hondo in seattle

I live out in the forest where options are limited. I stream Bills games on Sunday Ticket with a download speed of 7.9. Picture quality comes and goes. Sometimes beautifully HD. But I also suffer moments when the action is so blurry I can't tell what's happening.

The O is a little better than I'd thought they'd be at this point. The D is a little worse. We're 2-0. I'll take it.

I'll confess something. I lived overseas for a while in my youth. When I did, I visited red light districts. It was a victimless crime. I got what I wanted, the girl got what she wanted, everyone was happy. But the more I learned - from reading and from the young ladies themselves - the more I understood how I was feeding a corrupt, immoral system. I had to stop. Human trafficking is evil.

Interesting that the Bills and Pats are #1 and #2 in both the 2-1 formation and 2-0 formation. It's only one game but it doesn't seem that the Daboll apple fell too far from the Belichick tree.

Either the Jets are bad or... the Bills are good. Choose one.

I attribute some turnovers to basic football ineptitude. Other times when I see a turnover, I think, "Stuff happens." Our turnovers yesterday were mostly stuff. A normally good center muffs a snap - maybe because he's been on concussion protocol and hasn't developed a good rapport with the QB yet. A good WR deflects a ball he should have caught, resulting in a pick. Another pass gets deflected at the line of scrimmage. A normally good OL gets beat and the QB gets hit, resulting in a lost fumble. Stuff happens. Good teams overcome the stuff - and the Bills did. Like John, in between the stuff I was admiring the Allen's improvements. Last year, Allen had trouble with progressions, decision-making, and accuracy on short-to-medium passes. He looks like a different - better - QB this year. He demonstrated proficiency in areas where he was once weak. This win wasn't pretty. There will probably be a few more ugly games. But I think there will also be some games this season where Allen lights it up.

I'll put on my Fred Jackson jersey right after I shower. I'll encourage the family to all don their Bills gear. Then I'll cook my version of Buffalo wings (Frank's with gochuchang) as I watch the pregame shows. Then I'll plop down in my favorite chair - which will be draped with a Bills blanket - in front of the tv. And then I'll get loud - my neighbors aren't close so I'll be able to cheer as wildly as I want every time the Bills score!

... I'm scouring the internet for playoff tickets! I remember reading somewhere that Beasley's skill set would be wasted on the Bills because Allen can't complete underneath passes. According to this critic, Josh lacks both anticipation and accuracy. Beasley catching 100+ balls would embarrass Allen's naysayers.

On paper, it doesn't look like we have a lot of big play guys on offense. There are question marks around our wideouts. None of our TEs is a proven big play guy. Our RBs include an old man, a perennial back up, and a small, slow rook. And our QB's accuracy is a works-in-progress. Our OL consists entirely of "lunch pail" guys. This doesn't look like the roster of a high-flying offense. But it doesn't have to be. If our D is as good as we think it is, we'll be in good shape if our O can just average something like 24 points/game. If Allen steps up this year, that's do-able. The big plays will come off his arm.

Camp Casey, 1988. Spent the prior evening down range in TDC. I did have some adventures in Osan on another occasion though. You?

Sadly, I remember Bruce's fall vividly. Not his finest moment. Once when I was a young lieutenant in Korea, I did something similar. Up most of the night doing unspeakable things. Next day we were listening to some lecture in the motor pool and I fell asleep standing up. I awakened as a I was falling and desperately grabbed onto the guy next to me - who happened to be a major. He was not even slightly amused when I dragged him down with me. "Lieutenant, what the hell are you doing?!?!" Wasn't much I could say in the way of an explanation.

We'll have to wait and see to find out how good this OL will be. But I'm so happy it mostly consists of different names than 2018's OL.

It's just Beane and his staff doing their due diligence. You never know who's going to get injured and when you might need to sign an offensive linemen or DB in a hurry. Might as well get to know as many players as you can ahead of time.

