Bandits sign veteran Suddons

With the departure of longtime captain Chris White along with Ian Llord and the the retirement of Daryl Gibson there are some holes to be filled on the Buffalo Bandits defense. The Bandits may have just filled one of those holes with 11 year veteran Derek Suddons. The 6'1" 205 lb Suddons has 17 goals and 65 assists in his career. He participated in the NLL All Star Game in Buffalo last year representing the Edmonton Rush. As is common among veteran NLL'ers Suddons signed with Buffalo so that he was closer to his home and didn't have to travel as much.

Ex-Bandit Ian Llord has signed with the Rochester Knighthawks and Tom Montour has also been offered a contract by the hawks.

Bills Bye over, back to work

The Bills bye week has ended and it is back to work for the crew over at One Bills Drive. Players used the week off to get healthy and relax while coaches were stuck with the task of reevaluating the season and trying to find out what they can do to get this team back on track. The good news for them is that they are technically not that far off track, at least when you look at the standings. When you ask Bills fans where the Bills stand right now things may seem a little more bleak. The Bills defense is historically bad and the offense does not come through in the clutch. Nevertheless the Bills record is 3-4 and in a AFC Conference that is in decline things are actually not as bad as they might seem. There is still a lot of time to make a run, especially with their favorable (maybe not as favorable as we used to think but still) schedule with nine games remaining.
The true measuring stick will be the next two weeks when they play they play two of the top teams in the AFC back to back in Houston and New England. If they could win at least one of these games they will be in a good position to make the playoffs. If they cannot win either game, which seems likely at this point, they would have to win at least five of their last seven to have a shot at the post season. With the NFC currently owning the AFC in head-to-head matchups it is reasonable to think that a team at 9-7 or even 8-8 could make the team as a wild card. After the next two games their opponents records will be a combined 23-29 and the league quarterback rankings by QBR goes 27, 29, 26, 19t, 19t, 27, 30. This team is not that good but they could end up being in the playoff hunt by default.
The Bills are expected to have starting offensive linemen Kraig Urbik and Cordy Glenn back from injury this week. Also cornerback Ron Brooks could be seeing the field soon after now being eligible to return to the team after starting the season on IR. The secondary could use some help but Brooks has missed some crucial playing time for a rookie and will probably need a few weeks to catch up. Another player that is recovering from injury is Mario Williams. He texted a trainer and his D-line coach early in the bye week to notify them that he would be getting a second opinion and later surgery on a wrist injury that has been bugging him all season. He is expected to be ready to go for this week against his former team. Mario has expressed his excitement in the way his wrist feels post operation and it a reasonable conclusion that we should see a difference on the field. Not only not having to tolerate pain but having a renewed confidence in his wrist should bolster his bull rush pass rush approach.
Much has been made by fans about a necessary change to the coaching staff. The bye week was the time to make these changes and none came. Both Gailey and Wannstedt need to pull their games together if they want to be employed by the Bills come next season. Gailey's play calling in crucial situations has been suspect at best. That does not mean that he needs to be conservative by any measure but plays like third down wildcat deep bombs need to be gone. Wannstedt on the other hand just needs to have his defense go out and have a few good showings. Easier said than done but he has the personnel and he has the right opponents to do this against coming a few weeks down the line.

NFL Week 8 Picks

Last week I went 8-5 to improve my overall record to 15-12. I know by now to always pick against the Bills. Washington had the upset in their grasp but Eli Manning did what he does best, come up big in the clutch. Eli hit Victor Cruz with a 77 yard touchdown pass with less than two minutes remaining for the come from behind victory.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota- Vikings
Miami at New York Jets- Dolphins
San Diego at Cleveland- Browns *upset alert
Indianapolis at Tennessee-Titans
New England at St.Louis- Patriots
Jacksonville at Green Bay- Packers
Atlanta at Philadelphia- Falcons
Washington at Pittsburgh- Redskins*upset alert
Carolina at Chicago- Bears
Seattle at Detroit- Seahawks
Oakland at Kansas City- Chiefs
New York Giants at Dallas- Giants
New Orleans at Denver- Broncos
San Francisco at Arizona- 49'ers
Bills- Bye week thank god!

