Zone Original: Alex Soto

[northernbillfan]

Here's this week's review.

The Buffalo Bills once again presented a tale of two halves looking competent and strong in the 1st half, and anemic and disgusting in the 2nd half. If this were a movie, I might equate it to the Titanic. The 1st half was a love story and cute. Everything falls in place perfectly. It was an entertaining 1st half, once again the Bills scoring on their opening drive (with a little help from some Raider penalties). Although Willis McGahee only ran for 34 yards in the 1st half, Shaud Williams helped by running and adding another 25 yards on the ground. Lee Evans, the speedy wide receiver, had a reverse run for 7 yards.

Full article

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

I don't think we looked competent and strong in the first half. Somewhat competitive maybe, but then we were playing a 1-4 team that has a crappy defense......

Jon

[Cntrygal]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

I thought we looked good during the first drive.

[mysticsoto]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

I don't think we looked competent and strong in the first half. Somewhat competitive maybe, but then we were playing a 1-4 team that has a crappy defense......

Jon

Is their defense crappier than ours? Our supposed stud RB only got 50 yards total...

Competent and strong may be a little high for your tastes on describing Buffalo, but we were close to Oakland the whole time and moving the chains also. Penalties pushed us back on some of those drives. Once the Raiders made adjustments for the 2nd half, it was all downhill from there. Mike Williams/Jerman played terrible and McGahee cannot block a blitzer if his life depended on it!!! I will never consider him an elite RB unless he develops better blocking skills!!!

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

Alex,

You seem like a real nice guy and you write nice articles, but STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR THE BILLS PLEASE!

We were losing by 7 to a 1-4 team at halftime, that's not a strong performance. I'm sorry, it isn't. If we were WINNING by 7 at halftime -- okay, but we were losing, and you could feel the roof falling in.

Is the Raiders defense worse than ours? Well, obviously if they are, it's not by that much, as one team gave up 17, and the other gave up 38, and did it thoroughly.

Jon

[mysticsoto]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

Alex,

You seem like a real nice guy and you write nice articles, but STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR THE BILLS PLEASE!

We were losing by 7 to a 1-4 team at halftime, that's not a strong performance. I'm sorry, it isn't. If we were WINNING by 7 at halftime -- okay, but we were losing, and you could feel the roof falling in.

Is the Raiders defense worse than ours? Well, obviously if they are, it's not by that much, as one team gave up 17, and the other gave up 38, and did it thoroughly.

Jon

Why am I making excuses? Just b'cse I said they did okay in the 1st half? They were down by 7...big deal. 1 TD ties the game. It's the 2nd half that was horrendous!!! Not being able to stop the run when we KNOW it's coming is completely unacceptable. The Safeties were the only ones doing their jobs - having to tackle the RBs on their own in the 2nd half. The Dline gets an F and the LBs get a D+ maybe - only b'cse Crowell got 1 sack, or they might get an F also. The CBs get maybe a C- and the Safeties get a B. After all, it wasn't their fault that the RBs were getting all the way to them.

On the offense, I'd give the QB a C b'cse it's not his fault the Oline can't hold and McGahee can't block for ****. The Oline gets an F. McGahee gets an F not only for not blocking well, but also for talking trash and not backing it up! TEs didn't do squat - F. And the WRs - I give them a C b'cse when the Oline can't hold, the QB is rushed and therefore does not have time to throw bombs or much of anything else but short dinks.

Now, if I sugarcoated anything, please let me know what that is. I feel like I'm telling it like it is...

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

I agree with your 2nd half assessment.

This is not a playoff team, we're not even close. Sad to say, even though our record doesn't totally suggest it yet, this is one of the worst teams in the league.

Jon

[mysticsoto]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

I agree with your 2nd half assessment.

This is not a playoff team, we're not even close. Sad to say, even though our record doesn't totally suggest it yet, this is one of the worst teams in the league.

Jon

Agreed, except for one caveat. When our Oline and Dline play well, we look like a decent team. That's b'cse we have alot of talent at other positions. But the Oline and Dline are our current weakness this year - and unfortunately, those are two areas that are most important to the offense and defense respectively.

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

Agreed. They are our biggest problems on the field. Notice I said ON THE FIELD because we have a lot of other big problems. We lack talent severely on both lines. I have been preaching this the whole offseason.

Pat Williams? Fine, don't re-sign him, but bring in somebody that is as good or better, either with the draft or free agency.

Offensive line? Been neglected for years. Tom Donahoe's statement about how he has addressed the line is garbage. Bringing in guys like Dylan McFarland and Justin Geisinger isn't helping our offensive line. Guys like Mike Gandy and Chris Villarial are ok, but they are not upgrades. We need upgrades. We have the offensive line coach, there's not excuse.

Jon

[mysticsoto]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

Agreed. They are our biggest problems on the field. Notice I said ON THE FIELD because we have a lot of other big problems. We lack talent severely on both lines. I have been preaching this the whole offseason.

