Anyhow, onto your post:

Marshawn and the STs went way above and beyond tonight to keep our team in it. And as I noted before, asking Lindell for anything past the 40-45 range is just asking for trouble, we gambled and lost big time on that one.

Turk did adjust and he did run the ball more, more than any of us could guess, and it was nice to see our fatties pushing the Browns backwards, that was nice to see. My issue with Turk was that when Cleveland began to sell out on the run, we didn’t use PA to truly make them pay. As you noted Trent start coming alive near the end there, and he was doing well after getting a 2 quarter breather. We need to keep relying on his arm to win the game and just slug it out on the ground, that is if the OLine keeps making holes and Marshawn can stay in one piece till the end of the season. But I am officially worried now about Trent and Turk Brian, I don’t like seeing my QB fall apart on the field and Turk did have a small hand in that by having him throw so often in the 1st from what I’ve read so far.

Coaching change will not come, as much as K, jri, or I would like, but then again Brian, at some point we may need to look into it, but till the season is dead and buried with both feet sticking up we gotta run with what we got.

McKelvin played very well as I have said before, and I think we will have a bit of an issue in a couple of seasons if we somehow resign Greer this offseason, he could make McGee potentially expendable down the road. Also, it was a shame Youbuty was out today, he would have stuck Brady on the CB blitz that Corner missed on, but thats a lot to ask of a 4th Round CB who has barely seen the field till the past 2 weeks.

What were your thoughts on Steven Johnson today btw? He looked mighty good at finding the soft spots in the Cleveland secondary, your thoughts from within the stadium?

As for Stars to lean on, well, that may take some time to for us to get some either through FA or to draft them. But if we do not have stars we cannot have any slack off from the Coaches in that situation then Brian, not one bit. If Football is made up of 4 critical pieces like in a reciepe: Offense, Defense, STs, and Coaching and for the three player portions we are missing key ingredients, or the ingredients are a little past their sell buy date, we need that 4 piece to really take up the slack, and it hasn’t exactly been doing that recently.

I’ll take whatever flames your willing to send my way in my post buddy, just glad we all have a place where we can give our opinions, have them respected, and not take it to heart.

I’ll admit my language got out of hand….I’ll keep it in check in the future, so you have my apologies…….

Frustrating game…..without a doubt…..but the growing pains are hopefully coming to end…..hopefully….I honestly dont know what to say about this game besides the fact that its a typical Buffalo Bills game on the big national stage…..they do just enough to give you hope, but in the end heartache is your end reward.

The OL bounced back -(not sure if it was because of only 3-4 guys on the line as everyone else was dropping into pass coverage or because they got fed up with getting abused) but that second half offense is what needs to be seen week in week out………minus the turnovers of course…..

It obvious the team needs to address the Defensive End and Center positions because those two are obvious weak links (Preston pretty much got abused on every other play, yet again) and it seemed like the only real pressure came from LB’s or DB’s on blitzes…..

Defense played great, sans the one TD run……gotta get our injuried guys back healthy (hopefully Jabari is okay)

I have faith that Trent will get straightened out…..because….well……there is no other choice…We as fans are gonna live or die with number 5 at the helm…..and right now….we’re on life support.

I guess most bills fans over there have a short memory.

last night was that it never really hit me on how young this team actually is…there were like 3 plays in a row where 3 different rookies were called out and I was like wow these are just kids right now…they just need to grow and growing pains suck….but I see this team being very competative

I wish Schonert would have started off running the ball instead of leaving Edwards out to dry again. running the ball after 3 int’s is hardly an adjustment. I think the ol, with some reps, actually were able to get into a groove and it showed. that should be the blueprint going forward, Lynch getting 20-25 carries and Jackson with 10+ carries.
Edwards has completely lost all confidence he gained earlier this year. he’s not throwing the ball before receivers break, instead waiting for them to get open which is usually too late. let’s run the ball and let trent manage the game.

