Mr_Blizzard Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 @ John - I agree. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but this team is a work in progress. We had a great start to the season, and when we are healthy, we can play with anybody. The problem? By mid season, most teams are fighting a war of attrition, and the Bills are suffering the same fate. Along with upgrades in the defense, the Bills need to get some quality depth on the roster. Will it happen this off-season? Hopefully. And hopefully we don't continue to let quality free agents leave the team (a la Jabari Greer) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanC883 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I agree, everyone seems to fall off the band wagon at every loss. Never seen so many flip floppers. Im proud to be a Bills fan. I bleed it through and through. Sure, I was upset with our loss but after thinking about it this game was the first loss all year where we were outplayed. I think thats why fans are taking it so hard. I blame the loss on our game plan going in there. Chan wanted to test Revis with quick slants and so on. Wish we just stayed away from that side of the field or just kept going long until they werent jamming us on every play. Gailey admitted the game plan was flawed and he even admitted that he got away from the run and made the offense too predictable. We will learn from this loss. Dont expect the same game next time we play them. GO BUFFALO! PS Our defense played well, and would have looked better if our offense did their job. I agree with most of what you said, but, our defense DID NOT play well. 4 scoring drives in a row by the Jets. The interception by Byrd was because Sanchez is terrible. If they would have gotten any real pressure on Sanchez we would have had a chance. Letting 126 rushing yards, also not good. Our defense is the reason this team may not make the playoffs. The offense had an off day (every offense does, I'm not too concerned and think Chan and Fitz will make the needed adjustments), but as usual the defense was sub-par. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dailar Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Not everyone is jumping off the bandwagon. I won't post much this week because it sickens me to read the board after a loss, but I'm fully supportive of this team and its leadership. Couple of Ws the next two weeks, and the 7-3 Bills go to NJ for a little payback. +1 I'm the same. I don't tend to come on here a lot when we lose. Totally behind the team and the coaching staff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alphadawg7 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The kneejerk reaction was not so much on losing the game.....we were all upset that we lost....its the all or nothing attitude about the thing. We were not good this week so the team just sucks....Fitz is a bad QB because he was not good this week......Chan is not good because he lost this week......and on and on and on Its ONE game out of a SIXTEEN GAME season....that is the part that drives me nuts about kneejerk reactions. If the bills start stringing losses together....then this is when you should be hearing this stuff.....not after one loss. The bills ARE GOING TO LOSE GAMES....we are not a powerhouse no matter how badly some want them to be...they are a young team.....like a baby learning how to get up and take those steps after crawling around on the ground before that....its not going to be perfect....we are going to slip and fall sometimes. The question is....will this team pick itself up and try again...will it learn from its mistakes and not repeat them? In my mind there is only one way for us to beat the jets. - Pound the ball.....grind the damn thing out..... - Convert 3rd downs - Force punts - Shut down their running game We do those things and we win. Eventually we will get to the point where we can do that but we are in YEAR TWO of a SUCCESSFUL rebiuld. The team just feels right...it feels like finally for once in a very long time (like a decade) the team is heading in the right direction.....the people guiding the ship are doing a good job....etc etc. I hear what you are saying, but you do realize we are 2-3 in our last 5 games with one of those wins against a terrible team, and the other against an Eagles team that had yet to find themselves. Also, Fitz has passed for less than 200 yards in 3 of the 5 games too...with this defense, we can't afford for the offense to not move the ball. Not to mention, this loss was embarrassing as we looked like a pop warner team against a divisional rival who we still have to face again and it's on their home field next time. So, its not "ONE" loss as you put it...its 3 in 5 weeks. Fans have a right to be concerned about that. Why is it that if someone shows concerns over our obvious holes and short comings that they are "off the band wagon" and stuff? Bottom line, there is reason to be optimistic about this team and there are also a lot of reasons to be concerned about this team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 (edited) I hear what you are saying, but you do realize we are 2-3 in our last 5 games with one of those wins against a terrible team, and the other against an Eagles team that had yet to find themselves. You're a quality poster and I respect your opinions. This passage, though, is where we fundamentally disagree. You're basically saying, for the losses, "They lost." For the wins, "They won but ________." Why hedge on the wins but not the losses? The losses concern me too, but I won't discredit the wins. I've always been of the mind that a win is a win and a loss is a loss. If there's a big-time mitigating factor, I'll take it into account. I don't think something nebulous like saying the Eagles hadn't found themselves yet represents a significant mitigating factor. I don't think it's fair to assume that the Eagles would handle us today, as it seems you're implying. Just my opinion. Edited November 8, 2011 by SageAgainstTheMachine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 This wasn't addressed to me, and I am not a pessimist as I like the improvements that we have seen. However, I feel the need to chime in here... 1. We got some lucky breaks to win the Pats game. I don't care how much you love the Bills, the truth is that if you are a realist then you know we got a few breaks to make that come back possible...but that's football. Still, it was not a convincing win by any means that would say we are a lock to win the second meeting. In fact, unless Brady gets hurt, we won't even be favorites in that game. 2. Eagles were not the same team they are now. They were a bunch of talented guys thrown together who did not know how to play with each other. They are a much better team now. We would have a much harder time beating them today and again would not be favorites in that game either. 