What Are You Impressed With The Most About The Bills So Far?

[BillsImpossible]

1. Defense - The secondary, defensive line and linebackers are the best I've seen in a very long time.

2. Strength and Conditioning - The Bills are a strong, healthy team going in to week 3.

3. Depth - Marcell Dareus played less than half of the game yesterday. Players like Stefan Charles, Jarius Wynn, Manny Lawson, Duke Williams and Corbin Bryant are doing a great job of keeping the defense fresh.

4. Offensive - It's still a work in progress, but considering where this team was last year vs. this year is a night and day comparison. The offensive line is better, EJ is better, and the receivers are better. The Bills passing game is actually doing better than their running game, which is very impressive and encouraging.

5. Coaching - Marrone, Hackett, Schwartz, and Danny Crossman have the Bills at 2-0.

6. GM - Doug Whaley's 2014 draft picks are playing a significant role in helping the Bills win. Sammy Watkins, Preston Brown, and Seantrel Henderson all have made significant contributions to the team.

7. Quarterback - EJ Manuel is starting to act like the leader of the Buffalo Bills, and he's backing up what he says with his play.

http://www.buffalobills.com/video/videos/Video-Dolphins-Postgame-Locker-Room-Speech/bb5e0161-66d6-458e-be27-d1b9224b54c0

Bills on 3...

1,2,3

BILLS

[ServoBillieves]

2-0

[trapezeus]

Responding when a response was necessary. In Chicago they answered a fast scoring drive when a route felt like it was coming. When we needed 3 and out in ot they got it

In Miami game they had a couple calls go against them but they made plays. When they let a Fg, td return. When Miami scored, they marched the field and on 3rd down scored a td.

And the penalties on the ol have been nonexistent so far

It will have to keep getting better, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how they've dealt with adversity. The other teams coached by 4 other coaches whithered under the pressure no matter how small.

I hope this is a hallmark for this team.

[Novacane]

Responding when a response was necessary. In Chicago they answered a fast scoring drive when a route felt like it was coming. When we needed 3 and out in ot they got it

In Miami game they had a couple calls go against them but they made plays. When they let a Fg, td return. When Miami scored, they marched the field and on 3rd down scored a td.

And the penalties on the ol have been nonexistent so far

It will have to keep getting better, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how they've dealt with adversity. The other teams coached by 4 other coaches whithered under the pressure no matter how small.

I hope this is a hallmark for this team.


This is an great point. Once the Bears tied the game I think most Bills fans thought they knew what was coming. We've seen it to many times before. The team didn't think that way though and fought through it. I'm very cautiously optimistic.

[BillsImpossible]

Responding when a response was necessary. In Chicago they answered a fast scoring drive when a route felt like it was coming. When we needed 3 and out in ot they got it

In Miami game they had a couple calls go against them but they made plays. When they let a Fg, td return. When Miami scored, they marched the field and on 3rd down scored a td.

And the penalties on the ol have been nonexistent so far

It will have to keep getting better, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how they've dealt with adversity. The other teams coached by 4 other coaches whithered under the pressure no matter how small.

I hope this is a hallmark for this team.

Great points...dealing with adversity like a no call against Miami's right tackle for a false start on 3rd down that resulted in a long touchdown scoring drive, but then coming back to score was freaking awesome.

[imbondz]

all of these comments point to Marrone imo.

[Mr. Pink]

QB play.

While he hasn't been great, he hasn't made huge mistakes.

This team is good enough that a game manager will get them to some meaningful football in December.

[Parzival]

The D has been great.

I wasn't too excited about EJ from what we saw last year and the pre season, but hes looked like a different player since week 1. He has a lot of room to improve and I dont think thats a bad thing at this point in his career. He's shown great awareness and confidence that I hadn't see from him before. Very encouraging going forward!

[The Beef]

Toughness first and foremost. The defense particularly has out muscled both offenses it has faced. This defense isn't head hunting, and some injuries are flukes, but when your defense is banging up the opposite teams best offensive weapon, that's a good thing.

