2 weaknesses the Bills MUST solve

[Mahdi]

1) The first is related to our offense. Specifically QB. Trent needs to hit the INTERMEDIATE routes. He didn't hit a single one yesterday. And the one he did try got picked off just like against Tennessee in preseason. Trent is going to have to improve this aspect of his game or defenses will get wise to it. I dont know if he is worried about throwing into the more high traffic areas of the field or he just doesn't have the arm, either way this problem can hold back the offense. TO lives off the intermediate routes.

2) Pass rush. Most teams LOVE playing with a lead and getting after the QB. For us its almost worse to play with a lead. When we are up in the 4th quarter offenses are spreading things out and throwing on every down and we can't pressure the QB. This is a massive problem. If I'm Sean Payton I'm playing 3 and 4 wide the whole game and chucking it all over the field. We dont have a DE right now that can bother a QB with any consistency. Maybin is improving, trying to work in counter moves but he is still learning to adapt. The rest are feast or famine DEs. Everything is pointing to us giving up 40 points to the Saints next week.

[Forward_Lateral]

Trent hit the intermediate route many times yesterday, what game were you watching?

[justasportsfan]

1)I agree. We're not hitting anyone up the middle. Put Josh Reed in there with TO and Evans if our TE's aren't doing anything. At least with Reed , he gets the ball for first downs.


2) Our DE's tend to go too wide and gets to the qb a little too late. We're getting pressure up the middle but not much from the DE's .

[justasportsfan]

Trent hit the intermediate route many times yesterday, what game were you watching?
for Trents standards he was.

[psubills62]

Trent hit the intermediate route many times yesterday, what game were you watching?

I don't think he hit a ton (I'd consider the intermediate routes to be about 15-20 yards from the LOS), but I do specifically remember a pass to Reed that was about that long.

I do sort of agree with Mahdi though. He needs to hit those more often. I watch too many other games where I see receivers WIDE OPEN in the middle of the field and the QB is consistently throwing it to them for 15-20 yards (see Eli Manning yesterday). I just wonder why our offense never looks like that.

Don't get me wrong, I've been fairly happy with the offense the past couple games. I just wish I saw more of the over-the-middle stuff.

[Mahdi]

Trent hit the intermediate route many times yesterday, what game were you watching?
No he didn't. Name the receiver that caught an intermediate route pass.

[SABURZFAN]

i thought HC would be one of the two team weaknesses.

[trapezeus]

i see where Mahdi is coming from. While i liked he went long 4 times in the game and hit on two...that annoying feeling i had is that first point that was made.

The bills are either throwing 5 yards past the line of scrimmage or they are firing it super long.

i'd have thought that Josh Reed would be the biggest benefactor of TO's arrival. But he's only caught a couple of balls. Ideally, i'd like to see that third receiver at the sticks or 15 yards down field. that is an area that has to get better.

In that dud of a 3rd quarter, it felt like the team was running really long routes because edwards seemed to be only looking at people's backs and that's when he got flushed out. then in the 4th quarter they went back to short routes and runs to get them to pinch up.

But again, if you have a running back running for 165 yards, throwing is really all that needed.

In the end, the offense was good enough to win, but they still have areas of improvement. And it's nice to finally get to a point to have only a couple things that you'd like to see get fixed as opposed to worrying about every single play and every single player.

[Captain gameboy]

This fan base will not be happy until TE hits the shorts, the intermediates and the longs, on each pass.

No smiles until he is 40 for 42 for 765 yards in the wind and snow.

[justasportsfan]

This fan base will not be happy until TE hits the shorts, the intermediates and the longs, on each pass.

.until he does that we'll be mediocre. sb is the goal and not .500.

[Philagape]

He's not going to try every kind of pass in every game, and I don't care if he does or not as long as he produces.

He didn't try it yesterday except for the pick, but he did it at least three times at New England: The early strike to Reed that was called back because of Bell; the first-down pass on third-and-10 that Evans dropped on the hit; and the pass to TO on the final drive.

Some people won't be happy until he completes every single pass, hitting every single area of the field .... in a blizzard.

His passer rating's above 100, he's played well enough to win twice, he'd be 2-0 if not for McKelvin. And we're quibbling about the types of throws.

[Captain gameboy]

He's the least of our problems right now, just the easiest to criticize.

Want something to worry about?

How about letting our smallish corners get singled up, and alone, against much taller receivers.

That was the single thing the Bucs ran in the fourth quarter, and it should have worked more than it did.

[justasportsfan]

He's the least of our problems right now, just the easiest to criticize.

Want something to worry about?

How about letting our smallish corners get singled up, and alone, against much taller receivers.

That was the single thing the Bucs ran in the fourth quarter, and it should have worked more than it did.
I agree, he's doing great but I see what Mahdi is saying. This needs to happen if Trent is to take this team to the next level.

