AB Podcast Ten: Only a Year of Pegula and Why He May Be Keeping Darcy

Email: nick@fcbuffalo.org

Podcast:

Recommended pre-reading: our guest Mark Byrnes’ post in “The Atlantic Cities” from Dec. 15, 2011 on “Buffalo, Then and Now (1902-2011)”

AB Podcast Four: Architecture: physically, mentally and societally

Email: nick@fcbuffalo.org

Podcast:

AB Podcast One: On Sabres, fat kids and positive examples

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Podcast:

An ode to Darcy Regier’s search for the man in the middle.

Centerman – AudioBuffalo.com

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LYRICS:

Waitin’, watchin’ the clock, another loss, it’s got to stop

Fans will take no more, the playoffs out-of-reach Excuses are out the door, so much hubris Didn’t win with Gratton or Dainius Zubrus

He lies and says he’s in love with them, can’t find a centerman… He dreams of Spezza and then Malkin, can’t find a centerman… Can’t find a centerman Can’t find a centerman Ohh…

Talkin’ to himself, can’t get those GMs on the phone… And then there’s Leino-o-o… Memories back when he had Drury and Briere

Now he’s stuck waiting for D. Roy to come along… Would trade a kidney, just for Bergeron

He lies and says he’s in love with them, can’t find a centerman… He dreams of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, can’t find a centerman…

He lies and says he’s in love with them, can’t find a centerman… He dreams of Crosby and then Malkin, can’t find a centerman…

Can’t find a centerman Can’t find a centerman Yeah…

He loved Tim, ah… He won’t let Goose leave this way Luke Adam… ah… we’d even take Jokinen

Can’t find a centerman Can’t find a centerman

Oh, Jordan Staal. Oh, Ryan Getzlaf. Koivu, Any Koivu, Just a Koivu, Find a Koivu.

Podcast:

The news that the Buffalo Bills have hired UB Bulls defensive coordinator William Inge to be their new assistant defensive line coach under Dave Wannstedt is bittersweet for me. For one thing, Inge was not only a good coach for my alma mater but a good person to be around. On the other hand, the only professional football team I really care about got better today.

Make no mistake, Inge is a tremendous game-planner. While UB’s defense did not always have the depth and/or talent to take care of business during games, Inge’s set-up was near flawless on several occasions. Consider:

– The Bulls flat-out controlled NIU’s remarkable QB hybrid Chandler Harnish just one week after Harnish passed for 203 and ran for 229 in the same game. Buffalo lost by one in a game where they not only threw two interceptions and fumbled thrice but missed a game-tying extra point attempt with 14 seconds left in the contest.

– This number is a lot higher because the Bulls had big problems against the run, but Inge coached the unit to the No. 36 ranking in pass defense despite graduating three players to NFL camps out of his secondary: Domonic Cook, Davonte Shannon and Josh Thomas (in itself an accolade, if only for one season).

– Inge’s reputation was earned. The Cincinnati unit he coached (LBs coach) yielded four NFL drafted players in 2009, while his seasons at San Diego State (Freddy Keiaho) and Colorado (Jordon Dixon) were also notable for various positives.

Pun intended, I’m bullish on Inge, but replacing him is a mighty task for UB head coach Jeff Quinn. I’m positive that current Bulls DL coach Jappy Oliver and cornerbacks Ernest Jones will get a look at the gig, but Quinn may also go outside the halls of UB Stadium. Regardless, the Bills got better today and the Bulls have a new, huge question mark.

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1) The Sabres won by seizing the control young Edmonton laid for the taking after Buffalo took a 3-2 lead and credit Drew Stafford for being everything the Sabres thought he became last year… at least for a night.

2) Thomas Vanek is having such a good season that he could’ve been a star on a night like this where he didn’t even get a point.

3) Ryan Miller didn’t let up a single goal I felt like crediting to the opposition, even Sam Gagner’s nice-enough tally.

