MDH

The problem is that what he did in this game is not sustainable. As much as people don't want to confine him to the pocket that's where he's got to operate with consistency if he ever hopes to be the franchise QB. The NFL is littered with guys who had running ability but couldn't do it consistently year after year because Ds caught on. I hope Roman keeps doing what he's doing and makes him operate primarily out of the pocket with a few runs here and there. This idea that the O would be better if they "unleashed" TT is the same logic that said if they fed Spiller the ball 300 times he'd still average over 5 yards a carry. Diminishing returns on the scrambles and a stunted passer long term who was never forced to learn the NFL game.

Where do people get the impression that good teams blow out, or even beat, every bad team on their schedule? Last year the Pats lost to the Phins and the Chiefs (the latter in a blowout) early in the year. They barely beat the Jets twice. Seattle lost to those same Chiefs as well as the Rams. They barely beat the Panthers and only scored 13 points in doing so. Both ended up in the Super Bowl. If Super Bowl bound teams find ways to lose to inferior teams and find ways to beat those same types of teams on days they struggled why do people think the Bills have to blow every one of them out of the water to be "contenders." Who knows if the Bills will end up in the playoffs but struggling on the road, early in the year and still pulling out a victory doesn't tell me they won't. Those are the types of games teams need to win to make the playoffs.

I'm sure they didn't think a spy was necessary as it was 3rd and 25 and the secondary would easily be able to move up and make a play. I don't think they accounted for how fast TT is though.

They have some idea that a "great" D doesn't allow first downs or any points. That's all I can figure.

Have you seen the offense minus Sammy the past two weeks? He has a huge effect on the game whether hes putting up big stats or not.

Not disagreeing with most of this but Tyrod still has to step up in the pocket, trust his pre snap read, and fire the ball when under pressure. Just because a guy comes free doesnt absolve the QB. He tends to panic, bring the ball down, look for a backdoor, then look back down field to throw. It takes way too much time. sometimes it works for him, but most of the time it doesnt. Also, without looking at the all 22 its. Ery tough to know if your statement about WRs being open is correct. What I can say is he missed plenty of open guys with bad throws and looked hesitent to throw it at other times. Its, obviously, not all his fault (just like its not all his credit for good plays...) but he needs to do a better job overall and Im sure hed say the same thing. Good players dont need fans to make excuses for them. No doubt, but it doesnt absolve most of his inconsistencies. He needs help AND he needs to play better. These things are not mutually exclusive.

Disagree. He closed the distance beatuifully and was set up to make an easy tackle around the waste yet for some reason dove at his feet and completely whiffed. There was no need to make a desperate dive at the feet given the position he was in.

He played badly, once again, in the first half of the game. This is now a trend. We need consistency out of the QB position. Do this against a better team and it ends up much like the NE and Giants games. Im glad he helped put together some solid drives to pull it out but to say its uneducated to say he played poorly for most of the game is just flat out wrong. You seem to be unable to see Tryod's weaknesses whereas many of us see them yet think he can overcome them to become a solid starter.

On the road, they give up 13 points and allow less than 200 yds passing with not much pressure and this is what you choose to start a topic on? Okay.

Yep, and thats what they need to do, channel their frusterations into their play instead of at the officials. It was fanatstic to see.

Just like all those calling for EJ were getting way ahead of themselves so are the people claiming TT "saved the day." Without his horrible play in the first half no saving is needed. The Bills need more consistent play at QB. He needs to get better. That said Im glad he came up big in crunch time and Ill take ugly wins any day. That 25 yard run on 3rdh down might have saved the season.

Dareus

Gilmore has been fantastic this season.

