You be the OC and DC against NE

[YardRat]

If you're running the offense this week do you...

A) Utilize Lynch and the running game in an attempt to control the clock and keep your defense and NE's offense off the field?

or...

B) Open up the playbook a mile wide and go down gunning the ball all over the field and let the defense worry about their own business when they're on the field?

If you're running the defense this week do you...

A) Play bend but don't break, keep the big plays and scoring to a minimum and hope the offense can put enough points on the board to give you a chance to win in the end?

or...

B) Blitz the piss out of Brady and Maroney, play aggressive, take chances, and let the chips fall where they may, hoping to either create points on your own, more opportunities for the offense, or just leave it up to the offense to try and keep up on the scoreboard?

[Elminster]

If you're running the offense this week do you...

A) Utilize Lynch and the running game in an attempt to control the clock and keep your defense and NE's offense off the field?

or...

B) Open up the playbook a mile wide and go down gunning the ball all over the field and let the defense worry about their own business when they're on the field?

If you're running the defense this week do you...

A) Play bend but don't break, keep the big plays and scoring to a minimum and hope the offense can put enough points on the board to give you a chance to win in the end?

or...

B) Blitz the piss out of Brady and Maroney, play aggressive, take chances, and let the chips fall where they may, hoping to either create points on your own, more opportunities for the offense, or just leave it up to the offense to try and keep up on the scoreboard? On both cases, I'm going to go balls-to-the-wall. Let's face it...the Patriots are the better football team. They're unlikely to make mistakes unless we actively try to pressure them and psyche them out, so we must actively seek to control our own luck. If the Patriots dictate the game, we will lose. It is that simple. We must do everything reasonable to dictate to them. The only problem is I think DJ and will sit there and jump when Bellicheat wants him to jump...

[Crisis]

steal signals so we can cover the spread

[Bill Brasky]

simple. on offense, i'd hand off to lynch every time. maybe even do a few direct snaps. jp is good at hand offs. passing, well....

on defense. i'd put all 11 guys in the box, every single play, for the entire game. let's face it, nobody in our secondary will be able to keep up with Moss, Stallworth, etc. our chances are best if we just rush 11 guys every play.

[DraftBoy]

Offense: A
Defense: B

[MTBillsFan]

Run Marshawn RUN!!!!

Also, hope that Marsha Brady breaks her nail and Leonard Picks off 4 passes for TD's!!!


GO BILLS!

[THE END OF ALL DAYS]

we send in OJ waving a gun to hold their asses in the locker room till 1 min left in the game... of course we will still only have 2 field goals, so Marsha can still beat us.. better have OJ whack off a few more heads

[Goobylal]

I'd use any chance I got to do what Adalius Thomas did to Shane Olivea this past Sunday night. Apparently the Pats' motto is "do whatever sleazy thing it takes to win."

[Ultra Chimp 1]

I would pass, pass, pass and then pass more.

Might as well take advantage of Samuel and Harrison being gone.

Let's see how well Losman does airing it out and let's see Lynch catch a lot as well.

[OpIv37]

If you're running the offense this week do you...

A) Utilize Lynch and the running game in an attempt to control the clock and keep your defense and NE's offense off the field?

or...

B) Open up the playbook a mile wide and go down gunning the ball all over the field and let the defense worry about their own business when they're on the field?

If you're running the defense this week do you...

A) Play bend but don't break, keep the big plays and scoring to a minimum and hope the offense can put enough points on the board to give you a chance to win in the end?

or...

B) Blitz the piss out of Brady and Maroney, play aggressive, take chances, and let the chips fall where they may, hoping to either create points on your own, more opportunities for the offense, or just leave it up to the offense to try and keep up on the scoreboard?

On offense, you do both: establish the running game with Lynch and as soon as the D tightens up, open up the playbook.

On D: pray. I hate bend but don't break because it ALWAYS breaks, especially against good teams like the Pats. But when we've blitzed, the blitzing player never gets here in time and the offense always seems to find the hole in the zone left by the blitz. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Ebenezer]

it is Sunday - Pray!

