Utah John

It's one thing for the Eagles with all their great offensive weapons to be aggressive. When the Bills wanted to take a fourth down shot last year, the D knew they could stop Shady, keep TT in the pocket, and get the offense ready to go back on the field. You have to play the cards you've got. McD generally made good calls to put the players he had in a position to win. Can we just stop for a second and appreciate the season? My two favorite teams did great, exceeding expectations. The Bills made the playoffs, and the team playing the Pats won the Super Bowl. Let that sink in. Now look ahead to the Pats losing both coordinators, Brady turning 52 or 68 or whatever and finally showing his age, and the Pats players revolting at least a little over the way Malcolm Butler was screwed.

The only Eagle I'd take in exchange for Shady is Carson Wentz.

Worst move in franchise history? OMG you must have started following the Bills 10 minutes ago. Given a few minutes I could probably list 100 moves that were worse than taking a shutdown corner in the first round after getting another team's first rounder the next year.

If teams could evade cap hits due to medical retirements, there'd be a lot of medical retirements. Except for kickers, every guy who's played in the NFL for a few years has something or other wrong, that could be used as an excuse. The salary cap would become much less restrictive than it is now.

If they draft the right QB, the odds are very good he'll be here longer than McDermott. It's always easier to find a new HC than a great QB. Not that I'm predicting bad things, but there are always ups and downs, and sometimes a coach just wears out his welcome. For the record, I think McDermott is doing a great job. He had a few mistakes but he has the team on the right track. He's the anti-Wrecks, a serious competent guy who has the team working together and believing in itself. Still, the half life for HC tenures in the NFL is probably 3 or 4. So the team's organization needs to have a voice in this selection, not just the HC. People stood back and watched as Wrecks decimated the great defense that Jim Schwartz had put together, because Wrecks was a 3-4 guy and had his own scheme. So out went great players and in came new guys like Ragland who didn't fit when McDermott and Beane came in. So now they're rebuilding the D line and LBs almost from scratch. Hey, I have no red flags, I'm a senior (62 years young) and what a character. Also very good grades in college, back in the day. Coach, if you're reading this, please send a private message.

I think he looks like that Joel whatever, the creepy TV evangelist.

Taylor is living proof of what Mark Twain said: There's lies, damn lies, and quarterback rating statistics.

The return games were not very productive. A good return for us was one where we didn't have any penalties, and where we returned kickoffs at least to the 20. Usually if we brought it out of the end zone, we didn't get to the 25. Part of the problem might have been the lack of talent of the returners, but most of the time our guys were running into solid walls of defenders or didn't have time to do much on punt returns. Why did other teams have more opportunities? The coverage units, and the punter and kicker, all played well for the most part.

As I recall, when he was with the Bills, Hackett's nickname was "can't". Looks like he still can't hack it.

The Jags could actually make it to the SB. I think they have a better chance to beat the Pats than the Steelers would have. The Jags have a tall safety who can slow down Gronk, a great D line, fast LBs to take away the quick throws Brady likes, and great DBs. They have some offensive weapons, particularly Fournette. If Bortles plays well, they have a reasonable chance. But probably will lose anyway -- Pats at NE in the playoffs is usually all she wrote. Seems like they have a pretty young team, too, so maybe the Jags can keep it going. I don't have any bitterness toward Marrone, I just think he handled his departure wrong. Just like Dareus, he took the money when it was available. Anyone remember Jarius Byrd? Planter fascitus my foot, or his foot -- he just cashed in and walked away. And in today's NFL, where players are cut so quickly when replacements are available, it's kind of good to see employees (players and coaches) working the systems.

Most great offensive plays wouldn't happen if defenders just do their jobs. The HRTB may or may not have been legal, but it wouldn't have mattered if the Bills ST players had stayed in their lanes. The Cinci miracle finish that put the Bills in the playoffs wouldn't have happened if the Ravens DBs had played their positions right. The Minnesota miracle depended on a spectacularly bad play by the Saints DB. I guess this is why you try those plays. Usually they don't work but when they do it's a special event.

As I recall, Ralph Wilson demanded that Walt Coleman never be assigned to ref a Bills game again. Of course the league refused. There isn't more to be said about those two critical calls at the end of the game. The Bills got hosed, completely. I don't know if it was incompetence on the part of the refs, or something more nefarious, but the Bills deserved to win that game. More history: The Bills made the playoffs that year, as the fifth seed. They had the same record (10-6) as the fourth seed, Miami, but were seeded lower due to a tie breaker. If they had been awarded the victory over the Pats that they earned, they would have been the fourth seed, and had home field advantage in the playoff game. But the game instead was in Miami, and the fish won by a touchdown. Miami went on to get crushed by the Broncos, who were pretty dominant and went on to win the Super Bowl that year. Would Buffalo have done better against Denver than Miami did? Probably, but they were probably not going to beat Denver in Denver anyway.

I thought Daboll had a chance a couple of years ago, not sure who was HC at the time, but I remember he was under consideration. My read of his record is that he does great when he has a good QB. Show me an OC who doesn't, please.

There were two really bad calls I saw against the Titans, one a phantom OPI and the other the one where the D lineman shifted and was called for a neutral zone infraction, giving the Pats a first down. Torbert didn't make either of those calls. And it wasn't his regular crew working -- in the playoffs, the put together the top-ranked guys from each ref position and make sort of all-star crews. So don't blame Torbert for those calls. Still this stinks. There shouldn't be any perception of bias.

On defense, Tom Sestak. On offense, Cookie Gilchrist. Maybe Billy Shaw. You youngsters have no idea what you missed out on. Of the guys you've heard of, OJ. The most talented and most individually outstanding Bill ever. Big enough to be productive even with our questionable O line. I wouldn't argue about Kelly, though. He's a very good choice.

