OpIv37's Post-game review

[Dr. Lecter]

There's only one way to start an article after a game like this:

Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills.


The bipolar nature of this season continues as the Bills offense put on a clinic against the Chiefs. This game was all about Trent Edwards, Marshawn Lynch and Leodis McKelvin. They were dominant and that's why this game was so lopsided.


Link (http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/2008/11/23/opiv37s_postgame_review.php)

[HHURRICANE]

1) I won't miss Greer.

2) The coaching change should be at D coordinator. Jauron is going to keep his job.

3) We squandred the playoffs away so there is no reason to kill ourselves over what is not going to happen.

[OpIv37]

wow, this got up in record time. Thanks, Lecter.

[OpIv37]

1) I won't miss Greer.

2) The coaching change should be at D coordinator. Jauron is going to keep his job.

3) We squandred the playoffs away so there is no reason to kill ourselves over what is not going to happen.

1) I think you're selling Greer short, although if McKelvin continues to play at this level I agree that we probably won't miss him. I'd rather trade McGee and pay Greer because there is no way this team keeps both. If Greer walks, he walks for nothing. If we can keep Greer and trade McGee, we'll lose a good player but at least we'll get something in return.

2) The O has been worse than the D but I've never been a fan of the cover 2 and I would like to see them change philosophies, even if that means changing the D coordinator.

3) Realistically I know we're not making the playoffs, but until the Bills are officially eliminated, I'm going to keep track of what has to happen to get in.

[shelby]

Great write up Op, thanks!

[psubills62]

1) I think you're selling Greer short, although if McKelvin continues to play at this level I agree that we probably won't miss him. I'd rather trade McGee and pay Greer because there is no way this team keeps both. If Greer walks, he walks for nothing. If we can keep Greer and trade McGee, we'll lose a good player but at least we'll get something in return.

2) The O has been worse than the D but I've never been a fan of the cover 2 and I would like to see them change philosophies, even if that means changing the D coordinator.

3) Realistically I know we're not making the playoffs, but until the Bills are officially eliminated, I'm going to keep track of what has to happen to get in.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see them tag Greer (I know, it's an outrageous amount of money that we'd have to pay him, but they can afford it, and the depth is worth it as we've seen this year), then trade him somewhere. Sort of like what Green Bay did with their former DT Corey Williams, trading him to Cleveland.

After all, while we don't have to use the tag, we could try using it to our benefit in this way. There's no one else I'd really consider tagging at this point.

[madness]

Nice article, Op.

On the Farve thing, I agree he has made a bigger impact than I expected but don't count out the other reasons the Jets are successful. They've had some nice "hits" in the FA market and they are getting some terrific contributions from their 1st and 2nd year players.

A lot of people thought although Farve would bring temporary success, they'd be hurting after he's gone and it looks like that might not be the case. This division is once again getting very competitive so I'm hoping Bills isn't going to be the whipping boy of the division.

[psubills62]

Nice article, Op.

On the Farve thing, I agree he has made a bigger impact than I expected but don't count out the other reasons the Jets are successful. They've had some nice "hits" in the FA market and they are getting some terrific contributions from their 1st and 2nd year players.

A lot of people thought although Farve would bring temporary success, they'd be hurting after he's gone and it looks like that might not be the case. This division is once again getting very competitive so I'm hoping Bills isn't going to be the whipping boy of the division.

We just have to hope that the Jets' cap troubles and age really plague them next year.

[madness]

On the timeout issue...

Why offense had to take unnecessary timeouts (http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2008/11/24/why-offense-had-to-take-unnecessary-timeouts/)

By Chris Brown - Posted November 24th, 2008
I had a chance to stop Turk Schonert for a minute before he left the stadium Sunday after the game and asked him about the decision to sit in the coach’s booth for the game (http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/schonert-to-remain-eye-in-the-sky/c34fb34c-6ee8-43b1-8bee-598d1bc4fff6) instead of being down on the sideline as he had been all season, as well as what was going on when Trent had to call some seemingly unnecessary timeouts during the game.
Turk said there were problems with the radio device in Trent’s helmet.
“For a while there though the communication device to the quarterback went out,” said Schonert. ”That’s why we had to use a timeout one time and we had to signal and use the wristband. So that messed us up for a little while. There were a couple of times where he didn’t get the play and then it was below 15 seconds and the shut off happened and he can’t hear anyway.”
In one instance Trent had to call the play himself or risk burning another timeout.
“He just went up and called a run play, and I had called a pass play,” said Schonert. ”But that’s what happens sometimes.”
Schonert put Edwards out on the move a handful of times in the game feeling it was something they could exploit against the Chiefs defense.
“That was part of the game plan,” said Schonert. ”We just felt they were a fast flow team and they were going to give us some opportunities to get him out on the edge and he did. He made some great runs and some great decisions throwing the ball and it kept them off guard a little bit.”

