The Big Cat

That 4.8 feels awfully high. I'm guessing both Spiller's long runs (Miami/Minnesota) and both long runs in the Bears game (Jackson/Dixon) came on first down. Yeah the follow up sentence " If anything, predictable play-calling is hurting the run game more than poor run blocking..." didn't make any sense to me neither.

How much of the offense's sputtering can be attributed to the OLine? I'm thinking somewhere in the range of 60-80% of the blame. I'm thinking if we had Dallas' oline, we might be damn near 8-0.

Is it that I support Hackett? Or is that I'd rather live in a world where Bills fans could find themselves chilling the !@#$ out and being satisfied 5-3 going into the bye with a 2-1 division record following a 20 point division win on the road where we've never won before?

That's not the narrative, though.

Sourcing this board as reliable? Hmph. He asked about our game, not the season. Your evasion is telling.

If we only 10 games when we should have won 18, then everyone should be fired. Starting with Pegula.

He threw zero picks. There were zero holds. And we had plays of 84 and 61 yards.

Also, this is a very convenient, very sweeping statement to make about Carroll. I see. So when it works, it doesn't count.

San Fran? May be. They've made their living on a being a ground and pound team. Also, we're being awfully silly if our standard for offensive protocol is set based on what's done by two teams with quarterbacks in the discussion for best of all time.

Are you a football coach? Have you ever been one?

And again the target on why we're pissed at Hackett shifts. Seriously, look at the drive chart. When Vick subbed in and caught our defense off-guard (as admitted to by KW in the post game, but Schwartz made the appropriate half time adjustments), they brought the score to 14-7. Then we threw the ball 84 yards down the middle of the field. The complaints in this thread do not reflect the reality of the game we were playing yesterday. Things either didn't happen the way people are claiming they did, or weren't nearly as inappropriate as they're being framed, given the game situations. Seriously, go through the drive summaries: http://www.pro-footb...01410260nyj.htm And no, that's not a spam site. It couldn't be further from it. I'll concede one ****ty drive that came as the result of bad play calling. And in fact, during live action yesterday, exclaimed as much. You'll find it at the mid-point of the second quarter. Other than that, It's really difficult for me to take issue with how things were called, when they were called that way.

Of course they should have put the game away. But would you have had them do differently? You're implying that when they had the chance to put it away after turnovers, they made conservative play calls, is that accurate? If yes, it's an implication that's not based in reality. We had the chance to put the game in the first quarter and failed to do so, here's why. Jets first possession: punt We drive 64 yards for the TD. No complaints Jets next possession: INT We stall on a three and after pass attempts on second AND third down. The third down was 3 and 6. Hardly an unmanageable situation. That's poor execution. Next Jets possession: INT Again, here's another series for us to "put it away." And if you trusted what was in this thread, you'd think we ran it up the middle three times without affect. That's wrong. Again, we failed to convert on a third and 5. That's hardly setting ourselves up to fail.

Look, I was SUPER pissed at the three and outs that surrounded the Jets last second field goal: the one that gave them the ball, and the one that we had coming out of the break. But the first three and out was set up by a sack. BAD play from Orton, but not a "conservative run up the middle play not to lose call." The ensuing run WAS a conservative call, but the right one with the Jets out of time outs. Then the defense gave up 21 yards. That sucked. Coming out of the break Orton was sacked on first down, the ensuing run did nothing, then we got 14 when we needed 15. So, yes, those 3 and outs sucked, and given the situation you brought up, they were NOT what we needed...but the playcalls COMPLETELY defy the narrative that you're trying to match them to. So, you got what you wanted: two series in crunch time where we needed to move the ball, and we didn't. And not because we ran it up the middle...because WE WERE SACKED.

Here is second down (in a minute I'll combine the two so we know what we faced on third down. Which, the more we argue about it SHOULD be the thing we're most concerned about: converting manageable third downs. my hypothesis is THAT'S where we're weak and THAT'S what the concern should be about): Passes: 5 Runs: 13 Pass yards: 90 Run Yards: 8 <---wow. see breakdown below Negative: 4 <---ouch 0: 1 1: 2 2: 2 3: 3 4: 1

Okay, first downs yesterday: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19E6nWc07RVVsTvB-ebQwu67O7l_2QSkrvC-INENlLDc/edit?usp=sharing Runs: 16 Passes: 4 Run yards: 47 Pass Yards: 33 Run breakdown: Negative: 1 0: 0 1: 4 2: 0 3: 2 4: 4 5: 2 6: 1 7: 1

And you don't see a benefit of going into the bye week 5-3 with the rest of the league wondering the same thing?

You're conveniently ignoring the substance of what both he AND I have already told you about this. If YOU dug up the threads, you'd find a scattershot of critiques, just as I've said. And what I've been arguing all morning is that more important that "maximizing opportunities" was minimizing mistakes, knowing how prone the opponent was to making them. Does this not compute? Okay, well, the stats on this are undeniable, sit tight and I'll confirm. Obviously it wasn't. But not giving THEM opportunities to tee-off on our quarterback, get fumbles or interceptions WAS. And what played into that game plan was the Jets propensity to give away the ball. Their game against the Pats* was an aberration. Yesterday's game was going to/did come down to who would make fewer mistakes. I know that the knee-jerk around here is to call that Jauron-ball, some gutless play not to lose ball, but when your opponent turns the ball over habitually...it's the right way to play. Also, it worked. So...

There are when you're playing Smith/Vick. If you argue to the contrary, then you don't know a whole lot about our division. Yeah, no. Creative diversion though.

Which are you referring to? I'm genuinely interested in crunching these stats.

No, actually the debate about Hackett's playcalling dates all the back to week 2 LAST year. But to say that the complaints have stayed exactly the same, that's false. They change every time to satisfy the "Hackett sucks" narrative that so many posters here seem desperate to come to fruition.

Also, here are those stats First downs: http://goo.gl/bycG9h Second downs: http://goo.gl/2YvXAS

I'm curious: how many of those drives do you think occurred when we were either a.) losing or b.) winning by less than two scores?

That's because you've decreed every sensible point I've made as not "legit." I'm digging up the stats now. If I'm wrong, I'll happily admit it. But I think you've misrepresented how often we saw third and long and how often first and second down runs went for negative to two yards.

Okay. Except you play against the team that's on the schedule that week. Why would they have rolled out a gameplan fit for the Patriots* when they were playing the Jets? I don't think you'll ever admit that the run game was effective just as you won't convince others that it wasn't. Also, I think you're grossly mis-representing what those first and second down runs looked like to make your point.

Yep. And I'm fine with that. Jauron had our teams "in the hunt" well into November and December every year, and as far as king turds go, he consistently posted records that neither Gailey nor Marrone to this point were able to achieve. And he did it all with a roster that might actually be player for player worse than the one we have this year. With just an inkling more talent and Jauron would have had our team in the playoffs at least once. Marrone has that talent, and right now we're forcing teams to beat us with big plays while we take care of the ball and connect on big plays ourselves. That's the 30,000 foot impression I get. I'm wondering what some of the critics would rather see from the same vantage point. And I'm sorry man, but you're completely wrong about that. In fact, you will win.