Buffalo Bills after week 2 press conference

[TheBillster]

Mr.Billster is entering the press conference room and goes to the podium. He speaks: "Hello everybody. The first two weeks are played and we are 0-2. We have a really tough schedule this year and this start isnt surprising or disappointing us. What disappoints us is the red zone phobia of our team. Dont get me wrong, if you have a schedule like ours it is possible to loose your games against the leagues best team, iam more speaking of how we lost and not that we lost. With a little more luck we could have won both games.
In both games we had the final drive and still plenty of time to score one single TD and get us the victory against Miami and the overtime against the Raiders, but what happen was this. We enter the redzone against Miami but we cant finish a pass for a TD against them and loose. One single pass and we are the winner.
Almost the same against the Raiders. We play great defense and allow only a combined 220 yards defensively and then we fumble a punt and they return it for the game decisive TD. In the final 2 mins of the game we go straight downfield and have a first and goal on their 3 yard line.
Guess What happens? Yeah, we were unable to score a TD in 4 tries and turn it over on downs and lose the game. A game in that we really put up good numbers to the field, but where we were bad at execution.
And thats the thing that disappoints me. With a slightly better execution and play call we could have won both games, but now we are 0-2 and already under pressure.
We have to work on this lack of execution before it really becomes a phobia for us. The good thing is now, that we reached a level where we are able to compete with the best teams of this league like Miami and Oakland. We only have to find a way of better decision making when we are in scoring range. Our team started unlucky but still very promising. Just the cards arent falling down right for our team at the moment, but sometimes you cant really influence that. We will try hard to find out ways to make us more successful when we are looking end zone.
Other than that iam happy with the defense, it shows clearly signs of dominance and i think they will be better as the season continues. The offense struggles to execute despite of moving down the field satisfyingly.
Any questions?

[Disturbed]

You mentioned your rough schedule to start out the season. Playing two teams that many think will go deep into the playoffs. Do you think this will help your team as the season goes on and can we expect to see Garcia continue to be the starter or will Losman get some playing time?

[Esimorp]

How well do you feel Maurice Clarrett is working out at FB? Will there be any major changes next week or do you feel that you line up is in good shape just a little un lucky?

[TheBillster]

Originally Posted by Disturbed

You mentioned your rough schedule to start out the season. Playing two teams that many think will go deep into the playoffs. Do you think this will help your team as the season goes on and can we expect to see Garcia continue to be the starter or will Losman get some playing time?

(Speaking as the owner himself and not Mr.Billster)
The main problem i see is the schedule till the next progression step after week 5. We only have two games remaining till the next progression cause in week 4 we have our bye. This means we are under pressure to win if we want to get progression for some of my guys. And one of the games will be against the Titans...

(Now Mr. Billster): Any team of this league can lose against the Titans, and the Dolphins and the Raiders. Thats really a very rough start into a season. To repeat it, iam happy with what i saw from my team. We really pushed the Phins and the Raiders and i think we deserved more in both games, and that gives me hope for the remaining season. Especially after week 11 our schedule looks favorable, but till then we are facing tough, tough, tough games each and every week. With an easier schedule the playoffs seem to be very realistic for this team. That is what iam thinking after seeing my Bills playing against some of the top team of this league. But we have to play the schedule as it is for this season. We are good but really unlucky here and there in our games and that breaks our neck on the field. I cant blame anyone, i really cant.
As for the QB starter question i can only say that we have to wait and see. Garcia had one very good and one bad game. Still his QB rating looks okay. He looks like the starter, but who knows what happens. Maybe HC Fisher and OC Knapp want to test out Losman now.
--------------- Madden 2007 Next Gen football ---------

Originally Posted by Esimorp

How well do you feel Maurice Clarrett is working out at FB? Will there be any major changes next week or do you feel that you line up is in good shape just a little un lucky?

Maurice is a very important player for us this season. His move to FB and TE helps us very much. His superior strenght, speed, hands and decent blocking skills make a nice FB out if him. In the Raiders game he was used as a leadoff blocker for rookie RB Summers who had a solid game thanks to Maurices good blocking. He was also the teams pancake leader in this game and is an essential part of the Bills offense from now on. With growing experience and adaptation to his new role he will be even better and a very reliable and dangerous force at TE-FB.
To answer the second question, we feel good about the line-up. The team had two good games and slowly everyone is finding his place in the team. As i described we felt heavily unlucky in our games and hope that we can be more polished and well executing in the redzone from now on after making some smaller tactical and play call changes. Its all about the first win, if we get it we will be rolling all season long. Iam sure about that.