A Few Thoughts about the Jets Game, in no particular order

[Virgil]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times.....BBFS. It's not pessimism or hating on the team, it's 17 years and the reality of history. Tonight exposed a lot of our holes and opportunities that we've been able to hide or suppress. And yes, we just got BLOWN OUT by the Jets on primetime TV. This is why we, and will continue, to not have the respect of anyone.

 

1 - McDermott - This loss starts with our coach. This team did not show up tonight in a variety of ways. I don't care if it's a short week or on the road. This is a divisional game that we need to be relevant in a division dominated by the Pats. The Jets are supposed to be a weaker team and equally on short rest. We had terrible starting drives in both halves, poor tackling, penalties, and stupid turnovers. Easily our worst game of the season at a time where many of us were looking for this team to prove this team was different.

 

2 - BBFS - I've had people ask what this is. This game was it. Battered Buffalo Fan Syndrome. It's the ongoing mental anguish of waiting for the other shoe to drop when something positive happens to the Bills. I'ts snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It's the 2nd and 2 direct snap to McCoy that almost leads to a turnover. It's starting 5-2 on three occasions over the past 17 years and finishing 7-9 two times. As of right now, anything is possible again. Special thanks for the Bills losing before the bye week and 10 day stretch, to really rub in the pain.

 

3 - Penalties - One of the biggest differences this season has been the discipline shown by the team. Tonight, we saw that completely unravel. The refs even gave us a gift offensive PI call to negate a Jets TD. Shaq had an idiotic late hit. Jerry pulled a Jerry with his unsportsmanlike conduct. Nice facemask penalty where the defender just reached out with his arms towards the McCown's head expecting...god knows what. I'd complain about hte phantom offsides for the onside kick, but it doesn't matter. Penalties were just the perfect icing on the cake

 

4 - Offensive Line - Normally, the lyrics go here, but there's just too many things that need to be called out. Our offensive line was an absolute joke. I can't really even evaluate the running or passing game much because of it. The right side of the line was as bad as I've seen it and got absolutely blown up. How Groy is not at RG and Dawkins isn't getting snaps at RT is beyond me. After a week where they dominated the Raiders defensive line, the overall offense stood no chance because of these guys. 7 sacks......

 

5 - Pass Rush - I'm getting pretty sick of our 4 man pass rush, especially after seeing what the Jets did to us with rushing 5. McCown had all day to throw while Tyrod got terrorized. It's infuriating how obvious it is to see the difference an extra rusher makes. Some may want to call out the loss of Dareus, but he was playing less than 40% of the snaps. We are going to get destroyed by Brees, Brady x2, and Alex Smith. Btw, that would be 8 losses after tonight to those guys. The Dolphins and Chargers, on the West Coast btw, could be the difference in our season.

 

6 - Turnovers - We knew we couldn't rely on being +3 in the turnover column every week, but who thought it would look like this? Two fumbles by the offense that were completely self inflicted, both killing scoring drives. A dropped INT that couldn't have been any easier to bring in. We weren't flying to the ball like normal, delivering the bigs hits, and overall seemed out of position a lot.

 

7 - Tackling - Tackling tonight was the worst I've seen since our last game against the Pats. I don't know if it's because we kept trying to knock the ball out or what, but there were broken tackles all not. As the game went on, the misses got worse. Nevermind the blown contain on McCown to start the game, but the big rushing plays to drive the dagger into our hearts were just pathetic. Nothing about this performance looked anything like our season to date.

 

8 - Tolbert - After two weeks of crediting the use of Tolbert and praising his effectiveness, we went right back to the maddening play call we saw in the first 5 games. Tolbert running the ball on 1st and 2nd down, without McCoy on the field. swing passes, the full rushing compliment for a guy who has no business being a runningback. Why we keep trying shove a square into a round hole is beyond me. This might be the most infuriating team.

 

9 - Road Games - We are now 1-3 on road games. While the first two losses were close, we looked flat in all three losses and worse each time. This is becoming an area of concern and makes me extremely anxious about the Chargers and Dolphins games, who are against two beatable teams. McDermott needs to figure this out and quickly.

