Hplarrm

1. Can't get too excited about these two wins as I attribute this mostly to the two opponents not being very good teams and even worse being pretty poorly prepared in the usual pre-season fashion. 2. Yet I am pretty excited by the fact a good team beats bad teams comfortably while a bad team struggles against bad opponents. 3. I am even excited by my sense that a big part of our wins were the Bills taking a much more regular season approach to instead of the typical preseason vanilla play calling and no blitz standard Ds. This is a new team that needs reps using more complex schemes and play calls. I am simply excited that the coaches can make these calls and the players can execute them so competently even if the opponent has not prepared for them or use them at the same level as the Bills are. 4. The bottomline is that though I expect this team to struggle more when they faced better prepared opponents doing their darndest to beat/fool the Bills, I am simply psyched to see the current players and coaches show very good stuff!!!!

The question is do you feel moving past Spygate is all that should be considered when judgments are made about Belicheat' place in NFL history. While he likely still has a number of years left to write this book, I think that the issue is not simply the Spygate episode but his past history of several low class personal episodes such as his publicly accepting the Jets HC job but then turning tale and instead running to the Pats job or his total personal mismanagement of negotiations with Lawyer Milloy (where he fiddled over relative small change and paid the price of a undeserved by the Pats in terms of quality of players huge loss in the opener (BB simply lucked out in this case in that his idiocy so united the Pats players against him they rolled onto an SB winning team). Folks may be over Spygate, but I hope folks have the intelligence and heart to consider the total picture (good and embarrassing) of BBs record and look beyond the win at any cost attitude he has displayed consistently in his career.

It does not in terms od cause and effect. Yet BB in his speech made a comment which I found weird and untrue about how the Pats were always a team of integrity and high moral standards (my periphrase) I simply think this untrue and was stuck in by Belicheat perhaps it was an example of him protesting too much as though I do not think there is a cause/effect relationship between Belicheat's low class personality and Hernandez's actions perhaps BB wonders about this.

There obviously is no comparison between the issue of taking someone's life (as Hernandez is accused of in a court where the rule is simply one of a person being innocent until proven guilty though in the different court of public opinion where he seems to be judged as at least criminally stupid and almost certainly criminally guilty). I expect some idiots will blow right past this statement and simply launch into claims of a false comparison that I am not making. Yet, one comment that leaped out of Belichick showing greater (and likely real) humanity he normally does not show, was when he talked about the high level of propriety that his NE team has tried to show. Are you serious. While Hernandez is a possible (probable) murderer for reasons which likely do not strike me as caused or based in Belichick's own "do whatever it takes" attitude . Yet, I think that Belichick has simply diminished the game of Pro football with some of his actions and attitudes which were put in stark relief by the cheating Belichick was given (and paid and did not challenge) and he was fined an unprecedented amount for. Belicheat is one of the best game day HCs ever. However, the filming cheating scandal, his backing out of an HC offer he had publicly agreed to, his hamhanded "negotiating" with his player Lawyer Milloy which led to him leaving the ream just before the first game of the season against the Bills and likely leading to an embarrassing loss are simply examples that Belicheat deserves not only great respect for his talents but also deserves great disrespect for his general attitude and many of his questionable actions. While I doubt Belicheat will get the same cold shoulder from the Hall of Fames that MLB miscreants like McGwire have gotten, for the good of the game I hope it is a significant delay from his first ballot appearance before (or if ever) he gets inducted into the HoF. I for one think Mr. Ralph deserved his dissing for the manner he ignored fundamental league ethics in dealing with the salary cap and I think Bellicheat deserves a dissing as well. My apologies also as for some reason the paragraph function does not seem to work in this Twitter world.

I remember in my pre-draft evaluations saying this abput him as even I could see this looking at film on TV. It really is amazing how much the paid Bills scouts miss.

