hondo in seattle

Top Ten Reasons the Bills Make the Playoffs 1. Dominating D Line 2. New Def. Coord. 3. Chan's an offensive guru 3. Two running backs who both average over 5 ypc 4. Superior teamwork. These guys are committed to the team and their common goal: make the playoffs. 5. A QB with good leadership skills who understands the system. 6. We're much improved vs 2011 simply because we don't have a dozen key players on IR. 7. A good secondary. 8. The Jets and Fins don't look like contenders. Even the Pats have vulnerabilities. 9. Although lacking star power, our WR Corps is very deep. 10. This is the time of year for optimism.

It's only preseason but it's good to know our competitors are having their own problems. From PFT... Sanchez, Tebow both struggle in loss to Giants Posted by Michael David Smith on August 18, 2012, 10:39 PM EDT Mark Sanchez didn’t do anything against the Giants on Saturday night to deserve to keep his job as the Jets’ starting quarterback. But Tim Tebow didn’t do anything to deserve to take the job from Sanchez. Both Sanchez and Tebow struggled, and the Jets’ offense could get nothing going all night, as the Giants won easily, 26-3. A quick glance at Sanchez’s numbers might suggest that he had a decent night: He did complete nine of his 11 passes. But he was throwing short, easy passes exclusively, which is why he had just 59 passing yards. And he threw an absolutely terrible interception that the Giants’ Jayron Hosley took back 77 yards for a touchdown. Tebow completed just five of 14 passes for 69 yards. Tebow was in at quarterback for the Jets’ only scoring drive, and unlike Sanchez Tebow didn’t throw any interceptions, but Tebow threw plenty of ugly, inaccurate passes. The quarterbacks weren’t getting a lot of help; with Santonio Holmes out, the Jets’ receiving corps was missing its only proven playmaker. And the Jets’ offensive line was lousy, with the Giants’ defensive ends repeatedly bringing pressure. Jets right tackle Wayne Hunter remains a huge liability. Overall, the Jets’ offense looks like a mess. Rex Ryan better be right that the Jets have a Top 5 defense, because their offense is going to be a problem.

The Comeback game clearly has to be mentioned but I have it on DVD and saw it live on TV when it happened. So I would choose the time the Bills beat the Raiders 51-3 in the AFC Championship game in 1990. I was deployed to Iraq at the time and have never had the pleasure of witnessing that beat down. Also, I'm not sure what game I would choose but watching OJ run was pure joy. I think he's underrated and underappreciated by the Gen Xers because obviously his reputation has been soiled by his post-Bills activities. But man that guy could run. I'm not sure he was better than Jim Brown but he was better than any runner since. Fans would jump to their feet at Rich Stadium when OJ had the ball. By the way - for those too young to remember - the Oilers had a very good team the year of The Comeback. In fact, we lost to the Oilers the week before in the "House of Pain" in Houston 27-3. This was a critical game, as I recall, because it got the Oilers into the playoffs and knocked us out of 1st place in the AFCE. So we had to play the Oilers again in the first round of the playoffs. By halftime, we had suffered 6 consecutive quarters of painful futility, managing just two FGs while giving up bucketloads of points. And Kelly and Thomas both got hurt. If the first-teamers couldn't reach the endzone, how could Franck Reich? The Comeback was incredibly unlikely when you know the circumstances which made it all the sweeter when it happened.

The OP said we could clone the guy. If we had 50+ Jim Brown clones running around today with our modern knowledge of training, nutrition, etc., they'd be beasts.

Good point.

I don't think anyone is making the point that our wildcat was good last year - though it was reasonably effective in the beginning of the year at running for 1st downs. But last year had a lockout-shortened offseason and Chan wasn't able to implement his enitire offensive package nor practice it to the point of executional perfection. Additionally, we have Coach Lee on staff now and he's supposedly THE wildcat guru. No one wants to return to last year's wildcat. Some of us are interested to see what we can do with it this year. And remember, the Wilcat's effectiveness can't be measured solely by it's production. Part of the idea is to make opposing defenses waste practice time on it so they spend less time practicing for our base offense.

I wouldn't mind a 2 year plan with Potter. Let him do kickoffs this year but work with him to improve his FG kicking. And next year we make a choice to stick with Lindell or go with Potter. We give up a roster spot for an extra kicker just for one year. Lindell is only getting older and Potter might have enough upside to be our guy in the future.

Yep. On a typical running play it's 10 vs. 11 because the QB is just staying out of the way. With the Wildcat, it's 11 versus 11. You've just increased your manpower by 10%. Also, the Wildcat is schematically very different than the Bills normal O. Assuming we could execute the Wildcat well, other teams would have to game-plan for it thus reducing the amount of time they game play against the normal Fitz-led Offense.

America likes underdogs. Nothing wrong with it. And this guy was a freak of nature. Huge, but surprisingly agile. Of course he elicited interest and conversation. Personally, I was hoping Jasper would turn out like Peters. A late draft pick with raw athletic ability but low-level skills who gets coached into a good NFL player. But I can't say I'm surprised it didn't turn out that way. It only rarely does.

