Buffalo Billy

Gah, I'll have the NFL Network by this time -next- week. Moving into the new apartment on Monday and getting the full HD service with the sports package and DVR...

How about apologies to Parrish while we're at it? A hell of a lot more people ragged on him over this past year-plus than Stevie. The "useless fumble machine" made the top 5 best catches list two weeks in a row and is suddenly being hailed as exceptional talent again around the league.

Why WOULD anyone have any info regarding their head circumferences? Are you being sarcastic?

Misleading thread title. Anyways, I haven't heard anything definite about it. The owners apparently want it in place by 2012, and the players association are -very- against it. Which I find odd because its only good for the unproven rookies, rather than the veterans who would benefit from it. Why do the rookies have more of a say in it? A rookie pay scale could be one of the best things to happen to the Bills if we get a top 3 pick this coming draft. Ralph would be much more willing to pay the high draft pick, and on the flip side it would be much easier to trade down for additional picks. Would give us more options.

Ballers gonna ball, haters gonna hate. I think a point many of the Fitz haters miss is that a lot of Fitz supporters STILL want us to draft a good QB.

I know they say you can't teach accuracy, but I think it could be fixed with a minor adjustment to his mechanics. It could just be me but it seems his balls tend to sail high when he tries to really gun it to a receiver. Did it look to anyone else that his arm was sort of dipping to a three quarter arm angle when he does that? It could be fixed with a more vertical arm angle.

Apparently. I mean the Ravens scoring something like 24 straight unanswered points clearly shows how unprepared they were for us. Or something. What do I know?

The Bills coming back from a 10 points fourth quarter deficit was totally the Ravens taking it easy on us. So that the other good teams won't think they're so good, and take it easy on them. Makes perfect sense.

The more correct third answer is to keep Fitz, and draft a QB to develop behind him.

Bradford in 2010 9 TDs, 8 INTs, 56.2% pass completion, 71.4 rating, 5.7 yards per pass average, 1.8 yards per rush average. Fitz in 2010 11 TDs, 4 INTs, 63.3% pass completion, 102.0 rating, 7.6 yards per pass average, 7.3 yards per rush average.

And I quote... "Fitz’s passer rating was 106.1. It marked the sixth straight game the Bills QB had a passer rating of 80 or more. It’s the longest streak by a Bills QB (min. 20 att.) since Jim Kelly’s 6-gamer to open 1991 season. Fitzpatrick has also now thrown a touchdown pass in seven consecutive games. It’s the longest streak by a Bills QB since Drew Bledsoe’s 10-game streak to start the 2002 season." That's not "just one good game".

Can you explain how we get Fitz, a player we already have, AND draft picks?

From the Bills site... Fitz’s passer rating was 106.1. It marked the sixth straight game the Bills QB had a passer rating of 80 or more. It’s the longest streak by a Bills QB (min. 20 att.) since Jim Kelly’s 6-gamer to open 1991 season. Fitzpatrick has also now thrown a touchdown pass in seven consecutive games. It’s the longest streak by a Bills QB since Drew Bledsoe’s 10-game streak to start the 2002 season. Looks like Fitz of late is the best QB since Bledsoe and Kelly.

Fitz is still listed as the top fantasy QB of the week. Complimented by both Evans and Johnson being in the top 5 for WRs.

The pile -eventually- moved forward, but was stopped well long enough to legitimately call it dead from lack of forward progress. In fact I don't think it started moving forward until Ray was stripping it. Most people who understand reception rules agree that it was an INT.

In fact, there is a penalty for "assisting in the forward progress of the ball carrier" or something to that effect. If a player gets pushed BACK, they call it dead by forward progress, but if he's held up for three seconds, THEN gets pushed forward then they allow it? I don't get it.

According to NFL.com, Fitz is the #1 fantasy QB of the 1pm games.

I thought they changed that rule to give credit if you WOULD have come down with the ball before getting pushed out. On a related note, I could have sworn that after he got the one foot down, his right elbow touched green grass before rolling out of bounds. That should have counted. On an unrelated note, I guaran-FREAKING-tee if that was Ray Rice being held up like that in overtime, they would have whistled him dead from lack of forward progress.

atdhe.net I just hope the feed stays up for the entire game this time.

There's also a difference between appearing in games, and being a full time starter. What was the extent of Merriman's participation in games in comparison to Ellison's?

*skeptical glare* What are you getting at? *shakes fist*

But at least they would have been pushed back 15 yards.

I found a partial list of actual NFL fines. $5000 fines - High/Low whites on socks - Pants not covering knees (no skin should show below the waist) - Bandana - Wrong nasal strip - Hand towel alterations - towel must be 7 to 8 inches and have no tape on it - Tape not the same color of the shoe. - Jersey untucked (usually there is a warning for this one) - Jersey cut too short - Sleeves coming out of jersey - only QB can have this and only a certain amount can come out - Chinstrap undone ($7500) $10,000 fines - Personal messages - Any second offense fine - Wrong attire 90 minutes previous and after a game - clothes must be Reebok apparel - Tinted visor - must have a doctors note for a tinted visor

I don't understand how he wasn't immediately ejected from the game. Ejections for such flagrant fouls are common in just about every other sport. As for suspensions/fines, the league/Gooddell has always been highly irregular and inconsistent. I recently read an article on the most ridiculous fines handed out in recent years, which showed minor offenses (such as banging a pair of drums to celebrate a touchdown) getting equal fines to much more serious offenses (such as suplexing a guy to the ground by his face mask). I'll see if I can link it.

My top 10 off the top of my head, partially borrowed from others in this thread. In no particular order. 1. Get rid of the stupid tuck rule. 2. Eliminate the extra point kicks. Six plus two or zero. 3. Reintroduce the extra point kick as a kickoff strategy. If you pound the ball through the uprights on a kickoff, you get a point. If you miss and the ball lands beyond the end zone, they get the ball at the 25 instead of the 20. If the ball lands in the end zone and bounces out, then the standard 20 yard line applies. 4. Get rid of the fair catch. I know they want to limit injuries, but the wuss can always just choose to let the ball bounce. Gives more importance to punters and makes special teams more exciting. 5. Do something about the double standard of QBs sliding. Either limit how far down the field they can slide, or adopt the college style of the ground ending the play for anyone with the ball (like a receiver diving to make a catch). 6. Loosen the rules on what constitutes a catch. Require only one foot to be inbounds. Get rid of the stupid rule where the ball shifting in your hands as you land out of bounds after getting both feet in negates the catch. Give Calvin Johnson his damned touchdown and slap that ref upside the head. 7. Adopt the NHL style of official review by taking it out of the hands of the refs who screwed up in the first place. An unbiased, professional review team would speed up the process. 8. Give coaches a two strike rule on challenges. Rather than give them a third challenge for getting two right, allow challenges until they get two wrong. 9. Rather than discouraging field goals, you should ENCOURAGE the alternative. If you fail a fourth down conversion, the ball gets spotted 5 yards ahead of where the ball ended up (or half the distance to the goal if inside the 10). So if you fail on a 4th and 2 on the opponents' 40, the opponent gets the ball on their 35. 10. These excessive celebration penalties are just getting stupid. If its not vulgar or offensive, or directed SPECIFICALLY AT a player (I've seen some stupid "taunting" penalties too), let it go. Perhaps as long as it doesn't take too long, like give them 15 seconds after the play ends. Oh oh one more I forgot. Freezing the kicker, just stupid. I mean if its unsportsmanlike conduct for doing it TWICE in a row, then just get rid of it in the first place and ignore time out requests that are clearly just attempts to screw with the other team.