Indy Dave

First, Ricky loves the bong more than he loves the ball. Now let me throw out some facts. I repeat...FACTS. Last year, with both backs playing behind poor offensive lines, Travis Henry rushed for 1,356 yards. Ricky Williams rushed for 1,372 yards. Ricky had a grand total of 16 more rushing yards than Travis did last season. But let's look at some more facts. Travis averaged 4.1 yards per carry, while Ricky averaged 3.5 yards per carry. Ricky averaged 85 yards a game, Travis averaged 90. Ricky had nine touchdowns. Travis had 10. Ricky lost four fumbles. Travis lost three. Ricky played for a team that wanted to run the ball most of the time. Travis played for a team that wanted to pass the ball most of the time. Oh but wait...Travis bashers complain about his breakaway speed. Ricky's longest run was 45 yards. Travis' was 65. Let me spare anyone the BS about picking up the blitz and catching the ball. I know those aren't Travis' strengths so save your time. Again, I am not saying Travis is the best, and I'm not saying he doesn't have shortcomings. But to say he is our #1 problem is the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

Yeah, I hope Mularkey chooses to play him. Then again, the way he plays Willis and Evans, I don't think he's too fond of putting a rookie in the game. Therefore, I won't get my hopes up.

For you COMPLETE IDIOTS who think that Travis Henry is the #1 problem with our offense, do everyone a favor and shoot yourself. Should Willis get more than two carries? Yep. Should Willis get the ball in goal line situations? Yep. Is Travis a top-five back in this league? Nope. But with a lousy quarterback, a pitiful offensive line, a star receiver who has fumbled in a key spot and dropped a few passes, a third-year receiver who has done next to nothing, and tight ends who opposing teams couldn't care less about, I ask you -- I BEG YOU -- to explain to me how Travis is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM. You people who just rip the guy who plays harder than anyone on this team are simply amazing. Keep making up crap about near fumbles if that makes you feel better. The fact is, he has not fumbled once this season. NOT ONCE. Almost doesn't count. Consider that Edgerrin has lost two fumbles (both in the red zone), Quentin Griffin has a HUGE fumble that cost his team the game yesterday, Domanick Davis has lost two, Ahman Green fumbled in the red zone yesterday that directly led to seven points for Chicago, and so on and so on. Those are just LOST fumbles, not fumbles where the offense recovers. Hey, Travis has his shortcomings, but if you think for one second is the biggest reason why our offense is horrible, you don't know a damn thing about football. Not a damn thing.

So essentially you're asking if we'd rather be where we are or where the Jags are. Has any team started 2-0 and looked so bad in doing so in the history of the NFL? I know you have to go back to the 1940-something Chicago Cardinals to find a team with a 2-0 start that has scored 20 points in those two games. If we were 2-0, I'd be in a much better mood because, like somone else said, it's all about winning and losing. But I wouldn't be reserving playoff tickets either. If we did make a play or two to be 2-0 instead of 0-2, it wouldn't change the fact that this team has serious issues with the offensive line and quarterback. P.S. Why anyone would want to bench Travis is beyond me. I'm not saying we shouldn't give Willis more carries, especially around the goal line, but Drew is no good, the offensive line is no good, Josh Reed is awful, and our tight ends suck. The only offensive player you could argue to be more valuable to this team is Moulds, and I think it's safe to say he has made more mistakes through two games than Travis has.

I'm all for seeing what Willis can do, but like we saw on McGahee's first run yesterday (when he lost 10 yards), it doesn't really matter who is running the ball when the line is not very good, and the opposing defenses don't have to respect our passing game. Travis and Willis aren't our problem. Most teams would kill to have a 1-2 punch like that. But we have a bad offensive line and a bad quarterback, and that hurts our good runnig back combination and it hurts our best receiver, who should be a Pro Bowler. Put Eric Moulds on any other team, and he is right there with Harrison, Owens, Moss and Holt. But speaking of Travis, did anyone notice the bickering going on with Gus Johnson and Brent Jones yesterday? Gus thought the Bills should stay patient and stick with Travis, and Brent thought Willis should play. I thought, in the end, Gus was right, because Travis had his best runs in the third and fourth quarters. It was definitely good to see a real broadcaster stand up to the ex-athlete who thinks he knows more.