Trace your finger down the list of quarterbacks to play in every game for the team this year and when it stops on Ryan Fitzpatrick, note the sacks. Regarded as a mobile player, Fitz was sacked less than every one of the aforementioned 14 peers save for Matt Hasselbeck.

You may finger this as more me-led support of Ryan Fitzpatrick and to be sure the Amish One is a pocket-mobile guy working in a “get the ball the heck out” offense. That’s fine, but what quietly emerged from this season is an offensive line capable of actually protecting the quarterback.

Even after Eric Wood was lost for the season with an injury, the big uglies found consistency despite not having the same group of players starting each week (aside from Andy Levitre and Erik Pears). If you’re making a list of coaches that deserve to be booted out of Buffalo, offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris should be quite far from your mind.

It wasn’t just the passing game. Bills running backs (including Brad Smith for this piece’s sake) gained 1690 yards at an average of 5.1 yards-per-rush. Their two leading rushers, Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller, carried for a remarkable 5.5 and 5.2 ypc respectively. That’s good stuff.

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Usually, I write an overview. This color-coded scheme is a pretty good overview.

Our Bills were embarrassed.

– So the guts of this game was the guts of the season and will be the guts of the offseason: Stevie Johnson. No. 13  was benched after costing his team 15 yards with a “Happy New Year” undershirt touchdown celebration.

Was the benching warranted? It’s not possible to know “immediate reactions” style because we need to hear from Chan Gailey and Johnson. I do know this: Johnson knew he would be penalized. The way George Wilson talked to Johnson on the sideline afterward sure looked like, “Dude, come on,” but is it a “Dude, come on, we don’t need that” or a “Dude, come on, you know Chan said he’d sit anyone who did that.”

Fact of the matter is I think the rule is a silly one. Johnson can’t write on his undershirt but Aaron Hernandez can show up the Bills defense with a goose-step into the end zone and Sterling Moore (?!?) celebrated his pick-six for approximately two hours. He may have been recreating “Fantasia.”

That said, Johnson knows the rules. If he was told there would be repercussions for doing it again, it’s on him (and I’d bet he was told just that). Also, I doubt Thomas Chandler Gailey is playing the role of harsh disciplinarian if the game is more meaningful, which leads us to…

– Had a mini-Twitter scrum with some fellow media members after WGR’s Mike Schopp tweeted something about keeping in mind that the Bills wouldn’t have gone-for-it on two fourth downs if they were 9-6 and not 6-9. My take is that that’s ridiculous, but Jeremy White and Howard Simon — good friends of mine — disagreed. My thoughts are this: I can count at least two scenarios in important games where Gailey’s mind was aggressive despite the odds and even common sense:

1) Week Three. Second-quarter score: Pats 14, Bills 0. Fourth-and-14 from Pats’ 34. Bills go for it. Picked off.

2) Week Nine. Second-quarter score: Jets 3, Bills 0. Fourth-and-2 from Jets’ 38. Healthy Rian Lindell. Bills go for it. Incomplete (in fact, Bills had 2nd-and-2 on drive and passed thrice).

– Whatever you do, don’t touch Tom Brady. In fact, I would pantomime sacking him if you get close to him, because touching him is not okay, as we learned when Drayton Florence popped Brady on Nick Barnett’s interception return.

– In my book, Drayton Florence was a pretty big disappointment this year but he’s responsible for the pick-six that put Buffalo on top 31-24 against New England in Week Three. He’s also responsible for looking like a turnstile after Aaron Hernandez gave him a single wiggle in the second half of this match-up versus the Pats. I find it hard to be too critical of the secondary when the pass rush was almost non-existent save for the Skins game this year, but I look forward to the day the Bills can afford to snag a better corner than Florence without sacrificing a needed upgrade somewhere else on the defensive unit.

