2003Contenders

The knock on him in Washington was that he was unreliable. On one play he'd make a sensational catch -- and on the next, he'd drop a pass that hit him right in the chest. Hence, he found himself more as a blocker than a receiver.

After the Jets game -- and watching Leinart (rather than JP) toss those light throws into the wind -- we'd be saying that the front office should have never bothered with this noodle-armed QB. That's exactly why they had Cutler rated as their #1 QB on the draft board. Thus, Leinart was NEVER an option, even if the front office entertained the notion of drafting a QB at all.

I actually see many FAs wanting to come here. 1. Jauron has a reputation as a player's coach and operates a relatively light off-season regiment. 2. Look at how the front office OVERPAID for the likes of Tripplett, Davis, Bowen, Price, as well as some of our own. Marv is likely to be viewed as a sugar daddy...

He also whiffed badly on the long Maroney return.

This could be a big week for McGee -- as you know Brady will be trying to pick on him as often as possible.

True. Showing some commitment to the run wouldn't hurt either.

Fairchild needs to go with those quick 3-step drops ALL game long, rather than for just a single series as he did against Detroit.

Bingo!

All of this is moot anyway, as Marv has repeatedly said that Cuter was the QB that the Bills had ranked #1.

I think most on here feel the way that I do -- that is, the kid has done some good things and plenty of bad things as well. He's a work in progress -- and we really do not know yet -- and probably won't for awhile anyway -- whether he really is the long term solution or not. I find this JP debate on the board to be kinda funny. There are some folks on here that "picked a side" long ago, and allow all sense of reasoning to blind them to their view-point, which was not arrived at rationally in the first place. That is to say that for whatever reason some of the folks on here made a bold and foundless assessment that "JP sucks" before having ever seen him play a down. Now, regardless of what he does, your single-minded determination to be "right" at all costs leads you to either root against him -- or assign credit elsewhere when he plays well. Of course, there are plenty on the flip-side who apparantly want to defend every mistake he makes. The bottom line is that we as Bills fans should all hope and pray that he does come around and continue to progress. Why would we want to have to invest another high draft pick or scarce free agent dollars on another QB, when we so badly need to improve the OL and DL? I've seen enough to tell me that the kid has the talent to succeed. (How many QBs around the league could have made the play he did on the Parrish TD on Sunday?) But, I also know that he looked pretty bad for most of the game: partly because of poor protection, partly because his receivers weren't coming open -- and partly because he just flat out didn't help himself either. What we need to see out of him is a defining moment. That would be a situation (like Kelly against Miami back in the late 80s or Flutie against the Jags in 98) where he puts the team on his shoulders and helps will them to an improbable victory. Maybe this is the week that that happens...

... when THEY have had extra time to prepare for us. Let's go back chronologically... 1. The season opener for 2006. Obviously, the Pats had all preseason to prepare -- and the Bills darn near beat them in their own house. 2. In 2005, coming off their bye in the "Bruski Game", we also darn near beat them in their house. 3. In 2004, in Orchard Park, coming off their bye (as well as ours), we were in the position to tie the game with less than 2:00 to go, when Bledsoe fumbled on a 4th down play that the Pats ran back for a TD. 4. In the 2003 season opener, we squashed them in Orchard Park. Again, they had all preseason to prepare. All other contests against them since 2003 have been blowout losses. Maybe this is just coincidence, but I find it funny that there seems to be this doom and gloom notion about the genius Belichick having an extra week to prepare for us, when the facts show that the Patriots have not been nearly as dominant when having that extra week to prepare. Grasping at straws I know, but I'll take any positive vibes we can get for this up coming game!

Last night on WHAM, Marv said the following about the trade: 1. The Bucs contacted the Bills about a possible trade -- not the other way around. 2. The Bucs were requesting a first rounder. 3. The Bills were not willing to part with anything higher than a 3rd rounder -- and they were a bit weary of even giving up that much. 4. Marv and the coaches like Booger -- but have concerns about his age, contract -- and the perception that he takes too many plays off. 5. He felt that the Colts overpaid -- but understood that they HAD to overpay to get him. He suggested that if the Bills were in the same situation as the Colts, he too may have been willing to overpay.

