off topic Buffalo Bills 2015

[nfreeman]

Take that stinker in London out of the equation, and our turnover ratio was #3 to that point IIRC.  

 

Last night's game was exactly what I expected.  4 day turnaround for this team, on the road in a typically hostile environment, against a division rival.  We pulled the game out.  That's all I could've asked for, and I am happy for it.  

 

We have 11 days to prepare for NE.  I don't expect to win, but I expect a much closer game than the first one.  

 

Although in the past this has been very true, last night it was pretty tame in there.

[LGR4GM]

It would be awesome!  But, as I've said already, we need to throw some caution to the wind and go for it.  The same "let's be conservative so Brady doesn't beat us" plan will result in another 460 yard passing game for Brady.

 

That Jets game also started a 5 out of 6 road game run for us.  How we manage these 6 games determines our season.

You are right we need to nut up or shut up.

[Weave]

The way his mustache actually sticks out above the beard... incredible.

 

He's got Lanny MacDonald level mustache.

 

 

I'm jealous that I can't do that.

[TrueBlueGED]

The source of the negativity is very simple. You don't sit through the past 15 years without doubting this team. It's perfectly understandable to question them at this point.

While it's understandable, I think people have to stop being haunted by the past at some point. It's a totally new team from most of those failures, with new ownership to boot. I lived through all of the bad times too, but it's time to move on.

Edited November 13, 2015 by TrueBlueGED

[PromoTheRobot]

While it's understandable, I think people have to stop being haunted by the past at some point. It's a totally new team from most of those failures, with new ownership to boot. I lived through all of the bad times too, but it's time to move on.

Edited November 13, 2015 by PromoTheRobot

[JujuFish]

- Ronald Darby might be the best player on this team. Easily a Pro Bowler right now. If he continues this he's a lock for DROY. And Gilmore is no slouch. Best CB tandem in the league.

 

I need to eat crow.  I don't know if I said it on here, but certainly elsewhere I made it well known how disappointed I was in Darby's selection, both at the draft and during preseason.  Can't believe just how emphatically he has proven me wrong.

 

I'd put Buffalo at #2 for CB tandem, behind Arizona.

[Hoss]

I need to eat crow.  I don't know if I said it on here, but certainly elsewhere I made it well known how disappointed I was in Darby's selection, both at the draft and during preseason.  Can't believe just how emphatically he has proven me wrong.

 

I'd put Buffalo at #2 for CB tandem, behind Arizona.

Patrick Peterson is highly overrated. Beyond that who is their second corner? Mathieu is not a corner.

[JujuFish]

Patrick Peterson is highly overrated. Beyond that who is their second corner? Mathieu is not a corner.

He plays more at corner than safety.

[shrader]

While it's understandable, I think people have to stop being haunted by the past at some point. It's a totally new team from most of those failures, with new ownership to boot. I lived through all of the bad times too, but it's time to move on.

There's only one thing that can change that, actually making the playoffs.

[bunomatic]

How bout those red uniforms. Retch :sick: What were they thinking ? :doh:

[WildCard]

Honestly, I didn't hate the reds. Someone else said white pants would have been much better, and I agree. Nothing I would ever want us to wear at home in a sea of blue though

[inkman]

How bout those red uniforms. Retch :sick: What were they thinking ? :doh:

As I and many others said previously, I love them.

[Wyldnwoody44]

They were ok, if this was a Christmas game it would have been ok, too bad for the colorblind people out there

[Taro T]

They were ok, if this was a Christmas game it would have been ok, too bad for the colorblind people out there

Yeah, everybody (after the fact) feels bad for the red/green colorblind. But aren't the Jags supposed to wear gold next week against the all blue Titans? No one sheds a tear for the blue/yellow colorblind do they? Imagaine if you have both variants? 2 straight Thursdays of having no idea who has the ball. Oh the humanity.

[shrader]

Yeah, everybody (after the fact) feels bad for the red/green colorblind. But aren't the Jags supposed to wear gold next week against the all blue Titans? No one sheds a tear for the blue/yellow colorblind do they? Imagaine if you have both variants? 2 straight Thursdays of having no idea who has the ball. Oh the humanity.

You make the fatal flaw of assuming someone would even want to watch Titans/Jaguars at all.

[TrueBlueGED]

Yeah, everybody (after the fact) feels bad for the red/green colorblind. But aren't the Jags supposed to wear gold next week against the all blue Titans? No one sheds a tear for the blue/yellow colorblind do they? Imagaine if you have both variants? 2 straight Thursdays of having no idea who has the ball. Oh the humanity.

All gold? The yellow colorblind will have it better than the rest of us.

[Jsixspd]

The way his mustache actually sticks out above the beard... incredible.

