3rdand12 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Shoring up the staff after their inefficiencies have been exposed doesn't speak well of Marrone's initial staff, or Brandon's, Nix's, and Whaley's acceptance of his choices. The fact is, players need a plan and the skills to execute the plan. Personally, I believe we've assembled a gifted receiving corp, but when one guy's crossing pattern drags a defender into the passing lane of his teammate's deep in route, an opportunity to make a play is lost. When such breakdowns occur over and over, you're lack of prepareness will cost you games. Winning teams are coached by men who are obsessed with being prepared. Such coaches will not allow the same mistakes to be made repeatedly. It is what it is. Hopefully this staff is capable of growing into the demands of winning. Many poked fun at Jauron's "it's not easy to win" quote, but when the outcome of games hinge on the near perfect execution of well designed plays called to take advantage of a predicted defense - and the QB can't complete that deep in route.. well, you lose more than you win. well we could back up the bus a bit and talk about a couple of years ago to compare. At least we can all see adjustments are being made. Effort is being put forth. No its not showing up in the win column , but the team looks like they are not just " hoping " to win games long term. Obviously i still sit in my optimists chair ! Ask me again after 2014 But you are correct about some of the failings you saw . The offense has to take some large steps forward and develop cohesiveness and consistency. And thats gonna be on Hackett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebandit27 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Hard to catch TD passes when your QB's don't throw them too much. The QBs threw a total of 16 TD passes, 9 of which came in the red zone. Zero of them went to Chandler. To me, that says something. When the guy's only 2 TDs came on busted coverages, and you combine that with the increased number of drops, a huge drop in first down receptions, and the general observation that he lost a step due to the injury, that tells me the guy is on the decline. I like Chandler, and I'm not saying he cannot still be effective...I'm saying that Buffalo needs to do better than what he can produce as a #1 TE...and IMO he's not a good enough blocker to keep around as a #2 TE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BackInDaDay Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 At least we can all see adjustments are being made. Effort is being put forth. No its not showing up in the win column , but the team looks like they are not just " hoping " to win games long term. agree 100% on this. they've recognized there were issues, and are attempting to correct them. i'm optimistic that the addition of Hostler will have a significant impact on helping Hackett prepare his weekly gameplan, and reinforce what's expected out of the position coaches. with Downing dedicated to handling the QBs, and with the addition of a possibly more approachable receivers coach in Moore, i'm hopeful that Hackett can get his staff on the same page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BackInDaDay Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 The QBs threw a total of 16 TD passes, 9 of which came in the red zone. Zero of them went to Chandler. To me, that says something. Chandler may be on the decline as a 'down the seam' receiver, but he still presents match-up problems in the red zone. The fact that we couldn't get him isolated on smaller DBs down there says a lot. Of course, we might have had him in front of a safety on a 10 yard hook, but the slot man flew across the face of the play with a nickle back.. duh.. hoping we're schematically sound in 2014.. anybody in the bumper sticker business? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireChan Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 The QBs threw a total of 16 TD passes, 9 of which came in the red zone. Zero of them went to Chandler. To me, that says something. When the guy's only 2 TDs came on busted coverages, and you combine that with the increased number of drops, a huge drop in first down receptions, and the general observation that he lost a step due to the injury, that tells me the guy is on the decline. I like Chandler, and I'm not saying he cannot still be effective...I'm saying that Buffalo needs to do better than what he can produce as a #1 TE...and IMO he's not a good enough blocker to keep around as a #2 TE. What about both of Chandler's TD passes when he bulldozed into the end zone? What about that absolutely HUGE 4th down conversion against the Bengals to send the game to OT? What about the fact that no receiver on the Bills last year had more than 3 TD's? Is that Chandler's fault? You know who else went down in 3rd down conversion? Everyone. You even said our QB overly checks down which inflates Chandler's catches. Wouldn't that deflate his 3rd down conversions when our QB throws the small stuff that has no chance of getting over the line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I hope they go early at TE in the draft and I really hope MOEKI (SP) can overcome his injuries and get back to the player he was for the chiefs......which frankly was fantastic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebandit27 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 (edited) What about both of Chandler's TD passes when he bulldozed into the end zone? What about that absolutely HUGE 4th down conversion against the Bengals to send the game to OT? What about the fact that no receiver on the Bills last year had more than 3 TD's? Is that Chandler's fault? You know who else went down in 3rd down conversion? Everyone. You even said our QB overly checks down which inflates Chandler's catches. Wouldn't that deflate his 3rd down conversions when our QB throws the small stuff that has no chance of getting over the line? Obviously QB play is going to affect everything. What I'm saying is that Chandler's performance dipped even when the QB play was sound (and at times, it was). You're also misremembering his TDs. Both were on busted coverages, and only the Jets' TD involved him stretching through/around a tackle. He made a nice stretch to the