BackInDaDay

Regarding Maybin.. Pettine gave his passionate intern, Mike Smith, an opportunity to develop a player's skills to fit a need within their defense. this should be the norm at the pro level, but sadly, it's not. the Maybin pick may have been the high watermark of our team's disconnect between multiple elements of our front office, scouting, and coaching staffs. Regarding Hughes.. it's nice to get excited about this past offseason's moves, and to anticipate more of the same.

long live the king, and the London Monarchs! of course the NFL wants to open international markets for their product, but desire to succeed doesn't guarantee success. this old World League/NFL Europe club and it's league died due to lack of interest. that said.. London fans of the NFL may vigorously support a singular franchise that competes with NFL teams that they're familiar with - as a previous poster expressed - if only for the opportunity to root for their visiting favorites. are the Buffonto Bills such an international model being developed on this continent? an NFL franchise that attracts as many fans of the visiting team, as it does for the locals, until a history is compiled and allegiances are grown? perhaps. eventually, a Buffonto franchise may have as many rabid Canadian fans as it does American

English Premier League has matches throughout the week, and on weekends. ..and London is home to multiple teams

this.. and the coaching staff building on what they've learned to improve productivity.

for those old enough to remember, my favorite piece of the scenario is the elimination of out of conference games. although the game play wouldn't differ, as it did in the old AFL/NFL days, it would re-introduce a rivalry between the conferences that hasn't been seen since the merger. when the realignment dropped the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore(Colts) franchises in our beloved AFL. how bland was it watching the NFL's Cowboys lose to the AFL's (duh.. no!) Colts in SB5? that was the beginning of the 'one size fits all' league we have now. if nothing else, thanks to the OP for creating an opportunity to remember how much us old AFL guys hated the NFL, and re-igniting the low spark of our forgotten hope to one day secede from their button-down clutches.

every team has a talented roster with a handful of exceptional players.. the differences between winning and losing is preparedness.. prepared to take advantage of an opponent's tendencies.. prepared to disguise your own.. prepared for the environment in which you'll be playing. not anticipating the additional advantage you're giving a dominant pass rush, by not staggering your QB's tempo, should have been high on their checklist. it never ceases to amaze me how such easily correctable errors aren't left on the practice field - especially at the pro level.. these guys aren't volunteering, or pressed for time.. it's their job. but like any other profession, some excel. those who pay attention to detail win. nothing is left to fate. they make their own luck through hard work.

Belichick's greatest achievement in NE was recognizing the direction the league was heading after the Colts lobbied the rules committee to enforce illegal contact and defensive holding penalties, following their loss to the Pats - where their receivers were banged around by Belichick's secondary in the same way our's were against his Giant defenders in our 'wide right' loss. The defensive guru then put the emphasis of his offense on protecting his accurate passer, and designing an attack that would take advantage of limited downfield contact.

Honestly, I can't recall any team getting to Brady enough to warrant a decision by Belichick to pull him, or let him compete.. but if you can, I can't argue with that. my thought is that he'd prefer Brady on the road, than Mallett at home - if neither his O-line or the refs can keep him out of harm's way

If they pass the hat to help pay the fines, I'll chip in!

yes. there's no telling how the rest of the season would have unfolded, but to purposely disadvantage your young team in any game is short-sighted at best

if our D gets to Brady early and often, Belichick may decide to run Mallett out there - even if it's a close game. better to lose home field throughout, than your offense.

bingo! let the staff digest what goals were accomplished in 2013, and where they failed. reinforce the good, and correct the bad. obviously, the injuries to Manuel impacted his time table - but there are correctable aspects of the offense which must be addressed to enable him - much of which may be attributed to inexperience in our young receiving core. get the easy stuff cleaned up, and then see how the offense improves. imagine giving a group of children the same paint by numbers kit, where some of the kits have different numbered spaces. would anyone expect the results to be the same? 11 bodies - 1 mind. if this staff can get there, the 2014 record reflect the work.

Manuel is our starter in 2014. i doubt the Bills will draft another young QB. if they did, then barring injuries to the guy who wins the pre-season competition for the starting job, the young back-up will get few opportunities to mature. he won't even qualify as a competent #2. meanwhile, the young #1 will continue to make mistakes as he develops. all our speculation on young QBs is moot if Hackett doesn't tighten up his schematics and their execution. the potential for QB development will parallel our OC's.

Thad competes... but with 3 years NFL experience under his belt, i'm concerned we've seen his best. I sincerely doubt we've seen our inexperienced QB's best. Not with an inexperienced OC, and inexperienced receivers. at this stage he needs help to succeed. if Marrone and Hackett have the will to review and correct every situation where - whether it be from sloppy design, or undisciplined play - his rookie had little chance to make positive plays, then we'll see him grow next season. otherwise, it doesn't matter who's taking the first team snaps.. the QB play will remain inconsistent.

