MDH

It's amazing how many guys on this D have "played the run well" according to Bills fans. We're led to believe K. Williams has played the run well, Dareus has played the run well, Barnett has played the run well, Merriman has played the run well, Wilson has played the run well, etc., etc. Yet, here the Bills sit ranked 30th in the league in yards allowed per game at 135 yards per game. Stats obviously aren't everything and quite a few of those yards came against a running QB in Vick, but none-the-less the Bills have not been good vs. the run this year. I'm not saying some of those guys aren't playing well but for the most part the Bills have continued to suck against the run again this year and all the guys Bills fans say, "have played the run well" this year couldn't have possibly given how they've been run through.

Is there any doubt who the best player in football has been over the past decade after watching the Colts implode without Manning? This is pretty much the same team that went 10-6 last year and now they look like the worst team in football.

Yeah, it sounded like your point was that Fitz was too old - when in fact he's a guy who's just entering his prime years. Those are guys you hold onto, not try to go the younger route. Even if it takes a year or two to fill those needs we have a guy who will still be in his prime at age 30. That gives the Bills a 5-7 year window to get the job done. I just can't deal with a young QB struggling after watching this team "rebuild" for 10+ years now. The modern NFL has teams that turnaround in 2 years, there is no reason the Bills can't do it. The O is almost there, just fix that D...

We're going to draft an 18 year old QB? The last thing I want to do is draft a 22-23 year old rookie QB who we have to grow with and watch him struggle for years before he's productive. We have a QB who isn't perfect and isn't elite but he is most certainly good enough to win with on a good team. He's in the prime of his career at 28 and his growing pain days are behind him. Give him some decent weapons (who can actually stay on the field) and a D who can stop the opposing team on occasion and this team would be fine.

If that's the case I hope they're 14-1 with nothing to play...

My only concern about the Jets is that by the time we play them that they begin playing better. Our defense makes even the most average offense look good and if the Jets D starts playing well it could pose problems - particularly on the road. I wish we had played them early in the season.

The LBs aren't too small to stop the run, I haven't noticed an inordinate amount of missed tackles in the run game. What they lack is the ability to get to the passer. You can't run a 3-4 and have LBs that simply get eaten up by the OL over and over again.

I'm not happy with the loss yesterday but there is a little ray of sunshine that can be gleamed from it. The Bills played their worst game of the season, with 5 starters out with injury, with lots of mistakes on both sides of the ball, on the road, against a (now) 4-2 team and lost by a late FG. I was as pissed off after the game as anybody but after having time to calm down a bit you begin to think more clearly. This team can play with anybody but you can't have that many mistakes and expect to win the game.

I still can't figure out where the hell the safeties were on those plays. Bills rushed 5 or more only a handful of times yet I never saw Florence get any safety help. I'd have to go back and look at those specific plays but I don't recall the Bills sending extra guys on those plays.

They didn't even try to move the chains. Ran in twice right into a stacked front then did a draw. You've got to trust your QB there - 2nd down was a perfect opportunity to throw it and they pretty much decided they'd just give the ball back to Brady and hope for the best. Not a good strategy.

Tight fit? Stevie had 3 steps on the DB. That's an easy TD throw. Same for that other int too - it might not have been a TD but Stevie had 3 steps on the db on that play as well. I'm not going to put the entire game on Fitz's shoulders but he did make several poor plays that cost the Bills. So did the D who can't come up with big stops unless they get a turnover. Florence was horrible and the D couldn't stop the run when it actually mattered (just like in Cincy...) Also agree with questioning the play-calling on several key plays. Why throw long with under 4 minutes left just outside the 20 yard line? Run the ball, throw short passes, run time off the clock and hopefully put the ball in the endzone with under a minute left.

He was under pressure today because he continually held the ball too long. Fitz had 4-5 horrible plays that really cost the Bills today. Getting sacked out of FG range at the end of the half is inexcusable.

Fantastic article, and only partly because of the football element. Thanks for the link.

Interestingly, if you go back and look at all their picks in Bills' games this year you'll see that the majority of the CBS guys have picked against the Bills every single week except one - Cincy. So the majority have miss picked Bills' games every week. I like this trend seeing as they're picking the Giants this week.

College stats most certainly count - in determining what type of college player he was. He was an outstanding college player, nobody is disputing this. If it was as easy as looking at college stats to determine how well they'll transition to the pros they could fire all the college scouts, not bother looking at thousands of hours of game film (by guys who know what they're looking for) and just hire you to look up their stats at ESPN.com But it's not that easy, that's why the roadside is filled with guys who were monsters in college but, for whatever reasons, couldn't get the same results in the pros.

It's called sample size. When dealing with an incredibly small sample size (like say 3 games in an NFL career) you can get an incredibly wide range of numbers. With more games played the numbers will move towards ones which will more accurately reflect a player's impact. Perhaps these will get better, perhaps they'll stay the same or maybe they'll even get worse - it's tough to know right now. Go look at the first 3 games of an NFL season or an MLB season - you'll have guys on pace to have 160 receptions and 2000+ yards or guys who are on pace to bat .750. You can't use statistics to make any type of real argument when the sample size is so small. Those numbers might be encouraging, but that's about it.

This. If the Bills can pressure Eli into mistakes (read: turnovers) the Bills win. If they can't, the Bills lose - perhaps by double digits. Road wins in the NFL aren't easy and if the Bills lose the turnover battle I haven't seen anything from this team that leads me to believe they can win on the road. That being said, I think the Bills can pressure Manning into a few picks... Bills 24 Giants 20

It's amazing how many times the announcers mess this rule up. Billick was saying during the telecast how since the ball passed the LoS it's not intentional grounded and I'm yelling at my TV, "but he's not outside the tackles!" I've seen other announcers make the same statement apparently never realizing that there are two things that need to happen for it not to be intentional grounding, not just one.

When the turnovers dry up - and they will eventually, you're left with a team that lets other teams drive up and down the field and score TDs. I love the turnovers as much as anyone but the Bills have lots of holes in the dam that they need to shore up if they want to make the playoffs.

My 7-year-old thinks those robots are awesome! I guess that's their target demographic...

If he does it all on the way to a loss I'm all for it. Pound Brady but I'd like to see the nails put in the Jets' coffin. Last thing I want are both the Jets and Pats competing for playoff spots at the end of the year.

I was at the Phillies game and I got kicked in the nuts twice yesterday - once by the Bills on TV and once by the Phillies in person - and it f'in sucked. To top it off I live in northern Jersey and had to drive 5 hours round trip for the pleasure of watching the Phils choke (and got home close to 3 AM.) At least I got to watch the Bills lose in the comfort of my own home.

I don't see how you play a rookie QB in his 4th game and never rush more than 4 men. The key to beating rookies is usually by pressuring them into making mistakes. If the QB beats you by quickly dissecting the blitz and coverage and throwing accurate passes, so be it but to let him just sit back there play after play is horrible.

So let me get this straight - the first 3 weeks does not a season make but this one loss does?

A horrible D that can't stop the run or the pass is to blame for the end of game collapse. That being said the O didn't help much either. I love blaming the refs when the team was horrible. That call was BS, I agree, but I won't blame it for the loss.