Mickey

I would like to believe this but you have us winning 6 straight to start the season against teams that beat us 7 times just last year (twice each for Miami, NE and NYJ). I just don't see that as being realistic. The Pats are going to be better this year or at least just as good now that Brady is back. He has regularly carved us up due to our lack of a pass rush. This includes two road wins against teams that beat us 4 times last year. It is not as if we closed the season strongly showing that we were a team on the rise when the season ended. Quite the opposite. We were a team in virtual free fall when the season mercifully ended.

People get drunk and then get in fights or worse. When people get stoned, they eat a ton of pizza and then fall asleep. I think we have a few players who would be way better off choosing weed over whiskey.

Maybe someday but for now that is just wishful thinking.

Not bad, 11 posts before the Beavis and Butthead crowd couldn't contain themselves.

Now, now, hold on there. I am as pessimistic this year as anyone but Moorman isn't our only top performer now. TO and our returners, mainly McKelvin, are up there too.

The man is the human equivalent of rust.

I am glad you have found your inner center but I think we are going to need more than a new age pep rally to get out of the AFC East basement.

I agree, he is built solid as a tree stump. We try to use him on WR screens but have botched most of those though I think its a good idea. Maybe with a line that a little smaller and more agile we can pull those off better. Timing is everything on screen passes. One of my favorite plays in all of football. A well choreographed screen is a think of beauty.

I don't see why a decent safety wouldn't be able to cover him, he is neither large nor a speed burner. If he is on the filed, the defense will, at the very least, have one if not two extra DB's in. I really don't think Josh has seen much double coverage in his career and it didn't lead to him being much more than a fairly reliable if unspectacular posession receiver. I am just as excited as anyone to have TO on the roster but I think we are maybe overestimating his ability to transfrom the offense and every player on it. He will have a positive impact, no doubt but I think Josh Reed will still be what he has always been, a steady player skilled at gettting under the skin of his opponents who blocks well and unfailingly runs the right pattern. I hope he fends off the competition for another year.

I like Reed for the same reasons but if we can find a guy who can do that and be more effective elsewhere, we shouldn't hesitate to do so. So far, we haven't. Realistically, at his age, Josh's career probably doesn't have many years left. I wouldn't be surprised if Steve Johnson passes him on the depth chart this year and if that happens, we may have to finally say good bye to a very classy guy.

Ummm.....players, with few exceptions such as guys so good they can get away with anything, are rarely publicly critical of their head coach. So the fact that in public players feed us all the same cliches about Jauron we always hear is not exactly revealing. It is pretty easy to determine if a team is playing with fire and emotion. If they have to tell you they are, they aren't. If you can't see it and hear it right in front of you, if its not obvious, it is not there. Maybe its a QB so frustrated with losing he runs his mouth about an OT missing a block and everyone has a fit but the next week they go out there and destroy their opponent. Maybe a coach cans a player in midseason and the next week the team plays out of its mind because they are so afraid of what the crazy SOB will do next. There are lots of ways to get an idea of how much passion a team really has apart from what they say in a PR schooled post game wrap up. I have watched these guys play and I was a season ticket holder for 17 years and apart from a rare incident here and there, I have not seen anyone lose his cool or go over the line. Now maybe that is because this is one team that has mastered self control like no team in history or maybe its easy to stay cool if you are never hot. That doesn't mean that they should deliberately take a penalty or plan on a cheap shot. I am just saying that if they are playing with reckless abandon and wild passion we should expect a penalty now and then or a controversial hit. You have to have some control but you have to have the passion too. I think DJ is a master at getting them to play very controlled but that only gets you 7-9.

Fair enough, we just see two different things. You look at a team annually at 7-9 and see a highly motivated squad of overachievers. I see a team that has become used to mediocrity and is long overdue for a kick in the pants. Besides, its not as if I am the only one who thinks Jauron is and should be concerned about his job or the only one wondering if maybe the most liked guy in the lockeroom is not what this team needs at Head Coach.

Yep, that was the problem, we just need to tweak a few x's and o's. Same thing the year before and the year before and the year before..... One of these days we will stumble on the right tweak and win a few of those "winnable" games. We talk about the technical side often enough around here, its usually my favorite subject but there is more to football than that and in my opinion, this team doesn't have enough players whose heart and soul hangs on the outcome of every play. Jauron isn't bad on the technical end, a bit conservative for sure but he isn't incompetent. But he is about as inspirational as wet paper and demonstrates all the urgency of a cashier at a DMV. I think that makes a difference on the field and on the scoreboard. Sure we have talent problems and sure we have some pretty questionable game plans but in addition, we lack the passion I think the game requires of winners.

They eked out 7 wins based on an easy schedule and special teams. Passion is not something they have.

Okay, so you admit emotional inspiration is a legitimate factor. Have you never seen a team get motivated by someone yelling at them? If not, you must not have seen a single football coach besides Dick Jauron do his job. Never seen a coach take a T? Its pretty basic, this team is flat, slouching towards mediocrity and has been for years now. It would be nice if someone showed they cared, that they cared a lot. Not sure why you find that so radically off base but maybe you grew up in the Tee Ball generation and never learned to care about winning. You almost have to be to be a Bills fan these days.

