The season rests on Drew

[Turf]

Let's face it, technically, there's enough talent on this team overall barring a series of devastating injuries of course, on paper lets say, for the Bills to go all the way.
As I sit here and think about this club, the one things that stands out to me, is that Drew has to become a more mental QB.
Drew for years has relied on his terrific arm, lets face it, few people can throw a football like Drew.
If Drew can become a field general, and learn when to use his arm and become a tactician, he could not only lead us to several SB's, but be one of the greatest QB's ever to play the game.
If I'm not mistaken, he's turning 31 this year or close to it. Only 31. He has a ton of experience after starting so young, and he really is in his prime. He has a good 4-5 years left at minimum.
If he can step up, adapt a system and learn it that will cause him to use his mind instead of his arm exclusively, we can go all the way, this year and next year, and the year after.
Ultimately it's all on Drew the way I see it.

[Schobel94]

I think you're wrong, Bledsoe is one of the smartest pocket QB's in the league. He has good presence and makes quick decisions, granted, they are not always great, but most of the time they are. What you dont want is an indecisive QB like Johnson cuz he'll end up getting sacked a billion times, thats no good.

[mypoorfriendme]

i cant believe you just said that. besides terrible decisions in the clutch, bledsoes second biggest flaw is his tendencies to hang on to the ball too long. we gave up a ton of sacks last year and id guess one of out every four or five of them were because he hung on the ball too long.

[Ebenezer]

Name me 6 contenders that offensive seasons don't rest on their QB...you might be hard pressed to name 3.

[Schobel94]

Terrible decisions in the clutch? All you look at is his bad plays, but completely neglect all the spectacular plays he made. Okay, heres some bad decisions he's made. he threw 15 ints, lets say 10 of those were from bad decisions. Name me some more? I can name you coutntless excellent decisions hes made under pressure. The TD to Moulds to send the game to OT vs. NY, the TD to Price in the Lions game, the TD to Moulds in the Texans game, the second TD to Price in the Miami game, and those are just touchdown throws!!! Every game he makes split second decisions that the game hinges on and most of the time they are good, solid decisions. All you freakin care about is his INTs. Im f*kcin sick and tired of this stupid *****! Why dont you go be a F&ckin NFL qb if you're such a godam expert. Christ I'm tired of this.

[SoCalBillsFan]

The eagles (proved it last year)
The Bucs (sort of proved it last year)

those are the only two that jump out at me.

[WG]

94,

Here's the problem:

First of all, you can't judge Drew's, or any QB's merit, on a handful of big plays. That's stupid.

Secondly, Detroit, Texans, Jets (w/ no D, ranked 24th), and Miami in a bizarre game in the snow, but crappy in Miami in nice weather while he essentially had 5 bad to very average games w/in the division otherwise.

Drew needs to step up against teams like G.B., Oakland, the division. NOT the scrubs. That's the problem w/ Drew. He simply doesn't show up for the biggest games.

How many ways does it need to be sliced?

I mean can you honestly ignore all of the below??

Division:

8 TDs/9 INTs; after that snow Miami game, 5 TDs/9 INTs/10 TOs in the other 5 games (2-4)

Playoff teams:

3 TDs/9 INTs/12 TOs!!!! (0-4)

Teams .500 or better:

13 TDs/15 INTs/18 TOs!!! (3-8)

Plain and simple, no matter how you argue it, those are not good numbers for any QB other than a very average QB at best!!!

In most of those games the sole TOs were Drew's!

What on earth is impressive about that? I just don't get it.

If that happens again this year, everyone's gonna be screamin' bloody murder! You can't just say "look at all the yards and attempts" amid 18 TOs to only 2/3 the amount of TD production. At some point you have to draw a line.

Does anyone really think that such a QB is gonna take us deep into the playoffs? I sincerely have my doubts. And in case you wanna know, ...

Playoff games:

Career 51.2%, 5.3 YPA, 6 TDs/ 12 INTs!!!

Game by game breakdown:

42%, 235, 4.7, 1 TD, 3 INTs
58.3%, 164, 6.8, 1 TD, 2 INTs
60.6%, 178, 5.4, 0 TD, 1 INT
52.1%, 253, 5.3, 2 TD, 4 INTs
50.0%, 139, 4.3, 1 TD, 0 INT
52.3%, 264, 6.0, 0 TD, 2 INTs
47.6%, 102, 4.9, 1 TD, 0 INT (half a game)

This is good???

