I admit I was wrong, why was I wrong?

[TheChimp]

1. Schobel was FAR better than alot of us (including myself) ever gave him credit for.

2. These players are FAR worse at picking up the 3-4 than one could have ever imagined they'd be.

3. George Edwards doesn't appear to know WTF he's doing with his players.

4. Bruce De Haven is a shadow of his former self.

5. Chan Gailey isn't nearly as good an OC as we were all led to believe.

6. Ralph Wilson wouldn't know a good GM if one called him from Indianapolis and offered to come back and help him save face (again).

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Responses above.

 

Makes it tough to respond, but I'll give it a try. I don't want to quibble; you say we added #5-6 LB, I point out one of them started for two teams, you say one of the two teams suck, I could point out Denver was 2nd in the Division and was expected by some to do better, they certainly aren't league-scraping scum, you could have some quibble with that, what's the point. I still don't "get" how releasing two players who never saw the field on D last year, or an injured OT, makes the D horrible.

 

I'll go after the two points you make that seem most salient. I say:

-You acknowledge Schobel was replaced with a "decent signing" in DE Dwan Edwards You respond: Yes, but two different positions. A DE in a 4-3 is different than a 3-4 DE. In a 3-4 the pass rush comes from the LB. In a 4-3 it comes from DE. We lost our top pass rusher and replaced him with a big body and didn't add a pass rusher to take his place.

 

That strikes me as really key. Most people last year felt we were pretty sad with regard to QB pressure, and now we have even less.

And yep, we don't have a decent pass-rushing LB much less a stud no argument there. So that's a "fair cop" - whether or not they're servicable starters, Torbor and Davis have never been pass-rushing studs. I think the DEs are good to servicable. But yep, the OLB (Kelsay esp). are not making the grade.

 

I said: -George Edwards was not a "C lister" as a LB coach - has a strong pedigree of developing young LB to stardom and more experience as Fewell had when he took over as DC You respond: George Edwards is garbage and is way over his head. Mark Kelso called out the defensive scheme all day on the radio today, and he's supposed to be a Bills homer.

 

Now we're getting into name calling - it would be pointless to debate with someone using terms like "garbage". I can't argue that he seems over his head today, the question at hand is whether it was obvious a priori this spring that would be the case. Using insults or pointing out what you see today don't seem like strong evidence that he was clearly a downgrade last spring.

 

You say: I don't think we'll be 0-16, but we'll win 3 or 4. Feel free to look through old posts.

I'll do that.

 

Nice talking to you

[Hapless Bills Fan]

I did. I knew darn well we wouldn't have a pass rush. Schobel had been doing his heroic best for years and making everyone around him better. When he retired, it was the last ray of light being extinguished. So, yeah, honestly, objectively, I was almost positive this would be a horrible year on defense.

 

And yeah, you should have known there was a very good chance this was coming with so many 4 - 3 players switching positions and playing places they'd never played before, with 2 NTs, a rookie who's a bit too small for the job though he might grow, and a vet who's way too small for the job.

 

The two most important positions in a 3 - 4 defense? NT and ROLB, and when Schobel retired, we had nothing but bad options at both positions.

 

And one quick fact check on your post, how did Ryan Denney, a guy who apparently "never saw the field as a DE last year" get two sacks and 16 tackles? Denney was a platoon player and did a decent job. Too small for 3 - 4 DE, though, and not mobile enough for LB.

 

Schobel - I think that's a fair cop on me. I underestimated Schobel - didn't think he was the "last ray of light", certainly.

 

NT - for "way too small for the job", Kyle Williams seems like the bright ray in a dark room to me.

 

I sit corrected on Denney. He was not a starter, 0 starts. I didn't see him on the field, I don't get to see every game though.

Not clear on me how much defensive impact letting him go really had.

 

I'm still not entirely clear on the total source of the meltdown though. It seems as though other teams have switched schemes, brought in 3-4 players off season, and it's not been this scale of an epic disaster.

 

Thanks for the fact check!

 

1. Schobel was FAR better than alot of us (including myself) ever gave him credit for.

2. These players are FAR worse at picking up the 3-4 than one could have ever imagined they'd be.

3. George Edwards doesn't appear to know WTF he's doing with his players.

4. Bruce De Haven is a shadow of his former self.

5. Chan Gailey isn't nearly as good an OC as we were all led to believe.

6. Ralph Wilson wouldn't know a good GM if one called him from Indianapolis and offered to come back and help him save face (again).

 

 

I think this really sums it up nicely. Although evidently many experts and some denizens here have better imaginations than I on Point 2.

 

Point 3 appears salient.