 

10 - Zay Jones - As easy as it would be to go negative for all ten points, I have to give credit to Zay for his coming out game. He looked crisp in his routes, didn't drop a pass, and only his injury kept him from having a big game. Very proud of this kid and happy to see the potential from the guy we took in the 2nd round. I hope the knee issue doesn't linger and his confidence continues to grow.

 

 

What a rollercoaster 5 days it's been. A blowout win against the Raiders where our offense and defense looked dominant, an amazing trade for Benjamin, and now a blowout loss to the Jets. This game was lost on effort alone. We didn't have it and I have to question why. The easiest answer? It's because we are the Bills. This is what the Bills do and none of us should be surprised. Watching all the threads about playoffs pop up reminded me of the previous 5-2 starts and I just had a feeling all day about this game.

 

We aren't a playoff team until there's an "x" next to our name in the standings. We've proven nothing so far. No matter how it feels, we are 5-3 again with some scary opportunities. I'm starting to get worried about our inability to generate any pass rush, road game intensity, and how easily our offense can go flat. We have some good teams coming up that will exploit these issues and things could get ugly quick. I'm not saying we will finish 7-9 again, but 8-8 is a very real possibility.

 

Go Bills

Edited November 3, 2017 by Virgil

[WMDman]

Still think we go 9-7

[GETTOTHE50]

My thoughts:

 

The Bills aren't this bad, and the Jets aren't this good.

 

The three fumbles were costly. The Jets had a good game on defense with a good plan.

 

The Bills didn't have a good plan on defense. There was NO PRESSURE on mcclown. You gotta blitz McD/Fraz

 

The Oline was overmatched by the Jets gameplan on D.

 

The Jets balled out tonight. Give them credit.

[frostbitmic]

After this debacle on a Thursday night, watching football this Sunday doesn't sound appealing.

 

The game ended 5 minutes ago and I think Tyrod just got sacked again.

[bobobonators]

The Jets were pumped as hell and came to play. We did not. We were still tweeting about the Benjamin trade and got caught with our pants down.

 

Learn from this, or this season is over.

[The Dean]

Lots of blame to go around tonight. Line play, QB, coaching/scheme/playcalling...

 

But I like the Bills uniforms better than the Jets. So there's that.

 

[Foreigner]

Excellent Virgil

[Mango]

I saw a ton to worry about in this game. It was embarrassing. Before commuting to taking arsenic, good teams rarely, if ever, drop 2 in a row.

 

If this happens next week, Ill be concerned.

 

We are dropping conference and divisional games. Makes it tough for the AFCE. But the wild card is still very much in play.

[hemma]

The play he was injured, Zay was deliberately tripped.

 

I think that DB saved a TD.

 

That could have gotten us going, but we'll never know.

[Beast]

They didn’t have it from the start. You can’t point to one specific area and point to that being the reason for tonight, though the o-line and front seven on the defense were pretty horrific. In fact, did anyone have a good game? Schmidt? Zay Jones?

 

The list isn’t long.

 

The one thing that worried me tonight that I don’t think can be fixed is Lorenzo Alexander. He looked slow. Very slow.

[Nitro]

The rest of the schedule is not easy.

 

New Orleans

@LA Chargers

@Kansas City

New England

Indianapolis

Miami

@New England

@Miami

They need to win out at home and steal a road win. Your points are spot on. This team was not ready to play. Flat play can survive at home but not on the road.

[sullim4]

OL and DL were the biggest issues in this game. No pass protection on the offensive side, and no pass rush on the defensive side. These now instantly become our biggest priorities in the draft next year.

 

On defense, it looked like they were more interested in ripping the ball out than making tackles. The Jets probably noticed this from last week and adjusted to protect the football.

 

I am not a fan of Bowles but this is a textbook example of how to beat Tyrod Taylor. Rush 5, keep a linebacker watching as a spy, and have the spy rush a few seconds after the snap.

