Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

I'll be the cheerleader head trainer. Somebody has to do the dirtywork around here!

That looks like my neighbor! Just kidding as most of the people on my street are all from up north. The rednecks are getting out numbered down here.

Well I live down in NC, so won't take me long to find a few. To give you an idea of things, most states have laws outlawing riding in the back of pick up's. Down here the law limits how many can ride in the back of the pick up. The good news is the sun shines almost every day and when the game got really crappy yesterday, I went and sat out on my porch for awhile until the sun botherd me too much.

While I agree the Pats game was terrible for TE, but as mentioned he had 280 yards agaisnt the Jets and kept moving the ball. Yes he gave up 10 points on turnovers, but who else did anything in that game offensively?? There was no running game. While his turnovers created 10 points for the Jet's I really can't blame him for that loss as there was no one else doing anything, which also was true yesterday. Remove all his positive yards fro mthe Jet's game and what's left, nothing! Having said that his two int. yesterday were very poor throws. One comments I will make, while I have trouble believing this really could be the difference, this team went down the toilet about the same time as Brad Butler got hurt at guard. Is he the person who kept the line and offense looking good??

It wouldn't have made any difference if Tom Brady was the backup. (Well maybe that would have changed things a bit ) TE is the starter and in spite of everything being said, he is still young. You do want him to play through his slumps and learn from it. As bad as the game went and TE played, the Bills were still only 10 points behind until the last two minutes. You typically only see the QB pulled when the margin gets to be larger than maybe 30 points or so. So I really doubt it has anythring to do with their confidence or lack there of in JP. No matter who was on the bench as a backup, you wouldn't have brought him in in a game where the starter is only behind by 10 points. I also think the problems with the Bills go beyond TE. Did they bench all the lineman as they also could use a benching.

In the last two minutes, it must come from the booth. You couldn't hear what the ref said, but there was one view, kind of from behind NE end, where I think what happened was they ruled a Bills' player first touched it, then it hit Ted B, bounced around and Bill's recovered. However the first touch was by a Bill's player less than 10 yards downfield, therefore illegal touch by Buffalo. On one of the replays it looked like a Buffalo player stuck his arm out, but you never say that angle again on the replay. My guess is that's what the refs stated happened.

Well to say start over, you're keeping 22 players which is half the team and about half the starters. All you're really recoomending is replace the positions that everyone has been saying are weak, offensive interior line, def end and outside LB. Not much of a change there. Most teams change 5 -10 players per year anyway. All you're really stating is get rid of the coaches, and very unlikely a new coach would keep the offensive coordinator anyway. However if you're going to bring in new coaches likely they will want differnet players, so you may as wel lget rid of the 22 you wanted t okeep too.

I was thinking the vsame. Apparently they ruled he was stopped in the field. That wasa questionable call too.

Defences are getting film on TE so not as easy for him. He needs to mix it more, but hard to do with all the injuries. Put all these things together, and easy for him to look bad real quick.

Well one way to solve this will be, just like Pop Warner, have a weight limit so larger players can't hurt the smaller ones. In all seriousness it is becoming a problem. Players keep getting bigger and faster. QB is one positiuon though that bigger and faster doesn't help much. Couple that with the game being so much faster, QB's need to process everything quicker to the point of it can't be done. That is why there are so few teams with good QB's as no one can mentally keep up with the game. Not rrying to knock JP here, but 20 years ago , he may have been an all pro with his arm and the decision making wasn't as big of an issue as he would have had more time to think.

That could be what caused the "plantar fasciitis"!!

I doubt it will be OL as we need an interior lineman and you usually don't use a #1 pick on inside lineman. So I agree also likely either DE or OLB

A week or so back someone else posted the thought that maybe being tall is bad as they can't get low enough to get under the defenders.

Or it could be that is the problem with this concept of small fast players. OK I took physics F= ma. Well when the guy on the other team is much bigger and almost as fast, guess who loses? The other argument is you can't hit what you can't catch, but apparently they are catching them.

Well first off, I think the running game last year was still much better than this year. The reason I'm willing to give TE more of a pass that I would have given JP last year was cause JP was in his 4th year and still making the same errors. If you say the errors yesterday were horrendous by TE and it cost them the game, well kept them in the game then? Even with these errors, they had a chance until the last TD by the Jets. They couldn’t run the ball so how were they staying close? Because TE kept getting first downs. It probably is hard for anyone to appreciate that as it’s been so long since we’ve seen that around here. So there were some good things in spite of the errors. Now look at JP. Last year he came in when TE got hurt, played lights out against Cinncy. People were hoping that making from watching Trent, he finally got the idea. Then the next week, can’t recall whom they played, but he did absolutely nothing all game. The only thing maybe you could count on JP doing was completing one bomb per game. I don’t even think that helped keep the D honest though as they knew, OK just rush the hell out of him and watch out for the long ball. Anything thrown short, he’ll screw up. TE had some accuracy problems last year, that seems to be cleaned up, that was JP’s other issue. So in spite of all the bad negative plays, there was still positives. Last year many games there was no positives, so that’s why I’m willing to more give him a pass on the errors. With no running game and his inexperience, and the fact that the entire offence is on his shoulders, I can’t fault him too much.

