hondo in seattle

It's not all about stats. You don't think Fred would have had better stats if he had played on better teams? What would Freddy's career have looked like if he lined up in the backfield with Jim Kelly back in the 90s? His numbers may not say it emphatically enough but he's one of the best Bills I can remember. And a class act and a loyal Bill.

The Bills sucked last year under Wanny. This year they're 6th in yards per play allowed, 1st in sacks, 2nd in INTs. How is that terrible? They're on the field a lot because (1) the offense isn't very good, and (2) they offense is uptempo. The yardage allowed totals aren't what we want nor are they indicative of the Pettine's qualitative improvements. 6th in yards per play is very good and a huge improvement over 2012 (22nd). What Pettine's accomplished in just one year has been impressive and people will notice.

Even after we did all that, I didn't have high hopes for the season. Our HC, DC, OC and QB are all rookies. That's not a formula for immediate success. But if we chose the right ones, it may be a formula for long term success.

Big plays are part of the game. In a typical game, a big chunk of the total yards will be produced by big plays. Though it is impressive to think that half of Miami's meager total came on that long pass to Hartline. When you hold a team to 100 yards and 0 points, it's hard to say anyone on defense had a bad game. Incidentally, Hartline only caught 2 of the 10 passes thrown his way. The other completion was for something like 3 yards. He made one play. He didn't have a big game. Not only is this defense producing better stats - it's just plain more fun to watch than Wanny's defense.

I got worried when Hackett said he would run CJ until he pukes. I'm not knocking CJ, I just wanted Freddy to get his touches. Interestingly, Freddy now has more touches this year than CJ - something I wouldn't have expected given the way Nate was talking in preseason.

EJ has had a fairly typical rookie campaign. I haven't seen enough to say he's a franchise QB. I haven't seen enough to say he isn't. Both Kelly and Marrone seem to retain hope in him. I think they know NFL QBs better than most of us. I'm keeping an open mind.

I've always been a FredEx fan. It's why I didn't cry when we traded Lynch for a 4th rounder. It's still a crappy trade but it made room for Freddy to get more playing time. Fred got a lot of something out of nothing in years 2009 to 2011. He may be past his prime but he's still an effective back (800 yards at 4.3 ypc as a back up behind a questionable line). And he's a warrior - gaining over 100 yards against the fins with broken ribs. One of my favorite all-time Bills.

We outgained a playoff contender roughly 400 yards to 100 yards with our backup QB and backup WRs. And notched a win. I wish every game plan was as productive as today's.

Why would you ever release a cap-friendly asset??? I could maybe see the Bills spending a late round draft pick on a RB because Freddy is aging. But he still looks good out there. You don't release guys who are helping your team just because the calendar says they're getting older.

That was a one-off. In 1991, the Bills set the (then) all-time NFL season attendance record. Fans supported the team well through the early/mid 90s. Too many years of losing, however, make ticket prices harder to bear. As someone who lives elsewhere, I'm always impressed by the amount of Bills gear for sale in the grocery and department stores in WNY. Buffalo fans take their team more seriously than most cities. Field a winner, and the stadium will sell out every time.

33% chance he's our starting QB 3 years from now. But I'm rooting for that 1 in 3 shot. He seems like a really good kid.

Years ago when the Bills hired Nix, Peter King lamented that the Bills didn't choose a younger, up-and-coming personnel star like Doug Whaley of Pittsburg to be the GM. He noted Whaley had an outstanding reputation in the NFL. Whether or not Whaley's capable remains to be seen as you say. But he was a valid choice. As for Brandon, he's done well keeping the Bills financially healthy - which is his job. He now also gets to choose the GM and hopefully Whaley pans out.

Russ is the de facto owner of the Bills. Decisions usually reserved for owners are now made by Brandon. How many owners have football pedigrees? Your coach and GM need to be football guys. Owners and Presidents need to be businessmen. I don't see the problem - unless the business guys start meddling in areas where they have no expertize like Jerry Jones does. I may worry about Whaley's ability to run a football organization and Marrone's ability to coach a football team. I don't worry about Brandon. Not yet, anyway.

Ken, great stuff as usual. But where is he now?

I don't read Sully often because he's a whining baby. But I went back and read this article just to understand this thread. And while Sully's being a whiny child as usual, I thought this article presented a justifiable point of view. I'm not agreeing with all of Sully's points and it's always a mystery if Sully himself truly agrees with all of Sully's points. But Jerry here is only saying the stuff a lot of us are thinking. SJ has been disappointing this year.

This says it perfectly. This is what the Bills need to do. Keep swinging - and missing - until finally we find the right guy. I really want to draft another QB next year. I'm not saying EJ isn't the future face of the Bills but right now no one can know that.

Isn't that partly Hackett's fault or do you think that's explainable by the loss of Levitre? But I agree with the main point, the O Line hasn't been great. Too often, our backs have no where to go.

