Mickey

I think you should definitely withdraw all your support for the Bills, even, dare I say it, if it means ending your participation at this site. You have my complete, unqualified support in that endeavor. Show us the way sparky!

Yeah, the Alonso, Goodwin and Woods picks were horrific, not to mention the UDFA contract they wasted on Robey or the FA's they signed like Lawson and Hughes. What a nightmare of an offseason they had. I wouldn't blame you if you decided to root for a different team. I don't think anyone around here would blame you after what you have been through. Go with our blessing. We need a guard. Desperately. No point in having two great RB's if they are going to get whacked just as they get the ball because a guard whiffed on an interior lineman. CJ and Fred have been hobbled all season because they are taking a beating due to the weaknesses on our line. Legursky needs to be replaced and we could use an upgrade on both Pears and Urbik or, at the very least, some depth. God help us if Cordy goes down.

Yeah, we would never do that.

My driveway is sloped enough that a straight-handled pusher works best, I let gravity do as much of the work as possible. I also prefer a plastic blade because wet snow doesn't freeze to it as it would with a metal blade. I keep one steel bladed shovel for when its too deep to push or when I need to chip ice. I think the next great invention should be a snow plow that doesn't deposit a lode of immovable snow boulders at the bottom of everyone's driveway. Never should have sold the Jeep.

Syracuse is Bills and Giants territory, with the Bills having a pretty large advantage over the Giants. Syracuse folks are upstate people, not downstate. We are more than a little cynical but its really a very balanced place from politics to food to whatever. Just like Buffalo, you can go to a party and get into a lively discussion over your preferred model of snow shovel. I don't think downstate Giants fans talk much about snow removal equipment. I think that if they ever built a Stadium on the Rochester side of the thruway, they could cut our trip down to 90 minutes or so from Syracuse and really pick up a lot more season ticket holders. We had season's for about 10 years but finally gave them up when the drive was just too much for my aging Dad. Put it on the amtrack route, perhaps on the grounds of one of the old quarries (a new Rockpile!) in Batavia and it would be the same drive for the folks in Buffalo, just east instead of south and it would be a very reasonable drive from Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. Taking the train directly to the game would be an awesome way to spend a Sunday in the fall and could extend the fan base to Albany.

Upon what do you base your opinion prediction that Woods "can already do what Stevie does and can be everything Stevie can be with better hands"??? Has Woods shown the ability to regularly beat the best CB's in the game or are you just dreaming that someday he will based on something off of a Ouija board?

Who hired Pettine?

Yeah, 'cause Tuel didn't know he was underthrowing guys. The whole stadium knew it, the WR's knew it, the announcers knew it but not Tuel. Makes total sense. I bet Hacket forgot to tell him "don't throw a 101 yard pick six when Stevie is uncovered in the end zone". So QB's never fumble when running the ball? Couldn't someone just as easily say, "Throw the ball, the worst thing that happens is the QB throws the ball away if no one is open and you kick the FG." An undrafted, rookie QB screwed up, we don't have to search and search for scapegoats. The was likely 4th on the depth chart before injuries to Kolb, EJ and Lewis. Today we saw why.

Yeah, that pick six and fumble for another six was totally Hackett's fault...good call.

Go max pass-pro and send the speedsters deep and see how far Tuel can throw it. One nice thing about all those bodies up front is that if the RB gets past the first wave, there is no one left. It will be an ugly, ugly day but we may pull off a stunner. What do we have to lose?

Who is Leodis covering? Stills was on his side, he went in motion to the other side and McKelvin didn't follow him and there was no one there to cover him but Hughes. From what I could see, it didn't look like Leodis was covering anyone. Maybe it was designed for Leodis to follow his guy to the other side when he went in motion so that he covered more than empty air on that play? I know the popular thing is to blame Byrd for every bad thing that happens under the sun but still....who was Leodis covering???

Can we all at least agree not to have any more posts or threads about trading Byrd until the end of the season if the trade deadline passes and he is still a Bill? For the love of God, could we at least accomplish that one thing?

I just watched nfl rewind of the play, you are right though I would say it was even less than two inches, I don't see how Goodwin could have even caught it without standing out of bounds.

Ummm.....what is the percent of all run plays that result in fumbles? The vast majority of plays have results that don't involve touchdowns or turnovers. This was a situation where there wasn't enough time to do anything but score or fumble. The poster who started the thread's entire point was that since it was the last play of the half, he didn't think there was any downside to attempting a return.

