DCgirl

But be honest - do you really think if you put Brady on the Colts - they would have won a Super Bowl by now? Let's take the AFC championship last year. Put Brady on the Colts team. Do you think the Colts would have won that game now? I don't.

Also, you have to admit - part of this is that you value your own players especially the successful ones more than they are probably worth. No Bills fan would ever trade Kelly for Marino and I know no Pats fan would ever trade Brady for Manning. But this doesn't mean that Brady is better than Manning. How many Colts fans would trade Manning for Brady?

I wouldn't but this question doesn't really prove anything - neither Kelly nor Marino ever won the big one.

I just think there are a lot of factors that go into winning a Super Bowl. To say someone is not a great quarterback because they never won the big one is a very simplistic view. Your argument above is a slightly different point and it could be that Marino was too selfish and that was the reason he never won. But to say because he never won, he was not one of the best is wrong to me. Here I think the fact that Emmitt had an amazing O-line really played to his advantage. The fact that Barry lost big yardage just demonstrates to me how bad his O-line was. Give Barry the Cowboys starting 4 and how could he NOT move forward every time?

What I find odd is that all Pats fans seem to despise Manning. Why is that? I was asking my boyfriend that question last night (he's a Browns fan). He also thinks Manning is one of the best - better than Marino. Whenever, I talk to football fans of any team other than the Pats - the vast majority give Manning his props. Only Pats fans appear to hate him. It has to be connected to Tom Brady but it just seems strange to me to be so insecure about Brady. He's a great quarterback, but he did not win those Super Bowls singlehandedly. He has the better team and the clearly better coach - so why can't Pats fans admit that Manning is the better quarterback?

I agree - just because Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, etc. would give up a lot for one Super Bowl ring does NOT diminish the fact that they were great quarterbacks. Just because Trent Dilfer has a ring does not mean he's a better quarterback than Jim Kelly. I was reading Bill Simmons - who is a very funny guy but has the typical Pats' fan POV - and he argued that Brady was better than Manning in the same way that Emmitt is better than Barry Sanders. I.e. Emmitt has rings and Barry does not. Right - I'm sure if you switched Emmitt and Barry and put Barry on that loaded Cowboys team - Barry wouldn't have any Super Bowl rings and Emmitt would - sure... That shows how dumb that kind of reasoning is.

We are definitely out because assuming everyone else loses (Denver, Jets, Ravens, and Jags) - Denver and the Jets are in. However, if Denver loses and the Jags win - the Jags are in. But if we lose - we fall back to the bottom of the 9-7 teams and since neither Denver nor the Jets can finish worse than 9-7 - we would be out.

I know it may be dumb to compare the Bills to the Pats since the Bills have not yet won against an elite team but I was thinking about the Pats and their run in 2001 and the similarities to our current run. The year before, the Pats were 5-11. (We were 6-10 last year). In 2001, they started 1-3 (we started 0-4). Then, they won 10 of the last 12 including 6 in a row at the end to finish 11-5. We have won 9 of the last 11 including 6 in a row (hopefully 7 after the Steelers game). Interesting, huh?

We don't want the #5 seed - then we have to play the Pats. I would rather be #6 and play the Steelers in the 2nd round (if we make it that far).

Here is more evidence - I went through and added up the wins and losses for each division and list them in descending order - we are clearly superior: Division Wins Losses AFC East 33 23 AFC North 30 26 AFC West 30 26 AFC South 29 27 NFC East 28 28 NFC South 28 28 NFC North 26 30 NFC West 20 36

Another thing about this list - look at the teams they are playing - it's one thing to lose close games - it's another to lose close games to Chicago, Washington, New Orleans, St. Louis, etc. These are not good teams.

I also think the Bengals may win this game in a close one. I think the teams are comparable and they are at home. I also hope if the Bengals do win that people don't immediately turn against the Bills and say how much they suck again. When we were 0-4, I didn't think we were as bad as our record and now, I don't think we are a 10-6 team - more like 8-8 or 9-7. Of course, I really hope I'm wrong!

I'll be at the game and I know when to scream and when to be quiet. Also, the last game I was at - there were drunk MEN babbling while we had the ball so it's not only women.

