end of the world vs it'll be fine

[trapezeus]

End of the world:
the penalities are outrageous. the slightest sign of adversity and the team falls apart. double personal fouls on the same play, a coach who almost got his second personal foul of the season and was unrepenent in the post game about the team not being able to deal with their emotions.

The offense is conservative and has a hard time adjusting whatsoever. the line play looked like a complete mess. it openned no holes, it couldn't start a play together. the run game is abysmal and doesn't take any pressure off a rookie qb to have to make plays.

the defense is not the same as last year. it doesn't stop the run and it doesn't get to the qb. they don't get stops when you are within 1 score and momentum is kind of coming back.

ST kicker is missing giveme kicks since preseasonFor the last 15 years everytime we have a touch of momentum and have a little media attention,we fail to impress in a big way. it'll never end. i hate it.
it'll be fine:
The penalties are outrageous. its not just that the penalties come, they come consistently on ticky tacky calls. I've never seen a flag thrown on hitting a qb picked up. now i've seen 2 in one season. I've seen qb's lightly tapped as they are getting to sidelines that get the flags. Not yesterday when it was tyrod getting hit as his was slowing down. I've seen the bills get called for unsportsman like when taunting, but i haven't seen in called when players are yapping at the bills (same sideline play).

the offense just didn't show up. karlos didn't run like he did in previous games. even with clay's big game, he dropped some easy catches. wr were running short of the sticks and without heart. they could have lowered their pads and tried to get yards, but they kept scooting laterally. we had 2 TD's called back, a red zone stuff, and a missed red zone fg. tacked on with countless penaltieis and a few big injuries, we were still in a position to win.

The defense seems to playing it so vanilla. but they also are being left out there in the losses for huge stretches. 1 first down in the first half...maybe 2 from our offense? they looked gassed and they did pretty good to keep that from being a route. they are not rushing to get to the qb and they don't seem to care to stop the run. They literally want the secondary to do most of the work. this can be fixed via game planning.


My view
I really wish they could have won this game. and i really wish they would have showed up and made it entertaining in the first half. But they didn't. and despite playing one of the worst games from a complete team standppoint, they were still largely in the game. as bills fans we knew it was over, but it was kind of reassuring to know that we could still hang in a game despite fundamentally executing on like 10% of our plays.

That speaks to the talent on this team. we are .500. We have injuries on offense. it now comes down to the coaches to gameplan better.

I don't agree that they are not a playoff team. i'd rather have a .500 team at this stage looking for its footing than a 3-1 team that doesn't know what adversity looks like and is left to be exposed later in the season.

They need to bounce back big time and win a close game or two in these coming weeks. if they lose to tennessee and in the same sloppy fashion, i think we have a train wreck on our hands. if they win and show improvement...then i'm cautiously optimistic. they are going to need to show it with some consistency moving forward.

and i do think the reffing was terrible both ways yesterday. i hate watching a game where rookie refs call penalties consistently on everything. a game needs flow. and the pats and giants game, the flow was just stolen. i almost want to say that game was as boring as the 6-3 cleveland game. the bellweather of complete boredom in an NFL game.

[Pinkerton Security]

Totally agree - kinda like the Pats game, despite basically TRYING to beat ourselves with all the penalties, missed tackles, turnovers, etc, they were actually still in the game at the end. This is probably true of nearly every game but we were probably a couple plays away from winning - they just didnt make the plays.

What really kills me is this - turnovers happen, missed tackles happen, but all these penalties arent even giving us a chance. Cut some of these out and its a totally different game. How many times did we have first or 2nd down with 20+ yards to gain? Thats just not a recipe for success, no matter the team. I have no idea how Rex can justify the amount of penalties we have had as simple an abundance of passion - its boneheaded.

[FlyingDutchman]

I'm alarmed that Rex doesn't seem to be bothered by the complete lack of mental focus and discipline. The good coaches I've played for in my sports career had me and my teammates petrified to do anything dumb (penalty, losing your cool wise) that would be detrimental to the team. He needs to stop being Mr Players friend and start getting in players faces if they want to keep being selfish and costing the team.

This team also needs to start playing like their pants are on fire from the opening whistle. I feel like both of the games we lost were after big wins, and we felt all we had to do was show up on the field and the win would just happen. Good teams come prepared and knowing exactly what they have to do from the opening whistle

[justasportsfan]

I'm alarmed that Rex doesn't seem to be bothered by the complete lack of mental focus and discipline.

He defended it.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

The offense is conservative and has a hard time adjusting whatsoever. the line play looked like a complete mess. it openned no holes, it couldn't start a play together. the run game is abysmal and doesn't take any pressure off a rookie qb to have to make plays.

the defense is not the same as last year. it doesn't stop the run and it doesn't get to the qb. they don't get stops when you are within 1 score and momentum is kind of coming back.

...
the offense just didn't show up. karlos didn't run like he did in previous games. even with clay's big game, he dropped some easy catches. wr were running short of the sticks and without heart. they could have lowered their pads and tried to get yards, but they kept scooting laterally. we had 2 TD's called back, a red zone stuff, and a missed red zone fg. tacked on with countless penaltieis and a few big injuries, we were still in a position to win.

