Coastie

Marv's teams were by no means perfect and there are certainly instances where they made dumb mistakes but I remember those being the exception rather than the rule though 2 decades can blur memories. In the admittedly very small sample we have of Rex's Bills, dumb mistakes seem to be the rule, not the exception.

Leadership has a large hand in determining the "corporate culture" of an organization. Rex Ryan has a very foot-loose and freewheeling leadership style that is not conducive to developing self control or mental discipline, at least in my opinion. That said, Hughes and Williams are grown men and the fact their leadership is undisciplined does not mean they have to be, it just means it is easier for them for to be.

I agree, Rex has always seemed kind of petulant to me and I think he will put a large chunk of the blame for the loss on Carpenter (and not entirely unfairly) and I expect there to be some free agent kickers in camp this week. Wish I knew what changed from last year, he was money.

Haven't seen anyone mention it but the play that left me with my jaw hanging open was when the Bills got a lucky break on the kickoff and the ball did not bounce into the end zone. It took a perfect backwards bounce and for a second was just laying there at the two yard line and somehow the Bill's coverage team allow it to be scooped up and returned to the 30. I was flabbergasted.

Dang, the NFL won't let me start using their playoff scenario tracker until week 11! Welcome to the ESPN.com NFL Playoff Machine Start making your 2015 playoff predictions after Week 11 of the NFL season (Rest assured I bookmarked it )

I got 99 problems and the Bills are one.

If we win this week, I think you are right about a possible let down. How the team comes out against Miami will be very telling. If they come out and try to crush Miami from the first snap, oh baby I will take back much of what I have said about Rex Ryan. If they come out flat then I can only hope they take it as a learning lesson. If they lose to the Pats, especially if it is a close loss, I think Miami bears the wrath.

My thoughts as well, the gain on returns is less than the loss on offense were he to get hurt in my opinion. Now there may be a point where we have to go all in and risk the injury but I don't think we are there by any means.

I always found a reason to hope but if I truly look at it objectively then it has been awhile since I honestly believed.

Every season since 1973, I start with hope, I start with dreams of the Bills winning a Super Bowl but if the Bills start 2-0 this season I think for the first time in 10 years I will actually BELIEVE we can make it to the Super Bowl. Not saying we will, not even saying it is probable but I am saying for the first time in recent memory I will able to look at my team honestly and say we can win it all. I know two games is not a lot but what will push me over the edge into belief is we played five games against teams with ten wins or more last year and won three of them. So I am like Fox Mulder I guess, I want to believe and if we can pull off the win this week, I will.

I watched the football life about Flutie last week and I caught myself thinking... what could he have done with the team we have this year? Would it have been his chance to actually prove what he had in the tank? Sorry Doug, you were here 15 years too soon.

Too many people are viewing this as a zero sum equation. It is not. It is possible that both the Bills and the Seahawks are doing the right thing here as both teams improve their positions.

Now that is a bit much, I lived in Renton for 5 years and I watched them live whenever I could. Only game I went to in person was the Romo fumbled snap playoff game and I couldn't have scripted a more enjoyable finish to a Cowboys game.

Oh no, there goes my tailback again.

Not all firsts are equal. Without Benjamin, Panthers pick next year could easily be a top 10 while without Nelson the Packers pick next year would still be near the end of the first round, just to mention a couple of the teams discussed here. All that said, I doubt we could get a first unless someone has a van full of receivers run off a cliff.

Listened to the talking heads on TV but so far no one I saw mentioned if the penalty is on the offense. Line up to go for two, false start, are you committed to go for two from seven out or can you then line up for a 38 yard PAT kick? I would think you would be able to decide where you want those five yards added but have not heard anyone say so clearly.

I think part of this is because when your pass defense is bad enough everyone gameplans against it, your run defense is not challenged. You saw the Bills had very effective passing offense against the Jets this year, in fact our best two passing days I believe. Hope springs eternal for this Bills fan but Ryan would not have been my choice.

Perfect point and let me validate it a bit, on Richard Sherman's famous pass breakup, he was beaten and a better passer (not quarterback, passer) drops that ball "in the trash can" for a touchdown. Without a doubt Sherman's athleticism and ability to close is the reason he was able to recover but the truth is he was beaten. There is no doubt that one play has changed his career. One play where the QB doesn't get enough air under the ball changed his LIFE.

I thought about them and decided to make it a push in my mind, driven by my fear of anointing Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods so early in their career. I do think the Bills receivers have the higher ceiling.

Is this the book you are talking about The Frankish Reich? If so I may have to order a copy, it sounds interesting. Fooled by Randomness : The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2001, Hardcover)

Don't post here much but I do read quite a lot and felt this would be a good place to ramble a bit. Three weeks ago the Bengals were widely being hailed as the most balanced team in the NFL, one of the five best. And then A.J. Green hurt his toe. HIS TOE. And three weeks later Dalton has become very pedestrian. Bernard is finding an extra defender in his previously open running lanes. The defense is spending more time on the field defending worse field position. And as best as I can tell, because a WR hurt his toe. The Buffalo Bills have a better record than the Seattle Seahawks. Unit by unit I would only give the advantage to the Bill's defensive line and the place kicker (if you want to count him as a unit). Other than that, they best or equal us in every area. And the Bills have a better record. And it is this capriciousness that flummoxes me. A yellow flag thrown or picked up. A field goal missed or one made from 58 yards. A fourth down pass that shouldn't be caught but is and a ball dropped that should be caught. A fake punt executed perfectly. And suddenly the world champs are a half game worse than the Bills? I guess it is this that ensures I am filled with hope every preseason, that keeps me planted in front of the TV every Sunday. And I know I will be praying to the Gods of capriciousness to keep letting a break or two fall the Bills way and maybe, just maybe, if they are feeling real generous kinda throw a few wrinkles into the carpet in front of the Patriots. Because if what many thought was the best team in the AFC can be derailed by a toe, there is surely hope out there for us Bills fans.

Oh nothing sinister, she just made very large, very strong drinks at EM Club prices and enjoyed watching the sailors get trashed. Our way to cut down on the cost of getting drunk on a Coastie's pay in a tourist town was to "Go see Satan" before we hit the bars on Duval Street. 15 minutes and 10 bucks later we were ready to go.

I had just reported aboard the CGC Mohawk stationed in Key West, FL. The crew was mostly gone on leave so I ended up at an beachside Enlisted Man's club on the Navy base as the only one there in Bills blue. Be assured I took a lot of flack in the first half but I never considered leaving. I did chose to dull the pain by partaking of too many oversized 90 cent kamikazes from a bartender I would later affectionately dub "Satan." So I am a bit fuzzy about the comeback itself, only a few moments crystal clear. Instead I have a clear memory of an emotional ride such that my enthusiasm won over the squids around me and they began pulling for the Bills to finish the miracle and by the time they had I was voiceless. Of all the strange places I have watched playoff games (Cuba, Kuwait, Coast Rica, the Bering Sea and other numerous times at sea) that is easily my favorite memory.

I despise the self-aggrandizement and insulting trash task but I have accepted it has become much more prevalent in "them young whippersnappers." Of course there were mouthy players in every generation but it is so much more common and even condoned now. As much as I despise it, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it so I have just learned to turn away so to speak when these bozos get their moment and wait for it to end.

The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact I agree with you in general as I believe the former is a direct result of the latter.