GaryPinC

It was a powerful movie. Gave me an amazing sense of how difficult maintaining the "us vs them" mentality can be. In all fairness, there was no theme music playing as the credits rolled. Only time I can remember that.

No, it was not. It was intended to equalize the amount of $$ each team could spend on its players. Why would that level competition? It would help avoid "super teams" that would consistently outspend to dominate the league with poorer franchises serving as farm teams but that doesn't mean competition was intended to be close to level. Front office, coaching, talent, quarterback, injuries, etc. all affect team performance. I don't see this as a Galileo scenario because IMO you are not understanding the purpose of the salary cap. Certain teams/franchises are just better at winning consistently. Is 5 years truly a large enough analysis window to support your conclusions? I could find a 5 year block where the Bills were in the playoffs every year. The cowboys, niners, and seahawks (just to name a couple) have had their dry spells too. When a franchise assembles a good front office, coaching staff, and talent they tend to have good teams for more than one year. Hopefully we are going there with the Pegulas at the helm.

Ok, seriously, who besides you believes that the salary cap was intended to level/equalize the talent of each team, comrade? It equalizes the total compensation each team is allowed to spend on their roster. Nothing else. It's working as it's supposed to. What a pointless thread.

It sounds like the entire problem was the host mom did not make clear there would be a non-refundable per child payment for snow tubing, etc until after the fact. But normally places like the ski slope will be cool and not bill for 1 or 2 kids who don't show up. Lack of communication and classless behavior by the host. This kind of situation happens a lot, or you get the other type of parent who shows up with the rest of their uninvited kids wanting to participate in the party. But it's very classless to ask for the money, especially if you didn't make that clear with the accepted invite.

Wow. I respect the hell out of your opinion but have to respectfully disagree. I think he has real potential. Don't get me wrong, I agree with Yolo that Jones needs more game experience. But he has a good pocket presence, feel for the game and varies the speed of his ball well. Puts nice touch on his throws to the flats or can rifle it down field. He sees the field and his reads fairly well. His scrambles are by choice after reading his options, I do believe his willingness to take on college backers and the odd nose tackle will go away in the NFL. I think he is a little slow getting rid of the ball but I think part of that is his inexperience. I have zero expertise, so I guess we'll see how he turns out eventually. :-) I don't expect much from Mariota in the NFL. I like him as a person but he seems like a system QB. I do think Jameis has real potential if he can get his head screwed on straight.

Congrats on the game yesterday Yolo. I'm a Penn State fan but a great run and championship by OSU! Beating the ducks while committing 4 turnovers is a bit of a miracle, but speaks loudest about OSU's character and coaching! They came a long way from August. I totally agree with you that Cardale needs another year and would be a developmental prospect if he comes out, but our best shot to draft him would be if he decides to declare now. I'm just amazed at his pocket presence and decision making for how little he's played. I kind of hope that he will adjust quickly to being an NFL QB considering how well he did against 3 of the best teams in college football. Talk about trial by fire! The other thing working in our favor is Urban Meyer trying to bring Braxton Miller back. Why? How can you not start Jones next season? And I imagine JT Barrett won't be too happy about the situation.

Cons: Put your health in the hands of our offensive line. Retire or be retired? Hmmmm.

I honestly think part of the reason we traded up for Watkins is because of his work ethic, attitude, and passion he brings to the field. As a coach, I can say you covet those rare players who elevate their focus and effort and put it all on the line when the game's outcome is in doubt. Sammy seems like he's one of those types of people, and we should see that once he settles in and gets a decent QB. I think that's part of Whaley's gamble and I respect him for it. Hopefully being around Heinz Ward, Polamalu, and Rothelisberger taught him that appreciation.

Yea, that's not good but Schwartz is a passionate coach so probably reacted without thinking. I personally think how a coach manages the clock says a lot about how good of a gameday coach he is. Are his players prepared (constantly wasting time outs if not), with less than 2 minutes left how many seconds are wasted? One great example for me involved the Pettine and the Browns against Atlanta. Driving for the winning field goal they completed a 15 yard pass play and got the ball to the Atlanta 30 with less than 20 seconds left when they used their last time out. Announcers were going nuts about how you save it for the kick. Pettine used it to draw up a short pass play and make sure the offense hustled up to spike the ball with 5 seconds left. Gave his kicker a 36 yard field goal instead of 47.