Yes.. recently we had a poster show the breakdown of Russell Wilson and his receivers making pre-snap adjustments to man coverage.. 2 split ends broke off their go routes, enabling the flanker and QB to read the safety's technique and make a play. the other day I saw an all22 of what should have been duplicated in our game against the Jags, except all our men drove themselves into deep coverage... that's just one example of how poorly our O is coordinated.. against TB, he had crossing patterns being run too deep in front of in routes, and shallow wr slants run directly behind a posted up flanker.. Hackett has to fix the little things.. details, details, details

100% he'll continue to improve, and his knees will heal

an offense with multiple threats can beat you by formation. opposing DCs have to compromise their ability to defend every option the formation gives the QB. they'll attempt to disguise where they've compromised their defense, in order to influence the QB away from the weakness. if the OC has a feel how the DC will try to accomplish this, he can coach his guys up to confirm and exploit the expected look. that said, i'm guessing DCs hate preparing for CJ in the slot - regardless of how often they've seen him used there. his quickness out of a free release demands attention. he's a scary match-up on a FS - let alone a LB. how do you contain him? what do you give up? how do you disguise what you've given up? like others here, i have to wonder what his issues are. even with the sprain, he's such a game-breaker - i would think the coaches would have to be careful not to overuse him.

thanks guys..

the answer to a personnel question that Chris Brown gave in the Inside The Bills' Fan Friday report. it's the subject of the "interesting" topic up on the board. Brown responded as if quoting the head coach. it may be BS, but if Brown isn't authorized to speak on the subject, he's risking the deep freeze - so many think he's been put up to pointing Marrone's finger for him.

from what i've seen - the effort has been there, week after week. when we had our worst games, our poor play - like most NFL teams that don't execute well - snowballed on us.. but even then, i don't recall anyone quitting. this post was directed at what's behind the poor play.

i agree, but when reports of the staff's displeasure with the effort and/or talent on the current roster surface in the media, we have to call them on it. if those reports were fabricated, then guys like me will be happy to shut up and let the coaches figure it out. if not, then they should be ready to address questions regarding their own preparedness. sorry, John.. i missed this week's game. my wife and i lost a kid a year ago last Sunday, so we went into the city yesterday to lose ourselves a little.. i was happy to see EJ's draw from the 8, on the highlights - and the finding Summers on that pass. nice bit of coaching there - guessing we went against our tendencies

i can't agree or disagree with this. i just don't know. i know that it's the expectation of fans - that our coaches are doing their best to win games. i just don't know if our current coaches' best is going to be good enough to beat other coaches with similar talent. they should assume that the guys they're facing have been turning their playbooks and personnel inside out to find where they can get the advantage over us, and do the same. that's all we can ask. it's just my opinion that i don't think they're there yet.

thanks, Big Cat.. if you're going on the premise that it's all on the players, then yeah - bench or release the guys who've been killing you week after week, and get guys who're ready to commit. my problem with this, is that it's too easy for coaches to scapegoat players efforts and abilities. Marrone knows the deal.. he's been around the pro game long enough to know that nobody's on scholarships out there, but he has to know that he has to get guys he didn't recruit, on board.. and - in my opinion - do a better job prepping them. sometimes they looked like they went into games with suspect plan A, and a worse plan B. other times, it was all clicking and the ball didn't bounce right. either way, it's Marrone's team now, so i'll keep me fingers crossed.

i think that the talent level in the NFL is well disbursed. the problem coaches have, is that it's not evenly disbursed among positions. they must identify where their talent has the advantage over an opponent - on a week to week basis - and devise a game plan that creates the match-ups they seek. the inverse is also true. they must be aware of where the opponent has an advantage, and prepare to neutralize the match-ups the opposing coaches seek. what frustrates a good coaching staff is, when after hours of careful examination and detailed planning, the execution of the gameplan is undermined by the mental mistakes of one player or another. advantages are exposed and lost. disadvantages are exposed and exploited. the thing that we, as fans of the team don't know, is how prepared our team is to compete each week. that is, does the coaching staff have the right to be frustrated with the execution of their plan, if it's not a well thought out one? we can watch the contest and gain opinions on who had a good or bad day. now, we can even go back and look at why something they did worked, or failed. but it's hard to differentiate where the blame lies when the breakdowns occur. why was a defender put in the position of trying to cover so and so? why didn't a lineman get help pass blocking so and so? why did the defender fill the wrong gap? why did two receivers run routes that converged on each other? are these mistakes the result of unfocused players, the result of ineffective coaching, or both? for a team that has it's fair share of talent, and loses 2 of every 3 games it plays - either the coaches haven't instilled the sense of urgency they expect them to bring to each snap, or they haven't put them in the best position to succeed. in defense of the coaches, this team has remained competitive all season, but the fact is - our offense seldom makes big plays, and our defense gives up too many big plays. to me, that means the other teams have been matching up their talent to ours, better than we are to theirs. i think rookie coach Marrone brings a lot of good qualities to the Bills. i'm hoping he and his rookie coordinators learn from this season, and plan on working harder next year. if they do, they have every right to demand the same from the players, but at this point in time - they shouldn't be casting stones. ps - before we get into the obvious disadvantage our rookie QB poses for our coaches each week, he does have strengths and enough talent around him to create a few match-up problems - even with a mediocre O-line in front of him.

the thing that should concern us is whether his methods are working. this team plays undisciplined football. they make mistakes, which means they either lack focus to apply what they're learning, or they aren't learning. and if they aren't learning, is it on the players or the coaches? from our seats, it's tough to tell, but they seem to be regressing. hopefully, they'll be crisp today.