5th in yards per play. 2nd in INTs. 1st in sacks. That doesn't qualify as "good"? You set a high bar!

As the season draws to a dismal close, I think it may be interesting to evaluate the performance of our two new coordinators. Hackett: The Bills quick pace offense has the Bills running the 5th most offensive plays in the NFL. Despite this, we are 25th in scoring. We average a mere 4.7 yard per play - 30th in the NFL. Our passing rating is only 72.5 - also 30th in the league. With an ineffective passing attack led by inexperienced QBs, you would have though Hackett would have put in overtime to make the running game work. After all, we have two talented backs. But CJ is averaging only 4.6 ypc this year - down from 6.0 last year. This is a huge drop off. Hackett just doesn't seem to have the knack for getting CJ into space that Chan had. Pettine: Our D is ranked 18th by yards allowed but this again is skewed by the high number of plays they've faced. Pettine's D is giving up 5.0 yards per play - 6th best in the NFL. The Bills are #2 in the NFL in INTs and #1 in sacks. Opposing QBs collectively have a low 78.9 passer rating. Opposing teams have rushed for 4.2 yard per carry which places the Bills in the middle of the pack versus the run - not outstanding but a huge improvement versus last year (5.0). While I understand that the QB situation has been less than ideal, I have to wonder about Hackett's readiness for the job. Pettine, on the other hand, is proving himself to be a solid DC even without Rex to mentor him. What's particularly concerning about the Bills lack of offensive production is that our HC is a former OC. We can say that Hackett is a rookie and he'll get better with experience. But Marrone is already supposed to have that experience. As we look forward to 2014, I worry about the future of the Bills offense, not our defense.

Drafting QBs is a hit or miss proposition. No NFL GM is perfect at talent evaluation, especially at the QB position. I don't think EJ's struggles are an indictment of Nix or Whaley. However, I do think OBD needs to draft another QB. EJ is a rookie and may yet mature into a franchise QB. Then again, he may not. We need an insurance policy. I hope to see the Bills draft another QB in the early rounds to compete with EJ.

This is what I'm hoping for and Jim Kelly's remarks in the past seem to indicate something like this. It might make more business sense for a billionaire to buy the team and move it to LA or TO or where-ever. Let's hope local loyalties and respect for tradition trump business sense.

I've really been encouraged by Pettine. The defense is far more aggressive than it's been in years past and the result has been more big plays (Ints and sacks). And despite all the injuries in the secondary in the beginning of the year, the Bills are only giving up 5.1 yards per play which is solid. Pettine will only make the defense better and better while he remains with the Bills. I've been less thrilled by Hackett. Obviously, he gets a bit of a flyer for the QB situation. Still the numbers aren't good. The Bills run a lot of plays in their fast paced offense so their overall offensive production isn't horrible. But they're only averaging 4.7 yards per play - third worst in the NFL. It's also concerning to see CJ's yards-per-carry drop by nearly 2 yards (from 6.0 to 4.1). Nathaniel doesn't seem to know how to create space for his star back. And Danny Crossman has performed about as expected - badly. He wasn't a good ST coach in Detroit and according to Football Outsiders, the Bills are ranked 27th so far this year. Let's hope the Bills make a run to end the season to create some positive momentum for next year and some credibility for Marrone. But even if they do, Marrone will need to make some hard decisions about his staff during the offseason. Crossman needs to go and Hackett needs to grow.

Jason LaCanfora talked to the same guy you talked to and put his liquor talk in the news.

Sports Illustrated once rated Buffalo the best tailgaters in the NFL. Unfortunately, this website rates Buffalo as the most "dead" city in America: 1. Buffalo In 1900, Buffalo was the eighth largest city in America. It was located on one of the busiest sections of the Erie Canal, the terminus of the canal on the Great Lakes. Thanks to its location, Buffalo had huge grain milling operations and one of the largest steel mills in the country. Buffalo prospered during WWII as did many northern industrial cities. After the WWII, the manufacturing plants returned to the production of cars and industrial goods. The population rose to more than 500,000 in the mid-1950s. It is half that today. Buffalo was wounded irreparably by the de-industrialization of America. Read more: America’s Ten Dead Cities: From Detroit To New Orleans - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/economy/2010/08/23/americas-ten-dead-cities-from-detroit-to-new-orleans/#ixzz2lR3ZKrEB

In a way, Andre's the Emmitt Smith of WRs. Emmitt was never the best in the game during his playing days. There were always other backs I - and most fans - considered better. But Emmitt was very good for a very long time and that got him into the Hall. Reed, like Emmitt, was very good for a very long time. But he had the misfortune of (1) playing when Jerry Rice was playing, and (2) playing right as passing attacks were starting to take off and thus his stats don't especially shine when compared to some more recent players. Yet Andre was selected for the Pro Bowl 7 times. That's usually sufficient to get you into the Hall of Fame. Then again, Will Shields was a 12 time Pro Bowler and he isn't in the Hall yet either.