NewEra Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Good riddance. He needs to be fired. My prediction. We keeps him and our ST sucks again next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 The one glaring mistake I saw on the first long kick return was committed by Duke Williams (or whoever wears 27). I haven't yet rewatched the game but my impression was that Duke lost his lane assignment by erring inside by a few spots and then he got wiped out by someone in the wedge. You could hear the impact. I'm kinda surprised no one has mentioned that play yet. The Crossman hire was indefensible when it happened and is less defensible now. BTW, the Bills Assistant Special Teams Coach is John Anselmo who was in his first year as an NFL assistant and who was Marrone's Asst. Head Coach last year at Syracuse. He coached Syracuse's special teams in 2011 and 2012. Because of his close association with Marrone, I have a hard time seeing Marrone firing Anselmo or replacing him with someone with more expertise in an attempt to bolster Crossman's special teams. Marrone did say when asked specifically about Crossman that "everyone will be evaluated" so there's still hope. Two special teams coaches and no QB coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobobonators Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 If he (Grossman) does't go, Marrone will lose the respect of his players. He preaches accountability, and that cuts both ways, players and caches alike. I don't think its a stretch to say this ST cost the Bills at least two games this season (Cin, Cleve, and killed them again today). Exactly. Maybe Crossman gets to meetings really early and tries real hard though. You know, like Hogan does. We need a bunch of hogans and crossmans on this team - no talent hacks, but man are they punctual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdBlueNorth Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Now we know why Marone searched so hard for someone who could boot it out of the endzone early this year...he knew their special teams blew at covering kicks. Carpenter has been rock solid with field goals, but does not have the biggest leg for kickoffs. They should just bite the roster bullet and carry a kickoff specialist on the roster. The alternative as we have seen time and again are returns that are back breakers in crucial games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TC in St. Louis Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 He hired his friends, and in this case his friend let him down. He will fire his friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ny33 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 He hired his friends, and in this case his friend let him down. He will fire his friend. I will laugh if Crossman is fired and replaced by Marrone's buddy Anselmo. Perhaps Marrone and Brandon can pass it off to the casual fanbase as a good move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formerly Allan in MD Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 He is not going anywhere. Don't you guys remember when we had bad ST before? This is what will happen. 1) marrone will say he will personally be more involved in ST 2) the bills will then say that they will change some scheme things 3) they will then devote more starters to ST unit 4) finally, after another year or two of this, someone in the FO will force marrone's hand and he will fire crossman. That's always how it goes with these ST coaches. No special teams coach has ever been fired in the NFL? Sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KOKBILLS Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I will laugh if Crossman is fired and replaced by Marrone's buddy Anselmo. Perhaps Marrone and Brandon can pass it off to the casual fanbase as a good move. Phil Anselmo would be awesome!!! RE-SPECT-WALK!!! Oh not that Anselmo? Never mind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddogblitz Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) Now we know why Marone searched so hard for someone who could boot it out of the endzone early this year...he knew their special teams blew at covering kicks. Carpenter has been rock solid with field goals, but does not have the biggest leg for kickoffs. They should just bite the roster bullet and carry a kickoff specialist on the roster. The alternative as we have seen time and again are returns that are back breakers in crucial games. How will this help on punt returns? 2 long punt returns vs the Clowns and the one in OT vs Bungles were instrumental in those 2 losses. If Crossman isn't fired Coach Marrone looks like a hypocrit with his "accountibility" nonsense. Edited December 31, 2013 by reddogblitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1B4IDie Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) I mentioned this in my post. Priefer would be a good get. This is interesting: Mike Priefer: He has spent 20 years as a college and pro special teams coach, including the past three seasons with the Vikings. Priefer, 47, flew Navy helicopters for six years and has an intense, no-nonsense approach that could appeal to teams wanting to instill discipline. http://www.usatoday....ikings/4256653/ Do we know a team that needs to be much more disciplined on kick coverage? Edited December 31, 2013 by Why So Serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. L. Hot-Flamethrower Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I would be happy to just have special teams that don't get us beat! We had the second worst starting position on our drives in the league. Giving away about 10 yards per drive to the top teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cage Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 He hired his friends, and in this case his friend let him down. He will fire his friend. I agree,... there was some questions on the year-end press conference that about how quick the hook has become on coaches in the NFL. Marrone responded that he spoke to Chudzinski (Brown's coach) last night who was fired after 1 year. I think when doing a complete look at the performance on the field, we'll be looking for a new ST coach. Just a few years ago the Bills had one of the most feared units in the NFL. There were times the last year under Gailey where teams were afraid to punt to McKelvin and I'm not sure he had a return over 20 yards this year. In the Cleveland game we were afraid to