Okay, out of just over 600 kickoff returns, there have been 16 of them fumbled this year and only 3 returned for touchdowns. That means that a return attempt at the end of the half had just under a 3% chance (.0266) of resulting in a fumble and less than a 1% chance (.005) of resulting in a touchdown. It was over 5 times more likely that you would fumble the ball than score a touchdown. I believe these are fumbles lost and do not include fumbles recovered by the return team. It seems to me then that Marrone's decision not attempt a return was based on sound judgment.

To decide this, I would have to know the percentage of scoring touchdowns on kickoffs versus fumbling them given that these seem to me to be the only two potential outcomes that matter given the time situation.

Oh you and your silly "facts"! We want none of that here.

Brando....we hardly knew ye

I think it ought to be changed. I heard a Native American leader explain it this way: If you came to my house to visit and I introduced you to my grandchildren, would you say "oh, what a bunch of cute little redskins"? I get that most people don't mean to use it in a derogatory manner but I don't think you can get around the fact that its a problematic nickname. Besides, I think its a great marketing opportunity for a franchise that could use a make-over. I think the "Washington Special Prosecutors" has a nice ring to it or maybe the "Lobbyists". Beltway Bandits? The Washington Monuments? The Washington IRS Auditors (talk about an intimidating nickname!).

Exactly. People are always looking for a "turning point" a moment in time where suddenly everything changes. It works that way in the movies but in real life its a slog, two steps forward, one step back.

I watched the first half all-22 last night before I turned in and Legursky was awful, especially in pass pro. Reading the Buscaglia's article this morning after his review of the all-22, he commented that Legursky was only slightly better than Brown. He doesn't have the heft to handle a bull rush and he has a serious case of the slows when he has to block in space which, playing the center of the line, he thankfully doesn't have to do very often. The key way every QB in the NFL buys himself another second or two to find an receiver is to step up in the pocket as the tackles steer the DE's wide and deep. Eventually the DE's get around the tackles and work back up field to get the QB but never get there, usually because the QB steps up in the pocket creating even more distance for the DE's to make up to get to him. Neither Thad nor EJ has had that option because the pocket is getting pushed back by whoever Brown/Legursky is blocking. That also makes it more difficult for them to use their feet to pick up a first down. Left Guard is and has been a disaster for us all year. Legursky is better than Brown when it comes to running the ball but in pass pro, he is just as bad. Frankly, G gets my vote for early consideration in the draft. With the weapons we have on offense now, I hate to see us hampered by not being able to find a less than terrible Guard.

I'm not the one giving Thad credit for the win when he played like crap, and that was the question, "how many wins" does Thad need to be the starter. Oh, and no, not everything I said could be said about EJ in a couple games. For example, before he got hurt, EJ threw a TD pass in every game he played and had a higher QB rating than Thad did in this game in three of his four complete games. His only sub-70 rating game was Baltimore, a game we won. And EJ did that with Brown at LG, who was consistently wihffing on his pass blocks so badly he was demoted from starter to the unemployment line. If you sincerely think Thad is a better QB than EJ, just let me know because I have been down this "buffalo fans always root for the underpaid underdog" street before. Its how you get to Chris Kelsay Blvd and Fitzpatrick Sq.

After we fire Marrone, maybe we could package him with Byrd for a pair of 5th round picks from the Eagles or maybe some magic beans? Sheeesh...if you don't think Gilmore is all that, maybe read a decent analysis of his play last year from someone whose appreciation for a CB is more involved than counting how many pick-sixes he has. "Stephon Gilmore: An Elite Corner Lost in the Failings of the Buffalo Bills"

He threw a pick, took a bunch of sacks, fumbled the ball twice (recovered both fortunately), had no TD passes, missed open receivers all day (some badly) and finished the game with 70 QB rating. We won despite the shortcomings at QB because the defense made huge, massive plays like a pick six, an end zone pick and a strip-sack for the winning points. Lets hold off on the Thad Lewis bandwagon for just a bit longer.

Ummm.... it was 2nd and 8 from the 50 when the sack-strip happened. The sack itself wasn't a fluke, even if there had been no fumble, it would have been 3rd and 14 from their own 44. How on earth do you see that as a situation where the Dolphins "had the game in the bag"?!?