Coach Tuesday

That's my read as well. Rex wanted Roman out. Owners did their own homework to confirm what the coach was telling them and then threw their support behind him.

Agreed and it's probably more complicated than that. Sometimes executives are afraid to suggest to their owners that they fire someone and eat their contract. So the owners sense this and get involved directly. When that happens they're doing their executive a favor. I've been involved in that sort of situation. It's quite possible Rex wanted Roman gone but was more comfortable with the Pegulas coming to that conclusion themselves, as well. I have a hard time believing that if Rex wanted Roman to stay, the Pegulas would've forced the move anyhow. I respectfully disagree. They may have been doing Rex a favor.

For real. This is not a big deal.

If you trust your GM, you have him drill down on these things instead of doing it yourselves.

It is not a sign of dysfunction although NFL traditionalists won't like it. When owners start meeting with non-executive employees it can be a good way to find out whether the information the executives have been giving the owners is accurate. It's a sign that the Pegulas are desperate to get this thing fixed. It does NOT mean they're Dan Snyder, who never supported his coaches and played favorites with his players.

Great 3-4 end. Did all of the dirty work so that other guys could make plays.

I don't have an issue with this folks. So we have active owners who want to drill down on the issues with the team? They've always been supportive of their players and coaches - some would say too supportive. If this bodes poorly for anyone, it's Whaley, not Rex...

"It's really uncanny," said Marcus Wilhelm, Anthony Lynn's high school football coach, "Anthony just can't lead. He has failed to lead wherever he's been. If he goes left, the herd goes right. No one follows that man, ever."

Say more

Rex strikes me as the Doug Marrone of defense at times - he'd rather do things his way and lose than change things up and win.

Brilliant. I'm going with (7).

Several issues. No pass rush. No safety help. Bad technique. Gilmore is saving his body for his next contract and doesn't really care. None of these guys are watching film enough to know what the offense is doing. It's a tire fire and looks just like the Saints' 2015 defense.

Correct. At this point, the "obvious" choice for an interim HC would be Chris Palmer, who has been a (horrible) head coach before.

