JESSEFEFFER Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I think the Bills have to design more time into their passing game. A DL can do a two count and throw an arm up with a good chance he can tip a ball. If he does that on a 4 sec play he is liable to be totally ineffective on the rush and get a punch to his exposed midsection. Pump fake, roll out, flea flicker, max protect. Use something to make the defense fear having to defend for more than 2.5 seconds. It's tough to do any of those things with an empty backfield though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyHorseAteTheKid Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Everyone has the same film to review.. From week to week coaches change game plans.. It's never as simple as sports reporters make it out to be.. Sure teams (coaches) have tendencies to call certain plays in certain situations, but it's not like adjustments aren't made from game to game... I can't wait for the season to start.. GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 If anyone has noticed... there has been a concerted effort to throw deeper routes this preseason I'm not sure throwing it out of bounds 30 yards down the field as you are getting knocked on your ass counts as a concerted effort to throw deeper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todzilla Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I know Chase Daniel was tongue in cheek (at least I think so), but another poster called for the Bills to find the next Matt Flynn. Remember the previous Matt Flynns: Kevin Kolb, Rob Johnson, Scott Michell, Matt Cassel. The only real success I can think of recently is Matt Schaub. Big money to an unproven back up is not the way to go. I think we'll see Chandler and Nelson a lot more involved once the season starts. With a bit of time they can stretch the d and work the middle, like the nice pass to Nelson in the Steelers game. I'm also in the minority of Donald Jones believers, I think he'll be a bigger playmaker than most do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jauronimo Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I know Chase Daniel was tongue in cheek (at least I think so), but another poster called for the Bills to find the next Matt Flynn. Remember the previous Matt Flynns: Kevin Kolb, Rob Johnson, Scott Michell, Matt Cassel. The only real success I can think of recently is Matt Schaub. Big money to an unproven back up is not the way to go. I think we'll see Chandler and Nelson a lot more involved once the season starts. With a bit of time they can stretch the d and work the middle, like the nice pass to Nelson in the Steelers game. I'm also in the minority of Donald Jones believers, I think he'll be a bigger playmaker than most do. Whats wrong with the current Matt Flynn who couldn't even win the starting job out of camp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Matt Flynn? Hilarious. Joe Philbin's insatiable pursuit of Matt Flynn in the off season is all I need to know about Matt Flynn. GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Lombardi on the NFL Network before the Steelers game indicated that NFL coaches caught on to the fact Fitz and the Bills preferred quick passes, often slants, in their pass game and that they have adjusted. I've notice recently how man quick slants to SJ have been batted down. Add to this the fact Stevie is a fantastic route runner but isn't a burner and has fair to good hands and the question becomes is the Bills offence extremely limited. Is the season going to hang on the ability of Fitz to find raw rookie Graham deep? We had to stretch the field horizontally not vertically. We didn't have the speed outside, blockers up front and perhaps qb to go over the top. I've been saying this exact thing for over a year now. We will have a tough go of it but its a process. We are middle of the pack now, not a SB contender. It's a process and is going well. The line is adding pieces, we added a little speed outside. It's getting there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Remember the previous Matt Flynns: Kevin Kolb, Rob Johnson, Scott Michell, Matt Cassel. You forgot the biggest 'Matt Flynn' of all: Billy Volek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San-O Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Fitz will answer every question we as fans have about him this season. + 1 Yes, we will know one way or the other. I just hope people will view the season and his performance objectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 + 1 Yes, we will know one way or the other. I just hope people will view the season and his performance objectively. That's a good one. It will be subjective at best. None of us, as far as I know, will have the context required to really objectively critique his entire body of work. We will only see his passes which, even though can tell us much, don't come near to telling us the whole story. GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfan89 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Combo of a lot of things hurt our deep passing game. 1- Fred Jackson went down, we run a lot of our offense around the guy. (Kept a lot more teams honest) 2- E.Wood and D.Bell injuries and the declining play of the offensive line. (Fitz couldn't get the protection he once had) 3- D.Jones and receiver injuries (D.Jones was making big plays with Fitz, he got hurt and other receivers got hurt too, what speed we had got hurt). 4- Teams adjusting to our offense (Defenses played things differently thanks to the above factors) 5- Fitz's injury (That likely didn't help things) It was a lot of things that led the offense to decline in the second half of last season. But a lot of it is health related, a healthy O-line and receiving core would go a long way for Fitz. But also its up to Chan and Fitz to adjust the offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPS Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I've gone back and forth with Fitz, but if he was any better, he'd be better. I was shocked the Bills didn't draft a developmental QB over the past 2 years and think it will come back to bite them. I think TJack presents them with different questions rather than answers. Unless the Bills dominate on defense and have a great running game, it's going to put Fitz in some of those situations where he's gone the other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yungmack Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Did Lombardi nail it? The guy couldn't nail a 2x 4 with an air gun. There's a reason he and the other "genius" ex-GMs and ex-Head Coaches are sitting around a studio bloviating instead of running a team. The essence of offensive "gaming" of the defense is having an area that the D has to commit to overly defending. Once they do that, the offense has to be capable of taking advantage of the holes that open up. If the offense doesn't have the talent to do that, it becomes the dreaded "one-dimensional offense." As someone else pointed out on this thread, the short slant pass is intended to counter the blitz and "cheating up" on the run game. Once the D commits to stopping it, the run game AND the long ball come into play. Last year the Bills running game benefitted greatly with that approach, with Fred-Ex