Nice Post Matt

I’ve been on the keep Schonert around at least one more year camp for a while now. He was essentially a rookie – so we should at least give him another shot at this thing and show what he can do.

As you pointed out – we progressed in a lot of areas – this is a good thing folks.

When he got blasted throughout the year it was usually a play or two a game that everyone threw their hands up in the air and questioned the playcalling. I usually thought by looking at the whole game that he was actually pretty good.

I saw a LOT of plays that weren’t run correctly, missed assignments, dropped balls, in accurate throws that if those things weren’t done we’d have even better numbers. How many times did we see someone drop a screen pass?

All in all – I definately think we need to give him at least another year. I don’t think he’s horrible like everyone says. Just needs a little more experience and grooming. Also, as you point out – a few more weapons.

highlights a couple of things. One) it wasn’t all Turk’s fault. But 2) the personnel is just not that great the skill positions besides RB. Until we find a complement to Mr Lee Evans, a guy that can catch just as many balls as Lee can or more, this offense will be stuck in mediocrity. We have the huge OL, the 2 solid RB’s, the blocking TE, the deep threat, an underneath 3rd down WR in Reed. But besides that the talent is bare at the WR/pass catching TE position. Needs to be addressed and soon. Steve Johnson could be a nice underneath guy as well, and that would be awesome to pluck a 7th rounder into a contributor on offense, but this offense needs one more weapon. Badly.

At the end of the day however, offensive success is predicated on scheme and QB play. So the real question you should ask is do you trust Turk to get better with scheme and playcalling and Trent to get better at executing it?

i don’t expect that. The ratio was like 51/50 last year and with a 3rd year QB coming into his own, I expect if anything for him to wing it more. They just need to run better early in the game, so Trent can relax, PA pass, and play with a lead for once in a blue moon would be a nice change

Many of you seem to be looking back at the “good old day” of the 2008 season (must have been very early).
Perhaps a refresher is in order?

From “Bills failing schedule, divisional tests”:

#1: Play calling – This is a topic I plan on exploring further tomorrow morning. Buffalo’s offense has become as easy to read as a Dr. Seuss limerick. Formationally, the Bills are giving away their intentions on about 90% of their plays – and that was as of two weeks ago; nothing has changed since. They’ve abandoned the run too quickly, despite not losing any of their last three games by more than 10 points. The predictability is, at least in part, responsible for the bad play of the offensive line – it’s hard to block defenders who know what’s about to happen. It’s gotten so bad that I have officially begun to refer to the Bills’ offensive coordinator as Turk Schonert-Fairchild-Mularkey. So if you see “T S-F-M” around these parts, thats who I’m referring to. (What’s more, Mularkey is now mentoring the best young QB in the game, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan. The football gods hate us.)

also these two articles dedicated to the subject.
http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2008/11/11/658312/predictable-bills-play-cal
http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2008/12/15/692719/fateful-bills-play-call-is

Have we forgotten the pleas for more screen passes, more slants, more runs to the outside for God’s Sake, etc. Saying Turk is better than Fairchild is like saying dog poop smells better than cat poop!!!! Couldn’t the better production have more to do with Edwards and Lynch having more experience rather than Turk being better than Fairchild. Given the chance, I would still ax the guy.

http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2008/12/3/678706/comparing-first-year-offen

Fellow SBN blogger Taiko at Turf Show Times rates the first year offensive coordinators around the league.

Nobody here ever questioned Turk’s ability to get production out of his QB and having been an NFL QB for ten years and a QB coach after that I would expect no less. MRW, your article fails to address any of the problems we actually have with Turk. Abandoning the run inside the five, Turk abandoning the run ALTOGETHER by the 2nd quarter, the utter absence of a running back in the backfield even on 1st and 2nd downs, leaving the defense with no questions as to the fact that we were throwing, and a refusal to ever, EVER, take a deep shot despite having Lee Evans on the roster. So your article demonstrates he is a great QB coach but it does nothing to address the fact that as an offensive coordinator, who is responsible for getting an entire offensive unit to work like a well oiled machine and to keep defenses guessing, he utterly failed last year. YPA is no defense of Turk. He is my least favorite part of the Bills sans Preston. I still maintain that Turk cost us at least 2 or 3 games last year and maybe more, with his horrendous playcalling.

Pretty cool site.

I found this stat – Quality Standings.

Shows how teams performed against the quality teams in the league. Guess where we were…..right at the bottom. Winless against good teams, same as Detroit, Cincy and KC. To top it off, we lost those games 24.6-12.9. Pathetic….We are so far from being a good team it’s disgusting….

Carry on

Consistent use of the Play Action. And by that, teach the players how to run it effectively.