It would seem to be badly flawed logic (or alleged logic) to conclude there is some equivalence between the positions of CBs and the position of HCs. One role is a posiion of power and authority while the other is that of an employee. They are know where near equivalent and an analogy between he two makes no sense. Further, the decision about qualifications is one which can be measured fairly objectively as to whether a player is a good corner, while the judgment about HC qualifications is a fairly subjective one compared to player talent judgments.. Again analogizing between the two makes little sense. Finally, if there is any alleged discrimination against whites as CBs this seems to no reason why anyone would do this (even if the reasons for not hiring Blacks as HCs were simple stupidity which actually lessened the value of the product on the field as NFL teams seemed to routinely hire poor HCs like Rich Kotite due to good ol boy network while teams routinely passed on hiring Blacks who appeared quite qualified as being good HCs. if for some reason you do not believe this when prior to the Rooney Rule the hiring of an HC with A-A descent was a relative rarity. However, after the Rooney Rule forced teams to at least gove A=As a chance, the # of A-A HCs quickly increaed and darn if a significant # of these new hire prove to be HCs capable of leading teams to SB appearances and wins!. The @s pretty clearly show the Rooney Rule worked well to a point and the NFL deserves the benefit of the doubt in taking steps to strengthen an appproach which has improved the product.

Because you trade up to get a specific player and in the first likely because you are one player away from the SB and you are willing to give up a likely starter this year to get this immeidate difference maker or ecven more potential if lower rounders are needed to move up or perhaps even a first next year is needed to move up. The simple fact is the Bills are not one player away from making the SB and many signs indicate we may be more than one player from simply making the playoffs. This team needs to produce from the draft and FA 2 LBs (one a great starter and at least one back-up OLB A speed receiver A startng QB (or a rookie to develop under Fitz as it provides the ame cap hit whether we cut or keep him) Sundry back=ups or two. The Bills simply would have great difficulty trading away a possible starter to move up only to get a player like a Geno Smith who is a talent but no one confuses Smith as Luck quality player who would make a trade up worthwhile. If you want to trade up for someone then you need to get and how much you are willing to give up on starters you need to compete.

I think right now!

I am just arguing that in general, our society endows a lot of respect on folks who have made big bucks, but actually thia is quit3e different from being a good sportsman. While the two things are not mutually exclusive to me the two are not only different but often are contradictory. In Ralph's case I think the Bills do worse when he emphasizes the business part of his being.

People often seem to also mistake being a good businessman with being a good sportsman. The resuts produced by these two skillsets do often overlap as there are some examples of people who suceeded at making $ and then translated some of the talents useful for moneymaking (being an innovator, or a risk taker and being good at hiring smart people). However, there seem to be far more exmples of folks who were wizzes making money but prove to be either idiots makig sports decisions or simply seem to suceed from throwing lots of money around and lucking into getting good sports professionals. I think as a football owner Mr. Ralph is a good businessman. When he bumbled into having an employee like Bill Polian or a good football guy like John Butler, his Bills did well. However, when his personality led him to disputes with an eventually to fire Polian and when he made a simply wrong assessment that Jim Kelly had time left in his career that he made a handshake deal only he could make to reward Jimbo in his next contract which never occured he made poor football judgments which killed the team. Likewise his documented runs in with football guys like Wade Philips and Mularkey and his having to hire TD after his personality got him run out of Pittsburgh and then hwhe had to fire TD (who exhibitied his own weaknesses in hiring Gregg Wiiliams) there are example after example of Mr. Ralph failing to be a good sportsman in the mold of the Rooneys.

Perhaps right now he is, but certainly for this fan there are much worse owners I would like to often see in charge of my team from Jerry Jones to Dan Snyder. Jones is a blowhard who has a record of success but exercises his American ownership right to meddle often to interere with the f0otball pros. Snyder is as bad as Jones but with less suceess on the filed (until finally he has gotten a hot rookie this year who at least shows some potential for achievement. Likewise Mr. Ral[h's Bills gained unprecedented success in the 90s but he got rid of a talented actual football mind in Polian and has proved to be a mere rich guy with little football and persomal intellect since he fired Polian. The mistake here is that folks tend to mistake being a good businessman with being a good sportsman. Ralph is a great businessman but pretty much stinks as a sportsman.