You don't think McD knows the Jets playbook? There are only a limited number of plays and formations in the NFL. Every OC, DC and HC knows them. And they study so much film, they know what formations and plays other teams use. The artistry is (1) calling a game plan that takes advantages of your strengths and the other teams weaknesses, and (2) executing the plays better than other teams. Webb might know a couple nuances and tendencies that are not immediately apparent. But the intel he gives the Bills coaches will have little effect on the outcome of the game, if any at all.

I think Beane brings guys in just to get a first hand impression. He knows some of these guys have no chance to make the Bills roster right now. But when injuries occur during the course of the season, sometimes you want to get a new guy onboard rapidly. So Beane is doing his due diligence now.

I gotta admit that when I saw we were keeping 5 TEs and 3 RBs, I was stunned. Especially when Shady wasn't one of the RBs. When we had so many talented backs, why not keep more than 3? When we had so few talented TEs - and we often line up without even 1 TE on the field - why not keep less than 5? Of course, Croom - who we were keeping - was quickly put on IR and it started to make a little more sense. But I'm not sure I fully understand yet what Beane and McD are up to.

Singletary: 719 yards Allen: 612 yards Gore: 601 yards Yeldon: 198 yards DiMarco: 3 yards

Nice article. This was the most painful cut day in recent memory. We lost some good, NFL-quality players.

This is mostly right but I'm not sure it's is exactly right. Gore used to be an every down back, not just a short yardage specialist. I think - even at his age - he still has ability to gain yards in whatever situation. Singletary is small. I worry about his ability to take the beating of a typical feature ("bell cow") back. I also worry about his efficiency at picking up blitzes and and pass pro in general. I think Singletary may indeed have more yards by the end of the season but Gore is going to get entire series sometimes. He'll get his fair share of touches.

I think you're probably right. McD wasn't necessarily looking at who's the best back, 2nd best, 3rd best, etc. He was looking at what 3 backs he wanted to go into the season with. Beane talked today about running back by committee. So the question becomes: Which backs collectively make up the best committee? You don't want all your backs to have identical skill sets. Singletary will be playing the Shady role this year. Even thinking this through, I'm still surprised and have some concerns. What if SIngletary gets hurt? And so far, to me, Singletary looks like a slower version of the original Shady. I really hope I'm wrong.

Some fans have been predicting Shady would be cut or traded since the end of last season. Congrats - you were right and I was wrong. I felt McCoy still had juice in the tank and was clearly one of our best backs - if not still the very best back on the roster. Given we didn't need to free up cap space this year, I didn't think his salary would be an issue. So, personally, I'm stunned. With cap not an issue, TJ Yeldon beat out LeSean McCoy for a roster spot? Beane is saying: “We do see this being a running back by committee, whatever group that we kept. We’re excited with where (Singletary is) heading, but he’ll have a lot to prove as a rookie this year.” https://www.buffalobills.com/news/brandon-beane-lesean-mccoy-decision-difficult-opportunity-is-now-for-devin-singl

It's not all about the money. It's about the DREAM. Many of these guys have dreamed of playing the NFL since they were little boys. They had some innate talent. They trained hard. And they became very good at their craft. Just not good enough. For some of the guys cut, this will be the 2nd or 3rd year in a row that they almost made a roster or PS. It's hard to get that close to your dream but fall short.

The indisputable fact is that Luck retired. Almost everything else in BBF's post is opinion. We don't know the "real" reason Luck retired. I do know that every player retires at some point. Only they can decide when it's right for them and their families. Luck reevaluated his situation and decided it was best for him to retire now. That's his right. He's not required to play football. Who among us knows what Luck's family has been advising him or what the doctors have been telling him? Or how those things may have changed over the course of the year? I don't feel sorry for Luck. He had a bad day when folks booed but a bad day doesn't make a bad life. I do think it's classless for fans to boo him over something like this. Let's boo Al Qaeda. Let's boo Neo Nazis. Let's not boo an athlete because he's doing something as sinister as retiring.

I think the D will be good. I hope the O will be good. Still lots of questions. I'm thinking 9 or 10 wins. I let my optimism guide my vote and selected "10-11."

Carter must be really bad if Bojo beat him out. (If things had worked out differently, I would have written: "Bojo must be really bad if Carter beat him out").