The second pre-season game isn’t usually all that exciting: teams are still trying to evaluate a lot of the players further down the depth chart before the first cut-down date, so you don’t expect to see too much of the starters. That being said, it’s been a long time since the last time I was able to watch the Vikings play, so I was really looking forward to tonight’s game in Buffalo. Until I saw this little piece of news:
#Bills – #Vikings tape delayed broadcast will air on Saturday night at 8:00 pm on @WKBW #Buffalo
— Jeff Russo (@JeffRussoWKBW) August 13, 2013
And as I discovered last week, even radio feeds are territory-locked, so I can’t even listen to the stream over the web. Well, it’s not like I had important plans for Saturday night…
Update: The Daily Norseman‘s Arif Hasan (who has pretty much taken over as my preferred source of detailed Vikings information from Tom Pelissero) looks at how the Bills will test the Vikings tonight.
Anyone watching the Bills may eventually get tired of hearing about the high-tempo “no-huddle” offense that teams around the league have increasingly adopted. What’s interesting is that Doug Marrone and Nathaniel Hackett have decided not just to implement some of their Syracuse playbook, but dig into the K-gun that made Jim Kelly famous and quickly allowed the Bills to join the Vikings as having four unsuccessful Super Bowl appearances.
Hey, 0-4 is better than 0-0.
But it would be lazy to describe their offense as a no-huddle. That’s not an offense, it’s a tactic.
The Bills will bring a variety of offensive formations and tactics, but will likely keep a philosophy similar to Jim Kelly’s offense in Buffalo, which is fundamentally the Run and Shoot Offense that people think died in the 1980s. Somewhat similar to the scheme run in New York under former ‘Shoot coordinator Kevin Gilbride, I wouldn’t be surprised if the modern twist on the Buffalo offense is also designed to be entirely reactive.
Given that Marrone has spent some time with a heavy ‘Shoot offense like the Saints, don’t be shocked to see similar concepts.