Add to this the clear poor management (without regard to whom you want to blame for this it is clearly a poor outcome) prior to the Donahoe item which begins your list the history just prior to this was: Early 90s- The glory years for a team led by several now HOF quality players like Bruce, Jimbo, Thurman and near HOFers likeTasker and Reed. 1996- Ralph makes a handshake deal onlly he could make to reward Jimbo in his next contract (a move which is totally illegal on the salary cap and demontrates blatant disregard for his fellow business partners in the nFL and I suspect is part of the reason for the difficult to justify delay in his entry into the HOF). This football judgment by Mr. Ralph was simply wrong wrong wrong and happened in conjunction with his fiiring of Bill Polian as GM. 1997- on Due to Kelly retirement the team rushes Todd Collins to start (even though he clearly has happy feet under the pass rush. This leads to the team making a series of failed movves at QB featuring desperate acquisitions of bad players (like Hobert), stupid overpayments (RJ), violating their word (team told Fluties he wou8ld get a shot to win the job on the field but the guaranteed contract to RJ showed this was a lie and then they mismanaged the contracts given sso when Flutie met his performance targets the Bills were forced to extend him. 1998- on- Mr. Ralph demonstrably mismanaged time with Wade Phillips as HC as he not only fired Philips (the last HC who led the Bills to the playoffs) but then was forced by the league to pay him when we tried to stiff him 2000= Mr. Ralph demonstrbly developed a poor relationship with GM John Butler who left the team in a lurch for SD which led to the hiring of Donahoe. We owe mr. Rlph a debt f gratitude for keeping the team here when there was likely more $ to be made if he moved the team to LA, but it seems pretty clear that along with the deserved praise for the 90s he is directly in charge of the mismanagement of this team from the mid 90s on

I agree becaise even though it is simply insane to judge that the Bills can make the playoffs it is actually not insane to judge that the opposition the Bills face for a wild card slot are so bad they might implode even worse than our sad sack but still beloved Bills team.

I dubt the NFL buys into this idea because the main way this would make fiscal sense for the many theoretically community controlled entities to spend on this to have it work ((several hundred million for NYS likely through some form of a sports authority, NFTA, Erie County, City of Buffalo (which despite its fiscal trobles is still able to borrow far more money far more cheaply than any private capita sources) would be for the community to be in charge (ala a Green Bay Packers model) rather than have individual owners be it a Jerry Jones, Dan Snyder or even Mr. Ralph. The game here is whether the profits from this entity go primarily to individuals (the typical NFL model) or ges to the community as a whole. Well, one thing is for sure, the community control model of the Packers prd\oduces a better football product than the flailings of Snyder, Jones or sadly Mr. Ralph. I doubt the NFL allows a community profit model over an individual profit model.

I think the military should actually be put in charge rather than the unions, no cost overr uns when the military is in charge. Perhaps we should push for the free-market to handle this, but then again the free market works because there is about a 50/50 chance they go out of business in the first 5 years and the free market produces good outcomes overall because a good chunk of the people involved simply get fired!

Nope, this is not possible, probable, or plausible. Do you really think that the Bills organization from top to bottom is so coordinated, powerful, good at what they do, and in control that they have the power to control or force the outcome of a game (and actually a whole season) in such a way that they continually grasp defest from the jaws of victory time after time. (and also achieve this goal while keeping it all a secret from the watchful eyes of several hundred thousand Bills fans and several million folks betting on NFL games? If the Bills at their highest levels were so good and so in control as to be able to have any chance of plotting to lose games merely to obtain a higher draft pick, it would be far soimpler for them to use this coordinated power and control to just win games. Like many a conspiract theory this one simply assumes that the conspirators have far more competency, control, and power than they have demonsstated in reality. Do you really have the belief and faith in Mr. Ralph, Gailey and the organization to believe they could accomplish the conspiracy theory you are laying out (and keep their nefarious plans a secret to the world? Perhaps you also believe Dr. Evil is in control of the world and plans to make a million dollars from the ornate control required for such a plot to be real.

All of those looking to keep mindlessly whipping on Brad Smith or Ryan Fitzpatrick can certainly be justified in suggesting real tangible things to improve their games as they both have some real areas where they could improve their games, but as stupid as it is to watch the D so far, its beem really nice to see two Bills who consistently prompt mindless complaints that they cannot do anything right actually flat out show that they do have some ability which this bad team cannot simply ignore.

Well, I gues that the appropriate next post should be by the guy who started the thread doing an imitation of Emily Latella.

One of my favorite comedy routines is where Jerry Seinfeld makes fun of how parents burden their kids with names they think are cute. He asks what kind of parents name their kid Jeeves because they pretty much have determined the future life and job of the kid.