NHL Lockout Continues

The players and owners are still deadlocked when it comes to getting a deal done to rescue the 2012 NHL season. Last week hopes got high that a deal would be struck and hockey would return. The hype now appears to have been a ploy by Gary Bettman to release what looked like a reasonable deal to the public and make the NHLPA look bad when they rejected it. There was two major points that the new proposal got hung up on. First, a 50/50 revenue split was deemed fair by both sides but the players want the decrease ( they were getting 57% in the old CBA) to gradually take place over several seasons. The owners want this change to take place immediately and to impact current contract. That brings us to the second refusal by the players. Players want the current player contracts to be honored by the owners as opposed to to dollar figures changing in accordance with the new revenue sharing model. As of right now no more talks have taken place since the players counter proposals were shot down. The players notified the NHL that they are ready to negotiate further, but no further meetings have been established. Bettman declared that Thursday 10/25 was the last day a new CBA could be agreed upon to ensure a full schedule to begin on 11/2. Some players believe that they have up to a week of wiggle room to hammer out a deal beyond the Thursday deadline. One thing is certain, if a deal is not complete very soon the hockey drought will continue much past Nov. 2.

Super Mario Update

Much has been made about the lack of production by the Bills new $100 million man to this point in the season. Mario Williams has 3.5 sacks through seven games, a stat though not impressing is not indicative of his play on the field. He has been neutralized by opposing tackles from rookies to washed up journeymen. He is currently ranked 32nd in the league in total sacks but lets keep in mind that over half of that came against a dreadful Arizona offensive line. When he does get pressure it is usually a result of Kyle Williams getting a good rush up the middle or the secondary having all the receivers covered. Lately he has been outplayed by Kyle Moore, a guy who didn't see playing time before the injury to Mark Anderson. Nobody knows the real reason for the lack of production by Williams but we sure know the reason he has given.
Mario has talked about a left wrist injury several times to the media without being prompted. He even got the Bills fined $20,000 by the NFL for not putting his injury on the injury report. Williams insists that the injury is hindering his play as he is typically a very physical rusher. As the Bills are on a bye week this week it appears he is finally ready to do something about it. He was absent from the Bills only practice this week because he is going to see a wrist specialist out of town. He may need surgery on the injured wrist and miss playing time as a result. So why wait til now to do this? If it was bothering him this badly he could have gotten it fixed earlier in the season or even earlier this week while he was off. Interesting that the Bills first game out of the bye is against his former team the Houston Texans. If he were to get the surgery done now he would probably miss at least that game if not the Patriots game as well. I am not saying that this is the reason he waited or anything but it is just an interesting note. For the sake of all Bills fans lets hope he can get this sorted out and he returns to his dominant play style that prompted the Bills to sign him, and sooner rather than later as the Bills season hangs in the balance.

UPDATE: Mario Williams has had a procedure done on his wrist to reduce the pain associated with the injury. Chan Gailey expects Williams to be ready for practice next week in preparation for the Texans.

Bandits release Montour & Vyse

Budd Bailey of the Buffalo News reports via twitter @WD2BB "Bandits have released Tom Montour and Roger Vyse" Vyse has been with the Bandits since they drafted him in the 2005 NLL Entry Draft and has played in 89 career games with 115 goals and 141 assists. Tommy Montour started his career in Buffalo before he left in the expansion draft to the Chicago Shamrox, eventually returning in 2009. Montour has played in 105 career games with 50 goals and 99 assists to go with 669 loose balls collected. Steve Dietrich continues his overhaul of the Bandits roster, this will be a very different looking team come January.

