MDH

I agree, in principle, with what you're saying about building from the lines out...though there are a few positions on the field that are of equal importance: QB and CB. A very good CB can cut the field in half for your D and let a Safety slide over to help the other side more often. That's a huge benefit. A team needs a solid, fast, LB unit, but it can get by without a “stud” in the unit. It’s much more difficult to get by without a stud CB, he can cover a lot of deficiencies. Of course, the question is, “is Clements a stud CB?” Before last year I would have said no, but he played as well as (if not better than) anybody in the league last year. I’m not ready to write him off after four games this year. I agree though, he sucked against the Saints.

I agree with most of your post, except the above. Last week on a 4th and a foot the Bills tried a QB sneak and when it didn't work people wailed, "Isn't that what we pay Willis for?!?!" So this week they give the ball to Willis, he gets stopped, and somebody says the above? There's no pleasing some people. The bottom line is you have to mix it up on 3rd and 4th and short plays. I'd actually like to see them take more shots down the field using play action on these plays, particularly since the offense can't seem to move the ball doing anything else.

My point is that its not the WRs fault, they simply don't have a QB that can get them the ball or a OL that can sufficiently block for the QB so he can get them the ball. I’m not crazy about Moulds contract but I can guarantee you that Evans isn’t ready to see constant double teams and I’m not sure with his body type he’ll ever be ready.

Might as well get rid of Evans too, since his stats suck

True, the Bills O can't score. However, if the Bills D actually stopped teams on 3rd downs it would give the O more opportunities to score while, at the same time, letting the D rest. The two things go hand and hand. Obviously the O can help the D out, but this D could be helping this O out a lot more too (turnovers anyone?) I wonder what the average team score is when they produce zero turnovers? My guess is that it isn't high.

The D has given up 95, 191, 236, 167 yards rushing this year. When you let team's grind it out on you like that they control the clock and end up winning low scoring games (kinda like what we're SUPPOSED to be doing). The low scores speak to what teams are trying to do against us not that our D is preventing them from putting up big points. Why throw the ball (which is what you do to put up big points) when you can run all over this D? Even when our D was stopping the run NO kept stuffing it in there, controling the clock and getting first downs. That's why you're seeing low scores.

So the D not being able to get off the field on 3rd downs has nothing to do with the D being worn out by the 4th quarter? It's not a black and white issue. It's a combination of both the O and the D sucking. The entire team in in collapse, to simplify it and blame the O isn't right.

It might not be as bad as everybody makes it out to be. The past 3 weeks the Bills have been in every single game despite playing horribly on both O and D. Just a little improvement with either/both will put them in a position to win games. Granted, I have no faith that we'll see any improvement but it wouldn't take much to get this team on the winning track.

You realize that NO gained their HUGE TOP advantage in the 4th quarter (where they held the ball for 11:17 to the Bills 3:43) when they were trying to control the clock by running the ball. If the D could stop a team that they KNOW is going to run the ball at them and get off the field the TOP wouldn't have been so significant. I'm not absolving the O from their responsibilities (they f'in suck to say the least) I'm just tired of people making excuses for this D.

If you don't care what anybody else says why come to a message board for a discussion? I'll agree that playing D with a lead is easier than playing without one, but a good D gets off the field on third downs, pressures the QB and causes turnovers, with or without a lead. The fact that the O isn't helping things out much doesn't absolve this D from getting it done. We were supposed to lean on this "historic" D this year. Yet somehow, now, when the D isn't holding up you want to come here and convince us that it's the O's fault? Yeah, right.

JP has plenty of pocket awareness. I've seen him sense the rush from the backside and spin out of it on numerous occasions (or try to spin out of it when he should simply throw the ball away). I’ve yet to see him take a shot that he didn’t know was coming. However he isn't pulling the trigger fast enough on passes because he's (not surprisingly) confused. Just saying “he has no field awareness” doesn’t even mean anything. What are you talking about, coverage’s? Pass rush? Where his WRs should be? There’s only one of those things that can’t be taught, pocket awareness, and (as I’ve stated) he most definitely has that.

You can't even begin to compare what Alex Smith did last night to what he'd face if he started. He was put in with his team behind by three scores and faced a D that was in prevent mode, giving him the short stuff. The one time they blitzed he was eaten alive by it and sacked. As for Josh McCown, the guy has struggled in plenty of starts before (and he'll struggle again). You can't just watch a single game (or a half a game as it is) and make a determination. What if the only half of football you've seen JP play this year was the first half of the Houston game?

The Shift key is your friend. As for Holcomb, I disagree. You play the kid all year long. Holcomb isn't the answer in the short term or the long term (unless he can play defense).

You act like the Bills were behind big and didn't have time on the clock to run the ball. They should have been running the ball more, grinding out yards, controlling the clock and keeping the Saints offense off the field. All while moving the ball more consistently than we were doing attempting to throw the ball. I don’t know, moving the ball more consistently while keeping the opposing offense off the field…yeah, that sounds like a bad idea. Let’s keep throwing the ball since that was working so well!

You should just stop now. You look like a fool.

Had we run the ball more there's a pretty good chance the Bills wouldn't have been losing in the 4th quarter...

This D has cumbled in crunch time for years now. It's really nothing new.

Yeah, because if we didn't "waste" the year for JP we'd be putting up all kinds of victories with this stout defense and coaching staff committed to the running game.

Or two QBs that both hold the ball too long = QBs fault...

I've never seen a worse run defense than ASU in the second half of this game. And even after they were racking up 7-10 yards a pop they didn't stack the line to stop the run. They still just had 7 in the box. Not that it would have mattered, they couldn't make a tackle to save their lives.

One has to love the class and empathy you display. Nice job.

I'd have to go with #11 as my favorite. It's so wrong but so damn funny. 11. A car driven by Cherica Adams is traveling down Grand Ave. at 30 miles per hour, and is 1 mile from the intersection of Grand and 2nd Street. Rae Carruth’s contract killer is in a Mercedes, 3 miles away on 2nd street. How fast does the killer have to drive in order to arrive at the intersection in time to shoot Carruth’s girlfriend and her unborn baby?

Three games demonstrates this?

I thought this was amusing: Its kind of strange, in back to back days I read articles/blurbs that mention the Pottsville Maroons. The other one being a Page 2 article about the curse that's on the Arizona Cardinals.

Much of it is coming right up the middle and Teague has been the culprit many a time.