This Isn't a Matter of a Tweak or Two...

82CardsGrad

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Maybe I'm alone here...but, for all the preseason hype about this team retaining "all" of their key players from a year ago and then adding meaningful help, and for all the talk about this team being a favorite to win the NFC and represent, if not win the Super Bowl, I'm stunned by just how comprehensively BAD the team really is. What we saw in preseason has now played out thus far in the regular season. There literally isn't one area, one unit on this team that we can point to and say Yes, they're playing well... Not one! Maybe our defensive secondary... But that's it!
On defense, we can't stop the run and we can't get to the QB. I'm sorry, but Chandler Jones and Markus Golden have shown me zero. And please spare me the stats for Jones. Stats can often be misleading and in his case, they are. I'd love to see him make plays when the heat of the game is on the boil! I'd love to see him make a play when the opposing team needs to convert a critical 3rd down...
Minter...I have never found any meaningful value in the guy and I still don't. Deone is simply playing out of position and I'm just about at the point where I conclude this is a failed mission... He's too small to play Linebacker, period... Our 3 down linemen (choose whatever three you'd like), are literally open doors. The Bills had more rushing yards in the first half today than they've had in a half since 1995!! But yea, we've improved...

On offense, the play calling is beyond suspect. How can this team continue to be so horrible in the first quarter of games? Palmer looks old and slow. And with the exception of Larry and Jaron Brown, our WR's have been horrendous. TJ is right - trade Floyd now before his value completely tanks! Our TE's are virtually non-existent...
David Johnson has been bottled up... and again, spare me his stats. I have no doubt that he is extremely frustrated by how the first 3 games have played out.
Our o-line looks completely lost and out of sync.
And then there is our "special" teams... Don't even know where to begin here. In short, we have the worst special teams unit in all the NFL and there is not a close second. I can't understand how Butler is still with us... Kanaday is brutal as our long-snapper. And in both kick and punt returns, we have ZERO threat...

No, this isn't about a small adjustment here or there... This threat to win the Super Bowl team actually requires MAJOR work. Major adjustments across the entire team, including coaching! This Bills game was supposed to be the start of a very winnable 4 game stretch as next are the Rams at home, then at the 9ers and home against the Jets. I would not at all be surprised to see us go 1 and 2 over the next three...

Wow... Just wow...
 

Cheesebeef

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yeah... I'm starting to dial back my expectations for this team. HB ain't the HB and might not be this year. The pass rush is still pretty much non-existent save the occasional sack here or there. The run defense has gotten worse the last two years and save one great quarter against Tampa, the offense, which was scintillating last year, has been pedestrian at best. Oh, and the ST are AWFUL. That's a lot of problems to find solutions to.
 

Shaggy

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I don't think this team will make the playoffs. Its sad to see the drop they have taken even with the same players on the team from last year. I believe they have talent, but are not being used correctly. The first 20 scripted or so plays are whats killing the offense. Palmer needs the ability to make its own decisions while on the field. This team is the laughing stock of the NFL right now, even with Pitt only scoring 3 points.
 

Cheesebeef

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I don't think this team will make the playoffs. Its sad to see the drop they have taken even with the same players on the team from last year. I believe they have talent, but are not being used correctly. The first 20 scripted or so plays are whats killing the offense. Palmer needs the ability to make its own decision while on the field. This team is the laughing stock of the NFL right now, even with Pitt only scoring 3 points.

come on... I'm a world renown darksider, but we're not a laughingstock right now. We're scuffling pretty bad, but the season ain't over... yet. We lose next week and it probably takes a miracle run to get into the playoffs.
 

cardpa

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Maybe I'm alone here...but, for all the preseason hype about this team retaining "all" of their key players from a year ago and then adding meaningful help, and for all the talk about this team being a favorite to win the NFC and represent, if not win the Super Bowl, I'm stunned by just how comprehensively BAD the team really is. What we saw in preseason has now played out thus far in the regular season. There literally isn't one area, one unit on this team that we can point to and say Yes, they're playing well... Not one! Maybe our defensive secondary... But that's it!
On defense, we can't stop the run and we can't get to the QB. I'm sorry, but Chandler Jones and Markus Golden have shown me zero. And please spare me the stats for Jones. Stats can often be misleading and in his case, they are. I'd love to see him make plays when the heat of the game is on the boil! I'd love to see him make a play when the opposing team needs to convert a critical 3rd down...
Minter...I have never found any meaningful value in the guy and I still don't. Deone is simply playing out of position and I'm just about at the point where I conclude this is a failed mission... He's too small to play Linebacker, period... Our 3 down linemen (choose whatever three you'd like), are literally open doors. The Bills had more rushing yards in the first half today than they've had in a half since 1995!! But yea, we've improved...

On offense, the play calling is beyond suspect. How can this team continue to be so horrible in the first quarter of games? Palmer looks old and slow. And with the exception of Larry and Jaron Brown, our WR's have been horrendous. TJ is right - trade Floyd now before his value completely tanks! Our TE's are virtually non-existent...
David Johnson has been bottled up... and again, spare me his stats. I have no doubt that he is extremely frustrated by how the first 3 games have played out.
Our o-line looks completely lost and out of sync.
And then there is our "special" teams... Don't even know where to begin here. In short, we have the worst special teams unit in all the NFL and there is not a close second. I can't understand how Butler is still with us... Kanaday is brutal as our long-snapper. And in both kick and punt returns, we have ZERO threat...