Well, it looks like they screwed up the tank everyone was expecting in August. Can't these guys stick to the script?

The Bills lost their chance when they lost to Cincy and the Jets. The other losses were to clearly better teams, including the Chargers. I think the Bills are better than the Ravens and would beat them 7 or 8 times out of 10, but that's not how it works. In 2004, the Bills needed a lot of games on the final weekend to go one way or the other, and ALL those requirements came to pass. The Bills didn't have any reason to expect all those breaks to go their way. They still lost, at home, to the Steelers backups. That loss, I think, plus all the front office turmoil, instilled a sense of loserdom at OBD that is just now being washed away. I'm very hopeful of a big improvement next year.

I'm hopeful but realistic. The fact is, the Ravens and Chargers are both better than the Bills. That doesn't mean the Bills don't deserve to get in, but I won't be complaining if they beat Miami and still don't get in. They're on an upward trend, but they still have a lot of weak spots. The thing is, almost all teams have several weak spots. So let's hope for the playoffs this year, but keep a warm feeling in the back of your mind, because even better days are ahead.

I think the NFL already does have a system to grade referees, and they quietly demote people from being the crew chief to other positions, or let them go. Watch a tape of a game from 10 or 15 years ago. You'll remember that you used to see certain refs all the time. You don't see them anymore but you don't think about particular people being there or not being there. Some of them have let their own personalities intrude. I don't think anyone would miss Ed Hoculi if he was dismissed. Walt Coleman, who has screwed the Bills on so many occasions, is often one of the highest graded refs. I wonder though if the grading includes failing to make calls when penalties do occur. I've seen Shady's helmet almost twisted off by a blatant facemask grab, and no penalty called. Missed calls happens a lot. The ref who called an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Von Miller for pulling his hand away from Tyrod Taylor, helping the Bills win a game back when the Broncos were still a team to be feared, should be fired. But actually I think he was doing the second Bills-Pats game. And how many times is offensive holding NOT called, and then they get a guy for a ticky tack push. It's inconsistent and unreliable, and it's ruining the game.

The focus is really on building and preparing for next year. This year they shed a lot of guys who didn't want to be in Buffalo and who would not have re-signed. And they opened up cap space. And they got a lot of draft picks. Also very important, they got the team thinking they could win. Odds are they won't make the playoffs this year. The killer loss was Cincy -- all those turnovers and we couldn't cash in. Terrible. But the Bills are fighting and learning to work together and trust each other. As to hurting our draft position. Well, yeah, that's true but it's a lot more important to have a winning attitude and draft at 20 or so, than to have a loser's mentality and draft at 6 or so. Teams (I'm thinking of you, Sabres) that lose a lot and get a lot of high draft picks, end up with some good players on a rotten team. All season long, with the exception of Cincy and that horrible three game stretch, the Bills have been scrapping and fighting. I'm very satisfied with the progress and very hopeful for next year. And until Sunday night arrives and we see what we see, who knows.

Well, I get it. Gronk is not a hold-back kind of guy. He loved the Bills growing up and was really disappointed not to have been picked. But as much as he's mad that the Bills didn't pick him, every Bills fan is even angrier. Or maybe disappointed is a better word. What a weapon he turned out to be, and who knows whether the Pats have as much success as they have without him, and who knows how the Bills would have done with him.

It isn't the successes Taylor has that people focus on, it's the failures. His S/F ratio is decent but not good enough. He fails to make makeable plays way too often. Today on two occasions he took sacks on first down that critically affected the play calling and the scores. And he's the chokemaster, completely unable to make plays when trailing in the fourth quarter. He's an adequate QB for teams in two positions. First, very strong defense, great supporting cast on the offense. In other words, a situation where there are other guys who can make plays. Second, a mediocre team for whom mediocrity is a step up. And that's where the Bills have been. He is NOT an adequate QB for a team that is learning to win but has so many holes that they need the QB to find ways to win. My preferred option for next year is not to have the Bills spend all those draft picks moving up to take the third or fourth best QB in the draft, and failing to address all those holes at DT, DE, MLB, OLB, WR, OL. Also RB since Shady is still great but is on borrowed time. Putting a good rookie into this situation will turn him into a bad rookie. Look what happened to Peterman when he had to face the ferocious pass rush of the Chargers. I hope Peterman can recover. Mayfield would have the same thing happen to him. So the Bills should draft to build the entire team, and pay a lot for an experienced FA QB who understands and can execute all aspects of the game.

The last Bills player I can remember returning a KO for a TD was CJ Spiller. I think it was on a Thursday night game. Does anyone know the last time it happened? The point is, it's really hard to break through. ST coaches and squads are very good at covering kicks. The best approach seems to be to kick it high and have it land around the 5, and force the other team to try to return it. Stop them at the 20 and get the blocking in the back penalty, and they're pinned deep. We don't do this often enough.

I think it makes sense to bring in a veteran QB and fix the holes all over the team. The options basically are to take the two firsts plus a lot more and move up to take the third or fourth best QB in the draft, and hope he survives long enough while the revolving door keeps spinning for the Bills to assemble enough good players around him. And hope he turns out to be a good player, There are so many examples of highly ranked rookie QBs flaming out, usually because the O line is bad or the WRs are bad or the RB is getting old. Huh, who does that sound like. Or, the Bills can put in a guy who can win with the right pieces around him. With a very strong draft plus the current crop, and a few good solid FAs, the team will be much stronger next year. We're still making a bet on a good draft, but we're not putting all the chips on one guy, a QB. We have serious problems at O line, D line, LB, and WR. We can fix most of those problems.

There were a lot of missed calls yesterday. Cut and paste that statement, and use every week.