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Not a perfect analogy but certainly some very interesting parallels. Thanks for sharing Rube. Someday would love to hear your story and we'll all agree to leave the embarrassment/pity at the door. If Chan becomes anywhere near as successful as Levy and if Fitz becomes even close to as good as Kelly, I'll be one ecstatic fan.

After growing up in Cheektowaga, I've lived in or near Atlanta, San Francisco/Oakland, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Seattle. None of these places are remotely like Buffalo when it comes to love for the hometown team.

This is a funny award for the best fantasy football player. I'd rather have Fitz win the Bert Bell award. NEW JERSEY, September 27, 2011 / — RotoExperts, the leader in original Sports / Fantasy Sports content and the Maxwell Football Club, the oldest football organization in America, announced today that they will be presenting an annual NFL Fantasy Player of the Year Award. The “RotoExperts NFL Fantasy Player of the Year Award, presented by the Maxwell Football Club,” will be given to the most outstanding player as voted by members of the Maxwell Football Club, providing an accurate and insightful assessment of the value of the NFL’s top Fantasy player. Members include NFL Head Coaches, General Managers, Owners, selected Sportswriters and Sportscasters, among others. This will be the 15th award presented annually by the Maxwell Football Club, who are presenters of the most prestigious football awards in the country each year. Some of the Club’s other well known awards are: Maxwell Award: Top college football player in the nation. (2010 winner, Cam Newton, Auburn) Chuck Bednarik Award: Best defensive player in college football (2010 winner, Patrick Peterson, LSU) Joeseph V. Paterno Award: College coach who best embodies football success, academic excellence and community service (2010 winner, Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech) Bert Bell Award: Top player in the NFL (2010 winner, Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles) Earl “Greasy” Neal Award: Top head coach in the National Football League (2010 winner Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles)

No one knows the future. Let's just enjoy the journey. Right now, the view is beautiful. If you really need to think about the future, forget the Bills 2008 season or the Bronco's 6-0 start. I mean, who really knows? The Bills could go 0-13 the rest of the way or 13-0. Probabilities, however, are on our side. Something like 72% of 3-0 teams eventually make the playoffs. So if you have to contemplate the Bills final record, think optimistically because the odds are in our favor. Personally, I'm still basking in the afterglow of the Pats win. I'll worry about Cinci on Sunday and the playoffs much later on.

I wish Fitz had a stronger arm and was more consistently accurate (especially on his deep balls). But I still voted for him as our franchise QB. The offense is purring like a well-oiled machine and it's largely because of him. He's been accurate enough on the pass plays the Bills run for the Bills to average 38 points a game. He understands the offense, knows how and when to audible, even draws up new routes in the huddle. He's unfazed by bad luck and lopsided scores. He gives credit to his teammates who seem to respond really positively to him. His quick release is perfect for this offense. All-in-all, I am very pleased with Fitz. According the the QBR ratings, he's the second-best QB in the NFL right now. How could anyone be unhappy with him?

You are right that with each passing year, Adre's stats look less and less spectacular. But I think all the selectors understand that you can't compare passing and receiving stats from one era to another. Unfortunately, Reed was on the front end of the passing revolution and some say his own numbers were inflated by the offense the Bills ran. Reed's not a receiver from the old-old days when 1,000 receiving yards in a season was virtually unimaginable. What can't be argued is that Reed went to a whole bunch of Pro Bowls. He was considered one of the very best in the game for a long time. In my mind, 7 Pro Bowls = HOF, though there are a few other players who have been to the Pro Bowl just as often and are still waiting for Canton to call. Reed will be the only Bill on this list to make the final 15. Hopefully he'll actually end up enshrined this time but I wouldn't be surprised to see him as a bridesmaid once again.

The Bills haven't been to the playoffs since before the Ides of March when Caesar still ruled. It's been a really long time so the reluctance to embrace the Bills is understandable. So far the Bills have only proved that they have a lot of fight in them and an offense that can light up a scoreboard. They have not shown themselves to be a dominant team that can win in all three phases of a game. If we go just 2-2 in our next 4 games but then beat the Jets in November, the media will take us seriously as a force in the AFCE.

Bills 23 Bengals 13 Cinci's offense isn't nearly as potent as Oakland's or NE's so the Bills Defense will finally get a chance to look good. Cinci's D is okay and the Bills Offense won't press as hard to score so the Bills will put up 'only' twenty something points. All of which will make the Bills 4-0. Go Bills!

Fitz is near-perfect for this offense. He reads defenses really well, makes quick decisions, and is accurate with short to medium length passes. He also understands the offense really well. The receivers also fit the offense well. Chan's receivers don't need to be really fast because we don't run a lot of deep passes. Gailey likes short-to-mid-range stuff, often creating traffic issues for DBs (unofficial picks). So we need receivers who run good routes and have good hands. Quickness rather than top-end speed is more important so Roscoe and Stevie fit perfectly. In a crowd (Gailey often sends 4 and 5 people out), it also helps to be a big target like Nelsen or Chandler. Gailey had a clear vision of the kind of offense he wanted to run. We're seeing that vision now. Guys who didn't fit that vision (Trent Edwards, Lee Evans, Marshawn Lynch) were cut or traded. Chan knew what he was doing.