No, this isn't about a small adjustment here or there... This threat to win the Super Bowl team actually requires MAJOR work. Major adjustments across the entire team, including coaching! This Bills game was supposed to be the start of a very winnable 4 game stretch as next are the Rams at home, then at the 9ers and home against the Jets. I would not at all be surprised to see us go 1 and 2 over the next three...

Wow... Just wow...

Trust me, you are not alone. My greatest fear is that we had the Palmer career year last year and now we have the regular Palmer who makes as many mistakes as he makes good decisions. Those INTs today were brutal. Teams have figured out how to defend this offense and BA and staff are not making adjustments/changes to counteract that. Teams run at Bucannon and Golden who loses contain on his side all the time. The John Brown experiment should be over. He's at best a #4 receiver who you send in to stretch a defense and nothing more. Jaron Brown should be seeing more snaps than Floyd. JJ Nelson is a waste of a roster space. BA thinks because he had success with Hilton in Indy that it will work all the time.

The team has TEs who can contribute but BA doesn't believe in using them in the passing game. They should be placing a call to Leach and offering him $2MM to come out of retirement. Right now this team is a mess.
 

BillsCarnage

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Hey, i've thought since early in the off season i was concerned about how the team would react mentally from the Carolina game. Everything BASK has touched the past three seasons has been turned to gold until that game.

I've had that gut feeling this is the year things dont work out as expected. i hope i'm wrong, but the PO's are moving farther away.
 

oaken1

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I don't think this team will make the playoffs. Its sad to see the drop they have taken even with the same players on the team from last year. I believe they have talent, but are not being used correctly. The first 20 scripted or so plays are whats killing the offense. Palmer needs the ability to make its own decisions while on the field. This team is the laughing stock of the NFL right now, even with Pitt only scoring 3 points.
heard the announcers saying BA scripts the first 30 plays... THIRTY!! Holy crap that's half of our offense...

even with how poorly they have been playing there are a couple stats that do actually tell the tale......

we have been winning in yards

we have been winning in time of possession

we have been losing the turn over battle....

our offense moves the ball, but poor decisions at very bad times are what has been costing us games.
 

Russ Smith

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As bad as we played good snap we beat NE. Today take away that cluster bleep where DJ trips over his own man and falls down when he has a TD, then we get a delay on 4th and 2 and have to kick the FG and bad snap turns that into a Buffalo TD. take that away it's 23-14 and it's a game.

We're not getting the big plays this year in part because Brown and Nelson are not healthy in part because teams are scheming to stop them. Now we need guys to step up, right now only DJ and Fitz have. Look at that one short pass in the flat Palmer unloads quickly to beat the blitz, hits his 270 pound TE perfectly and a 190 pound CB comes up wraps up Niklas and throws him down like a rag doll. We need guys to make plays, break a tackle get YAC, the only guy doing it right now is Fitz at WR and DJ at RB.
 

Cheesebeef

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Hey, i've thought since early in the off season i was concerned about how the team would react mentally from the Carolina game. Everything BASK has touched the past three seasons has been turned to gold until that game.

I've had that gut feeling this is the year things dont work out as expected. i hope i'm wrong, but the PO's are moving farther away.

the big question is can Arians adjust? he Seahawks looked awful at the beginning of last season and probably would have stayed that way but carrol adjusted his offense completely from running to passing and they started to play well. You see Bellicheck adjust his game-plan when injuries occur. If Bruce wants to be mention with those two guys, he has to adjust something... big with this team because right now, what he did last year ain't cutting it.
 

Chopper0080

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i disagree with the premise that a lot of this team's issues are not fixable. Our defense can improve it's run fits, and will gel more in the backend when Mathieu gets back. with Mathieu back, the short passing game will be more difficult, and it will help the outside pass rush. Rucker being out hurts more than we would hope, but hopefully the young guys step up.

Offensively it just requires some tweaking by Arians. We need to develop more of a rhythm in the passing game which probably means Floyd will get less snaps because he has been inconsistent. Either more TEs sets or Jaron Brown is my guess but I coul dbe wrong. e may look to run the ball more, but until Mathis is back, it will be tough.

Special teams is unfixable until the are coached better. Our ILBs will continue to be a huge issue. Those are the only real problems that I don't see being solved. How Bettcher is employed and Eric Mangini is not is beyond me.
 

BillsCarnage

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the big question is can Arians adjust? he Seahawks looked awful at the beginning of last season and probably would have stayed that way but carrol adjusted his offense completely from running to passing and they started to play well. You see Bellicheck adjust his game-plan when injuries occur. If Bruce wants to be mention with those two guys, he has to adjust something... big with this team because right now, what he did last year ain't cutting it.
I'm not sure if it's a matter of BA adjusting necessarily. If the players aren't clicking mentally what can he really do? He can change plays, bench players, etc, but ultimately it's up to the players.

