Never NEVER Give-up

Ditto!! I couldn't believe he came away with that ball and managed to land in-bounds! A pick, a fumble recovery and on Mckelvin' PR-TD, he gets knocked down, gets up and gets THE key block to spring McKelvin by pushing his man OOB. He has an incredible nose for the ball. He is the heir apparent to Ed Reed & Troy P (Pitt) as the games best safety. He MUST be a re-signing priority for Buddy. Knowing Buddy's mantra about keeping the good guys you have, I am sure they will do whatever it takes to keep him in Bflo.

It will be very interesting to see what CJ can do with a whole game. 90% of the snaps, getting into the flow of the game, etc

Bring back Naaman - he never drops the ball. Actually I saw him do it once!

I pretty much feel the same way. So what are our choices - I say we make the best of it and pray the NHL Lockout ends soon! (kidding) Seriously. Looking at our schedule this year, we expected to be 4-4 today, right? The only loss we "should have won" was Tennesee. So instead we're 3-5 and facing the Pats. Now don't laugh, but I really believe they can beat the Pats IF they get their heads out of their arses, play with some heart (like they did early last year) and avoid playing NOT TO LOSE! Remember the days when 'they' said Fitz was a 'gun slinger'? When was the last time anyone thought that, much less uttered the words? I really believe that our pre-season beliefs are true and the Bills are on the right path, but for some reason we've become afraid to win. Which intuitively makes no sense at all. (See the movie "The Replacements", Keanu Reeves called it 'quicksand'.) But with this team, we've seen it so much over the last 10 years. Whenever they approach being good (remember last year when Gaily said we need to see how the players deal with success after the Raiders/Pats victories), we collapse. Someone at one Bills Drive needs to raise hell. Buddy said damn last week! Not what I have in mind, but maybe he'll get a little madder! Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many of the players are underperforming. There is no real leadership. Fitz is a great guy, but until he throws the ball more than 6 yds on average, no one can take him seriously as a leader. Fred - OK, but other than Walter Payton, there really haven't been many RB's that come to mind as effective leaders, and now, most feel he should be 2nd string. Special Team leaders are not team leaders. On Defense who do we have? Dareus has disappeared. We love him and feel for his brother/family but (did you know) he is the only top five pick from last year's draft that wasn't named to a pro bowl squad!!!! Mario is (1) too new and (2) walks softly and doesn't carry a stick or a right arm evidently (though we did see signs of life in Houston, I hope it wasn't his best or a payback effort - he needs to build on that game). Kelsy IS a leader, but he's not good enough to be followed. Kyle Williams needs to kick his linemates in the arse and get more vocal, he has the cache to do it, but hasn't. Barnett, please, I like him as the 3rd best LB IF we had 2 other NFL caliber LB's. And DB's? Byrd maybe the X-Factor - he IS very good, but I don't know much about how opinionated he is and whether he has leadership potential. A dearth of leadership. Until someone speaks up, holds himself and fellow players accountable, until the coaches do the same and play to win, we'll continue to see this meandering product. (We need the Godfather (Brando) to grab them by the shirt collars and tell them to "act like a man!") Buddy, I mean YOU need to do this!!! Someone has to get mad as hell and start smacking opponents around - get more physical - it's contagious. Coaches need to sit those who under perform - they sat McKelvin, but not Williams who kept getting burned. Sit Dareus, and let him spell Carrington - I don't think it would take him too long to get ticked and elevate his play. This team isn't good enough to have any untouchable players - sit the underperformers. We all know we can lose a lopsided game just as easily with 2nd stringers!! But time is running short, we can deal with 3-6 after this Sunday, but after that there is no margin for error, the gimme schedule has disappeared (because those 'bad' teams are improved now) and the Bills will need to elevate their play. I believe our Offensive and Defensive Lines need to impose their wills on the team. I'm talking Wood/Levitre on Offense and Kyle Williams/Mario and Kelsay on Defense. If nothing else, they're bigger than their teammates, so maybe they'll listen and follow. It's our only hope. Winning is the only thing to cure our current situation. We actually have some good players and coaches - but you'd never know it by how they're playing now. Start competing, don't be afraid to lose, get mad and things will turn around. Ralph's patience will be rewarded and we won't need another coaching staff for the next 3 years. We can B word and moan all we want, but the fact remains - nothing will change here until the CURRENT GROUP get's its act together. Before the season started, we all billieved. Now that the 1st Half is over, its time to become a 2nd Half team. Frankly, there's nothing to lose. We don't expect to win more than 5-6 games, so they should just go out and let it all hang out - it could snowball into something good.

