Rocky Landing

I've never been a big fan of Ryan Bates, but he is a very important piece to this O-line, and he's doing a good job at center.

Boy, are we going to miss Roberts.

Just an FYI: Blue looks grey in a black & white photo.

I vote for comfortable seats with arm rests and drink holders, Genny Cream Ale on tap, and plenty of bathrooms. Clean ones. After that, I don't really care.

Why Erie county taxpayers? NYS taxes via bond funding are likely going to pay for it. Erie county will reap enormous benefits.

I've really been paying attention to the forums for all three of our divisions rivals. It's been interesting to get a bead on other fan's perceptions. And, they pay a lot of attention to the practices, so it can be informative. The Dolphins forum has been super active, and there seems to be a lot of optimism in Miami. Rightfully so, I'd say. Some of the clips of Waddle are especially impressive. That dude is going to ball. The Jets forum, as to be expected, has become a chronicle of sadness. The Patriots* forum is as obnoxious as ever. It's sort of the Breitbart comments section of fan forums. They have a 100+ page thread, that gets added to daily, celebrating the misfortunes (including injuries) of the Jets. It's interesting though, how much they project onto the Bills-- "Last season was a fluke," "McDermott is a flash in the pan," "Allen will get injured," "they'll never get a new stadium," etc. Their fear of the Bills becoming dominant is almost palpable.

According to the Patriots* fan forum, New York State, and Buffalo are broke, and there is no way a new stadium is going to be built anywhere in WNY, and the Pegula's are definitely going to move the Bills, and we will all be very sad. Also, the "jury is still out" on Josh Allen, and now that we overpaid him, he's not going to try hard anymore, and will regress, and even if he doesn't, he's going to get injured because he's a "running quarterback," and boy are we gonna regret all that guaranteed money.

Pretty damned insulting to Addison to trade him to a division opponent! Of course, it is just business, and all... but, dang... it would be cold...

I've been following the other division fan forums fairly regularly this Summer. The Jets fans are despondent over Lawson's injury. The three most talked about players on Jet Nation were Wilson, Moore (now injured), and Lawson. Dolphins fans don't seem to be talking about it at all-- but they're really not talking too much about other teams anyway. Patriots* fans are writing LOL posts about it. God, I'm glad I'm not a Pats* fan...

My neighbor put up a Patriots* flag in his front yard. I spray-painted "cheaters" across the front of their house, slashed all the tires of their cars, and killed their child's pet hamster, which the kid had named Tom. That makes me "average," right?

I worked with him once on an ESPN gig, and he was totally cool. I was wearing a Bills hat, and he messed with me a lot. Really funny, and approachable guy. I'm a fan.

I think they were waiting for the folks to tire themselves out a bit.

If Basham can be protected on the PS, that seems like the best option. Otherwise, he'll likely be inactive game days anyway. If Johnson makes the 53, he'll be active on game days.

#4: https://athlonsports.com/college-football/inspirational-football-quotes

Oh, give him time...

We saw almost nothing of Hodgins, and even less of Kumerow. Personally, going into this game, I would certainly put Stevenson ahead of Hodgins (if only for his speed), but what happened last night that put Stevenson in the lead? It's pretty hard to read too much into preseason plays made in the fourth quarter.

That's a great question. And I would say that if he didn't, he would just be a fraud. And I don't think he is. The thing of it is: I don't know that Webb sees himself as a starter in the league. If he does, he knows it won't be as a Bill. But the role he has carved out for himself is really quite remarkable. I can't think of another backup, let alone a QB, competing for a #3 position, that has contributed as much value to a team as Webb. I think he dreams of a moment where he gets to step into Josh's shoes, and continue the same sort of momentum that Josh carries. And I think that, along with his established leadership traits, makes him an ideal backup for Josh-- Assuming he has the ability to manage the Bills offense. I think his performance yesterday went a long way in establishing that.

He kinda reminded me of Lee Smith, and that's not an insult. He's not fast-- a bit lumbering. He's not going to juke any CBs. But, color commentators aren't going to refer to him as "blocking tight end Tommy Sweeney," the way they did with Lee Smith.

To my mind game balls go to Motor, and Webb. Motor: In the first series, I had to wonder if Motor wasn't playing for his job. I think it was eight carries in a row to start the game? But, he looked as good as he's ever looked to me. He was more explosive, his timing was right there, and he was slipping tackles like he did in his rookie season. And wile it's hard to measure his performance against Breida (Motor looks much better), when they were playing behind, and against different level players, McD did put Motor out there for a series later in the game with the same players Breida was in with, and Motor still looked really good. Webb: Webb, in my opinion, is going to be on this team for a long time. I mentioned a few weeks ago that you can't overstate Webb's value, even as a third string QB. During last season in TC, and the offseason, he carved out a niche for himself in practice and outside of practice to the point where more than a few people have suggested that if he couldn't be a competent backup, he should be hired on as a coaching assistant. Yesterday, he showed that he can run this offense. Yes, it was late in a preseason game against scrubs (and behind such noteworthy O-linesmen like Devey, and Hart...), but he showed proclivities that followed Josh Allen's play. He escaped right, he ran draws, and RPOs, and he threw on the run. And he clearly knows this offense, and playbook. I certainly don't think he's going to supplant Trubisky this season-- and to be fair, we learned exactly nothing about MT yesterday. But to my eyes, whether on the 53, or as is more likely, the PS, Webb looked like our #3QB, who is poised to become a solid #2 when Trubisky inevitably leaves.

And McKensie struggled in KR. So did Stevenson, but it doesn't look like he's "lost the job" as some have assumed. Well, Ford is back, anyway... We learned that Webb can run this offense. In fairness to MT, though, we learned absolutely nothing about him, other than that he can hand off to Motor just fine.

Does Breida even make this team? He looked rather pedestrian out there. And, now that I think of it, every time I saw footage of Daboll working with the RBs in TC, it was just Motor and Moss.

Can't fault Duke for that.

Davis looking Josh-esque with that run.

Since this is a running back tryout, I'm looking forward to Antonio Williams next.

Spencer Brown is throwing down some blocks.