HCDM, it looks like the team is taking on the coach's personality. He made a ballsy call putting Spiller on KO returns, it's already paying off. The team has stayed composed and rebounded each time the other team has gained momentum. Bill Barnwell read my mind in the article he put on Grantland today. I was wondering how long has the team actually trailed these first 2 games? The answer, 283 seconds. Playing with a lead and controlling tempo is what good teams do. It's hard to come from behind and consistently win in this league, this has been a different style of Buffalo Bills football. This has been the best team effort since the I'll fated Mike Mularkey season that ended in the Steeler game flop. That team rolled ass for 7 weeks controlling the ball, getting chunk yardage and beating up teams on the defense.

Finally, winning field position. They call it hidden yards, and nothing helps a young QB more then a short field. This is a product of three things. The offense picking up first downs, 3 and outs from your own 20 are killers. Punting from your own 40 makes a huge difference. A defense that is stingy. On the flip side the defense has done a great job forcing the other team to punt inside their own 30. Finally, the punter. Schmidt has been great 2 games in. 7 out of 9 punts inside the 20 is boss status for a punter.

[jamze132]

3rd down defense has been real good.

EJ is playing good enough so that we should win more than we lose.

[ParanoidAndroid]

The offense needs work, but the defense is playing well. Even so, I'm most impressed by Henderson and the young WR's. I think that bodes well for the near future of the offense. I'm seeing a wild-card caliber team.

[Meathead]

that their best player so far is a fat white guy

[trapezeus]

for marrone and his staff, they will need to keep adapting. those red zone drives were unforgivable. running right into the wall and accepting 3 points. they will need to be more creative because as film keeps piling up of the OC not having complete confidence in EJ, it will make the run that much harder in the redzone. IF we aren't adapting to the adjustments others will make, this might be another hot start that fizzles.

but they get a lot of credit from me for how they handle themselves. a lot of composure, rarely take blatantly stupid penalties, don't wallow in bad calls for or against us. that is at least a very good start of a capable staff.

i was a little concerned in the 3rd quarter when the dolphins seemed to have woken up and started passing exclusively to the right side of the field and running to the left and the bills took a little while to realize that.

[stuckincincy]

for marrone and his staff, they will need to keep adapting. those red zone drives were unforgivable. running right into the wall and accepting 3 points. they will need to be more creative because as film keeps piling up of the OC not having complete confidence in EJ, it will make the run that much harder in the redzone. IF we aren't adapting to the adjustments others will make, this might be another hot start that fizzles.

but they get a lot of credit from me for how they handle themselves. a lot of composure, rarely take blatantly stupid penalties, don't wallow in bad calls for or against us. that is at least a very good start of a capable staff.

i was a little concerned in the 3rd quarter when the dolphins seemed to have woken up and started passing exclusively to the right side of the field and running to the left and the bills took a little while to realize that.

Well said.

[Topas]

I am most suprised about two things:

I) strength and conditioning in combination with playing nasty:
To put games away in the end, to have only few players injured, to intimidate other teams. That is all due to the reason above. I don't remember when we did that the last time. Our health sucked since we fired the longtime conditioning coach who we had for years. I forgot his name.

II) coaching
Almost all surprising things out of the list of the OP are due to coaching. Actually I think Whaley's drafting and signing is overrated because Marrone coaches the players up.That is HUGE! I really like Marrone. And I am willing to eat crow, for now. I always said I like Marrone, but I hated the fact that he both hired Hackett and his buddy, the special teams coach. And also not fired them after the first year. Considering our special teams play and also the offense, given our QB situation, I am willing to eat crow. I am really happy that I was wrong about that. Hopefully this is not a two game thing but a long-lasting effect.

[casdhf]

that their best player so far is a fat white guy I think our rookie white punter has been pretty impressive too.

[Buckets]

They are winning as a team.

[JoeMama]

I'm most impressed that the Bills are good enough that the trolls have to dig really, really deep to cook up annoying, peevish reasons to be mad about the 2-0 start.

Usually it's easy to find fault with the Bills. This year has been much more challenging.

[justasportsfan]

team is playing hard every snap.