kick to their returners and I don't even want to talk about the Pats games this past week. Crossman HAS TO GO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yungmack Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yikes! Just watched the Brandon-Whaley-Marrone press conference and there was Marrone putting the special teams failure on the players, not Crossman. My guess right now is that Crossman is staying put. The question that was asked about Crossman was weak. One of these reporters needs to phrase this in the correct way, something like this: "Since Marv Levy in the 80s, the Bills have historically fielded one of the better Special Teams. Even Bills teams with losing records have been pretty darned good on Special Teams, including last year. The only really poor year in 25 was when Wade Phillips fired the legendary Bruce Dehaven and replaced him with his crony Ronnie Jones,( a move that eventually cost Wade his job) and this year, when you fired Dehaven and brought in Crossman. Considering that Dehaven and Bobby April managed to consistently put together very good Special Teams from mediocre rosters -- and Dehaven did it just last season -- doesn't that seem to point to Coach Crossman being the problem, not the players?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondo in seattle Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 How about some blame for the players getting faked out of their jocks by a guy running in slow motion? How about guys not staying in their lanes? It looked like a bunch of kids running randomly down the field. There was no apparent organization. No plan. No scheme. McKelvin averaged 19.5 yds per PR in 2011, 18.7 in 2012 and 5.6 in 2013! The special teams have underperformed all year. Which is not surprising because Crossman doesn't have a good resume. I can see no reason to keep the guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San-O Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yikes! Just watched the Brandon-Whaley-Marrone press conference and there was Marrone putting the special teams failure on the players, not Crossman. My guess right now is that Crossman is staying put. The question that was asked about Crossman was weak. One of these reporters needs to phrase this in the correct way, something like this: "Since Marv Levy in the 80s, the Bills have historically fielded one of the better Special Teams. Even Bills teams with losing records have been pretty darned good on Special Teams, including last year. The only really poor year in 25 was when Wade Phillips fired the legendary Bruce Dehaven and replaced him with his crony Ronnie Jones,( a move that eventually cost Wade his job) and this year, when you fired Dehaven and brought in Crossman. Considering that Dehaven and Bobby April managed to consistently put together very good Special Teams from mediocre rosters -- and Dehaven did it just last season -- doesn't that seem to point to Coach Crossman being the problem, not the players?" Marrone officially has lost credibility, and all the talk of accountability was just more B.S gargage. Starting to seem like old times again. Oh well, what did anyone expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 He is not going anywhere. Don't you guys remember when we had bad ST before? This is what will happen. 1) marrone will say he will personally be more involved in ST 2) the bills will then say that they will change some scheme things 3) they will then devote more starters to ST unit 4) finally, after another year or two of this, someone in the FO will force marrone's hand and he will fire crossman. That's always how it goes with these ST coaches. Just to remind you guys-- this is what is going to happen.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I didn't understand the hire then and I don't understand the hire now. He took the Lions special teams to new depths of underachievement. And he was working on continuing the trend in Buffalo. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000126490/article/detroit-lions-fire-special-teams-coach-danny-crossman and ill say it yet again - his units have consistently gotten worse the longer hes stayed. lets hope not to see that. How about guys not staying in their lanes? It looked like a bunch of kids running randomly down the field. There was no apparent organization. No plan. No scheme. McKelvin averaged 19.5 yds per PR in 2011, 18.7 in 2012 and 5.6 in 2013! The special teams have underperformed all year. Which is not surprising because Crossman doesn't have a good resume. I can see no reason to keep the guy. clearly he doesnt count as a special teams weapon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1B4IDie Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 and ill say it yet again - his units have consistently gotten worse the longer hes stayed. lets hope not to see that. clearly he doesnt count as a special teams weapon. Listen, obviously, we need 5, obviously, more Marcus Easley(s {Easlies?}) That is, obviously, the problem. Definitely, obviously, not the, obviously, incompetent coach with an, obviously, track record of being, obviously, horrible as a special teams coach. Obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattsox Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 The handling of this situation, to me, will be one of the biggest ways to evaluate Marrone this offseason. How committed is he to discipline and winning football games? Because the ONLY good thing about Crossman's units was the FG team. Can he fire a friend he has known for 20 years? The punters were both bad. Punt coverage was abysmal. Kickoff coverage was, at times also abysmal. Kick return and punt return games were non-existent and the units as a whole seemed to be good for at least 2 penalties a week. I can't remember the ST units ever being so terrible. Agreed. Crossman MUST be Fired! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewildrabbit Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Agreed. Crossman MUST be Fired! The Bills are 30th in special teams this season. I only have one question, How in thee-hell do the Bills special teams allow a 250 LB RB to gain 145 yards on 2 kick off returns? Oh, I forgot. Its the players! I also notice that the Patriots kicker S.Gostkowski manages to kick it out of the back of the end zone on many occasions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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