The Bills don't run a power scheme, despite their multiple TE tendencies. It's not as cut and dried as that. They run lots of looks from their base packages. Sometimes they go power from that set and sometimes they spread it out. It all depends on the D. And yeah, Bettis would have done fine in a spread offense, he wasn't too shabby in pass protection and his hands were good for a big man. Without a QB who can make a D back off, trying to ram it down a modern defense's throat in a power scheme is a big mistake even if your OL is good. Fitz can't do that make D's respect the long ball so if they ran a 2 TE set just about the entire D would be stacked within 10 yards of the LoS and Ivory would find the running tough. Spreading the field is their best bet at creating running lanes and at having a productive passing game.

McKelvin got Wally Pipped.

He doesn't need to check out of plays too often because of how the Bills offense operates. The reason Roman wanted Clay is because he is a matchup nightmare for defenses. Combine that with Shady - who is also a matchup problem - and you have an offense that gives a D fits in deciding what personnel to line up. Out of their base two TE set the Bills can line up and run power if the D goes with a nickel or they can spread the D out with Shady and Clay out wide and make LBs cover these guys if they go with a base D. The reason the Bills run so often on first down is because the D is dictating it by going with their nickel. Even when the D goes with a base they run it fairly often because they're attempting to stay out of 3rd and longs at which point the matchup problems go away and the D can simply put in a nickel or a dime and play the pass. So to answer the OP's question - no, the Bills run an offense that perfectly suits their personnel. As for the contention that the Jets should run a power O, I disagree there too. They have a powerful runner in Ivory and what better way to utilize his skills than to spread the D out, get lots of small DBs on the field and then make them try and tackle him? It also plays to Fitz's strength, which is the short passing game. This isn't the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust league, lining up 2 TEs, a FB and a HB and trying to cram it down a team's throat doesn't work if you don't have to proper matchups. The Jets would be ramming their heads into a wall if they went that way as they don't have a QB who can back defenses off the LoS with his deep ball.

I'm guessing it has to do with his production in relation to other WRs drafted in his draft class. People expect big numbers and when they don't see them they rip him. Other posters defend him saying things like, "he was dealing with injuries all season" as a reason/excuse. So either injuries are getting in the way of reaching his full potential (that is, he's been injury prone whether he misses games or not) or he's just not as good as those receivers at this point in his career. Personally, I think the injuries are hampering him and they seem to be habitual. Hopefully it's just a bad luck thing and we'll get to see a full steam Sammy at some point in the near future. I look forward to seeing what the kid can do when healthy, with a competent QB and in an offense all on the same page. He's so talented he could easily be one of the top WRs in the game if/when those conditions are met.

It's kinda disturbing that the guy just refuses to learn the lesson. How many times does he have to be made to look like a fool? What purpose does it serve to say these things?

Yeah, people are trying to compare the late season Schwartz D with the early season Ryan. It took awhile for the players to gel in Schwartz's scheme and the same will be true of Ryan's. Same goes for the O. People (myself included) were over optimistic in their early season expectations considering they team was running two new schemes. myself included. It's obvious now it's going to take some time.

Pretty sure the CBA wouldn't allow this. They can't just fine them for whatever they want.

What we do on the field is irrelevant because it's football? So there is no line? I guess it's okay to go after his knees then.

If it's 10 pushups per penalty that's 170 pushups for the last game.

Does that include his endorsements? I'm guessing he makes more from those than he does from his rookie contract given the market he plays in.

I'm not guessing at the probability. All I said is it doesn't necessarily mean he'd be injured. Perhaps he would, perhaps he wouldn't. I mean he injured his hammy in training camp and didn't play a snap the rest of the way until the regular season at which point it was still questionable whether he'd even play the first game. A gimpy hamstring tends to be a lingering injury. Because of this the Bills went into the opener with an injured starter, a rookie who was pretty impressive and a special teams guy who you don't want to give the rock to very often. This isn't retrospect, I said it before the opener. I didn't understood why they went into the season with only 3 backs on the roster given Shaddy's injury.

Because he got injured in a game he played for the Seattle Seahawks. I doesn't take a crystal ball to know he wouldn't have been playing in that game had the Bills not cut him. Does this really require an explanation?