The 3 or 4 games before that opposing defenses started keying on Hoyer's tendencies to neutralize the passing game too. That's the one thing I can fault him and QB coach for not coming up with a solution to. But the offense was diverse and well executed by the players. I was really impressed with the job Shanahan did with it, because you could really see how he had a plan of attack.

I thought Kyle did a fantastic job as OC last year. Nice mixes of runs vs passes, definitely trying to keep the defense off balance and tailored to strengths. For the most part the plays were crisp and not sloppy. Until Manziel got in there. Yah, Schwartz HC with Kyle as OC and either Pep or someone Jimmy wants is sounding pretty good to me.

Thanks much for digging this up. It's very worth noting that this is the lions' own website and a multitude of players with some strong words supporting Schwartz. IMO it points to the Detroit FO deciding to make a change for change's sake and less about Schwartz's ability to coach. Schwartz should be one of our leading HC candidates for all the reasons indicated in this thread. Our own players talk about hanging on his legs and chaining themselves to his car in hopes he doesn't leave. That is not the usual PR talk. Our franchise has some connections to Detroit. Talk to them, get some scoop on what happened up there. Our FO should every effort into vetting Schartz as HC. How was his gameday decisions and clock management? Anyone on TBD live in/follow Detroit during his tenure there? There's a lot of good things about this guy so get the full story behind the numbers and make an intelligent decision.

FWIW, When news of the altercation between Marrone and Whaley broke on Sept 5, LaCanfora said the "just go ahead and fire me" quote was thrown by Marrone." Tim Graham put up these up on twitter around 9:30am: https://twitter.com/bytimgraham/status/507929216940519424 https://twitter.com/bytimgraham/status/507929845351710720 Later he wrote this article: http://bills.buffalonews.com/2014/09/05/brandon-marrone-deny-report-of-spat/ It could be circumstantial but looking at Graham's first twitter and Russ's quote in the news article, I assume Russ later decided to publicly acknowledge the practice altercation after first remaining anonymous to Tim in the morning. Both twitter statements imply someone with very good knowledge of the altercation and the dinner afterwards. I assume Russ is one of Tim's "sources" for these reasons.

I'm not. Given Ralph's situation, what self-respecting coach would sign on without this type of guarantee? Ralph could have died in 2013 and the new owner flushed the entire front office or brought in a management group that Marrone didn't like or was too restricting. So many unknowns almost 2 years ago I feel something like this contract had to be offered to get a top candidate.

Lack of consistency in the front office sucks ass! But if Marrone pulled a power play and quit then he's dead to me. He was a far from perfect coach, though I thought he had some promise. If he really is smart he'll go back to the college game, I think it fits his controlling coaching style better. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Whaley and Brandon. From the moment the Pegulas got here, Brandon's seems very giddy and smug about his relationship with them (IMO). I like Brandon but have to believe there's a reason the raiders are mentioning him. Lot of PC PR but if he is willing to publicly mention a dissatisfaction with the organization he takes action shortly thereafter. And I do believe he ultimately cares about building a winner. I do want to keep Whaley though and am worried about it if Polian installs his son here. Just hoping Terry and Kim get this right, we have the talent to move upwards.

Really? Everything bad was on offense and only Marrone's fault, everything good was on defense and Schwartz's credit? I think Marrone played a role on fourth down calls for sure, but exactly how much did he run the offense vs Hackett? I would appreciate an explanation of your direct knowledge as I have no firm idea. Marrone seems like a guy that lets his people do their jobs. Quarterback audibles and check downs with wide open receivers, Marrone's fault also? Orton deciding in the weeks up to the Denver game he didn't want to give his all to win anymore. I recall you directly posting that Orton wasn't throwing the same as he has in the past, more checkdowns less chances downfield. All Marrone's fault too? Crappy play calling or a bailing, self-protecting quarterback? Or defensive adjustments? The defense had a lousy game against Oakland, especially after Dareus left. Ultimately Marrone's fault right? Just because our offense was ineffective doesn't mean they weren't playing hard. How many serious injuries did we have to our O-lineman? And guard Mike Williams would have reinjured his back regardless of offensive effectiveness. But overall not many, and to me injuries occur there when guys aren't playing hard. If you truly believe that the solid locker room and consistent effort on the field only involved the defense we will have to agree to disagree. To me, it's an important measure of our head coach's effectiveness. In the past, no way we win that last game against the Patriots even against second half scrubs. Credit Marrone and the offense for taking control of the game in the first half when the starters were still in. Do you really believe we should can Marrone, blow up both systems, the locker room, and team morale? Keep that lack of coaching continuity going? This guy had the guts to pull EJ and fight to get Orton brought in, who despite his decision to retire, was arguably the best option available to us this year.