Look - Wanny's not that stupid. Watch the games, the 4 man rush is not effective and his defense is predicated on the front four winning the 1:1 battles - they're not and the LB's aren't making plays. The DB's are making 48% of the tackles - that's right check the team tackles and you'll see. Almost 50% of the tackles coming from the 4-5 smallest guys! No wonder they get burned later in the games - they've been steamrolled for 3 quarters!!

Each Week One announcing the inactives One reminding us of the loss One announcing promotions to the 53 man roster One announcing players signed to the practice squad Got one yesterday about the wrist that's killing our pass rush Thousands - no way - money grab with no legs to stand on!!

The Bills at 14 - HA! Way too low - probably top 5 (again). And Cleveland, if they have #1 overall - they will take Barkley.

We're not communicating. The year Cassel played for the Pats, they still had a decent defense (and we continued to suck). NOW-2012, THE only reason the Pats are so good is because of Brady & when he retires, they will be just another team. Belichick is a very good coach - wish we had him, but Brady is the reason the Pats are as good as they are. Though, let's not forget the Pats cheated to get their edge, and had been for years until they were caught and fined. The only reason a bigger deal wasn't made of it was because it would have disgraced the league and it would have killed the golden goose. Give a listen . . . http://www.trendingb...r-bryan-oleary/ -

Oh come on!! I hate him as much as anyone else who's a fan of an AFC East Team, BUT, he is an excellent QB and THE reason the Pats are so successful. I am longing for the day he retires because we won't need to worry about the Pats anymore - they'll be just another team.

Fitz is OK. As Bills14 said, let's judge him with a top-15 defense - not the bottom-scrapers we currently have. Did you notice, when the defense played relatively well - we won? Not a coincidence! As for Orton, I agree with several posters - he's not bad. I just feel as though he never got a chance anywhere. I liked him in college. He's been through more coaching changes than Imelda Marcos went thru shoes. I'm for adding him - at the very least he'll push Fitz - not like Thigpen who holds Chan's clipboard for 60 minutes each Sunday.

How? By staying OFF the field? The defense is pathetic. No heart! Fraile-minded! Weak, weak, weak! Kelsay even said some guys aren't giving 100%. Fitz got'em 27, and special teams chipped in for 7 more. The defense was putrid.

I only have 2 days on the weekend. Days get shorter this time of year too. I get angry with myself if I waste a whole afternoon watching them stink-up the joint. I get furious if I watch them lose like they did against the Jets-Pats-Niners. Didya ever feel as though YOU care more about the Bills winning than the Bills themselves do?!?! So now I record each game. If I'm working around the house, I'll have it on and admittedly, I usually get sucked in until they start playing like crap - then I'll turn it off. I'll check to see if they win/lose and decide if I want to watch the plays (30-second fast-forward button on DVR lets me watch a whole game in about 1:15). I must confess - I did not watch the 2nd halves of the Jets- Pats games, though I did reply the 2nd half of the Pats game because I couldn't understand how the Pats just kept scoring, and scoring, and scoring!! Like a fire, a car wreck or a carny freak - something so strange you can't take your eyes off of it. I watched a few minutes of the 9ers game and between seeing that I cared more about the game than the Bills did and knowing I'd have to suffer through the overly smug Harbaugh - I turned it off. I was lucky enough to be an adult (30) in 1990 - the Bills heydey! It was an incredible ride - the Super Bowl actually felt like a birth right after the 2nd one! I suffered thru the 70's - (we never beat the fish from 1970-79, 0-20!!) and we were worse than we are now (believe it or not). We had the running back OJ (not the murderer), and he was a diversion. I actually remember feeling (as a kid I must remind you) that as long as OJ got his yards and some exciting runs, it didn't matter that we lost - because that would normally get us on MNF Halftime Hi-lites with Howard Cosell!!! It was a huge deal back then. But there's no way I watch as much as I used to - I refuse to make the time committment until I see the team make a committment to trying to win (note I say trying, not actually winning). The talent is there - but they are not producing. Kelsay revealed a few cracks in the team chemistry (which is needed to add some bite to the complacency). We need some bickering Bills before ths team turns a corner!

