For the "Know-it-alls"... AKA Sammy's Play Off

[Yasgur's Farm]

So you think you know... So you think your eyes see it all... http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/13532/sammy-watkins-admits-he-took-play-off
Part of the setback falls on Watkins' shoulders. On a second-and-7 play on the Bills' final drive of the game, Manuel delivered an accurate pass to where Watkins should have been, but the rookie receiver clearly let up on his route as he faced oncoming defenders from the secondary.

To his credit, Watkins owned up to it.

"That was on me. I didn't finish the play," he said. "That was supposed to be a caught ball. I didn't help the team out on that play." I'm 100% certain this will be twisted and spun... But sometimes... SOMETIMES... You only fool yourself.

[BertSquirtgum]

EJ SUCKS. You are in denial. Good news though. Denial is curable.

[Mace]

I'm not really worried about Watkins and hope he doesn't end up Goodwinned. If Goodwin had simply dove into the turf I wouldn't have held it against Goodwin either. You want competitive fierce sure, but I don't want to see Kevin Everett ever happen again with anyone on a bad pass they can't be sure is a good pass.

[Homegrown]

Know-it-alls on BillsZone?? ....that's crazy talk

[Yasgur's Farm]

Know-it-alls on BillsZone?? ....that's crazy talk
LOL!

[OpIv37]

Ok that was one pass on the final drive. Explain the rest of EJ's pitiful performance.

[Mace]

Ok that was one pass on the final drive. Explain the rest of EJ's pitiful performance.

Ate overly spiced curry pregame, sun was in his eyes, ingrown toenail and spilled gatorade in the plastic of his forearm play list.

[Novacane]

I don't think anybody is trying to defend EJ's performance OP. It was bad. Simply a point to the morons who blame everything on him.

[Mace]

I don't think anybody is trying to defend EJ's performance OP. It was bad. Simply a point to the morons who blame everything on him.

No, I'm defending his performance, he ate overly spiced curry, sun was in his eyes, ingrown toenail and spilled gatorade in the plastic of his forearm play list. Yeesh, I cannot give anyone the benefit of my dubious inside knowledge if they don't read my posts.

[GvilleBills]

Ate overly spiced curry pregame, sun was in his eyes, ingrown toenail and spilled gatorade in the plastic of his forearm play list.


Its about time somebody made some sense around here!

[Mace]

Its about time somebody made some sense around here!

I give everyone my best material here for free, so it's nice to be appreciated. I'm really bang for your buck and best use of the entertainment dollar you don't need to spend so it's good you can see my unerring sense of sense, which sometimes I don't even understand though it may seem hard to believe.

[swiper]

So you think you know... So you think your eyes see it all... http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/13532/sammy-watkins-admits-he-took-play-off I'm 100% certain this will be twisted and spun... But sometimes... SOMETIMES... You only fool yourself.

Apologist. You are the only one that fools yourself. You can't boil down any QBs success or failure based on a single pass. Manuel's body of work is not good. Has he made a decent pass here & there? Sure. But not nearly enough.

[RedEyE]

I'm one of the biggest EJ advocates and this game was painfully obvious that EJ was having issues. There may have been other things that other players did that contributed to the loss but EJ takes the majority of the blame in the passing game in this one.

[Night Train]

There was another where he clearly quit in the route with the ball delievered well. slanting across the middle. Protecting the tender ribs ? He wasn't going to get lit up.

Throw in the Woods play where he doesn't turn around for what looked like an easy 6 and it was quite a maddening day. Manuel had a bad day and then 3 passes he throws well, the WR's make a bad play. Frustrating.

[JohnnyGold]

Ate overly spiced curry pregame, sun was in his eyes, ingrown toenail and spilled gatorade in the plastic of his forearm play list.

All jokes aside, maybe he stayed up late the night before partying and watching FSU beat Clemson in that overtime thriller. I did, and I was up (drunk) at about 12am.

[YardRat]

All jokes aside, maybe he stayed up late the night before partying and watching FSU beat Clemson in that overtime thriller. I did, and I was up (drunk) at about 12am.

Please. EJ is far too young to start comparing him to Jim Kelly. Give the kid a chance to grow.

[stuckincincy]

Please. EJ is far too young to start comparing him to Jim Kelly. Give the kid a chance to grow.

Yes, he gets a "Mulligans."

[Yasgur's Farm]

Not defending EJ at all... He had a very forgettable game.

This thread is more or less a roll over from last weeks threads where arguments took place about route running vs inaccurate passing.

Some "know-t-all".

Of course, being called an apologist is way better than SABZ famed "nut hugger" accusation. Thank you comrade swiper.

[Fletch]

Know-it-alls on BillsZone?? ....that's crazy talk

The place is full of 'em. Funny thing though, they have vastly different opinions and takes in September than they do in December. In December they pretend that their revised statements were what they believed all along.

[Fletch]

I don't think anybody is trying to defend EJ's performance OP. It was bad. Simply a point to the morons who blame everything on him.

LOL

That's most of the forum. After this loss "if we had a QB we would have won."

