Utah John

I think what's bothering people is that the Bills haven't yet played a complete game. Early in the year some of the teams they beat were playing really bad, and the Bills crushed them with a B- effort. Every now and then the office gets it in gear for a quarter or so, and we see what they're capable of, and then the wheels come off a little bit. Aside from the Oline Raliroad Trainwreck, there have been new areas of concern. Josh has been missing receivers this year, open guys, that I don't remember him missing last year. Those mistakes stop drives.

Over the years, the Pats and Fins have taken turns being the biggest pains in our backsides. Pre-Brady, it was usually the Fins that were the main competition. it seems like the Jets are hardly ever very good, but we all hate them anyway, because, well, they're the friggin' JETS. There's talk about re-doing the teams in the various divisions when the league is expanded, which it will be just so the owners can make a few more millions. There's no logical reason to keep Miami in our division, but I hope the league leaves the AFCE alone. I will root for whichever team whose win helps the Bills the most.

An 8 day weather forecast is pretty unreliable. Let's see how things look by, say, Thursday.

If the Bills think of themselves as a playoff team, winning 3 games must be a completely sure thing. Panthers, Falcons, Jets. If we can't beat all three there's no point in getting into the playoffs. So figure at least 10-7. That's probably good enough considering all the other head to head games our competition will be playing. Over the past couple of decades, the Bills actually have a better record (or, slightly less terrible record) against the Pats, playing at their place than in Orchard Park. Depending on the health of the defense, there's no reason we can't beat NE too. 11-6, and maybe win the division.

We have the luxury of knowing that one of two teams we're competing with will lose. Relax and enjoy the game, and hope the Colts show some weaknesses in the NE system that we can exploit. Big picture, getting the one seed is not likely, and that means winning the division doesn't matter much except for having the game in Buffalo, where the Bills have not done all that well this year. So the main thing is to win enough to get into the playoffs, avoid more injuries, avoid covid, and keep Cody Ford on the bench.

A play like this could have happened at any level of football, particularly in college where the players are adult-size, strong, and fast. He wasn't hit, just landed and his head snapped back. We've seen situations like this a thousand times or more. What would have happened in a college setting not in a major city, with limited medical support in the stadium or in a city nearby? The medical crew in LA were great but the same level of response won't be available in most cases.

No thanks. I'm not watching THAT again.

I grew up in West Seneca at about the same time Daboll did. Went to West Seneca East. I think there was ONE black student in the entire school. Not a diverse community.

OK, but understand that Brady has about 20 years more experience than Josh. And Brady is freakin' smart. Not that Josh is a dummy, but I don't think I've ever seen a QB like Brady for his football IQ.

The DB was staying with Sanders until Josh looked at Singletary, and the DB stopped running with Sanders at that point. If Josh fakes the throw to Singletary he's got Sanders wide open, uncovered completely for a TD.

I've read several Donald E. Westlake books (they were all great) but I don't recall any mention of the collusion between refs that Thriftygamer talked about. Can you list the titles that include those charges? Even if they're books I've already read I would enjoy any excuse to read or re-read a Westlake book. And I strongly recommend those books to anyone.

Both Julius Caesar and Scott Novak said, veni vidi vici. I came, I saw, I conquered.

The PI calls happened after a game in which the officials repeatedly shortened the yards gained by the Bills on runs or passes, by moving the ball back, sometimes more than a yard, from where the ball was when the player was tackled or stopped. Ka-ching. Thousands of betting houses cashed in.

The incorrect DPI against Wallace jogged my memory. In the first game of this season, the Bucs played the Cowboys in Tampa Bay. The Cowboys were leading by a point late in the game. Brady threw a long pass to Godwin along the left sideline (I think this is what jogged my memory), Godwin pushed off egregiously without there being an OPI penalty called, Godwin caught the ball, and the Bucs were in position to kick a FG to win at the very end. Whooo, Brady, what a guy. But if that penalty had been called as it should have been, the odds were that the Bucs never get into FG range, and lose the game.

The Bills D doesn't blow very many coverages, but they blew that one. There's no way that it should have been Edmunds trying to cover that receiver. Edmunds was just the closest guy left once the catch was made. The Bills had NO DBs on that side of the field.

