You want the truth? You can't handle the TRUTH!

[Tatonka]

i have waited a full day to calm down after watching that game last night. so i will give you the cold, hard truth with a level head.

1. penalties are going to kill us. the players (mainly starters, i'll point out) have been an absolute disgrace. greg williams preaches discipline, and i have yet to see it.. in fact, it looks to me that it is just getting worse.

2. Oline play looks poor. pass blocking specifically has not improved at all. i found it amusing that drew said in an interview during the game "I have to get rid of the ball faster".. ARE YOU KIDDING ME.. he is a ****ing 11 year vet, who got sacked 54 times last year.. and this just crossed his mind in preseason game number two? not last year.. not in NE.. what a joke.. he is as bad as rob johnson as far as holding the ball too long.. so in summary.. i cant tell if our OLINE is bad or just average at passblocking, because drew hold the ball for eternity. he will get hurt this year if he takes 54 more sacks, and numerous additional shots while getting rid of the ball.

3. i am trying not to be concerned about reed, but his two drops where pathetic. then he catches the really tough one. i am watching, but not convinced. people seem to forget.. this is not last year.. he did great.. but he was a 3rd WR against a 3rd corner. Chris Chambers had a great rookie year.. but as a starter, he regressed.. it is not out of the realm of possibility for reed to do the same. he did block well on henry's run. bottom line - he has proven nothing as a starter.

4. we have no talent at DE. i dont care what anyone says. Schobel is average at best, and he is by far our best defensive end. Jones didnt get mentioned. Denny has improved, but it is not tough to improve from god awful to just bad. kelsay has got a big learning curve. effort alone can not make him good. i dont know that he will ever be any better than schobel is, which is not saying alot. we are in real trouble in the DE spot.

5. Kevin Gilbride is going to be one of the biggest drawbacks of this offense. granted 2 runs by henry were called back on penalties, but it was the play selections. We have got to RUN.. and i will not believe that we are going to until i SEE IT.

6. Our secondary is far from great. Winfield may have cost himself an extension last night. i dont want to hear that it is preseason. if you let a 3rd string WR eat your lunch like that, there is something wrong.. he was trying to cover the guy, and simply could not. dont you tell me that he wasnt running full speed. he was simply beat. he is basically a little LB. he would be better at SS than CB. he can hit like a train, but he cant get an INT to save his life, and after watching him last night, i think that TD should consider all the other CBs out there like Champ Bailey for next year.. save your money on Winfield. Clements looked good. Wire looked alright. FS is a nother soft spot. Reese cost us 7 points and winfield cost us 14 last night.

7. Drew... /sigh... :horse: ... we wont win a superbowl with him... he is as overrated as any player i have ever seen in the nfl.

you want the highlights..
1. mcgee (aside from his fumble) looked good returning kicks. he almost broke the kick off right after he fumbled.
2. Morris and Burns look good. (which is good, because gary looks very average.
3. The young WRs look great. considering how poor the QB play has been, they are doing a great job. coleman, wright, and brown will beat out johnson and jett.. the two old guys are history.
4. kicking and punting look solid. Lindell was booming them into the endzone last night.
5. LB depth looks good.


bottom line.. i know it looks like i am being too harsh a critic for a preseason game.. but all the things that i am point out should not be issues at this point, imho. these are things that should be ironed out by now.. we need some serious adjustments, or we will be well on our way to finishing with a losing record, seeing the head coach fired, and going through more wholesale changes to right the ship.

i desperately hope i am wrong about this stuff, because it is not going to be much fun to watch this all year if i am right.

[BillsFever]

Great post!

[WG]

Note: That really wasn't Tatonka! I discovered his password...



I'm all teary-eyed T!!! Give me a hug...!

:weep:

I would only differ on Reed. Moulds had two drops as well and no one mentioned those. Reed had phenominal hands last year.

As well, I guess we'll find out exactly how good Price is w/o the QB of the century this season! I don't think he's gonna be all that great.

[WG]

Now doesn't it feel good to write a post like that...

I'm taking a short vacation...

[Tatonka]

moulds did not drop wide open passes.. reed did..

moulds did not get talked about because he has been doing this for a living as a probowler for some time..

reed is a 2nd year guy who has not proved he can handle the starting role yet.

i am concerned, but not overly.... yet.