All everyone's saying is that we're a QB away from being playoff caliber.

So I guess those morons that you cite are a good number of people here.

[malvado78]

Oh great. Now EJ AND Watkins suck!

[k-oneputt]

Watkins doesn't suck. He just needs a qb that can get him the ball. I have no concerns at all with Watkins.

[malvado78]

Watkins doesn't suck. He just needs a qb that can get him the ball. I have no concerns at all with Watkins.

Sorry forgot the /sarcasm tag...

[Fletch]

Oh great. Now EJ AND Watkins suck!

I'm not sure anyone said that.

Watkins will be fine, but for those expecting a special player to emerge that matches the hype they're likely going to be disappointed.

Let's not forget here that it was no secret that Watkins was supposed to be the type of receiver to be able to catch a pass close to the line and turn it into a big gain. Have we seen that this season? We have not.

They did that to help out Manuel since they figured that Manuel can hit short outs, screens, wheel routes and have Sammy catch it and turn it into many more yards. Many draft people warned that this wouldn't be as easy to duplicate in the NFL as it was at Clemson. Turns out, so far, that they're right and there's no reason to think that it will happen simply due to the speed of the game in the NFL. That stuff works in college when you have uber talented teams like Clemson playing a bunch of lesser talented teams in the ACC, but will not work well in the NFL.

Whaley deliberately avoided deeper going receivers and more traditional receivers like Evans and Benjamin in order to overcome Manuel's deficiencies.

That's fine if it achieves the stated goal, but it hasn't, chances are that it won't for two reasons, one being Manuel, the other being as just mentioned, that stuff typically doesn't work well in the NFL.

Arguments here are that we need to give Sammy time? Time for what? His speed is his speed. He's not going to get faster. So he should be able to do that open field stuff right now if it's going to happen. There shouldn't have been any development time required for this and even the team stated that this impact should be immediate despite the fact that it hasn't been.

Watkins is fast enough that he should become a decent WR. But his style just isn't going to play as well in the NFL as it did in college. So imo the extent to which he becomes good will be hitched to how well he develops in other more traditional areas that even he admits he needs work in. I suspect he'll do it as he played the role that he was asked to at Clemson and took advantage over other teams' weaknesses, nothing wrong with that, but he'll have to adjust now at this level.

To be worth what Whaley gave up to get him he'll have to be in the top 5 WRs every season and I don't envision that.

If a guy like Kelvin Benjamin develops, and he's on a great rookie pace historically speaking, and we get a new QB that's good and can play like an NFL QB should be allowed to play, having tailored this past draft to a QB like Manuel at great cost isn't going to have made much sense when looking in the rearview mirror.

[k-oneputt]

Yes and all that is because EJ does suck that bad.

When you can't make routine NFL throws you shouldn't be playing.
The receivers are starting to get pissed. It showed Sunday and it better change quick or the **** is going to hit the fan in the lockerrom.

[Mike]

this just in... Sammy Watkins admits to taking plays off in game vs SD!

We give a lot of other players **** for doing this will we hold Watkins to same measuring stick?


http://www.sportsmedia101.com/buffalobills/2014/09/23/sammy-watkins-admits-taking-play-off-for-buffalo-bills/

[Tatonka]

super

[stuckincincy]

Tempest in a teapot.

[casdhf]

It says "a play"

I wouldn't have tried to catch that pass in the final minutes either. He would have gotten destroyed.

[Mr. Pink]

Almost every NFL player takes a play or several off a game.

This isn't news.

[Downinfloflo]

When you're a WR and E.J Manuel is your QB, You're getting the day off...

[WagonCircler]

When you're a WR and E.J Manuel is your QB, You're getting the day off...

I'll bet Goodwin wishes he had the day off.

[Mike]

Almost every NFL player takes a play or several off a game.

This isn't news.

Completely agree and players who have bad QBs, I bet take even more plays off.

The only interesting part is that fans have a different way of judging players On the team vs Off the team.

[Typ0]

I say don't crucify people who are willing to take responsibility and look at what they can improve on. EJ, on the other hand, said his accuracy was good!

[Buffalogic]

I say don't crucify people who are willing to take responsibility and look at what they can improve on. EJ, on the other hand, said his accuracy was good!I know, I almost **** a brick when I heard him say that.

[Mahdi]

Almost every NFL player takes a play or several off a game.

This isn't news.

Sammy is well aware that EJ throws high on slants. He probably cringes when he hears that play called in the huddle cuz he knows his ribs are about to be exposed.

Also, why are the coaches putting Watkins in a position to get smashed by a safety in the upper body? They need to protect him till he's better not expose him on a meaningless drive.

[justasportsfan]

If EJ does not want to scramable for the 1st down due to fear of getting hurt, I don't see what the problem is if Watkins doesn't want to catch a throw that will get him hurt. They both live to fight another day. Ej better start zipping throws so that hit his receivers in stride and don't get them hurt.

He also needs to stop throwing high or behind his targets or else they can't see the hit coming.