Among the reasons are: 1. Self interest- I know the offense is bad and destroys the prospects of this team winning games. Self interest says to me that this is a great opportunity for me to maximize defensive productivity and lead the team. We will not win the game because Fitzy is so bad but for me personally I look good. 2. Team interest- I know Fitzy is not good enough to win games, but to the extent I am interested in our team this is a call to my unit to lead us to the victories we can get. Sure I know other lower character people will give up but I have been trained as a competitor all my life and gotten a lot of plaudits for good team results produced in HS and college that another teammate falling apart is simply a call to my unit to maximize my play. 3.Fairness- I have been rightfully awarded more money than I even imagined (and I can imagine a lot) to win. Any sense of fairness about these gifts mandates maximum effort. 4. Guilt- I am,given huge $ to play a boys game and simple guilt demands maximum effort. 5. Fear- I do not want to get painted with the same brush Fitzy deserves. In fact, from pure self-interest I need to actually produce very little (stop the other team from having two 100 yard rushers) to see other folks blame it all on Fitzy 6. Etc etc. In fact, the idea that the problems we have are all about Fitzy says more about the poster than about the reality of what the problems are.

It seems to me you are lashing out all over the place from blaming the situtation on the highest levels of the organization to one player who granted leads the O, but you gotta recognize he is one player who will do little to stop the D from giving up 100+ to two rushers. True replacing the QB is more than putting lipstick on a pig, but given the dysfunction from the top down, replacing the QB is little more than giving the pig a nice purse that matches the lipstick. Overall, I think you were on target blaming the highest levels, but I think you actually are letting the "old man" off the hook by pointing to Liittman. You gotta praise Mr. Ralph for making an incredible business move with his initial investment and also for not taking the bucks and moving the team when he could have done it. However, the Bills consistent disaster performance start well before and go well beyond any single GM, HV, or player (all of whom we either hired directly or sigmed off on by Mr. Ralph). Going back to the stupid wrong footbsll miscalculation he made when he signed Jimbo to a handshake deal only he could make and then overseeing with likely direct involvement for big contracts Mr. Ralph is the thing in common for all good and all bad. Your Fitzy rant is understandable but wrong when Iding the problem.

I do not think any QB they could have drafted in the first round this year (or in fact in the first round the last couple of years) would have succedded in helping us reach what really has been the realistic goal for this team, which is simply making the playoffs. The paradox for us is that there simply has not been a QB with the talent necessary to lead a bad team to the playoffs the last few years without significant leadership and help. It is virtually a certainty that any QB we drafted would simply have been unsuccessful with the team around which we had, would have likely been run out of town when his team failed to produce (particularly after he was declared a savoir and unreasonable expectatioons would have been declared for him by the ;local media and fans looking for the next Jim Kelly, and given the poor teaching skills we have had here for years. My sense is that there is no QB we could have drafted the last several years in the 1st (or even worse if we gave up what we would had tp govem up to trade to move up to get an RGIII, Luck, or Cam Newton) to get an it is hoped to be a franchise QB with a 1st round pick. The same is likely true for a couple of years as even though this tea, is now stronger and a QB MIGHT be the missing piece, it is c;lear from the last couple of games that this team is still one or more likely two players away from being as good as the Steelers were or as good as NYG was when rookie QBs led them to SB victories. Even if we draft a franchise QB with a first we are still likely a year or more likely 2 away from this rookie QB being able to lead this team to even simply make the playoffs.

The interesting question is to what extent this thinking also appliwes to the QB position. My sense is that unless your team is at about the level that Pitts was when they completed the puzzle by drtafting Ben Roesthenberger (sp?) AND you correctly assess the QB's strengths and weaknesses AND also train him properly (neither of which are strengths demonstrated by the Bills under Mr. Ralph's leadership) then a plan to draft a franchise QB (even one with the sillsets of Cam Newton or Luck) would seem to be a multi-year strategy to simply reach the playoffs at best.

om Brady and Joe Montana says yeah right.

Many thanks for all the great work and summary. This is a mst read for those who seem to whine endlessly that the problem here is the team has not devoted the effort to get a franchise QB when actually they have tried and simply failed (to my mind in part because of the lust of so many to find the next Jimbo has so often led the team to over-reach in attempting to find the next Jimbo ot imply rushed along the limited talent we have had.