Cash

Better to look at targets, not completions. That helps account for drops and both QBs' poor accuracy, and just distill it down to decision-making. Luckily, espn.com's new box scores have targets in them, so it's pretty easy to add them up. For the Jets game, I went through the play-by-play and just counted a target every time it said a pass was intended for whoever. I probably wound up being off by 1 or 2, but my count should be close enough for these purposes. Anyway, I figured out the percentage of targets by WR, RB, and TE. It's not a perfect methodology, because a couple of the RB passes weren't checkdowns (exactly two, if I remember correctly), and some of the WR passes really were checkdowns (e.g., WR screens, TO caught a 6 yard hitch on 3rd and 18 in the Jets game, etc.). But it's still pretty good, and I doubt any of us has the time to go through every game and chart every pass play. So here goes. For the year, Edwards' percentages of targets are as follows: WR - 49.0% RB - 27.8% TE - 23.2% I was honestly surprised to see how high WR was. Here's Fitzpatrick's percentages: WR - 81.3% RB - 12.5% TE - 6.3% Wowsers. Of course, Fitzpatrick's played less than two full games, so he doesn't have much of a sample size, so take this with a grain of salt. But I think the trend will continue, even if it doesn't stay quite this pronounced. And even if it doesn't, the point remains: So far, Fitzpatrick has definitely thrown to his WRs more than Edwards did. Not with great success, which is why Fitzpatrick is a backup. He's playing the right way; he's just not good enough to execute at a high level. Captain Checkdown has NOT been playing the right way, and I tend to doubt that he could pull it off if he tried.

Precisely. Only Al Davis thinks that you can build a successful NFL offense around the deep ball. Folks, there's a lot of different passes that fall somewhere between Checkdown and Deep Ball. Edwards' problem is that he mostly just sticks to the extremes, and when he does throw a deep ball, it's usually so close to the sideline that the receiver has to go out of bounds as he's catching it, and gets no RAC. Another good example from yesterday's game was on the 3rd-and-12 from our own red zone. Fitzpatrick dropped back, was pressured almost immediately, started scrambling around in the pocket to buy some time, clearly looked to his left where he had a RB for a checkdown, then looked back upfield and hurled a pass as he was hit. It looked dangerous as he threw it, and it did sail on him a little bit, but it ultimately went to an open TO, who made the jumping catch and held on to it. I have no doubt whatsoever that Edwards throws that checkdown that Fitzpatrick passed up. How can I be so sure? Because I've been watching Edwards play all year.

Delhomme and Derek Anderson have both been terrible all year. Sanchez has looked good in a couple games, though.

Dropped him for Poz right before the Jets game. So far, so good.

Who was the last star NFL QB who came from a super-loaded football factory? Carson Palmer, I think. Who before that? I have no idea. McCoy strikes me as a potential bust, especially in Buffalo, where he doesn't have the arm strength to cut down the wind. Even though he's a massive d-bag, I'm hoping we get Jimmy Clausen. From what I've seen this year, he looks like the real deal. And unlike Bradford and Pike, he actually takes snaps under center.

I remember that play. It was utterly stunning. Was that the first time in the Jauron Era (or Meathead or Gregggg Eras, for that matter) that we picked up a first down by outfoxing the other team?

What's nice about the 4pm start is that by the time the Bills kick off, I'm already half in the bag from the 1 o'clock games. It tends to ease the pain.

The play of our D-line, particularly the white guys. (I expected good things out of Stroud, and Maybin has done nothing of note. Spencer Johnson and John McCargo are who we thought they were.)

I'd prefer to stick with a 4-3, but just stock it with players who are both big and fast (i.e., good), instead of trying to find the smallest possible guys to play every position.

Sanchez's struggles: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/tag/_/name/mark-sanchez Two long pieces already this week. Jenkins' injury: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/i...-void-in-jets-d Henne's third career start? Seriously? What is there to write about that wasn't covered before the first two? Tom Terrific: Thankfully, Tim has not dedicated any full-length posts to this yet this week. I for one am glad. Fitzpatrick starting: I'd expect Tim to wait until later in the week, when it's more definitive that Fitzpatrick actually will start. Also, the Buffalo News just did two articles on this topic, so it's not like there's a lot of fresh ground to cover. My only complaint with this post is that Tim forgot to tag it "Buffalo Bills." I haven't seen much out there talking about how bad our run D has been, and it was nice to see it put in a historical perspective. Also, there are no predictions in the post, just speculations.

+1. Both guys are really good, to the point where whoever's more effective on a given day is the guy who should get more work. I think Marshawn's a little better overall, but at this stage of their careers, the gap is miniscule.

If you don't count the two times I cheated on my girlfriend, I've been a great boyfriend. Also, could we get a math tutor in here for Poz? 60+71 = 131. That is not "the vast majority" of 318.

Both of those runs were abject failures by the LBs and safeties. Overpursuit by the LBs allowed Jones to get into the secondary, and terrible play by both safeties allowed Jones to go real long.

Nah, that's the only non-short throw that Trentative is willing to make -- long pass down the sideline, usually so close to being out of bounds that the received goes out right as he catches it.

You realize he was on Green Bay's practice squad, right? The team that's given up the most sacks in the NFL, including five yesterday to awful Detroit?

Talk to me about Trent when he starts averaging over 10 yards per completion. By the way, 10 yards per *attempt* is really good.

It's always nice to get a win. And beating any legit NFL team on the road is sweet. That doesn't mean that this team isn't horrible, though. But we might as well savor this win for the rest of the week, as there won't be many to savor this year.

I'm sold.

Reality says hi. Bills' D ranks: 19th in yards/game 20th in points/game 26th in first downs/game 20th (tied) in 3rd down percentage 17th (tied) in 4th down percentage 6th (tied) in most penalties 2nd in most penalty yards 29th in yards per run 29th in rushing yards/game Just because the D isn't *as* bad as the O doesn't mean that the D is any good. It's also quite bad.

This should help reduce the number of penalties. Might also improve cohesion between QB & receivers, in the sense that they're more likely to be on the same page. Overall, the offense will likely continue to stink (bad QB + bad O-line = bad offense, regardless of scheme), but if this is true, it is a positive move.

QFT

Anyone know anything about Todd Johnson? At least his signing means the Bills are moving Nic Harris back to LB. So do we think they'll go Palmer, Ellison, Harris, or keep Harris on the bench for Draft or Corto?

Clausen is a d-bag, but so is Jay Cutler, and I'd take Cutler in a heartbeat. Clausen has looked pretty good this year from what I've seen. The more I read about Pike, the more I think I need to watch some of his games.

Trent is either an idiot, or an arrogant prick who thinks that everyone else is a moron. I believe it's the latter. Regardless of which, it's pretty infuriating to listen to this BS. How can anyone possibly think that if everything is going right, horrible losses keep piling up?

Because shockingly, the pass rush from our high motor white DEs has been pretty good. It's the run D that's been the problem.