Utah John

I'm 57 and can certainly remember worse losses. The 1966 championship loss preventing a trip to SB I. The Music City debacle. Wide right in our first SB. Losing after a halftime lead in our fourth SB. A playoff loss to Miami where Flutie played great and Moulds got caught from behind and fumbled, and eventually we lost. The playoff game against Pittsburgh when Bruce Smith couldn't play because he had the flu. Those were all important games. Today was a step toward a better draft choice. I was disappointed in the outcome, but the O-line has been getting progressively worse and it was no surprise that the offense couldn't do anything. The defense once again was the cure for whatever ailed the opposition's running game. The officials were beyond bad but it wouldn't have mattered if they called everything right.

We kept Graham over Rogers because the organization drafted Graham instead of drafting Russell Wilson. They're hoping in time the mistake won't look so bad. That may possibly be the worst decision since they drafted Torrell Troup instead of Gronkowski.

I apologize for a post about the Bills, but the most inept person in the organization is Jeff Littman. He's the bean counter telling Ralph what to do, and is the person responsible for all the cash-grabbing and cost-avoidance schemes the Bills do. Why play in Toronto? Get more money. Why be $20 million under this year's salary cap? Save money. This franchise will never succeed as long as Littman is in the picture, and he'll never be out of the picture while Ralph is the owner.

I wonder, which city loses its team first, Buffalo or Tampa (or Jacksonville)? And does the outcome of today's game have anything to do with that? It sounds like if the Bucs lose, they could fold up and leave town and the people there would shrug in disgust and help them pack. The Bills are a core part of Buffalo's DNA and no matter how bad they get people in WNY will not give up.

Choice got here because Gailey coached him at Ga Tech and Dallas. He's a professional and he never hurt the team. He just doesn't have any special talents. Just a grinder. With Gailey gone and us out of the playoffs, it makes sense to move on. This also sends a message to the team, not to get too comfortable with your roster spot. Which is good.

Brandon is now saying he's reviewing the Toronto plan, implying that it's possible it will be scaled back or terminated. I give Brandon a lot more credit than other posters here. He actually cares about winning, not like the bean counters like Jeff Littman who are after more and more money. I don't think Nix would have come out in public questioning a financial winner for the Bill. I give Brandon credit. Of course this could be mere PR to assuage the anger after the Falcons game. To me, the everlasting villain in the Bills organization is Littman. Bill Polian was forced out by Littman in 1993. Twenty years later the Bills have made money but have become persistent losers. Polian has been a success wherever he's gone.

Why isn't anyone mentioning Manuel? His stats look good until you see how few yards passing the Bills had. 18 completions for 210 yards, or less than 12 yards per completion. He threw three or four deep balls that wouldn't have been catchable even if the Falcons DP hadn't interfered with the Bills receivers, primarily Goodwin. Otherwise it was dink and dunk. He generally had time to pass but was not looking deep enough. So for next year. I do not agree with the "cut SJ" talk. He's still a very talented receiver ideal for the slot. What we STILL need is a primo #1 guy. Woods will be a solid pro for years to come, but we still need the Megatron type guy who scares the bejeezus out of the DBs. Goodwin is a good receiver but is not The Guy. I am worried about RB. Fred Jackson might be my favorite all-time Bill, going back to when I can remember (1963). But he's going to slow down. Spiller is great when the holes are there and he's not nicked up. So, almost never. Today is the exception that proves the rule. If he was healthy and was getting holes all year, imagine what could have been, but hasn't been. On this team, and with his medical history, especially if Jackson falls off a cliff. I think Emanuel might still be They Guy at QB. He's lost a lot of his rookie season so it's not fair to judge yet. I still think he, and not Jackson or Chandler, is the reason the Bills lost today. Well, that and giving up a home game. The O-line is average against weak defenses and incompetent against good ones. We need new guards and a new right tackle, going after free agents if necessary. Once again, a team having trouble running the ball got healthy against our guys. The two long TD runs for the Falcons were I think a case of Alonso reading the play wrong and filling the wrong gap, leaving too much room. Still I think Alonso will be a stud for the Bills for 10 years. I think Hughes and Lawson are pretty good but not good enough. Time for at least one new LB. The DBs can't stop slants. Why not? Except for Byrd they can't intercept. Why not? I think they need a really solid CB and must re-sign Byrd, although today's loss might have been the last straw for Byrd. I think he walks so he can play with a better team. This team is not snake bit, it suffers from a greedy front office that puts profits ahead of wins. Aside from the abomination of playing in Toronto to earn a few more million, the Bills are $20M under the salary cap. Every weakness they have they could have addressed in free agency, just by using the full cap. Nope, that's $20M more for the lawyers to hide from taxes when Ralph passes. And the Bills lose again.

