Barnett talking about how little the D prepped for Denver

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

Time will tell indeed. But you need to give me and everyone that is upset at least this much: in today's NFL, it is (and has been proven) possible to do a complete rebuild in under 3 years. We may be a special case because we have been completely dysfunctional for so long.....BUT....this regime went backwards to 4-12 last year and they do NOT deserve a pass for another 4-12. I say this ONLY because the OL was a glaring area of concern when they came in.....and, 2 drafts and FA periods later, it remains a glaring area of concern - now more than ever. There's little if anything to feel good about on the OL...when it comes specifically to the Tackles....they have no excuses. Outside of owner-interference for a "asses in the seats/jersey sales pick"...the explanation for the Spiller thing remains a mystery to many.

 

We can twist, turn and contort to try to explain away the bloody-awful pre-season perfomances BUT this They have that much more to prove this year.SOMETHING to get the fans excited. Otherwise this could be 1985 very soon.

 

to the long suffering fan, until we see a true fll-tilt commitment to winning...bitching will remian our only medicine. Better to vent anger/frustration here than out in the real world!!!

 

filthymc--i'm a long-suffering bills fan as wel, so you're preaching to the choir. i don't necessarily agree that they went backwards last year (other than the obvious record indicates). i don't hold cg accountable for the decade we've been through, he wsn't here and didn't have anything to do with it. he agreed to run the team, it's up to him to build it in his image, and it's up to him to put a good product on the field. i bitched/moaned/complained last year when things sucked, and will likely do so again if we go down that road this year.

 

i expect incremental improvement and agree wwe should eb moving forward. that said, i don't see how this pre-season helps me very much in this regard, especially when the caoch is telling me "we're not looking at it the way you are". as for the offensive line---you might be right, let's see what happens when they open the season.

 

i like what i see from gailey as it relates to his ability to coach. he's on year two, and i'm hoping he moves us forward.

[Tommy]

The answer, I think, is yes. From my viewing, Bell was beaten several different ways on several different plays. He definitely had a bad night. With that said, I don't recall much help at all shifted to his side; and Miller and Dumerville are Denver's 2 best pass rushers.

 

I think this whole notion of not game planning and playing base O and D throughout is interesting. What I saw was the first offensive and defensive series looking pretty good for Buffalo. Offensively, we moved the ball down the field pretty well - until Fitz missed on several passes resulting in the FG. Defensively, we shut them down pretty well. After that, however, things got progressively worse. Could it be the Bills stayed in their base formations and tried specific plays, regardless of down and distance. On the flip side, the Broncos made adjustments and took advantage of the down and distance. ?

 

That's kinda what I saw, or how I interpreted the game. Yes, its better to see 9 sacks and the offensive moving in sync. But, its also beneficial to see the the weaknesses and strengths of your team so you can properly prepare for each opponent. However, I think you gotta balance all that out with trying to build confidence in your players as well; hence, I'm hoping they prepare a little better for next week's game and get some points on the board.

 

I agree with this. I feel like the Bills are probably trying to make sure they install the playbook for their own players before they evaluate film of another team for a preseason game. I would expect them to prepare a little more though for the next opponent, if for nothing else but to get the guys into their regular season preparation rhythm. I also agree that preseason is really to evaluate your players and to mentally get the starters back into game mode. I think it's important to never get too high or too low on preseason performance, because we don't know what the coaches are thinking or what they're really trying to do. I'm pretty sure the year the Patriots went 18-1 they went 0-4 in preseason. Now I'm not making an excuse for our team....don't get me wrong. I'm not encouraged by what I see and I need to see improvement, but it's not the end of the world yet.

[cantankerous]

 

 

Gailey & Wanny wanted to see if they could get pressure on the QB with just 3 lineman. He also wanted to see if our five lineman were able to block in a base package without a lot of additional schemes.

 

 

 

 

 

Fail.

 

 

[Kelly the Dog]

The answer, I think, is yes. From my viewing, Bell was beaten several different ways on several different plays. He definitely had a bad night. With that said, I don't recall much help at all shifted to his side; and Miller and Dumerville are Denver's 2 best pass rushers.

