Homeristic view of yesterday's game and where we are at

[X-Era]

I watched the first half (plan to watch the rest) and came away with a different view that I had when I heard of the injuries and Marrone's presser.

I didn't think the offense nor defense played that bad.

Defense: We had coverage issues more than anything. Searcy has stunk all pre-season and was guilty of a bulk of it in the 1st team defense. Gilmore played well, Aaron Williams played decent, Brooks was up and down as he has been. Byrd coming back solves the S issue. I don't want to rely on Searcy.

The pressure was there just without the sacks. If you look at the Grossman pass that Gilmore almost picked you see a defender in his face. Grossman actually played really well. He had guys in his face many times in those early drives.

Alonso was all over the field. Kid can play. Lawson had a nice play to shut down the runner. Bradham had an up and down day.

The front 7 did a nice job staying in lanes and stringing run plays east and west to bottle up progress. There were a few runs were the defender didn't get off the block. But it wasn't that bad.

Offense: Kolb isn't very good. I really took notice of his lack of pocket presence. The 3rd and 12 was was bad. He had forever to throw yet checked it down to Woods who kept the chains moving just from a facemask penalty. The other play he got sacked when he tried to run with no reason too. He just doesn't have enough patience in the pocket.

On the QB situation. Here's how I'm viewing it. EJ had a simple procedure and most likely is just waiting for the incision to heal. It's not a matter of any issue with the function of his knee. Just needs to have the incision healed enough to not open up when he plays. I really think he'll start to practice late this week. And then it's really his job to lose. Tuel will start the 4th game which really is typical in the pre-season anyways. Your starters don't play much at all in the 4th game. The Kolb concussion is an unknown. It's probably one where he needs to show that he doesn't have concussion like symptoms for a number of days in a row. That could be completed as quickly as after next week. The rule states:

"Once removed for the duration of a practice or game, the player should not be considered for return-to-football activities until he is fully asymptotic, both at rest and after exertion, has a normal neurological examination, normal neuropsychological testing, and has been cleared to return by both his team physician(s) and the independent neurological consultant."

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500290_162-5875227.html

I think EJ will be back on the field late this week, and Kolb will return to the field next week and that both will be ready for the NE game.

CJ looked nasty as always. Goodwin looked dangerous on returns. The O-line looked real good actually if I had to nit-pick it would be open better holes for running. I'm worried about losing Gilmore. That's the injury I'm watching the most. Losing him and going against Brady when it's likely Rogers or Brooks? Eesh. I hope he gets back soon.

I Just think overall, considering all that we've seen and not just this game, and looking at the injuries, we're better off than it may seem.

[Night Train]

Don't fool yourself. They did play bad but after 2 above average performances, this dud sent many back to ride the emotional roller coaster of doom that they seem comfortable with embracing.

I predicted 6 wins with a roster that is still 10 players short but my whole perspective of Marrone and these schemes has been viewing it long term...which means you actually have to watch the games be played for a year or more before making conclusions. I'm surprised it took this long to look flat and now the injury adversity without immediate solutions is sending many to the bridge. Go ahead and jump.

13 years of frustration can cloud the call for patience. Marrone been here all of 15 minutes and gets 3 years minimum to work his program.

Check your meds.

[Fletch]

Don't fool yourself. They did play bad but after 2 above average performances, this dud sent many back to ride the emotional roller coaster of doom that they seem comfortable with embracing.

I predicted 6 wins with a roster that is still 10 players short but my whole perspective of Marrone and these schemes has been viewing it long term...which means you actually have to watch the games be played for a year or more before making conclusions. I'm surprised it took this long to look flat and now the injury adversity without immediate solutions is sending many to the bridge. Go ahead and jump.

13 years of frustration can cloud the call for patience. Marrone been here all of 15 minutes and gets 3 years minimum to work his program.

Check your meds.

Unfortunately Marrone's and Pettine's defensive and offensive schemes are going to result in a lopsided time-of-possession and a tired D that doesn't have anything close to the talent to play tired without yielding tons of yards and points, just as they've done to date in preseason when the first teams have been on the field.

It doesn't matter what I think, how many wins I (or anyone else) thinks they may have, etc., what matters is that the coaching staff cannot, apparently, see that they don't have the talent to do what they're trying to do, which in and of itself is not a good sign of competence, or the ramifications of their schemes' effects on the play of the D, again, not a good sign of competence in the ranks.

It also doesn't matter whether we all think they're playing possum, etc. This O hasn't even come close to proving that it can play under solid pass pressure.

Spiller's the key to this season in allowing Manuel to develop and DCs are going to rightfully be focusing on him, not Manuel much less Kolb or Tuel.

[DynaPaul]

2 more good drafts and we could have enough talent for this coaching staff to take us deep into the playoffs. Plus Brady will likely either be gone or totally ineffective by that point.

[BillsImpossible]

If there's anything good about yesterday's game against the Skins', the Bills didn't show much of their playbook. The long ball to TJ Graham was about the only thing the Bills showed that will be relevant to their offense.

Most teams don't go vanilla in the third preseason game, but the Bills did.

