Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

[Night Train]

He's not blind loyal to him as Chan was to Fitz. Maybe Whaley is but not Marrone. I'm betting that late camp blowup had plenty to do with the QB play and the lack of options. Thus the sudden signing of Orton. If Manuel goes out and looks bad in these 2 upcoming road games, then he'll start giving Orton a lot of first team reps in practice.

But polarizing yesterdays first loss on Manuel and him only is laughable. Not thrilled with the guy at all... but Orton wouldn't have won us that game in any imaginary world.

I sat in the stands and watched the OL do a poor job in pass protection.

I saw 2 CB's named Gilmore and McKelvin get absolutely torched and lost in coverage. SD had no running game at all but Rivers just killed the Bills, finding wide open receivers all day. How many 3rd and longs did SD convert with relative ease ?

The coaching staff didn't adjust well and the far more talented team won.



Orton will magically improve our D coverage and the OL play. Got it. Sell someone else the magic beans.

The loss was a TEAM effort...or lack of..

Many things to work on...not just QB play.


Fitz and Houston next week. Or is Fitz getting benched after 3 INT's and a bad game ? Can't be. Only these things happen to Buffalo.

[YardRat]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

If the oline doesn't improve, it doesn't matter who they put under center. We are weak in the middle, and teams are going to see that and gameplan for it.

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

And you know this how?

There are a whole lot of peoples careers at OBD dependent upon how Manuel plays. I see a lot of internal fireworks if Marrone starts Orton and given Whaley's position and how poorly run this team is I wouldn't put it past Whaley to make Scwartz the interim coach if Marrone does something like that.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

The Chargers D rushed mostly by 4, but they got creative as the game wore on, putting the pressure on EJ. I mentioned before that I saw EJ struggled with 34 defense before. He seemed unable to identify which linebacker was coming, thus adjusting protection and Eric Wood didn't help yesterday.

Houston is another 34 defense and Rac (Crennel) is known to run traditional 34. It would be a tough sledding game again, I'm afraid.

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

The Chargers D rushed mostly by 4, but they got creative as the game wore on, putting the pressure on EJ. I mentioned before that I saw EJ struggled with 34 defense before. He seemed unable to identify which linebacker was coming, thus adjusting protection and Eric Wood didn't help yesterday.

Houston is another 34 defense and Rac (Crennel) is known to run traditional 34. It would be a tough sledding game again, I'm afraid.

If we get another 3 or 4 good games out of Manuel that sounds like it will be about par. When I say good I don't mean in the context of other QB's, I mean for him. That means 250 yards and 1 or 2 TDs and no major mistakes and 2 quarters of solid play. When he comes out of the tunnel and puts 4 quarters of solid football together it will be his first. It's not likely we'll win all of those games, but that's probably what we can expect from him.

Whaley and our coaching staff may be beginning to see what plagued the FSU coaches there when Manuel was there. They are forced to accept mediocrity, if they're lucky, and work around that. That's why they brought Watkins in, to dump the ball off to and watch him turn what would be a 6-yard gain by most other WRs into 15 or more. Unfortunately they're learning the hard lessons on that too that the NFL isn't the ACC.

[imbondz]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

Our D wasn't the issue yesterday. It was 13-3 at halftime, gave up 9 points in the 2nd half. Big deal. We held them to 22 points, which is plenty enough to beat. Plus if our O kept it closer, the whole dynamic of the game changes

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

Our D wasn't the issue yesterday. It was 13-3 at halftime, gave up 9 points in the 2nd half. Big deal. We held them to 22 points, which is plenty enough to beat. Plus if our O kept it closer, the whole dynamic of the game changes

Interesting that you say that.

Before the game a bunch of people here were talking about how the Chargers were very beatable because Allen would be playing hurt, so would Gates, Matthews was out and some other injuries.

At home I would expect the defense to play well against Donald Brown running the ball, he's not even a starting RB in this league. Everyone here hypes up Watkins' rib injury at every opportunity when he doesn't do what he's supposed to according to all the draft experts, but we have to think that Allen's groin injury and Gates' hamstring are even a greater issue especially since Watkins ribs have had plenty of time to heal up.

San Diego is good when they're at full strength but they weren't close to that yesterday. They haven't had 10 wins in the last four seasons.

If we're really an 8-8 team we needed to beat them at home yestereday. We failed.

[Night Train]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

The combination of Manuel, bad OL ( especially OG ) play, Bills WR's not getting seperation and our secondary unable to locate the WR's, TE's lost us the game.

The penalties against us for pass interference were legit. McKelvin was especially bad.

SD hit 5-6 big plays through long passes and pass interference penalties. Then they finished their drives.

Bills hit 1 to Chandler on a broken play.

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

Again, McKelvin's been especially bad at playing CB for years. I have no idea why anyone expected anything different. Last season's supposed good play on his part was just another example of smoke and mirrors that this team puts up due to the system.

Are you including Watkins in that statement abotu not getting separation?

As to the secondary, don't expect them to locate the WRs too often this season. You'll be disappointed.

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

This appears to be as good a time as any to repeat what Whaley said and what I have in my signature.

"We believe the addition of Sammy is going to be instant impact, not only to our quarterback, but to what our offensive coordinator can come up with game-plan wise and how defenses attack us," Whaley said.

Sorry, wrong.

[Night Train]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

McKelvin in the slot may be his last chance. Wide, he's just is a monster liability. Once the WR gets a couple yards on him, he cannot locate the ball over his shoulder and just draws flags while making contact. With the refs now enforcing any contact beyond 5 yards, he's killing the Bills. .

Gilmore came back from injury last year and just struggles.

Robey is small but may need to play wide. Brooks has speed but has been torched himself, when given opportunities. Cockrell the rookie may need to play.

Bills should be seriously looking at bringing in some CB's to workout/sign. I see none on the practice squad.

[Topas]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

...
At home I would expect the defense to play well against Donald Brown running the ball, he's not even a starting RB in this league. ...

I always think about the 'Goddamit DONALD!' incident with Peyton when I read his name ... lol

[justasportsfan]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

And you know this how?

There are a whole lot of peoples careers at OBD dependent upon how Manuel plays.

actually, their jobs are dependent on wins and losses. It doesn't matter if EJ plays well if the team is losing. If the team wins with Orton or any other qb, all will be forgiven.

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

McKelvin in the slot may be his last chance. Wide, he's just is a monster liability. Once the WR gets a couple yards on him, he cannot locate the ball over his shoulder and just draws flags while making contact. With the refs now enforcing any contact beyond 5 yards, he's killing the Bills.

None of that is anything new though. He's been the same way for six or however many seasons he's been with us. His only worth has been as a returner. We really don't need a player on this roster that can only return. We have too many guys with speed and no other skills.

I have no idea why people were talking about how good our D will be and citing McKelvin as a viable CB. I've said the opposite and taken heat for it. But for anyone to act as if it's a surprise that he sucks simply tells us that they don't know what they're talking about. There is more than enough out there to have known this before the season started.

[Fletch]

Re: Marrone Will Bench Manuel If He Has To

I always think about the 'Goddamit DONALD!' incident with Peyton when I read his name ... lol

Not familiar with that, what happened?

- - - Updated - - -

actually, their jobs are dependent on wins and losses. It doesn't matter if EJ plays well if the team is losing. If the team wins with Orton or any other qb, all will be forgiven.

Whaley promised playoffs, not an 8-8 record.