dave mcbride

The Bills against the Saints during the drought: 0-4. Scores: 24-6, 19-7, 27-7, and 35-17.

I will say this: the Jets are better than I anticipated. I live in NY and see a lot of them, and they've been in every game except for the Raiders and first Bills games. They could easily be 6-3.

2008, Week 8: The 5-2 Bills are destroyed, 26-17 (it was worse than the score indicates), by the Jets. The Bills turn it over 3 times, Edwards is sacked 5 times, and the Bills accumulate under 300 yards of offense. 2011, Week 8: The 5-2 Bills are destroyed, 27-11, by the Jets. The Bills were down 27-3 until they scored a garbage time TD with a couple of minutes to go. 3 turnovers for the Bills, and the Bills accumulate under 300 yards of offense. 2017, Week 8: The 5-2 Bills are destroyed, 34-21, by the Jets. The Bills scored two garbage time TDs in the last four minutes. 3 turnovers by the Bills, and Taylor is sacked seven times. Due to a stellar garbage time performance, however (onside kick recovery!), they manage to accumulate 307 yards. In 2008 and and 2011, complete meltdowns ensued after the losses to the Jets. (And don't get me started on the second Jets game of 2008--the Losman fumble game.)

Yowch! People need to stop blaming TT for the sacks, at least for this game. 17 jailbreaks - my god.

Agreed - he actually escaped 2 or 3 that would have brought down any other QB.

Absolutely true. I think the reason they looked so good is because they were possessed by the ghosts of Kris Jenkins circa 2008 and David Harris/Mo Wilkerson/Calvin Pace in 2011. They were stomped in the latter game, behind 27-3 until a garbage time TD with a couple of minutes to go.

That was 2011. There was also 2008: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200811020buf.htm- the Kris Jenkins game. The Bills are now 0-3 when 5-2 and facing the Jets in week 8 in the last decade.

He had plenty of completions on intermediate throws last night before garbage time, and many of those were in tight windows. Plus his completion rate was very high. The jailbreaks, fumbles and running game failures doomed the offense.

This isn't an evidence-based argument. The QB is important, to be sure, but it doesn't begin and end with him. Football is the ultimate team game. Taylor played well enough to win a 21-17 game provided the Bills D held up its end (it didn't). Twice his receivers fumbled in FG territory, after all. I watched the game closely, and I watched jailbreak after jailbreak, with no one on the Bills line capable of handling superior talents like Leonard Williams or Mo Wilkerson. Hence the pocket collapsed almost instantaneously on far too many occasions. There is nothing a QB can do about that if a play design is to push the ball down the field. And just look at the first play of the game - that was an instance of the Bills being completely outschemed. It destroyed a possession.

Excellent post.

Not to excuse the gameplan, but sometimes they face off against better players. I don't care what the sack totals for the Jets' d-line are; they have a couple of monsters, one of whom - Leonard Williams - is significantly better and more talented than o-lineman on the Bills.

As I imply above, I don't a lot of Bills fans realize how good Leonard Williams actually is. Wilkerson is a longtime Bills killer too.

100 percent correct.

Please - on many of those sack plays, the designs were for deeper passes. Dennison was outschemed all night.

I think the Bills offense was outschemed from play one onward, so I can't argue with this. I actually thought Taylor played well overall, akin to the besieged troops at the Alamo. He had no chance on so many of those sacks, and many of those sacks were a product of a better scheme on the defensive side. Dennison did not attack the five-man fronts with quick passing designs until way too late. I'd put turnovers higher because they arguably cost the Bills 6 points on offense and 7 points on defense (they lost by 13 points). The first two fumbles were lost in FG territory, and Taylor's fumble (essentially garbage time, but still) led to 7 points for the Jets. By the way, Leonard Williams is a monster. He is the best player in that draft as judged per the position he plays (that is, I'd still take a qb over him): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_NFL_Draft. He is basically unblockable.

If you are a first round DE, you better friggin' be able to rush the passer. It's job 1 for a DE.

Transitioning from being that trap game for others to actually facing trap games is very, very difficult.

No, but i think it's inarguable that he was outschemed from the very first snap onward.

He was sacked once in the previous 2 games. I agree that he takes sacks, but he avoids tons and the Bills o-line is NOT a good pass blocking unit overall. Mills and Ducasse are legitimately bad pass blockers.

The redskins game in 2015 was significantly worse than this one.

Yet he had only been sacked Once in the previous 2 games. Sometimes it's actually the line.

Lol - 109.8 rating with zero turnovers despite being under complete siege all night. The jets should have 2-3 more sacks than they actually have, btw.

Game is over and he doesn't like to lose. Not a huge deal.

Lol. No, it will not.

Evidence that he is playing poorly - i mean real evidence??