The Big Cat

I get it. The defense doesn't leave the field each week with scorched earth and bloody fragments of their opponents laying in their wake. I was hoping for that too. But underperforming, relative to what? They're a top-10 defense having played half their games against top-10 offenses. Let's see how much they've underperformed after they face Bortles, Tannehil, Fitz, Smith, Hoyer/Mallet, Stafford, Cousins and Fitz again. Those, minus Brady and Romo are the quarterbacks they have left to face. I'm not thrilled that we haven't yet made an opposing quarterback cry in the huddle, but until we've run Rex out of town, how bout we see what he does against the bulk of the schedule. And everyone with a sudden boner for Schwartz conveniently forgets the track meet we allowed at home against New England last year and the turnstiles who made the trip to Oakland.

I know stats lie, but this defense that supposedly got gashed held the Bengals to: 66 Total yards below their non-Bills average including 54 pass yards below and 12 rush yards below.

Dude, the stat was record in games coming off a win. And it was meant to show how lousy he's been. If they dropped five in a row coming off a win in 2012, consistent with the stat was meant to convey, it would have been included. I'm sorry this is hard for you to understand.

Actually, I don't think you do got it.

Actually, no. The stat was meant to show his poor record coming off wins. If that were the pattern, it wouldn't have been omitted.

To think we're only ranked 10th having played a third of our games against the first and second ranked offenses. THE HORROR!

Lincoln Station will not be showing the game. You'll have to reach out to Delilah's if you want to go to the bar. I'll be watching with some Backers in Austin, but can see if there are Chicago Backers meeting somewhere. Stay tuned. Are there sports bars close to you? Of course. Will they be open at 8:30 on a Sunday to show the Bills/Jags game? Doubtful.

Change the thread title?

He has had some great moments. But for the most part...? For me, the first sign that Bradham wasn't going to have a great year was when Joe Buscalagia said he would.

He argued that statically he was similar to TT. He's referring to yards and TD's and completion %, I'm sure. All of which are misleading. I can turn his argument right back on everyone saying this was a defensive meltdown by reminding everyone that we out-gained Cincy in passing, equaled them in rushing, had the ball for as long as they did and had more first downs. Stats = lies.

If it's not clear by now, then you simply don't wish it to be so.

Lucky runs? If at any point in his CAREER, Kyle Orton pulled off a single run like Taylor does several times a GAME, it could be considered lucky. I think Taylor has demonstrated that "luck" has nothing to do with his scrambling ability. Nobody is arguing that EJ has never shown flashes. But he has done so with noticeable infrequency compared to TT. He's lead A fourth quarter game winning drive in 15 starts. We've all acknowledged that one time he did that thing. EJ's statistics from Sunday are about as damning of a lie of his performance as statistics can be. I also worry about TT's durability.

Wow, you guys sure do get them in a bunch when somebody questions the relevance to the franchise of a quarterback who hasn't taken a snap this decade/century. I acknowledged that my opinion was unpopular because I realized how much Bills fans cling to the past. Thanks for reinforcing that. Does Montana travel with the Niners? Is Marino still on the sidelines in Miami? Does Aikman address the team at camp? If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," then okay, I was wrong. If not, then I'd ask you why they don't and Jim does.

Is this true? He's paid to be with the team? Does this exist on any of the other 31 teams? Also, I think I've made my "beef" pretty clear. His time was 25 years ago. There were Buffalo Bills before him, there have been plenty since. At some point he and the organization should move on.

But the question was whether EJ has EVER carried the team that way. The answer is no. In 15 starts he's done it zero times. In five starts, TT has done it once.

Again, the Carolina game winning drive was aided tremendously by a questionable PI that negated an interception. That's a nit-pick, admittedly, but that game shouldn't be pointed to as a precursor to, well anything, since he hasn't replicated anything like that in his 13 starts since. Likewise, I don't know how we point to a near-win against a team that finished the year 4-12 as an indication that EJ has "it" in him.

For example: why is Jimbo with the team in UK? https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloBills/photos/a.75862470658.111835.72631215658/10153543644370659/?type=3

Okay. That wasn't my expectation, nor did I ever state my standards as such.

I think Rex's scheme was highly questionable. But it doesn't top the list for why we lost. There were far too many execution errors that caused much more systematic issues. That's consistent with everything I've said. As far as how badly the defense looked, if you erase the 42 questionable bomb to Jones and the "let's only rush three" third down play on the following drive, they did just about everything they could to be competitive. Eifert's a beast and Rambo is subpar. Receivers were making catches over the middle with Bills defenders draped all over them. The LB's really whiffed on the long Bernard run, I'll give you that, but on the whole, we've experienced far bigger defensive breakdowns from this team!

Rex acknowledged after the game they scheming for coverage didn't work against New England or Cincy and that he expects to change. I have been up and down this board and elsewhere saying we don't have the players to run Rex's scheme against teams like those. What more do you want? He's said he plans to change...so?

If you simply must blame someone other than the players, then fine. But I don't think many people went into this season confident in our safety depth. This isn't a startling development. Right now Searcy is the 16th highest paid safety (both FS and SS) in the league. So, out of 64 starters league-wide, he's 16th. If you want argue he was worth that money he went looking for, fine. I happen to disagree.

Well, we both agree that the gameplan was hamstrung by the offense. Perhaps I'm overstating EJ's culpability in that, but if not him, then who? Shady looked slick as ever. He was very effective running the ball, but the passing game simply couldn't compliment his efforts. So who gets the blame for that?

I've been harping on this to anyone who will listen: if Rex's defense is predicated upon safeties to dictate coverages and blitzes pre-snap, and given the precipitous dropoff from Aaron to Duke Williams, we are SORELY missing a player who's questionable to return...ever. Right now his absence hurts/has hurt more than any other.

Double standard? What the hell are you talking about? When did EJ ever have a fourth quarter comeback of 10+ points to win? The Bills were down 10 when TT scored their first TD with 1:29 to go in the third. I understand TT's technically never had one, but in a smaller sample size, he's at least shown the capacity to do so. To K-9's point, a 17 point 4Q comeback is exceedingly rare. I acknowledge that. TT's skills at least give you a fighter's chance. I don't know what parallel universe you've been living in, but in zero of EJ's 15 starts has he shown the capacity to take over games and be electric. It's simply never happened. He had one game-winning drive against the Panthers in his second career start. A drive that was sustained thanks to a negated interception on a VERY generous PI call. So there's that. I wasn't outright disputing his point.

He came damn close against NE. But I understand your point.