Smart People, take me to school. Chan vs Fitz

[Virgil]

In reading all of the responses to my original question, I think I've found my owns semblance of an answer. Btw, when I said smart people, I was referring to those who claim to have either coached, played, or broke down tape.

 

Not to cheat with the answer, but I think the final decision for me came from the 1-9 record. With that, the answer is BOTH of them. It's Chan's fault for not adjusting when it wasn't working and not looking for a back-up in case Fitz didn't pan out this week. But Chan isn't on the field. It's up to Fitz to decide on what decisions and throws to make. It's like the kid with candy on the table. He shouldn't be reaching for it, but he also needs to be saved from himself.

 

The WR and O-Line topic are non-issues to me. The post earlier about the line having 3, top 2 round picks on it says a ton. Also, these guys proved enough at the beginning of last year. We aren't losing because of drops. We either can't get the ball to them or are too pass happy with short/intermediate routes. Also, our coaches are the ones making the choice not to bring in other WR's, keep 2 on the practice squad...just like they haven't thought about a back-up QB to challenge Fitz.

[FreakPop]

The overall issue is that there's a desireable balance. To win, a QB has to be somewhat aggressive and willing to take shots sometimes. He also has to throw the ball away sometimes, to avoid both the sack and the overly-high-risk throw. In general, if the WR is jammed up on the line or can't get separation, the QB is supposed to progress through his reads and throw to his "outlet".

So here is an attempt at a bit of balance in discussing the issues with Fitz and the Bills :

1) The Bills utilize timing elements. Sometimes what looks like a horrible, off target throw is actually a miscue or a jam where the WR didn't show up where Fitz expected him to be.

2) But sometimes, especially last year to the left side, it really is a horrible, off target throw

3) Sometimes under pressure, Fitz will try to force the throw into poor separation or coverage when he should throw it away or take the sack

4) With the possible exception of SJ, the Bills lack truly elite WR(s) who can pull in those off-target throws or win the battle of the hands in tight coverage.

 

I hear what you are saying, but if your WR can't ever get open... Fitz can't throw the ball away every down or take a sack every down. He is a gamer and tries to make a play, he just miss fires because the window for him to throw into is extremely small and because of ****ty WR that window is a lot smaller than what other QBs around the league have to deal with.

 

So in the end Fitz needs to be more perfect than his peers around the league and that is asking a lot out of anybody and especially Fitz as he seems to not be very good at hitting smaller than normal windows. Therefor he is viewed as having accurcy problems.

 

Would be really interested to see how he would fair if he had Atlanta WR and Tony Gonz to throw to. With that group, those windows would be a lot larger and Fitz wouldn't have as much trouble completing passes.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

I hear what you are saying, but if your WR can't ever get open... Fitz can't throw the ball away every down or take a sack every down. He is a gamer and tries to make a play, he just miss fires because the window for him to throw into is extremely small and because of ****ty WR that window is a lot smaller than what other QBs around the league have to deal with.

 

So in the end Fitz needs to be more perfect than his peers around the league and that is asking a lot out of anybody and especially Fitz as he seems to not be very good at hitting smaller than normal windows. Therefor he is viewed as having accurcy problems.

 

Would be really interested to see how he would fair if he had Atlanta WR and Tony Gonz to throw to. With that group, those windows would be a lot larger and Fitz wouldn't have as much trouble completing passes.

 

There's no question in my mind that Fitz takes a lot more trashing than he deserves at times from TBD posters. There are people here who don't "get" that because a WR looks open at the end of the play, he was not necessarily open during the time window of the play, or that because a throw looks errant, it's always on the QB.

 

That said, sometimes people go too far in the direction of defending him, and I would put your post in this class.

 

From film it's clearly not the case that Fitz' receivers never get open and I think it would be hard to make a case that he has to hit "smaller than normal" windows or is expected to be "more perfect" than his peers. I think he would benefit from having better or at least one significantly better WR, and better coaching on the WRs he has this year, but that said, there's a lot on Fitz, too. He does make bad decisions sometimes, and towards the end of last season he turned the ball over far too many times.

 

Fitz was not sacked at all in the game last week. Would the Bills have been better off if he threw the ball away twice and took a sack once (or even took 3 sacks) vs throwing 3 picks, one of them a pick-6? I think the answer is obvious.

[thewildrabbit]

So now that the remainder of your argument crumbled, you're going to redue it to "Buffalo's problem is that they have no #2 WR, as is evidenced by the fact that Atlanta gave up 5 draft picks for Julio Jones and still couldn't win in the playoffs"?

 

Excellent.

 

I think we're done here.

Man your funny, its all in your head too.

 

My argument didn't crumble in any aspect, you are simply glossing over points with poop. Just like you just did in responding to my point about the Falcons. My question throughly going over your head. The question was poised, "why do you suppose they did that" in terms of trading away 5 draft picks to secure a WR! I stated nothing about the Falcons relating to the Bills or the Falcons not winning in the playoffs.

 

You cannot even answer one simple question poised to you without going off the deep end. You want to end the argument, so be it, but understand you made yourself look like a fool.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Fear the Beard

[thewildrabbit]

There's no question in my mind that Fitz takes a lot more trashing than he deserves at times from TBD posters. There are people here who don't "get" that because a WR looks open at the end of the play, he was not necessarily open during the time window of the play, or that because a throw looks errant, it's always on the QB.

 

That said, sometimes people go too far in the direction of defending him, and I would put your post in this class.

 

From film it's clearly not the case that Fitz' receivers never get open and I think it would be hard to make a case that he has to hit "smaller than normal" windows or is expected to be "more perfect" than his peers. I think he would benefit from having better or at least one significantly better WR, and better coaching on the WRs he has this year, but that said, there's a lot on Fitz, too. He does make bad decisions sometimes, and towards the end of last season he turned the ball over far too many times.

 

Fitz was not sacked at all in the game last week. Would the Bills have been better off if he threw the ball away twice and took a sack once (or even took 3 sacks) vs throwing 3 picks, one of them a pick-6? I think the answer is obvious.

Lots of good points!

 

I think that the head coach / OC is putting way to much undue pressure on the QB by forcing him to win the games all on his own. The defense sucks and can't stop anybody, allowing the team to try and dig itself out of a deep hole! Ok lets ask the QB to save the team by constantly throwing into nickel and dime coverages. While the opposing defense knows the Bills are gonna throw so they pin their ears back and go all out after the QB, blitz after blitz after Blitz.

 

There were many games last season that both Jackson and Spiller was doing very well in the run game and Gailey would simply stop running the ball to constantly throw, thus putting the QB in untenable situations. Fitz is a "gunslinger" and will always try and make something happen.