GaryPinC

I don't think that's true. What happened was Cincinnati quick-snapped the ball before the Browns D had lined up, ie. the play had been called but the defense hadn't lined up yet. The Browns D should have called a timeout but Dickie J had looked down to figure out his next playcall so he didn't see the Bengals trying to quick-snap. Here's the article with Dickie J taking responsibility for it: http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2011/09/cleveland_browns_defensive_coo_7.html We all know Dickie J is good at taking responsibility with no accountability otherwise he'd fire himself. The perplexing thing about this entire situation is that in a previous article Scott Fujita (LB) took responsibility for not calling the time-out but he did mention defensive players are not allowed to call time-outs unless the coaching staff on the sideline approves or signals it in. That seems a bit unbelievable to me and harkens back to when our QB's weren't allowed to change the plays at the line of scrimmage. Good luck with Mr. Jauron, Cleveland!

If it's a heart condition, I don't like the sound of things. "Minor illness" going into the weekend, on the IR by Tuesday. Sounds like follow up testing/analysis revealed a bigger problem. Cardiology is a huge field and as just one example there's a lot of arrhythmias and PVC's that can seem minor (ex. caused by excessive sympathetic tone) and upon further testing/analysis be deadly serious. I pray it's not too serious and that Marcus just needs time to rest and recover. Obviously the chicken wing story is just stupid. It'd be nice if all the jokesters put a sock in it until we actually know how serious it really is. Get well soon Marcus.

I entertained thoughts of punishment when Gailey said he'd be out against Oakland. But to IR the guy as a punishment? Why wouldn't Gailey just cut him if he felt that strongly about it?

I prefer to think that good coaches don't allow their teams to let up.

From what I remember, their larger runs were on misdirection running plays which we were overpursuing on and got caught. That should be easily correctable.

Great points Bill and everyone else. Saw most of the game via computer which makes it difficult to distinguish jersey #s but wanted to add the following: -This was the first game in many years where I see the Bills having the potential to dominate on both sides of the ball. No predictions on the season but I never had this impression even during the 7-9 years. -OL looks competent, they are still a work in progress but I was definitely encouraged today. -As well as Dareus played today, he's just scratching the surface and I can't wait till he gets comfortable and really starts kicking *ss. -Defense was vulnerable to misdirection plays as they were over-pursuing. Should be easily corrected though. -Fred Jackson was an absolute monster today, he was a smaller, smarter version of what Marshawn aspired to be. Give Spiller more (playing) time before passing judgement on him. -We may finally have a tight end. And he looks young and should fill out over the next couple years. A bit of a liability blocking though. -Fitz is clearly our leader, excited to see how he does this year. I think he'll always be a bit inaccurate but he seems able to overcome it. -Lastly, thanks to the coaches and the players for a great game. I'm hoping this year reminds me of 1987 season. Edit: Favorite play of the game -Chandler's second touchdown. Buffalo had 3rd and goal inside the five. Consecutive false start and delay of game penalties push it out beyond the 10. &@*%$*%^$@ great, here comes a field goal. Ryan and Scott had other ideas though. Fantastic.

I definitely agree that with time he might be molded into a D-lineman. But I personally don't think there's physically much difference between an O-lineman other than the O-lineman has to be able to run well in open space whereas the D-lineman needs to be able to use his hands/arms effectively to gain space. While Jasper is a bit large for an O-lineman if he is athletic enough it should be ok. Mentally it's quite a bit different with a D-lineman looking to hold space and get off blocks while an O-lineman is trying to get to his assignment and neutralize them. In seeing Jasper he seems like he has more of an O-line mentality. Certainly he may get better with coaching but he might be closer to being an O-lineman so I understand and agree with the switch. The big equalizer here is that mentally he may not be able to play at the NFL level no matter which side of the ball he is.

He's kind of an interesting guy. When he played for the Browns his teammates knew him as the guy who could get expensive electronics for dirt cheap prices.

I respectfully disagree. From what I saw of Jasper he has a lot of problems using his hands to gain separation and his field awareness wasn't very good. Put him at guard or tackle give him his assignment and let him run people over. That's why they're thinking OT with him, and at this point I agree. BTW, Jasper played OG and NT and Tennessee-Martin and later he was exclusively offense at Bethel. He did a couple interviews after being drafted and sounded like he preferred D-line over offense so that's where the Bills coaches put him. Figure the Bills coaches put him where he wanted to be, Jasper wasn't good enough and now they can give him a new appreciation of the offensive side. I'd be interested to hear why you think he's so much better suited for NT over OL? When I saw his style of play the first thing I thought of was OL, especially with his athletic ability. Keep in mind even his final college coach felt he was better suited to OL.

I always thought the charging buffalo stands out much better on the white helmets. Love the standing buffalo best of all and I am over 35 (41) also...