Preseason showed this. Sure the score doesnt matter, but these players have been together long enough that Palmer and the O should be able to play catch blindfolded.

There was no rhythm then and its carried into the season.
 

slanidrac16

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The most discouraging thing to me is how we let the obvious beat us. Before the game started I said focus on stoppong McCoy and everything will fall into place. MANY people understood that except our DC.
We should of had 8 in the box to stop the run and keep contain on Taylor.

I know there are many of you thought the same, why not our DC?

The sky hasn't fallen yet, but the clouds are definitely threatening.
 

Russ Smith

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There are definitely execution issues, guys running the wrong route, Palmer throwing into coverage etc. But I think the biggest thing is as they said on the pregame on NBC for the night game, everyone watched the pats take away the deep throws and make it work and that's the blueprint on us until we show we're patient enough to move the ball taking what they give us.

In order to do that, the playcalling has to change too. it's not just Palmer you can't be sending multiple guys deep on damn near every route you have to have more underneath option in the actual playcall so that when teams play deep, we pick them apart underneath. Right now the only dangerous guy touching the ball underneath is Johnson, we need to start getting the ball to Brown(s), Floyd, etc underneath too. Make the defenses come up and then go after them.
 

DeAnna

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[QUOTE="Russ ]that's the blueprint on us until we show we're patient enough to move the ball taking what they give us.

we need to start getting the ball to Brown(s), Floyd, etc underneath too. Make the defenses come up and then go after them.[/QUOTE]

If everyone else can see it, why can't the coaches? Too stubborn?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

WildBB

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They series of gaffs from this team top to bottom is genuinely concerning. Last year the team had the luxury of an easy early schedule and took advantage of it. I didn't respond last week because I wanted to see what happens on their 1st east coast swing. Well they answered, and they are showing that they are not a playoff caliber team.

The 2nd half of last year left a lot to be desired. It took them OT at home to beat a depleted GB team that never should have gotten to that point. They get absolutely throttled in the NFC championship game. It has carried over to this season unfortunately. They've relied on Palmers arm way too much. They haven't shown that they are a well rounded team.

They are starting to realise what they have in DJ and they can still make it to the playoffs BUT they are going to have to win ALL the games they're supposed to (every home game) and steal a couple of road wins that are up for grabs.

Buffalo was undoubtedly an inspired football team. And the Cards should have expected it. They did not obviously raise the bar to their game. 5 three and outs to start a game puts a tremendous onus on the D. And they didn't raise the bar to any level on that side of the ball. 3rd straight week opening 2nd half TD by the opponent.
 

LoyaltyisaCurse

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I don't think this team will make the playoffs. Its sad to see the drop they have taken even with the same players on the team from last year. I believe they have talent, but are not being used correctly. The first 20 scripted or so plays are whats killing the offense. Palmer needs the ability to make its own decisions while on the field. This team is the laughing stock of the NFL right now, even with Pitt only scoring 3 points.
At this point, they are likely to finish third in the division. This team is a 9 win ceiling and a 6 win floor team right now.
 

nashman

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This team still has big talent in a mediocre division, we should still make the playoffs. I wonder if steelers fans are freaking out and saying their team sucks after getting totally bitch slapped today by Philly with a rookie Qb ? This is still a good team the coaches just need to make some adjustments, and hopefully some personnel moves. LS and punter need immediate attention, and the play calling needs to adjust to running, and short and mid range passing instead of everything going deep. We could hope our D coordinator figures out how to make adjustments but that's probably not gonna be rectified anytime soon.
 

WildBB

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This team still has big talent in a mediocre division, we should still make the playoffs. I wonder if steelers fans are freaking out and saying their team sucks after getting totally bitch slapped today by Philly with a rookie Qb ? .

Ain't that the truth. It's been awhile since I've seen the Stealers take one on the chin like they did today.
 

D-Dogg

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As bad as the offense was, I'm terrified with our defense. They are lazy tacklers, get no pressure and suck on third down.

No pass rush at all.

I think we will adjust offensively, but I don't think that's a solution for the D. And that is a long term problem for us.
 

AzStevenCal

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I don't think this team will make the playoffs. Its sad to see the drop they have taken even with the same players on the team from last year. I believe they have talent, but are not being used correctly. The first 20 scripted or so plays are whats killing the offense. Palmer needs the ability to make its own decisions while on the field. This team is the laughing stock of the NFL right now, even with Pitt only scoring 3 points.

I don't know if we'll make the playoffs but I still like our chances. And if we are a laughing stock it's only in relation to our press clippings. All it would take is a couple of wins in a row to put us back on that track and shut up all the TV critics. That said, we're not going to just turn a switch and become a super bowl contender.

Honey Badger is back on the field but he's not that game changer he's been in the past. If he gets all the way back by the time we face Seattle at home (Oct 23rd) and if Carson Palmer settles down a little, we could again be that scary team that destroyed GB last season instead of the team we've looked like ever since. That wouldn't necessarily make us the best team in the league but it would at least give us a chance to compete with just about anybody.
 

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