I agree that the Bills biggest problem is a lack of difference making talent. Do we have one player on the entire team (punters don’t count) who is one of the 10 best players in the league at his position? I guess Marshawn? Is anyone else all that close? The Bills need a superstar or two and until we find those guys we will never be an elite team. it is easy to blame the coaches for our inability to look like the Giants or Steelers, but those teams simply have better players than we do.

one question WHY does ML try to dance around the defense instead of run to the hole and hit it hard, with all his talent he should be getting more yards than he has. Even on his TD run he tried to make people miss instead of challenging them. Freddy is that type of runner he hits the hole no fakes just run.

this your single best write up I have seen since the start of Buffalo Rumblings. Given the situation, your ability to sift through all of this and offer a thoughtful, analytical point of view is exactly what I needed this morning as I honestly haven’t been this dejected since my college team, ranked #3 nationally, lost in the first round of the NCAA D-III basketball tourney.

Lee Evans 0 catches. Trent Edwards saw 8 man zone coverages and just had no clue. I hoipe hitting rock bottom as an offense in that 1st quarter will allow Turk/Trent to realize what they have to do now. It is simple. Give Lynch 25 touches a game, find a way to get it to Evans. And use Stevie Johnson, Royal, Fine, Parrish over the middle until Reed comes back.

My #1 need since last offseason adn going into the next continues to be a pass catching TE. As far as this season. Playoffs are out of the question. But 9-7, to post a winning record would be nice.

what has happened is Turk fell in love with Shotgun with Trent. Did you see what happened when they actually ran it out of the shotgun???? It was incredible. Turk wants to whip the ball around, but Trent and his WR’s are not that good yet to do that. He needs to throw the ball no more than 20-25 times a game.

I’m just sick to my stomach and this week is going to be so friggn long…..IF we lose to KC or SF or MIA, I’m going to lose it. I predicted 7-5 with 4 games to go. As a Bills fan I will continue to believe until they are mathematically eliminated, but right now all I want is a hug

I’m really sick of not making the playoffs and having nothing to cheer about for 5/6 of the last games.

I’m sick of nothing positive. I’m sick of the giving the game away on 4 TO’s. And I really do think it is unacceptable to have your premeir $9 million/year WR never touch teh ball. Put him in the friggn wildcat at least!!!!!!!!

Paul Hamilton on WGR said Evans was open on numerous occasions last night. And to be fair, I know the deep ball was taken, but I saw Evans on a few plays I could see on TV and he WAS OPEN. HE WAS OPEN. THERE WERE PLAYERS OPEN.

IT IS SIMPLE…TRENT EDWARDS DOES NOT THROW THE BALL ON TIME….HE DOESN"T TRUST HIS WR’S…..HE IS AFRAID. HE IS AFRAID….HE IS AFRAID….I am putting this team, this season, this franchis moving forward…..100% on Trent Edwards. I love him, I think he CAN be good one day, and HAS ALL THE TOOLS….i.e. the Royal throw on the last drive. He just needs to throw the ball. I don’t know how he gets out of it. BUT IT IS COMPLETELY UP TO HIM.

THAT’s what I have learned from last night. It is all QB play. PLEASE GIVE HIM TIME BILLS FANS…GIVE HIM TIME…..HE WILL BE BACK. You can’t give up on him…you can’t

I don’t know if this is a real flaw in his game, or he just was rattled by the picks in such a big game. Honestly, I haven’t seen a QB that scared in quite some time. He had time and he had a running game in the 2nd half. You got to shake that stuff off. Let’s hope he doesn’t follow the Todd Collins career arc.

The pressure should be off him for a while, as this team has hit rock bottom. No more thoughts of playoffs to provide undue pressure, they just need to play one game at a time. Maybe we’ll get his mojo back by the Toronto game.

I saw a few runs out of Shotgun for Marshawn, and a few passes from under center.

Having the "security blanket’ RB in the flat seemed to work too-while winning the game might have been the best scenario, for the first time in a month I actually saw something positive from the team. Might have been the best thing to happen to Trent to throw three Picks on four drives because someone HAD to trust the running back to get some stuff done.

And lets face it-Lynch is a first round pick for a reason.

That said, I have to say my Sundays are going to feel a lot less urgent for the rest of the year.

of what we might say! By and large, the coaches did a good job.
 