Bills-Titans Preview

The Bills enter week seven in a battle for positioning in the AFC East standings with all four teams having a 3-3 record. This week Buffalo plays a Tennessee Titan team that has struggled to this point in the season. The Titans are only 2-4 despite coming off an upset victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers last Thursday night. For the Bills this means facing a team with a renewed sense of confidence that is coming off ten days of rest. If the Bills could take advantage of an ordinary Titans team they will be in great shape entering their bye week. Here are a few storylines heading into Sundays matchup:

-Run D vs. CJ2K. Titans running back Chris Johnson was once regarded as one of the top players in the NFL. In the past two years his play has dropped off significantly. In his defense the Titans offensive line hasn't done him many favors, but that still doesn't justify his rushing yards dropping from 2,006 three seasons ago to 1,046 last season. The good news for Johnson is that he is going against the Bills this week. The Titans are last in the league in rushing yards per game at 70.2, which means 421 yards total this season. The Bills have given up more yards than that just in the past two weeks and are in fact the worst team in the league in rush defense. Who wins a battle of the worsts? I believe the Bills will be able to contain Johnson if they can set the edge on defense and not let him use his speed to get outside. We have seen that the Bills rush defense can be sustainable against average opponents as demonstrated by the Browns and Chiefs games. If the Bills jump out to an early lead we could see the Titans abandon the run early.

-Matt Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck took over the quarterback duties when Jake Locker injured his shoulder in a week 4 loss to Houston. He has thrown for 726 yards with 4 TDs and 4 INTs. He is way past his prime and the Bills secondary could have a nice day reading him and getting a jump on the ball. He better keep track of where the ballhawk Jairus Byrd is or it could be a long day for Hasselbeck.

-Build on Pass Rush. The Bills pass rush had one of their best showings of the season last week versus the Cardinals with 5 sacks. Bills fans are hoping that the line has finally 'gelled' and they may finally live up to their potential. The Titans have been pretty solid along their line and haven't let people get to their quarterback often. The weakest part of their line is the interior so it should be up to Kyle Williams and Marcel Dareus to collapse the pocket from the inside and cause enough havoc for the edge rushers to get there.

-Get Fitz in a groove. The Titans rank 29th in the league against the pass allowing opposing quarterbacks to throw for an average of 292.3 yards per game. Could this be the game where Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick finally turns it around?  He should have the time to pass he needs with one of the best pass protecting offensive lines in the league and a Titans defense that only has 8 sacks this season.

-Play Calling. It is amazing that this actually has to be put as a key to the game but the play calling last week against the Cardinals by Chan Gailey was suspect at best. In a game where you are the better team you do not need to take risks like a wildcat QB throwing a deep pass late in the fourth quarter. Control the game, use the run to set up the pass, play to your strengths and you should be able to pull out a win here. Gailey was lucky the Bills pulled out a win last week or there would have been people calling for his job. If he has another poor week of coaching it just may be enough to make Bills management pull the trigger.

 - Notes: The Bills have four players that are questionable for the game with Kyle Williams, Da'Noris Searcy, Terrence McGee, and Spencer Johnson all dealing with injuries. Of all of them I think the only one in real danger of missing time is Spencer Johnson. Mark Anderson, Cordy Glenn, and Kraig Urbik are out. Shawne Merrimen was resigned by the team this week and according to coach Gailey is up to speed enough to see some playing time. The other roster move that was made this week was the release of recently signed OG Reggie Wells and the promotion of David Snow from the practice squad to the active roster.

Prediction: Bills win the turnover battle and have their way with the Titans on offense. Chris Johnson may break a few but not enough to boost the Titans to victory. Bills 32 - Titans 24

NFL Week 7 Picks

I had an average go of it last week going 7-7 in my predictions. My upset pick of the week Seattle did come through over New England so I do take a little pride in that. Hopefully my record is a little better this week.

Seattle at San Francisco- Seahawks - I know it already happened but I am an honest guy(and 0-1).
Arizona at Minnesota- Vikings
Dallas at Carolina- Cowboys
New Orleans at Tampa Bay- Saints
Green Bay at St. Louis- Packers
Washington at New York Giants- Redskins *upset alert
Baltimore at Houston- Texans
Cleveland at Indianapolis- Browns
New York Jets at New England- Patriots
Jacksonville at Oakland- Raiders
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati- Bengals
Detroit at Chicago- Bears

Tennessee at Buffalo- Bills  Bills go above .500 going into the Bye. Defense is able to keep CJ2000 to a modest day rushing. Fitz controls the game and hands the ball off to Freddie and CJ- seems to be their recipe for success right now.