I have never understood why having ties was bad. The NFL and AFL did it for years and it was just part of the game. My first choice would be to eliminate OT completely. My second choice, assuming OT will continue, is to allow only touchdowns to win in OT, while continuing the rule that each team gets to have the ball at least once. If both teams or neither team scores a TD on its first possession, the next TD by either team wins. My third choice is to keep the current system.

Apologize? For what? Byrd is playing great, and I hope the Bills sign him. I don't think he's a great enough player to make a bad defensive backfield better all by himself, say the way a healthy Revis could. But he makes all the players around him better. With another LB and probably a new CB, and Carrington back from injury, the defense next year is going to be very tough. Back to Byrd, I don't think anyone at any time said he isn't a very good player. I think the way things played out, with the non-diagnosable injury appearing just when he had to return, and then happily clearing up with enough season left for Byrd to demonstrate his capabilities, is suspicious. Was he really hurt? I have no idea. How did he hurt BOTH feet just working out on his own? Seems odd. My disappointment with him is that he didn't suck it up after he was franchised, understand the position he was in, sign the tender, and report to camp like a professional so he could learn the new system and help his teammates. These days, a "professional" athlete isn't someone who gives everything he's got and prepares as well as possible, it's a guy who gets as much money as possible. Kyle Williams is a professional athlete. Kiko Alonso is a professional athlete. Is Byrd? I'm still not sure. He does prepare very well so he knows what the opposing QB is likely to do, he's almost never out of position, he almost never misses tackles, and he can cover monster TEs and speedy WRs, so the ability is certainly there. As far as I'm concerned, while Byrd may or may not be a problem, his agent certainly is.

I have always wondered how much more the Bills take in from playing a home game in Toronto, compared to what they'd get at a sold-out Ralph. Does anyone know? Probably the Bills figure the attraction isn't the extra money alone, but the growth of their market into southern Ontario. Still, if the Bills miss a playoff spot by one game after losing to Atlanta in Toronto, that's a lot of other money they're losing.

I've posted this before and it's still right. The number of playoff berths the Bills can win this weekend: zero. The number of games the Bills can win this weekend: one.

OK I've seen enough. Sign Byrd when we're allowed to do so, after the season. He's just too good to let him walk. He's everything that Whitner was supposed to be, but a lot more and a lot better. I am really tired of looking around the league and seeing enough ex-Bill DBs playing for other teams, all of whom are better than the guys we kept.

Aaron Maybin redux.

Good guy, good player, bad fit, good luck down the road.

Fitz always turns out like a great first date who it turns out has a serious personality problem. At first you think you've got the woman of your dreams, and after you've dumped your other girl friend you find out she's Cujo.

I wonder if they gave Reed Tebow's old locker.

The Bills WRs are much better than last year but still need improvement. Nelson and Jones were hard working and high effort guys, but neither had anything special and neither made DCs game plan around them. I think Goodwin scares DCs (and CBs) and Woods is an excellent all-around threat. The only reason Graham is on the team is that he was a 3rd round draft pick and the Bills are embarrassed to let him go. I thought Brandon Kaufman was better than Graham, Rodgers, and Hogan. Why Chris Hogan is on the team is a mystery to me. He doesn't seem to know the plays and drops too many passes. Aside from Easley they're a small to mid sized group so I think the team next year is Johnson, Goodwin, Woods, maybe Easley, and a new tall guy or two.

The Bills have been on the wrong end of this issue most years. I think Brandon decided not to sit back and hope it gets fixed on its own next year, and instead is alerting the NFL that this has been a problem and we hope for better treatment in the future.