3. This team is 2-3 in our last 5 games with one of those wins against Was where we were not overly impressive on offense against a very bad team. Now we are coming off a game where our offense looked like a pop warner team against the Jets. 4. Our defense isn't good enough for us to win games when our offense stuggles, and our offense has cooled down quite a bit in the last 5 games. 5. Fitz has thrown for less than 200 yards in 3 of the last 5 games. Our D cant stop anyone, and we will need a high powered offense to over come a lot of the deficiencies on D, so we need to figure out how to move the ball again. Hopefully the rest of the league was not watching and will not follow the Jets plan to totally make Fitz look like the weak scatter arm QB he actually is. Gailey did him no favors with his game plan and play calling, but Fitz has to throw open his WRs like real NFL QBs do on a regular basis. and it has to be more than 10 yards down field. The Jets packed the box because they had no fear of getting beat down the field. good thing the Bills are maximizing the $4 mil they paid to Brad Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Hopefully the rest of the league was not watching and will not follow the Jets plan to totally make Fitz look like the weak scatter arm QB he actually is. a) The Jets make a lot of QBs look bad. I'm not excusing Fitz' play on Sunday, but better quarterbacks have utterly failed against the defense over the last couple seasons. b) The whole "blueprint for success" concept that you're espousing here is nothing more than a platitude. If following the Jets gameplan was so easily done, everybody would do it. But the truth is that most teams don't have the quality CB play that the Jets do. When you can shut down a team's #1 and #2 wide receivers with just two defensive players, life is hard. Most teams can't do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOE IN HAMPTON ROADS Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 @ John - I agree. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but this team is a work in progress. We had a great start to the season, and when we are healthy, we can play with anybody. The problem? By mid season, most teams are fighting a war of attrition, and the Bills are suffering the same fate. Along with upgrades in the defense, the Bills need to get some quality depth on the roster. Will it happen this off-season? Hopefully. And hopefully we don't continue to let quality free agents leave the team (a la Jabari Greer) Rgr. We're in year two of a three year rebuild. Really we're in year one, because the first draft Buddy and Chan were still unaware of just how bad the team really was. I don't think they would have gone for Spiller had they realized how the deep the needs on the lines (both O and D) were at the time. I think they thought the team was OK, but DJ sucked and they would come in and pick things up with better coaching. It took Chan several games into the regular season to realize he had the wrong QB and the team was in deep, deep trouble. We had a great draft this year based on positional needs and Chan has a plan going forward - it will just take time. I'm OK with not making the playoffs as long as we continue to improve. Next year is the year we will make a serious run at it. If we make a wildcard spot this year, gravy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alphadawg7 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 (edited) You're a quality poster and I respect your opinions. This passage, though, is where we fundamentally disagree. You're basically saying, for the losses, "They lost." For the wins, "They won but ________." Why hedge on the wins but not the losses? The losses concern me too, but I won't discredit the wins. I've always been of the mind that a win is a win and a loss is a loss. If there's a big-time mitigating factor, I'll take it into account. I don't think something nebulous like saying the Eagles hadn't found themselves yet represents a significant mitigating factor. I don't think it's fair to assume that the Eagles would handle us today, as it seems you're implying. Just my opinion. I actually totally agree with you that a win is a win and a loss is a loss. I did not mean to come across as taking that away from them as that's not fair to them and apologize for giving that impression. They were still a tough opponent and it was a quality win (that I especially loved because my friend is a hard core Eagles fan and I was talking all kinds of smack...lol). That being said, I think the Eagles are a bit tougher now than they were then, but just a matter of opinion really. The Pats game took 4 INT's of Brady to win, so it was a GREAT win, but not the type of win that makes me feel like we are the favorites to beat them again as I don't expect Brady to give us the ball 4 times again. And lest face it, he moved the ball on us all day with ease, so if it was not for the 4 picks no way we keep up in that game. The real meat of what I was trying to convey, is that we played 4 good teams in the last 5 weeks (and 1 bad team in Wash), and one of them was struggling a bit at the time (the Eagles) and that happened to be the only team we beat among those 4 good teams. The other 3 good teams we lost too. That's my concern, is this teams ability to beat the better opposition as this season goes on because we still have several tough games on our schedule left, especially our divisional ones. But like I said, I am not a pessimist on this team, I really have enjoyed the season (except the Jets game which was embarrassing) and am optimistic about the direction of this team. At the same time, I don't blame anyone for having concerns because we have lost 3 of our last 5 and this season could quickly turn into a repeat of the 08 season where we started hot with some come back wins and then still missed the playoffs. Compounding the issue is that 10 wins may not even be enough to get into the playoffs with such a tough AFC race shaping up. Edited November 8, 2011 by Alphadawg7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in San Diego Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I agree with most of what you said, but, our defense DID NOT play well. 4 scoring drives in a row by the Jets. The interception by Byrd was because Sanchez is terrible. If they would have gotten any real pressure on Sanchez we would have had a chance. Letting 126 rushing yards, also not good. Our defense is the reason this team may not make the playoffs. The offense had an off day (every offense does, I'm not too concerned and think Chan and Fitz will make the needed adjustments), but as usual the defense was sub-par. This was the statement game that was talked about. The statement is that we are not there yet and need another good draft to compete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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