Bills-Cardinals Reactions

I did not get to watch the entire game live but there are quite a few things to come out of this one:

-Jairus Byrd should start getting recognition as on of the top players at his position in the league. Byrd had two crucial interceptions Sunday including on in overtime that he returned to the Arizona 6 yard line. During his tenure with the Bills he has been one of the most consistent players on the field, especially on defense. He can do it all well. He comes up well in run support, is a sure tackler, and most obviously can read quarterbacks like a book.

-Another savior Sunday (the Bills relied on several) was DT Alex Carrington. His impact was not on the defensive side of the ball but rather on special teams. Carrington was able to deflect the Cardinals potential game winning kick just enough for it to hit the upright thanks in part to a good clearing effort by Kelvin Sheppard. I was one of the people clamoring during roster cuts for this guy to be off the team and I am glad he was able to prove me wrong.

-Stevie Johnson could be one of the best wide receivers in the league...if Fitzpatrick could get him the ball. This has been a long time coming. This Sunday was another game where Stevie was able to get wide open multiple times against one of the best cornerbacks in the league. The problem is that Fitzpatrick cannot seem to get the ball where he needs to. Its not even that Fitz is a little off, he is missing badly. At least give your receivers a chance to catch the ball. If we had a quarterback that could hit receivers in stride this offense could be really good.

-The defensive line could have finally arrived. The Bills were able to muster 5 sacks against the Cardinals including 2 by previously underachieving Mario Williams. Even Kyle Moore made the most of his extended playing time resulting from the injury to Mark Anderson. The run defense still needs some work, surrendering over 180 yards but the pass rush is a start. One thing that makes you second guess this outcome is that the Cardinals offensive line has been absolutely brutal to this point in the season. They have given up 22 sacks over the last 3 games and have had 2 quarterback injuries as a result. So in my opinion the jury is still out on the pass rush.

-One thing that could have really scared Bills fans was the play calling and decision making in key situations. A few of these include having Brad Smith throw a deep pass out of the wildcat with the game tied (it was intercepted), calling a timeout before the 61 yard kick that tied the game, and punting instead of kicking a long field goal in overtime in an attempt to pin the Cardinals deep. These decisions were prime examples of situations where if they work it was a great idea and if you lose it was a dumb call. For the most part the risky play calling did not pay off with the exception of the last case. The punt was a touchback and the Bills intercepted the Cardinals on the position setting up the game winning field goal. Had the Bills lost this game there would have been a lot of fans calling for coaching changes being made, and maybe they would have been right.

Bandits release Llord

The Buffalo Bandits have announced that they have released defenseman Ian Llord. Llord suffered a major injury on a hit in the Bandits loss to the Rock in the playoffs last season and I would guess that he has not fully recovered. The injury seemed to be very serious and could be the type that can end a career. The hit was an ugly one along the boards and there was no penalty called on the play.
The Bandits have also announced that they have come to terms on one year deals with rookie draft picks Wenster Green and Kevin Brownell.

Lockout end in sight?

 

 

The NHL and NHLPA are once again meeting in Toronto today to try and get a deal done to end the labor dispute that has dragged on for just over a month now. Today the NHL announced a new proposal to the NHLPA and the public that includes a 50/50 split of hockey related revenue. If this deal were to be approved the season would begin on November 2, almost a month late, and would still consist of 82 regular season games. A full schedule means the owners still get all of their ticket revenue and fans would not have missed any games. I for one was looking forward to a shortened schedule that would result in fresh players and more meaningful games. Nevertheless I will take hockey wherever I can get it. The NHLPA has scheduled a press conference for 5 PM today to relay their opinion on the proposal and what steps come next. I think the mere fact that this is public knowledge can be seen as positive. I do not think the two sides would want the fans thinking they were close to a deal unless it was true. Have hope hockey fans, the season could be just around the corner.

 

There are rumors flying around that part of the discussions include the expansion of the league by two teams. These teams would be located in Quebec and Toronto. Yes, Toronto would have a second NHL team. I do not know how much truth there is to this but there would be a lot of changes that would have to be made to make this a reality. I wonder why a single city deserves two teams and some cities that want one team do not have them. These cities include more recently Seattle and Hamilton. Should Toronto get a second NHL team?

