dave mcbride
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Posts posted by dave mcbride
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you guys are incredible. yes, i would have liked to see holcomb take a chance in the endzone, but he is *not* the problem. blame bennie anderson for the fact that that drive failed.
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it looks like he escaped right after donohoe left pitt. that error therefore can be attributed to the the post-donohoe regime.
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Agreed. His shortcomings clearly lay with player personnel and coaching evaluations, not his running of the team.
I wonder if the wholesale turnover of the scouting staff after Butler & AJ Smith went west might not be a bigger factor in the Bills plight than any of us imagine. There was a ton of football knowledge on that staff that retired or left the organization. The scouts we have now are relatively young and I can't help but wonder if the teams' lack of character/mental toughness is due in part to the greeness of the current scouts vs. the grizzled vets who used to run our scouting area.
you know, now that i think about it, i don't think it was the college scouts who were the problem. like all teams, they've had some misses, but they've had their hits as well. i really think that aside from the coaching stuff, the pro personnel was the thing that killed him. sure, they hit on spikes, but they let too many guys go who shouldn't have been let go and nabbed some others that shouldn't have been nabbed. and as always with him, there is the qb position problem. i don't ever think he's ever overseen a team where the qb contributed stellar play. probably the best he got was drew in 02, but bledsoe's stats that year were deceiving, as he generally went into the tank against good teams and late in the season.
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i've been pretty critical of him over the years, but he's done a lot of good things for the team and one can't criticize him for lack of trying. i have no doubt that he worked his ass off over the past five years. i do think he needs to go, but the imminent firing is sad nonetheless. i do wish him well.
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Meshawn's always been kind of like Deion Sanders used to be: an obnoxious ass who never shuts his trap on the field and in front of the media, but a relatively decent and generous guy otherwise. Some of these guys are truly ass holes (TO, for example)...but for some, it's just an affectation. From what I've heard, Keyshawn falls into the latter category.
tell that to his ex-girlfriend, who he's prevented from seeing because of a restraining order courtesy of the court.
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ward is good, but he's gotta be a complete stud in the playoffs to match vrabel. that guy plays great in the playoffs.
for those who don't remember, the steelers played the pats in the playoffs after the 1997 season, and won 7-6. the deciding play? drew was looking, looking -- pat, pat -- sack!!! fumble! vrabel blindsided him, and that was the game.
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Wow, I can't believe I totally missed that.
This just kills me - TD must have loved the high motor on Chris, after the stellar career his brother had in Pittsburgh. The best pickup of a brother tandem since Cleveland picked Mike Junkin after the stellar LB career of brother Trey in Buffalo.
note that chris villarreal is an alum of the same tiny school as TD and modrak -- indiana u of PA.
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Put O'Donnel aside for a moment.
From my understanding, and according to many diehard Steeler fan friends of mine (I have all together too many friends that are Steeler fans), a big part of the power struggle between Cowher and TD at the end was that TD wanted NO PART of Kordell as QB, and Cowher wanted to stick with him. These guys know their Steelers info well enough IMO that I will trust them.
you are correct - donohoe was very high on jim miller. miller would have been a pretty good player if not for all the injuries, actually.
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mike vrabel in the third round (91st pick overall) in 1997. how the hell did the steelers let him go?
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simon, given this logic, i trust you're one of the people who gives butler credit in the late 80s for the bills drafts and not simply polian?
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on thurman's last run to the 30, al edwards failed to throw a block. if he does, thurman probably makes it to the 20.
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Since Donahoe left Pittsburgh, there has been minimal turnover in their personell. The Stillers have been beating the hell out of people with the roster that TD assembled before he left and the corps of the team has essentially stayed the same.
However as we move further away from Donahoe's tenure there, you can see the Stillers becoming a weaker team. Their OLine has been far less effective as Donahoe's players have aged or moved on and their defense is showing chinks as Pittsburgh's front office has apparently not been able to maintain the same quality team as Donahoe did. Not only are they no longer a yearly lock to win their division, but now you can even see them struggling just to make the playoffs.
They'll always be a solid franchise with the shrewd Rooneys around, but the current administration has not been able to replace Donahoe's departing personell with equal players and I think you'll continue to see some decline in the near future as well.
