nodnarb

I do *not* like our defensive playcalling. We should be blitzing and giving them exotic looks. I can't fathom why they're giving Campbell such respect.

The Chiefs and Raiders couldn't be much more different. Going into the Chiefs game, I was more concerned about the Raiders. Their week 1 game made it clear that these aren't the pushovers that some people think. They're a lot like the Bills in that regard. This one is going to be a fight and I'll bet the W won't be evident until late in the 4th. First team to get up 2 scores should win this game - I don't see the Raiders passing to victory and I don't see the Bills having the same success on the ground, either. The Raiders will try to run primarily and the Bills will try to pass primarily. Both of the Raiders' lines are big and nasty and we'll learn more about our lines from this contest than we did from the Chiefs. This is the trend of the NFL - bigger bodies. It will be interesting to watch the matchup against Seymore and Bell/Levitre. That guy has not lost a single thing - he was released because he's a 5 technique and the Pats play a 43 now. He looked like his prime self the other night. The Bills might have a slight advantage due to the travel and jet lag but I think those things are generally overrated. If we can hold them to 150 total rushing yards or less I don't see how we lose. But that's a big If. Bills 24, Raiders 20

Obviously there were a lot of great things in this game to be excited about. But to answer your question, the one thing that's the most encouraging to me is this: We now have a coach that understands the importance of stepping on a team's neck when they're down. Gailey's play calling today was superb and relentless. The play I liked best? Brad Smith's INT. That's right. Even though we already had the game won, Gailey called a play that gave him the option to go for the humiliation shot. Does anyone think Jauron would have done that? Jauron is a really, really nice guy. If he had gotten up two or three scores he would have been on the sidelines preparing an apology. The best a Jauron team could do was keep it close and hope for the best. That was clearly his strategy, because after every game, usually a loss, he'd tell us "it's hard to win in this league." Those days are over.

Again, I'll take that bet. I've watched him and he has been impressive. Not dominant, but he does his job well for a second year NT. He has improved and is likely to continue to improve. I think your "analysis" of him will more likely be considered the bust two years from now.

Both of these comments are baseless. I watched the games and I saw a guy who consistently did his job at NT, and this was while wearing a cast. I also listened to the coach and player comments about him over the past several weeks and there's nothing to warrant this kind of comment. Sounds to me like maybe some fans don't like his name, or maybe they just want to see Jasper in there because hey he's Mike Jasper! Seriously, all Troup did this offseason was validate why they took him when they did.

His comment is being taken out of context. He's trying to instill confidence in his team, and he's merely saying that every time he steps on the field with his team, he feels prepared and confident. He feels that he can win. So much that he expects that he'll get it done. If this is true for all games, then that translates into 19-0 confidence. Every single coach in the league would agree with him, contextually. This is great. What an upgrade to hearing "It's hard to win a game in the NFL" after EVERY SINGLE GAME, win or lose (mostly the latter).

Is this seriously a thread concerned about letting Zach Pianalto go? Some of the fan base here seems to be infected with Everything We Do Is Dumb And Everything They Do Is Smart Syndrome (EW-DID-AET-DISS). Another recent case in point: We shouldn't have let Jauron talk the team into drafting Maybin, on that we all agree. And when we cut him there was universal snickering here, amplified when he cleared waivers. As soon as he was picked up by the jets and touted by Rex Ryan, suddenly Bills coaches are fools. Then he's cut again, essentially ratifying the decision by the Bills coaches, and there's a round of snickering again. There is no icon that captures this.

Typical reply here at tsw. The Pats do it and it makes sense. They admit they made a mistake. The Bills do the exact same thing (Maybin, Hardy, et. al.) and it's not admitting that a mistake was made, it's more like they gave up too soon or whatever. "Well unlike the Bills..." What an eye-roller...

Inaccurate and useless post. Do you even understand the NT position? Let's do this play by play - you'll have to eat your words. Troup performed very well in this game, and has done nothing to support your "thesis", for lack of a more fitting and lesser word, that he is "horrible". Are you Jasper's girlfriend or something? While I agree with you that Papazoid is full of himself and something else, "all due respect"? Why is papazoid due any respect? He has said nothing to earn my respect, but hey - I'm just one guy with a pair of eyes.