Here's Dr. Z's comment about it (pretty funny!) For his first team meeting as interim coach, Terry Robiskie walked to the front of the room with a bucket and a shovel of ice ... make that a shovel and a bucket of ice ... and asked any players who considered themselves leaders to step forward. Then he grabbed his shovel and said, "If I were digging a hole to hell and was going to fight the devil and had nothing but this bucket of ice to fight him with, would you go with me?" The report ends there, but I can guess what happened. The room broke up into individual caucuses. Some players asked, "Would I what? With what?" Some were moved to tears. A few clenched their fists and said, "I gotta get out of this place." Stay tuned. I'll have more to report later.

I was one of Winfield's biggest fans (hence my former user name) but there is no way we could match Minnesota's offer to him. I wouldn't say that McGee is comparable to Winfield because McGee still is getting fried much more but for our defense and the playmakers we have - we don't need Winfield. Winfield immediately improves your run defense because he is one of the best tackling cornerbacks but luckily for us, we have Sam Adams, Pat Williams and fast linebackers to cover that part. And if we continue to improve the pass rush - we won't need McGee to be a top cornerback. I will still root for Winfield to succeed as long as we aren't playing Minnesota because he gave his all when he was a Bill. I don't think it's contradictory to say he was an awesome Bills player and clearly better than McGee at this point but that it was the right decision to let him go.

Robiskie asked anyone who thought they were a leader to stand up. 22 players stood up (not including Garcia). Robiskie then showed them a shovel and a bucket of ice and said - if I was digging my way to hell to fight the devil and all I had was this bucket of ice to fight him with, would you go with me? (Not the exact words but something like that). Anyway, that's all I know. Dr. Z referenced it in his power rankings and there is actually a video on the Browns website that shows Robiskie saying this.

Ok - now I am really jumping the gun but I figure this is more fun than last year when we were eliminated in November. Assuming we somehow get to the playoffs - I think we would MUCH prefer to play the Chargers and not the Colts. Currently, these teams will be the #3 and #4 seed (barring some late slide by the Pats or Steelers). Right now, the Chargers have the tiebreaker over the Colts (better conference record). Therefore, we should root for the Chargers to stay on top of the Colts record-wise so that if we do end up sneaking into the playoffs as the #6 seed, we get to play the Chargers instead of the Colts. So after rooting for the various teams to lose (Ravens, Broncos, etc.) - save some cheering for the Chargers

I was talking to a Pats fan friend and I was saying how it is amazing that the Pats are still winning convincingly with their secondary injured. Just like last year when their entire offensive line was injured. My friend said - Yep, about the only injury the Pats can't afford is an injury to Bellicheck. I think he's right.

I thought Big Ben would be a big bust. I was so certain of this that I was completely stressed out on draft day thinking the Bills might trade up for him - doh! My fiance (a Cleveland Browns fan) is also not the best predictor of QB talent. He preferred Leaf over Manning and Harrington over Carr. He also thought Ben R. would bust. Unfortunately, he also thinks Losman is going to be an awesome QB (and wanted him before the draft). With his track record on QBs, I'm a bit concerned.

So the top 3 defenses right now are Pittsburgh, Redskins and Bills (in that order). And the three defensive coordinators for those teams are LeBeau, Gregg, and Jerry Gray. Isn't that kind of wacky? The leaders of the top 3 defenses were all with the Bills last year. Pretty cool!

Thanks! I don't think my future predictions will hold up though - I don't see us losing to the Fish (at least I hope we don't!!)

Thanks LA!!

Yes, that's what I'm thinking of. I didn't keep a record of my picks and I was curious about how close I was. I had predicted an 8-8 season and it looks like we may finish close to that.

Whatever happened to the posting of people's records for their preseason predictions about the Bills record and the outcome of each game? For the first several weeks - we would get updates about who was "winning" based on their predictions. I haven't seen any posts about it in a while.

I must admit I actually find theblackbear somewhat amusing in a "watching a train wreck" sort of way. Of course - I've only seen his posts for the first time today so I'm sure his routine will wear thin very soon.