Early in the season, Buffalo couldn’t run the ball to save their lives. We had a new offense, new line coach, and new blocking schemes, and we couldn’t run to save our lives. So we passed a lot, and that’s how we won games early. Hence, Lee was productive.

Tony Sparano ended all of that by employing 8-man coverage schemes when we went to Miami, and every team has employed some version of that scheme since. Our running game has gotten exponentially better – Marshawn’s got 490 yards over the past 5 games and is averaging over 5 yards a pop – but now we can’t throw it. Trent Edwards has struggled and J.P. Losman is, well, J.P. Losman. So Lee’s dealing with double coverage and mediocre QB play. Different year, same issue.

By the way, it’s hard for me to admit this, but the Ralphie Report buffalo is badass. I like our red Rumbling buffalo, but still… nice blog logo. :)

I’m 23 years old, and the Bills have missed the playoffs 9 years in a row. That’s way too close to half a lifetime for me.

It’s a gross oversimplification, but QB play is our biggest problem. It’s just not anywhere near consistent enough to have a winning football team. Trent Edwards started off hotter than most QBs in the league, but once defenses adjusted, he couldn’t counter. He’s been up and down, and now he’s hurt. J.P. Losman… ugh.

You’re not getting any arguments from any Bills fan in regards to your opinion on Edwards. Clearly, he’s vastly superior to Losman.

The Bills don’t practice until Wednesday; if Trent practices in any capacity on Wednesday, he’ll likely play in Denver. But I’m not counting my chickens.

HAHA. No “gentleman’s agreement” is needed, because the Bills are perfectly proficient at throwing games themselves. No extracurricular activity needed.

What I believe and what 95% of Bills fans believe are starkly different opinions. I think the Bills have a solid young core of talent, and with a few well-placed additions could be ready to challenge for the playoffs in 2009. Most Bills fans will tell you that the team isn’t going anywhere with Dick Jauron as head coach, and Ralph Wilson – the team owner himself – said just last weekend that this Bills team “lacked talent”. So apparently, I’m just a homer. :)

Buffalo has been forced to blitz frequently because we can’t get anything close to a pass rush with our front four alone. So yeah, we should blitz, but we did it a lot less than normal against Favre yesterday, and it worked – he was TERRIBLE in the second half. I think we’ll cut our losses and drop 7-8 into coverage more often than not and let you guys try to beat us on the ground.

I think that we can build on our young QB (Edwards), our offensive line (we just need a competent center), our two outstanding running backs, and our young talent in the secondary. There are good young players in Buffalo; there just aren’t enough of them. A degree of patience is required as well.

Center has been a problem area for two years now; Alex Mack looks like an enticing first-round option no matter when we end up picking. Our pass rush is abysmal; with a solid edge rusher or two, our defense instantly goes from being average to pretty good. So we’re praying that Aaron Maybin decides to leave Penn State this year, naturally. Those are the two areas; we’ll also need a replacement for Losman, some receiver depth, a pass-catching tight end, and depth at linebacker and the interior defensive line.

The biggest adjustment, however, might come at the head coaching position. If that happens, we can only guess what will happen this off-season…

No, honestly, I don’t think the team will have to move. The whole Toronto thing was overblown, in my opinion, and the games we’re playing there double our usual per-game revenue, whether those games sell out or not. That’s why it was done; anything else insinuated about the decision to play games up there was just the media trying to connect dots.

Dolphins in-division because of the whole Kelly-Marino history.

Tougher to say out of division… I’d go with Dallas, just because they beat us in consecutive Super Bowls.

Marv Levy resigned as our GM just a few hours after the season finale in 2007. We currently have no GM; we have a COO (Russ Brandon, not a football guy) and VPs of Pro Personnel (John Guy) and College Scouting (Tom Modrak). In short, it’s the most convoluted and strange front office structure in the NFL.

Again, my opinion is starkly different from most Bills fans on Jauron. I think he’s a quality coach and am glad he’s got the extension, although I’m hearing it’s still 50-50 on whether or not he’ll be back next season. Most Bills fans vehemently disagree with me.

Yes, we’re named after Buffalo Bill Cody. He was born in Iowa and is famous in Wyoming. Yes, that still has very little to do with the Buffalo area. I have no idea why Ralph Wilson named his team the “Bills”, but I still love ’em.

Well, we’re 1-7 in our past eight. I’ve got an 87% chance of being right.

And hopefully (for us, not for you), we won’t have to see Losman take the field this week.

I look at it as a slump for Edwards. The kid was a third-round pick, and Walsh pedigree aside, he was making a BIG step from crappy old Stanford to the NFL. After 6 games this season, his QB rating was 98, and people were talking about a Pro Bowl bid. I don’t care who it was against, he’s got the goods. He just needs more experience. We’re not talking about a guy in the class of a Cutler here, but if he can achieve consistency, he has the tools to be just as efficient – yet more athletic – than, say, Chad Pennington. We can win with that type of QB.

Losman’s in because Edwards is hurt. Edwards is Dick Jauron’s guy, and that’ll be true if Dick is around for the 2009 season. If he’s not, well then it’s anyone’s guess.

Sean Kugler is actually our offensive line coach; for all you Boise State fans, he’s an export from the blue-turfs.

Yes, we run a zone blocking scheme. Which makes no sense to me, considering the Bills have the biggest line in the league. But maybe that’s just me.