If Trent hits those balls, it kinda also helps out the D and our smallish corners from having to see the field.

If you want to keep Brees off the field make those throws.

[BuffaloBillsStampede]

Im sorry but when Tampa was forced to throw everytime Leftwich was getting up off the ground after almost every play.
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[Captain gameboy]

I agree, he's doing great but I see what Mahdi is saying. This needs to happen if Trent is to take this team to the next level.

If Trent hits those balls, it kinda also helps out the D and our smallish corners from having to see the field.

If you want to keep Brees off the field make those throws.

We are never going to get perfection. Get over it.

Even God's own QB lost to the Jets yesterday.

Edwards is going darn good right now.
For once, we are not worried about some knucklehead QB.

We have other issues.

[justasportsfan]

We are never going to get perfection. Get over it.

Even God's own QB lost to the Jets yesterday.

Edwards is going darn good right now.
For once, we are not worried about some knucklehead QB.

We have other issues.

You mean we should accept mediocrity with all the weapons we have on O?

Na, I have high hopes for Trent and I expect his game to get better including his medium passing range.

Watching Eli throw that ball just made me realize that Trent has to get to that level for us to go anywhere. Not saying it has to happen now.

[Philagape]

There was also the end-zone shot to Evans from the 25 that was broken up

[Captain gameboy]

You mean we should accept mediocrity with all the weapons we have on O?


No, I don't mean that at all.

At this point we should be glad we don't have a useless knucklehead to worry about, Losman comes to mind, and we should not expect Trent Edwards to be perfect.

The guy had about five bad plays yesterday, and the most egregious was an overthrow to an open receiver with about four defenders in the area, and it resulted in a pick.

The good side far, far, far outweighed the bad, and that aint "mediocrity."

Last year, we have a guy who was a first rounder, given countless opportunities, in a winnable game and he fumbles on an idiotic play resulting in a touchdown, then throws a pick the next series.

If we demand perfection from a quarterback, we are foolish.

There are other areas to worry about.

Throwing is an art, whether pitching or QB'ing, almost never perfect, and Trent is doing well enough.

[Chewytie]

1) The first is related to our offense. Specifically QB. Trent needs to hit the INTERMEDIATE routes. He didn't hit a single one yesterday. And the one he did try got picked off just like against Tennessee in preseason. Trent is going to have to improve this aspect of his game or defenses will get wise to it. I dont know if he is worried about throwing into the more high traffic areas of the field or he just doesn't have the arm, either way this problem can hold back the offense. TO lives off the intermediate routes.

2) Pass rush. Most teams LOVE playing with a lead and getting after the QB. For us its almost worse to play with a lead. When we are up in the 4th quarter offenses are spreading things out and throwing on every down and we can't pressure the QB. This is a massive problem. If I'm Sean Payton I'm playing 3 and 4 wide the whole game and chucking it all over the field. We dont have a DE right now that can bother a QB with any consistency. Maybin is improving, trying to work in counter moves but he is still learning to adapt. The rest are feast or famine DEs. Everything is pointing to us giving up 40 points to the Saints next week.

1) If your referencing underneath routes, yes we need to do much better in that area.

2) Agreed.

[psubills62]

No he didn't. Name the receiver that caught an intermediate route pass.

Josh Reed

[Beastie Bills]

Im sorry but when Tampa was forced to throw everytime Leftwich was getting up off the ground after almost every play.
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Yes, but when he was picking himself off the ground, his receivers were running with the ball in their hands.

[trapezeus]

Justa and GB are saying the same thing i think. TE has played very well and good enough to win. but he could add to his game to help the team not take FGs and to give the team more depth in its attack. eventually the bills are going to face a good defense. And the more diverse the looks and successful plays they have, the harder it will be for that defense.

Running only and waiting for a long ball aren't going to be options. That good run stopping team will take out the screens and the dumb offs. They might even have great corners who take TO and Evans out one on one. Which means Josh Reed or whoever that 3rd receiver is, needs to be open 10-15 yards down the field.

You can't cover everything, and the more wrinkles the bills work in the more likely victory will be each week. We have established the Running game, the screen passes, the timing with TO, that Edwards can hit his TE short....

Now if we can hit intermediate off play action plays out of the run sets, we'll be able to buy trent some time for longer throws and we'll be able to get defenses to play to us as opposed to try to just shut our two working components down.

[Captain gameboy]

Face it Trap.

You can't make the intermediate post.

[Forward_Lateral]

No he didn't. Name the receiver that caught an intermediate route pass.

Reed caught a few. Schouman caught a few.

[ddaryl]

We had numeours catches I consider intermedisate distances of 8 - 15 yards

Reed and Schouman defintiely made some...

