Realist Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 Without a doubt JP will struggle in the beginning. If the Bills are to get out of the gates on fire it will be up to the defense and ST. JP will have to get used to the speed of regular season NFL football. Its one thing to study on film and quite another to out there when everything is coming right at you. The Bills will not compete with the Pats for the division title this year (unless the Pats themselves struggle with two new coordinators). I agree with others here that the Bills will be a lot like last years Bills and finish with nearly the same record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 Without a doubt JP will struggle in the beginning. If the Bills are to get out of the gates on fire it will be up to the defense and ST. JP will have to get used to the speed of regular season NFL football. Its one thing to study on film and quite another to out there when everything is coming right at you. The Bills will not compete with the Pats for the division title this year (unless the Pats themselves struggle with two new coordinators). I agree with others here that the Bills will be a lot like last years Bills and finish with nearly the same record. 372559[/snapback] I agree generally with what you said in that I am pretty sure that initially JP will have his struggles. However, i do not take the leap to the conclusion you do that it will add up to the team being a lot like last year's team and finishing with nearly the same record. I think the key to the Bills winning is not going to be how fast JP picks up things, but how well the team is run to minimize the impacts of a JP learning curve. Pittsburgh strikes me as the model where their results last year (and the course they followed to get there) were determined much more by them running behind the Bus and playing well on D initially so they did not rely on RoboQB to do more than manage the game and not make mistakes because they did not rely on him to win games. Once they did rely on this rookie they lost but my sense is that team succeeded by not asking more of the younster than he could produce. The JP situation is different (and this is good news for us) in that JP already ha struggled mightily last year when he was thrown into the Pats game and he showed the learning curve when he took a delay of game penalty in his next game and then he was forced to take a TO rather than take a penalty the next time he came in. The really good news for the Bills is that despite these hiccups, there is a straight line of improved JP learning from the Pitts debacle, to him recovering from the penalty to hand off to WM to get a TD , and to him recovering from bring forced to take a TO when his main job was to run clock to also drive the team to a TD (included a nice pass to Trafford and a nice run to get 1sts). I have little problem with Woodson' comments because if the NFL Access booker had set up an interview with JP rather than Robinson in this time slot, then my guess is that Woodson would have picked JP to throw 2 or 3 TDs against Robinson in the first game. Woodson is paid the big bucks to do good interviews and not necessarily to make good predictions. My guess is that the primary motivator for Woodson's choices were to produce a good interview right then rather than lay out some thouroughly researched view of next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 I don't have a problem with what RW said about JP struggling: it was trying to make it sound like he'll suck so bad that Robinson will get 2 INT's off of him in the season opener. And again, if the O-line can open holes for Willis, and the defense and ST's come to play, JP won't be a major factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Realist Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 I have little problem with Woodson' comments because if the NFL Access booker had set up an interview with JP rather than Robinson in this time slot, then my guess is that Woodson would have picked JP to throw 2 or 3 TDs against Robinson in the first game. 372572[/snapback] You're probably right about that. It all depends on who the guest is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCDAWG Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 He is an ass. From what Ive seen of him he tries to give what he thinks will be the most popular answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinandjokin Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 JP will struggle no more than Drew did last year in running a dumbed down offense. 372556[/snapback] THANK YOU!!!! How bad could JP be? Certainly not worse than Drew. Talk about setting up an offense to minimize a quarterback's mistakes- it makes sense to do it with a rookie, but that's what the Bills were doing with a 12 year veteran. Drew won the game at Miami last year, but that was it. His decision making and general ineffectiveness lost so many more (see: Baltimore, Jacksonville, Oakland, countless Pats games, the Steelers 3rd string, etc.) The Bills made the right move and even if JP struggles, which will happen from time to time, it can't be any worse than what we saw last year. Good post obiewan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrobot Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 What a wanker. At least Robinson showed some smarts/class by not falling for Woodson's baiting. Woodson is a Master at Baiting. He's a Master Baiter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 Woodson is a Master at Baiting. He's a Master Baiter. 372648[/snapback] Yeah, and what's with the lame pornstar-sounding name? Rod Woodson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRW Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 THANK YOU!!!! How bad could JP be? Certainly not worse than Drew. 372614[/snapback] People say this all the time, and it just isn't true. I'm not sorry to see Bledsoe gone, but he has had a 12-year career in the NFL. I certainly can envision worse performances than he gave last year - can't you? The good thing is that if Losman does approach play as bad as or worse than Bledsoe's, we have Holcomb to give us another option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinandjokin Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 People say this all the time, and it just isn't true. I'm not sorry to see Bledsoe gone, but he has had a 12-year career in the NFL. I certainly can envision worse performances than he gave last year - can't you? The good thing is that if Losman does approach play as bad as or worse than Bledsoe's, we have Holcomb to give us another option. 