Pete Gogolak!?!? You must be an old-timer. When Gogolak kicked soccer-style with the Bills, the league was electrified and field-goal kicking was changed forever. NFL.com has a list of the 10 things that changed the game of football and Gogolak is on that list: http://www.nfl.com/v...me-Pete-Gogolak Gogolak also helped start the signing wars between the NFL and AFL. In those days, both leagues tended to view the other league's players as off-limits. But the NFL's Giants were desperate for a FG kicker and went after our Gogolak in a big way. (Gogalak ended up setting the Giants all-time scoring record). The war for players that ensued caused financial problems for both leagues until finally the NFL invited the AFL squads to join the NFL. Hence the Bills are now a profitable member of the NFL instead of a defunct team in a defunct league. Given his role in making soccer-style kicking popular in the NFL and his role in the merger of the NFL and AFL, Gogolak's a good candidate of greatest Bills K of all time. But after all that, I would still pick Christie just because although Gogolak started as a Bill, he was a Giant much longer.

I go with Jim Brown. He was strong, fast enough, more elusive than some remember and had an incredible competitive instinct. This guy would fight as a blocker, tackler or anything else to the last drop of blood.

Apparently he's having trouble picking up their blocking schemes. http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20120814_Bell_motivated_to_improve_after_demotion_to_second_string.html

I was one of those who bemoaned the Evans trade because he seemed like a classy guy. But even then I understood Lee's biggest contributions were when Losman was the QB. JP could throw a nice deep ball and running the 'go' was the only thing Lee really excelled at. Lee doesn't fit Chan's offense. And if he's truly lost a step, it might be time for him to start a second career.

Yep. The Jasper story reminds me a bit of the Leif Larson story. Like Jasper, Larson was a physical specimen. Larson once knocked out Klitchko in a boxing match. And I think Larson had the 2nd most reps on the bench press ever at the combine. But he did nada when with the Bills.

To get back on track (sorry for the pun)... Bolt isn't built like some of those wispy long distance runners. He's got some muscle. But does he have good peripheral vision to pick his way through a defense? Good hand-eye control to catch the ball? Etc.? As for money, Forbes says Bolt made $20 million over the past 12 months. As for interest, Bolt says he wants to play soccer for Manchester United. Bolt will never play in the NFL but it could have been a very interesting experiment.

This is a good post because it generates a lot of controversy! My two cents... we'll definately keep Brad Smith. People seem to forget the #3 QB in a special roster spot that doesn't count against your game day total. Since the #3 QB most likely not get on the field as a QB (and we're screwed anyway if he does), you might as well put someone in that position that has other talents. Smith fills that spot real nicely. He can return kicks, play WR and run the wildcat and he's not costing us a roster spot. It's like having a free player.

Tony Dungy said on TV today that he thought maybe Bolt could learn to play WR in the NFL. But I think Usain probably makes more money doing what he's doing. Anyway, if he did come to the NFL, shouldn't he be a Charger?

August 10, 2012 (SAN DIEGO) (WLS) -- A woman made NFL history Thursday as she became the first female to ever referee a game. Shannon Eastin, 42, made NFL history when she took the field as one of the refs replacing regular game officials due to an ongoing labor dispute with the NFL. Chargers head coach Norv Turner called the appearance "historic."... Shannon must be Sheena's sister.

As this is the first preseason game, I'm not too concerned about who played well and who didn't. Those kinds of observations are usually meaningless this time of year and don't accurately predict regular season performance. I am concerned about who looked healthy and who didn't. It's good to hear Merriman looked good.

Yep. The only ways Smith lines up at QB is (1) we're in the Wildcat, or (2) both Fitz and the #2 go out in the same game.

Yikes... It's only the first preseason game. I've noticed over the years that some players look good in preseason (e.g. Trent Edwards) and then terrible in the regular season. Other players look bad in preseason and then great when the games count. We all need to be very cautious about making judgments after the first preseason game. How many games did Marv Levy win in the preseason? I think we had a losing record in 3 of the 4 preseasons that preceded us winning the AFC Championship. Kelly & Company didn't accomplish much during preseason but they produced when it counted. I take it all with a grain of salt.

I'd love to see an Olympics in Buffalo. But I think Poojer's remarks about logistics are valid. 100 miles and an international boundary separate Toronto and Buffalo. There would have to be two separate Olymipic Villages. Fans would have to choose one city or the other. Etc. Competition to host the Olympics is fierce and a less-than-ideal situation like this would seem to be deal-breaker. But I wonder if there's a way to put a positive spin on two cities in two countries co-hosting?

Yeah, Kelly, I agree. Our offense was high-powered for the first 7 games last year without having a proven #2 WR. Lots of WRs chipped in as did Freddie and Chandler. Fitz had several legitimite targets. Part of our success has to do with the nature of the offense. We had multiple guys running short routes. Our WRs didn't need to be speed demons and they didn't necessarily need to beat tough coverage. They just needed to know what Chan expected of them and then hang on to the ball. Our best plays usually produced an open receiver just because Chan's play-design and play-calling created a mismatch or defensive-breakdown somewhere.

I wouldn't say our WR corps "sucks." I tend to agree with eball. We're still looking for a starter to play opposite Stevie. Nelson is fine as the slot guy. I'm really hoping TJ or Jones or Easley step up this year. But one thing I do feel good about is that we have a lot of depth. Our starters may or may not be in the top half of the NFL, but we have a lot of solid second-teamers. When injuries happen or when you're trying to run 4 receiver sets, that's not worthless. When and if we find a good #2, I'll be pretty happy with our receiving corps overall. This isn't a top to down mess. We're just missing one puzzle piece.

Good research! While PTR is right that the Bills might be reluctant to bring in another QB this late, both Thigpen and VY have been bad thus far so signing a 'bubble' QB from another squad is not out of the question. It could be that Fitz gets hurt this season and one of these guys comes in for him. But let's hope not.