Archives for October 2015

'And, not even halfway into his first season, a surprising number of the Buffalo faithful feel that their head coach, who they perceive to be long on posturing but short on production, has to go.'

'David Coletti, ESPN’s vice president for digital research and analytics, said that Yahoo’s achievement Sunday was “very impressive” and that it demonstrated the comfort with which sports fans used devices to watch games. But, he said, “I think what we see is digital streaming is an incremental audience to television, a best-available screen in many cases, but it’s not a replacement right now.”'

'Manuel helped the Bills erase a 27-3 deficit but the flaws on film were even worse than believed.'

'Through five games – in which the Bills have gone 3-2 – Taylor’s level of play has surpassed even the loftiest expectation when he was signed away from Baltimore, where he threw only 35 passes in 14 games over four years with the Ravens.'

'The bigger point all along was that the Cassel trade wasn’t necessary. Doug Whaley traded him to push EJ Manuel up the depth chart, against the wishes of his own coaching staff.'

'You could Google my paragraph from this space from a week ago because it's pretty much the same thing. I have given Manuel every benefit of the doubt. He's a good kid, I'd like to see him succeed, and I thought after a decent preseason that maybe he was starting to show progress. I was wrong.'

'While there were some technical issues early, causing me to tweet “The first lunar landing had a clearer picture,’’ things got better, thanks to tinkering with the settings mode. As with any technology, it will just improve with time. And for better or worse, we as consumers must also adjust our modes — and moods — or get left behind.'

'According to Yahoo, about two-thirds of the streams were in the United States and about one-third were from other countries, which means the NFL got about 11.2 million streams from outside the U.S.'

'Blame whoever or whatever you want, but the Bills are 3-4 heading into the bye week and have to play five of six games on the road starting in Week 9. They play the Patriots on the road and still have to play the Jets twice. Even if they make a run, they could end up looking back at games like the one in London as the reason they extended the playoff drought.'

'And Buffalo's schedule isn't getting any easier. Once the Bills return, they face a three-game stretch of playing AFC East rivals, starting with a home game against Miami on Nov. 8, and play five of their next seven on the road.'

'Manuel is now 6-10 as a starter since the Bills picked him in the first round of the 2013 draft, No. 16 overall. He started 10 games as a rookie while battling knee injuries, then lost his job after Week 4 in 2014 and never regained it. He was beaten out by Tyrod Taylor over the summer, but started the last two games in place of Taylor, who has a knee injury.'

'fter Sunday's game, one London journalist said not only was it the most exciting of the 13 international series games played at Wembley Stadium, the crowd, which numbered 84,021, was more involved in this one than ever before.'

'A coincidental convergence of events over the past two weeks involving Harvin and Kane last week reveals the potential risks and rewards of acquiring players who have been tagged as troubled. Harvin may be considering walking away from the game, while Kane has shown he’s a star centerpiece for the Sabres (though an injury will delay that a four-to-six weeks). It also points to the fact that, in order to compete, the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills will have to be savvy when picking out which red-flag players they want to tie themselves to.'

'“Bad EJ” showed up far too early and far too often that even some of “good EJ” couldn’t overcome it.'

'“I don’t know if I’ve ever been on a team that needed a bye worse than we do,” said head coach Rex Ryan.'