berndogg

Wow, that's funny. That kid was actually on the same escalator as me on the way up to our seats. Guaranteed me jets 30+ point win, Bell 300+ yards lol

I remember my dad had one of biscuit with the 55 jersey. Looked literally nothing like him. Actually resembled my doc gooden figure more than it resembled Cornelius himself

Let's give TT the '99 team's defense and see how many games he wins

The main reason I could see this happening is because of Kellen Moore's first start. He's a big draw in the Idaho market from his college days. If you're getting the majority of fans watching from both Idaho and Buffalo (I believe the #1 and and #2 media markets in the country), the advertisers are going to be lining up.

This is one of my all time favorite strawman arguments. The retarded cousin of "if it works everyone says he's a genius". Please find me links of any columinists, TBD posters, twitter users, etc who are adamant that the coach should go for it more on fourth down, yet complain that he went for it when we get stuffed.

The "analytics don't apply to this particular situation" fallacy is what leads even coaches that are aware of the numbers to ignore them and go with conventional wisdom. The fact is there are statistics that account for the specific teams and their average yards per play gained and allowed in 3rd/4th and short situations. Those stats still favored going for it in all of the controversial 4th down situations (KC, Mia, Den, etc) where Moron punted

Googling "Rex Ryan 4th down" was actually the first thing I did when Rex Ryan was hired because Gailey and Marrone's conservativeness has driven me to drink (more) heavily over the past few years and I truly believe it has cost us wins. The search results weren't particularly promising http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/upshot/how-rex-ryan-can-save-his-job-and-help-reinvent-the-nfl.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1. I know that Gailey never got it because he's old and out of touch and Marrone is too stubborn/arrogant to listen to any info that conflicts with his saintly opinions. Really hope Rex sees the light. As the article says most coaches are still way too conservative and a coach that uses the analytics in making his decisions would have a huge competitive advantage.

Really? And that just goes across the board? Even if the head coach is an offensive oriented guy and you had a bottom 5 offense top 3 defense and special teams all year? Even if both qbs he had noticeably regressed game to game? Even if he was statistically proven to make the wrong call on fourth down over 90% of the time which almost definitely cost us at least 2 games? Even if one of those 9 wins will be against a team resting their starters? Even if the coach in question has never succeeded anywhere as a head coach? None of those things matter. 9 wins without a good qb= keep the coach. Got it.

That's interesting. I'm always pretty shocked when I see people on this board who think Marrone is an NFL coach. 0 of the Bills fans I know personally think he should keep his job.

If I'm Whaley/Pegula, I tell him that he punted away his job on that play.

4th down calls? Clock management? Those are things that are definitely the head coach's decision and it's a mathematical fact that he is terrible at them. We also know that he came in as an offensive minded coach and our offense is terrible, that is a statistical fact. Maybe he is doing some great things behind the scenes, but that's all speculative.

Even if you're going to give Marrone credit for the defense because the head coach has his hands in all aspects of the team (I don't) and you're gonna say the offensive futility is more a function of bad qb play than a bad system/bad play calling, how can you defend the botched fourth down calls and clock management every single week?

That "4th and 1, unbelievable" comment was the best. Marrone probably isn't aware that going for it on 4th down other than end of game situations is legal. If he is aware of that he certainly didn't know that some times the team that goes for it actually converts. The guy just had his mind completely blown.

I think Marrone should be fired because he's a professional football coach and doesn't realize that it's within the rules to run a play on fourth down. I'm pretty sure he thinks "forced to punt" is a literal term. Benching EJ, however, was definitely the right move. Can't justify keeping someone in at any age at any position when they're giving you the worst produciton in the entire league. What's gonna happen one year to the next is so hard to predict for so many reasons, you have to go with the team that gives you the best chance to win on a week to week basis. EJ has proven definitively that he does not.

No. If we released him tomorrow, I would say there's a higher than 50% chance he would never play another down in the NFL.

I wouldn't go that far. Put it this way, when Seattle and St. Louis fans try to predict their record for the rest of the season, do you think most of them consider Buffalo a win or a loss? I mean, even this week we're only 3 point favorites and I'm not exactly rushing to put my house on the Bills. Don't get me wrong, I think we CAN win all of those games besides Houston and NE, but we're also more than capable of losing every single one of them. But back to the topic at hand, it really would be a shame if the coaching staff's faith in T.Jack is so low that they wouldn't make a switch in order to try to salvage a playoff run and the only option is wait to fail, then clean house.

"The Bills do not circle the wagons anymore. They hire Dick Jauron, and then they lay down and f' ing die." One of my all time favorite lines

I heard the Saints paid Trent Edwards to throw a 2 yard dump pass to Freddie on 4th and 23 down 2 scores in the 4th qtr. Any truth to that?

What a me first Gloreee boy! We're doooomed!

There were a couple of really nice tackles during one of the Pats' 7 unanswered td drives.

Well, don't get too much hope. Jim Kelly and Bruce Smith were a much easier sell for my dad than Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chris Kelsay will be for you! But in all seriousness, in the end I think watching the games and rooting for the team as a family was (and still is) what drew my brother and I to the Bills. Get Direct TV or find a bar with a satellite that's somewhat kid friendly, make sure to take them to see the Bills play the Jets every year at the Meadowlands (being around jets fans will influence anyone towards being a fan of the other team), and enjoy watching the games together as often as you can, that should be enough to convert them. Then they'll be bitter about it 20 years later like I am.

That actually reminds me of myself a little bit. I grew up about 20 mins from Giants stadium, my dad is a die hard Bills fan from Buffalo, and I was 7 years old and my brother was 9 when super bowl 25 took place. My brother and I were definitely influenced by the Giants hype leading up to the game and I think we even rooted for them (we were able to do so because our dad was at the game while we were home with our mom who doesn't care about sports). But in the following years we fell in love with those super bowl Bills teams, who were just much more entertaining to watch than the mediocre giants teams of the early 90s and the rest is history. I sill give my dad crap about how I should've just stuck with the Giants and my life would've been so much easier.

This is such revisionist history its not even funny. From the Dallas game on almost every opposing offense looked like they were playing against air, I've honestly never seen anything worse in my life. The stats don't even come close to telling the story because the other team didn't need to score after the first half. Dallas, Miami (first game), San Diego, and NE (2nd game) all could have scored 60+ and put up 600+ total yards EASILY if they had to. And 23-17 doesn't even come close to describing the way the titans beat us down. Also, Mark F'n SANCHEZ threw 4 tds. C'mon now, no way you can explain that with the injury bug. Every defense has injuries, the fact that one or two of em turn a bad defense (but no worse than say, New England) into one of the worst defenses of all time means there weren't enough NFL players on that side of the ball to begin with. I'm sorry, but no healthy offense (and certainly not one led by Ryan Fitzpatrick) could've made us into a playoff team. The bills are still a long way away.

I really hope that his unwavering confidence in Fitz is just a front to not create controversy. If they think there is a good qb there in round 1 or 2 they have to grab him. I do agree that he didn't have the best weapons to throw to, but I remain very unconvinced that he's a franchise guy.