X-Era
10-02-2005, 03:50 PM
I have gotten rid of my frustration already. I am so used to this garbage from One Bills Drive that it barely gets me worked up.
Heres where we are at:
We made a decision back in the offseason before even any minicamps to start our 1st round draft pick QB Losman and let Drew go. We seemed to all be willing to play him and let him learn on the field no matter what the cost. Our thoughts were that the D was so good, the ST good enough, and our RB great enough that we wouldnt need to rely much at all on the young QB and he would be able to simply take his time learning, let the game come to him, and let our other strong units win us games.
In the offseason, rather than spend our cap cash on a few laymakers in some important spots, we go the cheap route, let Jennings walk hoping a cast off from a terrible team would play well enough for us to win. We also let a huge run stuffer leave and do NOTHING to fill in but rather stick with a DT who has shown NOTHING to us so far.
As far as coaching, we stick with our O coordinator even though the game plan was HIGHLY critcized early after we go 0 and 4. Thne we cant manage to beat the Steelers 3rd stringers which must at some level be in part due to the playcalling.
Then the season started and rather than go with O playcalling where we relied on the run, we started asking our young QB to throw, lots and left our supposed elite RB out of our game plan or barely used. At the same time, our supposedly strongest area on our strongest unit, the secondary decides to play horribly and give up 3rd down conversion after 3rd down conversion. And in true Bills fashion, there is NO ONE on the team with the mental toughness to jack this squad up by its boot straps and force them to play tough. There is one player, who is new and young but does seem to have the mental attitude to take accountability and get fired up to try to win. Thats Losman.
Now, as our young QB struggles while we insist on asking him to win every game with our young QB's arm and keep McGahee as a blocker, we start to then question him as a playmaker. Rather than take any blame as coaches and try to fix the game plan, ask your QB to do alot less, you blame him, bench him, and play a guy who has proven that he cant be THE guy. Now, you have effectively brought any experience learning to a screeching hault, youhave completely killed any confidence that your young QB had. You have told all of Losmans team members that its his fault and not to trust him because the coaches dont, and you start a QB controversy on a squad that was destroyed by it just a few years back.
-----------------------------------
Where do we go from here?
Well, you start by figuring out, in week 5, whether your QB who has a total of 4 starts under his belt will EVER get it. I dont honestly know how you have enough data for that, but apparently we do it. Then you play Losman regardless of how bad he does for the rest of the season and give up on it or hope for a miracle that will lead to the playoffs. Or, you go with Holcomb and decide that you will cut or trade Losman and take the MONSTEROUS cap hit knowing full good and well that after being disgraced and forcibly embarassed with terrible playcalling, the kid is all but done in Buffalo and will never have the confidence in himself or from his teammates or coaches he needs to get anything done here.
If we do get smart fast and stick with Losman, we may destroy the season which is pretty much done anyways but we give the kid a whole year to figure out what we have in him, give him the confidence, experience and playing time he needs to get a real shot, and probably end up with a high pick which could easily lead to another highly rated QB if we decide in the off season that Losman will never have it. If we decide Losman DOES have it and its just a matter of time, like so many others before him, we still have the high pick and could grab a wide variety of incredible players that could make a huige impact to our success for next year.
I think you take a long hard look at a coach like Mularkey who would tell you that he is sticking with his young QB and then benches him in 2 games after only 4 games total. That is absolutely hypocritical and shamefull for a head coach. You look hard at this guy who certainly cant get his team to play up to their talent level considering who talented they are on D and how they cant stop ANYONE. You look hard at this guy and you decide if you dont finally need to spend the serious cash necessary to get a TRUE head coach that will DEMAND that his team play like they should. Something the Bills have lacked since our SB years and maybe didnt even have it then. You absolutely FIRE your O coordinator since he has only managed to scheme us such that our best O player hardly gets the ball, and our worst O player ALWAYS has the ball. Its completely unacceptable for an NFL coach to scheme like this.
I think Ralph needs to take a hard look in the mirror and ask himself if his loverboy TD is really the guy who is willing to do what it takes to get the team to the playoffs or if he simply is endlessly backpatting himself by going the cheapo route and having the best looking books in the league. That may be great from a accounting standpoint but its terrible if you want a SB and wins.
And in the draft, you take the best damn player period, regardless of position when its your shot because a team thats playing this bad simply doesnt have the right to choose and needs help everywhere.
Overall, by stinking up the field the rest of the year and starting Losman we may accelerate our trip to the playoffs and SB. Starting Holcomb only prolongs the pain and gets us nowhere overall.