[djjimkelly]

if im the BILLS OC THIS WEEKEND I DO WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE FROM PLAY 1 of the season

i completely scrap all 2 TE sets except goaline from the playbook

next i come out 3 wr pretty much full time and not allow NEW ENGLAND TO PLAY THEIR BASE 3-4 at all on sunday.

all this being said i wouldnt pass full time i would run alot of dives and draws out of this single back look.

i would pretty much eliminate all forms of wr screen

i would throw at least 5 slant patterns regardless of outcome

crossing routes would also be a serious part of gameplan regardless of protection problems or no problems

JP would be given chance to run at any given moment of any play and not coached to keep looking for wrs ( and trust me hes been being coached to stay in pocket!!)


even on a 3rd and 1 i would go 3 or 4 wrs with a check with me package at the line if new england insisted on putting 7 or 8 in box

thats what i would do in the simplest from of explaining things i can get really crazy if needed to go more in depth with gameplan

[Ingtar33]

the pats have proved themselves to have a very good run defense.

they know we have qb issues.

This is the week i open with 20 straight passing plays. shotgun, lots of motion, 4 wr sets, with lynch coming out of the backfield, split wide.

When you spread the field you keep the defense from disguising it's blitzes, and when you move men in motion to reveal the coverage.

Losman is semi comfortable in the shotgun. I'd just let'er rip on the offensive side of the ball, show the pats something that they've never seen before.

I'd do everything in my power to get the ball into the hand of lynch, evans and perish, wr screens, quick slants, bombs. Whatever it took.

We would have no chance to run the ball on them out of a traditional running formation, run out of the shotgun.

The biggest Achilles heel to the 2deep zone that the pats love so much is you can pressure them deep, if you can get the protection. and you should have the 5 yard underneath routs all day.

Run as many screens, wr screens, and quick slants as you can. That will keep the pats out of blitz mode, force them to back off, and play the quick pass. Then you can start to run the ball out of the shotgun.

draws, direct snaps, end arounds and even stretch plays.

all day long, i wouldn't have losman under center. he can't play down there. just give it up. I wouldn't bring a TE on the field unless you can't get the pats out of blitz mode and you're still not moving the ball.

Get them to bite on the out and up, to evans (a great rout vs the 2d zone) and you might just hang in the game.

The biggest mistake the bills could make would be to try to slow it down and keep the pats offense off the field.

reasons:

1) the pats will come into this game with the mindset of establishing the run, they'll come out in 2 TE formation and ram the ball down our throat untill we can prove we can stop it. Atleast that's what i would do if i was the Pat's oc. It seems counterintuitive, with all the offensive firepower they have, but the pats will want to wear our d out, they knew we're thin, and they know we can't even come close to slowing the run down. This is the perfect matchup for the pats to grind it out (if you have maroney in your fantasy league, start him)
2) their run defense is too good, and their pass offense is too good, to count on holding any type of lead in the 4th quarter. the only chance we would have this week is to try to surprise them, and draw them into a shootout. That type of game we probably can't win, but we will stand a much better chance then if we come out, go 3 and out our first 3 possession and start the 2nd quarter down 21 -0.

the key to every successful offensive plan is to play to your personnel's strengths and to not fall into anything approaching a pattern. if you come into this week thinking to revisit our game plans of the last two weeks the pats will turn it into a rout. they just spent all week watching film of our inept offense, we've probably run 10 plays all season from a 4wr set.

One other thing I would do. I would run as many play fakes form that shotgun as I could, and establish a moving pocket, on planned rollouts, to keep losman from the blitz. You don’t want to make it easy on the DEs and LBs by keeping your QB in the same place. Further, by running play fakes, and rollouts, you can justify (without embarrassing him in the locker-room) to fall back to a 2 read offense. Most passing plays on a rollout and play-fake are 2 read plays (2 actual passing options, the rest of the routs are dummy routs), this will simplify the game, and limit the thinking that’s going on in his head, allow him to react to the play rather then think about it.

