| OCinBuffalo |
09-02-2011 04:27 PM |
Hey All. Bills fan here. Thought I would drop by and talk football.
I read through the thread looking for info on what you think about the Bills/Chiefs. Thought you might some accurate info on the Bills. Do not go looking for it at ESPN, as they can't even get our players names right :D While we hate it, we understand it. You can't lose for a decade and...etc.
I am going to speak in terms of the general feeling of our fans, not personal opinion. You can see it for yourself at 2 Bills drive. I am just a poster there, not a mod, etc. However, 2 Bills Drive is pretty much the definitive message board for the Bills.
Offense
QB
Our starting QB is Ryan Fitzpatrick, not Trent Edwards. I believe Edwards is about to get cut by the Raiders. Anyway, we like Fitz, but we don't have very high hopes for him. The problem is: you simply don't know what he is going to do from game to game, because...
O line
Is awful. Then, it's not. Then it is. The general consensus is that we need upgrades here. I don't know how good your pass rush is, but, if you have any studs, they will probably get a few sacks. If the O line is off, your guys will pad their stats. The saving grace here is the offense Chan Gailey(Head Coach/Offensive Coord) is running. We throw a lot of screens/quit slants, so we only really pass protect every 8th play or so. And, we can run the ball with Fred Jackson.
RB
Speaking of Fred, CJ spiller is not the starter on this team, yet. Jackson is who you have to worry about. He is a player. If he played for the Jets/Pats, you'd know exactly who he was. Spiller has looked much better so far, but he still hasn't exactly learned how to allow a play to set up and follow his blocks, one cut and go, etc. But, last game he ran for 35 yards on one play, against the Lions starters, by doing all of those things right, so who knows? The one thing to look for in this game is you ending up with a LB trying to cover our RBs. Good luck with that. If we get any big plays, this is how.
TE/WR
The TE position on this team has been a joke for a long time. We'll see how our new guy does. Steve Johnson is a #1 WR. If you don't have any tall and/or physical DBs, he can hurt you. We really don't know who #2 is, yet. We have a bunch of big, tall guys that are all TO wannabes. The general feeling is that Roscoe Parrish in the slot is so/so. (Personally, I think Roscoe having a big game is the only way we do anything on O, and the RBs catching balls.)
Defense
D Line
Marcell Dareus will be Defensive Rookie of the Year unless Von Miller stands on his head. Dareus has blown up multiple double teams, and frankly embarrassed people. They have pulled him out of games to avoid injury, even with the starters still in there. Our run Defense is massively improved. Kyle Williams is playing well. This is the one position where we now have quality starters and depth. We have been screwing around playing both 4-3 and 3-4, but we finally have the players to make that work. You will probably have to beat us with the pass.
LB
Merriman. It's all about Merriman. We may not get Andrew Luck next year because of him. :banghead: When he has been in, it's literally been lights out. They haven't played him much since the first game, because he showed everything he needed to in that game. Again, avoiding injury, etc. Our other OLB, Kelsay, has been a fan whipping boy for years. Nobody knows why he is on the team, never mind starting. We got lucky by getting ILB Barnett and Davis in FA. We also drafted a few young LBs that look good. But, this entire unit depends on Merriman staying healthy. If he is in there, (and believe me I am shocking myself by writing this, so I can only imagine your reaction), the Bills look like an elite Defense...even with Kelsay.
DB
We have had some good CBs here for a while, but, this year they have looked only OK. We haven't run anything but vanilla defense so far, so it's hard to tell. I am thinking that this unit will probably get over a lot because of the improved front 7. That's good, because they are probably average.
ST
We have taken a step back on ST in preseason this year. Our kicker can hit from 50 consistently, our punter is top 3 in the league, but our cover guys look awful. Same with return. We'll see if that changes if Roscoe returns punts and Jackson returns kicks, because neither has all preseason.
Well, that's it then. I would be shocked if we win. So would most of our fans. Most likely it will be a punt fest, until our D gets tired and you start putting a few plays together. We don't expect our O to do anything because our line sucks. Of course, we are talking the Bills, so anything can happen. :D Even in the SB years, this was the case.
From what I can tell, the only thing that saves us is if you turn the ball over.
My pick: Cheifs 23 Bills 10....and the TD comes from our D.
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