Buftex

The cult is getting desperate. Early voting is up 248% from the 13 day out mark of 2016.

This is not a slam on McDermott (I like our coach, and in no way want him fired), but I was just watching "Inside the NFL". The panel was going around making their "what we learned" observations from this past week of football...they get to Ray Lewis. He says (para-pharasing): "The Buffalo Bills! Everyone saying they are one of the great teams in the AFC. I watcehd their last two games...they have peices, but winning takes a culture. They don't have that culture." I don't really value Ray's opinion too much (though I'd let him suit up at LB in a Bills uniform right now), but I just thought it was striking that he struck right at the core of the thing that McDermotts' reputaiton is supposed to be built on, as the team's overriding problem.

Well, they "almost" beat the Chiefs last night!

Everyone relax a little.

That may (or may not) be true, but he still has a perspective on the position that few others would have. Just watch with the sound off. It will save you the grief.

Frustrating game, no doubt.

I think sometimes people lose perspective that a QB with a 56% completion percentage in the late- 60's to mid-90's was pretty common. Guys like Aikman and Montana stood out, because they were always so much more accurate. Now, anything less than 62-65% is considered mediocre. Just another way the game has changed.

And I have yet to see the Bills chock.

Not that it matters much, but what stories? Not doubting you, I just don't recall every hearing anything negative about him off the field. Personally, for a 1st round, "franchise" QB, I never felt the Bills ever offered him any real fair chance to succeed. I concede, he may not have anyways, but he only started 17 games in 4 years with the Bills. He wasn't Jarmarcus Russell bad...but even Russell got 25 starts in two years with the Raiders. I think, with a different coach, he may have had a chance to be an adequate type place-holder QB, not unlie Orton and Taylor. He actually had some good moments in his rookie season...Marrone and company may not have been the best guys to be developing a raw QB prosepect.

I know what you are saying...but I would hope (if I was a Jets fan) that Gace doesn't last long enought to ruin Trevor Lawrence too. Personally, I am thinking Darnold can't wait to get away from the Jets. I think he still has a chance to be a decent NFL QB. The Jets and Dolphins are both going to have a ton of premium level picks the next few years. We gotta hope that their respective GM's botch their picks as much as they have in the past.

Chances are, Milano is gone. He is really good...but he is injured far too often to get a big contract from the Bills.

I loved the first season, and the third...but the second season (the one with Ted Danson, Jesse Plemons and Kristen Dunst) is right up there with the greatest seasons of any show anywhere. To me, the first season is a bit more of an elongated version of the movie. The other seasons are a bit more original, but still with that Fargo feel. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Nikki Swango, the "bad guy" from season three (with Ewan McGreagor), was the best part of season three...so freaking hot! Season four so far (4 episodes in) is a bit of a slower burn than the others, but by the end of the 3rd episode I was totally sold on it.

It is worse now.

I don't pay near as much attention to any of that stuff, win or lose, as I used to, but I never miss a game. It all gets so repetitive.

I had seasons from 1980 through the 1987 season... I got out just in time to avoid the best years! Though, seriously, 1980 and 1981 were pretty fantastic too!

I think that magical era kind of started on Halloween of 1987, when they made the big trade for Cornelius Bennett. That was kind of the missing piece. They were a markedly better defense, pretty much from Bennett's first game on. That move helped Bruce Smith start to reach his enormous potential too. 1988 was amazing! A lot of low-scoring, defensive wins, with just enough scoring. 1989 was a bit of a hiccup, even though they made the playoffs. I guess one similarity to this years squad is that the defense was upper tier prior to the Super Bowl years, but kind of slid back in the pack, when the offense started scoring more points. That playoff game (the loss to the Browns in the wildcard) was the birth of the "K-Gun". Good times!

I believe that the audio is sped up on that link, to make it "fit". Sal does talk fairly quicky, but not that fast.

Okay, fair enough. Sorry, didn't mean to sound like an atttack, just extending a fun conversation. But you probably don't really need to go all the way back to 1991 then, to find an early season ass handling like this, when we still thought we had a good team. My point was, as hopeful as I am about the 2020 Bills, their greatness isn't really established yet. The 1991 Bils were coming off their 3rd consecutive playoff run, with a wild card loss, a conference championship loss, and a Super Bowl loss on their resume. Their playoff record in that era, at that time, was 4-3. There was no debating that they were a top tier team at that point. 2020 Bills still have a little ways to go to prove that.

First, let me state, I am not paniced by the Titans game. I know the Bills are better than they showed last night. However, at the same time, it is kind of silly to be comparing them to the 1991 Bills. Everybody wants to draw these comparisons to the "glory days' of the 1990's. I get it, those were great times. But, if you really feel the need to compare the two eras (which I don't see), this current squad would be closer in their development, to the 1988 or 1989 Bills teams. If you recall, the 1988 Bills started out 4-0, and got slaughtered by the Bears on the road, in week 5. They went on to win 8 of their last 11 games that year, for a record of 12-4. They lost to the Bengals in the AFC Championship game. I could live with a result like that...

Looney Tunes has spoken!

They have a ***** two hour Sabres show on, 5 days a week, year round! Howard and Jeremy, Schoop and Bulldog, both talked plenty of Taylor Hall in recent days. People just love to B word.

Beat the Cheifs, or even just hang with them, and we all forget this. The Bills were so bad, in nearly every facet of the game last night, I think this game was a compelte abberation. There was just something off about them, as a collective. Do we (they) have reasons to be concerned? Sure. But we all know, even the best of teams are capable of putting up stinkers like this once or twice a season. Our defense may never get to the level we grew accustomed to for the last few years, but I have to believe they will play better down the stretch.

Coincidentally, the actor (Mark Proksch) playing the card collector also plays Colin Robinson, the "energy sucking vampire" on "What We Do in the Shadows". It is one of the funniest things on tv right now...and he is fantastic!