Pat Williams? Fine, don't re-sign him, but bring in somebody that is as good or better, either with the draft or free agency.

Offensive line? Been neglected for years. Tom Donahoe's statement about how he has addressed the line is garbage. Bringing in guys like Dylan McFarland and Justin Geisinger isn't helping our offensive line. Guys like Mike Gandy and Chris Villarial are ok, but they are not upgrades. We need upgrades. We have the offensive line coach, there's not excuse.

Jon

Unfortunately, drafting new OL doesn't necessarily mean they are ready to start in an NFL game. Duke Preston has done extremely well and he was a good pickup - despite not have a well-recognized name. What worries me now is this game with NE. MW is hurt and Jerman is officially out for the game. So if MW goes down, who takes his place? Jason Peters? He's never played on the right side before. I hope they are working with him all week on the right side just in case. Poor guy...he keeps getting moved around - LT, TE and now possibly RT.

If Preston becomes Center next year, then we need to worry about our OG reserves. And this draft is not good for OGs or DEs...we should get atleast one decent OT however, and maybe they can find an inbetweener that can play more than 1 position - like Duke...

But it's still worrisome...

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

How sad is that we are worrisome about the prospects of Greg Jerman being injured. It's a shame he is hurt, but frankly, he's not a good solution.

I would guess (gasp!) that Dylan McFarland would come in (is he even on the team???) if Williams got hurt. If not him, then I guess Peters would. Maybe Teague with Preston at center? How depressing.

Yes, Preston is a decent depth guy, and maybe will become a good starter eventually. We need more guys like that, with some real solid veteran acquisitions, and maybe a stud or two.

It's very troubling, Tom Donahoe has really screwed us. It's not his fault there are injuries, but Williams and Jerman are pretty mediocre healthy, let alone hurt.

Jon

[mysticsoto]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

How sad is that we are worrisome about the prospects of Greg Jerman being injured. It's a shame he is hurt, but frankly, he's not a good solution.

I would guess (gasp!) that Dylan McFarland would come in (is he even on the team???) if Williams got hurt. If not him, then I guess Peters would. Maybe Teague with Preston at center? How depressing.

Yes, Preston is a decent depth guy, and maybe will become a good starter eventually. We need more guys like that, with some real solid veteran acquisitions, and maybe a stud or two.

It's very troubling, Tom Donahoe has really screwed us. It's not his fault there are injuries, but Williams and Jerman are pretty mediocre healthy, let alone hurt.

Jon

I don't want to take anything away from him...I think MW can be good when healthy. He has been hurt most of this year, but last year, McGahee got most of his yards behind Mike, so I don't want to downplay his run blocking ability.

In my opinion, we have not run this year as much as we should. Sometimes MM and Clements change and go all pass for longer than they should.

We do need better depth. On the PS right now, we have: Dylan McFarland, Jasen Esposito and Marques Ogden. Maybe it's time to check them out and see how they are doing in their development. I don't know how McFarland is NOT better than Jerman though...We also have 2 guys on injured reserve: Lawrence Smith and Ben Sobieski. If Ben doesn't do anything next year, I say just dump him completely. He's always hurt. Lawrence Smith once showed promise...maybe he can return to that once he heals...

If Duke becomes our center next year, then what of Teague? Do we move him back to OT? At the very least, he should be backup, as he understands the calls of the line well (get rid of Jerman then?)...but my worry is who will be guard backup? Perhaps we will need to move MW to Guard - unless he heals completely offseason...and let Teague play RT.

I'm just throwing stuff out - I realize that MW gets paid alot of money for a RT and a OG would make him be even more overpaid. But we have to try to manage and create something that works and not worry about cost. We cannot dump him and take such a high cap hit, so instead, let's try to figure out where they might be most useful...

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

That's the problem with Williams, he's being paid so darn much it's hard to figure out what to do with the guy other than try to play him. I don't think Teague is the answer at LT, Denver let him go because he wasn't good enough. We need to start drafting and bringing in some quality guys.

Jon

[mysticsoto]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

That's the problem with Williams, he's being paid so darn much it's hard to figure out what to do with the guy other than try to play him. I don't think Teague is the answer at LT, Denver let him go because he wasn't good enough. We need to start drafting and bringing in some quality guys.

Jon

Once again...out of the entire line, I'd say Teague has been the most consistent this year - so it's hard to just criticize him directly. And who knows, maybe he's grown as a player and could not handle LT (or RT) alot better? I do know he has a good head on his shoulders and is relatively cheap, so I don't think we should just discard him...

[Mudflap1]

Re: Zone Original: Alex Soto

Perhaps, but if he was that good at LT, why is Gandy there now and Teague is not? McNally tried him out in the preseason camps. He's not bad, certainly not the worst lineman we have, I just don't think he's stellar. Anderson is a problem, Gandy is mediocre at best, Williams is inconsistent and always hurt, and Villarial has no big push and is always hurt.

Jon