 

Well, it IS "No-Shave November" after all.    ;)

[Taro T]

You make the fatal flaw of assuming someone would even want to watch Titans/Jaguars at all.

:lol:

[Hoss]

Watching football on a Sunday where the Bills already picked up a win has been a nice change of pace. Watching some of these games has made is clear to me that this team has no excuse not to make the playoffs, and Whaley's job should ride on whether or not this team gets it done. The AFC Wild Card race is bad. The Steelers are the only other team playing well and in the hunt.

 

Two quick QB thoughts:

 

- We all know this is a QB league, but a smart GM or luck seem to be the difference for so many teams. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are the only QBs in this league who have been consistently successful regardless of their weapons and/or defense. But they've also played for teams who have been essentially mistake free on key personnel decisions. Especially defensively. The Broncos had a strong defense when Manning got there but took another step when they landed Aqib Talib, TJ Ward and Demarcus Ware. The Patriots have done a fantastic job of drafting guys like Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins and moving a guy like Devin McCourty to safety. Teams like Atlanta (Paul Soliai, Tyson Jackson, others) and New Orleans (Jairus Byrd over Mike Jenkins, trying to fill holes with failed contracts elsewhere) have seen great QB play wasted lately due to failures there.

 

- I'm not convinced a QB who makes most or many of his plays with his legs beyond the line of scrimmage will ever win in this league. It seemed like this was the future of the league, but it feels like that was a flash in the pan more than anything. If you've got a great defense I think you can win with a run-first offense, but you'll still need a QB who can consistently and safely makes plays down the field. I'm not set on Tyrod, but he's got the tools to be the type of QB who fits into a run-first offense while making plays down the field when you need it. He's not built like Cam Newton, so I hope he can reign it in on the runs and become a more dedicated passer. He's accurate on more throws than not and got the arm to hit it big downfield, but I haven't seen him do it with the game on the line yet. I'm excited to have Tyrod, but I'm not sold on relying on him long-term.

[WildCard]

Peyton benched, 5-20, 4 ints

And Chandler just dropped the easiest 25 yd throw, I definitely don't miss him ad his rock hands

[Wyldnwoody44]

Damn #ckn new England!!!!

[TrueBlueGED]

Damn #ckn new England!!!!

 

I'm glad they won. They don't seem to lose consecutive games very often. It could be general paranoia about that team, but I'd rather not face them coming off a loss.

 

Separately, methinks we greatly underestimated the quality of that Giants team in the midst of being angry they beat us. 

 

And lastly, nothing save for an Eichel career-ending injury, in all of professional sports that happens this year, could possibly make me as sad as seeing Peyton Manning's career end the way it seems to be. Just the worst.

[TrueBlueGED]

Watching football on a Sunday where the Bills already picked up a win has been a nice change of pace. Watching some of these games has made is clear to me that this team has no excuse not to make the playoffs, and Whaley's job should ride on whether or not this team gets it done. The AFC Wild Card race is bad. The Steelers are the only other team playing well and in the hunt.

 

Two quick QB thoughts:

 

- We all know this is a QB league, but a smart GM or luck seem to be the difference for so many teams. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are the only QBs in this league who have been consistently successful regardless of their weapons and/or defense. But they've also played for teams who have been essentially mistake free on key personnel decisions. Especially defensively. The Broncos had a strong defense when Manning got there but took another step when they landed Aqib Talib, TJ Ward and Demarcus Ware. The Patriots have done a fantastic job of drafting guys like Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins and moving a guy like Devin McCourty to safety. Teams like Atlanta (Paul Soliai, Tyson Jackson, others) and New Orleans (Jairus Byrd over Mike Jenkins, trying to fill holes with failed contracts elsewhere) have seen great QB play wasted lately due to failures there.

 

- I'm not convinced a QB who makes most or many of his plays with his legs beyond the line of scrimmage will ever win in this league. It seemed like this was the future of the league, but it feels like that was a flash in the pan more than anything. If you've got a great defense I think you can win with a run-first offense, but you'll still need a QB who can consistently and safely makes plays down the field. I'm not set on Tyrod, but he's got the tools to be the type of QB who fits into a run-first offense while making plays down the field when you need it. He's not built like Cam Newton, so I hope he can reign it in on the runs and become a more dedicated passer. He's accurate on more throws than not and got the arm to hit it big downfield, but I haven't seen him do it with the game on the line yet. I'm excited to have Tyrod, but I'm not sold on relying on him long-term.

 

I think the natural corollary to this is we significantly underrate the importance of the supporting case with things such as "it's a QB-driven league" and "until we have a QB nothing else matters" which aren't exactly incorrect, but they also overstate the reality of the situation. I also think a secondary consequence of the focus on the QB is that many of us don't think we'll have the QB situation solved until we have a HoFer chucking the ball for 4500 yards and 35 TDs every year. Obviously that's ideal, but I think if you can get a guy around the top-15 mark, maybe we should focus more on getting everything else built up instead of focusing on the (likely) fruitless chase for a truly elite player at the position. 

