My completely uninformed opinion on the Bills' philosophy this pre

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Do you mean now or after the real games begin, Hope? Add also, a good offense that is settling into good execution form in August should be able to execute its plays, like a short passing game, and move the ball down the field in a pre-season game. Understandably, a blown assignment or three or a play not made can derail such a drive.

 

Both. If one actually scores the reg. season games of the good teams, one notices that they often do go 3 and out a couple times to start, usually when the opponent' D is giving them somewhat different looks than they expect. But it usually doesn't matter because a good D gives them the ball back quickly so they have a bit of space to figure it out.

 

A bad D, on the other hand, lets a 21 point deficeit pile up.

 

In preseason, I agree with those who speculate that Gailey has specific goals - specific players and packages he's trying to evaluate. There are places where his goals aren't being met and he's been outspoken about it - on O, penalties and WR not knowing their assignments and getting to the right spot. Those are drive-killers in the regular season. on D, lack of communication and missed assignments giving up the big play. Game-planning to move the ball effectively against the other D was not, I think, on his agenda at all. Against the Vikes, we actually were relatively effective on O. We made first downs, Fitz threw accurately and avoided INTs, VY came up with some big plays. It wasn't until the 3rd string came on that the score blew up. The D, on the other hand, is not showing as advertised. Keep in mind they haven't had a chance to execute against an unknown playbook before preseason started. Whether it's a matter that some talkin' to and some film analysis can settle, a question of some players not being able to fill their planned role well enough but some realignment will solve, or a sign that we're missing pieces on D, I can't tell yet. Ask me after the 3rd game.

 

Bills started the season playing like crap??? Don't know what to say..............

 

My assessment of last year was that the team was on fire for the first game (KC) - don't see how anyone without a strong personal agenda could argue that game was crap.

For the 2nd and 3rd games, the D was fraying and showing major gaps and the O had to play out of its mind to overcome deficeits.

It was clear that manner of winning was not sustainable, and so it proved esp. after injuries took performance on both sides of the ball down a notch.