on his way to a spectacular season. But the long ball part of the equation was lacking because the Bills didn't have a burner. That's why TJ Graham is on the roster. If TJ has the impact I think he will and if the rest of the offense is at least as good as last year's was, then it's going to come down to Chan's play-calling and Fitz's arm. And that seems to bring us to the heart of the differences of opinion on this board, between those of us who believe that Chan's the Man and Fitz is the right guy for the job, and those who don't. And only time will tell who's right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Did Lombardi nail it? The guy couldn't nail a 2x 4 with an air gun. There's a reason he and the other "genius" ex-GMs and ex-Head Coaches are sitting around a studio bloviating instead of running a team. The essence of offensive "gaming" of the defense is having an area that the D has to commit to overly defending. Once they do that, the offense has to be capable of taking advantage of the holes that open up. If the offense doesn't have the talent to do that, it becomes the dreaded "one-dimensional offense." As someone else pointed out on this thread, the short slant pass is intended to counter the blitz and "cheating up" on the run game. Once the D commits to stopping it, the run game AND the long ball come into play. Last year the Bills running game benefitted greatly with that approach, with Fred-Ex on his way to a spectacular season. But the long ball part of the equation was lacking because the Bills didn't have a burner. That's why TJ Graham is on the roster. If TJ has the impact I think he will and if the rest of the offense is at least as good as last year's was, then it's going to come down to Chan's play-calling and Fitz's arm. And that seems to bring us to the heart of the differences of opinion on this board, between those of us who believe that Chan's the Man and Fitz is the right guy for the job, and those who don't. And only time will tell who's right. Good point. You take what the defense gives you and they all give you something. Once they adjust you can start taking what you want. Defenses typically give what they perceive to be your worst thing at getting. It's critical to convince them otherwise. I was very intrigued by Chan opening in a 2 TE power running set against Pitt. What was he telling the Jets there, if anything? I wonder. GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yungmack Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 (edited) I was very intrigued by Chan opening in a 2 TE power running set against Pitt. What was he telling the Jets there, if anything? I wonder. Good point as well. I thought using the wildcat when he did in Minnesota, and the direct snap to Spiller were done specifically to give the Jets something else to complicate their game planning. BTW, after Spiller made the first down on that play, Stevie dropped that easy quick out from Fitz which seemed to mark the beginning of the offense's collapse. Edited August 28, 2012 by yungmack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orton's Arm Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Combo of a lot of things hurt our deep passing game. 1- Fred Jackson went down, we run a lot of our offense around the guy. (Kept a lot more teams honest) 2- E.Wood and D.Bell injuries and the declining play of the offensive line. (Fitz couldn't get the protection he once had) 3- D.Jones and receiver injuries (D.Jones was making big plays with Fitz, he got hurt and other receivers got hurt too, what speed we had got hurt). 4- Teams adjusting to our offense (Defenses played things differently thanks to the above factors) 5- Fitz's injury (That likely didn't help things) It was a lot of things that led the offense to decline in the second half of last season. But a lot of it is health related, a healthy O-line and receiving core would go a long way for Fitz. But also its up to Chan and Fitz to adjust the offense. Four of the five things you mentioned were injury-related. The fifth was defenses adjusting to take advantage of the above-described injuries. You are correct to assert those things were part of our offensive decline. But they were only a part. Here are a few others to add to the list: The Bills faced a number of bad pass defenses early in the season. This made their passing game look a lot better than it actually was. Early in the season, defenses had not yet adjusted to Gailey's new style of offense. We first saw those adjustments in the Bengals game, long before our offense had been devastated by injuries. The result: the Bengals largely shut down the Bills' offense. The Bills' defense generated a lot of turnovers early in the season; such as their four interceptions the first time they faced the Patriots. This meant there were often times when the offense didn't have to drive the length of the field in order to score. The Bills' problems on offense are serious and deap-seated, and they start at the quarterback position. Unless or until that position is upgraded, the Bills are very unlikely to be able to keep up with the best offenses in the NFL. In Nix's first draft, there was no available QB worthy of being picked 9th overall. In his second draft, there was no available QB worthy of being picked 3rd overall. Etc. So the Bills haven't had many opportunities to upgrade the QB position. The time has come to fix that. If (for example) the Bills have the 10th overall pick in the upcoming draft, and if the best QB of the draft is expected to go 7th overall, then the Bills need to trade up to 6th overall or higher! If that means giving up a lot of players and/or draft picks, then you give them up. The Bills need a franchise QB; and they should be prepared to pay a high price to get one. In the long run, they'll be very happy they did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 3- D.Jones and receiver injuries (D.Jones was making big plays with Fitz, he got hurt and other receivers got hurt too, what speed we had got hurt). Donald Jones caught 23 passes for 231 yards in 2011. He had one big game (NE) and did not have 60 yards receiving in any other game. Hardly the big plays you reference, averaging 10 yards per reception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KollegeStudnet Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 No offense, it is quite possible the reason for short slants is due to the two cracked ribs Fitz had after the Redskins game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superbills315 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Fitz will answer every question we as fans have about him this season. Yep its make or break year for him and no matter what i think we draft a QB in the first 3 rounds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonramz Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I'm not sure throwing it out of bounds 30 yards down the field as you are getting knocked on your ass counts as a concerted effort to throw deeper. obviously you're trying to be funny w/ you comment, but seriously go re-watch the games again and notice how Fitz is trying a lot more passes 10 yards + past the LOS than usual. Hence the low comp %. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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