hondo in seattle

Get a 22 year old clone of Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida to huskily whisper it in our ears…

My guess has been that the elbow first became sore in the second half of the Packers game... Twinges of pain that effect some throws but not others.

I'm still a Jackson & Benford fan just because I'm a Bills fan. But I've spent a lot time cursing both those guys - especially Dane - during the course of the season. Neither has been good. Although not as good an athlete, Jackson reminds me a bit of Leodis McKelvin. Even when he has good position, he fails to stop the receiver from catching the ball. Too often though, unlike McKelvin, Jackson doesn't have good position. I was surprised we entered the season with him as our #2 CB (I was hoping for a FA signing) and totally dismayed when he became the #1 with Tre's prolonged absence. Hopefully, with Tre coming back, we won't see Dane lining up against the other team's #1 wideout.

Go back and watch our losses. Most of the big plays that resulted in scores, or keeping scoring drives alive, involved our backups. It's not like our starters are perfect, but too often our backups are unable to disengage blocks, make tackles, and/or plays on the ball.

Game management is a small - though important - part of a head coach's responsibility. Think about all the offseason-training and in-season preparation. The coaches have to put that together. How much time do you spend on the field? What drills do you run? How much time in the filmroom? How do you break down film with the players? How does the HC lead and develop his coordinators? How do the coordinators lead their position coaches? How do you game plan for an opponent? Yeah, McD screwed up 13 seconds. Hard to understand what went wrong there but it is notable that our ST coordinator lost his job. Accountability. As for Cam, did you hear his interview? He absolutely knew he was supposed to knock it down. He just didn't do it. Even good coaches have players who unaccountably screw up from time to time. I tend to believe McD is an average to above-average X-and-O game tactician.

When he threw 5 INTs in a half with the Bills, I thought his career was over. Yet he lingered on. When the Bills finally released him after he achieved a 2-year passer rating of 32.6, I thought his career was over. Yet he lingered on. Not to get political, but how does this guy have a job and Kaep doesn't?

The current level of play is concerning: we've lost 2 of the past 4. The O is off. The D is off. But we're 8-3 despite dealing with injuries to several key players. If we get healthy before the playoffs, we'll make a run.

Total games missed by players is a pretty meaningless way to look at injuries. If your mediocre guard is injured and replaced by another mediocre guard, it's not a big deal. We've been missing guys like Poyer, Hyde, Milano, and White whose replacements aren't nearly as talented. Our backups haven't played horribly all around but they have come up short in critical moments and cost us games. Josh hasn't missed any games yet - so is not part of the fancy chart - but his injury has clearly hurt the team.

If Josh started to feel his UCL bothering him in the Packers game, why would he mention it? QBs often hide injuries as best they can so opponents don't take advantage of them.

Josh's UCL problems date back to his rookie year. I think maybe, contrary to the popular narrative, his UCL started bothering him again in the Pack game.

It would be an extremely beautiful thing if the Bills D was fully healthy for the playoffs. Extremely beautiful and extremely unlikely. One can hope.

Coaches, as well as players, have good as well as bad games. Since Frazier's been here, we've had far more good than bad. Given all the hospital time, bandages and pain shots the D has been through this year, Frazier is doing pretty well.

We've been missing some very talented players. The backups seem capable much of the time but fall painfully short in big moments.

Like every NFL roster, our has its shortcomings. The one that disappoints me the most is OL. These guys don't protect our QB well-enough and struggle to open holes in the running game (the recent success against Cleveland not withstanding). But we'd probably be 9-1 if not for injuries - most of our star defenders have missed significant time. We'd probably be 10-0 if not for the Miami heat. If everyone suddenly got healthy, I'd like our chances for a SB run.

Agreed. Not cool in the summer, not warm in the winter, not ever comfortable. And they do get stuck. Once in Korea, my driver and I were driving a narrow dirt road that was bordered by a 4-5 foot drop. I told my driver he was too close to the edge, but he insisted he was fine. I said him, "Okay. But if we fall off the edge, you have to get someone to two us back up." Sure enough, the side of the road crumbled and we ended up stuck with two wheels over the edge. Another time in the Arabian Desert, a different driver was swearing that it was virtually impossible to get stuck in a Humvee. Based on my experience in Korea and elsewhere, I disagreed. But he was persistent, confident that his driving skill combined with the capabilities of the Humvee made it impossible for us to get stuck. I let him drive over a big sand berm, built as a defense wall, to prove his point. Only it didn't. We ended straddling the berm with four wheels dangling in the air. Stuck. It is hard to get a Humvee stuck, but possible. Maybe the Bills need to provide players with snowmobiles? Or put Squirrel on the payroll and give him the addresses of all the players and staff?

I’m not either. But imagine this squad if everyone was healthy!

Here are the three most important players on the Bills offense: Joshua... Patrick... Allen... I agree the offense needs some tweaking, but there is no bright side to JA17 being injured.

As a Buffalo ex-pat, I have to confess that I do not consider Buffalo a great foodie city. It's not nearly in the same league, for example, as LA, San Fran, Chicago or NY. Even more Buffalo-sized Portland OR has it beat. However, I do eat well when I visit Buffalo by focusing on what Buffalo does best: Pizza. Buffalo pizza is widely underrated. I can't support my position with scientific studies, but I'll still make this assertion: There are more GOOD pizza places per capita in Buffalo than any other city in the States. Wings. Sadly, I can no longer say the best wings I've ever had were in Buffalo. But I still eat wings every time I'm back (often at Duff's) and if you haven't been to the birthplace of Buffalo wings, you owe yourself a trip to the Anchor Bar - and not the one in the airport! Beef on Weck. Celebrity Chef, Jeffrey Zakarian, said the beef-on-weck from Benny the Butcher is one of the best things he's ever eaten. Polish Food. It's hard to find good Polish food outside Poland but you can in Buffalo. The Asian and Latin food in Buffalo is generally underwhelming though there are couple of outliers. I've had good steak in Buffalo but better steak in beef-loving cities like KC, for example, and in the upscale steakhouses of more affluent cities. Obviously, you'll find better seafood on the coasts.

Decades ago, I had the pleasure of eating at the original, grungy, only-one-in-the-galaxy Mighty Taco. Tremendous flavors. On my last visit to Buffalo, I raved about Mighty to my family. But when we ate at one, I was crushed to discover that Mighty had devolved into a bad version of Taco Bell. Don't go.

Exactly! Beane's done a remarkable job overall building this roster. But I continue to be puzzled why he doesn't get better bodyguards for his MVP.

I'm not worried about being 6-2. That's a strong record. I do worry about home field advantage because I worry about the injuries. Too many of our best players have been missing games and now Josh has an UCL injury. If we were 100% healthy going into the second half (more or less) of the season with a 6-2 start, I wouldn't be worried at all.

This is a good point by the OP. Good teams will have bad games over the course of a season. Those old enough to remember will recall the 90s Bills suffering frustrating losses to inferior teams - and still running through the AFC playoffs and into the SB. Presumably the best NFL team wins the Super Bowl every year. But not since 1972 has the best team in the NFL not lost to an inferior one at some point. In fact, the best team will typically have maybe 4 or so losses over the course of the season to less talented teams.

When Kelly had a bad day, Thurman picked up the slack. When Thurm had a bad day, Kelly carried the load.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. I've decided to accelerate the process and skip all the way ahead to depression.

Sad but expected. I'll always love the guy for The Comeback.