Bills fan stopping by

evans555 said:

Right, Rex's foundational principals and scheme may remain the same, but what Rex is able to do good, bad bc of players limitations, strengths and weaknesses differs with the Bills team. It's not the Jets, and it's not the Bills personal with Schwarz' scheme from last year.

Saying it's the same defense from last year is a stretch.

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evans555 said:

Here's to an injury free game Sunday. I've seen quite a bit of chatter about the Bills, some good some bad, some respectful, some disrespectful, some quality talent assessment, and some misinformed fans, and all I'm going to say is you find the aforementioned on every message board. One things for certain, as a Bills fan, seeing all this chatter means one thing: The Bills are once again relevant, and as a Bills fan that's great.

I'd like to give my thoughts about the Bills, I'm not going to act like I know a whole lot about the Pats, outside of a few general observations (Pressure Brady up the middle, so he can't step up, stop Gronk, etc.).

Anyways on to the Bills:

Offense:

I'll start with the good from Sunday's game vs. Indy: Bills weapons played well for the most part and their game plan succeeded even though the Colts did everything in their power to take away Sammy. I think this is attributed to Greg Roman. I remember in camp Rex made a comment about not forcing the ball to one player, if you take one weapon away, the offense will look to beat you another way. One thing I love about Rex, very little coach speak, he held true to his word, and this player Sunday was Percy Harvin. This upcoming game it could be Clay, Harvin again, Robert Wood over the middle, Sammy, or the running game.

On to TT, his game is very efficient, he's going to throw a lot of high percentage balls, and beat you with his legs at least 2-3 times a game. If I remember correctly, he wasn't sacked, in lieu of crappy oline play (I'll get to that). His pros: Good velocity on this throws/live arm, throws well on the run, cerebral in the sense that he really seems to know his role: high percentage throws, efficiency, and don't turn the ball over. If you're expecting a riverboat gambler, and turnovers you're going to be disappointed. The wild card, he certainly seems to have that wow play in him, but is extremely disciplined. Cons: Doesn't throw a very tight spiral (It gets there with velocity, but it's not pretty), seems to have limited vision (Missed a few open WR's), and at times it's one read and take off.

McCoy missed much of the preseason and it seemed to show on Sunday. A few times he appeared visibly upset Sunday, and didn't seem to be on the same page with the oline. I think for 25, more than most backs continuity with the oline is important, because of his running style. Karlos Williams, Fjax's replacement and a 5th rd pick, is a big bodied north south runner that compliments McCoy well. He had a nice 20 something yard TD run.

The online really struggled yesterday, I was very high on 3rd pick John Miller, but he struggled in the run game. I think Eric Wood is very overrated, Cordy Glenn took too many penalties, and Henderson struggled. Hope to see some improvement out of this unit.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bills talent is well documented on the D line, but two players the avg fan doesn't hear a whole lot about are 3rd round pick Preston Brown and 4th round pick Nigel Bradham. Both played incredibly well and are extremely athletic. Bradham is one of the faster linebackers in the league, and hits with authority. I think he finished the game with 8 tackles, 2 for loss and one sack. Getting Marcel Dareus back will be a nice boost for an already dominant unit, imo, he's the best player on the defensive side of the ball, an absolutely dominant force, that doesn't get much attention. I think the key to beating Brady and the Pats is to generate interior pressure, to limit his ability to step up in the pocket.

The secondary is incredibly deep, and I think had something crazy like 11PD yesterday. The Bills should be without starting S Corey Graham who looked like he was on the wrong side of a Buster Douglas Mike Tyson fight, and is concussed. His replacement Bacarri Rambo, had a mental lapse inside the 5 yesterday and allowed Luck and the Colts to get on the board in the second half. Aaron Williams is very gifted, instinctive and has really settled in as one of the young budding safety's in the league. Darby, will start opposite Gilmore, and from what I've seen early on, is prone to give up the big play, is good in coverage but lacks ball skills (although he did have his first INT on a pass from Luck to TY). Gilmore is a very, very good cover corner, but has hands of stone.