372760[/snapback] No doubt, Bledsoe is class all the way, and he did make a bad Bills team watchable, and especially in 2002, very exciting. But the fact is he has major shortcomings and I can't see him being successful again in his career. He came into the league in a time before schematic zone blitzes and complicated coverages, and now he is still trying to adjust. It is tough to watch a 12-year veteran not able to anticipate what's about to happen. The '04 Bills had a top-tier running back, a top 3 defense, and the #1 special teams. What was missing? I suppose the concrete difference is that with Bledsoe, you know what you're going to get: 8-8, maybe 9-7 (with 2 losses to New England of course). At least with JP, there is some hope of having a special player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 Looking at Drew's stats from last year (and I was a supporter of his), he averaged 1.25 TD's, 1 INT, and 183.25 yards a game, while throwing for a 56.9% completion rate. Those numbers don't seem too unreachable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 What if the D loads up 8 to 9 in the box daring JP to beat them. Could not than a monster start to the season occur? I'll be the first to say that I do not understand everything that goes into a gameplan, but if JP is as sharp in the classroom as they say, I say lets go no huddle. It seems to me the main adavantage of the no huddle is getting a certain defensive personnal package on the field and exploiting the weak link therein. Seems like for a rookie QB, if you can narrow down the # of looks he would see by keeping a certain defensive package on the field, that would increase his ability to succeed. Also, if I am correct, he can still get the plays in from Clements over the headset, as that cuts off at a certain time before the play clock expires. At least, that is what I think happens. If it cuts off when they get to line, this may be a harder thing to accomplich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Realist Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 In the beginning its going to Blitz galore against JP and th Bills until they prove they can stop it and JP proves he can beat the blitz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obie_wan Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 In the beginning its going to Blitz galore against JP and th Bills until they prove they can stop it and JP proves he can beat the blitz. 372808[/snapback] GEE- sounds like the last 2 years where Drew proved conclusively that he could not beat the blitz. Last year, the entire offensive mindset was to dumb things down to the most basic level so Drew could be protected from making terrible decisions. Sure they will blitz JP. But my guess he will make more big plays in the first few games to exploit the blitz than Drew made in the last 2.5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djh Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 Relaaaaaaaaaaaaaax Alice Rod Woodson is just having fun with Robinson & trying to egg him on. It's natural for a host to do that to a guest host who happens to play JP in the opener. I would bet that JP will lay the wood on Dante on QB keeper. JP can hit, NFL DB's be warned!!! (Red Jersey in practice doesn't count) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John in VA Beach Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 I watched the show and he meant nothing by it. I remeber when the Redskins beat the Steelers back in 91 and the reporters wanted him to talk about how great the redskins were. He replied that the redskins aren't a great team, but the Bills sure were. The bills beat the steelers 52-17 that year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeF Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 GEE- sounds like the last 2 years where Drew proved conclusively that he could not beat the blitz. Last year, the entire offensive mindset was to dumb things down to the most basic level so Drew could be protected from making terrible decisions. Sure they will blitz JP. But my guess he will make more big plays in the first few games to exploit the blitz than Drew made in the last 2.5 years. 372856[/snapback] You hit upon a really interesting point OW. First, its not just JP--we have a great blend of coaching creativity (Clements and Mularkey); coaching experience (Wyche and McNally) and skill position talent (Willis, Moulds, Evans, Parrish) on the O side of the ball. This is a great support system for JP in his first year as a starter. Mularkey and Clements almost led Kordell Stewart to an MVP type season three years ago--add Wyche and McNally to that list and plays will be designed that combine low risk with utlization of JP's skills and coverage of our weaknesses (offensive line left side pass protection). Second, the key will be how we as a team, not just JP, handle the blitz and the 8 or 9 in the box the first couple of weeks. Blitzes against us the last two years killed us. I don't have the stats to back this up--but I bet against the blitz no gain or negative plays (Loss or Turnover) outnumbered positive plays 3 or 4 to one. We just couldn't handle it--the line couldn't pick them up (Sans the winning streak last year) and the QB wasn't strong at making quick decisions. If we roll away from the blitz--put the QB on the move more-the need to make quick reads and decisions is somewhat mitigated--it buys time to read and react..this will help with JP's inexperience and its something we really could not do with Drew-I bet that positive play ratio on blitzes improves fairly significantly. Finally, 8 or 9 in the box--great do it--I think we have a speedy set of strong receivers (Evans and Parrish's strength to size numbers are pretty impressive) and a quick passing game design that could lead to some really big plays--ala Peerless on quick slants 3 years ago. Also we have 3 what I would term mooses on the line---Bennie, Chris V and Big Mike---these three can engulf or overwhelm guys inside quickly and Willis hits the whole quickly and is powerful once he gets going--a good tackle breaker and stiff armer...running inside behind big strong lineman with a quick and powerful back can lead to some long runs against a stacked alignment. I won't make any record predictions but I think the elements are there to be very explosive on O in certain situations. If we establish early that we can scheme against the blitz and the stacked line both by successfully running and throwing...watch out...this team will have a dynamic year--and we have the talent to execute in these situations due to a combination of: JP's legs The upgrade of the interior line Parrish's speed Lee's strength and development Willis' improvement in speed and strength... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarthur31 Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 TA broke down the AFC east today. Rod Woodson named JP as the only reason why the Bills will not contend with The Pats for the best of the east. Then he went on and on trying to get Dante Robinson of the Texans to say he will pick off not one but two passes in the season opener, which CB Robinson DID NOT do. Screw you Rod. 372380[/snapback] He might be right! I don't think JP will lead us into the playoffs like Ben did for Pitt. You forget they had studs, not duds, on their line. Granted we have a D and teams that can carry us if they don't fail us. You expect too much of this rookie, please don't bank your house on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 I don't think JP will lead us into the playoffs like Ben did for Pitt. I don't think he will either, and I'm not expecting HIM to lead the Bills into the playoffs. I'm expecting a total team effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zona Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 Rod Woodson should STFU. 372403[/snapback] I couldn't have said it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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