Our linebackers are pretty slow, especially considering the fact that we run a base Cover 2. It’s why opposing QBs are so proficient in the short passing game against us, and it’s why Jay Cutler’s going to explode on Sunday.

I’m comfortable with Dick Jauron, but no, I don’t think he’s a Super Bowl winning coach. We haven’t made the playoffs in nine years. Baby steps.

No, we are not in danger of losing our team. As I said earlier in the thread, playing in Canada was all about doubling our per-game income ($9.75 million as opposed to $5 million) as well as furthering our fan base. Of course, getting whipped 16-3 by the Dolphins did nothing to appeal ourselves to the Canadians, but that’s an entirely different animal.

I bet they do
also i bet at least on has been here,

At the end of the season we should put all our ideas in one thread and then call out from the fans to the broncos
it would be awesome if we could actually feel like we communicate and help out our team

I think you’re safe this weekend.

Losman is an unrestricted free agent, and it’s a 100% certainty he won’t be back. Thank the football gods. At least something will go right this off-season.

LB Angelo Crowell of any interest to you? We IR’d him before the season, but he’s had surgery and is completely healthy, and he’s a UFA.

CB Jabari Greer is our other “big-name” free agent. Unless you’re interested in two crap-tastic centers (Melvin Fowler, Duke Preston), those first two names are the beginning and end of our “appealing free agents” list.

Yep, I remember your kind words when Mr. Everett got hurt, Trinidad. They’re still appreciated.

It’s both D scheme of our opponents and better line play. Our crappy center, Duke Preston, borderline man-handled the Jets’ Kris Jenkins last week (though he had help). We’ve been running REALLY well lately. Our only issue is that we continue to put the ball in the hands of J.P. Losman. Put me in at QB and let me hand off to Marshawn and Fred Jackson 45 times, and we win.

That’s a tough one. REALLY tough. I like Brandon Marshall a lot, if only because he’s the type of receiver the Bills have never had – tall and nasty. He and Lee Evans would be an incredible tandem. But QB is easily the most important position on the field, so I’m going with Cutler.

I was never completely sold on J.P., though I lobbied hard for him to get playing time, because I’ve seen this franchise run through enough young QBs too quickly. Alas, that wasn’t meant to be, thanks to Vince Wilfork’s elbow and Trent Edwards’ solid rookie season as J.P.’s replacement.

As for rumors about goats and webbed feet… well, the goats would explain his facial hair, and we’d always heard rumors that he was raised by ducks. That was just a rumor though; ESPN doesn’t touch those. Wait…

And yeah, I think Edwards has the goods to be a very solid, Chad Pennington-esque quarterback in this league. Again, not sold though. He needs to play, and Bills fans (and the Bills themselves) need to be patient with him. That said, I’d jump at the chance to land a guy like McNabb in the off-season.

Yes and no. Trent Edwards practiced today, and signs are great that he’ll make his first start this Sunday since hurting his groin in our loss to SF. If Edwards ends up not going, however, Gibran will start – relegating J.P. Losman to #3 status.

Gibran is a 27-year-old, five-year vet (I think) out of Indiana that has thrown two NFL passes. So if I’m you guys, I’m crossing my fingers that Edwards has a groinular setback this week.

If you’re talking about Buffalo’s worst draft picks, 2007 would be fourth-round RB Dwayne Wright and 2008 would be third-round DE Chris Ellis.

If you’re talking about general NFL draft picks, 2007 would be Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell and 2008 would be, to this point, Lions OT Gosder Cherilus.

But it’s too early to judge any draft picks from these two classes. Just my opinion.

The past decade of futility is definitely far more frustrating than four Super Bowl losses – to me, at least. I’m only 23, so I was 5, 6, 7 and 8 years old as the Bills were losing those Super Bowls. I remember being saddened by those losses, but wasn’t emotionally invested in the team at those tender ages as I am today. Now that I’m what you like to call a “real man”, I can say that when I was a kid, at least we were winning something.

Jim Kelly is nothing short of a cult hero in Buffalo. I thought he was always kind of a doofus, but he’s a lovable doofus. He was an outstanding quarterback – unflappable, tough, relentless. Obviously he was very prolific, and led some of the most explosive offenses in NFL history. You can’t go wrong when your QB ends up being a first-ballot Hall of Fame player.

I’d rank Kelly Top 10 all-time, but obviously, there are some quarterbacks – retired and current (and no, I’m not talking about Brett Favre) – that rank higher. Dan Marino doesn’t count.

Three answers…

- In my noodle, their most important off-season move would be getting far bigger and more physical in the front seven. I want two 350+ defensive tackles on this team, and I want schematic flexibility in terms of having edge rushers that can put their hand in the dirt or rush from a standing position. In the team’s noodle, they’ll probably work on re-signing some key free agents (Jabari Greer is a big one) and then getting bigger in the trenches.

- Poz has been OK. He’s the team leader in tackles, but our defense is highly average, and he hasn’t made a lot of big plays (1 pick, 1 fumble recovery). He’s a good football player, but he’s not a guy you can build a defense around.

- Getting bigger in the front seven, once again, will be a draft priority. DTs B.J. Raji and Terrence Cody are already my two favorite prospects. DE (our pass rush is AWFUL) and C (our centers are AWFUL) will be priorities too, as well as depth at LB and perhaps, if we’re lucky, a starting free safety.