OTA 8: Manuel sloppy, showing no emotion

[swiper]

Bills' offense continues to struggle

Paul Hamilton



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Orchard Park, NY (WGR 550) -- Tuesday was just another frustrating day for the offense as EJ Manuel is either pulling the ball down quickly and not throwing it, or often he’s overthrowing wide open receivers.

In the red zone he tried a simple fade to the end zone and overthrew his receiver by five yards.

Manuel had Sammy Watkins on a fly pattern and overthrew him by at least 10 yards.

There was frustration, Manuel said, “Sometimes I get frustrated because I know it’s there and if we have one misstep and it’s incomplete, that’s frustrating. I try to pride myself on knowing it so well, so you just have to keep rolling with the punches.”

Preston Brown had another interception. It was a gift from Thad Lewis as he put it right in Brown’s arms just five yards away.

Practice was so sloppy special teams coach Danny Crossman blew a gasket when the receiving team just let a ball drop in which was recovered by the kicking team.

Doug Marrone went off on his offensive linemen after that. There were numerous false starts in this practice.

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Manuel of course has to be a leader out there and if you’re just watching you don’t see much emotion from him. He stays on an even keel and doesn’t appear to get angry. Manuel said, “I think it’s a balance. You have to show that you care because I do care. At the same time as a quarterback, you can’t allow it to get to the point where it’s causing mistakes on your own part.” Manuel added, “Dealing with that position as a quarterback, the guys are going to look to you when they make a mistake and I think it’s better to build them up instead of trying to tear them down. The coaches are going to critique them enough and I think as a player and as a peer you help them out instead of coming down on them.”

http://www.wgr550.com/Bills-offense-continues-to-struggle/19190586

[trapezeus]

make your mistakes in June. Get them all out. but somehow, this seems more like the same old problems we've always had.

as for manuel's emotions, he is essentially a red shirted rookie in some ways. the guy has no cred to be barking at others for their mistakes. so the only thing he could do is be quiet and not look rattled. even last year, i was amazed how he never had those slumped shoulders all the last guys had.

until he becomes consistent himself, he can't really get angry at others.

[jamze132]

7-9

[k-oneputt]

Instead of watching him throw the fade pattern into the seats while in the redzone, let him run a qb draw. Plays much more to the few strengths he has.

[Fletch]

IMO coaching has quite a bit to do with this.

Having said that, I've been stressing chemistry between Manuel and his receivers for weeks now, although some here discount that, unwisely. If they're still having these issues after a preseason game or two there will be cause for concern. Right now this lack of chemistry is at least partly to blame for this. Having said that, as others pointed out, these inaccuracy issues plagued Manuel for four seasons at FSU and last season here, so expecting a donkey to become a zebra probably isn't an odds-on proposition either.

[Fletch]

7-9

If this issue doesn't resolve itselt fairly quickly, and I don't mean quickly on the calendar, I mean quickly int erms of OTAs and training camp remaining, I think that USA Today's prediction of 3-13 will start looking a lot more reasonable.

Let's not forget, the passing game is where this team is looking for nearly 100% of its improvement and for this supposed push to get us to a winning record much less the playoffs.

[EDS]

Instead of watching him throw the fade pattern into the seats while in the redzone, let him run a qb draw. Plays much more to the few strengths he has.

I think having him run more is just asking for another injury. The injuries he sustained at FSU really seemed to change his desire to run with the football, or at least his style of running.

On the plus side, maybe he is overthrowing his receivers now in an effort to put more heat on the ball so it is on the money when the cold winds are blowing in December!

[OpIv37]

Can't get too excited or too down about one practice in June.

At the same time, it's not exactly what I was hoping to hear....

[IlluminatusUIUC]

On the plus side, Preston Brown sounds like a baller. Let's hope we found a legit MLB for the long term.

[jills]

Not looking good, thank God we have a plan b.

[trapezeus]

plan b is to abort the season. it is also known as plan brandon.

[kishoph]

Not looking good, thank God we have a plan b.

Plan B is to go to minicamp and so on and so on.

[coastal]

Wooohoooooo!

better days ahead!

[better days]

Wooohoooooo!

better days ahead!

