Luxy312

Not this year. NFL's contract with Directv right now requires exclusivity of the Sunday Ticket to Directv to the tune of $800 million through the end of this season. No telling where the NFL or Directv will go with it after this year, but when you start talking about individual game subscriptions (versus the whole package), they would have to be really really careful with evaluation of who their subscribers would be. There's no way for example that I'm shelling out $18.75/game for the Bills and I certainly am not interested enough in other teams to justify paying even more for MNF, Sunday or Thanksgiving football. Now talk to me about bars and sports venues that televise the games. Are they going to shell out for EVERY NFL game or are they going to want a package deal? Nobody obviously knows the answer, but it is very complicated. In terms of ending blackouts, I'm all for it. It can only enhance the value of the brand. Ticket/concession sales are such a small part of revenue over the last 20 years, that it just makes no sense to me.

I'm here in Chicago folks and it's quiet. Bears got beat and it should have been a lot worse. I'm out of several survivor leagues because of this week, but couldn't give a ****. Bills sealed the deal in the red zone. They won a game I would never have guessed they even had a shot. Fantastic!

No. Setting all of the media drama aside, more depth at pass rusher is not what the Bills need. They're plenty deep already, and Sam would be so far down the depth chart that he would be virtually irrelevant. Has he made a couple good plays in the preseason? Sure, but absolutely nothing to distinguish himself as being superior to the talent that we already have. It would be a waste of a roster spot.

Having hope is fine. Like the OP, I've seen a LOT from the first team defense. They've fixed their biggest problem last season in terms of stopping the run and making the other team throw the ball to move the chains. They've also put pressure on opposing QB's and had a lot of 3 and outs. That's all good stuff and what we wanted to see changed from last year. Enter the offense. We hoped that EJ would be more accurate and go through his reads quicker this season. Hasn't happened. He takes too long to go through his progressions and we've seen him sacked a lot as a result. We hoped to see a red zone offense improve from their 31st ranking last season. Also hasn't happened. They've in fact had the worst red zone offense of any team in the NFL in the preseason. Last night, they couldn't even make it into the red zone once on 13 possessions. The defense looks really good, but will they be able to carry an offense that has been inept at every level? I'm not sure.

Nice comparison. Very comparable in terms of productivity. Let's hope for our purposes that the later part of EJ's career looks more like the later part of Jimbo's but with wins in the big dance instead of losses.

I wish the Bills just played all of their games on paper....

This 100%. Same thing happened to Vick in the preseason early in his career. Snapped leg leads to question as to why he's even in there in the first place. So Carrol may be trying to get his guys mentality into the regular season such that they don't have a Superbowl hangover. It is the exception to the rule though.

No to Mallet. If you can't make it as Tom Brady's back-up in New England, then you're not qualified to be a back up anywhere else either. The team doesn't need to "try out" anyone else for a backup job. There's enough of a lack of continuity in this team already, that they don't need to take more away by adding players to the mix.

Before the first preseason game was played, I was optimistic about everything. Spikes and Rivers an upgrade to the run defense. Trading up for Sammy to get that offensive weapon that they just didn't have last year. Upgrading the offensive line with Williams. At this point, I just don't know. While the defense has looked fantastic, the offense looks pretty much as inept as they did last year. Is it EJ? His completion percentage is up marginally (6%) from last year to just under 63%. I can't say that's enough to support a wholesale improvement, but it's up. Is it Hackett? Play calling has been less than imaginative to say the least. Is it vanilla because it's preseason or is it just vanilla? I am no longer optimistic. I want to see a glimmer of hope offensively, and just haven't.

This in a nutshell. People equating NOT getting the Sunday Ticket to not being a fan or not following the team are just plain stupid. Does anyone actually remember the NFL before there was a Sunday Ticket, before there was an NFL network? I'm old enough as I'm sure this fan is to say that I do. I suppose it could be worse. You could be a Chicago Cubs fan.

OK, if we're going to revisit the draft, then let's do so for a period of time that's meaningful. So using revisionist history: 2010 - We don't bother with CJ Spiller. Instead, the pick is Jason Pierre-Paul. This way, there's no need to pay Mario Williams buckets of money to be the pass rusher. 2011 - Pass on Marcel Dareus and instead take J.J. Watt. Effective bookends for Kyle Williams. 2012 - OK, would still go with Gilmore this year. 2013 - Pass on EJ and instead would have taken Kyle Long. Offensive line has been lacking for too long. 2014 - I didn't like the Watkins pick at all. Ryan Shazier should have been the pick. At the end of the day, QB isn't the problem. Unimaginative play calling from Hackett is the problem.

At the end of the first half, I cancelled my Sunday Ticket. I live in Chicago and that was my only way to see Buffalo, but for a nationally televised game. I am done for now. This team is pathetic offensively. Hackett has no vision.

Ironic. The 2014 Bills look a lot like the 1980's Bucs.

When they say the Bills will take over on offense, we really mean "kind of" offense.

No.

run-run-run punt

Not one shot down field AND two turnovers. WTF is the point?

Hackett = Donny. Completely out of his element.

This offense is pathetic.

OK offense. Third try is a charm? Love the defense so far.

Well the defense looks ready. Offense, not yet.

If I had to pick 3, in order they would be: 1 - Hackett's offense. This team was actually pretty good running the football last season, but could not get it done inside the 20 yard line. They were 31st in red zone offense. While I would love to believe that it has been addressed in the offseason, that is just not showing on the field. The common excuse of "they're just working on stuff" just doesn't cut it for me. Like Yoda said, "try? do or do not, there is no try". 2 - The secondary. I didn't think they would be all that bad without Byrd, but they have. Safety support hasn't been that good, resulting in our corners getting burned for big plays. The corners to boot have simply looked average. The improved run defense will force teams to throw the football. I'm pretty confident that that is going to be the case. I just hope that they haven't just replaced one huge area of weakness from last season (run defense) with a huge one this season. 3 - EJ's health. There's no question that EJ is our starter. All the talk of getting competition/Mark Sanchez/etc., are just idiotic conjecture. It's not going to happen. That said, this team isn't going anywhere with either Lewis or Tuel playing in the event of another Manuel injury. Would I like to see EJ play better than last season? Certainly. Even with the limited sample size of this preseason, I like some of what I've seen (except the red zone obviously) from him. He seems to have a better command of the offense.

Stevie has a piss poor work ethic. I'm not surprised that he's flaking out in San Francisco.

The over/under for vegas opened at 6.5 games for this team. That's the same as the Jets. Miami is at 7.5 games and the Patriots 10.5 Why is it so hard to believe that the NFL is picking Buffalo to be last? Not terribly shocking.

This is single handed my #1 concern. I get that as a team, you don't show all your cards in the preseason. I get that you run vanilla and save the good stuff for the regular season. However, you address the issues/challenges that you as a team had in the previous season. Defensively, they clearly addressed their problems in the running game. The front 4 are focused a lot more on stopping runners from gashing them with big plays and the combination of Spikes and Rivers has been fantastic. The secondary still has challenges, but at least we're seeing some progress. Offensively, I'm seeing the same stubborn play calling by Hackett that we saw last year. 2nd and 1 with the defense playing 8 guys in coverage - pass incomplete. 3rd and 1 with the defense playing 8 guys in coverage - pass incomplete. Follow that up with a 4th and 1 run with the defense playing with 8 guys int he box - stuffed and turnover. I think the red zone offense is a mess. I don't think it has anything to do with execution, vanilla play calling, or anything of the sort. As each week passes, more and more I'm putting the responsibility clearly on Hackett's shoulders.