 

  

Week 6 NFL Picks

Pittsburgh at Tennessee- Pittsburgh

Kansas City at Tampa Bay- Tampa Bay

Indianapolis at New York Jets- Indianapolis

Cincinnati at Cleveland- Cincinnati

Detroit at Philadelphia- Detroit

St. Louis at Miami- St. Louis

Oakland at Atlanta- Atlanta 

Dallas at Baltimore- Baltimore

New England at Seattle- Seattle *upset alert

New York Giants at San Francisco- San Francisco

Minnesota at Washington- Minnesota

Green Bay at Houston- Houston

Denver at San Diego- Denver

Buffalo at Arizona- Buffalo - If the defense can't turn it around today it is going to be rough all season long.

Disagree? comment with your picks and we will see how you stack up.

Bills sign Reggie Wells

The Bills have signed veteran offensive guard Reggie Wells to fill the roster spot vacated by Collin Brown being placed on season ending Injured Reserve. Wells is a former 6th round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2003. He played for the Cardinals for seven years before bouncing around the league, starting 91 games along the way.

This move is made necessary by the Bills offensive line being bitten by the injury bug for yet another season. Starters Cordy Glenn and Craig Urbik were already out with ankle injuries suffered in the New England game and they will not be back for at least another week. Going into the 49'ers game Chad Rinehart, the man replacing Urbik, aggravated a calf injury forcing Collin Brown into the game. Brown played for less than 20 snaps before he too suffered an injury, his to his hamstring forcing third string tackle Sam Young to play right guard. It is expected that Young will play guard for the Cardinals game if Rinehart can't go and while Wells gets up to speed with the playbook. Yeesh

NFL Week 5 Recap

Indianapolis - 30 Green Bay - 27, Andrew Luck drove down the field late to hit Reggie Wayne for a TD to take the lead. Mason Crosby missed badly on a field goal attempt to tie it for Green Bay. Emotional win for the Colts who dedicated their performance to head coach Chuck Pagano who is in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment.

Baltimore - 9 Kansas City - 6, Bills fans thought they had it bad, when Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel left the game with a concussion the Chiefs fans actually cheered. Brady Quinn entered the game for the injured Cassel and actually threw a touchdown but it was called back on a penalty. They settled for a field goal on the drive and the Ravens ran out the clock on the following possession.

Miami - 17 Cincinnati - 13, Quarterback Ryan Tannehill added another solid outing to a surprisingly smooth rookie campaign leading the Dolphins to victory. Mike Nugent missed a field goal in the fourth quarter that would have cut the deficit. The Bengals got the ball with less than 2 minutes to play and Andy Dalton was leading a drive when he was picked off, sealing their fate.

New York Giants - 41 Cleveland - 27, The defending Superbowl Champions handled the Browns quite easily improving their record to 3-2 and giving the Browns an embarrassing 0-5 start. The Giants offense moved the ball at will with Ahmad Bradshaw carrying for a career high 200 yards and Victor Cruz catching 3 touchdowns on the day.

Pittsburgh - 16 Philadelphia - 14, The Eagles took the lead late on a Mike Vick pass to tight end Brent Celek but their defense could not hold the lead. The following possession the Steelers drove down the field and nailed the field goal that would be the eventual game winner. The key stat from this game is 2 Mike Vick fumbles that cost the Eagles dearly, including one on the Pittsburgh goal line.

Atlanta - 24 Washington - 17, Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III was having an uninspiring performance when he went out of the game in the second half with a mild concussion. Kirk Cousins took over for RGIII and hit Santana Moss the go ahead 77 yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Falcons got the ball back and topped of a drive with a Michael Turner rushing touchdown to clinch the game. The Falcons are 5-0 for the first time in team history.

Seattle - 16 Carolina - 12, In a defensive battle Seattle was able to emerge victorious over the Cam Newton led Panthers. The Panthers offense struggled all day to get anything going, the teams only touchdown was a interception returned for a touchdown. Russel Wilson threw two interceptions for the Seahawks before hitting Golden Tate for a touchdown in the third.