[OpIv37]

On the timeout issue...

Why offense had to take unnecessary timeouts (http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2008/11/24/why-offense-had-to-take-unnecessary-timeouts/)

By Chris Brown - Posted November 24th, 2008
I had a chance to stop Turk Schonert for a minute before he left the stadium Sunday after the game and asked him about the decision to sit in the coach’s booth for the game (http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/schonert-to-remain-eye-in-the-sky/c34fb34c-6ee8-43b1-8bee-598d1bc4fff6) instead of being down on the sideline as he had been all season, as well as what was going on when Trent had to call some seemingly unnecessary timeouts during the game.
Turk said there were problems with the radio device in Trent’s helmet.
“For a while there though the communication device to the quarterback went out,” said Schonert. ”That’s why we had to use a timeout one time and we had to signal and use the wristband. So that messed us up for a little while. There were a couple of times where he didn’t get the play and then it was below 15 seconds and the shut off happened and he can’t hear anyway.”
In one instance Trent had to call the play himself or risk burning another timeout.
“He just went up and called a run play, and I had called a pass play,” said Schonert. ”But that’s what happens sometimes.”
Schonert put Edwards out on the move a handful of times in the game feeling it was something they could exploit against the Chiefs defense.
“That was part of the game plan,” said Schonert. ”We just felt they were a fast flow team and they were going to give us some opportunities to get him out on the edge and he did. He made some great runs and some great decisions throwing the ball and it kept them off guard a little bit.”

That may explain this game- what about the FIVE they had to burn in the Monday Night game against Cleveland (at home no less), or the countless wasted time outs throughout Jauron's tenure? Every team gets in situations where they have to use a time out early in a half, but it seems to happen to us 2-3x more than it happens to other teams. Every time we're in a close game, we're down a time out or two at the end while our opponents have all 3 left. I just don't get it.

[Saratoga Slim]

3) We squandred the playoffs away so there is no reason to kill ourselves over what is not going to happen.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's 5 GAMES LEFT, correct? We sure made it harder for ourselves in the tiebreaker scenarios, but right now we're ONE game behind the Ravens, Colts & Patriots & tied with the Dolphins (tiebreak notwithstanding) for the TWO wild card slots.

We're going to need a hot hand, and either the Colts, Patriots or Ravens need to cool off. The Dolphins are going to fade, I can feel it. If we can beat the Niners, Dolphins, Broncos (all of which are very possible) and EITHER the Patriots or the Jets, I say we make the dance.

Do we have our work cut out for us due to that 1-5 slide? YES.

Is it fully possible that EITHER the Patriots, Ravens or Colts get a key injury or two and drop 2 or 3 of their remaining games? YES. Keep watching, things change quickly in today's NFL.

[madness]

That may explain this game- what about the FIVE they had to burn in the Monday Night game against Cleveland (at home no less), or the countless wasted time outs throughout Jauron's tenure? Every team gets in situations where they have to use a time out early in a half, but it seems to happen to us 2-3x more than it happens to other teams. Every time we're in a close game, we're down a time out or two at the end while our opponents have all 3 left. I just don't get it.

The head coach isn't always calling the timeouts. It's like blaming Edwards for three picks because a pass got batted at the line, a receiver wrong the wrong route completely or the receiver fell down. Yes the main party is responsible but he doesn't get the whole blame.

With a young QB and first time OC I'd expect it to happen more than the HC would like throughout the first year. I'm guessing next year we should see an improvement in this area. Usually you can tell why they call time outs and a lot of them seem to be because Trent and Turk aren't on the same page.

[trapezeus]

very positive review of the bills. i think i graded them a little worse as you'll read on Wednesday. i was happy that we won, but there were these tiny things that we got away with because we played a 1-10 team. i'm not sure diving head first 3 times is going to serve trent well against a better team. I'm not sure not being able to know how to run the clock out is going to serve this team well if we are in a close game.

but, getting a win is a great feeling. nice write up op.

[Forward_Lateral]

I'm with Opi on the time out thing. It pisses me off to no end when they (The Bills) burn timeouts out of pure stupidity.