MDH

Sorry to pick out one sentence of your entire post but I keep seeing this and I don't understand it. Why do people think Pettine did a good job with this D. So good, in fact, that he should be brought back? Everybody agrees Rex's defenses the past two years have been garbage. That garbage has been better than what Pettine did with the D in terms of scoring D. 2016 D - (Rex/Thurman) 23.2 (15th in NFL) 2015 D - (Rex/Thurman) 22.4 (15th) 2013 D (Pettine) - 24.2 ppg (20th) Pettine's D only looked good - in Bills fans' eyes - because they finally logged some sacks and it followed Wanstadt's horrible defense of 2012 (27.2 ppg, 26th in NFL)

They are changing coaches. I have no doubt that they'll want to get their new coach's input before they decide to pick up, or decline, the option. Not playing him has no bearing on whether he stays or not given the coaching change. There's just no point in the Bills backing themselves into a corner and having to pick up the option if he gets hurt. I don't think Cardale plays unless EJ gets hurt. It doesn't sound like they think he's ready and he'll only go in to prevent Taylor for needing to go in.

It should have been anybody other than a coach who reported to Ryan. Anybody in upper management would have fit the bill. Pegula, Whaley, Brandon, somebody should have had the sack to step up to the podium and answer the questions before Lynn went out there. Because like everybody else on earth they have a job to do on a daily basis and they can't wait until Monday to get to work. They'll ask anybody from the Bills organization any question regarding the football team - particularly ones that involve the recent firing of the HC - to anybody who steps up to answer questions. Not sure how anybody puts this on the media.

Because they'd rather have a quote than just speculate I just wish Whaley would have taken the podium on Tuesday to announce the firing and answer questions just so he didn't throw Lynn out there to face the sh*tstorm that was not of his creation.

Not sure why everybody can't read between the lines. The team doesn't fire Rex on the Monday after the game. He holds his regular Monday press conference and states Tyrod is the starter. The next day Rex is fired and its announced EJ is starting. Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? Rex would be here one more week if he would have agreed to start EJ. He got fired now because he was going to go with TT despite it not being in the team's best long term interests due to the injury clause. Why do people need to hear Lynn say he was or wasn't part of the decison? We know he wasn't. We know why the decison was made. I wil say that I'm generally a supporter of Whaley as GM but is f'n weak as hell that he never spoke to the press about Rex's firing and then threw Lynn up there to take the hard questions. A guy who started the year as RB coach is left to take those questions? Really disappointed in ownership and management for handling it this way. If I'm a potential coaching candidate I look at that with raised eyebrows. That's the leadership this team has?

I don't know the alternative. Its a tough call. TT is likely good enough, if he is with a complete team, to help the Bills to the playoffs. The issue becomes,"at what cost?" At his current salary, yeah, Id take him until someone better comes along. But with his pay hike it becomes even more difficult to field a complete team. Suddenly you can't afford everybody else. The QB has to be able to make up for other team deficiencies in that case. Can TT do that? I haven't seen it on anywhere near a consistent basis yet. That being said, I don't have the answer to who else they could get who could do just as well for cheaper.

I knew if they didn't score a TD on the first drive of OT it was over. When Carp trotted out there I didn't think theyd win even if he hit it. They needed a TD there because the ad was unreliable, to put it mildly.

The bottom line is the Bills had a chance to win the game and didn't. The O could have put it in the end zone. They didn't. The D could have made a stop or caused a turnover, they didn't. ST could have kicked a FG, they didn't. One of the units could have made a play to put the game a way, nobody did. They all share the blame. Its not an equal share of the blame, the O outplayed them all, easily. If everybody was carrying their weight the O would have done enough. But that doesn't absolve them completely. They left plays out there that could have won the game. This is indisputable. Im unsure why this is such a difficult thing to understand. When a team loses, no matter how they lose, there is blame to go around to all the units.

Show me where I ever said otherwise. Or just keep spouting your usual gibberish. Pick one, I know which you'll choose.

Doesn't even have the stones to face the music. No wonder he lacks them in crunch time too.

Yep, I didn't think they'd see then all again and a tie did them no good for the playoffs. I'd put more faith in them picking up a 4th and 3 (fin' Sammy steps out of bounds...) than I did in the D forcing a 3 and out which is pretty much what they needed. Rex put the game in his defenses hands. Yay.

And a loss. Its a team game. Offense scores there and it doesn't matter how bad the D was. I'm not "blaming" the O, I'm saying they didn't do enough to win. And they didn't. They were obviously the best unit in the field today but, unfortunately, the Bills needed more and the O couldn't put the game away when it had opportunities to. No, two plays later they attempted a 46 yard field goal which carp missed.

It was a horrible call. The Phins hadn't stopped the Bills all second half and the Bills were doing anything they wanted, why try a trick play there? For the love of of all that is holy, why?

Offense sh*t the bed in important moments in crunch time today. An end around just outside the red zone when the Dolphins had shown they couldn't stop you all game long? What was the need for any trickery?

Yeah, I mean Rex's prolific D played a game for the ages.

I hope I never see him suit up in a Bills uni again. Sign Gay for next week and cut Carp.

You'd think the Bills would have been ready for it.

Its not all in them. They were horrible, don't get me wrong, but if the O puts the ball in the end zone near the end of regulation or during OT the Bills win.

TRjose PI calls that weren't called weren't even borderline. They were both clear cases of PI

Twice PI in the end zone wasn't called. What BS

Its what he needs to do. Show that he can lead a team from behind with his arm.

The numbers for the entire OL are amazing.

I don't think the Saints and Raiders are really that different. Oakland has the better OL but otherwise they're very similar teams. Quality QBing, able to put up a bunch of points in a hurry but a D that isn't very good. Oakland squeaked out some games whereas the Saints let some get away from them but I think the Raiders aren't quite as good as their record indicates and the Saints aren't quite as bad.

ESPN playoff machine is incorrect in how it assesses tiebreakers. Use the NYT Playoff Simulator.

People have this idea that Pettine's D was good. It wasn't. It ranked 20th in points against. They allowed 388 points that season. More than Ryan's D allowed last year and, unless the Bills allow 75 points in the last two games, more than Ryan's allowed this year. Why do we want to swap Ryan for Pettine?