end zone, yes..."bowled over"? Not even close: http://www.nfl.com/g...ights&tab=recap The Cinci TD he was completely untouched after a busted coverage on which DE Carlos Dunlap was the only zone defender on that side of the field. http://www.nfl.com/v...22-yard-TD-pass EDIT: it's also worth noting that this was not the TD that sent the game to OT...that was Goodwin. My point is that I'm not going to use two plays on which the guy was left wholly uncovered as evidence that he's still capable of making the plays this team needs him to make. As I said before: When the guy's only 2 TDs came on busted coverages, and you combine that with the increased number of drops, a huge drop in first down receptions, and the general observation that he lost a step due to the injury, that tells me the guy is on the decline. I like Chandler, and I'm not saying he cannot still be effective...I'm saying that Buffalo needs to do better than what he can produce as a #1 TE...and IMO he's not a good enough blocker to keep around as a #2 TE. If you disagree that's fine...I'm on the record with my opinion...it remains to be seen what the Bills themselves believe. Edited February 14, 2014 by thebandit27 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdand12 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Obviously QB play is going to affect everything. What I'm saying is that Chandler's performance dipped even when the QB play was sound (and at times, it was). You're also misremembering his TDs. Both were on busted coverages, and only the Jets' TD involved him stretching through/around a tackle. He made a nice stretch to the end zone, yes..."bowled over"? Not even close: http://www.nfl.com/g...ights&tab=recap The Cinci TD he was completely untouched after a busted coverage on which DE Carlos Dunlap was the only zone defender on that side of the field. http://www.nfl.com/v...22-yard-TD-pass EDIT: it's also worth noting that this was not the TD that sent the game to OT...that was Goodwin. My point is that I'm not going to use two plays on which the guy was left wholly uncovered as evidence that he's still capable of making the plays this team needs him to make. As I said before: When the guy's only 2 TDs came on busted coverages, and you combine that with the increased number of drops, a huge drop in first down receptions, and the general observation that he lost a step due to the injury, that tells me the guy is on the decline. I like Chandler, and I'm not saying he cannot still be effective...I'm saying that Buffalo needs to do better than what he can produce as a #1 TE...and IMO he's not a good enough blocker to keep around as a #2 TE. If you disagree that's fine...I'm on the record with my opinion...it remains to be seen what the Bills themselves believe. fair assesment . By the way i am holding out hope Tony can get back to his form as a playmaker. Thats a good pickup by Whaley in theory. I will hold out some hope that Chandler was not fully healthy from that major injury he worked so hard to come back early from , and he is better than showed last season . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireChan Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Obviously QB play is going to affect everything. What I'm saying is that Chandler's performance dipped even when the QB play was sound (and at times, it was). You're also misremembering his TDs. Both were on busted coverages, and only the Jets' TD involved him stretching through/around a tackle. He made a nice stretch to the end zone, yes..."bowled over"? Not even close: http://www.nfl.com/g...ights&tab=recap The Cinci TD he was completely untouched after a busted coverage on which DE Carlos Dunlap was the only zone defender on that side of the field. http://www.nfl.com/v...22-yard-TD-pass EDIT: it's also worth noting that this was not the TD that sent the game to OT...that was Goodwin. My point is that I'm not going to use two plays on which the guy was left wholly uncovered as evidence that he's still capable of making the plays this team needs him to make. As I said before: When the guy's only 2 TDs came on busted coverages, and you combine that with the increased number of drops, a huge drop in first down receptions, and the general observation that he lost a step due to the injury, that tells me the guy is on the decline. I like Chandler, and I'm not saying he cannot still be effective...I'm saying that Buffalo needs to do better than what he can produce as a #1 TE...and IMO he's not a good enough blocker to keep around as a #2 TE. If you disagree that's fine...I'm on the record with my opinion...it remains to be seen what the Bills themselves believe. So Chandler isn't good enough to be our number 1 and he's not good enough to be our number 2? Why do you think he's effective again? And it's important to note that Chandler scoring on a 4th down play was possibly the last play of the game. It was the difference between having a chance to win and defeat. Not taking anything away from Goodwin but it was possibly the biggest play of the game in terms of what was at stake. When was the QB play sound? When EJ had a 4 game streak of throwing it out of bounds? When we picked off Joe Flacco 5 times and could barely get a first down? When we needed at least one defensive TD to win a game where the opponent scored points? Really, if you think Chandler isn't effective enough based on those reasons, how do you feel about Stevie? Increased drops, worse production, and he had a TD on blown coverage to boot. Hell, they basically had the same year. In fact, only TJ Graham increased his production this year. Do I smell him moving up the depth chart? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebandit27 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 FireChan... We're getting to the point where we're way off topic. My opinion on Chandler is that he's not a good enough TE to be a #1. Typically, I'd prefer if my #2 TE were a good blocker; he isn't. For the many reasons I stated, I'd like an upgrade at TE. That's my opinion. If it isn't clear then PM me and I'll explain further. In the meantime I'm going to leave it at that so that this thread can rightfully be restored to discussing Hackett. Fair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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