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick Tyler Thigpen Brad Smith (Yes, Thigpen was bad in preseason. But he'll be a decent #2) FB Corey McIntyre RB Fred Jackson C.J. Spiller Johnny White (Bruce Hall is pretty good, but ineligible for the PS. They'll tell him to stay in shape and wait by the phone.) WR2 Donald Jones David Nelson Marcus Easley Kamar Aiken Surprise 1: Aiken makes the team. Has the body type that Gailey and Nix like at WR. Made some plays. Nelson was quiet this camp, which surprised me. Don't really know where he stands. Roosevelt will be placed on the PS because he's not likely to be taken to somebody's 53-man roster. Especially not with an ankle injury. LT Demetrius Bell Ed Wang Surprise 2: Wang makes the team. He hasn't been that bad, and better than Wrotto/Howard LG Andy Levitre C Eric Wood Geoff Hangartner Surprise 3: The media has made Hangartner seem like a sure-cut. Not at the outset. He's not the right body type for Gailey, who likes bigger bodies, and will be the first to be cut if/when someone else is released that they like better. Rhinehart to the PS. RG Kraig Urbik RT Erik Pears Chris Hairston TE Scott Chandler Shawn Nelson Surprise 4: Nelson makes it despite being a ghost this preseason. What was his injury this time? Anyone…anyone…? WR1 Steve Johnson Roscoe Parrish LDE Marcell Dareus Alex Carrington NT Kyle Williams Torell Troup (Papazoid: Kiss it.) Michael Jasper Surprise 6: I was thinking that they'd try to hide him on the PS but after the halftime interview, Nix gave it away. He's on the team. RDE Dwan Edwards Spencer Johnson RE: Spence, I've thought all offseason that this is the guy they'd try to trade to a 43 team. Never happened, and he has played well. SLB Chris Kelsay Robert Eddins Surprise 7: Eddins. This guy looks like he belongs. MLB Andra Davis Kelvin Sheppard Impressive first start for Shep. Not that they'd cut a 3rd round pick anyway... WLB Nick Barnett Kirk Morrison Arthur Moats JLB Shawne Merriman Antonio Coleman Danny Batten Surprise 8: Coleman, the UFA, looks like he should have been drafted after all. Batten: Like his attitude and hustle, but he looks so small out there…not sure about him making the team despite his solid outing versus the Bears. LCB Terrence McGee Aaron Williams Justin Rogers If McGee is cut, as the rumors suggest, there'd have to be more to the story. He hasn't played poorly at all. RCB Leodis McKelvin Drayton Florence Reggie Corner FS Jairus Byrd SS George Wilson Bryan Scott Da'Norris Searcy K Lindell P Moorman LS Sanborn PRACTICE SQUAD Roosevelt Heard Levi Brown Jehuu Caulcrick Lionel Dotson Zack Pianalto Chad Rinehart Chris White

Papazoid - you there? I'll take any bet you'd like to make. You say that Troup won't make it. I say he's our #2 NT who sees *a lot* of time and you'll be forced to admit you were wrong by the end of the year, if not sooner. You can talk all you want about how you isolated him with binoculars. I isolated him with my HD Sony Bravia and saw a guy doing his job consistently. Look at the 3 and out series from the Lions' goal line for example. Who is that guy who executes a perfect swim move to force the QB to make a hurried throw, falling harmlessly to the turf? And who is the guy who beats a double team and stuffs the RB? Troup, then Troup. He was a factor all night. I counted ONE play where he was taken out of a play in such a way that he'd probably want it back. One. And that'll happen to anybody. Offer stands...I like an easy bet.

I was going to reply to the earlier thread on Troup but I didn't want to elevate it. It's not worthy. It's almost entirely worthless as a discussion thread. I watched the same game and come to the complete opposite conclusion. He did a good job in this game even without the use of one hand. He pancaked a guard on two plays, made several solo tackles with good penetration, and did his job as a NT by holding up against double teams on several plays. To say after this game that "Troup is terrible", you might as well say that Merriman was terrible, too. All Merriman did was get a key stop on 3rd down and make an incredible diving TFL in the span of 6 downs. Even though he has been impressive enough in a cast, let's see what Troup can do with that cast off his hand. If you're going make a statement about a player, back it up. Cue Deep Voice...

I'm of the complete opposite mind. I'm glad we have all those players for the price of one. CJ goes down and how F'ed are they? Very. I think the idea of paying ANY running back that kind of money is ludicrous and I'd be pissed if I were a Titans fan. Pay big money to your blockers. Make sure they are elite. They will make average running backs highly productive, and you can spread the money and injury risk out to multiple players. This is team management wisdom. Paying a few players gigantic salaries is a high-risk recipe for failure. There's a certain team in our division that would agree with this. Even their ONE exception, their QB, has won more SBs that any active QB and yet he's not close to the top earner at his position. And after him, they are willing to pay blockers elite salaries but no other skill positions. (Mankins makes more money than any RB ever will on their team).

The media has fomented this unfortunate and unnecessary distraction. I would bet anything that if our two preseason performances had been better that there wouldn't be so much acrimonious noise in the Buffalo fan-o-sphere. (pardon the term, my sentence sort of backed me into that corner.)

It's not even news. Every single team, every season, has a good guy on it who feels underappreciated. Many team have bad guys who feel underappreciated. Gleason merely amplified an ordinary story into crisis, which is what he loves to do.