Anyhow, that's all I have for now. Oh and Carp kicked well, which is good because Rex was calling him out all preseason.

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PP2 said:

It's interesting that Ryan just dismissed Lewis as a threat.. and furthermore said that he had already did his game plan for the Patriots a long time ago, which is somewhat a strange thing to say because the 4 TE package was just unrolled this past Thursday. Is he not going to account for that?

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MassPats38 said:

Great stuff!

If the Pats line can give Brady a little time, and they held up surprisingly well as a green unit on Thursday, then it should be a good day for the Pats. I would anticipate seeing a more pass-centric gameplan, possibly with a focus on multiple TE sets. The run will be used to keep the D honest.

On D, I would expect contain and pressure Taylor, while throwing a far more elaborate secondary at him than Indy did. These scheme can be tough for rookies to pick up, so he may earn a hard lesson. The Pats want to get a lead and force Rex from his "ground and pound" options.

I like Buffalo's talent, and I know Rex will fire your team up to face the Pats. It should be an entertaining game to watch.

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supafly said:

I'm assuming that the comments or at least general idea of what Ryan said were taken a bit out of context. He's stating the obvious = you prepare your gameplan around Tom Brady, not some guy who no one even knows outside of N.England, especially when he is seen by many as nothing more than a week one Blount replacement (I don't agree with that).

I think this idea also goes hand in hand with his "gameplan being ready a long time ago," after all, haven't like the last 5 games against Ryan all been within a FG or something? It seems to me that he's probably got a pretty decent idea of how he plans on going about it.

That said, we've seen utilization of 3rd down backs fair very well against big/nasty DL's, so a guy like Lewis could end up getting more touches than Rex assumes.

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evans555 said:

Here's to an injury free game Sunday. I've seen quite a bit of chatter about the Bills, some good some bad, some respectful, some disrespectful, some quality talent assessment, and some misinformed fans, and all I'm going to say is you find the aforementioned on every message board. One things for certain, as a Bills fan, seeing all this chatter means one thing: The Bills are once again relevant, and as a Bills fan that's great.

I'd like to give my thoughts about the Bills, I'm not going to act like I know a whole lot about the Pats, outside of a few general observations (Pressure Brady up the middle, so he can't step up, stop Gronk, etc.).

Anyways on to the Bills:

Offense:

I'll start with the good from Sunday's game vs. Indy: Bills weapons played well for the most part and their game plan succeeded even though the Colts did everything in their power to take away Sammy. I think this is attributed to Greg Roman. I remember in camp Rex made a comment about not forcing the ball to one player, if you take one weapon away, the offense will look to beat you another way. One thing I love about Rex, very little coach speak, he held true to his word, and this player Sunday was Percy Harvin. This upcoming game it could be Clay, Harvin again, Robert Wood over the middle, Sammy, or the running game.

On to TT, his game is very efficient, he's going to throw a lot of high percentage balls, and beat you with his legs at least 2-3 times a game. If I remember correctly, he wasn't sacked, in lieu of crappy oline play (I'll get to that). His pros: Good velocity on this throws/live arm, throws well on the run, cerebral in the sense that he really seems to know his role: high percentage throws, efficiency, and don't turn the ball over. If you're expecting a riverboat gambler, and turnovers you're going to be disappointed. The wild card, he certainly seems to have that wow play in him, but is extremely disciplined. Cons: Doesn't throw a very tight spiral (It gets there with velocity, but it's not pretty), seems to have limited vision (Missed a few open WR's), and at times it's one read and take off.

McCoy missed much of the preseason and it seemed to show on Sunday. A few times he appeared visibly upset Sunday, and didn't seem to be on the same page with the oline. I think for 25, more than most backs continuity with the oline is important, because of his running style. Karlos Williams, Fjax's replacement and a 5th rd pick, is a big bodied north south runner that compliments McCoy well. He had a nice 20 something yard TD run.

