2020 Our Year For Sure

Wow I'm sorry man, I had no idea of the context. I guess thats the disadvantage of not being from the WNY area.

Uh, whats so funny? That's all true... Have we actually gotten to the point where anytime somebody says something positive about Donahoe our response is automatically to laugh, completely disregarding whether or not the statement is true?

Yup. I don't know how a person who has been watching these games can look at his performance this season and say that Willis doesn't give enough effort. The guy is a workhorse and I applaud the season he's having, and now it even seems that he's learned how to block. The only question left is whether or not he's going to stay in Buffalo long-term.

Please Dibs, I don't want to see posts like that this week, especially from an intelligent poster like you. Its like you're trying to set me up for an emotional downfall when we lose. Can't you just let me accept this loss in peace?

Only if we could've converted the 4th downs, as those were the killers in my opinion. Those were drives we should have gotten points on.

Trust me, I'm not one of those guys. My point was more that McGee has come out this year looking like an all-pro than it was that Clements hasn't looked good. McGee was noticeably making nice plays against New England and he looked great in Miami. His defense of a deep ball intended for Chambers, I remember, was so impressive that even Phil Simms couldn't help but take notice and declare it a "textbook" defense. I'm not really saying that Clements hasn't looked good, but I feel McGee has been more impressive. Even so, Clements has looked a bit shabby in run support, missing Moroney a couple of times I believe.

Clements the NFL's best corner so far this year? He hasn't been the Bills best corner.

People should stop saying this. Quarterbacks improve by LIVE GAME ACTION, not by sitting around on the bench. Yes, a year or two as a backup can sometimes better prepare a guy to come in and start than starting as a rookie, but not to the point where you can expect to be able to lean on him to win games for you. The truth is that you SHOULD still expect to have to hold his hand. Hopefully by the end of the year that won't be the case, but for about the first 6-8 games of the year there's no shame in JP still needing to be pampered. He just doesn't have the live experience to be comfortable back there yet. This is especially true because of the new coaching staff. Here's a guy who, with limited experience, was fighting to get used to the game the way Mularkey & Co. did it. Then you go and bring in a completely new staff and a completely new system, and you expect the kid to not be overwhelmed! He needs more exposure to this system, and more exposure to live game action before we can ask whether or not we should still be holding his hand...because right now the answer to that question is a resounding "yes."

Couldn't you have just said this in the other uniform thread?

Apparently, Aaron Brooks is bad enough to manage it

Wrong. The Buffalo Bills are about overcoming heartbreak. We just haven't gotten to that part of the story yet.

I don't know, but I'd have the Jets covering.

Drew Bledsoe once went to a Superbowl, but nobody credits him for that anymore.

They should've used those red crossed swords unis full-time. Those were bad@ss.

Agreed!

I think he was quoting somebody from the Jets board.

If you really think Holcomb moves the chains when he dumps the ball off, you need to be reminded of a certain 4th and 7 last year on a Monday night in Foxboro. I don't think Holcomb's dump off was moving the chains on that play.

He needs more game action to get used to the way things look in an NFL game. This goes back to what you believe to be the central debate here, the years vs. starts argument. I think the more live game action he sees, the more comfortable he'll be going through progressions. I haven't seen or heard of Nall making all that many big plays. I don't think he represents a legitimate deep threat.

There happens to be a logical explanation for that though. The fact is that Losman has always shown the ability to throw the deep ball, and the intermediate routes. I don't think anyone will argue that he can make the big plays. He's done it in camp and preseason ever since we got him, he hooked up with Evans quite a bit last year, and hit some deep balls this preseason as well. So we know he can make connections down the field. The question is, of course, whether he can do all the other things. And for me, seeing Losman play the short game for 60 minutes of game time was very encouraging. He didn't get nervous doing something we haven't seen him do too much of, he rarely made the wrong decision (even if things were simplified, JDG), he wasn't standing back there holding on to the ball too long. He showed me he can be decisive and efficient in a dink and dunk offense, and that was the aspect of the game we've never seen from him before. And that's the difference between Losman and Nall/Holcomb. Losman is actually capable of throwing the ball downfield and making plays, so seeing him dump it off is seeing a young quarterback take the first small steps. When you see Nall or Holcomb dump it off, they're just doing the only thing they're capable of doing. This explains why we get excited when JP throws short, but frustrated when Holcomb does the same thing! The next step for JP will come when the coaches deem he's ready to go through progressions in the short game. It will be exciting to see when they try to get him to hit his third option on a given play, and if it even happens this year. I don't believe Roethlisberger was asked to do much of that early on. Once (if?) he displays he can do that, the next step will be the coaches deciding he's ready to put it all together. That will be JP dropping back to pass and checking from a homerun ball to a hook route to a dump off in the flat. But because JP can make things happen deep, he unlike our two other QBs at least has hope of becoming a complete quarterback. Seeing him work the ball short all game against Miami was encouraging, at least for me.

Uh...how do you know? Hiding out in the locker room, are you?

He doesn't have any kind of hidden agenda. He just really, really likes the yards per attempt stat.

Does it matter? We can blame it on Losman regardless.

We let them hang in the game, instead of staying aggressive and looking to put the game away. We should have had more than 16 points in that game, and if Miami found a way to overcome the defense and come back and win, the fault would lie (for the 2nd consecutive week) with our 2nd half playcalling. You say it wasn't needed, and I say we're lucky it wasn't needed, and in future games this year it will be. I hope the coaching staff recognizes this and the next time we have a 2nd half lead we're a bit more aggressive.

Come on now, the playcalling in the 2nd half was easily too conservative. I don't think they threw a deep ball the whole half, but let's forget about the deep ball. They weren't even throwing the intermediate routes anymore. There was a time in the late 3rd where I found myself whining at the TV to just throw one ball somewhere downfield. It doesn't necessarily have to be a bomb, just something to create some space in the defense. This way they can't crowd the line and each individual Dolphin won't be looking for the run every play. This will help McGahee in the 2nd half, too. Against the Dolphins it didn't matter that we went into our shell, but in the coming weeks at some point the coaches will have to let JP do his thing in the 2nd half. As I've said, ultra-conservative 2nd half playcalling has already cost us 1 game this year. Also, when we do continue throwing intermediate-deep routes once in awhile into 2nd halves, we will account for Holcomb's Arm's yardage difference between Losman's numbers and a Dilfer/Roethlisberger type of game.