Maryland

Honestly, Derrick Mason should just be honored he was nominated for the HoF. Zero chance he gets in with all that competition at WR combined with all of the competition that will be following him in a few years.

lol, this thread really went places, a real roller-coaster of emotions Just glad it's a minor calf issue and not his knee. I am relieved. The only downside is that this keeps him out of practice, which is where you earn your playing time and develop a rapport with your QB.

Lol, you can tell Bleacher Report is awful when they're praising our OL for outperforming Buffalo's DL.

Nassib and Ogbah both played well @ Philly last week though. Nassib has looked good in preseason too. I wouldn't completely dismiss him.

I'm thinking Dixon becomes that smooth receiver-like RB that Trestman had at Chicago. West and Forsett really aren't great receivers; they each seem kind of awkward/slow catching the ball.

I know it was a rhetorical question, but in response to "Would we want it any other way?," I would certainly take a red-carpet to the playoffs every year like the Patriots get by playing in the AFCE over playing in a division that is stacked every year. I mean, it's honorable and somewhat brag-worthy to have our division routinely have 3 playoff contenders, but just give me the easy ride instead.

At least the Jets have an awful secondary, especially since Revis Island seems to be eroding. It is true, however, that their DL would man-handle our OL if they play like they did Sunday.

Could have sworn they were a zone-blocking scheme in Chicago, which is why they targeted Jermon Bushrod when Trestman took over at Chicago. Sounds like you know your stuff though.

Take THAT Cam Cameron!

Although today's CBS game lost transmission for a minute, I find them to be far superior to FOX for the most part. FOX will go through solid quarters broadcasting in standard definition (I hate this so much), garbled audio, static-y audio (very frequent problem), or just total failure in audio/visual function for a few minutes. Plus, they have the duo of Joe Buck and Troy Aiken, which is arguably the most boring pair of commentators in all of sports broadcasting.

It's still a zone-blocking scheme--that was actually an area of continuity between Kub and Trestman's offenses (Trestman ran ZBS in Chicago)

I feel like I shouldn't have to do this, but I have to give the coaching staff credit for making him active and actually using him in the first game of the season. You wouldn't see some conservative coaching staffs play a rookie UDFA on week 1 just on principle (John Fox and retired Tom Coughlin come to mind).

Man, i have to strongly disagree with the bolded part. There were plenty of times last year where he would throw on first down, and then surprise me by throwing again on second down (since most times teams run after throwing on first down). It's probably because we had to throw to keep pace with the opponent, but still. It seems like you're overgeneralizing here, maybe nitpicking at some bad habits that Trestman has as a play-caller. When I think of predictable, I think of being able to look at a formation and the personnel on the field and guess accurately pre-snap what the offense is going to do, which is something that was easy to do with Caldwell. With Trestman, I might know his tenancies, but I don't know for certain what he's calling on a given play based on formation.

Also some of these backwards plays with 1 yard to go ticked me off. If the offense has 1 yard to go, I'd much rather see a power-play up the middle than a pitch or screen that starts developing 5 yards behind the LOS. Maybe this was a reaction to how little push they were getting inside behind Zuttah.

lol I was logging on to here just to see if anyone else noticed how bad Zuttah was today. He's continuing from a bad preseason, too. Usually O-linemen are still in their prime at age 30, but he has regressed it seems. Hopefully it's just a bad game and this is all overreaction, but he looked weak out there today even when he wasn't whiffing on blocks or hiking the ball at the wrong time. He's a big reason why our inside runs went for no gain.

In what way is he predictable?

Trestman can be pass-happy to his detriment for sure, but I don't think he's that predictable. Maybe I just haven't seen enough of him yet to know his tendencies. Agree on Cam and Caldwell 100% though. Caldwell was especially easy to know.

Pretty sure 3 of those INTs came on tipped/dropped passes by our TEs (Clark and Dickson) anyway. Honestly, for having absolutely no running game, Flacco did better than one might have expected that day--it was still a close loss.

I figured that was a given

I'm hoping they win because I picked the Ravens right off the bat in 2 survivor leagues lol.

Unfortunate that Gano missed that field goal--it could matter in the AFC wildcard race. Also have to agree that Stanley is not a realistic RotY candidate. Even if Staney has a spectacular season, simply a solid season from a relevant fantasy football player will take it over him. Blocks, pressures, hits, and sacks are not stats that most fans look at (and unless they have PFF, they probably can't find them anyway).

I thought Seantrel Hendereson was appealing his suspension and was able to play...?

It all comes down to which they value more: better pass protection or better run-blocking. Urschel is going to be more sound in pass protection due to his experience, but he's not the mauler that Lewis is. Lewis is going to get better push in the run game, but as we saw in preseason, he's going to have some mental mistakes against the blitz. It's a trade-off.

I mean, I can get why fans are down on the Ravens after last year, but it's not like the Bills are on the upward swing toward being major playoff contenders. This should be, at worst, an even battle between two average to below-average teams.

Seems like the Bills should be worse compared to last season. They lost Mario Williams, Karlos Williams, and Nigel Bradham (decent tackling OLB). They will start the year without Marcel Dareus due to suspension, their top-2 picks, Lawson and Ragland, are injured, and Kyle Williams is old/declining. Their only real addition is Zach Brown, which really only compensates for the loss of Bradham. So it seems like they lost players without really adding any major talent via FA or draft.