The DPI call against Wallace in OT gave me a flashback of the Week One game between the Bucs and the Cowboys. The Cowboys were winning late, by one point. Brady threw a pass to Godwin along the left sideline that put the Bucs in position to kick the game winning FG right at the end. There was OPI against Godwin on that play, where he clearly pushed the Cowboy DB away in order to make the catch, but there was no call. Of course. Without that, the Bucs were stuck way too far back to get the win. There was a lot of uproar about that play, too. But they were playing in TB, and Brady, so of course the Bucs got the call. Just goes to show it isn't only the Bills getting screwed. "America's Team" had a big Phillips screw through their bellies too. Team defense. The Bills play it better than anyone. If they just had a monster one-tech DT they'd be unbelievable.

It was an early Bucs coach who, when asked what he thought about his team's execution after another brutal loss, said "I'd be in favor of it". I think a lot of Bills fans would say the same thing about the refs in the Bucs game. But honestly, the refs executed perfectly. The game got a lot tighter in the fourth quarter so viewership remained high (good for ratings for TV, good for ads), and the team that was supposed to win was able to win at the end. It's times like these when all you can do is shake our heads in wonderment that we keep falling for this, thinking it's athletics when it's really just show business.

Michael Banks, Derick Bowers, Terrence Miles, David Meslow, Walt Coleman, Scott Novak, Ramon George This was from the ESPN page with the stats for the game. Scott Novak was the referee, the head guy. You might notice the name Walt Coleman. Apparently he's the son of the guy who Ralph Wilson tried to get barred from ever reffing a Bills game again, after the infamous "Just give it to them" game where the Patriots with Bledsoe got egregious calls to enable them to win.

The O line, hands down.

The Bills were able to have a big second half because Tampa Bay stopped attacking on defense. The Bills O line showed no ability to stop the TB rushers. The lesson that's going to be learned by defensive coordinators all over the league, as if they don't know it already, is that if you play soft defense, Allen will kill you, but if you attack, you can crush the Bills because our O line is pitiful. The Chiefs have two rookies playing extremely well on their O line. We have Boogie Basham.

Edmunds is playing the way Frazier wants him to play. Frazier has constructed the D to work as an 11 man unit. Edmunds is not called on to make those impact plays. He's there to eat up space on pass D, and to fill gaps on running plays. Those gaps fills are a problem, I'll agree. He's just not as bad a player as people here think he is.

I stopped keeping track of the number of times the refs charged a yardage tax whenever a Bill made a positive play. There's no other way to look at it except as a tax, like a sales tax. OK, Diggs makes a catch and is tackled on the 26 yard line, clearly not touched until past the 25. The ball is spotted at the 24. This was the most egregious case but this went on and on. The lack of a PI call when Diggs was held in the end zone, when a Bills TD takes the lead at the end of the 4th quarter. Can't have that. But Evans tackles Wallace and Wallace is called for PI. Josh gets hit late in the pocket, and late on a run out of bounds. No calls. OMG it was terrible.

Those of you of a certain age will remember one of the Rocky movies, where Rocky fought Mr. T. The theme song was about the Eye of the Tiger, about how a champion athlete needed the inner fire and drive to conquer their opponent. Last year the Bills had that. If they were in a close game, they hunkered down as a team and figured out how to win. This year they have the eye of the housecat. If they're ahead comfortably they relax and play well, and generally dominate an opponent. But when they're challenged, this year they wilt. They make enough mistakes to lose games they should win. They fumble on kickoffs without being touched. They fumble a simple handoff during a quarter when they had the wind against New England, costing them a chance to score when they could do it more easily. They drop easy passes that could turn into first downs. They usually play pretty decent football against tough teams, but they let ONE long run break free and they can't overcome it. Where's the team leadership? Who's holding the players responsible for their mistakes and failures? It's funny. Two years ago the defense was strong but last year they had a down year. This year the defense is generally very good, but they still break at the worst possible times. Sure, I hope they make the playoffs but they're not SB bound. Not this year.

There are other solutions to a defense attacking recklessly. For example, screen passes. The only screens the Bills run are those bubble screens to WRs. They don't work anymore because the other teams see them coming. Other teams use screen passes to RBs or TEs and have considerable success. You want to slow down the other team's pass rush? Make them pay for it.

Fitz would be a better player, but the Fitz Curse remains in effect. The starters always get hurt when he's the backup. Taylor would be much safer.