football. I don't think it's Tom either. So Jimmy and Cassell also know? None of my responses are meant to be argumentative. That's what makes this entertaining. None of it, from any angle, seems like it's anywhere near the realm of possibility.

For years I have read the threads discuss the mass Patriot cheating empire that has propelled them into perennial SB contender. Personally, I never bought into it to the extent that I thought it was the main driver. After each occurrence of violating league rules the Patriots rebounded and then some. That would lead you to believe the infraction wasn't something that was a predominate factor in the previous years result. Game of inches? Maybe it was a large driver, it doesn't take much. Still, they rebound the following year as if nothing happened like clock work. In the midst of this run the one constant has been BB and TB, a Hall of fame HC and QB and two of the very best to ever serve in those roles. That in itself is enough to accomplish legendary things. The place I seem to run into a trip wire at is when I see Matt Cassel and Jimmy Garoppolo come in and look like pro bowl players. This is where the "system" conversation usually comes into play. Then my mind can't help but think how nobody, regardless if they were produced by New England or not, has ever touched reproducing this system. Not only have they failed in reproducing the system, they generally fail miserably in doing so. Then I think about the previous coaching legends. All coaching legends have coaching trees that extend miles long. The concepts they use and teach are transferred, copied, and they multiply league wide. Where is BB's tree at this point? It had a breath a long time ago, but now, virtually non existent. How can the greatest coach of this generation not have roots everywhere? None of it makes sense. That's when you start asking questions about how is it possible? If I actually let my mind go to that place, the next thing I have to ask, is if you did do something that provided a substantial advantage how the heck could you keep it contained over all this time? I'm really not of any opinion on it either way. BB could be the best HC of all time and his genius transcends anything coaches can even take with them. Maybe that is the answer. Seems just as plausible as a team keeping a secret as big as something like this for the better part of the decade. If you do believe it's foul play, I would be curious as to what you think it is and how it could be contained this long?

BS the hold on Gilmore and O'Leary questionable at best

I know a lot of SF fans called for his head, specifically for his passing game or lack of it. His route tree is not very developed and he does a very poor job creating space in the passing game. Sort of the anti Chan.... Coming up with Harbaugh, doing some unique things in the NFL with the run game, helped turn a scrub in CK into a guy who played in multiple super bowls. I think all contributed to the Roman brand. I do think he gets notoriety he may not deserve. Harbaugh was an offensive mind and likely got his hands dirty on that side of the ball. Now it's all on Roman to make it work. Still, if my primary goal is pounding the rock, he has to be my top choice. Only problem is, I'm not sure that should be the primary goal. It's a passing league and he wants to buck the trend. Sometimes that can pay off, sometimes not. Agree with everything you said as far today. Spot on.

Last year, when the offense emerged all credit was given to Roman. Absolutely no credit was given to Rex. I'm all for a good Rex hating post, but this comes off as hypocritical more than anything. When the offense succeeds he is not allowed credit, when it fails, he must take accountability. Rex IS a glorified defensive coordinator. It's been the downfall of his HC career thus far. Last year was the aberration and certainly much more damning when you fail so miserably at your greatest strength. Still, aberration. More likely than not, Rex will revert to the same issues he had in New York. He will turn this group of defensive scrubs into a top 10 unit. He will bolster about the success in turning it around. We will not see progression from the offense. At which point our base will start attacking him for the offenses issues just like the New York media did. Rightfully so when you have the title of HC.

Good post, I have actually made numerous Kap/Taylor threads just based on the similarities on the stat sheet, OC, and athleticism. It would appear Romans offense is very well versed in QB efficiency which doesn't necessarily convert to production. Not to say it's just a plug and play athletic QB system. Kap/Taylor are unique talents. Taylor even more so. Taylor is more refined than Kap. Way better head on his shoulders and better deep ball. But when a guy like Kaps first few years mirror Tyrod as far as production and efficiency measures, it makes you wonder if you should give Tyrod 20 million and the keys to the franchise for the next 5-10 years like the 49ers did with Kap.

It's the inverse of last year, that's what I expected entering the year and it was reaffirmed today. Still just one game, but hey, it's a internet forum... I think most felt if the defense could get it together, which based on injuries and 2015 was not a common opinion, we would see some progression on offense and that was our most likely path. I did not expect the offense to progress. Teams will do everything they can to make us drive the field this year. Without all those deep scores one of our better statistical offenses in 2015 since the start of the drought becomes a bottom 20-25 unit. On defense, last year was not about talent. It was about not buying into a system and the defense Rex runs requires 100% buy in. I expect we will get that this year and see the benefits. With that, even with so many scrubs, we will see a large improvement. If Rex has two shutdown corners he can do a lot with very little. We just won't be able to capitalize on defenses progression with poor offensive output. Shake it all up and it't the same thing we have seen since the drought started. If we have one unit succeed, the other fails.