The online really struggled yesterday, I was very high on 3rd pick John Miller, but he struggled in the run game. I think Eric Wood is very overrated, Cordy Glenn took too many penalties, and Henderson struggled. Hope to see some improvement out of this unit.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bills talent is well documented on the D line, but two players the avg fan doesn't hear a whole lot about are 3rd round pick Preston Brown and 4th round pick Nigel Bradham. Both played incredibly well and are extremely athletic. Bradham is one of the faster linebackers in the league, and hits with authority. I think he finished the game with 8 tackles, 2 for loss and one sack. Getting Marcel Dareus back will be a nice boost for an already dominant unit, imo, he's the best player on the defensive side of the ball, an absolutely dominant force, that doesn't get much attention. I think the key to beating Brady and the Pats is to generate interior pressure, to limit his ability to step up in the pocket.

The secondary is incredibly deep, and I think had something crazy like 11PD yesterday. The Bills should be without starting S Corey Graham who looked like he was on the wrong side of a Buster Douglas Mike Tyson fight, and is concussed. His replacement Bacarri Rambo, had a mental lapse inside the 5 yesterday and allowed Luck and the Colts to get on the board in the second half. Aaron Williams is very gifted, instinctive and has really settled in as one of the young budding safety's in the league. Darby, will start opposite Gilmore, and from what I've seen early on, is prone to give up the big play, is good in coverage but lacks ball skills (although he did have his first INT on a pass from Luck to TY). Gilmore is a very, very good cover corner, but has hands of stone.

Anyhow, that's all I have for now. Oh and Carp kicked well, which is good because Rex was calling him out all preseason.

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PP2 said:

Conventional wisdom dictates that you play horizontal against an aggressive, blitzing defense and try to force the defense to spread out. But we all know BB isn't a conventional in-the-box thinker, and one of my predictions for this Sunday is that we'll see a great deal of multiple TE packages, but that they will play vertical. I.e., we'll see TE's run lot of seam routes, go routes, or at the least, routes with long stems. In effect, the TE's become WR's and the WR's become the TE's and stay behind and chip then run intermediate under routes. We know Gronk and Chandler have the speed to run vertical, and Ryan's excess use of the nickel and dime means that either or both will get covered by one or more DB's, especially if they split wide.

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goheels22002 said:

That's pretty pessimistic about the Patriots. If we go up and down the line-up, I like the Patriots:

Head Coach - Patriots
Quarterback - Patriots
Running Backs - Push (Blount-Lewis is just as good as McCoy-Williams, and the Pats get the edge if Cadet is playing
Wide Receivers - Patriots - Harvin fraudulent - see:http://www.buffalobills.com/team/roster/Percy-Harvin/580f8f71-cbac-436b-8788-12d5c204bfdc
Tight Ends - Patriots
Offensive Line - Push after Thursday's performance, edge to Patriots if Stork was not on IRR
Defensive Line - Bills (but not by much)
Linebackers - Patriots
Cornerbacks - Bills
Safeties - Patriots
Kicker - Patriots
Punter- Patriots

I'd be interested to know where you disagree. I think sometimes we underestimate Patriots groupings, but this is still the Super Bowl Champion team playing a bunch of guys with little or no playoff experience.

I would not be surprised if the Bills win this. So much rides on the Patriots offensive line doing well as they move up in class. I really wish Stork was available.

I would also not be surprised to see the Patriots defense hold the Bills to 17 or fewer points. Harvin is a crappy route runner who relies on his speed to get separation (1 TD in the last two seasons does not scare me, and Watkins is basically LaFell with a few more yards receiving.) The Patriots need to punish McCoy physically and contain Taylor. These scrambling QBs have never really given the Patriots all that much trouble.

Finally, the Bills had a big day because the Colts defense sucks. Grigson wasted his time adding older offensive players and relied on two rookie defensive linemen to shore up a terrible line. The Patriots have a terrific front seven (and tremendous coaching) that will keep the rookie QB guessing all game.

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livinginthe past said:

I'd like to see Rex Ryan go to a team where the defensive personnel is not already at a high level.