Ok - been a busy couple of days at OBD. Now that the dust has settled a bit, here are some things I observed at the Bills-Jets game. These were my live observations, I'm not an "All 22" geek nor do I claim to know very much about football: Defense: - The run defense is very solid. I've been impressed with the gap control this year so far, it's much better than last year and reminds me very much of Rex's old Jets teams. Very hard to find running lanes against this front. Role players like Douzable and Worthy are adding real value. - Zach Brown is a playmaker. I've been super impressed with 53 through two games. He's fast and instinctive and makes a ton of plays. He caused the fumble that Robey-Coleman returned for the TD and was flying around all night. - The absence of Hughes really hurt. I was at the game and didn't realize he had bit his tongue, but for awhile I thought he was injured and couldn't find him anywhere on the field. When he was in there, it was clear that he wasn't himself as there was no edge pressure at all on Fitzpatrick and the results were devastating. - One thing that really jumped out at me was the absence of safeties. Where were the safeties all night? The Jets don't have any tight ends, so they weren't worrying about those guys, and the front seven was doing just fine dealing with the running game, so they weren't in the box, either. Where were they? Honestly if you told me that the Bills were using only 9 guys on defense I would believe it. It seemed like we only had linemen, linebackers, and isolated cornerbacks in that game. Very bizarre. - Stephon Gilmore is not a technician, or at least, isn't this year. His technique is terrible, both while defending the pass (his hips seem stiffer this year) and while "tackling" in the running game. It's almost as if he's going through the motions. He doesn't really want to put his body on the line and I suspect it's because he's saving himself for his next contract. He can kiss my a$$. I don't need a player like that on my roster. Get me a Seymour who wants to compete. Let Dan Snyder pay Gilmore. - Darby still covers well and I think he'll continue to improve. He needs to work on his awareness and ball skills, obviously. What concerns me about him is the lack of understanding where the routes are going - seems to reflect a lack of preparation, which to my mind speaks to the next point. - This defense, and this team in general, is not prepared. It is clear to me that they aren't putting in the work that the *great* teams put in during the week leading up to the game. And that, to me, is a direct reflection of their head coach and his brother, who appear to think they can get by on lineage, reputation, and attitude. Folks, we're running the 2015 Saints Defense this year. Perfectly fine on 1st and 2nd down because of a sound scheme, and then complete chaos on 3rd down when the offense needs to make its money. It's a tire fire and it's the last time the Ryans are going to be manning a sideline for quite awhile. But that's cool, I'm sure ESPN or Fox would gladly give them their own pregame show and they'll make a lot of money in television once they're finished destroying this era of Bills' football. Heck, I'm sure they'll even crack jokes on their show about how underprepared they were on gamedays in Buffalo. Just you wait. Offense: - I still don't know what I think about the Roman firing. It probably was a number of factors and not as simple as scapegoating or loyalty. That said, I noticed improvement in the timing of the playcalls on Thursday night - it seemed like the plays were coming in faster than they had been against Baltimore, and that Roman was making a concerted effort to speed up the offense. - That said, it's clear that something is still very wrong with the offense. Do you ever notice that Bills' QBs, unlike other teams' QBs, don't really look at the defense before the snap? You never see Tyrod (or EJ before him) pointing out defenders, adjusting the plays, or worrying about protections. This bugged me under Marrone and it's been the same thing under Roman. Why can't our QBs read defenses? In particular, Tyrod seems to know exactly where he's going with the ball as soon as the snap, with the only exception being where he has to scramble and find whoever is open. If the Pegulas are seeing what I'm seeing, I'm not surprised they're upset with the development of the offense and the quarterbacks. - As for the line, I thought they played really well. Kujo surprisingly wasn't forced by the Jets to move around too much, so he did fine lining up and slugging it out with whoever was in front of him. Miller was great. Richie, on the other hand, is not the player we saw last year - he seems to lack the "punch" he had coming back from his extended absence last season. Perhaps he's lost some of the fire, perhaps he's starting to hit a decline (which his age would suggest), or maybe he's just been facing two great fronts and will come around. Something to keep an eye on. - Bob Woods was again wide open on a number of occasions on Thursday. Tyrod doesn't even look at him. It's bizarre. On the interception to Sammy, Woods was wide open in the flat for a first down and then some. - McCoy avoids contact, and goes down as soon as someone brushes his jersey. I'm not a fan of that type of running back and would never try to build an offense around him. I put that squarely on Whaley, who I suspect is on very thin ice with ownership. And anyhow, if you have a back like that, why not assemble a more agile offensive line to take advantage of his ability to get to the edge, dance around after catching screens, etc.? Again, Doug Whaley can scout - but he doesn't know how to build a roster. Enough about that for now. The Jets: - Some quick thoughts on the opponent. First, Fitz played out of his mind on Thursday night and it was going to be hard to beat him no matter what. He's a streaky player as we know too well and he'll have just as many stinkers as games like we saw on Thursday. We were just on the wrong end of it. - That said, the Jets' strategic blueprint is very solid (unlike the Bills, who have no strategy other than "find good players and coach them"). They now have THREE big receivers who can win contested situations, which is the perfect way to help a QB who lacks pinpoint accuracy but is willing to throw the ball up for grabs. I expect the Jets to be in the wildcard game, possibly in a rematch against the Bengals, and I wouldn't be surprised if they win (only to get stomped by Pittsburgh the following week). - Revis is not the player he used to be. That's all I'll say about that.

Zach Brown too - why isn't anyone talking about Zach? Dude is a real playmaker.

Dayum....

Wait so it's embarrassing that Terry fired Greg Roman, so he should fire more people?

I mean have you ever?

Only their line is elite. Linebackers are average and secondary is bad. Revis looked slow and ineffective last night. They will be exposed this season.

It means our new owners have not learned how to run a football franchise.

Dave, it's almost like they think we're all a bunch of suckers who can't wait to part with our benjamins...

By the way - Terry and Kim, good luck attracting top-tier coordinators from now on.

It's their $1B investment - if they want to run it into the ground, it's their right.

Well - this proves that this season is toast. OTOH, as I linked to the other day, Roman's offenses in SF led or tied for the lead in delay of game penalties during his tenure there. He's just far too slow. And he doesn't seem to allow his QBs to audible, nor does he (in my opinion) use enough pre-snap motion to help his QB identify the defense and dictate favorable matchups in the passing game. That said, he's a hell of a running game coordinator. He'll get a new gig shortly. The stink of this will remain at OBD. Roman will be fine. Everyone else around the league understands that the Bills' organization is a dysfunctional joke where it is impossible to succeed.

Different issue. Whaley has no clue how to build a team. But that doesn't excuse McCoy's lack of heart.