Thanks for trying to give us some hope, but the fact is, we're going to get killed. Deep down, you have to know that. The Cards were playing their home opener with the added emotional element of it being Pat Tillman Day, and the Pats still won easily. It can't be easy to get up for an out-of-conference game in 100-degree heat in front of the worst fans in the NFL. They will have no trouble getting up for the Bills, and will have no trouble winning. On a brighter note, Mike, you can change your signature line any day now. A-Rod is hitting nearly .300 and Varitek just completed an 0 for 10 series, with eight strike outs.

Hey Greg. Thanks for saying in a few words what it took me 2,000 to say in my last post. Hope you're doing well, Bills-related stuff aside.

It's simple. Bet the under when the Bills play the Dolphins. Miami may be worse on offense than we are. Let that last sentence sink in. If you watched last night's game, you will know what I'm talking about. Of course, they have more playmakers on defense and a better placekicker than we do, so we'll probably lose that game too. I'm thinking 3-0. Anyway...since this board will be next to impossible to access today with all of the traffic causing problems with the server, here's one post to cover everything that's bothering me. During the game yesterday, todd and a couple of others suggested that the interception early in the third quarter was Travis' fault. I totally disagree, and so does the man who threw the lousy pass: His biggest misfire came at the start of the second half when he overthrew a wide-open Travis Henry over the middle. Henry barely laid a glove on the ball and Raiders free safety Ray Buchanan returned the interception to the Bills' 12-yard line and set up a 21-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski. "Just threw it too high and probably a little bit too hard to Travis," Bledsoe said. "He couldn't pull it in and it got batted up into the air. I've got to put that ball on Travis' chest, particularly when it's a short throw like that. I threw it too high and he couldn't handle it." Like I said yesterday, that was about as easy of a pass as a quarterback can make: five yards down the field, no pressure, no defender between the thrower and receiver...and Drew botched it. He botched many throws yesterday. When he didn't botch throws, Josh, Eric, Travis and maybe others dropped them. Then there were the seven sacks in which he didn't have time to throw at all. Our offensive line isn't very good, but I think it looked better yesterday than it did most of last season. I'm quite certain that the problems with our offense stem from one of two things: our quarterback or our offensive line. It's probably both, but since we can't just replace an entire line, it would be interesting to see what happens to our offense if we replaced Drew. Unfortunately, and thanks to Troy Vincent, we can't replace him. Like someone else said, Shane Matthews is Drew Bledsoe without the arm. We're not getting any better with him under center, I don't think. Before anyone goes crazy about my little comment about Vincent, let me just say that I bit my lip and attributed the whole thing to just bad luck when he was involved with the play that broke JP's leg. But after seeing him try and tackle yesterday, I'm kind of pissed off and feel like blaming him for something. I would love to see what JP could do with our offense. If he did nothing, so what? That's exactly what we are getting from Drew anyway, so why not get some experience for our supposed quarterback of the future? Hey Mularkey...if you noticed anything during the preseason, it should have been that our backup running back -- the one we spent a first-round pick on last year even though there are other more glaring needs on this team -- has a knack for finding the end zone. Put him in on the goal line. Please? I love Travis Henry, and I think he didn't score on fourth and goal yesterday because Ted Washington kicked Trey Teague's ass and someone else kicked Tim Euhus' ass. But I also know that Willis is bigger than Travis, and I think he would have been in the end zone. Speaking of Tim Euhus, why in the hell did we draft this guy? Don't we have two tight ends who aren't very good already? Did we need to waste another roster spot with a third tight end who isn't very good. Another brilliant move by the biggest reason we are where we are....Tom Donahoe. Flame away people, but Tom Donahoe is no good. He's made a few good moves and some nice draft picks, but the bad far outweighs the good. Notice how yesterday's offensive MVP was a seventh-round selection? Ronald Curry....sigh. And our third-year receiver, who we selected in the second round, still can't catch a pass. But hey, he looks great in training camp, so everyone start defending him. Ryan Denney, Chris Kelsay, Coy Wire...all high draft picks. Does anyone REALLY think these guys are headed for stardom? Let's not even talk about our fifth, sixth and seventh round choices. Don't bother if you are going to respond that picking those guys that late in the draft is a crap shoot. It's not. It's a skill, and apparently Tom doesn't have it. We've picked up some good free agents in recent years...Takeo, London, Lawyer, Sam...Tom deserves credit for that, especially since he inherited a team in salary cap hell. But I believe you build a team through the draft, and you fill in the spaces by getting a free agent or two. We seemed to have built a team (a defense anyway) by getting a bunch of free agents and then filling in the spaces with draft picks. Some have worked out...Schoebel, some nice backup CBs in Thomas and McGee, but that's about it. Geez...I haven't even mentioned Big Mike, who has hardly played like a guy worthy of the #4 pick in the draft. Looks like we'll be getting the #4 pick in the draft this year, but of course that pick is going to Dallas. Man, I hope JP pans out. Man, I am frustrated as hell. Even when things go our way, they really don't. Not getting that call for the safety is an example of what I mean. We make a play, but then again we really don't. Our two long kick returns is more of what I mean. Just when you think we've changed the momentum, something bites us in the ass. Do you realize that holding call on the punt return caused us to start from our own 16 instead of the Raiders' 10? 74 yards. Anyway, I'm just rambling. I imagine there will be a bunch of bickering going on around here. Why not? You can almost read between the lines of some of our players with their quotes in today's news. I sense some serious bickering about to take place, and that's never good. Whether you think it's Travis' fault, Drew's fault, the coaching, Tom's fault, the offensive line, the equipment managers or the cheerleaders, we're all here for the same reason. We're pissed because we're not winning. We're here because we're tired of losing in the same fashion over and over again. It really doesn't matter whose fault you think it is. In the end, we're all here because we're pissed at our team for losing.

