Captain Quint

Right, the fact that he had 41 touchdowns in an indoor football league. Guess what, Marshawn is so good that he didn't have to play in an indoor league. And if he did, he probably would have had more touchdowns. Your opinion is fine, and it's your opinion that he's a first rounder so he starts, not mine. It's not the coach's opinion, it's not the analysts, and it's not the opinion of the majority of the posters on this board. The only one that's saying that Fred Jackson should start is you and your other screen name, Jimmy Page. My opinion is that there are a ton of Fred Jacksons in the NFL, but there are few backs in the NFL that have consistently show the toughness that Marshawn has when he runs. Christ, the guy's played in 22 NFL games, has 1600 yds, and 13 touchdowns. The proof that you're looking for is in their NFL careers.

Note: Kenneth Davis, a lofty 4.4 YPC in 6 yrs with the Bills, .3 higher than Thomas' 4.1 YPC. This is how Jackson's career should play out as I see it. Marshawn gets the ball 70% of the time because the professional football coaches feel he's the better back. Excuse me if I don't take your word on it based on his time in the United Indoor League and 2 professional starts against a HORRID Dolphins 2007 team and a decent Redskins team that didn't gameplan for him because they had nothing on him. Like I said before, I love Jackson as a compliment, but not the starter. Don't forget that in his only 100+ yard game, Marshawn ran for 100+ as well.

Maybe addressing the question was finally his way of getting over it. You know how many times people have emailed him and questioned him about this and were probably blown off? Maybe now, years after the fact, and with TD still having no job in professional sports, he realizes how silly this "feud" has become. Addressing it now seems to make sense since we're now contenders for post season play. His credibility would be short lived if he were to continue down his current road with regards to the Bills. Let's be honest, for the past few years, we've been no better than when TD was at the helm to the untrained eye (of course, us experts know better ) .

You didn't answer the question. What facts do you have for this on Jackson vs Lynch? The .50 YPC that Jackson has over Lynch (3.7 compared to 4.2)? Is that really what you're basing your argument on? The fact that Lynch has 2.50 times the carries that Jackson has, with almost the same YPC? The 5 less touchdowns that Jackson has than Lynch? How about 3 runs by Jackson on the goal line last week. How'd that end up? I suppose that at THAT time, the OLine was to blame. I love Jackson as a compliment back, but if OC's had to gameplan for him, he would be less ordinary than Lynch. Lynch ran for 1100 yards in his rookie year. Sophomores slump. It happens every year. The problem with our run game is the OLine, not the backs.

Another thing that you notice if you're watching the game especially on TV is that the refs dictate when they want the clock to run and when they want it to stop, during the middle of quarters especially. At one point in the game last week, Marshawn ran out of bounds untouched, and the ref wound the clock immediately for some reason and it continued to run. Other times I'll notice that the player will be brought down in bounds, but the ref will stop the clock for a TV time out. TV time outs are only supposed to take place when the clock is actually stopped from the result of a play/ penalty, not when the ref feels like stopping it (I think?). As far as the replay system and missed calls, I think that now there are so many cameras, and we get the different angles so fast, that we're actually in a better position to make the calls than the refs. Even 5 years ago, they didn't have all of the cameras that they have now. I think that eventually, all the calls being made will come from a guy in a booth surrounded by TV's, because it's pretty clear that the refs are having increasingly more trouble keeping up with the plays and the technology.

I wouldn't call Ellis a bust yet. He just isn't going to be an 'immediate impact' type of guy. With him being a middle 3rd round pick, I don't think that the coaching staff has expected him to be a contributor yet. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had 4 DE's already on the roster besides Ellis. At the beginning of the season, we had Schobel, Kelsey, Denney & Bryan all on the active roster. Interestingly enough, we just added another DE to the practice squad this week in Marcus Smith, who played the other end of the line at U of AZ with Copeland Bryan at OLB. 6'5, 295lbs.