Let's hope so.

[Turf]

You can't teach accuracy. He either has it or doesn't. There better be a plan B because I'm yet to see it.

[Night Train]

Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith was a classic !

They should blast that during the 2 minute drill !

[Buffalogic]

Too early, but still...Yuck.

[TacklingDummy]

You can't teach accuracy. He either has it or doesn't. There better be a plan B because I'm yet to see it.

Next look for an injury to buy him another year.

[BillsImpossible]

The kid is still learning. He had a bad day at practice. So what?

I had a bad day yesterday. We all have our bad days.

Last week, the big story was how Sammy Watkins was catching everything.

Give him time. The, "light," is going to come on soon.

Physical abilities do not prevent most young quarterbacks from being great.

EJ's got the right stuff upstairs sitting on his shoulders.

He laid an egg, owned it, and acted like a professional football player.

What he said in response to a bad day is going to make the Bills offense better.

[BertSquirtgum]

Manuel shouldn't be having the same struggles as did last year. He did get to play for basically half a season all together. We should be hearing good things about him right now. Such as Manuel looks sharp, starting to show signs of being a leader. Any bad news about him worries me more than I already do about his ability to become what the Bills need him to be. This is coming from one of his biggest supporters prior to the draft. So far he has made me very wrong about what I saw in him. I think all Bills fans, the negative ****s or homerisitic fools wants him to succeed. And we need him to succeed. Or this team is ****ed for another 3-5 years.

[Mace]

If Manuel crashes we can just grab one next year first round that we don't have, or wait until 2016 so he'll be ready in 2018 when we have a bunch of other people ready to mature alongside the Sabres for a few years of Buffalo awesomeness.

[DynaPaul]

I don't want to see him owning his mistakes... I want to see him fixing them. It's already looking like last year.

[ServoBillieves]

OTAs day 8: Spelling doom for the season in June!

[Mouldsie]

Same **** we saw in college. This worries me. I already doubt him enough... I wish there were at least off season fluff pieces to get off on

[swiper]

Same **** we saw in college. This worries me. I already doubt him enough... I wish there were at least off season fluff pieces to get off on

You want fluff? See Paranoid's thread that is running concurrent to this one.

EJ Manuel continues to display his documented flaws. Sure it's only OTAs. But nowhere are you reading that anyone has said he's improved one bit, other than Manuel himself. And what he's claiming isn't being seen out on the field.

[kishoph]

You want fluff? See Paranoid's thread that is running concurrent to this one.

EJ Manuel continues to display his documented flaws. Sure it's only OTAs. But nowhere are you reading that anyone has said he's improved one bit, other than Manuel himself. And what he's claiming isn't being seen out on the field.


Where are you going to see reports on his improvement during the off season ?

[swiper]

Where are you going to see reports on his improvement during the off season ?

There have been printed reports where Manuel, himself, has claimed he improved. But I haven't read anyone, media or coaches, really comment on him being anything except sloppy. It's in the wgr OTA day-by-day series for reports. He still is doing the same thing: hits one crisp, clean completion, then has a couple of throws that are off by a lot.

[kishoph]

There have been printed reports where Manuel, himself, has claimed he improved. But I haven't read anyone, media or coaches, really comment on him being anything except sloppy. It's in the wgr OTA day-by-day series for reports. He still is doing the same thing: hits one crisp, clean completion, then has a couple of throws that are off by a lot.

Doug Marrone;

Q: How do you think EJ (Manuel) has looked through OTA’s?
A: I’m excited, I think what had happened is that a lot of times even players, a lot of times you’re looking for the end product and for end results. For us, we’re looking for those steps for where he’s going or what he’s taking. Really when you look at the volume that we have in, which is really full scale everything right now, he’s made a great amount of improvement of things that he didn’t do as well last year. It starts with the foundation and his footwork and the things that are going on. I’m really excited about where he is and the amount of stuff that we put on his plate. I think everyone should be, I think normally what happens is it starts with the quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator and myself being offensive guys and the people in the offensive room. Now it’s getting ready to go on to the players and the team and everyone else. Now he’s getting ready to take that next step.