 

I think this whole notion of not game planning and playing base O and D throughout is interesting. What I saw was the first offensive and defensive series looking pretty good for Buffalo. Offensively, we moved the ball down the field pretty well - until Fitz missed on several passes resulting in the FG. Defensively, we shut them down pretty well. After that, however, things got progressively worse. Could it be the Bills stayed in their base formations and tried specific plays, regardless of down and distance. On the flip side, the Broncos made adjustments and took advantage of the down and distance. ?

 

That's kinda what I saw, or how I interpreted the game. Yes, its better to see 9 sacks and the offensive moving in sync. But, its also beneficial to see the the weaknesses and strengths of your team so you can properly prepare for each opponent. However, I think you gotta balance all that out with trying to build confidence in your players as well; hence, I'm hoping they prepare a little better for next week's game and get some points on the board.

Another thing was, it was extremely clear to me that Gailey was not calling plays he would call in the regular season. There is no way he would pass as much as he did, and I was talking about it with the guys I watch the game with. He was just trying to see if we could pass the ball because our pass game has suffered in practice. He wanted to see which of the WRs would step up between Jones, Roosevelt and Easley. He wanted to see if Spiller could pass block. He didn't use Brad Smith to pick up first downs when he will a lot. He didn't have Roscoe and he didn't use D Nelson. I wish we played a lot better, too, and I am terrified about the quality of our OL. But Gailey clearly did not run the offense he will run.

[CodeMonkey]

I don't know if this was already touched upon, but since it was posted last night at 1am, I think I'm safe:

 

Bills LB Nick Barnett knows their performance against the Denver Broncos may not have been anything to shout about on Saturday night, but he’s promising bigger and better things for the regular season and is telling Bills fans not to panic.

 

“We should be able to run our base defense and stop them, then again, we did not game plan them at all,” said Barnett. ”I probably watched one quarter on them, and that was today. It’s the preseason, you’re supposed to be able to go out there and play your base defense and make the plays. We came up a little bit short, but there were some good things that we can take from this game and build upon. I wouldn’t throw away your season tickets; it’s going to be a great season, don’t worry.”

 

Watched. One. Quarter.

promising bigger and better things for the regular season and is telling Bills fans

[Dan]

Another thing was, it was extremely clear to me that Gailey was not calling plays he would call in the regular season. There is no way he would pass as much as he did, and I was talking about it with the guys I watch the game with. He was just trying to see if we could pass the ball because our pass game has suffered in practice. He wanted to see which of the WRs would step up between Jones, Roosevelt and Easley. He wanted to see if Spiller could pass block. He didn't use Brad Smith to pick up first downs when he will a lot. He didn't have Roscoe and he didn't use D Nelson. I wish we played a lot better, too, and I am terrified about the quality of our OL. But Gailey clearly did not run the offense he will run.

Very much what I was thinking, as well. It's been a couple weeks now since Evans was traded and I'd suggest that we still don't know who's going to fill his shoes. No one seems to be stepping up - granted Parish and D. Nelson have been on the sidelines for the most part. But, IMO, its crucial that we find someone to take Evans place.

 

I think he wanted to see exactly what the line was good at and what they weren't as well. Turns out blocking just isn't their strong suit. But, I'm confident he'll game plan around that, just as he did last season. As I recall, we all had these exact some discussions about the QB getting killed last August. But, then Fitz got in and Gaile devised game plans to mask the weaknesses and somehow the offense wasn't our worst unit.

[Captain Hindsight]

I understand running base defenses I really do. What I don't understand is not watching any film and preparing for your opponent. It seems not watching film doesn't put players in a position to succeed. They will watch film in the regular season so how much evaluation can be done when preparation is different regardless of schemes that are run?

I bet they only watched a quarter of film because John Fox has had one preseason game as coach of the Broncos.

[Johnny Hammersticks]

The lack of planning was obvious on Denver's second scoring drive. Orton took them down the field with a series of short drops, one play even one step drop and picked up big yards along with quick snapping the Bills before the defense was set on the same drive. Buffalo would see that on film and be ready in a regular season game. The defense does not concerm me as much as the offense.