I posted this to another thread, but it applies here. . . . . I just did a quick analysis of the Bills Tackling Stats: % of TOTAL TACKLES: LB-32 DB-48, DL-20 % of SOLO TACKLES: LB-31 DB-50 DL-19 What does it mean? The analysis is incomplete because we need to realize DB's make a high %age of tackles on passing plays, thus padding their #'s, BUT, the raw #'s above DO suggest that the LB's are making too few plays. So I said to myself, "Myself, what if you compared our D to the #1 D (we want to become), what do their #'s look like". Number 1 right now is SF 49'ers, here are their numbers % of TOTAL TACKLES LB-40 DB-38 DL-22 % of SOLO TACKLES LB-42 DB-36 DL-22 The analysis is still incomplete, but you can derive that the Bill's secondary is being called on to make too many plays AND it make sense that as the game goes on those guys may get more worn out, hence succeptable to big plays later in the game. Also, the Bills have 438 total tackles to SF's 377 or 16% more - we're on the field way too much (but we all already knew THAT !) Another interesting thing about the numbers - the Niner LB's made 42% of the solo stops and were in on 40% of all tackles. The Bills' LB's only made 31% of the stops and were in on 32% of all tackles. This tells me the Niner LB's made plays 42% of the time on their own with no help (assists). The Bills' LB's should be embarrassed. Looking at our DB's - theyre being asked to make SOLO stops (no help from LB/DL) on almost 50% (48%) of the plays - UN-Billeveable!!! We need to cut them some slack, buy them some Ben-gay and tell them we will draft LB's and maybe find some in Free Agency!!! Our DL makes slighly fewer tackles as a %age of total plays, than the Niners DL - 20% vs 22%. But it's not as glaring as the LB/DB numbers, but intuitively, we all know the DL should be doing better.

AND we lost 2 Super Bowls to back-ups Jeff Hostetler and Mark Rypien (tho Ryp was the starter that year, he was starter for a very short time).

I just did a quick analysis of the Bills Tackling Stats: % of TOTAL TACKLES: LB-32 DB-48, DL-20 % of SOLO TACKLES: LB-31 DB-50 DL-19 What does it mean? The analysis is incomplete because we need to realize DB's make a high %age of tackles on passing plays, thus padding their #'s, BUT, the raw #'s above DO suggest that the LB's are making too few plays. So I said to myself, "Myself, what if you compared our D to the #1 D (we want to become), what do their #'s look like". Number 1 right now is SF 49'ers, here are their numbers % of TOTAL TACKLES LB-40 DB-38 DL-22 % of SOLO TACKLES LB-42 DB-36 DL-22 The analysis is still incomplete, but you can derive that the Bill's secondary is being called on to make too many plays AND it make sense that as the game goes on those guys may get more worn out, hence succeptable to big plays later in the game. Also, the Bills have 438 total tackles to SF's 377 or 16% more - we're on the field way too much (but we all already knew THAT !) Another interesting thing about the numbers - the Niner LB's made 42% of the solo stops and were in on 40% of all tackles. The Bills' LB's only made 31% of the stops and were in on 32% of all tackles. This tells me the Niner LB's made plays 42% of the time on their own with no help (assists). The Bills' LB's should be embarrassed. Looking at our DB's - theyre being asked to make SOLO stops (no help from LB/DL) on almost 50% (48%) of the plays - UN-Billeveable!!! We need to cut them some slack, buy them some Ben-gay and tell them we will draft LB's and maybe find some in Free Agency!!! Our DL makes slighly fewer tackles as a %age of total plays, than the Niners DL - 20% vs 22%. But it's not as glaring as the LB/DB numbers, but intuitively, we all know the DL should be doing better.