That would be my offensive game plan.

[Ickybaluky]

I'd agree with the Bills having to spread things out. The Pats have a very big defense and are tough to run on, but the flip side to that is they aren't built for speed. Spreading them out forces them to go to nickel and dime packages to combat the speed disadvantage, which makes them smaller and takes some of their LB off the field. That makes it harder for them to disguise what they are doing and hurts their pass rush.

You can attack their S and force their CB into man coverage, not their strength. James Sanders is a very good player in the box (a big hitter who tackles well), but isn't as comfortable when forced to cover. Eugene Wilson has played well the first couple games, but will occasionally get caught out of position. Asante Samuel has looked like he is still getting his legs under him after missing all of camp. Ellis Hobbs has played really well, but neither he nor Randall Gay can be considered shut-down man defenders. Brandon Meriweather plays in the dime, and he is just a rookie.

I'd throw and run on them from spread sets. If you do run, run outside as Vince Wilfork has been a monster this year and controls the middle. Get the ball outside to Lynch in space.

Defensively, I think Buffalo is in a tough spot. I expect the Pats to run the ball a lot early. They have had a lot of success using a jumbo 3 TE set, using OT Ryan O'Callaghan, Kyle Brady and Ben Watson with a single RB. That is a lot of beef to pound a small Buffalo front. The key to this formation has been Randy Moss, as him and Watson allow them to throw from this formation while max-protecting. 2 of Moss' TD have come from the 3 TE/1 RB set.

I think the Pats feel they can run on Buffalo, so they will establish that first while going to play action. I expect Ben Watson, who has played well this season, to be featured trying to split the middle of the Buffalo Cover-2 defense. Buffalo needs to play bend-but-don't-break defense and take away the big play over-the-top. Make the Patriots earn their way down the field. Play tough in the Red Zone.

Believe it or not, as good as the Pats offense has looked they have been making mistakes. In the first couple games they have had to blow timeouts because the play clock was running down. They are integrating a lot of new players at WR, and things still aren't in sync completely. The things that has saved them is continuity on the OL (the protection has been great), and the ability to hit big plays.

I wouldn't recommend blitzing a lot, I think that would be suicide. Last year, you could blitz Brady to pressure him because the Patriots lacked the playmakers on the outside to challenge the defense downfield. This year, Brady can just get rid of the ball, because he has guys who can beat the single coverage that results from the blitz. You need to get pressure with your front, which means Schobel has to have a big game. He has been a problem for Matt Light in the past.

[Night Train]

Great

Now after reading NE39s' intelligent post, I see Brady basically handing the ball off and watching us attempt to stop the run. Then hitting Moss deep about 5 times.

[DraftBoy]

I think using the spread formation is a great idea, what Im worried about and something Ingtar alluded to was that Losman then has to hit those underneath routes that are open and he has shown no propensity to do such.

[thecoordinator]

whatever you guys do, make it more entertaining than the steeler game. i'm sure even steeler fans with sunday ticket were finding other games to watch.

[HHURRICANE]

steal signals so we can cover the spread

We could get New England's entire playbook, down by down, and it wouldn't matter.

[Wys Guy]

This is the week i open with 20 straight passing plays. shotgun, lots of motion, 4 wr sets, with lynch coming out of the backfield, split wide.

When you spread the field you keep the defense from disguising it's blitzes, and when you move men in motion to reveal the coverage.

Losman is semi comfortable in the shotgun. I'd just let'er rip on the offensive side of the ball, show the pats something that they've never seen before.

I would argue that we're not going to "show them anything that they haven't seen before," particularly with a rookie RB, Reed and Price at WR, and JP at QB all behind a poor OL. I'm also not sure what Jauron and Fairchild are going to show anyone at anytime anyway.

If we open with 20 straight passes, after the notion that that will be like five drives for us, it will also result in either tremendous field position for them or defensive scores.

They're not going to have much respect for our receivers and they can generate an intrusive pass rush using only five guys given the talent that they have. JP has no short game even worthy of considering and he'll be looking at shapes in the clouds long before he ever gets a chance to connect to anyone deep.