 

I think the team beats NO next week, since McDermott is familiar with the NFC south and they have more time to prepare. But, after that, traveling to the west coast for the Chargers, playing at Arrowhead, and facing Belichick and the band of cheaters are going to be tough tasks for this team. I think we see them at 6-6 after this stretch.

[Nitro]

OL and DL were the biggest issues in this game. No pass protection on the offensive side, and no pass rush on the defensive side. These now instantly become our biggest priorities in the draft next year.

 

On defense, it looked like they were more interested in ripping the ball out than making tackles. The Jets probably noticed this from last week and adjusted to protect the football.

 

I am not a fan of Bowles but this is a textbook example of how to beat Tyrod Taylor. Rush 5, keep a linebacker watching as a spy, and have the spy rush a few seconds after the snap.

 

I think the team beats NO next week, since McDermott is familiar with the NFC south and they have more time to prepare. But, after that, traveling to the west coast for the Chargers, playing at Arrowhead, and facing Belichick and the band of cheaters are going to be tough tasks for this team. I think we see them at 6-6 after this stretch.

You stumble onto a glaring problem. Dennision did not adjust. 5 rushing and a spy LB...only 5 in coverage. Exploit it. Drag route across the middle would work. The short dump pass goes no where. Have to hit the man running. McCoy was open to the left several times.

[Elite Poster]

8-8

[1st Ammendment NoMas]

You said it all. This was a brutal game to watch and the BBFS rash is all over my body. After the Benjamin trade, I really thought we would be pumped up and go take this one. But having been inflicted with BBFS for over 40 years, I should have known better and the words "trust the process" "defend our dirt" etc... should have not been swallowed so hard

I believed our coaches would have us ready but by the middle of the first quarter, I knew we were going to lose. Even at 7-7, things did not seem right. Every time we made progress, we'd do something Billsy and the way they rushed 5, we had no answer. By 10-7, I thought, it's over. We just looked so flat, so Billsy in every aspect of the game, that all the years of BBFS just started breaking out all over my body.

I truly hope Benjamin can help sustain drives and give us the threat we need to move the chains. I hope Clay gets back, that Zay keeps improving and we get Gaines back. Wright sucks. Our D looked really bad against the run. I hope DairyAss was not the reason for our success, but damn we seemed vulnerable in the middle.

We got 10 days to get it together. We beat NO and we build some momentum. But we need the D to step up. GO BILLS!

[jkeerie]

The Bills oversimplified the game plan due to the short week. The Jets were getting beaten up by their press and needed to prove something. The Bills got outcoached as well as outplayed.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

What about the trap game? We don't think they exist

 

 

 

Buttercup: Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.'s?

Westley: Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

[Immediately, an R.O.U.S. attacks him]

[sullim4]

You stumble onto a glaring problem. Dennision did not adjust. 5 rushing and a spy LB...only 5 in coverage. Exploit it. Drag route across the middle would work. The short dump pass goes no where. Have to hit the man running. McCoy was open to the left several times.

 

I agree although the OL was so bad this game that Taylor had no time to hit his hot read.

 

That being said, Romo's observations on TT were spot on. Towards the end of the game the Jets are playing man-to-man on the WRs and Taylor instead throws it over the middle to a double covered O'Leary. Romo called him out on it and he's 100% right. Romo talked about him not trusting his WRs, which seems legitimate, until you realize that this was happening with Watkins as well, so I don't see this changing with Benjamin coming onto the team. I think TT just doesn't like to throw it to the outside down the field.

[Fadingpain]

So much went wrong tonight I do not think it is productive to really evaluate any of it.

 

I am willing to call it an aberration, throw it in the garbage can, and move forward.

 

Our next game and a strong rebound is going to be very important.

[bobobonators]

So much went wrong tonight I do not think it is productive to really evaluate any of it.

 

I am willing to call it an aberration, throw it in the garbage can, and move forward.

 

Our next game and a strong rebound is going to be very important.

Agreed.