Jackson is the one being ridiculous here. Amplified by Bucky Gleason, who LOoooves this sort of thing. Nothing seems to make Bucky happier than to take a small story, make it huge, and hope that it affects the team in such a way that it makes his coverage of it appear revelatory and insightful in hindsight. Bucky thinks that this is his job. It's not. Bucky should try to model his career after Paul Hamilton, a true pro. Bucky tends to act like a pissed off fan who snuck into a reporter's job.

I'd put my money on the Bengals having the first overall pick. If we struggle again, it'll still be better than last year's 4 wins. More like between 6 and 8.

What's everyone wailing about? I'm guessing it's the title of this thread, which makes an assumption. The safer assumption is that they want to see how these guys perform against the first defense. Looks to me like they're trying to get a better idea of what they have and how flexible their guys are.

Good stuff. It's about time that out-of-date QB rating system has been officially updated. It was so woefully incomplete before. Giving the same value to a 3 yard pass that goes for a 50yd TD vs the perfect over-the-shoulder out route that flies 50 yards through the air...not to mention the *situational* aspect of the grading system...it's a much better analytical tool now. Heh heh...tool....

This thread is both ridiculous and dull. Maybe some fans are in the habit of assuming that the OLine is bad again because it has been a weak link for years, but not RECENTLY. The OLINE wasn't bad last year despite many injuries. LEVITRE and WOOD are both studs. Yes, Levitre too. I really, REALLY liked what I saw from Urbik late last year. On the left side, when he has been healthy, Bell has been as good as ANY LT in our division - that's right. When he wasn't nursing his knee back to health and only playing half the downs because of it, Bell has been solid - and impressive at times. The problem recently has been RT, where Green proved he had nothing left. They took a shot on a guy and it didn't pan out. We had a solid RT and he retired unexpectedly, leaving this new admin in an unfortunate situation. Chan says he likes Pears. Chan knows more about these things than you do, than any of us do. So let's see what he can do. And Hairston. And anybody else they think is worthy. If they think a guy is worthy, so should you. Judge after the games have started and you have data to reference. I expect Hangartner might take the RG role, and he's solid. I expect good things from our OLine this year, and I expect that we'll finally have a silencing of the OLine complaints. ANd please, let's not look at outsiders' stat blog. Stats can support any thesis you want. You'll find many surprises if you look hard enough. Want some stats? During the SB years of the pats, they had a middle of the road D statistically. But we all know how good they were. I look at that stat site right now and see a dozen incongruities. Was Miami really that good at running the ball? Is that what they were known for? Did Miami's run game scare anybody? To say "another bad oline" is just a useless comment, plain and simple. They haven't even played a down yet this year. I bet I know what you want: NAMES! Right? Guys you've seen on MNF playing for big contracts. BELL: Solid. LEVITRE: Solid+ WOOD: PRO-Bowl bound RG Hangartner? Solid. RT? Uncertain. Doesn't look like our biggest problem to me. Our problem last year was defense. If we had a middle of the road D, we'd have won 9 games despite being in the first year of new schemes on both sides of the ball AND with personnel still largely suited to the previous schemes. Chan impressed me a lot last year. He has improved an offense every time he has had the chance in the NFL. He knows what to look for in OLinemen, as does Nix. They made changes from the old regime, many changes. NOW GIVE THEM A FREAKING CHANCE and maybe quit boring everyone with the same old commentary which might have met with approval two or three years ago and beyond but recently? Please...

I disagree. I think there are many, many good players on this team. 4 wins last year is what usually happens when you have new systems on both sides AND personnel that doesn't match those systems. Considering the number of games that came down to a few points, we should all feel pretty hopeful that this GM, this coach, and these players can surprise a lot of people this season, even though we've been handed the toughest schedule YET AGAIN. And I don't think you pay decent linebackers 7 million per season. Especially decent linebackers who have only stayed healthy for 1 full season and who has been very vocal about wanting to play in a 43. Nix tried to re-sign him so anyone trying to vent stupid fan anger toward Nix or anyone else in the front office is reacting emotionally and not rationally. Be smart. Posluszny didn't want to play in a 34D, period. He had choices, and made one. Get over it.

WOW, that's a lotta bread for a solid but unspectacular guy. He was good, and I'd have preferred if he had stayed, but you're right. Maybe not at that price.

For those crying about losing "POZ" may I please remind you of a few things: 1. "POZ" was never popular for the RIGHT REASONS, ie, making game-impacting plays. He was merely good. 2. "POZ" was almost universally considered best suited for a 4-3D, and prefers that alignment himself. 3. "POZ" has a catchy name and heritage that appealed to many fans, but let's remember item 1, shall we? Wish him well, move on, and start pulling for our new guys. You'll feel better. Sorry about that jersey you bought but hey, it was one of the old clown suits anyway.

Had to know it was coming considering his success with Gailey in KC. We needed a proven backup, and we got one. Those who wanted to hire a basket case kid like Vince Young...I don't understand it.

What do you know?