Chicago - 41 Jacksonville - 3, The Bears defense is once again proving that it can be one of the best in the NFL. For the second week in a row Chicago had two interceptions returned for touchdowns, and even by the same players (Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman). They held last years rushing leader Maurice Jones-Drew to only 56 yards. Jay Cutler and Matt Forte had nice days for the Bears offense and they were able to win this one easily.

Minnesota - 30 Tennessee - 7, What happened to Chris Johnson? The man who once talked about having a 2000 yard season was only able to muster 24 yards on 15 carries for a measly 1.6 YPA. Combine that with a backup QB for the Titans and a surprisingly good Vikings team and this one was pretty simple.

New England - 31 Denver - 21, In one of the best ongoing quarterback battles in the league Tom Brady once again topped Peyton Manning. The interesting thing to take from this game is that the Patriots once again ran the ball quite successfully. I don't remember such a focus on the Patriots run game in their offensive strategy in quite a while. As a matter of fact if you looked at the stat line you could actually say that Manning outperformed Brady, but Peyton did have a key fumble that led to a touchdown for the Patriots.

New Orleans - 31 San Diego - 24, Drew Brees and the Saints were finally able to get the monkey off their back. Who would have thought that the Saints, who have had one of the most explosive offenses in the league over the past 5 years, would be the would be 0-4 going into this week? There were plenty of story lines going into this one. Drew Brees needed one more touchdown pass to break the record for most consecutive games with a passing TD (48) and he was able to do it with a 40 yard pass to Devery Henderson. Suspended Saints personnel Sean Peyton, Joe Vitt, and Mickey Loomis were allowed to attend the game to see the record fall at the request of Brees. Marques Colston also had 3 receiving touchdowns for the Saints. Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers played well up into the fourth quarter where he had 2 turnovers.

Houston - 23 New York Jets - 17, Arguably the best team in the NFL the Houston Texans had their problems handling the Jets in this one. Joe McKnight had a 100 yard kickoff return for a touchdown for the Jets. Texans running back Arian Foster had 152 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Mark Sanchez had a chance to take the lead for the Jets in their final drive but he was intercepted on a tipped pass.

St. Louis - 17 Arizona - 3, The Rams were able to take down one of the undefeated teams in the league in impressive fashion. Their defense controlled the line of scrimmage and the game with 9 sacks. Kevin Kolb was always under pressure and his throws reflected it. He was missing wide open receivers all night.The Cardinals running game couldn't get anything going either so it was a long night for their offense. A balanced Rams offense got the job done and capitalized on their opportunities.

San Francisco - 45 Bills - 3, No chance in hell I am recapping this one again...

Wannstedt on the Hot Seat?

If not, he should be. Going into a new season Bills fans had high hopes for a much improved defense as a result of the loads of money spent to bring in new players. With one of the best defensive ends in the league in Mario Williams, plus the addition of pass rush specialist Mark Anderson, a healthy Kyle Williams, and a third overall pick in Marcell Dareus this defensive line would have opposing quarterbacks stricken with fear. Couple a strong d-line with the addition of a shutdown corner in Stephon Gilmore through the draft and second round pick Aaron Williams and the pass defense will be a tough one to beat. Just five weeks into the season and you can throw all these dreams out the window. Not only does this defense not look to have improved at all, but they look like one of the worst defenses the Bills have had in recent history (and that is saying something). Three out of five of the games played they have allowed 45 points against or more and the other two were against two of the worst teams in the league in the Browns and Chiefs. Quarterbacks have all day to throw, running backs have huge lanes to run through, and wide receivers are constantly open. So how can all facets of the defense all be failing at once? In my opinion the answer is not the skill of the players but the strategy of the coaches.