So why is advocating more of that such a problem with you "Big kitty"?

Sure beats DJ's chin stroking. Why does playing with some emotion and fire, some passion, seem so offensive to you?

Yeah because a coach stomping up and down and barking at his guys or taking a technical or a team captain kicking some a$$ has never motivated a team. I assume you don't cheer when you go to a game because it doesn't make a difference and, goodness, might be similar to pro wrestling fans cheering their heroes and villains.

Yeah it does matter. Most of coaching is motivation. Ever actually play a sport? Ever watch an outmanned, outgunned team ride an emotional high right to an upset win? I have. Ever wonder why teams seem to play better on the road? Why would that universal truism be? Because having 70k+ fans going nuts tends to emotionally motivate a team which enhances their performance. When you go to a game, do you sit there silently or do your share of cheering/screaming, etc?

Well then you will get most of what you want, not the wins of course but you won't have to worry about them ever getting angry over a loss. You see, you actually have to give a damn to lose your temper. Apathetic players simply cashing their checks won't lose their temper, not even in the immediate aftermath of a heart breaking loss. All that focus will be great come Tuesday morning but if you can lose a big game one minute and sip tea with the queen the next, then you just don't care. Of course I want them to win dipstick. But if they lose with such aplomb, such grace, such indifference, then they aren't going to win much. In the glory years, when they lost, you didn't want to be in that lockeroom. These guys, losing is just how they roll now isn't it? No need for anyone to get upset and offend your sensibilities. Heaven fofend that we appear to be immature. You must really enjoy 7-9 and watching them get their a$$e$ handed to them by the Patriots every year. One question, have you never seen a guy go over the line, even draw a flag, a foul, a technical, whatever, and have it motivate a team that appeared to be sleepwalking? Exactly and that's all I'm saying.

You should really become a tennis fan. Football is just way too brutal for you. In football, there is the team that wins and the team that bleats about how mean and bad and immoral the winners are. How they coudla, woulda, shoulda. The point isn't to hurt someone, the point is to actually give a damn, to care enough to play with passion. That is something this team lacks. Ever see a coach take a techinical and see his team rally afterwards? Same thing. If you are really passionate, you are going to cross the line once in awhile. Oh, and while we are talking about cheap shots bringing up KE certainly would qualify. KE was hurt on a perfectly legit play so I am not sure why you would bring that up other than a reach for something to bolster a weak opinion. There is a reason why guys like Dick Butkus, Jack Lambert and Mike Stratton were great players and it wasn't because they never, ever, ever broke the rules or hurt anyone. They played hard, they played mean and because they did, once in awhile they went over the line.

A master at stating the obvious. They will be worth watching, win or lose, when they start giving a damn. None of us know if they are going to win the division yet and we won't until 12 weeks or so in to the sesason but I have to decide whether or not to watch them or follow them as closely as usual way before then.

Cheap shots aren't really the point. Although Conrad Dobler cheated like a madman, Ferguson was the least sacked QB in the NFL while he was around. The thing is, if you don't give a damn, you are never even close to the line let alone straying over it now and then. So a personal foul now and then, like taking a technical in college basketball, can be a positive thing. It shows you have your all invested in the outcome and perceived injustice towards a teamate can be a great motivator. I'd rather we kick a few guys in the nuts, FIRST so no one even attempts Wilfork type shots against our guys rather than waiting until our QB is on a stretcher and out for 6 weeks before we decide to throw a punch. Keep the barn door shut rather than chase that horse down after he is already on the loose. Besides, it is the guy who retaliates that gets caught.

Apart from all the x's and o's and how we do on the filed and on the scoreboard, what I am looking for is a sign that this team has changed. When they lose a game, I want to see some locker room rage, helmets bashing in to walls, angry men yelling at eachother, etc. I want nasty, bitter post game press conferences after a loss, not all this gracious loser, corporate PR stuff about how "we need to play better" and "we need to work harder" I want to see Jauron curse out an official. I want to see some personal fouls, maybe even an ejection or two. Some cheap shots, some fines, some sign that this team has some fire. We have been the Boy Scouts of the NFL for too long. I want a sign from this team that they hate losing, deep in their guts flat out hate, hate, hate, hate losing. I hope TO gets in peoples faces from the start, including the coaches.

"power house" really??? How so? I am hopeful we will improve but "power house"? I don't think so. We are moving a career RT to LT. We are moving G to RT. We could be starting two rookies at LG and RG and we are starting a third tier FA at center which, as medicore as he might be, will be an improvement over Fowler and Preston. Hence my hope that we might go from "really crappy" to "not so bad". Trent has a lot to prove and for that matter, so does Shonert. Neither has performed well enough to expect to hold on to their jobs much longer without significant improvement. Their mutual lack of experience is no longer an excuse for either of them. TO is only one player. A very good one to be sure but still only one.