Peter

The Rolling Stones

There is absolutely no way that I could ever bet against the Bills. No way. For some reason, I have a feeling that we actually are going to win on Sunday.

Gore was absolutely horrible in the debates.

Betty Blue La Femme Nikita The Year of Living Dangerously Scrooge (with Albert Finney) The Stuntman . . . to name a few.

What can I say?!?

I love that area. I have a lot of friends over there. Of course, when I was a single guy, Tampa was a great place to go to for one of its more famous establishments. I will let you guess which one. I am sure that you will have no problem.

Where are you located?

We have been very very lucky here in Miami. This season has been horrible. My wife told me that I have to save our money, because we definitely are getting hurricane shutters. We already got a couple of quotes. I lived through Hurricane Andrew. Believe me, I never want to go through that again. I feel really bad for the people North of here that have had to go through these storms. Thanks for asking. I appreciate it.

Do you know who the acting offensive line coach is the the Giants? A hint: he was on last year's Bills' staff.

Bush & Allawi

Very good point.

Sometime in the past year, someone posted a link to a great website that had wide ranging stats including very specific stats regarding offensive linemen. Do any of you know which site that is? Thanks.

For Mark VI and others to say that our line and pass protection is not the root of our problems on offense just ignores reality. For example, our rushing average is 2.7 yards per carry. What does that say about the quality of our line? I am sure that some of you will try to blame that on DB as well. Somebody was trying to compare DB's protection to Donovan McNabb's. What is the quality of McNabb's line? Well, for one thing, Philly's rushing game averages 4.7 yards per carry. That is two yards more per carry. Somebody also brought up Kurt Warner and Steve McNair. The Giants and Titans average 4.2 and 4.9 yards per carry respectively. What does that say about the quality of their lines compared to our line? It is way too easy to blame one guy. Typically, people who have not played the game or know very little about it make this mistake.

Therein lies the problem.

That is a very good point.

Yep. You are absolutely correct.

Stop with the "fuzzy math." I used the clock on the screen. By the way, two and three are between one and four. My two year old already has learned this.