April and his crew kept us in the game all night. Their one mistake was the out of bounds kick. Kick away from Cribbs, squib kick it…fine….but don’t kick it out of bounds and give it to the Browns on the 43yd line for Pete sake!!! “Coaching scared”, maybe?

Fewell actually called some press coverage and dialed up some good blitzes. The defense played well enough for us to win for most of the game. Unfortunately, at the end of the game on the Brown’s last drive, we could not stop the 3rd and long pass that got the Browns into field goal range. Does anyone know why? I thought the Tampa 2 soft zone was designed to stop exactly that play? I would have preferred another blitz. Did Fewell fall back into “coaching scared”? Maybe.

Turk is not to blame for the interceptions. Edwards is, no excuses!!! Edwards problems have already been discussed. I do not think Edwards needs to be replaced, and certainly not with JP (haven’t we made that mistake already with JP’s development?). Turk also called a much better game. Play calling was not as predictable for most of the game. Turk is to blame for calling those three runs at the end of the game. He should have called at least one 10yd pass down the middle to get into better field goal range. I call that “coaching scared” for sure. Turk was afraid to be aggressive and decided to hang it on the kicker with a 47yd field goal that was no gimme.

All in all, we saw “The Good,the Bad, and the Ugly”…. An idea for your next “Movie Post” K?

Or, at least, a veteran guy that can offer veteran leadership. The D is starting to get there, with Mitchell, but the offense really doesn’t have someone in that mold. Someone in the thread last night suggested it be a WR, but I really don’t think the position matters- it’s just an incredibly young team, and young teams do this kind of stuff. It really isn’t a coaching thing (the playcalling doesn’t help, but it isn’t the crux of the problem) or a talent thing even- it’s a locker room/huddle thing, and we just need someone with a presence in those places. IMHO.

Last night, both the players and coaches deserve blames. Maybe the players moreso, but you can’t let the coaches constantly get a pass if players make mistakes. With no accountability, these errors will continue.

I understand your ‘be patient’ theme, but how much longer are we supposed to wait for this to turn around? We’ve been rebuilding for 10 years and are on year 3 of the current phase of it. We heard it would take a good 2-3 years before we saw results, but all we are seeing is the same comedy of errors and undertalented team. In 3 years, we still don’t have a very talented team and that has to start at the top with the personnel departments and in the Bills case, Jauron, who oversees who is brought in. I know I talk way too much about Jauron and his coaching, but this is one aspect of his tenure that really does irk me. He’s been involved in who we bring in, but it still looks like we’re starving for talent. Maybe it’s just missing at the wrong positions (DE, C, S), but it’s part of the reason we’re stuck in mediocrity.

Can we really call it an adjustment? Maybe forced change? Seems like the only reason we started running the ball was because Trent was scared and couldn’t get anything done. We should have been running the ball like that weeks ago. We should have come out running against the terrible Browns’ run D. Instead, our first play is an interception because Schonert hates running it. Argh.

How come every time McGee plays off the line, the play goes to him and is an easy completion? He definitely played up on Edwards more last night than he has on WR’s this year, but he still played off him way too often. Every time he did, the Browns made him pay. Why does Fewell keep moving him back then? And maybe it’s not Fewell (though it has to be because McGee would be told to cut the crap) and McGee just does it on his own, but either way, we get toasted EVERY game because of this. Why, why why!!!!???!!!

This team badly needs a defensive player that can make a play when we need it most. Mitchell seems to be close, but we’ve got no one else it seems. Last night, a play out of someone would have been huge. Instead we had Simpson and McKelvin dropping picks, Corner whiffing on a blitz and nobody getting pressure on Quinn when we needed it most. These guys just HAVE to start making some plays out there if we have any hopes of winning some more games this year. We just don’t get turnovers or sacks, which is something I thought this Tampon 2 (for you Joe) was designed around. I’m sick of watching this regression!!!!

