hondo in seattle

I'll play devil's advocate. I spent the better part of a year in Saudi Arabia. While that doesn't make me an expert, it does mean I know more about the place than someone who has never been there. Bradshaw played for 14 seasons, including 4 SB wins. He's covered the NFL for an additional 30 years. I don't know if this makes him an "expert," but he certainly knows more about football than the average fan.

Huh? How can any team with a 1-6 record and a QB who seems color blind at times be confident of any game?

I've predicted a Bills win every game this year. So I'm 4-3 which, I guess, is slightly better than random luck! I also predicted the Bills would have a poor OL this year. Sadly, that prediction seems pretty accurate thus far.

It's curious that two teams with such different W-L records have such similar production. Rank, Offense (Yards Gained) Bills 22 Jets 26 Rank, Defense (Yards Allowed) Jets 8 Bills 10 The Bills score about 19.3 points a game while the Jets give up about 26.4 points per game. Splitting the difference, the Bills should score about 23. The Jets score about 17.3 points per game while the Bills allow about 20.3 points per game. The Jets should therefore score about 19. Given the Jets are the home team (about a 3 point advantage), this game's more-or-less a toss up.

I think the problems are both physical and mental. Unfortunately, the physical part can't be fixed till the offseason. Hopefully Whaley signs some OL FAs and/or finds some studs in the draft. The mental part worries me. Our HC is an ex NFL lineman. Yet he, Hackett and Pat Morris together can't eliminate the mental mistakes?

I love the optimism man but was a competent QB really the one thing we were lacking? Cuz I thought we were also lacking... * consistent play from our defensive secondary. * even average play from our interior offensive line. * good coaching from our OC. * healthy running backs. But if we do indeed make it to 5-3 at the halfway mark, I'll start thinking playoffs with you.

His highlight reel is impressive but unless Marrone and the other coaches work miracles with the offensive line this week, Brown just isn't going to have the same kind of running lanes he saw in Philly. CJ and Freddy are both 1,000 yard backs. But they haven't found any room to run this year. Why would Brown be different? Is he faster than CJ? Stronger or more determined than Freddie? My only hope is that Marrone, an ex lineman himself, seems super motivated to improve the OL and get the running game going. But I don't know how much he can do in one week with our personnel. It's an old Bills refrain but when it comes to the OL and the running game, I keep thinking, "Wait till next year."

Great find with some interesting info about how important the NFL considers the London/UK market... "Outside the US, the UK is the NFL's most important market, and has experienced explosive growth over the past five years..." "The London office consists of 20 people under the leadership of the Managing Director..." "Reporting to the Managing Director, the Head of Marketing will be responsible for driving engagement with the NFL brand and delivering substantial growth of the UK fan base..."

Great work! The stats on the OL impact are disheartening - though not surprising. Bocephuz, I doubt if you have time to do this but it would be awesome if we could get comparative data on other QBs. Are Orton's numbers, when you break them down like this, comparatively good? Or weak?

We haven't averaged 30 per game since Kelly retired. But is it Orton's fault? Or the fault of the interior line? Or the OC?

Spags, you're a good guy but "probably" 9-7 ? Really? And you're blatantly showing your blinded fandom when you say "Geno is getting good." I'd still rather have EJ than Geno and EJ's our 2nd stringer because Orton is much better than either of the youngsters. And you're relying on Harvin to turn the team around? Here in Seattle they're happy to be rid of his cancerous attitude. In fact, the Hawks would have release him outright if the Jests hadn't ponied up for a player no one else wants. I'll be rooting for the Jests the next time you play the Pats or Fins but I don't see you winning next week against a better Bills team. As always, thanks for stopping by.

McKelvin's lack of ball skills used to drive me batty. Too often we've seen the guy have good position and allow the catch anyway. But two picks in the same game and now leading the league in INTs? Congrats to Leodis!

I used to use a pic of Hooks as my avatar. Let's hope Brown scores 4 TDs against the Jets like Hooks did against the Bengals one game. Or he leads us to a win like Hooks did against the Pats with back-to-back remarkable catches in the closing seconds of the game.

What helps your team more: 10 of 17 for 150 yards and 1 TD. or... 20 of 34 for 300 yards and 2 TDs? In terms of passer rating, they're identical. But in the real world, the quarterback with the 2nd line is more productive and contributing more to the team's success. You gotta move the ball up and down the field to score and the 2nd QB is doing that. That's why 300 yards is a benchmark. EJ's 296 yard game was a good game. The fact he missed getting 300 by 4 yards is meaningless. We'd all be thrilled if EJ could throw for 296 yards every time he took the field. The problem is that - so far at least - he can't. Or even close. He's young and still (hopefully) learning but thus far he hasn't been very productive.

You shouldn't be underwhelmed or surprised. Orton sucked his first year in the NFL but has gotten progressively better since. Signing him is proving to be one of Whaley's better moves.

On a related issue, who gets more carries this week: Bryce or Boobie? Boobie's supposedly been dressing - and Brown has not - because Dixon plays ST. With both dressed, which one does Hackett, Marrone actually like more in the backfield? Brown is averaging 4.6 ypc for his career. Dixon, a short yardage specialist, is averaging a mere 2.5 though he's picking up 3.9 as a Bill.

I'm surprised by the pessimism. Yep, the Jets are better than their record. But their record is 1-6. Despite their strengths, they pretty adept at finding ways to lose. Despite our weaknesses, we've found ways to win more often than not so far this season. And, yes, the interior of our OL isn't good. But that isn't news. We've been worried about this since camp. Somehow, we're still 4-3. Because of the matchups, I think both teams will find it challenging to move the ball but I'll go with the Bills in a low scoring affair.

I never feel embarrassed by a win. This is football. Lots of games are won by grit, determination... and defense. We committed four turnovers and still won. Somebody did something right. I've too often seen the Bills find ways to lose. How exciting to see them find a way to win at the end! Go Bills!

From a Seattle message board: "Danny O'Neil is talking about it on KIRO right now and is speculating that it may have something to do with the fact that Percy hasn't been practicing the past few weeks, basically he's saying that it may be an attitude thing." http://forums.twobil...er/page__st__40 (Thanks to Smooth for the link).

This is comical. Certainly Marrone and Hacket open themselves to criticism. But none of us know half of what you need to know to be a successful OC in the NFL. It's often true that outsiders think they can do some job better than the insiders. It's rarely true. The question isn't whether Hackett knows the OC better job better than the average fan. He does. The question is can he do it better than the 31 other OCs in the NFL. He can't. At least not yet.

The old adage, "Game are won in the trenches" still has some validity. Our own defensive trench guys are (usually) keeping us in games. But our offensive trenchmen limit our ability to run or throw.

I voted Marrone because I expect Marrone to continue. I might even want Marrone. I don't think he's doing a great job but I don't want to fire him just to fire him only to replace him with someone worse. If The Chin wants to come coach Buffalo, though, I'm all for it.

I didn't want Trump to buy the Bills - despite his promises to keep them in Buffalo - because I just don't like the guy. His classless, sour-grapes criticism of the Pegulas reinforces my non-liking of him.

As has been said maybe a million times in various threads, Hackett has a lot to learn. Spiller would be more effective in a different offense run by a different OC. He'd also be more effective if we had a better OL. And, finally, he'd be more effective if he was stronger and hit "holes" (as much as the OL creates them) with decisiveness. Mods, can we merge the Hackett-is-a-failure thread?

Mostly true but we had 600 yards passing in the past two games. Someone is getting some receiving yards, just not Williams.