My Friends Call Me Tebucky

Ahh, the old nose tackle dive play. I'd put Chicago into the top 5 teams because you couldn't stop Refrigerator Perry on the nose tackle slant dive at the QB. The NT from the Packers was really great at that too. The Chiefs and Giants were very underrated in that game because you block like 70% of field goals and extra points with Derrick Thomas and Lawrence Taylor, it seemed.

Peters is their best player.

The Bills didn't really play a Cover 2 often this year. Much more often they were in a cover 3. Sorry, but having a safety man up on a tight end and playing your corners 10 yards off the receivers is definitely not a cover 2. Defensive scheme only gets you so far....their strength on defense is in their corners. Which is why they didn't waste them by giving them cover-2 type responsibilities this year. They need DEs that can get to the QB, whether they're in a cover 2, cover 3, base 4-3, whatever. But this "Tampa 2" garbage has to stop...it was very rarely the scheme they played this year.

Exactly. It has nothing to do with his behavior...he was lousy on the field this year, which is all Jones cares about. He can't play corner, and was probably the worst punt returner I saw all year...guy tried to return everything, no matter where the punt landed. Maybe his troubles with the law made him forget that you're allowed to fair catch punts.

If you can't run the ball, can't stop the run, and you're on the road in the playoffs you're going to lose. All 3 applied to Indy this past week. Manning has had his share of playoff duds, but this is about their lack of a running game and letting Tomlinson/Sproles/Bennett stuff the ball down their throats. If it weren't for a couple ill-timed Chargers turnovers, that game would have been won easily by San Diego instead of in OT.

Another thing that hurt Kelly toward the end was the lack of a deep threat. Copeland was slower than death. Brooks and Early weren't burners. We all know what Reed specialized in... After Lofton got old quick and Beebe left, nobody respected their ability to go downfield...the whole defense was packed within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.

That last year he really seemed to throw a lot of pick 6's.

Nice post...but you left out the biggest stat. Turnover differential: Miami +17 Tennessee +14 Baltimore +13 Indy +9 Giants +9 Carolina +6 San Diego +4 Pittsburgh +4 Philly +3 Arizona E Atlanta -3 Minnesota -6 Buffalo -8

I knew Harrison has struggled in the playoffs, but didn't know to that extent. Wow. Actually, I think one of the TDs was against Denver where nobody bothered to touch him when he was down so he got up and ran it in. Kind of a BS score.

I'd put the first New England game as much on the defense as I would the offense. They just couldn't get off the field. It's easy to make a claim that even the best defense in the league would have lost games where we only scored X number of points...but great defenses have a way of putting their offense in position to score. The Bills D didn't do it in any of those 4 games you mentioned. They forced one turnover in the four games combined. A second turnover came from Frank Gore basically fumbling the ball without being touched by a Bill. There's no doubt that the offense sucked in those 4 games. But the defense didn't do anything to change field position, and in 3 of the 4 games let the opponent march down the field for an early touchdown that put the Bills in a hole right off the bat.

They can't run the ball, they can't stop anyone on the ground. Not a good combination if you have to win 3 road games (most likely) to get to the Super Bowl. It's not Manning's fault that Addai (another first round pick, I believe) looked like he was about 35 years old this year.

There's a theme there, sure. But those teams have made some FA mistakes too. I think Baltimore overpaid for Samari Rolle. Lavar Arrington with the Giants? The Patriots overpaid Stallworth and Colvin. I'm sure the contract Duce Staley signed in Pittsburgh wasn't insanely high, but he wasn't worth it. Other teams make free agency mistakes, even the good ones. They're just harder to notice because those teams win consistently.

I think Green Bay at 6-10 was a more underachieving team than any listed so far.

Yeah, if he had cut back he might have gotten an extra 5 yards but that would have been it...considering the guy was coming from an angle, I'm sure Jackson saw him and figured 30 yards or whatever it was, was better than 35 yards and the possibility of a fumble.

Get ready for the big market teams to swallow up any good free agents this year by ridiculously front-loading contracts and giving guys enormous base salaries for the uncapped 2010. I'm sure existing contracts will be restructured to give teams all kinds of cap room moving into the next decade (beyond 2010).

Including the playoffs, Tomlinson has averaged 409 touches per season throughout his career. That's an incredible pace...no wonder his body is breaking down. Everybody said Larry Johnson would be shot forever after that 475 touch season a couple years back. But, in the other years of career he never even got close to the 409 average that LT has maintained.

I like him better than either of our safeties too. But that INT he dropped today was pretty brutal. Probably could have returned it for a TD.

Whitner and Milloy are just about the same player, even at Lawyer's advanced age. The difference is we didn't blow a top 10 pick on Milloy. Oh, yeah, and Milloy got roasted for TDs by Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, Whitner got beat for scores by Anthony Fasano and Jerricho Cotchery.

Since he's useless as a wideout, and almost as small as Sproles, maybe the Bills should look into converting Parrish to RB

As long as he doesn't have personnel control like he had in Denver it would be OK. Couldn't see him having any interest in the Bills though...he's a strict system guy, and the offensive line we've assembled is the polar opposite of what he looks for up front on offense.

Yep. When you can't run the ball or stop the other team on defense, you try to win the game through the air. Don't see what's so confusing about it. A completion there ends the game. Does anybody really think Addai would have picked up the first down on a run? I don't. As the above poster said, it goes to show you the primitive thinking regarding play calling: good if it works, bad if it doesn't. I don't think anybody was bitching about the play-calling when the Colts took 7 minutes off the clock on their previous drive by mixing runs and passes, or when Arizona sealed their win today by throwing the ball on their last drive.

Agree with pretty much everything. Just a couple of minor disagreements- don't think Lynch deserves an A. Pretty good year, improved in the passing game, but he wasn't a huge impact player every week. It might have been partially blocking, but that doesn't explain why Jackson put up better YPC numbers. Not all of Jackson's carries were draws on 3rd and 12... I'd give Kyle Williams higher than a C. He's a starter in my opinion. If we're trying to get a Pro Bowler at every position, yeah, he's not good enough. But they have much bigger problems than him. I think a C for Duke Preston is generous...why do they keep him? They like his versatility apparently, or so they claim. To me that just means he sucks at a variety of positions. I'd bump Jabari Greer up a bit too, unless you're factoring injuries. I thought the only receiver that really got the better of him was Welker. Plus, 2 pick 6's on a team that didn't make many play defensively.

Dockery, Schobel, and Kelsay would all have very significant dead money cap hits. I'm not sure about the others, but they don't really make enough to have a significant impact in saving money in the first place.

27, probably a fan since about 1987...remember pretty much every game since like 1988. The worst part of being a Bills fan born 1979-1982ish was the sh-- you had to endure in middle school in the midst of the run of Super Bowl losses. Nothing worse than losing the Super Bowl in 6th or 7th grade as a kid and having to endure getting teased by classmates about it. And sh--, I'm from the Rochester area...it would be one thing if it were somewhere else. Anyway, not optimistic at all. Average personnel men (at best), average coaching (that's being kind), playing in a division where one team has a Hall of Fame QB and HOF Head Coach and a ton of money to play with just crushes my view of the impending future. The Jets being able to go out and buy free agents at will doesn't help our prospects either.

Blending realism, talent, and need- Byron Leftwich would be my choice among those guys. Kerry Collins isn't going anywhere. Buffalo would actually be an attractive place for a FA QB, given Edwards moderate at best impact and injury concerns. If they played in a dome or had a poor pass blocking line, Garcia would be an option. But they play half their home games with winds over 20 MPH it seems, and he's more of an improv guy than a pocket passer. It wouldn't be a good fit.