Yeah, and I'm predicting a Diamondbacks-Royals World Series next month. We can't beat two average teams, so how are we going to beat the champs? If you want to make predictions, make a prediction to how long it will take for the boo birds to come out when we host the Pats in two weeks. My guess is after our first three and out.

True, no one said that. But what other choice do we have? If not Drew, then who?

Like I said in the first half, when Zeroue is on the field, he is getting the ball. This is not hard to figure out.

Bledsoe sucks but Shane Matthews is not the answer. There's nothing we can do to save this season. Nothing, and that includes the defense picking up a fumble to score a touchdown to force OT today, and then we win it with another defensive touchdown. Our defense is pretty good, no question about it. But there is only so much they can do. Nice tackle Troy Vincent! Looked like the same effort you gave when you broke Losman's leg.

That was a 74-yard penalty on that nulified punt return. Never saw the penalty. Never saw the holding on Tucker. I've seen that called a pancake block. Oh look...another holding.

I agree with the choice to go for the TD. If you kick the field goal, you still need a touchdown to win. What better chance does this offense have of getting into the end zone than when it's down at the 1-yard line? Surely you are not counting on Lindell to make four field goals in one game, because that's what would have to happen for us to win this game without a touchdown.

So we have two talented running backs, but one gets his feelings hurt if he doesn't get to play all the time, and the other gets his feelings hurt if he gets replaced for a play? That's beautiful.

It sure was a touchdown last year for Ricky Williams in the Sunday night game against the Bills last year. But we don't get those calls.

What did you expect, a touchdown? Surely not. God our offensive line got hammered on that play, so what did we expect with Tret Teague trying to block Ted Washington? If Willis showed us anything in the preseason, it was a knack for finding the end zone, or were our coaches paying any attention?

Geez...I thought we wasted a timeout there. You almost come to expect that we do something some stupid.

Put Willis in the game.

Yes, but Travis is our problem. No one else.

I'm not making any concessions. That was Drew's fault. Travis jumped for the ball and it still went off his fingertips. Not to mention, it should have been the easiest throw for a quarterback to make. Instead it was a turnover. That last play (second down from midfield) should have been caught by Travis. It was a lousy throw, but it should have been caught.

You do realize what you just said, don't you? Did you think that in late-August you would be calling for Shane Matthews as our quarterback? I know he wasn't on the team then, but who would have thought things would be this bad with our current quarterback situation. Our backup got hurt, our rookie got hurt, and Drew still sucks. And the fans are asking for lifelong journeyman Shane Freakin' Matthews. SIIIIGHHHHH.

You have GOT to be kidding me with that call. Only the Buffalo Bills would get that call go against them. I bet anyone anything that the Raiders get out of the shadow of their own end zone here. Watching Bills games is like watching Groundhog Day. Even when things go our way, they really don't.

What about my statement are you debating? That the throw was too high and hit him in the fingernails and not the hands? You saw the freakin' play. Travis jumped for the ball and it still only hit him in the fingertips. Not to mention, how easy of a freakin' throw was it. It was a pass no further than five yards down the field, with no pressure on him and with an open receiver. And he still threw it high. I bet anything Drew will take full responsibility for that interception. And he damn well should.

Henry and Willis both in, both go out in pass patterns, neither pass protect in an obvious blitzing situation.