I'm with you except I think they'll actually begin serious negotiations after the season starts. Fitzy's in a unique situation of a career backup just being given the starter's job so I think right now it's difficult to set the value of his contract and it makes sense to me to give him 4-8 games to see how he does this year. I'm just praying the O-line plays decently so that Fitz gets enough time to show what he's worth. It also seems to me that most players take it as an insult if they don't get a new contract offer before their old one runs out, so I don't think they wait until after the season. We'll see. Got my fingers crossed for Ryan.

I agree with you to a point, but rather than another allegation, it simply makes me question the validity of his source. It is obvious Moran believes his source, but does anyone else at this point? I certainly don't.

Straight from the article: "Regardless of anything else, I’m sorry to Merriman for causing him unnecessary grief, forcing major media outlets to investigate him further and causing anyone to question his character due to an inaccurate report. He’s worked hard to get ready for this season and deserves the unwavering support of all Bills fans.... For what it’s worth, I also apologize to the Buffalo fans.... Lastly and most importantly to me, I want to apologize to media members and some Bills players themselves that I know were let down." They were near the bottom of the article and I count 3 apologies in there.

Yea, great, just state the correction and write that he "regrets" the mistake/situation like every other reputable publication trying to avoid responsibility. I know nothing of Pat Moran except from this article. He's really bad as a writer (as others have pointed out) but I have to give him credit for at least trying to be accountable/responsible for his mistakes. It is at least refreshing to see, regardless of his motives.

I wish Evans would do an interview and man-up about whether he requested the trade. If he did, who can truly blame him given the sad state of this franchise? Admitting such would settle down the fans and players who were outraged when Lee got dealt. If he didn't make the request then it would only increase the uproar and bring some solid pressure onto management, and IMO that can't be a bad thing at this point. Either way it would help this team move forward.

Good points, but let's see if these contracts actually get completed. I do believe Ralph wanted to build a winner when he brought Nix and Gailey in, but if his health has gotten significantly worse over the last month it may have induced a change in philosophy for the franchise. In my 41+ years on this planet I have learned that it's not what you have to say but rather how you say it that matters most.

John Wawrow has always seemed to me to be very good about reporting what he has direct quotes or proof to report. I think he also tries to fit his writing style to the reality of the situation when he has no direct proof that would allow him to include it in his article. My impression from his article was that Buddy was not on board with the Lee Evans trade. I think Ralph Wilson is getting pretty close to the end of the road, so it wouldn't be surprising that the bean counters are cleaning house. Be interesting to see if Buddy resigns at some point this year.

I don't agree, I'd take Quinn over Tebow any day. I saw Quinn's last few games in Cleveland and he seemed to have figured out how to execute decisions in an NFL offense. His accuracy was a bit off but he also seemed to be rushing his throws. IMO he's much closer to being a consistent starter than Tebow. If we could get him for next to nothing, even better.

I don't really agree with Chan's approach right now. If we were a consistent playoff team, I would agree. If we had actually managed to score a touchdown with our first team offense I might feel better about this approach. Are we going to play a strict base offense during the regular season? Wouldn't you want to try and evaluate how well your team would execute complex plays in the regular season rather than sticking to base formations? I realize you don't want to show too much in preseason, but you also want to put in enough to build confidence heading in to the regular season. Especially with this team. Hopefully these guys have a strong next game.

Totally agree with that.

Watched the Browns' scrimmage last Saturday, Jauron's defense was on the field first. First play call for Dick? Time out. I just laughed and told all my friends to expect plenty of prevent defense this year.

That's funny, I was wondering the same thing and thinking that's why they switched him to offense in college. But I think it's better to play a guy where he wants to be rather than forcing a switch. He definitely needs a lot of work on technique, we'll see where he is at the end of preseason but for now I think you leave him be. At least he didn't get pushed around out there like Wang and Urbik.

That's funny. Did Buddy even bother to fill that position after Modrak left?

I agree that situations similar to the hypothetical Maybin scenario came up, but IMO don't think it explains 10 years of high round futility. Definitely agree it was time to turn the page and would just add that Buddy seemed to regard Modrak highly when he became GM then fired him about a year later.

I look at Modrak's role this way: there has been a history of poor early round drafting for a decade or so. No matter who's making the choice it's being pulled from Modrak's draft rankings/talent evaluation. You could argue that the draft decision maker ignored Modrak's board, but every damn year? You could argue that Modrak disagreed with each poor draft decision in the early rounds but the bust that got picked had to have been top-ranked by Modrak at their position most of the time. Would Ralph consistently spend first/early round money on guys that could be drafted later for less $? Mr. Wilson's inability to judge front-office talent forces him to blindly latch on to people hired from successful organizations, that's why it takes so long to root out their incompetence.