 

Which brings me to Tyrod. Depending on how he finishes the season, I think we as a fan base are going to spend a lot of the offseason debating exactly how far we should go to get a different QB (such as a Godfather offer to move into the top-5 of the draft for a prospect not named Andrew Luck). Let's just say the top QB in this class ends up grading out similar to Blake Bortles did as a prospect...is a depth-shattering trade worth it to go from Tyrod to Bortles? I don't believe it is. I may be underrating the value of this draft, but my point isn't to debate that, it's just a thought experiment on relative value of QB vs. supporting cast.

 

I think you're painting too broadly with the second bolded point there. I fully believe functional operation within the pocket is a necessary condition for a QB to have sustained success...but I don't think them moving the pocket a ton or getting a lot of rushing yards precludes that from happening. 

 

Edit: Tangental point from all of this: Comparing QBs by wins while ignoring the organization and supporting cast on the field is dumb, and I want to jump to the moon every time somebody does it.

Edited November 16, 2015 by TrueBlueGED

[Hoss]

Not quoting for the sake of the rules, but I agree with your first paragraph. I do think this is a QB's league. I find that to be pretty undeniable at this point. But it doesn't lead me to believe nothing matters until you have an elite QB. You NEED an at least competent and consistent QB to win in this league, but the "until we have a QB nothing else matters" argument often infers we need something more than that.

 

Second paragraph I also follow pretty closely to. However, I don't think a trade up would be necessarily depth shattering considering the rookie wage scale and fact that we've locked up a good number of guys. By the time the QB is ready to get his first big contract (if it gets to that point) we'll have gotten to the point where we have the normal number of picks and other contracts will have expired. We don't need quantity at this point. There's obvious risk there as you never know when certain players will drop off or suffer horrible injury, but that's a risk you take every year.

 

And you missed a key phrase in my second bolded statement: "beyond the line of scrimmage." Moving the pocket is a great trait, and that's something Tyrod has the ability to do. Getting a ton of rushing yards is fine and dandy, but I don't think an offense that relies on a quarterback doing that will win anytime soon ("ever" is a bit over dramatic there, though. I don't know what the future looks like). And Russell Wilson is NOT a QB who relies moreso on running beyond the line of scrimmage than throwing. He does it more than any other successful QB, but he's still good-to-great when it comes to consistently passing the ball.

 

On your edit: Yeap. QB wins are useful when you take into account the amount of change they endure over time to still find success, but it's important to consider what's around them. That's what my first point in the post above was.

[TrueBlueGED]

 

Second paragraph I also follow pretty closely to. However, I don't think a trade up would be necessarily depth shattering considering the rookie wage scale and fact that we've locked up a good number of guys. By the time the QB is ready to get his first big contract (if it gets to that point) we'll have gotten to the point where we have the normal number of picks and other contracts will have expired. We don't need quantity at this point. There's obvious risk there as you never know when certain players will drop off or suffer horrible injury, but that's a risk you take every year.

 

And you missed a key phrase in my second bolded statement: "beyond the line of scrimmage." Moving the pocket is a great trait, and that's something Tyrod has the ability to do. Getting a ton of rushing yards is fine and dandy, but I don't think an offense that relies on a quarterback doing that will win anytime soon ("ever" is a bit over dramatic there, though. I don't know what the future looks like). And Russell Wilson is NOT a QB who relies moreso on running beyond the line of scrimmage than throwing. He does it more than any other successful QB, but he's still good-to-great when it comes to consistently passing the ball.

 

I just have trouble wrapping my mind around the mechanics of how this would play out. Most (though not all, of course) teams drafting in a position where they can take one of the best QB prospects in a draft probably also need a QB. If this is the case, they're not going to trade down save for something that would be depth-shattering in practice and/or if the QB class is very poor. If the QB class is high end, they're not moving (unless they're in a situation like Baltimore where they have a guy but everything goes wrong and they draft high), but if the QB class is mediocre, the incentive for us to move from the mid-late teens to the top-5 is probably fairly low unless Tyrod totally craps himself in the second half of the year. The situation where the possibility matches the incentives seems, at least theoretically, to be a little like catching lightning in a bottle.

 

To the running point, I just can't think of any QB in recent memory who has made most of his plays running the ball and also gotten a legit chance to start. Tebow is the only one I can think of, and he only got to start out of desperation, and nobody wanted him afterwards. I just don't see a guy who can't throw well but is a dynamite runner even getting a shot. So you're right, but three posts is probably too much time spent on it :lol: