The Big Cat

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/O/OrtoKy00.htm

Every former coach, player and scout has said that Orton--just like every other QB that bursts on to a scene then regresses--is a victim of defenses getting tape on him. Period. Why we try and overcomplicate the matter by pinning it on some ethereal psychological strangle hold imposed by the coaching staff, I'll never know. Also, we did take shots yesterday. One was horribly overthrown, one was horribly underthrown, resulting in a pick, one was thrown into double coverage and Sammy made a RIDICULOUS catch on another.

Well, I'll point you toward the Dallas Cowboys. The perpetually 8-8 team that's hung with Jason Garret in spit ALL the criticism had a deplorable defense last year yet still continued to invest in their OLine. Now they have a back (albeit a good one) who's knocking on the door of 2,000 yards, and the team that was predicted to draft first overall in 2015 is now about to win its division. And as BillsBackersChicago will (un)happily tell you, Spikes was the missing man on ALL those run-gouges. I had asserted prior to this week that he might be expendable and BBC put that one right back on me Sunday every time his absence was felt.

I'd rather have an oline that can move the pile. Let's start there. Otherwise, we're just flaming the OC for inadequately covering deficiencies in talent.

Well, you identified one play in which they spread us for a third and short. But you've conveniently ignored their goal line formation that let Lacy walk into the endzone. How about we don't need to scheme gimmicks to pick up a yard and get a better O-line instead?

The bolded question, per my prior post, is an inevitable one...ALWAYS in this discussion. But moving on: going into 2013 we identified LB and WR's as the team's weakest units. All of a sudden: BOOM, that was fixed. Now we find ourselves saying the same thing about the O-Line and I have a lot of confidence we can find the personnel to improve up front. I think this will go a long way to getting the run game going. While we B word about the multiple tight end sets, we fail to acknowledge that we haven't fielded a back to exceed 70 yds rushing yet this year. This notion that running out of a spread will suddenly cure that seriously overlooks the glaring deficiency we have up front. Our offseason priorty will be securing two out of the three of the following: Dareus, Hughes and Spikes. Second priority will be fixing the offensive line. And through all of this, we have to look for ways to get better at QB. Franchise QB's don't grow on trees, and we can't assess the FO as if they do. I've said previously in this thread, and in many other places prior to that, that we need a QB that's comfortably in the top-15 in the league. EJ could be that guy. With a better OLine that helps us dictatet he running game, Orton could be too. I don't think we need to find a franchise QB.

And you think that running these sets will allow Orton to finally put the ball on open receivers? More importantly, do you think this team was wrong to move away from a run-first offense?

Let's start with a top-15 QB, and I'm not convinced EJ can't be that guy. But getting a top 10 QB is a very tall order, and not getting one won't render the offseason a failure. Further, a top-15 QB wins us two of the games we dropped this year, Anyone who watched last night's game knows how incredibly mortal Kelly can be and -gasp- he punted down 11 points with less than four minutes to go.

Which strengths should he be calling plays for? Let's start there.

(here comes the classic "So you think this offense is great then? You don't think there's aaaaaaaaaanything wrong with it!?")

Sorry, but I think you have about zero credibility on this issue. I've seen you throw your tantrum about the OC, and that tells me everything I know about your level of understanding. Just being honest.

If we subscribe to the notion that Hackett's offense is Marrone's offense and that Orton's failures are all the coaches', then how do we justify Orton putting up nearly identical numbers under McCoy and McDaniels in Denver four short years ago?

You can harp on Lee Smith being in the game all you want, but until our QB stops missing wide open receivers and until our running backs stop missing clear lanes, who cares? It's a talking point you're sticking to, and you keep hammering it home as if Lee Smith in the game = inherently bad. No. It's not. The play designs and protection schemes are getting receivers open and giving the QB time, regardless of who's in the game or regardless of what packages you and/or KTD want to gripe about. EXECUTION has been terrible. And unless you expected Orton to come in here and be our franchise's savior, you should have seen it coming. We had three wide open shots at the endzone yesterday: one was an overthrow to Woods, one was a pick in a jumpball that was underthrown to Watkins and Brown cut back middle when he had a lane wide open to the outside on the broken play. You could swap Lee Smith with Roscoe !@#$ing Parish, and all of these plays would have had the exact same result.

And what's interesting about all those players save Robey and Brown, none of them were asked to do much for the Bills as rookies. Meanwhile, our offense is depending on first and second year guys all over the field.

Yeah Hackett should be fired for not having a QB capable of hitting all those receivers running wide open.

This is also an indication of how infrequently the position turns over. Call me when he cracks the top 3.

quarterbackless

This was one game that inflicting an injury may have come back to bite us, assuming GB meets NE in the SB.

Even the ghosts on our defense hit hard as !@#$. That's one thing we've seen these past few weeks: go ahead and catch the ball in front of us, you'll get lit the !@#$ up when you do. Then, as the game goes on, suddenly receivers get a bit more tentative. Agree 100% with GG and Kelly that our defense created that drop.

Okay. And relevant to the actual topic of this thread, every game we've won this season--including today's--has been because of defense and special teams. So, unless your expectation was 19-0 this season (bravo, if it was), I'm not sure what you're bitching about this time.

Yep. Defenses keep you in games. If you don't believe it watching this time, go back and watch the Gailey era for the inverse.

You made no point. You just listed a bunch of teams as if...well I don't know...all you did was list a bunch of teams.

Fixed

Go away. You contribute zero.

Well, today we squared off against the greatest QB of all time, and the formula worked. Did you have evidence to contrary?