Schulman16

You say, "I want a new coach!" Some of you don't seem to understand that bringing in a brand new coach with an entirely new system and therefore an entirely new staff would do nothing but decrease our chances of getting to the playoffs next year. Keeping Mularkey for at least one more season allows us to see an actual progression with J.P Losman. Otherwise you can't expect the kid to learn a brand new offense and do any better than he did this past season. You say, "but mularkey was a terrible playcaller!" Yes, the playcalling was consistently questionable. But if you ask anyone who knows anything about football they will tell you that the coach should not be the one calling the plays during the game. Should he oversee it? Yes. Should he design the offensive gameplan during the week? Yes. Should he call the plays during the game when he needs to be focusing on all the other things a head coach needs to focus on during the game? No. That's why you have offensive coordinators. Coaches need a freaking coordinator who can be up in the booth, noticing tendencies in the defense that can be exploited and call plays accordingly. The fact that Mularkey took over playcalling duties shows me that Clements really wasn't doing a good job--and mularkey lost all trust in him. Granted, Clements was Mularkey's guy. But firing him was the right move and at least Mularkey recognized. You say, "but this team went from 9-7 to 5-11!" Any why do you think that is? Maybe it had something to do with inferior personell on the field? An offensive line that features Mike Gandy and Bennie Anderson? Are you kidding me? Don't forget the Greg Jerman and Mike Williams backup duo. A defensive line that features Tim Anderson and Justin Bannan plugging the middle (more on sam adams later)? Losing your best player to a season ending injury? An aging Troy Vincent and Lawyer Milloy who, by the 4th quarter, decide not to tackle well? And you wonder why the defense struggles. Also, I dont know what happened to Nate Clements, but for some reason he got beat by every receiever this year where he was pretty much a shut down corner last year. But that's Mularkey's fault, not his. Also, going with a rookie quarterback and expecting him to be anything more than he was this year was a bit unrealistic. I'm not blaming anyone for thinking he could lead us to the playoffs. You expected him to manage a game and therefore win. But this was contingent on the defense being #2 in the league again, Willis to run for 1500 yards (see Mike Gandy/Bennie Anderson comment above), and for the defense and special teams to score 10 TD's like it did the year before. Instead, none of that happened, and Losman looked like, well--like a QB starting for the first time. He looked like crap. Maybe if we had a veteran in there who could put the team on his shoulders we could make a run at it. That's a legitimite point. Meanwhile, dumping Bledsoe and going with Losman may or may not have been Mularkey's decision in the first place--and even if it was--was it that terrible a decision? You say, "but Mularkey cant even decide on a freaking QB!" When we were 1-3, after having 0 consistency from the QB position, the decision gets made to start Kelly Holcomb--see maybe if we can turn this thing around and possibly make a run at things and at the same time get Losman a chance to catch his breath and regroup. Sure enough, we got a couple of wins against divisional opponents keeping us alive. That decision looked a little smart. "Maybe we got something here", we wonder. People start thinking, "hmm, maybe Holcomb should have started the season instead of JP". Again, you guys get fooled into thinking we have anything more than inferior personell. Holcomb leads the bills to losses against oakland and New England, and looked to be doing the same against KC until he got hurt. "Oooh! Losman looks like the guy we thought we were going to get when we started the season" Yes, Losman did a great job against KC, but we had a great defensive effort--forcing turnovers, and solid special teams stopping dante hall. Then Losman starts again and we get killed by San Diego. Josh Reed drops a touchdown pass here, a first down there. The defense with inferior personell surrenders 48 points. Willis, behind that line anchored by those studs that might not start on any other team in the league with the exception of Chris Villarial and Trey Teague (although they have started to decline with age as well) begins his 2nd half slide. We compete against Carolina, but the D folds again at the end and the offense, led by essentially a rookie QB cant put up more than 9 points against a solid defense. No help from the running game. "But", you say, "Mularkey didn't give us a chance with the running game". Well, the Carolina game he got 21 carries and had a solid 2.5AVG! (53 yards for you math majors out there) The miami game which we blew (thanks to a bad throw by JP, terrible pass coverage epitomized by the inability to stop Sage freakin' rosenfels), he got 27 carries with a whopping 3.0 AVG (81 yards). And when you are down by as many as the bills were against New England and can't convert 3rd downs, your running back isnt going to get the ball very often. And even on his 8 carries, willis only got 3 yards anyway. You think, "With Mularkey we can't score any points" Well when you can't run the ball in the redzone that's what happens. Sometimes its a case of not actually running which the coach should be faulted for. But then I remember the Cincinatti game when we cant got 1 FREAKING YARD on 5 plays at the goaline. Willis scored like 13 times last year, only 5 this year. I think that indicates something. Eventually, the third time in the game that we were down at their 1, holcomb BARELY got in on a sneak behind this pathetic line. I think last year we put up a lot of points becasue our stout defense, and veteran/potential future HOF quarterback masked a lot of our problems. Again it all boils down to the players that are on this team. They are bad! Yes theres some talent at the skill positions. We've got good speed on the perimeter, for example. But you can't freakin assemble a team like you would on madden 2006. You need guys who block well, guys who tackle well, guys who arent complainers. Screw Sam Adams--he's got no credibility despite how 'good' you think he is. Every team he goes to he alienates people. Moulds, I love him, but he's been mad that theres been no consistency at the QB position--and lashed out against the coach. He was suspended by Mularkey--big deal. It happens. Moulds got into a fight with the WR coach, not MM anyway. And given the fact that he met with Ralph Wilson and still got suspended, tells me that it probably was the right move anyway. I dont think MM lost control of this team. They fought hard against Cincy when a team like the raiders would have folded. Guys like London Fletcher have said pubicly that they like Mularkey and want him here. If you want to blame anyone for the Bills failures, blame the man who got fired today. Everyone around the league is saying Gregg Williams is going to be a great coach. He did sh*t with the players that were given to him. The fact that Mularkey is also struggling tells me that theres something wrong at the GM position before we can even guage how good the coach is. To prove my point even further. the Bills shot themselves in the foot against the Jets--not so much from bad coaching, but bad QB play. You want to blame Mularkey for these constant passes to Shelton, but just remember that there are other receivers running routes on every play, and Holcomb loves throwing to the guy closest to him--just like he did on 4th and 8 against New England. Great players we have on this team, don't we?

Yeah, seriously. Back in the beginning of the season and the end of last season when the running game was going well everyone was loving shaud. Now that the line has worn down even more, if Willis cant do anything, you sure cant expect Shaud to get anything going either.

Rumors are that Mike Sherman will be fired from Green Bay at the end of the season. If this happens, I bet he's our next coach and/or GM. He's definitely proven and knows how to work with a fiery QB. I would love to see him here.

Stastically, the bills run the ball more than any other team in hte league with a losing record. Our problem is defense and big plays on offense.

According to Chris Berman just now, Losman might see some action today. Holcomb is still starting, but JP could get a few series. I dont know how I feel about this.

heard it on the Bills pregame.

I just submitted a question to ask MM on buffalobills.com. I really hope mine gets picked. "Coach, I'm a little disappointed by the lack of offensive creativity and imagination. Where were the adjustments at halftime? I didn't see one draw play, screen pass, or misdirection run to keep tampa's defense honest. I know it's easy to blame the loss on J.P, but I don't think the coaching staff put him in the best position to succeed. With that said, what can we expect from the offense next week against another strong defense?" I urge all of you to ask a tough question to mularkey.