I don't think Marrone refuses to fire Hackett, otherwise he's seen as a fraud because he always preaches best chance of winning. Thing is, I think Nate Hackett's playcalling improved (though still not good enough) the last quarter of the season and he has a lot of passion for the job. I simply think he needs to learn from an experienced NFL OC guru for a year or two. Chances are he gets let go, especially when PR savvy Russ Brandon publicly questions the playcalling. There's a lot of fluff corporate-speak that comes out of Russ's mouth, but when he voices displeasure concerning the Bills, changes get made. I don't get why so many here want to get rid of Marrone? It sounds like there's a good locker room and he consistently has this team playing good, hard-nosed football. For the first time in I-don't-know-when, in-game injuries happened noticeably more to our opponents instead of us. This year, I didn't have to cringe always watching other teams run over us when the game's on the line. I do believe he is building a successful culture behind the scenes. I think Brandon Spikes' words about enjoying his time here are heartfelt and not purely contract motivated. It's clear Marrone got a little too full of himself and over-tinkered with the O-line and was too conservative on 4th downs at times. He's a young NFL head coach with an unreliable offense/QB to influence his decisions so give him a chance to learn. Hopefully in his 360's players are empowered enough to mention going for it more on fourth down. This is a team that hasn't achieved anything yet, but opponents don't want to face. The last time I felt that way was in '87. Yeah, let's blow up the system, locker room and get rid of our 2nd year head coach working with an unreliable QB situation. Makes perfect sense.

Mallett would be my top choice also. Looked like he can read a defense and play in this league watching him against Cleveland. Big unknown is that muscle tear affecting his arm strength, but worth taking a chance on. Hoyer, no way. Not the strongest arm and predictable tendencies. Draft one also.

Awfully bold statements about Pears' QB abilities! ;-) I get what you're saying about Orton and trust what you've seen of him in the past but also wonder if for whatever reason he's just declining. Didn't do training camp and wonder how much he works out and takes care of himself? As I said that slide on 3rd and 2 spoke volumes to me about his heart being in it. He had at least another step or 2 before a defender caught him so take those and dive forward and try and reach that first down! Even if he didn't make it I couldn't fault the effort. What he did showed me his first priority out there is to protect himself before trying to make a critical play for the team. That compromises aggressiveness and could be at the root of his dropoff.

I kind of think it's a combination of things. Hoyer started off great in Cleveland then the bottom fell out. I think part of it is that once there's enough scouting reports and film out there, opposing defenses really clamp down on QB tendencies. With backups like Orton and Hoyer they don't have the talent to make certain situational throws consistently and I think that's what catches up to them. I know that's how Searcy got the INT's with Hoyer, just sat on his favorite pattern. Then for Orton you have an immobile QB who can't throw on the run with a bad offensive line and I think at this point in his career he's a bit gunshy because of it. He may have a competitive, aggressive streak but his slide on that 3rd and 2 said it all to me. It seems preposterous to me that coaching is making him this way. I understand Marrone and/or Hackett may coach Orton to make safe throws but plays are run with a variety of patterns and a progression of reads. Even if his first read is the short pattern and he throws to a wide open deep pattern is the coach going to try and correct that? Coaches call the plays but QB's have the final decision.

It's not dirty at all! Wood never lowered his head, he dropped his body down and exploded his shoulder through Clay Matthew's chest. Wood's helmet never contacted Matthews at all. The buffalo rumblings link has 2 angles that show it was a good hit. I get what you are saying about Woods targeting Matthews rather than targeting someone closer to the play, but he wasn't dirty with his hit. It may have been payback for something else, but I am sick of the past years of our team having the opposition's will physically imposed on them. It's nice to see us doing it for a change! If they can keep it up I'm really looking forward to that Patriots game.

If true, maybe Doug should let her do press conferences for him. Alternatively, it'd be fun to watch a reporter ask Marrone about the incident this week.

Probably a good time for him to buy some more fracking land...