The Bills have a unique advantage this year going into their first game because nobody knows what this offense is going to look like.

The closest thing we know to what the Bills offense will look like this year was shown in the first two preseason games with EJ Manuel at QB.

Everything else doesn't matter.

After watching CJ Spiller score and then cluch his right knee in agony, I thought the Bills best chance of having success this year was over before the season even started. I thought he tore his ACL, and watched in horror.

When CJ got up and started walking, I was relieved. My prayers were answered, thank God. It was nothing major, but just imagine how the rest of the starters felt after watching the training staff attend to Spiller on the field?

Mentally and physically, a player naturally goes into "Shutdown, protect" mode after watching that.

After seeing potential disaster, the players played to not get injured. I would. Why go all out and risk a whole season, or your career for some chump play in preseason? Players aren't stupid, especially the ones that already know they're on the team.

[Scumbag College]

Yesterday's first quarter was OK. The defense looked hapless the first series but started to get pressures. Gilmore dropped an easy INT at one point. Once the defense started to figure out the zone blocking Washington's run game started to fizzle. They did give up a few long 3rd downs that was troubling.

Kolb is just plain not good out there. His only positive plays were some scrambles and Woods' facemask penalty that picked up a first down. He did throw a nice longball that I believe Graham would have caught if he wasn't interfered with on the first play from scrimmage. Once Spiller and Kolb went out with injuries, the offense looked hapless.

[Captain gameboy]

The game was akin to child abuse.

Horrible.

[YardRat]

Worst game for the LBers and Dbacks of the first three, by far. The 'backers especially, who looked lost, over-exuberant, or out-muscled far more than any of them made any plays.

[BertSquirtgum]

I'm a homer and the whole team looked like **** last night. No doubt about it. CJ was the only bright spot.

[DunkCityFan]

That game was everything that has been bad about the Bills for years. Other team just slowing pounds them to death. Score goes from even to close to less close to maybe-if-we-score-now-we'll-be-back-in-it to even less close to oh-my-god-I-have-to-watch-another-quarter-and-we-are-out-of-it. Painful. Hope things change with EJ.

Nice observation about the shutdown mode after CJ's scare. There is something to that.

[Oaf]

Kolb is just plain not good out there. His only positive plays were some scrambles and Woods' facemask penalty that picked up a first down. He did throw a nice longball that I believe Graham would have caught if he wasn't interfered with on the first play from scrimmage. Once Spiller and Kolb went out with injuries, the offense looked hapless.

Incorrect, the throw was out of bounds. Graham could have been uncovered and still would not have caught that awful throw.

[cookie G]

The front 7 did a nice job staying in lanes and stringing run plays east and west to bottle up progress. There were a few runs were the defender didn't get off the block. But it wasn't that bad.

Man, I didn't see that...not the 1st half anyways. It might have happened once or twice, maybe.

I saw a lot of what I saw last year. DE's or OLB's not containing the outside, no one protecting the cut back, overpursuit...just really bad mental errors and a lack of disclipline.

Pettine is going to be screaming in the film room and I don't blame him.


Maybe they'll have to be uber aggressive all year...this isn't exactly the most disciplined bunch.

[Mace]

I'm not really worried about it. Gives them things to work on. Preseason is safe. You can get excited about success and write off the woeful because it's practice.

Yeah, the game was terrible. Probably some of the real games will be too. Maybe week one. But it's a work in progress, yes, again, but I still think they're way more fun than Jaurons work in progress or Gaileys a couple preseason games in. People are noting issues you'd gripe about with more polished teams instead of griping about the chaos of rebuilding, which is happening no matter how it looks, so to me, they're already doing better than they should be and I'm not a homer.

Bring on the next game so we can get to the real ones. Don't expect an awesome year. The Super Bowl Bills teams had their junk efforts at the start too. Crap game sure. But there's the next one to see.

[SpikedLemonade]

2 more good drafts and we could have enough talent for this coaching staff to take us deep into the playoffs. Plus Brady will likely either be gone or totally ineffective by that point.

AND Ralph should be dead.

[justasportsfan]

If there's anything good about yesterday's game against the Skins', the Bills didn't show much of their playbook. The long ball to TJ Graham was about the only thing the Bills showed that will be relevant to their offense.

Most teams don't go vanilla in the third preseason game, but the Bills did.

The Bills have a unique advantage this year going into their first game because nobody knows what this offense is going to look like.

The closest thing we know to what the Bills offense will look like this year was shown in the first two preseason games with EJ Manuel at QB.

Everything else doesn't matter.

After watching CJ Spiller score and then cluch his right knee in agony, I thought the Bills best chance of having success this year was over before the season even started. I thought he tore his ACL, and watched in horror.

When CJ got up and started walking, I was relieved. My prayers were answered, thank God. It was nothing major, but just imagine how the rest of the starters felt after watching the training staff attend to Spiller on the field?

Mentally and physically, a player naturally goes into "Shutdown, protect" mode after watching that.

After seeing potential disaster, the players played to not get injured. I would. Why go all out and risk a whole season, or your career for some chump play in preseason? Players aren't stupid, especially the ones that already know they're on the team.

really?