While I agree with the mistakes that TE made, the problem I have with stating that he cost us the game, besides him, who else made any plays? There was a no running attack, little stops defensively in the game, yes, they didn't give up TD's, but allowed the Jets to move down the field. One thing TE does appear to be very good at is moving the chains and he did do that yesterday throughout the game. Last year, he'd dink it for 3 yards and after three of them we'd have to punt. This year he is getting first downs from it. So without TE out there yesterday, who would have done anything? With no running game when you get down closer to the goal line, it makes it tougher to get it in when everyone is dropping back in coverage. It also helps when you don't need to blitz as our O-line allows you to pressure with three guys. I don't have any stats to back this up, but I'd be surprised to see that any QB who throws more than 40 times a game doesn't have similar number of bad plays, fumbles, ints, sacks, etc. When you throw that much, bad things are going to happen.

Everyone is talking about the problems with the line. While I don't disagree with any of the comments, why are we getting worse by the week and from last year?? The one big change is the coach. Is that what's killing us??

Well we certainly ra nthe ball better last year, and also had less sacks. Not sure what point you're trying to prove. I will say one difference beteen JP and TE. TE keeps the chains moving. JP had one play, throw it long and once in awhile it would work. Yeah there were some bad turnovers, but considering he's as second year QB and essentially is being asked to take over the game on his arm. We're not even trying to run, so all things considered, he played well. The problem is when a defense knows the other team can't run and is just going to keep passing, it makes their life much easier. Eventually it will catch up with you.

I certainly don't blame Hardy, the ball was underthrown, however he did look like a rookie, (which he is)in not doing much to fight the DB off to at least knock it down. An experienced vet likely would have tried more to knock it down, or as was suggested take the offensive interference call. Not that it would have mattered much, but that's why Hardy isn't playing too much as he needs to learn those things yet.

Well you're going to be awful disapointed as I doubt they are going to use another high draft pick on a reciever when they have other needs. Did you read Matt Millon's book on how to build a football team? That's Detroits recipe for years, give up immediately on whomever you picked and pick his replacement by the following year, and get rid of the first guy by the year after. Hey it worked for Millon for what 8 years before they figured it out.

That's true, but the defense can never get off the field. They stop them on 1st, and 2nd, then give up the first down. There's no pass rush. In the first half the defense hardly played, so they can't use an excuse of being worn out. The last NY drive was over 8 minutes.

If I were to rate the problems in todays game I'd say: 1: No run game 2: Terrible tackling 3: TE's play 3a: No pass rush 5: Special teams no longer special 6: No #2 receiver TEW certainly mad some bad plays and had turnovers that lead to points. In spite of that, he still kept the chains moving, with NO running game. That is one thing he is far superior to JP in the ability to keep the chains moving. Everyone keeps stating, you can't keep giving TE a free pass when you wouldn't give one to JP. Well the difference was last year TE was a rookie and doing things that JP still hadn't figured out in his fourth year. Now TE is in his second year, still doing many good things, but making some big mistakes. Considering the entire offenseis on his shoulders, he's not doing all that bad. Three turnovers for a second year QB isn't all that bad. Maybe with a decent running game the turnovers don't happen as he wouldn't have been throwing in those situations. The problem is with the way the offense is going TE needs to play a perfect game. Last year, at least they had a running game and better blocking. The Def sucked, but there was promise on the offense. This year, they are going backwards, every game run offense is getting worse. Would JP have done worse, good chance not, but from what we've seen of him, would be surprised if he have done better? And fourth a fifth year player, there's no reason to hope he'll improve much. To me it is pretty amazing to see a team put their entire offense on the shoulders of a second year player!

In addition the Bill's dumped WGR made 10 to 15 years ago. Also as was discussed in another thread just two days ago, The bills per Tom D stopped giving interviews to WGR, wouldn't eve ninvite them to press conferences, etc. Time s are bad, many companies may only have money to advertise on either the Bills or Sabres, not both. So if I'm WGR why would I do anything to help promote the Bills at the expense of the station that carries their games.

I read the article about Mangenious telling Brett he needs ot cut dow non the interceptions. That could go either way. It could make him think about something he normally just does by reaction and throw him slightly off his game. While maybe no Int's, just alot of terrible passes. Or could make him want to prove the coach wrong and have a really good game. Hopefully the first one will happen!

Agree, but I think alot of the "credit" goes to BB for developing the equation to beat Drew. He showed how easy it was. Knowing him for so many years made it easy.