[NorthCarBills]

Offense:
No choice but to look to our best players this week, and that means going to the spread passing game early. Hell, put JP in a shotgun by second down, and speed up the offense in 2 minute drill type progressions. Going to Lynch, Parrish and Evans on early downs is our only hope.


Defense:
The dependency here is the offense giving them a chance to stay off the field for more than five mins. That said, if they can play even close to the level displayed during the first half against Pitt, they will have done their job well.

I imagine they will be attacking our depleted secondary right from the start. Therefore, the d-line MUST get some type of pressure on Brady early on. Trips and McCargo need to have a big day handling Maroney and Morris before they consistently hit 4-5 yard gains into our LBs, and our ends will need to have career days.

And for crap sakes, watch for the Faulk middle screen.

[Earthquake Enyart]

I think the key is that we have to play to extremes. We need to line up with either 3 TE's and smash them, or go 5 wide. We need to force them out of their normal 3-4.

Personally, I take my chances running.


On the other side, I think you guys are all crazy thinking that the Pats will run us to death. I think they go 5 wide because of the lack of depth in our secondary. Brady could have 400 yards if they don'e call off the dogs.

[Ickybaluky]

I would argue that we're not going to "show them anything that they haven't seen before," particularly with a rookie RB, Reed and Price at WR, and JP at QB all behind a poor OL. I'm also not sure what Jauron and Fairchild are going to show anyone at anytime anyway.

If we open with 20 straight passes, after the notion that that will be like five drives for us, it will also result in either tremendous field position for them or defensive scores.

They're not going to have much respect for our receivers and they can generate an intrusive pass rush using only five guys given the talent that they have. JP has no short game even worthy of considering and he'll be looking at shapes in the clouds long before he ever gets a chance to connect to anyone deep.

OK, but the thread is about what you think the Bills should gameplan to give themselves the best shot to win. All you did was poo-poo things others have said.

What would you do?

[mybills]

Hide their jock straps.

[Bufftp]

Open it up and go for broke. No point in being conservative.
Conservative is 0-2.

[Ickybaluky]

On the other side, I think you guys are all crazy thinking that the Pats will run us to death. I think they go 5 wide because of the lack of depth in our secondary. Brady could have 400 yards if they don'e call off the dogs.

Perhaps, but the Patriots are a gameplan team. They change their strategy depending on the opponent.

The Bills play a Tampa-2 defense, which is supposed to create an umbrella and prevent big plays. Tranditionally, you attack that defense by power running (since there are small, quick defenders up front) and attacking the deep middle with the TE, splitting the seam. That is how I expect the Pats to approach it, especially early on. I expect Maroney to get a lot of early carries (along with Sammie Morris, who has played very well and earned extra playing time), and Ben Watson to be used in the middle.

I expect they will pass, but they will run to set up the pass. Last week against San Diego they did the opposite, passed early to set up the run.

[camelcowboy]

beyond the NFL suspending brady, Moss, and Belicheck for substance abuse, cheating or dog fighting, the bills are pretty much screwed.

[Mahdi]

I'd use any chance I got to do what Adalius Thomas did to Shane Olivea this past Sunday night. Apparently the Pats' motto is "do whatever sleazy thing it takes to win."
I didnt see it... what happened?

[evol4276]

if i were OC i wuldnt ust stick to running to dictate the game. that hasn't worked thusfar and this is the best defense we've played thus far. i wuld keep it a smidge more pass happy than last game, have more times than that one single time in the first half where we call 2 consecutive pass plays on offense. itll give us more of a chance to move the chains.

DC, well.. i would just pray and hope for a disaster from the Pats. I think we'll be able to keep the running down a bit, but they'll just exploit our gaping weakness in pass d. who knows.. i have a feeling, like we always seem to do, that we'll kinda show other teams how to beat them. we unfortunately will not actually beat them.

[bocephuz]

If you're running the offense this week do you...