[WG]

BTW, you can argue that, but it strongly suggests that in the playoffs we would be able to expect no more than a single TD out of Drew in a good game, and that we would be able to count on 2-3 TOs dependent upon the opponent.

That, to me, doesn't exactly exude confidence that he can get the job done inasmuch as would be required out of the QB position in such a game.

[WG]

BTW, IMO the season rests on Gilbride and how he calls the offense and whether or not he demonstrates any football wisdom by knowing and realizing when to run or pass the freakin' ball.

Last year he apparently couldn't tell what every Bills fan watching TV could tell. Sad as it may have been. But I still think it was personal for him as he tried to force Drew to do everything.

That combination, Gilbride's crap play-calling and Drew's unforced errors, are deadly and can ruin a season.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Lets hope for a more balanced offense this season!

[Turf]

You da man Wys.
But I would also have to add to the facts that Drew needs to be able to make better reads which will help Gilbride, and don't forget it was Drew who called a lot of audibles at the wrong time. That's not all Gilbrides fault unless they take away his freedom.
Drew is once again, our traditional Buffalo star athlete. Loaded with raw talent, under coached and under developed. It's a Buffalo trademark.

[venis2k1]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
[B]Drew needs to step up against teams like...Oakland

You cant really blame the Oakland loss on drew. He put up 400+ yards. The raiders shut down Henry, he put up 58 yards on 15 attempts(but a long of 29. That means if you take away his longest carry(hows that one taste Wys?), he only went 29 yards on 14 attempts. also they scored 49 points on our "D", last i checked Drew dosent play Defense. KG lost us that game, by only giving henry 15 touches. the only reason we were in that game until late was because of drew.

[justasportsfan]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
94,

Here's the problem:

First of all, you can't judge Drew's, or any QB's merit, on a handful of big plays. That's stupid.



But you sure judge him on his bad plays :D

I Think TD has hired enough people just so that the fate of the team does not rely on one player (Drew especially) anymore. The Bills (so they say) said they will rely on a more balanced attack, w/c means Drew's arm won't be the main focus.

I think our season will rely on the D more than the O. If our D can get more TO's and can stop teams deep down their field (w/c gives our O great field posotion everytime) and if Van Pelt is as good/steady as his last full game in 2001 , I'm confident he'll do a decent job...just in case.

[WG]

Originally posted by venis2k1


You cant really blame the Oakland loss on drew. He put up 400+ yards. The raiders shut down Henry, he put up 58 yards on 15 attempts(but a long of 29. That means if you take away his longest carry(hows that one taste Wys?), he only went 29 yards on 14 attempts. also they scored 49 points on our "D", last i checked Drew dosent play Defense. KG lost us that game, by only giving henry 15 touches. the only reason we were in that game until late was because of drew.

It tastes fine venis. In fact, that's exactly what I said at the time and took heat for it. So welcome to the club! ;)

No, Drew doesn't play defense. But he did toss an INT to set up the Raiders at our own 32 YL and allow them to score a TD to put them up by 4. Up until that point, we had exchanged TDs. The score was knotted at 21 at the half. We were up by 3 at the time of that INT!!! That INT was on 1st-and-10. We came back to put up another 7 to go up by 3 again. Oakland then scored about 6 or 7 minutes later to go up by 4 again.

That's when Drew struck a second time! Trailing by only 4 and well w/in FG range, he hit the rookie Buchanon for an INT that went directly for a TD. That's 14 points off of Drew's INTs!!! But wait, there's more! LOL He threw another later in the game after the Raider's scored again. But the one who put the game beyond only a 3 or 4 point lead was Drew!! NOT the D nor anyone else. So if we had to operate from behind, then it was his fault.

Under any circumstances, if Drew doesn't throw those 2 INTs, and if we knock in at least a FG and quite possibly another TD or one of each, then we win that game. But Drew allowed the Raiders to take the lead twice in the second half when we were up both times by 3 and 4 points respectively.

So again, the first 2 of Drew's 3 INTs were extremely pivotal!

