TC in St. Louis

Helmet to helmet should have given us first and goal. the interference call against aaron williams? I think they should show that play to high school db's as the best way to defend a pass. it was perfect. The refs sucked, and yet we won. But to pick up the flag on an offensive holding call? unprecedented. well, i've been watching football for over 40 years and I've never seen that.

We watched from Lesters, the Bills Backers locale in St. Louis. So we couldn't hear what the call was. The flag hit Kyle in the face, and there was a hold. They picked up the flag. Why? That had a pretty big impact on that drive. However, the Bills won, and this is the best way for me to celebrate my 60th birthday.

The fact that it took an entire week for this to become a story speaks to the perceived irrelevance of this team. This argument was reported last Friday on this page. If such a thing happened in Dallas it would have been front page NFL news in about 30 seconds.

I think Bills fans are loyal no matter what happens. Yesterday somebody did a survey on transplanted fans, and when I looked there was not one single person who changed allegiances. Once a Bills fan, always a Bills fan. I'm just saying that our being irrelevant to the media makes their opinions irrelevant as well.

We're like Flounder and Pinto at the beginning of Animal House.....we get shuffled into the corner with Jugdish the other guys, because we just don't matter. People hear "The Bills" and the next thing they think, if anything at all, is "loser" or "they suck." They don't even have to think about it. They don't know what we know. It takes energy to know all about football. There are 32 teams, and even the most ardent fan doesn't give a tinker's damn about the Bills. We're so far down the list, we're actually below the Mendoza line. Nobody cares to take the time to observe anything about our team. Remember the year we started 4-0? Suddenly we were important. Then Adrian Wilson put Trent Edwards into another dimension, and the season was over. We haven't really been heard from since then. Although the year we signed Mario and brought in Wanny, we became a popular pre-season pick to make the playoffs. When we sucked that year, I think the media turned their backs on us once and for all. It will take a blistering start to get the focus back on this team. We have tons of talent. We're easy picking for the pundits right now. Wait a few weeks and see what happens. We will be relevant.

We picked up more than one receiver in the offseason. We had a great draft, picked up Brandon Spikes, Graham, a starting linebacker, and seem to be pretty healthy. EJ has neither earned nor received any positive reviews from anybody. But he might just work out. The defense is stout. If we only win 4 or 5 games, I will eat my hat.

I've been a Bills fan for as long as I remember. Followed them pretty much every day. I have lived in Columbia SC, Wisconsin, Illinois, and St. Louis. Never stopped being a fan. Just like you guys. It will never leave me. Can't shake it. Don't want to. However, I have become a fan of the St. Louis Blues. I still like the Sabres. Used to love them. But I think hockey is a different sport. It's so emotional that you either embrace what's close or it's hard to maintain the love. I still root for them, and watch them when they're on TV, and pay attention to what they're doing. But I have switched to the Blues. Just being honest. I will never love any sports team the way I love the Buffalo Bills. It's a disease that I am proud to have.

I am less optimistic than usual about this year. I think it's a combination of EJ and Doug Marrone, and not seeing it as the right mix to win. I hope I'm wrong. But these people seeing us winning 4 or 5 are out of their friggin' minds. Our defense is stout, and we've got a lot of great players. Can't wait till Sunday.

Just read somewhere that EJ Manuel was the most disappointing player in the NFL this preseason. Lefty Esaison doesn't think EJ can cut it. People are trashing him right and left. Tired of it. It will be nice to see him play with a game plan and in a real football game. He did not look very good in preseason, but compared to the effort we saw from our backups and especially Palmer, he looked much more prepared. I am hoping that they come out like gangbusters this weekend. Opening day is my 60th birthday. I would like to be happy all day that day. I am emotionally prepared for another disappointment, though. It's sad to be accustomed to that, but it's part of being a Bills fan. Dealing with disappointment is a way of life. Optimistic, but realistic. This could be a breakout season, or it could be one of those where people fall down on routes, fumble in overtime, drop passes in the end zone, throw 101 yard picks from the opponent's 1 yard line, blow 11 point leads in the last two minutes on MNF. Back to EJ. Tell the media to kiss your ass, EJ and have a great season.

Is Landon Cohen eligible for the practice squad? He's been around for years, and I don't know the rules. He would be a great guy to have around in case of injury. Plus he wrote "Hallelujah."

Absurd at first glance. But he did all his work against second and third team linemen. I would have thought he made the team.

One of the worst games I've ever watched. I realized that he brought in Palmer to take snaps while the other quarterbacks took the night off. They looked like crap. But, anybody hurt? Nope. Well, Sammy. But he'll be there in Chicago. They'll have that guy running all over the place.

It's weird. A little hypnotic. He went on for a couple minutes yesterday on one answer, and by the time he was done I had forgotten the question. I hope he's on top of it. Because if he's just making things up because he doesn't have a good answer he reminds me of my 12 year old son.

I'm not sure if he's just not capable of answering questions or he does not want to give out any information. When asked about the benefit of the new QB coming from Chicago, he acted as if it never occurred to him that might be of benefit. He dodges questions, looks sincere, then looks upset, then bewildered. Either he's brilliant, or he's a dope. Which is it? I'm not a fan of the Offensive Coordinator. With all these weapons you might expect to see a few big plays once in a while. Granted, it is preseason, but we're not seeing much outta these guys. Ask Doug about it and he will blame it on the execution and not the players.

Sorry. Missed that one.

I wonder how many times he voted in that poll this morning. Torrell Troup will constantly remind me of how sometimes we draft the wrong guy. Gronkowski was sitting there waiting to become a Buffalo Bill when somebody thought, "hey, this guy nobody has heard of, bet he'll be great!! The next Leif Larsen!!"

I wonder if they asked the players who actually play in Buffalo.

Man, it's rough here in St. Louis with Bradford. He was looking good. First guy I thought of was Kirk Cousins. It would be a way for the Rams to further abuse the Redskins.

I guess Twitter has given the players the chance to say what they would have said any old time. Nobody likes being booed off the field. The Bills fans are awesome. Even when the team sucks, the people show up and are loud as hell. In regular season. It's been 14 years. We have been great fans through a lot of misery.

We drafted Seantrel Henderson in the 7th, who will be our starting RT and may be an anchor for years. I think they will work with Cyrus till he's ready to dominate like he did in college. He is hardly a bust. He'll be fine. I'm happy with the draft.

It was just a bad game. Everything went wrong. The refs went nuts with the flags. On CJ Spiller's run for 9, suddenly it's 2nd and 10. then 2nd and 30. then 2nd and 40. wtf. the call on Eric Wood was messed up. The first couple preseason games we didn't get so many flags. Blah blah blah. Move on.org.

This team was good enough to be 8-8 last year. Maybe even 9-7. The problem is, they have not figured out how to put teams away. When they get that right, they will stun the league. It starts this year.

He's got other things to worry about. Like where to hide Cyrus K. Maybe at a guard position? He's huge, but can't seem to block anybody rushing the passer.

Our backups played poorly last night, but I think there were reasons. There was no game planning against the Steelers. The Steelers were running a lot more stunts and blitzes than is the norm during preseason. Cyrus was a turnstile. The pass rush got to all the QB's last night. I'm not worried about the backups. They played like crap, but there were reasons.

He's going to be fine. Give the coaches time to fix him.