You can listen to it on line here: http://www.wham1180.com/main.html Marv also just said that he was in discussions with the Bucs about Booger, but the Bucs wanted a 1st round pick, and the Bills did not feel that he merited more than a 3rd rounder given his age, contract and the observation that he likes to take plays off.

All that I can say is that when I saw that the Bills had traded up into the late first round, I thought for sure they were taking Justice there.

And you know JP will NEVER be a consistent NFL QB how? If you didn't notice Sunday, the best drive that the Bills had all day was the one in which JP was taking 3 step drops. That calls for quick decision making, no? Also, there is one thing that I do know -- having watched Matt Leinart plenty -- there is NO WAY that Leinart ever completes that 44 yard TD pass to Roscoe on the fly as Losman did on Sunday.

I too think it was a catch -- but too close to overturn. Of course, it would have been nice if the officials had called it an INT in the first place, then the Lions could have challenged it. Even if they had received the home-cooked reversal, at least we wouldn't have been charged that timeout, which came back to haunt us. Oh well...

Agreed... The problem is that great LTs do not grow on trees -- and the draft is such a crapshoot. Still, it would be nice to to see more than one Day 1 pick used on the OL. Several reasons... One, we haven't had a real consistent starting unit in years. Everyone knows that these guys take some time to gel. Donahoe, for reasons only known to him, never saw the need to invest heavily in the OL in either the draft or free agency -- and the new regime went DB-crazy in the draft and pretty much ignored that need, especially in the early rounds. Thus, we are stuck with a poor starting line -- and very little in the way of depth behind them. Well, I will say that there were some adjustments made after halftime, since Roy wasn't nearly as visible in the 3rd and 4th quarters. But your point is well taken. Also remember, that the Lions were able to get plenty of pressure on Losman with just their 4 DL rushing, which allowed them to drop 7 into coverage and double-up on Evans. When Fairchild started using 3 and 4 wideouts, notice how Evans started getting open? Meanwhile, our DL is so pathetic that they can't get after the QB without help from blitzers. I think the success our front four had in Miami sent a horribly inflated signal about how good they were. Miami was THAT bad -- our DL hasn't generated much pressure on opposing QBs, since -- even against Detroit's patch-work unit. I like Whitner too. Simpson did at least come up with the INT -- that could have been the final turning point in the game if the OL had stood up. A shame that our rookie safties have been outperforming our veteran CBs. For all the times that McGee got beat by Williams yesterday, he was also in the position to make at least 2 interceptions -- and dropped them both. I'm not sure what the deal is. He's a KR, so we know he has decent hands. His confidence is shot now -- and I worry if he'll ever bounce back. Remember Ken Irvin? I think he saw that the Lions were going to be without 2-3 OL starters and thought this would be a great week to make a comeback. I bet if we review the tape, we'll see that he was guilty of overpursuing on a number of plays. It was not an especially good day by any of our LBs. Crowell missed the tackle on the second play of the game, which probably opened the pass-crazy Martz's eyes to how he could have some success running the ball against us. There is a great deal of talk on this board about him being a "bust". Remember that he was essentially a backup in Indy. Sadly Ralph should know that you get what you pay for. I observed the same thing. Although, he did actually make one very good screen pass to McGahee in the 4th quarter that picked up good yardage. The problem with those screens is that they take a long time to develop, which means (given our OL) that JP is usually under duress as he throws it. Well, he did force that fumble (that went, like 20 yards in the wrong direction) on the punt return. That was when I knew that we were in trouble as the ball was just not going to bounce our way. As lousy as Tasker was yesterday, he did make a great observation on the Losman/Davis near-miss. Namely, Losman through the perfect pass but it looked overthrown because Davis kept looking back for it rather than just running for it. I know what you are saying, but in a way I know where Tasker is coming from. Not only does he not want to be perceived as a homer, but he is probably trying to help the team with the "jinx". I do that myself as I watch a game... "Oh, here comes Lindell to try to kick this 53 yarder... No way does he make it!" Whenever I see a grpahic come up -- like the Lions only have one sack in their last 4 games -- I worry. That's a scheme that needs adjusting. The CBs play on a specific side of the field in Fewell's defense, not against a specific receiver. Thus, the offense is allowed to look for and exploit the mismatch. Yesterday that mismatch was 6-3 Williams against 5-9 McGee. Brady will try the same thing this week... Here's hoping that McGee looks at this as a real opportunity -- and takes one back to the house! Yes, it was -- but remember it came against an NFC foe, which means it's not the end of the world. A win against New England (as unlikely as that may be) will cure a lot of ailments heading into the bye.

