Dr. K

JMJ pray for us. The obsession with damning Whaley for not having a press conference today is laughable. Get a life.

Listening to the reactions here tells me why so many of you people were having orgasms over hiring Rex. It's all about the glib answers in the PC and interviews, the manly end-of-the-bar bluster, the guy who has a quick answer or a joke for every question, the guy who never gets caught out in a contradiction and knows how to play to the audience. I thought he did fine, given the circumstances. I would never presume to judge whether Lynn could do the job based on a press conference.

I wish to god he had bought the team. It would have saved us from his presidency. And he would have run the team into the ground, sold it, and it would move to San Antonio.

I would say losing this one might have long term positive benefits for the Bills, the primary one being Rex would be a goner. Therefore, the Bills will win.

This.

Get back in the box ASAP.

Fire the freakin' coach yesterday. Like you I thought hiring Rex was a mistake (pats self on back). Tyrod has problems that I don't think are going to go away, but Rex's destruction of the defense, and the way installing his system has scewed up who we are required to draft, is the main source of the problem. Oh, yes, and his team's lack of discipline, his weak game management skills, his putting defensive backs in situations where they will look worse than the are because of his idiot schemes, his hiring of his loser brother. . . . etc. Aside from that, no problem.

Tyrod started from day one last season. It's not his first year as starter. Woods would start for most teams.

I agree completely. Rex is the problem, not Whaley. I sure hope, when they eventually dump Rex, they don't dump Whaley. Instead, they should let him pick the next coach, not get all excited by some stupid interview, and have that coach answer to him in the chain of command.

No way in hell does this team go 10-6.

Rex is the problem, not the solution. "The team is not mentally there yet?" No kidding--and their unpreparedness is a direct reflection of their coach. If they keep Rex on for next season, they are dooming themselves to another .500 record at best, and more likely 6-10 or worse.

Hiring Rex is on the Pegulas, not on Whaley, I think. Rex reports to them, not to Whaley. He is not Whaley's man, though Whaley has tried to make the best of the situation and give Rex the QB and the players in the draft and coaching staff that Rex has said he needed.

I am 100% behind this reading of the problem. With one addition--I would not blame Whaley for the place this team is in. This is Rex's team. Whaley does not have organizational power over Rex, but has given Rex what Rex said he needed to run this team. And the result is on display. It all goes back to the coaching, even the player selection. He is a disaster. I blame Rex, and The Pegulas for hiring him.

I think Tyrod has grave limitations, but this loss is not on him so much as it is on Rex. Rex wants them to play this philosophy of football, where they get the ball with two minutes before the half and a six point lead and just run the clock, with no urgency, no attempt to score. He was happy I guess to go into the half with a one point lead. The guy cannot coach. When push comes to shove, the defense is a joke. He leaves his corners out on an island and if the pass rush does not get to the QB they get burned to a crisp. And good QB is going to rip them to shreds, and a mediocre one (Fitz) will do so half the time. The game has passed the man by. This is on Rex, and on the Pegulas for hiring him. Whaley, who has found quality players in unlikely places, who has does his level best to give Rex the players he wants, is probably going to pay the price for the Pegulas' idiotic decision to hire Rex.

There was a shot of the Bills players on the sidelines when the score was 24-23, I think, that told me they had lost the game. There was such a look of defeat on the faces of the players, including Tyrod, that I knew they were done, even though there was a whole quarter left to play. They knew they were going to lose and had no faith. The looked like zombies. Please fire Rex now.

I joked earlier, but seriously, I don't see the Bills winning this. Maybe they stay close for a while if the defense plays above their heads and they are able to run on the Raiders, but the injuries and matchups look bad.

What I meant was the average quality of QB play in the league is mediocre to bad. I really do think EJ, with the right coach and OC, will play well elsewhere. I know most people here think that's insane. Most people here thought hiring Rex would give us the #1 defense in the league, no problem. We'll see what happens.

Given the average quality of QB play in the league, yes.

I am on your side about this, but the arguments made in the piece linked to have some plausibility. Unless something changes drastically, Tyrod will not be hitting receivers in stride over the middle of the field any time soon and he won't be leading any furious come-from-behind heroics through the air in the fourth quarter. But he doesn't turn the ball over and he runs well. I have always thought EJ got a raw deal here, but there is no way he is every going to get that chance in Buffalo—certainly not under Ryan—so the sooner he gets out of town, for his own sake, the better.

Good article. I'm not convinced Tyrod will ever be a good passer, and I'm still a skeptic about his long-term viability, but it makes a good argument that he is a better QB than the eyeball test suggests.

Raiders: some points Bills: fewer points

Well it is true that 22 have a ratio of 2.0 or better.

Thank Doug Whaley. How many people here have criticized him for that trade?

48 yards passing at this point? Just shoot me.

As long as Rex is coach and Tyrod is healthy, Tyrod with start. The only way we see change, barring injury to TT which I do not want to see, is if Tyrod and Rex both go down together. I am convinced at this point that the Bills will miss the playoffs but that the Pegulas will keep Rex and Tyrod. We are doomed to mediocrity for at least one more season. If Rex/Tyrod manage to get them to a one-and-out playoff game, we are doomed to Rex as coach and Tyrod as QB for at least two and probably three more seasons, no matter how bad they play. For the first time in thirty years, I am making no effort to watch the Bills games every Sunday. I still care for and follow the team, but I see no chance of a title or even a deep playoff run with the current coaching regime. Rex is a mediocre coach. He's entertaining, he knows a few things, but he is inflexible and limited. His teams will always take at least 8-10 penalties per game. Some of those penalties will be egregiously stupid backbreakers, but nothing will change the next week or next month or next season. His teams will always take unnecessary time outs because of confusion of slow communication. Clock management will be spotty to terrible. They will always look lost at times during the play, especially against elite teams. The players generally like him and play hard for him, but they don't play smart. He will always go for a run-oriented offense and accept mediocre QB play. He gives great press conferences. He has the macho swagger that many fans think indicates a good coach but that is not correlated with winning. And this package will be just convincing enough for many fans--and the Pegulas, in the end--to keep him on longer than is warranted by the results. I'm not saying it's easy to find a superior coach, but Rex is not one and never will be one, and his teams will be a reflection of the man.