Poll: What Is The Buffalo Bills' Biggest Problem Right Now?

Fitz has played up and down – his OL and WRs have not played up to par in the past few weeks. QBs who start drives knowing their defense will give up points will try to score points and force plays. But hes not the biggest problem…

Injuries happen to ALL NFL teams. GB won the Super Bowl without Jermichael Finley or Barnett. Injuries alone don’t cause a team to lose (provided they have DEPTH).

Coaching on the offensive side of the ball has been good – great at times and poor at others but overall good. Edwards (DC) hasn’t gotten a scheme that can stop a high school team right now. This is a close # 2.

However, our lack of a pass rush has let QBs get comfortable and pick our CBs apart. A pass rush upsets the rhytem and confidence of a QB which affects plays even when there is no pass rush.

We need to get to the QB….

In our last 4 losses, NYG, NYJ, Dal, Mia… These have been the stats for the QB’s.

Eli Manning: 66% 0 sacks
Mark Sanchez: 71% 1 sack
Tony Romo: 88% 0 sacks
Matt Moore: 71% 1 sack

QB’s have all day to sit back there and complete passes, I know our Pass D hasnt been the best, but you cant cover for 4-5 seconds.

The better defenses seem to have pre-snap movement. They originally set up in one look but several players shift to present a new look. This is not done every single play, but those defenses do it often enough to put some hesitation and doubt into the minds of the O players.

Overload blitzing, that is more rushers to one side of the offense, is effective and underutilized here.

This defense seems to be of the read-and-react variety. Historically these defenses give up yards, TOP etc, but prevent TDs. Problem is most defensive players are taught to be aggressive in their play. Read-and -react curtails this “instinct” and seems to make the Bills players a step late to where they should be.

I want most of the D-men flying to the ball, not thinking about more than one thing. The MLB (play caller) should be analyzing and adjusting the D and then the other guys just do it.

we face all of these problems at each games but we saw them at their top level on the last three games.when we have only one or two problems on a game we are close to the other team.on sunday we must have a good QB,pressure, healthy players and a good coaching in we don’t want to be destroyed again

Injuries and depth.

simply because when the coach stands at the podium and says he doesnt know what the problem is with this team or he would fix it, that is a problem! I feel the problem is the injuries piling up and no good players (or players with heart and fight) to back fill. Why cant he see it?

Just reiterating what has been said above, but I think it’s the pass rush. I think our troubles stem from the defense…when our defense makes stops consistently (well, gets TOs), our offense played better. Our lack of pass rush has created a void in the TOs, and as a result, we are allowing other teams to score at will. I blame the defense mostly, and the reason is the lack of pass rush.

Aren’t they all somewhat interlinked?

I picked QB play. While I still feel Fred Jackson is the heart and soul of the team and the biggest factor to their hot start, it’s hard not to notice that the games they’ve lost recently match up with Fitzpatrick sliding back down where he’s tended to sit. I think he had been playing well above his ceiling and there was no way he could maintain the level of play he saw. So I think Fred proved unbeatable when Fitzy provided that added element of a high-scoring, efficient passing attack.

But part of that lies in coaching. Gailey needs to have a backup plan for the way he uses he QBs skills. At this point I have to wonder if he’s thrown his arms up in the air and telling Fitzpatrick to just wing it as he sees fit.

Before the season there was not an indentified playmaker on the team. Fred Jackson stepped up an took that role. His screen plays are or were a thing of beauty. No one else has stepped forward. An arguement can be made towards David Nelson or Scott Chandler but the offense hasn’t exactly zero’d in on those two, like a Welker or a Whitten we are still trying to run the same offense as the first six weeks and defenses are up to speed with us.

Pass Rush is what it is. We come up with ten sacks in one game to little to no pressure in the following three. Not sure how this can’t be addressed by coaching to at least disquise things to keep the pressure at least a thought.

i said coaching because they need to adjust to stop the bleeding and they have so far failed to adjust.

after that, yes our pass rush is terrible.

i may be dreaming, but i’d like the bills to go after peyton manning. in the draft we need to get a linebacker and or defensive end that can rush the passer. an elite or very good cb, and a wr that can be a star.

pass rush is large too as qb’s completing 70-80+% is a formula for defeat. But is it the players or coaches not putting them in a position for success? The DL is strong but unless its #78 you cant expect huge pressure. Blitz those hungry, fast young backers, dont drop them in coverage! Further please never blitz #31 again, leave him in coverage & let the bigger LB’s hunt down the qb.

In fact it’s all of the choices but that’s exactly why we hire good coaches.

Fitz has been struggling since the pass protection has been poor and since he no longer has been getting great field position off of turnovers.

The Defense has not had a decent pass rush all season so as much as I want to blame it on that, I can’t. The coaching staff should be able to find ways of manufacturing pressure other ways.

The obvious choice would be lack of depth because injuries are killing us. But again, the coaching staff are well aware of the players they have and it’s their job to optimize what we have and make judicious choices. Not allowing Moats to get better at Pass-rush was an error, not being able to find ways of involving Spiller, not getting Chandler more involved, moving Levitre to center last week, sticking with Smith on Kickoffs and the list goes on… Not the greatest coaching decisions.

To me it’s up to the coaching staff to constantly adjust to the situation, which i find they’ve done a poor job at.