If they trade Byrd, I'd be ticked. Buddy has said many, many times, you draft your own, you develop them, you keep your own and add in FA's occasionally as they don't always pan out (see M. Williams!! (thus far)). Byrd is a high character player who in year one showed us he had a nose for the ball but couldn't tackle. He worked on that and has shown he is a very good all around safety, still a ballhawk and now a great tackler and supports run defense too - approaching pro bowler level. I have no idea what the problem is on the defense, it's definitely NOT one guy. If I hear one more guy say the problem with the run-D is our "FITS" . . . I'll scream. These guys are missing their assignments on so many plays to the point this defense will go down in NFL history as the worst ever????? UnBilleveable! With players like our front 4 and the DB's (who I believe are pretty good) - I just don't understand. I do believe our LB's suck. If I understand Wanny's D at all, the DL are supposed to pressure the QB (though they do not do so consistently) and the LB's are supposed to make the tackles - and they aren't, they are falling to the DB's. We need some serious LB's, Barnett is a #3, yet the Bills act like he's a #1, he may be better - but it would require a couple of other studs out there with them.

Right! Perfect for our offense!!! Seriously - he IS raw, but is definitely talented. When is he due to come out - be drafted??

Tackling, once learned, is about desire and "want to" - at least that's what NFL Coaches say. That's why missed tackles are considered unacceptable and prompt screams from coaches.

BINGO!! Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!! Harumph!! Harumph!! Harumph!! Harumph!!! "Hey, I didn't get a Harumph outta that guy!!" EXACTLY! Couldn't say it better myself.

Romo - not even close. WESTSIDE is right on.

Stevie Johnson's really good too . . . . now if we could only find a way to get him the ball more than 10 yards downfield! Hey, if we could land Bowe - we could multiply that issue times 2!! I love Fitz - great guy, family man, yadda, yadda, yadda, but he is proving weekly, that he is not a top NFL QB! Years ago, when we had Jim Kelly taking us to the playoffs each year, I chuckled at other teams efforts to improve. The Jets had a good team - but no QB. The same with the Pats - no QB, then Bledsoe came along and they improved, but still weren't great, because as we NOW know, Bledsoe is an enigma - and was never that good. In the NFL, you need a top QB to succeed. We thought with good coaching, Fitz could elevate his game - but it doesn't look like it'll ever happen. We're a better team, but we don't have a QB. T.Jackson may be an improvement, but he obviously is still at the Huntington Learning Center trying to get the complicated playbook down! Buddy and Chan have a next-to-impossible task confronting them - finding a top-flight QB. FA? Draft? Trade?? Who knows? But one thing is relatively certain, Fitz ain't the answer and the Bills will continue to be middling - winning 4-7 games per year and missing out on the best QB's when they come out of college. Too good to draft #1 or #2, and so bad we usually draft around #10 - a recipe for mediocrity! Remember, we missed Big Ben by 1 pick - so we traded up for Losman. That didn't work. We need to do a Colts maneuver - like suck for Luck . . . . we need to barf for Barkley!! And he's no sure thing either!!

Yeah right - 1000 lbs!! Just kidding. You're right. One thing I learned from weight lifting is how incredibly strong one's legs are and with training, it's unreal.

He's saying we lose in Cleveland. I don't see that. Although 5-2 going into the bye week is plausible.

AGREED!! I mean, I'd be shocked if he didn't make the 53-man roster. I'd be disappointed an surprised if he didn't play regularly in week 1. And I'll be downright amazed if he doesn't make it past the bye week. I expect him to get up to 10 sacks this year. Given that it's a passing league, he will get more snaps, not less.