I'm all for bringing the blitz, but like it's been said, you need to have the personnel healthy to bring the blitz. Otherwise, Favre drops 3 steps and Cotchery's on his way to the end zone. If we have rookie corners (McKelvin or Corner) in the game again this week, I don't see us blitzing Whitner at all. I see more blitzs from Scott or whoever is playing SS, with Whitner at the nickle again. On a tangent, whats going on with Youboty & McGee? I haven't seen any articles this week on their progress. Did anyone comment on McGee not being 100% last week after the game? I really thought that it would be one of the big stories seeing as how he gave up 175 yds to Ginn and this week, he'll be going up against Coles or Cotchery, who are having great years.

I wouldn't say retreat, but I'd say that they stand there and wait for the play to happen and then react. I haven't seen them attack an offense in a long time, and at this point in a season, it'd be nice to see.

This game was a bigtime defeat for us, but it was also the same type of game that Arizona was. Our opponent was coming off of two straight losses and had us coming in to their house, at 4-0 and 5-1. That equates to a HUGE game for them! If they lose that game at home, it doesn't bode well for the rest of their progress as a young team that is trying to make a name for themselves (just like the Bills). Going 0-3 for any stretch of a season isn't good for any team, much less one that's trying to build. In both of our losses this season, the home team came out with their backs to the wall in a "must win" situation. For those people who were questioning why the line was only 1 point prior to the Dolphins game and why we were underdogs going into AZ at 4-0, this is one of the main reasons. Lets not forget that the Cardinals and Dolphins aren't the Cardinals and Dolphins that they have been in years past, either. As a young team, we can expect some more of these losses and mistakes. For example, one thing that I wouldn't expect is for Trent Edwards to try and extend the ball over the pile again. I can honestly say that he will probably never do that again in his career, but it takes what happened yesterday to really get the point across to him. The real test for this team is next week, at home, coming off of a road loss, and playing against a midseason Brett Favre. That game is the real test because it's a game that we have to win in order to stay competitive in the division. I don't think that we're at the point yet to win games that we shouldn't, but this season, if we can win the games we're supposed to, then we have a good shot at making the playoffs, and we'll hopefully roll into next year as a serious contender.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/foot.../nfl.doping.ap/ From SI.com. The article was published yesterday at 3pm.

That was awesome. I bet that most of these guys want to have an interview like that where they can just come out and really say what they're thinking. For me, the censorship of being a reporter would take out most of the fun.

Good point. Something tells me that the Rooney's aren't "cool".

Should I bench him on my fantasy team for violation of team rules?

Awesome. Loved the end with Mitchell & Stroud walking off the field!

I think it was Wilson wasn't it? #37? Whoever it was, they did have decent coverage. It looked like the type of timing play where once Gates made his break, the ball should have been there, so I don't know if Wilson could have made a play on the ball or not. It looked like he was behind Gates a little bit.

I say we send him hateful emails about his comments about Stroud.

Who are those guys?

Welcome aboard!

If you reverse those roles, I really think that Jackson struggles just like Lynch. Jackson's a change of pace back and he compliments Lynch well. Once OC's start to gameplan for Jackson like they do for Lynch, I think Jackson struggles more than Lynch is now. Jackson has the element of surprise on his side right now, but if he were consistently an every down back, he would suddenly become very average, in my opinion. I think the OL is the faulty party here, but we aren't real bad off at RB. Right now, we're ranked 23rd in rushing, averaging exactly 100 yards a game, and 13th in passing. I don't think that this is a team that's going to lead the league in anything at the end of the season (or even top 5), but our record will show how balanced a team we are.

Blasphemy!

Whitner against the Raiders and Mitchell against the Cards this year. If something like that did happen, I'd like to think that this year we've got the moxy to take care of business.

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Featu...8/players07.htm

Oh ok. I'm a fisherman, not an electrician. I'll explain the horrible puns next week, like: Bills say "F U" to PETA; Grind up Dolphins with the Tuna.

What does this one even mean: "Chargers offer only static as Bills amp the voltage" Also, not related to the balloons or power: "Turnovers muddy Rivers' day"