MDH

Yeah, I'm scratching my head as to why he's not in line to return kicks. Also, for all the flak he got in the pre-season right now the Bills miss Brad Smith.

I find it interesting that I keep seeing the sentiment, "if we had last years offense with this year's D we'd win 10 games." Last years Bills team averaged 21.5ppg This years Bills team averages 21.7ppg Last years Bills offense averaged 342 yards per game This years Bills offense averages 350 yards per game Last years Bills team averaged 2.125 turnovers per game This years Bills team averages 1.33 turnovers per game Yeah, stats don't tell the entire story and I agree that this offense is maddening right now but I think people are romanticizing the past and just how effective last years offense was.

What I wouldn't give for the Bills to coax Winfield out of retirement. Guy is still better than anyone on the Bills not named Gilmore.

Yeah they do. There was a stat line on this linked last week where the Bills ranked 1st in the least time between plays the the Pats, Eagles and Broncos followed them up. The Eagles, for all the press, were ranked 3rd I believe.

The main issue with Spiller's usage isn't the play calling, it's the formation. Chan would frequently have 4 and 5 WR sets and spread the defense out. This formation would get the D in a nickle or dime package and give Spiller the room to run between the tackles he needed. Hacket isn't doing that in large part because he has a rookie QB back there who he's trying to protect and make it easy for. Giving him 5-6 targets with less protection and telling him to make quick decisions isn't his forte yet. So Spiller is either going to have to learn to be a complete RB and find room when the D isn't in a nickel or dime or he's going to have to spend more time on the bench while Freddie gets more carries until EJ figures it out.

No one is arguing that the Bills D isn't decimated by injuries and that contributes to some of their problems. You're arguing that the run D isn't bad. Do you honestly think the run D has nothing to do with the passing D? They're not connected in any way? Teams don't run to set up the pass and vise versa? Also, you didn't answer my question at all. You are saying that those 180 yards are meaningless because, according to you, they had nothing to do with scoring drives. So, are you saying that: 1) The run D is bad but in this game it didn't seem to cost the Bills much. 2) The Bills sometimes don't try all the time to stop the run and just give the opposing team some big gains when they dont' think it will hurt them? 3) The BIlls D doesn't give full effort all the time? It has to be one of these things for your argument to make any logical sense. Which is it? My guess is you think it's number 1 and we just disagree on how much it effected this game but I'm not totally positive. They're giving up a lot of yards and a lot of yards per carry and I'm assuming they're trying their best to stop the team each and every play. If that's the case their run D is bad. That it didn't hurt them much this game doesn't negate the fact that it's bad they're just fortunate it didn't hurt them (and I do not believe that it didn't hurt them this game, I'm just trying to look at it from your perspective.)

I answered your question in a long post above - you've ignored my answer because it doesn't fit your agenda. You also ignored my question above: what is it your'e really saying here?

One thing I've enjoyed this season is to see the Niners struggle. I love to see the smugness wiped off Harbaugh's face. It pleases me to no end.

If the Bills had 22 guys with the heart and desire of Fred Jackson the Bills would be in the playoffs. The guy wills himself to be the best player he possibly can be. It's inspiring and I love the guy too.

Eball, I'm wondering, what is it you're really saying? That the Bills can stop the run when they really feel like it? That sometimes they just don't try and stop it? That they say to themselves, "self, you know we could stop it if we wanted to but it's really not going to hurt us right now so let's let them gain some yards!" Or are you questioning their effort? To me that's an even bigger insult. Because that's what your argument comes down to. Sure, they've made a few short yardage stops this year. That alone doesn't equal the run defense being good or an opponents running game not hurting them. And as Dave pointed out, it's not just this game. They haven't stopped the run in ANY game. They allowed the Panthers to march down the field in crunch time and burn 5:30 off the clock and pad their lead and they allowed the Pats march down the field for a game winning FG (the key play in that drive was a big run btw.) That's not all I did. I had a long post where I spoke to how the Jets run game helped their pass game. It also helped their own defense because it kept them off the field. And I did go play by play through it and listed the 14 runs of 5 yards or better. And yeah 182 yards allows stinks! That alone is better than your argument of, "they didn't run for that many 1st downs." There is no making it look good, despite your best efforts.

I like how you try and use a very very selective stat to try and prove your point. Running the ball for a 1st down isn't the only way of having a successful running game. It's called down and distance. You act like rushing for 1st downs is the only thing that matters in a successful ground attack. If you are successful running the ball on 1st or 2nd down you set up manageable distances for 1st downs. Those manageable distances can be converted via that pass. It's all interconnected. This is basic football. I mean basic. Talk about absurd.