Yea, I liked that the officials were not overly nit-picky yesterday -- although it did come back to hurt us with Roy's repeated unpenalized push-offs.

I don't belive the clock stops on out-of-bounds until you are inside 5 minutes.

I wonder if that means that they have Hargrove pegged for STs...

A 4.63 40-time is very good for a DL. Maybe he or Denney can play some DT on passing down.

I could be wrong, but I took Mort's coment about "up to snuff" to mean that, since Marv had been on the job for such a short time, he had to defer much of what went into making up the ultimate draft board to the guys (like Modrak) who were hold-overs from the previous regime.

You hit the nail right on the head! The funny thing is that after the 2002 season, most Bills fans were ready to cannonize TD. I firmly believe that the real turning point in terms of fan and media support came on that day, when he announced that GW was not coming back for 2004. He more or less called out the fans for being overly critical. At that point he pretty much lost the PR battle in Buffalo forever more. I think if you were to do a pros and cons analysis, you would probably discover that all in all TD probably did more good things than bad things during his tenure as GM of the Bills. However, the fact that the team made ZERO trips to the playoffs during his 5 years as GM justifies why he is no longer here. One other thing that we'll never know is: How much control did TD really have? Did he really have the final say on all draft picks? Did he encourage the coaches to determine who played and who didn't? Did he influence assistant hirings? How much did Ralph tie his hands (in terms of compensation for coaches, for example)? It remains to be seen what kind of GM ol' Marv will be in the long run, but I really like the "we are family" attitude that the entire organization seems to have right now.

I thought we'd been through this before... After the 2001 season (in which he won Coach of the Year honors), he and the Bears were forced to play 16 road games in 2002. The following year the team was torn apart with injuries -- and most people around the league felt that Jauron overachieved to even get to 7-9. He was also a lame duck coach by that point, as it was obvious that Angelo wanted to bring in "his" guy. Forget about the interim job in Detroit...

I know it isn't easy because the rule of if A > B and B> C then A > C doesn't necessarily work in the NFL. For example, Jacksonville beat Dallas, Dallas beat Washington -- but Washington beat Jacksonville. Still.. I don't mind Power Rankings when they are well thought out... Prisco's aren't. Let's review some things here... Redskins > Vikings. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the Vikings beat the Skins in Washington in Week 1? Vikings > Bills. Ummm, what just happened on Sunday? Yes, the Vikings were in the position to win at the end in our stadium, but the game shouldn't have been that close. Why no love for the Saints? I know they finally just lost a game, but a 3 point loss on th road against a desperate divisional opponent (who just happened to play in the NFC Championship Game a few months ago) isn't "coming back down to earth". Where's the love for the Jets? I hate them, but they did find a way to beat us in our house -- and gave both the Colts and Patriots all they could handle. Ranking them behind the Steelers, who have beaten no one besides Miami, and even us makes little sense. I wonder how you can rank Miami ahead of any team that isn't winless, including the team (Houston) that just beat them on Sunday?