The defense seems to playing it so vanilla. but they also are being left out there in the losses for huge stretches. 1 first down in the first half...maybe 2 from our offense? they looked gassed and they did pretty good to keep that from being a route. they are not rushing to get to the qb and they don't seem to care to stop the run. They literally want the secondary to do most of the work. this can be fixed via game planning.

I can't agree with this analysis at all. The offensive playcalling was fairly bland, but we lost 3 offensive starters to injury before the game even started and then lost another starter for a large chunk of the game. This game told me two things: 1) Karlos Williams will be a solid player for us, but he cannot be inserted into McCoy's role in the offense. He is pure north-south, every time he ran laterally it seemed like a miracle if he even gained a yard. 2) Our depth on the offense is sorely lacking. Down Miller and Glenn, the OL was a trainwreck and without Sammy the WRs were overmatched. It's possible that if the line had held up then the wideouts could have made more happen but Woods and Hogan had major mental mistakes out there.

As for the defense, I would never ever call a Rex Ryan D "vanilla." If anything I thought it was too complex for this talent level. We have a ton of youth in the LB and DB corps, so I think they should be dropping more and letting the DL try to win their battles 1 on 1. The quick passing game was killing us, again.

[jamze132]

Rex has to start holding players accountable for doing something stupid and after the whistle. This defense is too hotheaded right now. Jerry Hughes should have been pulled from the game for a series or two to set an example. I bet all these stupid 15 yrd penalties wouldn't be nearly an issue if FJ22 was still around.

[trapezeus]

I can't agree with this analysis at all. The offensive playcalling was fairly bland, but we lost 3 offensive starters to injury before the game even started and then lost another starter for a large chunk of the game. This game told me two things: 1) Karlos Williams will be a solid player for us, but he cannot be inserted into McCoy's role in the offense. He is pure north-south, every time he ran laterally it seemed like a miracle if he even gained a yard. 2) Our depth on the offense is sorely lacking. Down Miller and Glenn, the OL was a trainwreck and without Sammy the WRs were overmatched. It's possible that if the line had held up then the wideouts could have made more happen but Woods and Hogan had major mental mistakes out there.

As for the defense, I would never ever call a Rex Ryan D "vanilla." If anything I thought it was too complex for this talent level. We have a ton of youth in the LB and DB corps, so I think they should be dropping more and letting the DL try to win their battles 1 on 1. The quick passing game was killing us, again.

on d i think we are saying similar things. yes, the substitutions is too complex, but the actual defense doesn't rush the passer nor does it stop the run. and when they do get a stop, they take a penalty.

for the offense, good point on injuries. and i did feel like the squad that had to line up was esesntially a 2009 type team. not talented enough where as the first 3 games had good match ups with decent qb play. i can see that it makes sense to simplify things. but up to week 3, i thought tyrod could handle having more pressure put on him. maybe take a shot down field. or let him have a one read with a RB screen available. spread the field to help open running lanes for him. but they were really conservative. and they went 3 and out 3 times and then gave up long drives in return. it killed a chance to get any rythm when you can't get more than 3 plays together.

[trapezeus]

also my jet friends are telling me that Rex always defends the players publically, but they get it behind the scenes and you'll see less playing time for continued offenders.

if that's the case, i'm not so worried about his presser. if that's not the case, i am terrified of the season where games just become snoozefests because of the penaltieis and the inability to be competitive. i don't want to be the team that only beats up on the weaklings.

[Victor7]

also my jet friends are telling me that Rex always defends the players publically, but they get it behind the scenes and you'll see less playing time for continued offenders.

if that's the case, i'm not so worried about his presser. if that's not the case, i am terrified of the season where games just become snoozefests because of the penalties and the inability to be competitive. i don't want to be the team that only beats up on the weaklings.

This

I have nothing to back this up but I think this is what Rex will do. Back them up in public but get in their faces behind doors. He has too. It was to stop. And we haven't Aaron Williams back there for 2 games mind you. That's at least one or two more flags of the 15 yard kind.

[PuntKicker]

How about both? I'm not sure it has to be either/or.

As REM sang, it's the world as we know it... AND I feel fine.

[YardRat]

also my jet friends are telling me that Rex always defends the players publically, but they get it behind the scenes and you'll see less playing time for continued offenders.

if that's the case, i'm not so worried about his presser. if that's not the case, i am terrified of the season where games just become snoozefests because of the penaltieis and the inability to be competitive. i don't want to be the team that only beats up on the weaklings.

Oh goody...so glad we paid a gazillion dollars for a defensive line so that the dumbass we hired can bench them. If that's the business model for '4th isn't good enough', I'll pass.

[Mace]

I think we'll be relatively fine. We'll feast on teams that don't have experienced coaches with decent+ experienced QB's. Problem is they'll pretty much look lost, aggravated and helpless against experienced coaches and decent+ experienced QB's.

If Ryan finds it in himself to rein them in at least sometimes against decent opponents, it'll be fine. If he can't, they'll start slopping it up against crap teams by habit and everything goes downhill fast.

I still think 10-6 but don't count on them winning a playoff game unless they get Indy and Pagano/Luck.