MDH

So we're back to blaming poor QB play on "play calling." Look, I get it, we want Taylor to be good. Yesterday, he wasn't. He wasn't even close to being good for the majority of the game. The Bills got into a huge hole yesterday primarily because of three things: Horrible discipline on ST, a D that gave up play after play in the passing game and poor QB play. TT was indecisive and looked confused for much of the day. He held the ball to long. He was inaccurate on many of his passes. But, he's young and I'd stick with him for the foreseeable future because everybody has clunkers, particularly against Belichick. Hopefully TT will learn from his mistakes but to defend his play yesterday is the definition of being a homer. One can think he played poorly and still think he can turn into a good QB. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

They did the same thing vs. the Colts and I saw nobody complaining then. Rex disguises his coverages so nobody knows who is rushing. This is what he does and it's one of the major reasons as to why he's been so successful for a decade+. He's not the first guy to do it either, it's why Dick Labeau was so successful as well (though their D schemes aren't the same.) You will continue to see Hughes and some DL in coverage on occasion. The problem with yesterday is that Brady wasn't confused. He identified the coverages right away and picked it apart. Luck, on the other hand, was rattled by it, couldn't break it down quickly enough and tossed a lot of errant passes as a result. My main problem with the D yesterday wasn't that DL were dropping into coverage but that Ryan didn't make many adjustments when what he was doing wasn't working. He tried rushing 4 or 5 and got picked apart. To start the 2nd half they should have started brining the house on occasion, S blitzes, CB blitzes, anything to mix it up. Maybe that wouldn't have worked either but at least it had a chance.

That was the only bad one that they gave us a replay of. Horrible call.

There were also WRs running wide open down the seam pretty much every time. I don't even mind the WRs catching balls in the flats but what I don't understand is how they're not wrapped up and tackled immediately (like our WRs are when they catch such passes.) Somehow they allow the WR to run 10+ yards with the ball most of the time.

Beautiful throw.

He hasn't been good. Even with time he's indecisive. He's young and hopefully gets better but to suggest he's not a problem today is putting your head in the sand.

They might. The only thing I saw out of today's game that I liked though was Shady's burst. He looked slowish last week but his burst was there today. Otherwise there is a lot of correcting to be done. One thing that gives me hope is that Gronk and Brady do this to every team but I was hoping this D would be better than most teams.

Or it's just week 2 of the season and this is one of the ups and downs of the season. Just like you can't read too much into week 1 you can't read too much into week 2. Let's let them play 5-6 games before we start saying we know what kind of team this is.

It's also how almost every successful coach I've eve seen handles it. It's a long season and you can't have peaks and valleys emotionally. They need consistency and you can't put too much importance on each week. But I can see how fans want a guy who mirrors their emotions but it's not the way to successfully manage a team.

Problem is they are stacking the LoS. There are plays to be had down field but they aren't making them. They need more out of the passing game than dump offs. Got to get Watkins, Harvin and Woods the ball.

D has to do a much better job. Hold 'em to a FG or two and get off the field on 3rd downs. That holding call that nullfied a sack near the end of the half killed them.

There are a lot of penalties but I've seen nothing shown on TV to say any call was bad. Perhaps they are but there's no way to know sitting at home. I will agree that every time the Bills have a good play there is a penalty but I'm going with the assumption that it's the Bills players making boneheaded plays until I see evidence otherwise.

Yeah, this is a huge issue, even last week. He starts to take off running - taking his eyes away from down field - and then remembers he should look down field and looks to throw again. He needs to keep his eyes down field at all times and then decide to run it when nobody is open. This half run, half want to throw stuff is killing him. That said, the last INT he didn't do this, he kept his eyes down field and made one of the most basic of all QB mistakes: he threw late over the middle. Yep, he's got to show he can beat teams from the pocket and right now he looks bad.

Not a believer in teams being "motivated" to play, particularly this early in a season. They're already as prepared as they're ever going to be, they need no more motivation. What I am concerned with is Rex turning this isn't a huge, emotional game. It's week 2 of the season, the team should be preparing like any other week and win or lose they move on to the following week. He's kind of set it up so if the Bills lose it will be a crushing loss and it shouldn't be that way for an early regular season game.

Had they signed Fred Jackson it would have been comparible to milloy, but Bryce Brown? How many carries has he had as a Bill?

This is why I prefer the NFL to college. Opinion doesn't matter. Let people say what they will, if the Bills go out and win enough they win the division and/or get into the playoffs. Let the talking heads chatter away, it's entertaining enough to their particular demographic which is all they care about anyway.

If you're going to use your best CB (and one of the best in the league) AND rolls S help that way too you're going to leave all these other weapons in single coverage. I want to see Watkins get the ball more but if teams do this it plays into the Bills hands.

He was wrong in general with how they matched up. I went into the game knowing it was a bad matchup for the Colts with a weak OL vs. the league's best DL and a D that struggles against the run vs. a team determined to run it. Sure they have Luck and there were questions about Darby but that one spot doesn't mean the "matchups favor the Colts." Take a look how the D handled top flight QBs last year and it didn't look good on paper for the Colts. Granted, I was surprised at how thoroughly they outplayed them, but the result wasn't surprising.

That rule doesn't exist anymore.

Anybody else see the title and think, "he's already a special player" because you were thinking of Kyle Williams?

Or it could be a sign that the Bills had a big lead, had holding calls on almost all of those drives and weren't going to take any chances throwing the ball down field. Just about every team in the league would have relied on the run in that situation. No clue if Taylor will pan out but his "struggles" in the second half had nothing to do with being figured out.

It does have to end sometime but if the Bills had been dominant for a decade plus we'd all be saying, "I'll believe it when I see it" in regards to the other teams having caught up.

Yep, and it's been painfully earned. I recall in 2011 when the team got off to that 5-1 start and people cautioned, "don't get too excited this happened in 2008" and others responded "this team is different!" And while it was different, the results were painfully similar. I'm excited but I'm not getting off the rails excited until a playoff spot is locked down.

Also, the idea that once there is more tape of Ryan's D teams will catch up is ludicrous. There is a decade of tape of Ryan's Ds. Sure, it's not with this exact personnel but more tape isn't going to get his D "figured out."

This win ranks right up there with the 2003 home opener vs. New England both in the excitment factor and as a caitionary tale.