Maddog69

yep

This offseason will be interesting. At a minimum, I expect changes on the coaching staff (OC, OL coach to name two). But I heard something during the Cowboys game the other night that got me thinking. The commentator was talking about Jason Garrett and said he relinquished control of the offense this year and assumed a much more managerial role and the team has been much more successful this year. I wonder if Marrone might be willing to do the same thing. I really hope so. I view Hackett as a puppet and I fear that Marrone would simply hire another puppet for OC if he is forced to make a change. I would love to see him hire a strong, experienced OC and give him autonomy over the offense (to a point), like he has done with Schwartz. This could be just what the Bills need.

Give me a break. TWO WIDE OPEN RECEIVERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD. The line is not the 'real problem'.

Were there any rumors about the Sabres hiring Lafontaine and Nolan? The Pegula's inner circle seems to be able to keep their mouths shut. That said, I don't think they will fire Marrone (although I wish they would). I could see him refuses to make changing on his coaching staff and therefore being forced out.

Turbosrrgood will be on here defending Orton any minute now.

Stop it. According to many people here, Orton is doing a great job. Its all on the O-line and the play calling. LOL

Exactly.

I could be wrong, but I think the Bills would still have technically been alive because Baltimore lost. If Baltimore lost again this week and KC beat SD, we could still have made the playoffs by beating the Raiders and New England.

How many years are left on his contract?

my thought is, who cares? .500 sucks. Its better than 3-13 but it still sucks. We should not be satisfied with that.

The question is: Are they trending upward? in other words, is this sustainable? And that is where the strength of victory comes into the discussion, I think. We had many close games and had to have a lot of things fall in our favor to win. Even the GB game which was great. But we still needed a PR touchdown and a safety to win. These things are fluky. It is very conceivable that next year, these breaks will not fall our way and we will go back to 6-10 or worse. That's where a good, top to bottom review of the organization is required. They need to identify the good (defense) and make sure that stays solid. And they need to identify the bad (HC, OC, OL, QB play, Run game, penalties, etc) and find ways to fix those so that whatever progress has been made can be maintained and built upon. Simply saying this has been a good year and not looking objectively at it and improving will result in disappointment again next year and beyond.

The fact that this season can be considered radically better than the previous five is depressing. The bar is set so low. That said, 8-8 is NOT a good season. This team is full of major flaws. The owners need to realize this and address it. To look at this and say that this year is acceptable and just proceed with the status quo would be a big mistake.

How do you figure that?assuming Denver wins tonight then NE will need to win for the #1 seed. Not to mention that Belicheck doesn't generally sit his starters and the Patriots have an exceptional record at home, especially against AFC opponents.

It think it is safe to assume that they did not want to interfere with the day to day business of operations especially since the Bills were doing OK and staying competitive for a playoff spot. I suspect that if the season went off the rails weeks ago, that we would have seen more activity from the Pegula's and gotten a glimpse at the plan. With the end of the season quickly approaching and the playoff hopes out the window, I would imagine we will start to see information trickling out and speculation to begin about potential changes and moves.

He would be a guy I would like them to consider. But I doubt they could get him to come here.

Agreed. I think we can safely assume that the Pegula's didn't invest $1.4 billion and then just sit on their hands and let the season play out before doing any ground work.

Orton has a short window to opt out of the 2015 contract. He has to decide within a few days of the Superbowl.

I stopped reading at "Manual"

Jim Kelly. His backups seem to be doing decent jobs as OC's. Jimbo has to be better than his backups.

that Watkins trade was a genius move. And that crappy offense lineman in Rd2, genius.

don't forget to point out that most of these offenses have gone through more than one OC in recent years and still been very good.

I understand your point, but I don't think making an OC change at this point would do any good, and could do more harm than good. As we've established, Marrone is really running the Offense. Hackett is, shall we say, an assistant OC. He does some of the grunt work and Marrone makes final game plan design. Bringing in someone else who doesn't work as well with Marrone could muddy the process (which, as we know isn't great already). I'm interested to see a full offseason with Orton. If EJ steps up and is able to take the starting job, that can only mean good things. Orton is arguably average to above average. If he keeps the job, we know what to expect from the QB position. If EJ (or another QB brought in to compete) wins the job then we can expect a higher level of QB play. Another year of development from some of the young players and adding in some FA's and draftees will raise the talent level even more.

You know, it really did.The offense was still not good, but the fact that this defense was able to shut down two future hall of famers in consecutive weeks really got me thinking that this team is on the right track. There is room for improvement on the offense. I think they will improve the OL. And I think Orton's struggles have really brought focus to the problems on the Offense and made people realize that it wasn't all EJ. I'm hoping we can sneak into the playoffs. That would be great. If not, I think improvements will be made next year that should put the team in the playoffs. If they miss the playoffs next year, then I think the Pegula's will blow it up and start over with a high profile coach. But (assuming a win this week), you cannot make a HC change after the first winning season in a decade.

seems like your biggest mistake is listening to people on here who say stupid things. People overstate how good a player they like is and the exaggerate how bad the other guy is. That's what people do on message boards. There's very little common sense. Like I said, the Offense has had issues and there are numerous reasons for this. Coaching needs to get better, the front office needs to find some better players and the players have to execute. Bottom line is that we are better than we've been in a long time. We still may make the playoffs and if we miss, it will be because of a few plays here or there. I think this same roster could go into next season and make the playoffs. I'm not going to overreact. Is Hackett great? NO. Is he the worst OC in the league, probably not. Same with Orton and EJ, both are serviceable. We could be in a worse situation at QB. The team is on the upswing and we are not far off. Ignore the idiots and enjoy the ride.

So, who is at fault? Is it Hackett? Is it the fact that, as you stated, He's had 4 QB (none of which are good)? He's had numerous mediocre receivers and multiple mediocre OL to run the offense. He has no real legit threats at TE to work with. So, what do we really expect from Hackett? Now let's go a step further. This offense is Marrone's. Hackett does not have autonomy to run the offense as Schwartz does with the defense. This makes it even more difficult to divide the blame for the lackluster offense. I have been frustrated with play calls at various times over the last couple of seasons. But I have also been frustrated by the OL's ability to pick up a stunt and their penchant for stupid penalties at horribly inopportune times. I've been frustrated by RB's dancing rather than hitting holes, missing blitz pickups, dropping screens. I've been frustrated with both QB's this year for inaccurate throws, missed reads, holding the ball too long, sliding on 3rd and one and missing WIDE OPEN Receivers in the red zone. Point is, there is plenty of blame to go around. Hackett/Marrone have room for improvement as do many of the players on the offense. And the FO has a chance to add talent to the roster in the offseason. All in all, this has been one of the best seasons the Bills have had since the turn of the century. While we all want more, I'm going to enjoy the playoff hunt for the next few weeks and I look forward to the offseason to see what impact the new ownership has on the team as we move forward and build on the first winning season in a decade.