Random thoughts. Home field makes a bigger difference in this series than in some others, though I don't know why. The Jets are just as inconsistent as the Bills so trends are unreliable. Also the common opponents comparison makes no sense. The Bills narrowly lost to Cincy, and the Jets got killed by them. The Bills lost soundly to a great New Orleans team, but NO with key offensive players out didn't really show up against the Jets (and the Bills played in NO and the Jets played NO at home). The Jets narrowly beat NE, good on them for that, while the Bills as usual lost narrowly. Both teams have injuries. The Bills have made every team they've played feel like they fixed what was wrong with their running game, and Ivory must be thinking this will be his big day. With two rookie QBs and two pretty strong defenses it will be a game of capitalizing on mistakes. Can Byrd be a real factor for the first time this year? I think in the end the difference will be how well each team's offensive line plays, what schemes the coaches come up with, and turnovers. Like always.

Ikkie Iggie That's a lot easier.

I liked the same things about Nelson that Rex Ryan likes -- his determination, competitiveness, and desire. The Bills let him go for the same reason no one not desperate for WR help didn't pick him up -- lack of speed and special talent. He was a decent player for the Bills, but remember he was a starter on the worst WR corps in the NFL. The Bills were clearly going for faster and better in their WRs with the new front office and coaching staff. It's bad though for the Bills that no one called Nelson to tell him. I don't know whether this kind of treatment is typical in the NFL, but I have this naive hope that the Bills are a classy outfit and wouldn't do something like this. Whether he's better than Graham or not, doesn't matter now. TJ was a third round pick and the Bills probably were/are hoping he develops better skills than he's shown. But Goodwin is a better football player and is faster, so the future for Graham is as the speed guy the Bills use if Goodwin gets hurt. Or he gets cut. Unless Graham really steps it up, he'll be one more in a long long string of draft mistakes by Buddy Nix.

It sounds crazy considering no playoffs since 1999, but the goal isn't to make the playoffs, it's to win the Super Bowl. If the Bills had been lucky with regard to injuries, they might have had a chance a a wildcard berth, but once Kolb/Manuel/Lewis got hurt, along with Byrd and Gilmore being out, and Carrington going out, it was over. I'm OK with that, because Marrone's NOT OK with that. I've been a Bills fan a lot longer than Marrone's been their coach (longer than he's been alive) so I've seen this movie. But there is a rising sense on the team that things are changing, and Marrone's attitude and Whaley's drafting are two big reasons. This year's draft is the first one with multiple impact players in many many years. Look at the drafts over the past 10 years, prior to 2012, and you'll see immediately why the Bills have floundered. I agree Whaley is invested in Manuel and will not want to pick someone else (unless Manuel has a devastating injury), and that's OK too. The Bills need a lot of help at linebacker and cornerback, and need upgrades at both guard positions and at DE (yes, even with the guys we have). I think an impact player on defense, either LB or DE, in round 1, and a guard in round 2, are coming. I am sick and tired of watching teams that can't run the ball get healthy playing the Bills. How many times do we have to see a delay run over the defense's right side, form up and then break out for 8 yards or more. Are the DTs getting buried? Isn't there supposed to be a LB over there somewhere? Maybe it's a scheme problem. Whatever the cause, that has to be fixed.

The number of playoff berths the Bills can win this weekend: zero. The number of games the Bills can win this weekend: one. First things first, and one game at a time.

I have to give Byrd the benefit of the doubt. He could still be restricted in running from his PF for all we know. More importantly he missed training camp with a new set of coaches. He excelled in past years because he understood where he could take chances in the schemes. This year he looks like he's locked into just doing his job. He's a talented guy and when the coaches can work with him to exploit his talents I think he'll excel with Pettine too. For years the Bills have drafted DBs and let them go when they were getting really good. You could pick a better starting defensive backfield from around the league of ex-Bills than the guys they kept. Who wouldn't want Jabari Greer back? Even Donte won't-tackle Whitner was better than any of our other safeties except Byrd. Nate Clements, Winfield, Leonhard a few years ago...all were better than the people we kept. Don't make the same mistake with Byrd. Build around him and Stephon Gilmore. Or, let Byrd go now, and Gilmore a couple of years from now, and keep on starting over with new guys you hope are close to as good as the guys who left. That's not how champions are built.

Dierdorf demonstrated how a very good player can make the HOF by becoming a sports announcer and getting his name recognized, when better players are forgotten. He earns his living by talking, a lot, and getting people to pay attention. Saying annoying or even stupid things helps him accomplish his goals.