The Bills promoted Dave Wannstedt to defensive coordinator during the past offseason. Wannstedt most recently resigned from the NCAA ranks as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers. The last time he was in the NFL? He resigned as head coach of the Miami Dolphins in the 2004 season after starting off 1-8. Since his last stint in the NFL the game has changed drastically. The rulebook has been changed to increase offense and in particular passing offenses. Almost all teams are now pass first teams and quarterback passing records are broken/set every season. As made evident by the start of the season by the Bills I am beginning to think the game has passed Dave Wannstedt by. To me there is no other explanation. You could go through position by position and say that each player on this defense is not playing the way they could be. A prime example of this is the man that everybody seems to be talking about, Mario Williams. He has played at a very high level in the NFL before and now he is being dominated by lineman that are marginal at best. The same can be said for Mark Anderson and Kyle Williams. Young players like Marcell Dareus, Stephon Gilmore, and Aaron Williams were highly touted players coming out of college. To this point in their careers each of these players have had their struggles and have not shown that their draft position was warranted. All this tells me that the players are not being put in a position to excel. Whether it is the game planning, alignment, mentality, etc. these players are being set up to fail. I think it is time for this team to bring in a new coordinator that will be able to best utilize the players skill sets. Will the Bills do this? I admit probably not, or at least not yet. But what is stopping them? Things can't get much worse and at this pace with we will be throwing away another season really fast. Even if they can turn it around against the Cardinals next week it would not say much. The Cardinals offense is just bad. Kevin Kolb misses open receivers and the offensive line is getting blown up in both pass protection and run blocking. If the Bills defense and Wannstedt cannot make some plays against this offense there isn't going to be many teams they can stop. What do you think the Bills should do? Leave a comment or vote in the web poll on the home page.

Back to the Drawing Board

Another game and another dismal performance by the Buffalo Bills. They didn't just lose to the 49'ers on Sunday, they got destroyed. And just in case you didn't stick around until the end of the game, and I do not blame you one bit, the final ended up being SF- 45 BUF- 3. To say that the defense got manhandled would be a vast understatement. The Bills surrendered a franchise record 621 yards of total offense to a team that is better known for their defense than their offense. There was not one aspect of the game the Bills could slow. Alex Smith threw for over 300 yards and the 49'ers ran for over 300 yards as well. The offense averaged 9.9 yards a play and dominated the time of possession. I could keep these mind boggling stats coming but I do not really see the point.

Much like last week against the Patriots the Bills gave their fans a little reason for hope to start the game. The defense held strong the first couple of possessions forcing a field goal and a punt. On the punt Leodis McKelvin returned it for a TD just to have it called back on a penalty to Jairus Byrd. This would be the first indication of things to come. With less than a minute left in the first half the Bills were trying to get some points before half and Ryan Fitzpatrick hit Scott Chandler over the middle of the field for what would have been a first down. Instead Chandler fumbled the ball and it was recovered by San Francisco. The next play Alex Smith wound up and threw a strike for a TD and before you knew it the flood gates had opened. The Bills got no pressure on Smith and did not even register a tackle for a loss let alone a sack. The defensive backs, especially young CBs Aaron Williams and Stephon Gilmore could not cover any of the receivers they faced. But that is enough about the defense, the offense deserves their share of the blame as well. Countless times Fitz had his man open down field and overthrew his man for what would have been a big gain. Couple that with another horrible throw that could have been a touchdown but was instead intercepted and led to a 49'ers score. It is not like he didn't have any time to throw either. He had a solid pocket most of the time which is all that you could ask for from a patchwork offensive line. The run game never got a chance to get going because the Bills spent most of the game chasing a lead. Both CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson split the carries and did not see much success. The cherry to top all of this off is that the Bills once again see their injury list growing. Mark Anderson, Nick Barnett, Aaron Williams, Jairus Byrd, Colin Brown, and Chad Rinehart each had injuries with varying severity that they are going to have to nurse.

The Bills are now 2-3 and head to Arizona to face the 4-1 Cardinals next Sunday. At the very least this could be the defense's chance to get their stuff together. The Cardinals surrendered 9 sacks last Thursday against the Rams and Kevin Kolb has not been great throwing the football. If this defense gets controlled again like they did today I would hope to see major changes in personnel or game plan because to this point it just isn't working. It is going to be tough for the team to put this loss behind them but if they can get it together the season is not lost, yet. Either way for my sake and yours I hope there isn't another game like this one for a long long time.