Cya
a key reason the steelers are a little down this year (on offense, at least) is not having plaxico, who is genuinely regarded as one of the most dangerous receivers in the league. he's been huge for the giants, and is pretty much always double covered. his presence opens up the running game greatly (witness tike barber consistently running against 7 man fronts). for what it's worth, burris came after donohoe left.
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OK, Faulk hasn't produced big numbers since 2001.
The Rams record:
2002: 7-9 (23rd in points scored in the NFL)
2003: 12-3
2004: 8-8 (19th in points scored in the NFL)
I don't see where a QB is drafted means anything.
He doesn't take special teams seriously, which has cost the Rams time and again. I remember a game in Buffalo last season that turned on special teams play.
I'm not sure what his opponents playing in a dome means, because I was referring to the way his offense is structured. It would be a disaster late in the season in Buffalo when the winds are blowing to try and throw the ball 35 times every game.
It's amazing to me that people who obviously never watch another team play with more than a passing glance can like a guy who coaches in almost the exact same manner as a guy they hate. Mike Martz is like Mike Mularkey with a bit more experience.
But I don't hate Mularkey!! As for the Rams offense, it's not so different from the K-gun, which was another pass-to-set-up-the-run-with-lots-of-downfield-throws-with-deep-ins-and-deep-outs offense.
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i'm not saying that it's insignificant, but that it's a distant third to offense and defense. as for their 3 point victories, come on -- last year, vinatieri nailed an easy one, and the year before he missed some easy ones.
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i might agree with you the first year, but in the second super bowl run, vinatieri went 1 for 4 in field goals in the sb. the offense won it for them.
as for last year, i don't recall the special teams doing anything remarkable. pretty ho hum, actually. it was all the offense and the defense ...
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you're absolutely right: the end of the second half 3 weeks ago -- the bills lead miami 21-0. miami decides to kick a fg to make it 21-3 just before the half, and the fans boo. it was obviously the right move, in retrospect.
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More with less?
Holt, Bruce, Faulk, Davis, Pace. That ain't less and Green, Warner, and Bulger ain't chopped liver. He also plays half or more of his games in a dome. I can only imagine how well his very technical and difficult to learn offense would work with 40 MPH crosswinds.
Mike Martz would be a disaster in Buffalo. An absolute disaster.
aside from pace, he lost pretty much the entire offensive line. bulger was a 6th round nobody. faulk hasn't produced big numbers since 01. as for the dome thing, his opponents play in that dome too. i'm not saying i want him, it's just that i always felt that the vitriolic criticism directed at him was, well, a little crazy. so he doesn't take special teams seriously. really, is that that big of a deal? the bills have great -- and i truly mean great -- special teams this year. what in god's name has it done for them?
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very quickly - angelo and whoever the college scouting guy is were key in drafting benson, and depaul, the pro personnel guy, is almost surely the guy who brought in jones. that said, in good organizations the pro guy has a say in draft picks.
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well, it's better to win games against your own division opponents - however sorry they may or may not be - than against, say, tougher afc teams. building a team to consistently beat your rivals and closest enemies is a good thing. it tends to give you a bye in the playoffs.
p.s. it's not as if the bills didn't rack up lots of wins against the pats, colts, and jets in the early 90s. it worked out for them -- homefield advantage in the playoffs.
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i think he understands offense, in the sense that you can't score many points if you plan offenses around (as mularkey does) the classic 14 play drive. that works -- and it's a beautiful thing -- if your o-line has been together for 5 years, but as we know, that's not how it works in today's nfl.
as for comparing him with mariucci, i do actually think he's done more with less, and has weathered the transition to a new regime better than mooch did.
do i want him to be the coach of the bills? i have no idea. i haven't thought enough about it.
by the way, how did you get to work today? i biked -- it was a trip!
Bills-Bengals Game Thread
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
the play was designed to go to mark campbell on a corner route (according to avp, who knows more than all of us). he was double covered. basically, marvin lewis made a good defensive call, and the bills' guys in the end zone were covered. take the 3 and don't risk the int.