Heres where we are at:
We made a decision back in the offseason before even any minicamps to start our 1st round draft pick QB Losman and let Drew go. We seemed to all be willing to play him and let him learn on the field no matter what the cost. Our thoughts were that the D was so good, the ST good enough, and our RB great enough that we wouldnt need to rely much at all on the young QB and he would be able to simply take his time learning, let the game come to him, and let our other strong units win us games.
In the offseason, rather than spend our cap cash on a few laymakers in some important spots, we go the cheap route, let Jennings walk hoping a cast off from a terrible team would play well enough for us to win. We also let a huge run stuffer leave and do NOTHING to fill in but rather stick with a DT who has shown NOTHING to us so far.
As far as coaching, we stick with our O coordinator even though the game plan was HIGHLY critcized early after we go 0 and 4. Thne we cant manage to beat the Steelers 3rd stringers which must at some level be in part due to the playcalling.
Then the season started and rather than go with O playcalling where we relied on the run, we started asking our young QB to throw, lots and left our supposed elite RB out of our game plan or barely used. At the same time, our supposedly strongest area on our strongest unit, the secondary decides to play horribly and give up 3rd down conversion after 3rd down conversion. And in true Bills fashion, there is NO ONE on the team with the mental toughness to jack this squad up by its boot straps and force them to play tough. There is one player, who is new and young but does seem to have the mental attitude to take accountability and get fired up to try to win. Thats Losman.
Now, as our young QB struggles while we insist on asking him to win every game with our young QB's arm and keep McGahee as a blocker, we start to then question him as a playmaker. Rather than take any blame as coaches and try to fix the game plan, ask your QB to do alot less, you blame him, bench him, and play a guy who has proven that he cant be THE guy. Now, you have effectively brought any experience learning to a screeching hault, youhave completely killed any confidence that your young QB had. You have told all of Losmans team members that its his fault and not to trust him because the coaches dont, and you start a QB controversy on a squad that was destroyed by it just a few years back.
-----------------------------------
Where do we go from here?
Well, you start by figuring out, in week 5, whether your QB who has a total of 4 starts under his belt will EVER get it. I dont honestly know how you have enough data for that, but apparently we do it. Then you play Losman regardless of how bad he does for the rest of the season and give up on it or hope for a miracle that will lead to the playoffs. Or, you go with Holcomb and decide that you will cut or trade Losman and take the MONSTEROUS cap hit knowing full good and well that after being disgraced and forcibly embarassed with terrible playcalling, the kid is all but done in Buffalo and will never have the confidence in himself or from his teammates or coaches he needs to get anything done here.
If we do get smart fast and stick with Losman, we may destroy the season which is pretty much done anyways but we give the kid a whole year to figure out what we have in him, give him the confidence, experience and playing time he needs to get a real shot, and probably end up with a high pick which could easily lead to another highly rated QB if we decide in the off season that Losman will never have it. If we decide Losman DOES have it and its just a matter of time, like so many others before him, we still have the high pick and could grab a wide variety of incredible players that could make a huige impact to our success for next year.
I think you take a long hard look at a coach like Mularkey who would tell you that he is sticking with his young QB and then benches him in 2 games after only 4 games total. That is absolutely hypocritical and shamefull for a head coach. You look hard at this guy who certainly cant get his team to play up to their talent level considering who talented they are on D and how they cant stop ANYONE. You look hard at this guy and you decide if you dont finally need to spend the serious cash necessary to get a TRUE head coach that will DEMAND that his team play like they should. Something the Bills have lacked since our SB years and maybe didnt even have it then. You absolutely FIRE your O coordinator since he has only managed to scheme us such that our best O player hardly gets the ball, and our worst O player ALWAYS has the ball. Its completely unacceptable for an NFL coach to scheme like this.
I think Ralph needs to take a hard look in the mirror and ask himself if his loverboy TD is really the guy who is willing to do what it takes to get the team to the playoffs or if he simply is endlessly backpatting himself by going the cheapo route and having the best looking books in the league. That may be great from a accounting standpoint but its terrible if you want a SB and wins.
And in the draft, you take the best damn player period, regardless of position when its your shot because a team thats playing this bad simply doesnt have the right to choose and needs help everywhere.
Overall, by stinking up the field the rest of the year and starting Losman we may accelerate our trip to the playoffs and SB. Starting Holcomb only prolongs the pain and gets us nowhere overall.