Like hell it didn't. They carried the ball 41 times and only threw it 29 (that's a 58:42 run:pass ratio). That doesn't usually work in the modern NFL. They held the ball for 34 minutes. They beat the Bills when they had -2 in turnovers and 20 penalties for 170 yards. You don't win games when you have those turnovers and penalties simply by completing 2 big pass plays. What did they do the rest of the time? Pounded the Bills into submission. They beat them down, tired them out, made them commit to lots of guys to the LoS and then went up top for their scores. It was classic old school football. You're looking at this just as individual scoring plays/drives. The entire offense works as a unit and they used the run to set up those pass plays yesterday. If the Bills could stop the run and made it so that the Jets weren't able to run it 41 times with proficiency the Jets would have had to rely on their pass more and the Bills could have had more guys back in coverage. Only Bills fans can have a D that gives up 500 yards, is on the field for 34 minutes and say they were beaten by 2 pass plays and that Rogers is solely to blame for the loss. The entire D is a mess right now and the results are pretty much the same as the past few seasons. The run D is bad and it's costing the team whether they gave up running scores or not. Running the ball is a mindset and the Jets told the Bills D that they were their b*tch yesterday. I'll say I think Dave is right, the D coordinator is better, but the D is not. At least not now. I said before the season I thought this team would be considerably better in the 2nd half of the season and I'll stick to that. Once they get these systems down and, hopefully, get players healthy we'll start to see what they can really do.

It doesn't look better though, it's simply more aggressive. People like aggression so they'd rather go out on their sword than death by a 1000 cuts. Well, going out on the sword looks is what we saw yesterday. You get a nicely wrapped scapegoat in Rogers but its' the overall D that's the issue. It gives up running yards in huge chunks, gives up game winning big plays and gets called for far too many penalties. I swear, it's been so long since Bills fans have seen a good D they don't know what one looks like.

Yeah, the backups on the Bills. Other team's backups perform at a higher level when slotting into their respective OLines though. Sad.

Sure there is. The Bills rush wasn't getting there anyway. They could have forgone the max pressure man coverage and played more of a zone and make Geno beat them in little chunks all the way down field instead of just tossing it up against man coverage and having our backup DBs fail to do their job. A more conservative game plan is in order when you're missing 3/4 of your defensive backfield. You can't go out and play like you still have Revis out there shutting down half the field.

If Rogers "single handedly lost the game" then there's nothing anybody else could have done to help him. Now, if there are some things others could have done then others share the blame in the loss.

F the Dolphins. While, I'm at it, F the Pats and Jets too.

Based on his own criteria I give it an F.

Wow. Really? What do you think bad run D is? No team in the NFL allows every single run at 5 yards plus. Sure, they have quite a few stops for little to no gain. But they also had 14 runs of 5 yards or more against them. The Bills allowed runs of 5, 5, 5, 5, 9, 9, 21, 8, 27, 5, 7, 13, 14, & 7 yesterday. Even with the stops they had that's horrible run D. Just horrible. If CJ had the game Powell had yesterday: 27 carries, 149 yards (5.5ypc) you'd be saying how spectacular he was.

But it does have something to do with it. Right now the Bills are allowing 4.3ypc. That's not good and ranked 22nd in the league. The D allows 5.3 yards per play (tied for 16th in the league.) They've allowed teams to convert 3rd downs 46% of the time (ranked 27th in the league.) Lastly, the D has been on the field for 235 snaps - most in the NFL. They're not good at 3rd downs to be sure but there's a disconnect between the stats here. If they're ranked 16 in yards per play, 22nd in yards per carry, and 27th in 3rd down percentage how have they been on the field for 235 snaps, most in the NFL? The number of snaps they are on the field (and consequently how many yards they allow) is directly related to the offenses no huddle "attack" and their penchant for 3 and outs.

Maybe the Oline would better be able to recognize an opponent's blitz if they had more time pre-snap at the LOS? Perhaps Hackett would make better decisions if he had more time to call a play? Or maybe EJ would be able to calm down if he had some time in a huddle and more time to look over the D pre-snap?

And he made them under pressure. On both throws he was in the process of getting drilled by a Bills defender and he stayed tough and made pretty good throws. It's funny how Bills's fans can't give Geno credit for making plays. As if it somehow means the Bills made a mistake in drafting Manuel. If Geno had to face his own D he would have looked like crap too. Fortunately for him he got the face the Bills D.

Those weren't fades they were go routes. They looked like fades because EJ threw them out of bounds. The WRs ran their routes much too close to the sideline for them to be fades.

I'm not sure how anybody playing in the NFL could be worse. Brown is the worst starting OLineman I've ever seen. He's a bad backup. All over the league there are injuries on the OL and backups are plugging the holes yet Brown in still the worst OLineman in the NFL. The fact that he "won" the starting spot is mind-boggling.

All you guys bagging on Rogers should be bagging on everybody's favorite D coordinator. He did Rogers no favors by having him out there isolated in man coverage time and time again. One of the TDs was, in part, because the S got over there late (and took a bad angle) but pretty much every other time Rogers struggled he was out there on an island.