– The Bills need an elite outside linebacker/pass rusher. If they stay 3-4, he needs to at least be able to forgivably cover a tight end as a rookie. Arthur Moats is a nice story, but I find it remarkably difficult to imagine him as anything but a pass-rushing linebacker who would get exposed in a 4-3. Problem is the best prospect available is a guy who lifted up his girlfriend by her hair and tried to throw her to the ground after she slapped him (Courtney Upshaw). The next best is the guy I have the Bills picking in a mock draft: Quinton Coples of UNC. Problem there? I haven’t found an unbiased Youtube video of him where he doesn’t look too slow-to-react for a Top-15 pick. Other guys I think will sneak up by the draft: West Virginia’s Bruce Irvin and Southern Cal’s Nick Perry. In free agency, Anthony Spencer of Dallas seems an interesting pull but I expect he’ll be overpaid by someone else.

– SPILLER WATCH: 17 touches for 100 yards. Finishes season with a final three games combining for 57 touches for 402 yards and 4 TDs. Over the course of 16 weeks, that’s 304 touches for 2,144 yards and 21 touchdowns.

– Two more sacks for DT Kellen Heard, who quietly distinguished himself as a roster player this season and another sack for Dwan Edwards, who I’ve been high on for a while. The Bills look pretty decent up the middle on the defense, future-wise. They should be able to get a franchise corner or OLB out of the draft’s first round, which works for me.

– Some good news? I don’t think the Patriots have a real look at the Super Bowl, even though that means they’d have to lose inside their giant mall. Some better news? The Jets missed the playoffs.

Stat line I liked…

Derek Hagan, 7 catches, 89 yards

– Finishes his four-game audition with 13 catches for 138 yards and a score.

Stat line I didn’t like…

Patriots tight ends, 15 catches, 246 yards, 3 TDs

– Honestly, I’d rather watch the Bills get torched by wide-outs than any of this. Every holiday season it’s like the Ghost of Seasons Past comes back and it’s Ben bleeping Coates.

Game ball(s)…

Nick Barnett

– Despite a bad missed tackle late, Barnett continued his strong-enough 2011 season. I’m confident it’ll be Kelvin Sheppard and Barnett in the middle of a 3-4 should the Bills go that route post-George Edwards (It’s going to be post-George Edwards, right?)

Lastly…

6-10 is three wins better than 3-13, though the Bills had a relatively easy schedule. Gotta think Chan’s fire without 8 or 9 wins next year.

Next week…

Locker clean-out is tomorrow. I imagine there will be a lot of partying next week.

Email: nick@fcbuffalo.org

Over the summer, there were those who ridiculed me for thinking the Bills could make a run at .500. I didn’t quite go that crazy, but I did predict a 7-9 season for our Buffalo Bills.

Even if the Bills don’t defeat New England, I will be still be a winner. For you see, I bet a fine man named Bubba that the Buffalo Bills would win more than four games. The loser would have to drink a cup of bearnaise sauce.

Bubba can back out because I don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death, but I just want him to know that Ryan Fitzpatrick did not call a play-action pass here:

Let’s go Bills.

Let’s go Bills.

Let’s go Bills.

B-b-b-b-b-b-Bills.

If you do complete this, Bubba, we’d like video.

Email: nick@fcbuffalo.org

1) Though I take umbrage with Ted Black’s notion that Darcy Regier had to do anything remarkable to bring them here given his new resources, Robyn Regehr and Christian Ehrhoff were two of the best players on the ice tonight, especially Regehr’s lambasting of Alex Ovechkin on the end boards.

2) Yes, Brad Boyes and Jochen Hecht both added assists, but it’s foolhardy to ignore how the addition of two veteran, defensively-responsible forwards make a team’s chances for victory better (something you don’t get from Amerks).

3) There’s something splendid about Matt Ellis’ obvious “please let me stay” that resonates from every one of his shifts and No. 37 again provided that extra grit and poke that keeps possession with the blue-and-gold.

Email: nick@fcbuffalo.org