A) Utilize Lynch and the running game in an attempt to control the clock and keep your defense and NE's offense off the field?

or...

B) Open up the playbook a mile wide and go down gunning the ball all over the field and let the defense worry about their own business when they're on the field?

If you're running the defense this week do you...

A) Play bend but don't break, keep the big plays and scoring to a minimum and hope the offense can put enough points on the board to give you a chance to win in the end?

or...

B) Blitz the piss out of Brady and Maroney, play aggressive, take chances, and let the chips fall where they may, hoping to either create points on your own, more opportunities for the offense, or just leave it up to the offense to try and keep up on the scoreboard?



B and B. This D can only bend so far... too many injuries, too much youth and not enough talent. The only way the Bills win games this year is by forcing the tempo to a shootout. I'm not saying we can out shoot the Pats ( may end up getting creamed) but at least we die with our boots on and develop that mentality for future winnable games

[Throne Logic]

I'm having nightmares of Adaleaus Thomas intercepting pass after pass after pass. That is when he's not competing with Lynch to take the hand off from JP.

Can we punt on 1st down?

[BillsFever21]

Well considering we can't hold anybody to a 3 and out and can't force a punt I would try something else. This defense isn't working.

[Ingtar33]

I would argue that we're not going to "show them anything that they haven't seen before," particularly with a rookie RB, Reed and Price at WR, and JP at QB all behind a poor OL. I'm also not sure what Jauron and Fairchild are going to show anyone at anytime anyway.

If we open with 20 straight passes, after the notion that that will be like five drives for us, it will also result in either tremendous field position for them or defensive scores.

They're not going to have much respect for our receivers and they can generate an intrusive pass rush using only five guys given the talent that they have. JP has no short game even worthy of considering and he'll be looking at shapes in the clouds long before he ever gets a chance to connect to anyone deep.

I knew when i wrote that line someone would take that wrong.

You're right, the pats will have seen this from other teams. But not from us. When i said, "show them something they've not seen before, i meant "while watching the Bills gameday films."

football is mostly about initiative. You take it, and force the other team to adapt. If they can't, then you tend to win. If we come out doing the same thing we've done to date, we'll be in trouble. We're not good enough to exploit the pats by showing them something they've seen and just out execute them.

Since we won't be able to force them to adapt to us through execution, its up to the coaching staff to accomplish this through schemes.

[Francine]

Try for a field goal on every possession regardless of field position.

[Layla]

I'd throw out both play books and try something, anything new. The only shot we have is to surprise the Patsies. Otherwise we'll just end up being roadkill.

[Wys Guy]

simple. on offense, i'd hand off to lynch every time. maybe even do a few direct snaps. jp is good at hand offs. passing, well....

on defense. i'd put all 11 guys in the box, every single play, for the entire game. let's face it, nobody in our secondary will be able to keep up with Moss, Stallworth, etc. our chances are best if we just rush 11 guys every play.
The Pats would score 80 points that way.

The best we're gonna do in this game, for anyone foolishly thinking that there's any merit left to this season or to the Levy era of "football" in Buffalo, perhaps more aptly named "foolsball" in a play on words from foosball, is to more or less play a prevent style all game which is essentially what the C2 is. Just acknowledge that they're going to score 30+ and limit the actual number of points and an absurd ToP advantage. Make them run the ball and try to limit their YPC to 6 or less.

This is perhaps the best team that the Pats have had in the BB/Brady era. That means that it's quite probably the best team in the league this year. We have absolutely no one on the team even remotely capable of covering Moss and Welker is the style/type of WR that gives us fits OTM where we vacate the field seemingly by design.

Expect both Maroney and Morris, ironically, to post close to 100-yard days. If we manage to shut them down then look for a 350-400+ yard day from Brady who will absolutely shred us if we blitz him. That's his "specialty." I'm sure he welcomes it, ... as if we can even stop their running game.

Translation: Why bother watching. This game could and likely will be the worst of the three to date.

Do something more productive such as spending hours trying to see how much milk you can blow through your nose or something like that. Something a little bit more meaningful.