Mangini bought the groceries in New York - supplemented by years of failure he was able to keep topping up his D-line with one high first rounder after another.

Now he is in Buffalo - who already had one of the most dominant D-lines in the NFL before he arrived - another franchise that has been able to pick consistently high due to repeated football related failure.

Rex took the Buffalo job because all the hard work had been done for him yet again - what he can add to the mix is indiscipline, lack of clock management and general foot-in-mouth buffoonery.

Expect a slow downward spiral back to irrelevance for the Bills.

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The Gr8est said:

Wouldn't it make more sense for a team with a championship caliber offense, but a lacking defense to hire Rex, rather than the other way around?

That is the job he should want if he is as good a defensive coach as so many think he is.

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pencilneckgeek said:

I disagree with the fundamental premise that one can compare offense to offense and defense to defense and discern anything meaningful. As far as unit to unit comparisons go:

Bills WRs vs Pats secondary - toss-up
Watkins is an elite talent (way better than Jojo) who has been held back by his QBs. Butler will have his hands full again, and McCourty will be in deep center field to cover against him and Harvin. I agree that Harvin is over-rated, and Brown should match-up well with him, particularly with deep help, but Watkins will get his catches and make it difficult to crowd the box.

Bills OL v Pats front 7 - Pats get the edge
I'm somewhat guessing here as I haven't followed the Bills preseason, but I think the Pats go with three LBs to better contain the run and limit what our visiting OP called an out-of-sync running game. In the passing game, I expect the Pats to contain more than rush, but that's a wash if the secondary can do it's job. I think the Pats D looks much better this week and keeps the score down.

Pats receivers v Bills secondary - Pats edge
Gronk and Edelman are matchup nightmares for anyone. The question is whether Rex can afford to give them extra attention and hope that his varying 4-man overloaded pass rush gets there before Tom find someone else. With the short zones flooded, Dobson's ability to get open outside and down the field could be critical to who wins this matchup. Lewis will probably be too busy with blitz pickup to be much of a factor when he's not spread-out wide.

Bills front 7 v Pats OL - Bills by far
My biggest matchup concern is the Bills DL against the Pats OL. I think they dominate in the running game and that the rookies get exposed in pass protection in a way that has the Chicken Littles running wild until after the bye week. The Bills front will keep the score down.

The coaching matchup will be interesting. On D, BB will take away the run, and success will be determined by who makes the most plays downfield. On offense, there will be a chess match as Bill tries different personal groupings to see what gives the most favorable matchups. I agree that we will likely see a lot of shotgun with spread formations. Specifically, I expect the Pats to do their best with 2 TE, Edelman, and Dobson out there. I expect Lewis to get more snaps than Blount, but we'll see both of them in a variety of formations.

In the end, I'm confident in a low-scoring game, but I'm not sure who comes out on top. I'll make a guess and say 16-14 Bills.

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goheels22002 said:

Interesting comparisons. No big disagreements, but...

Bills WR vs. Pats Secondary - Edge Patriots. It's premature to call Sammy Watkins elite. Watkins has accomplished so little (6 career TDs) and no catches yet in 2015. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WatkSa00.htm

We'll see. Percy Harvin is supposed to be this big difference maker, but frankly, I'd rather have a healthy Danny Amendola as a receiver, in the kicking game, and in the locker room.

Coaching - definitely Belichick. I get that Rex is a good defensive mind, but what's he done by comparison? Rex has yet to demonstrate he can guide an offense or develop offensive players. If you want to compare Matt Patricia and Rex Ryan, that's fair. But until Rex gets over .500 as a head coach or wins the AFC, it's impossible to put him in Bill Belichick's class. I agree that he'll come up with some challenges for the offense, but I doubt they'll dominate the way they did against the Colts.

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PatsFanSince74 said:

I didn't see them handing the Steelers anything at the end of the game. I've never seen a Belichick coached team hand anything to an opponent when the first string was still in the game. Butler couldn't stop Brown, who caught nine passes. That was a perfectly thrown pass to where only Brown could catch it and at least a foot out of Butler's reach.

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