Happy to see McKelvin out there playing well. He finally looks to be totally confident in himself returning kicks. It took him almost half the season before he started making cuts back there and going away from the blocking if something wasn’t there. He’s been excellent the past few weeks because of it. And it’s good to see him out there looking to make plays on D. Wish he could have made that catch last night though. He does need to get better against the run. He seems content just diving on the ground when about to get blocked instead of actually going after the ball carrier.

(For the record, I never left the “I don’t trust Rian Lindell” bandwagon)

I thought you were supremely confident in Lindell??? I mentioned it earlier in the year and I feel like you defended him. Am I misreading this?

He needs a better mentor. Get someone at QB coach or offensive coordinator that has experience and knowledge that can translate into better play for Trent on the field.

Aaron Rodgers had Favre teach him for three years how to have presence in the pocket and keep his focus up the field when the pressure comes. You can see the Favre in Rodgers out on the field.

Matt Cassel sat and watched as Tom Brady picked apart defenses, and absorbed his confidence and work ethic. He looks like Brady’s twin brother out there for the Pats.

Who has Trent had around him to help him mature into a good QB? JP Losman, Gibran Hamdan, Alex Van Pelt, Steve Fairchild, and Turk Schonert. Not my first picks to mentor a young QB.

Who is out there that can help? Here is my short list:

- Norm Chow (he would likely take a job in the NFL if it looked like a good opportunity)
- Steve Sarkisian (has led countless USC quarterbacks to success)
- Gary Crowton (one of the best offensive play callers in college football at LSU)

We need a PROVEN guy. Someone who can lemonade out of this lemon.

Others to consider as just a QB coach:

- Jim Harbaugh
- Trent Dilfer (yes, I think he could be a good mentor for Edwards)
- Jim Kelly (one of the greatest play callers on the field of all time)

Game Notes:
1.Trent Edwards was game M.V.P. of the Cleveland Browns, 3 interceptions in the first quarter, compounded with the fact that we are still seeing nothing much else from him other than dumpoffs constantly and we all seen the wideopen pass that he missed to Lee Evans when their was no one on his side of the endzone!

2.Im not sure on this but it seemed that it was possible that when McKelvin nearly had that interception, that it looked like Reggie Corner nearly or did scoop up the int. before it hit the ground?

3.Wow did Leodis McKelvin ever show up tonight! Great on returns and also good at corner

4.Marshawn Lynch is our true M.V.P. and showed us why tonight despite the lack of any kind of a productive passing game or consistent run blocking. Beastmode was on tonight!

5.Our defense despite being put in many very tough spots to dig themselves out of still held in there and played a respectable game!

6.I was happy to see Stevie Johnson out there and he looked good with every oppurtunity with the exception of one major drop that would have gotten us the first that instead lead to a punt. Props to Stevie J. and I think we found ourselves a winner in him!

7. Yes Lindell missed what would have been the game winning field goal and there’s no excuse for it but in the game of football it happens. One thing I can say for him is that he never should have been in that situation in the first place! It was obvious that we were the better team and this despite 4 turnovers never should have been as close as it was and we have to give a lot of credit to our defense for keeping us in this one through out being put in repeated tough situations early and they held there own.

We’ve got from this moment ths start of a 6 game season, all is not lost so I hope we go out there and set the league on fire for the remaining 6 games-starting at K.C. this sunday! I’ll be there at arrowhead supporting whoever’s our QB and every player in a Bills uniform!

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Oh and BeastMode was on tonight—Along with AirBeastMode!

Why were they running for inches after that great throw by Trent to get us in field goal range. At least try to gain 7-10 more yards for your kicker. We get that first we can totally run out the clock and Lindell gets a 38 yarder. Thats it. I’m done.

even if he makes that kick, the Bills probably would lose on a FG by Dawson….just saying that is our luck

I have decided to throw everything out the window and look at #1 thing. Trent Edwards. I love him. I really do but it is all about him. He has to get better. I hope these hard times, he can fight thru and be a better QB bc of it. BUT WE HAVE TO run the ball like that for him to be successful all the time. What Jason Peters did, on running down the field and FINISHING BLOCKS was PRO-BOWL PERFORMANCE. He was an absolute stud last night