Other TOs that game: ZERO (0)

We only lost control after Drew's INT allowed the Raiders to go up by 11 midway thru the 4th! Not sooner nor as a result of anything else that anyone did. So thru 3 Qs of ball, our D allowed only 21 points that were attributable directly to them and against the mightiest offensive team in the league last year. Drew was responsible for 14 of the Raiders' 49.

So no, he doesn't play D, but w/ performances like that, he sure contributes to the defensive play of the opponents, eh.


Originally posted by Travis Hunter
You da man Wys.
But I would also have to add to the facts that Drew needs to be able to make better reads which will help Gilbride, and don't forget it was Drew who called a lot of audibles at the wrong time. That's not all Gilbrides fault unless they take away his freedom.
Drew is once again, our traditional Buffalo star athlete. Loaded with raw talent, under coached and under developed. It's a Buffalo trademark.

[WG]

Originally posted by justasportsfan


But you sure judge him on his bad plays :D


It's more honest that judging him on his attempts and raw yards, wouldn't you say?

As well, the problem is that his bad plays outweigh his good ones.

You and others will now cite all these long ball plays to which I will only say, how many went for TDs???

Again, he averaged only 1 TD/game for 11 or 12 of 16 games!

So each big play that goes for an opposing TD has to be evaluated in the light of how many "big plays" actually put points on the board for us.

There's the difference:

Me: I expect play that leads to points, a playoff appearance, and a championship. Anything short of that to me is worthless.

You and others: Seem to prefer a good highlight reel w/ award-winning catches to points, offensive production where it counts, and excitement.

What can I say! :D

[justasportsfan]

Originally posted by Wys Guy


It's more honest that judging him on his attempts and raw yards, wouldn't you say?

As well, the problem is that his bad plays outweigh his good ones.

You and others will now cite all these long ball plays to which I will only say, how many went for TDs???


I wouldn't put his bad performances on his shoulders and his alone. Most of what he's done was based on Gilbrides lack of creativity in play calling. It was all about the deep throw w/c most teams caught up after the first half of last years season.

I believe his potential/ability outweighs his his bad ones. It's already been proven that he is at his best when the bills' next offensive play isn't transparent, this was evident in the first half of the season. Everyone knows that, even the bills w/c is why we are supposedly going to a more balanced attack to keep D's guessing what we are doing next.

[LABillsFan]

That fact is this team went from 3-13 to 8-8. Let's not forget to mention, the Henry fumbles, the lack of pass rush, the lack of turnover's by the D, actually, there was a respectable amount of turnovers caused by the D but recovering them was aweful, sure int.'s dropped, a young line not being experienced enough to read schemes correctly. QB's always take the heat, he made some great plays, and had some that drove me insane. I can also say that about Kelly though. He has been here 1 year, he should now be aclimated, Gilbride has had an entire off season to rethink his play book, the D has been revamped. Sure the INT's against OAK were costly, but in there wasn't a breakdown in special teams against the Jets in week one, if our DB's could of held on to those balls and well as the receivers in GB, if the D didn't have a melt down in KC, we're looking at 11-5 and AFCE Champs. Is he a perfect QB? No, but this team had plenty of others who could be pointed at for costing the Bills games.

[Turf]

Just let me clear up my perspective on this.
I personally am not blaming Drew for last years season. In fact without him, we would have been 5-11 at best.
What I am saying, is that our ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl will rely heavily on Drew's mental game. In fact, if his mental game is strong enough he could carry the entire team even if it underachieved. That's what I'm trying to say.
I know you can win a championship with defense and an average QB. Drew is a great QB, and could be the best ever to play the game if his mental game picks up.

[LABillsFan]

I will say this, he does have to restrain himself from changing as many plays as he does inside the red zone. He did it alot last year. Also, in every game, not just one or two, but every game he had RB's open in the flat as outlet receivers he completely ignored. In one game I counted 7 times he kept his eyes locked downfield when he had that pass open for yardage. I'd love to send those plays to Gilbride because while the Bills O were ignoring them, the Bills D was getting eaten up by them.

[Halbert]

Sacks are a problem. Other than that, he's played mostly solid, sometimes spectacular. He throws the occassional stinker, just like Kelly did.

[Alien (<>..<>)]

C'mon don't get too hard on Drew. Being a Jet fan he is the QB I fear the most, bot Brady and certanly not Fiedler!