Bills - 49'ers Preview

 After an embarrassing loss to the Patriots the Bills roll into week 5 ready to take on their toughest competition yet, the San Francisco 49'ers. Standing at 2-2 the Bills are tied with the Jets and Pats for the lead in the AFC East but things sure do not feel that way right now. The list of problems this team has is bigger than expected: Fitz accuracy problems, injury riddled backfield, Mario who?, steep learning curve for young DBs, and now injuries on the O-line(which seemingly was the bright spot of the team until last week). The 49'ers on the other hand are on the up and up. Coming off a season where they probably should have gone to the Super Bowl they now are at 3-1 and are fighting the surprising Cardinals for control of the NFC West. Their borderline dominate defense holds them in games for their conservative yet efficient offense to take control. With all that being said what are the keys to the game that the Bills will have to hit on to win:

Turnovers: This is an obvious one for any game in any sport. Win the turnover battle and you stand a good chance of winning the game. Last week when the Bills were winning the turnover battle they were winning the game and when that changed...well you saw what happend. Bad news for Bills fans is that San Fran is notoriously good in this department. Last year the 49'34s led the league in turnover differential with a whopping +28, and the Bills were a mere +1. If the Bills want to win this game this is going to have to change.

Game Managers: The QB battle this week is an interesting one. Alex Smith who is often thought of as a conservative quarterback seems to be opening it up a little this season. More importantly he has done this without turning the ball over with only one interception tossed. Compare that to Ryan Fitzpatrick who has the second most interceptions of anyone in the league and 2 more than Smith threw all last season. Surprisingly enough Fitz leads the league in passing TDs. Yes you read that right. If he can stop turning the ball over this offense can be just as deadly as it was to start last season.

O-line Shuffle: The Bills lost two starters on the offensive line against New England in LT  Cordy Glenn and RG Craig Urbik. Their replacements Chris Hairston and Chad Rinehart are going to have to step in and allow the offense to not skip a beat. That can be hard to do against a 49'ers Defensive line that tends to dominate people, especially in the run game giving up less than 80 yards a game on the ground last year and only 3 TDs.

 D-line pressure: why isn't it working? If I could answer this question I would be on the Bills coaching staff right now. The Bills paid well over $100 million to ensure they had one of the best lines in football and they have been anything but that. The pressure doesn't all fall on the shoulders of Mario Williams but a lot of it does. This guy was supposed to be our savior and he is on pace for 6 sacks this season! If they could turn things around and be what they have the potential to be it is going to be a rough day for anyone going against the Bills this season.

Stop the run: The 49'ers are one of 3 teams better than the Bills in rush yards per game with 167. The Bills were holding people in check against the run until last week when they gave up 240+ yards on the ground.  If they can play more like they were prior they could be in good shape. This also ties in with personnel on the field. Against the Pats the Bills were in a mostly nickel defense to counteract Tom Brady and that left gaping holes in the defense for the running backs to find. Against the 49'ers I expect this to change. Plan on seeing a bunch more of Kelvin Sheppard & co.

My Prediction:Unfortunately the 49'ers Defense is just too much to handle. 49'ers- 27  Bills-10

What do you think? Do the Bills have a chance? Leave a comment and vote in the poll at the bottom of the home page!

NHL Cancels First 2 weeks of Regular Season

Yesterday the NHL announced that due to the labor dispute the first two weeks of the regular season have been cancelled. This translates to 82 games eliminated, with 5 of them being Sabres games. Of the 5 games missed 4 of them were scheduled to be home games. The Sabres were scheduled to open the season versus the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 13. More games could be missed if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is not in place in the immediate future. The NHL and NHLPA are not believed to be close on a deal with the major dispute coming with the slitting of hockey related revenue. Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr met secretly (even though everybody knows about it) in Toronto yesterday to discuss where to go from here. Each side asked each other to come up with a new proposal to put on the table when they meet sometime next week. This can be seen as a good sign because it shows that each side is willing to listen to what each other has to offer and they are willing to negotiate. I remain optimistic that the lockout will end soon and hockey will return. However, I would not be surprised if the season does not start until the Winter Classic.

Lets Get it Started

What you can come to expect from this blog are the latest stories in the world of Buffalo sports. My focus will be primarily on the Bills, Sabres, and Bandits with some other news popping up occasionally. I will try to be as objective as possible but the takes given are strictly based on my opinion and are open to debate. I am hoping to have at least one new post daily so keep checking by for the latest updates. Keep reading and enjoy!