I really fail to see how this is an issue... DO we try hard ot find these problems to ***** about in regards ot Trent.

I think the guy is getting better, but he needs to learn to slide, and a few times he held the ball to long. Other then that I thought is passes were a balanced mixture.

[Captain gameboy]

No he didn't. Name the receiver that caught an intermediate route pass.

Seriously, how many plays do you think we ran looking for that?

I consider an intermediate route as being a rout where the WR runs a route underneath the safeties, or a deep TE or slot seam route.

You only get so many plays per game.

It seems that the Bucs were allowing isolation man on the outside, (and with TO and Evans), I'll take that over an underneath anytime, and underneath routes to the backs and Reed.

There was no real need.

[Forward_Lateral]

GB, some people just like to nit-pick, because they think they know it all.

[Philagape]

Justa and GB are saying the same thing i think. TE has played very well and good enough to win. but he could add to his game to help the team not take FGs and to give the team more depth in its attack. eventually the bills are going to face a good defense. And the more diverse the looks and successful plays they have, the harder it will be for that defense.

Running only and waiting for a long ball aren't going to be options. That good run stopping team will take out the screens and the dumb offs. They might even have great corners who take TO and Evans out one on one. Which means Josh Reed or whoever that 3rd receiver is, needs to be open 10-15 yards down the field.

You can't cover everything, and the more wrinkles the bills work in the more likely victory will be each week. We have established the Running game, the screen passes, the timing with TO, that Edwards can hit his TE short....

Now if we can hit intermediate off play action plays out of the run sets, we'll be able to buy trent some time for longer throws and we'll be able to get defenses to play to us as opposed to try to just shut our two working components down.

An encouraging sign is the totally different game plans in the two games. Against the Pats, it was the screen all night but we hardly saw it at all yesterday, in favor of the bombs-away approach. AVP is scouting opponents well, the Bills are exploiting weaknesses, Trent is showing versatility in executing both game plans well, and the improved receiving corps is making lots of room for Jackson.
Is it the Saints? No. Is there room for improvement? There always is.

[justasportsfan]

No, I don't mean that at all.

At this point we should be glad we don't have a useless knucklehead to worry about, Losman comes to mind, and we should not expect Trent Edwards to be perfect.

The guy had about five bad plays yesterday, and the most egregious was an overthrow to an open receiver with about four defenders in the area, and it resulted in a pick.

The good side far, far, far outweighed the bad, and that aint "mediocrity."

Last year, we have a guy who was a first rounder, given countless opportunities, in a winnable game and he fumbles on an idiotic play resulting in a touchdown, then throws a pick the next series.

If we demand perfection from a quarterback, we are foolish.

There are other areas to worry about.

Throwing is an art, whether pitching or QB'ing, almost never perfect, and Trent is doing well enough.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad but I want more because I want more than just a playoff. No qb is perfect but the ones that take their teams to the sb can make medium range throws or make you pay .

We don't have a ravens D and this team isn't going to go beyong mediocrity if Trent can't make the most of the weapons he has to his disposal.

[HHURRICANE]

Mahdi lost me with Edwards as a weakness.

He's one of our strengths.

[Mahdi]

Josh Reed
That was not intermediate. It was about 9 or 10 yards and he took it for a few more.

Im talking about the 15 to 25 yard strikes. Owens lives over the middle of the field and he has only caught one of those passes so far and it was thrown in desperation in the final drive of the NE game.

Not hitting these passes is limiting our offense and it is the reason we don't put teams away.

You are not going to live on the deep ball and the short stuff all the time. You have to threaten the area behind the LBs and in front of the safeties in order to keep defenses honest.

Moose Johnston said it himself in the game. "Trent needs to complete more passes in the intermediate areas of the field. Can't always be short or long." Paraphrased.

[Mahdi]

Mahdi lost me with Edwards as a weakness.

He's one of our strengths.
Didn't say he was a weakness.

He is playing well. But the inability/reluctance to make those throws will limit the productivity of our offense.

[BILLSROCK1212]

No he didn't. Name the receiver that caught an intermediate route pass.
reed

[Mahdi]

Reed caught a few. Schouman caught a few.
Intermediate is a throw that is not considered a long ball and not considered short. It is usually thrown between 15-25 yards. That is intermediate. Not 5-15 yards.

[SquishDaFish]

Sorry I think Edwards is getting better each game he plays. And the pressure from the DLine was there yesterday and the first week. Alot more pressure then last year already

[TigerJ]

In the second quarter, Leftwich was passing at will. Fewell used more blitzing in the second half, and particularly in the 4th quarter the defense got to him quite a bit. Not a lot of sacks, but putting him on his butt enough that his accuracy disappeared.