I actually kind of agree with you. We've had some breaks. We could easily be 1-2 now. I was merely saying I never had much faith in the 2008 team. The 2011 team still concerns me. The defense, particularly, has some problems that need to be solves. But I have more faith in this Head Coach than I had in DJ. And while the 2008 players were probably scrappier than some of us remember, I think this team has more fight in it. So, though not yet convinced, I feel better about this team than I did about the 2008 team. We'll see.

I expect we'll blitz in games where Gailey, Wannestadt, and Edwards think our ability to blitz is better than the other team's ability to pick up the blitz. Brady and the Pats are really good at beating the blitz. The teams that have blitzed the Pats successful and made Brady uncomfortable are better pass rushing teams than the Bills are right now. I think one of the reasons that Merriman has been relatively silent so far this season is that we're not playing to his strengths. It will be interesting to see what he can do once we unleash him.

Good observation but not surprising. The Bills were 4-12 last season. We don't have any established superstars. And we didn't acquire any huge names free agents in the offseason. We've won 3 good games but people still need more convincing. I think that's understandable. If anything, I'm a bit surprised we're ranked as high as we are considering everything.

Sully's tone has changed since the Raiders game. Far more upbeat now. Still, I couldn't resist emailing him: Jerry, Back before the Chiefs game, many of us "Billievers" were enthusiastically optimistic about the upcoming season. We loved the way Nix was dumping the baggage of the old regime and acquiring players who had both the desire and ability to win and fit into our offensive and defensive schemes. We loved Chan's no-nonsense leadership and innovative offensive ideas. Even the more astute members of the national media were cautiously positive about the Bills. Both PFT's Mike Florio and SI's Peter King, for example, wrote that they would not be surprised if the Bills made the playoffs. Ever the contrarian, one of our own Buffalo sportswriters, though, had this to say: "This roster is a crumbling monument to neglect and bad personnel moves." It's odd how two people look at the same thing and see something completely different. When we encounter differences like this, we learn more about the observers than the thing observed. I wonder when the mea culpa is coming? Go Bills! Brian

+1 All the male fans should should up at the Ralph sporting fake or real beards in homage to the Amish Rifle.

The Chiefs game turned out to be an "easy" win. But I don't think the Bills are good enough yet (particularly not the defense) to count on "easy" wins. I think we need to fight hard every game. Even the early 90s Bills fell flat some games. This team has less talent. They can't afford flat efforts.

A sportswriter in Houston had us #5 BEFORE the New England game. http://blog.chron.com/nfl/2011/09/week-3-nfl-power-rankings/ It's amazing we're ranked between #3 and #8. People are jumping on the Bills bandwagon awfully fast. Btw, in the NFL.com scoring system (combining the rankings of their 9 'experts'), the Bills are tied for the Pats for #5. Only the Packers, Saints, Lions and Ravens are in front of us. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8229d2e3/article/week-4-power-poll-pack-solid-while-eagles-jets-take-big-falls?module=HP11_headline_stack

Really? I recall not being super excited or hopeful back then. I felt like I just flipped a quarter 3 times and each time it came up heads. Random luck, nothing more. We looked like a .500 team getting some breaks. The current team does have a different feel. There's a lot more heart, a lot more drive to win. I just wish (1) we don't suffer any catastrophic injuries and (2) the defense comes together and starts keeping the yardage/point totals down. Even with those concerns, this is the most hopeful I've been in a loooong time.

This is ranked according to sacks given up - a misleading stat. The Bills don't give up a lot of sacks because Chan designs quick-hitting plays and Fitz gets rid of the ball quickly. I do agree, though, that the Bills offensive line has played surprisingly well.

In years past, Freddie averaged 4.5 yards per carry behind a bad line. He'd make something out of nothing and was among the league leaders in yards after contact. This year behind an improving line, he's averaging 6.4 yards per carry so far. Fun to watch!

Two games doesn't make a trend. The slow start against the Pats wasn't due to a lack of preparation. Fitz threw two picks. One was a good throw that should have been a positive gain. The other was just a bad throw - Fitz does that from time to time. Even the best coaches have to deal with receivers occasionally dropping balls and QBs occasionally misfiring. In both the Raiders and Pats games, you could see early on that the Bills were going to move the ball. Sometimes the best prepared teams just don't execute at 100% the whole game. Players have to play.

I'd feel a bit better if Roscoe was healthy and if we hung onto the ball more often. But even as it is, the receiving corps does indeed look good.

I do billieve the Bills are for real. But I am not impressed by the rushing stats. Both the Chiefs and Raiders had a high yards-per-carry figure. In fact, the Bills were giving up 5.0 ypc after the first two games! The Bills ability to score forced opponents to throw, thus keeping the yardage totals down. The Rush D did look good today, though. And the offense has been spectacular in every game so far.

For the most part, the Bills are playing as I (and many of us) thought they would play this year. The one thing surprising me is the play of the offensive line. Freddy's getting some big holes to run through and Fitz isn't getting sacked a lot (though this is also a factor of his quick decisions).

He was angry. Didn't want to talk. Short, bitter answers. "Chan did a great job with the team."