Why does it have to be black and white? I think you outlined all of the reasons why this team is falling; meaning if they fixed one of these problems they still wouldnt be a strong team. I think it starts with injuries, and then snowballs from there. But QB play is weak, due to lack of WR play ( how many of those picks he threw were tip balls), due to Injury. CB play is horrible, due to lack of pass rush, due to injury. Playcalling on offense has been bad, they havent given Freddy the ball enough (20 touches only 3 times this year?)he is our first down maker, the guy that moves the chains. Edwards cant call a d game to save his life, because he is trying to make up for the lack of pass rush. I think all these things are problems, it stems from Injuries which can be labeled as depth. However, end of the day I still like Fitzy, we need to get him some weopons and run the ball more. Keep our defense off of the field and the ball in freddies hands. Even CJ is running good, if they dont want to give fred as many touches, feed CJ the ball.

Coaching because it kind of reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons where Ned Flanders’ beatnik parents take an unruly little Ned to a psychiatrist in an effort to fix his problems.

 The beatnik parents say something that reminds me of our coaching plan since the struggles began: “You gotta help us, doc. We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.”

I chose lack of pass rush, but confused as to whether that is because of coaching or injuries or qb play. let me explain.
Why its coaching-No matter who we bring in or what scheme we use, there does not seem to be enough pass rush. There is no way that we cannot generate more pressure from our corners, safeties or lb’s.
Why its injuries-obviously we have no depth left. You can only lose so many people, but somewhere, if you want to be paid like a pro and be a on a pro team, its time to make a name for yourself.
Why its qb play-Maybe Fitz looks great all week long and struggles on gameday because he has the porous the defense to practice against all week. Had he had his first string d in there, like he started, than maybe he’d be more prepared. Once our defense seemed to get weaker, so did the play of Fitz. Just a thought.

Is it possible to just come out and say “Football” is the problem for this team? The weeks since the bye have really only gone to emphasize this view.Whatever fire and spirit we had in the first half seemed to leave that one week we stopped playing (I hate bye weeks anyhow, teams tend to stumble out of them lethargic).

But the abysmal play has got to fall on the shoulders of the coaches, and not just X’s and O’s. Let’s face it, the Bills are being physically overpowered. You can just see the opposing players licking their chops. Mediocre QB’s look like Brady clones, rookies are having career days, skilled veterans are pading their stats. Sure, the the Bills turn in the occasional great play, perhaps a broken tackle or two by Freddie, but they are exceptions. Fitz looks skittish, receivers are frustrated and the defense bewildered. Each injury, like a body blow seems to take more fight out of the team.

This is what separates good coaches from great ones. I like Gailey and the lack of talent and depth certainly make is job difficult; but to lose the way Bills have has these past three weeks falls on his shoulders. These players are professionsals, yet they are performing like a JV team…unquestionably the worst in the league right now. Maybe they believed the early hype making fall more demoralizing. At some point they need to pick themselves off the turf.

You ask what is the biggest on-field problem facing this team right now? Injuries, pass rush and QB play are all huge in their own right and are often the difference between winning and losing. However, It is coaching that can at least ensure the team competes, even when faced with these challenges. And if the Bills fight for it, they may actually win a game or two down the stretch.

yes all teams have injuries, but if we still had at least 4/5th’s of our opening week starting line intact, we are at least competitive week to week and can sustain some drives and take pressure off of our still mostly horrible defense. It also ties into our lack of depth obviously. If we take yet another 20 point plus beating again this week to the Fat Man, our season is completely over.

this team wasnt deep enough to survive a bad injury toll. Looks like Rumblers were right.

Missed multiple weeks: Best offensive lineman, best defensive lineman, best cornerback, best pass rusher, starting LT, fastest skill player, 2nd round cornerback, #2 receiver, second best pass rusher

Missed games during the slide: best DB, best skill player

But the injury list is an even bigger problem IMO. I don’t remember a season where the injury gods have peed on us quite like this.
I would like to see Edwards canned and Wannstedt promoted. That would certainly help.

The injuries hurt, but we were also outscoring opponents in our early wins. The offense can’t score anything now, and I can’t lay all that on injuries either. I tend to lay the offense problems on the coaching staff for not readjusting the offense once opposing defenses adjusted to what we were doing early in the year.

I know as a fan I feel like we have to have productive drives on every offensive possesion to stay in the game. I would assume the players on the team feel the same way. It contributes to momentum and the psyche of the team.

Basically, I think our horrendous pass D causes the offense to press. We haven’t been able to run a normal gameplan after the 1st half because be are spotting teams 3 TD’s by then. The pressure to be near perfect on O coaches and players is leading to some of their issues.

Than lack of talent on roster and inability to address need for talent. FO?

Injuries are a part of football, every team has them. I don’t think the Bills are any worse than any other team to be honest. However as Poz and Grey Squirrel have said above, plenty of Rumblers knew once they hit then there would be a massive dropoff with this team. It was great to finally see a Bills team that was competitive, Chix has built that over the last 2 years – they now have really quality 1st options in most areas. However the 2nd or 3rd choices are still the same old guys that went 0-8 at the start of last year and once they started relying on them it was always going to get ugly. So hopefully we can get everyone back healthy next year plus add a decent corner, depth on the Oline and of course the demon pass rusher and maybe, just maybe, they will have a fighting shot at the playoffs.

I’ve changed my mind…now that Freddie’s done for the year, I vote Injuries.

To me it has to be talent or depth…its hard to execute any game plan when the players dont peform or arent capable of performing. I learned that lesson a lot this year coaching myself. A Coach can only do so much in terms of preparing the players…once They are on the field its up to the guys wearing the jerseys. There have been times where the coaches looked overwhelmed but talent can mask over certain coaching shortcomings but it doesnt always work vice versa…

I will now go bang my head against the wall to knock some sense back into myself.

I picked ‘injuries’ with a strong mental second ‘pass rush’, and it seems to me everyone else is with that.

You could say, of course, that what we really mean is that we lack depth, especially in OLB, but that’s splitting hairs.