 

Fitzpatrick has not been accurate, receivers drop balls when he is and Bell's ugly performance is going to get the QB killed. Based on what the wr's showed the other night, I cannot see the logic in casting off Lee Evans for a 4th rounder.

 

Agreed about Fitz's accuracy issues, as he has consistently over/under thrown balls in the first two pre-season games. The throw on that quick out to Stevie Johnson was terrible....instead of hitting his outside shoulder as he made his cut, the ball his the turf at his ankles. The drops don't help either (nice job Easley).

 

I will say, however, that 9 out of 10 NFL left tackles, when left on an island with Dumerville or Miller, are going to get destroyed. Not totally excusing Bell's play on Saturday, but let's take that into consideration.

[ChasBB]

There's never been game-planning in pre-season -- especially not game 2 when teams are still evaluating talent and carrying up to 90 players on their rosters. This is nothing new. Unconcerned.

[billsfan89]

Lets see how we do in game 3 before panic sets in. Game 3 of the pre-season is usually the most telling.

[todd]

I agree with you. I remember the SB years and the Bills looked horrible in preseason. They had a losing preseason record every SB year, and fans would B word like crazy. Preseason is about one thing: Learning.

 

Well, maybe two things. Learning and selling overpriced tickets.

 

I'm still wondering why everyone is so uppity about a preseason game. You're not going to show anything to the opponent so other teams can get a book on you. You're also evaluating the players and who will do what in the base defense/offense. Winning the game is a distant 3rd (if that) to the above two objectives.

 

Get a grip.

[Fan in San Diego]

With all this preseason talk. Did anyone see the Pats Bucs game? The Pats were killing the Bucs with their base defense. There was a few blitzes byt mostly the DT's just crushing the pocket and Josh Freeman. They are going to be tough to beat this year.

[Lurker]

Until this team finally wins the 1-on-1 battles in the trenches, these threads will be common.

Which was the whole point of what Gailey seems to have been trying to accomplish. Straight up 1-on-1 situations, with the only objective being to see how certain guys performed (or failed, unfortunately), with not much interest in a W or an L...

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

Because the average poster has no idea what they're looking at, doesn't understand what "base" means and wants to participate in the "OMG WE SUCK" screaming contest.

 

Preseason games are for evaluating personnel. We have absolutely no idea what the coaches objectives are going into the game yet the fan base freaks when they don't see us absolutely dominating. I'm sure we could go out and waste time installing a full blown game plan but it's a pointless exercise.

 

Gailey & Wanny wanted to see if they could get pressure on the QB with just 3 lineman. If they can, it completely changes what they can do in the regular season. That process is called a self assessment. He also wanted to see if our five lineman were able to block in a base package without a lot of additional schemes.

 

Can we all just please relax and let the coaches do their job. If we don't win 8 games this season then you'll have something to B word about.

Agreed. The coaches have less time than usual to get the team ready for the regular season opener because of the lockout. Lots of minicamp and OTA time was lost. So something has to get dropped to fit everything into this year's condensed schedule. If even a little game planning for the 2nd pre-season game would usually take place, but it's part of what got dropped, that's fine by me. Better to be ready for the first game that counts than to look good in preseason game #2.

[spartacus]

Which was the whole point of what Gailey seems to have been trying to accomplish. Straight up 1-on-1 situations, with the only objective being to see how certain guys performed (or failed, unfortunately), with not much interest in a W or an L...

 

Chan not having not much interest in Wins

 

 

sounds like the regular season

 

1 on 1 situations is what you create with drills in practice,

 

Pre-season games are a tool to prepare to play real games

 

for a team that has no idea how to win- it would be a good idea for the Bills to actually put some emphasis on playing to win under game like conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scrappy]

I think not preparing to success leads players to expect to fail.

[section122]

I bet they only watched a quarter of film because John Fox has had one preseason game as coach of the Broncos.

Very true but their is years of film from him as coach of carolina and dc of the giants for a scheme perspective. I just think it is/was a dangerous approach to go into an nfl game basically blind. I just hope whatever they were evaluating they figured out what they were looking for.