As I posted earlier in the week, I watched my recording of the Bills-Raiders game again to determine what really happened on the sacks etc. I know that a lot of you (especially agitators in the media) love to blame everything on DB without bothering to look at what actually happened. When judging what happened, keep in mind that the goal is to allow the QB at least four seconds. MM emphasized this in training camp. Four Second Clock Anyway, here are the results: First Sack - 10:10 in the First Quarter The first sack took place on the Bills' first drive on a first and ten play at the Bills 28. From the snap of the ball until the time the play was blown up, DB had approximately two seconds. Grant was completely unblocked. Shelton ran right by him instead of picking up the blitzing LB. Shelton was completely oblivious to Grant. Second Sack - 6:27 left in the First Quarter The second sack took place on the Bills' first drive as well. It was second and fifteen. DB again had approximately two seconds until the play blew up. For those of you who still believe that TH is an adequate pass blocker, you really need to take a look at this play. It shows that he really has not improved since his rookie year. Obviously, not every back is going to be as good as Thurman in pass protection, but this play was ridiculous. TH completely whiffed on Brayton. He put his head down and made what appeared to be a careless attempt to block. I still cannot get over this play. As hard a runner as TH is, that is how bad he is in pass protection. One would think that he would be able to adequately block. I do not know if this is coaching, lack of discipline/desire, or what. Third Sack - 10:16 Left in the Second Quarter The third sack took place on the Bills' third drive. It was third and two. It was a roll out to the right (from the offense's perspective. DB had approximately three seconds before the play was blown up. Shelton again was responsible. He was beaten by Clark. Interception While I was at it, I also looked at the interception again. It took place on the second play of the Bills' fifth drive. TH played volleyball with the pass, deflected it in the air, and it was intercepted by Buchanan. Fourth Sack - 6:47 left in the Third Quarter The fourth sack took place during the Bills' sixth drive. It was third and ten out of the shotgun. DB had approximately two seconds before the play blew up. Mike Williams was beaten by Grant. Grant made Williams think that he was going outside and then cut inside. Williams lost his balance and looked bad doing it. Was It a Touchdown? While I was at it, I also looked at the fourth and goal play several times. It was very difficult to definitively determine whether we scored on the play with the television angles that CBS had. My best guess is that we did not score. A couple of interesting things happened on the play. First, as most of you know because the commentators mentioned it, TH appeared to trip a little bit over Nehuis' foot. Second, the line hardly got any push whatsoever. Guess who did a good job of clogging up the middle for the Raiders? Yes, you guessed it, the guy who used to do the same thing for us. Finally, something that I did not originally notice when I initially watched the game - TH got turned around such that he had his back to the goal line and was looking up into the air. He tried to extend the ball with his right hand so that the ball would cross the goal line. It was very difficult to tell whether he was able to do so at all and whether he was able to do so before his momentum was stopped. Again, the right side of the line did not do him any favors. Sixth Sack - 7:27 Left in the Fourth Quarter The sack took place during the Bills' eighth drive. It was third and twenty-three (not a favorable down and distance). DB had just over two seconds. There appeared to be miscommunication between Mike Williams and Ross Tucker. Williams left an inside man (presumably thinking that Tucker would block him) when Tucker shifted to block another inside rusher. Of course, the man who went unblocked (Brayton) participated in the sack. (From what I could see, Williams and not Tucker was the one who made the mental error). The other thing that happened was that there was a blitz by the defensive back (Asomugha) who was lined up opposite our left slot receiver (I could not see who it was). Asomugha also participated in the sack from the opposite side as Brayton. Our slot receiver did NOT break off his pattern as WRs typically are coached to do. Seventh Sack - 2:17 Left in the Fourth Quarter The sack took place during the Bills' last drive. It was second and ten. The Bills lined up with four WRs. The Raiders rushed seven players including both defensive backs that were covering our slot receivers. DB had ONE second before the play blew up. Moreover, it did not look like either slot receiver broke off his pattern when he should have seen that his guy was blitzing. Anyway, that is my take on what happened. I hope that it was helpful. I wish guys like Jerry Sullivan and people of like mind would bother to break down the game before trashing guys.

I read in Saturday's paper that the legal document that the campaigns negotiated and recently signed for the debates stipulates that the networks are not allowed to show reaction shots -- shots of a candidate reacting to what the other is saying. In other words, they must only shoot the person who is talking. Odd. It always is fun to watch the other guy fumbling around, grimacing, etc. I especially loved it when Mondale was seen laughing (with everyone else) when Reagan said that he was not going to make age an issue -- Mondale's youth and inexperience.

I totally agree. I went to a show on their last tour and reminded me of the good old days. It was fantastic. I cannot wait for the new CD.

It did. We picked Kelly in the first round the same year that we picked Tony Hunter. We picked Hunter with the 12th pick and Kelly with the 14th.

Cousineau did not sign with us when we drafted him. The big jerk went to play for the Montreal Alouetes. We ended up trading our rights to him to the Browns (after his contract ran out or the Aloutes went bankrupt. I forget which.)

I try my best.

I watched a bit of last week's game after seeing some posts asking who is to blame or blaming a particular player or players. Based on what I saw with the first two sacks (and the McGahee 10 yard loss), some of you guys are way off the mark when you do not place (dis)credit where (dis)credit is due. This weekend, I am going to try to watch each of the 7 sacks this past week to find out what happened. I will let you know my results. P.S. The guy who was responsible for the interception also was responsible for one of the first two sacks. I will give you a hint. His name is not Drew Bledsoe.

Cousineau ended up being great for us. We traded him for the pick that we used to draft Jim Kelly. Also, we used the pick that we got from SF when we traded O.J. Simpson to pick Cousineau. In a way, trading Simpson got us Kelly.