[MDFINFAN]

Wow, that's the tatonka I know from the phins board..Tonk, I think you will know more next week when ya'll play the 1st with the 1st string. I do think a team should play in their vanilla stuff better, because it's the basic. I don't think many teams are running the ball right now, because it leaves to more injuries..I think every one is saving their running backs, knowing they will pound them during the regular season. Your 1st string running D wasn't that bad, but I did expect it to be better. Titians passing game is defintely a lot better, I saw that when Miami was doing their 3 day scrimage with them earlier this TC. You played very vanilla against their pass, so they had the advantage. McNair was the different in a lot of their Drives against you last night. I still expect this team to do well in the regular season, but last night was disappointing. Next weeks game should be an early early indication of how you will start off the season. BTW, did you see any of the skins\pat's game..the pats weren't as sharp either.

[Tatonka]

there is some truth to what you say MD... but..

winfield getting smoked did not have anything to do with game planning ect..

he got run by.. and couldnt catch up.. that was just a man to man play.. and he is the first round pick that everyone thinks should be a probowlers.. who is mccarens??? no one.. oh yeah.. nm.. he is the guy that smoked wini 2 times last night..

i will hold off on the play calling selection on offense..

but the penalties are horrible..

and our second string defense was getting chewed up by skip hicks.

the whole game was sad really.

nate clements pick was nice though.

[MDFINFAN]

I agree on the penalities, you guys were ugly in that department and I thought our 2nd stringers were bad at it. I don't know what winfield was doing on that play, he allowed the guy to catch up to him, because he started out in great position and just got beat. It was a prefect pass, that didn't allow winfield to recover. I saw better run D last night, even without Spikes, I think teams will have a problem running up your gut. Your pass rush was liking, but again, McNair had something to do with that, he moves around a lot, also note they didn't run that much too, and you know the titians are a running team with a healthy George. I still say I'm going to wait until your first game to really get a fix on you guys, there were some moments on D where I thought you guys had gotten better, it's now a thing of consistency, the cut down in practices may be hurting you now, but by the end of the year, I think it may pay dividends. I hope not against us of course, LOL, but I saw some stuff last night in all that ugliness that bold well for your team.

[Tatonka]

henry's run was the only thing that i really liked.. i think that with the pounds he has shed, while retaining his strength.. he looks faster..

[Tatonka]

here is a pretty good summary from billsdaily.com...

Offensive Line Woes: It was another pathetic performance by what may be an overrated offensive line. There were a number of penalties, and no protection. Drew Bledsoe was sacked once and knocked down hard on two other occasions. Alex Van Pelt was also knocked down once. They did open up holes for the running game.

Who Else Hurt Themselves: Izell Reese got the start at free safety because the team wanted him to play when he was warmed up because of his hamstring strain. He should have stayed on the bench. He had an awful pass interference penalty and seemed slow. Antoine Winfield had a rough game including letting a ball go right by him for a touchdown. Coy Wire picked up where he left off last year by getting burned constantly. Josh Reed dropped a perfectly thrown ball in the end zone on the Bills first offensive series. James Jett may be on his way out, he didn't see any action in this game same could be said for fourth string quarterback Jason Johnson, he didn't get in the game either. Tony Driver may be following him as he was burned on a score. None of the defensive ends could get any pressure at all on the Titans quarterbacks.

[Tatonka]

just looking at stats from last nights game..

zero sacks.

[Kelly The Dog]

I will bet anyone that it was Kevin Thomas, and not Winfield, who let the ball go through his hands on the short TD. The ESPN announcers said it was Winfield, and they never showed a definitive angle. But Thomas is 28 and AW 26 and I watched it on tape a dozen times. The guy that let the ball go right through his hands had a white towel attached to his hip pad. That was clear. Other plays in the game I saw Winfield without a white towel, and Thomas with one. Plus, the Buff news also said it was Thomas (although they are wrong almost as much as the ESPN announcers)

[ublinkwescore]

Give it a rest people - THESE GAMES DON'T COUNT. Don't get concerned until you see this crap in week one.

[ublinkwescore]

We looked like crap all preseason long last year.

[Tatonka]

yeah.. and we didnt make the playoffs..