Brandon

I knew it was coming. The Bills let the Pats hang around too long without dealing the knockout when they had them on the ropes. You have to put good teams away when you have the chance and the Bills simply couldn't do it.

6 yard pass was fine. It was the fact that it was 10 feet high that cost the Bills the first down.

He's hardly finished. He typically has two or three games where he's bad every year (threw 6 picks in the playoffs vs the Rams a few years back). His bad games have always been *really* bad. The fact that he's basically all they have offensively this year doesn't help.

Give them a little credit. Those last 3 games will certainly be enough to judge JP by going into next season. After pulling the plug four games into this season, I am absolutely confident that this staff won't make a hasty decision on an issue that will affect their success for the next five to ten years.

If they're going to fire anyone, they should fire Tom Donahoe. Its been five years since Donahoe took over a hideous team. They're still hideous. We've changed coaches. We've changed player personnel. No results. The time for accountability at the top is rapidly approaching.

Coming off an 8-8 season, what makes you think Holcomb would be the starter? The Bills went 9-7 in 2004 and all it earned Drew Bledsoe was a trip out of town.

It doesn't, and never did. The only way it would pay off is if the Bills made the playoffs. Needing to finish roughly 9-3 at the time Losman was benched, the odds of that happening were not particularly good. Although you don't want to give up on a season, especially in week 4, sometimes you have to be willing to see the inevitable, and it was clear that this team had major problems besides the QB. The problem now is that Mularkey has painted himself into a corner. Benching Holcomb would be an admission that he made a mistake, yet if he leaves him in and the Bills miss the playoffs, its going to be quite clear that he screwed up. The only out for Mularkey is if the Bills can find a way to make the playoffs, otherwise, Mularkey may have tied his own future with the organization to the increasingly likely failure of this QB switch.

Has he passed for over 400 yards total in his last three games? BTW, I know you're being sarcastic. Just making a point to those who raked JP over the coals for poor passing yardage totals in his starts.

I never disagreed with you. The Bills lack talent on both lines and it is severely limiting an otherwise solid football team. Until they address the problems up front on both sides of the ball, they will not be much of a contender.

That's exactly why I was also against the QB switch. I don't think we're a playoff team with either Losman or Holcomb, so what's the point of getting a couple extra wins against cupcake teams? There isn't one. Get Losman in there, get him some experience and for crying out loud, get something accomplished for the long-term this season. As it is, it seems we're just supposed to be satisfied with being consistently mediocre.

The spin from the Bills will be interesting this week. Can't scapegoat Losman for this one.

The defense has gotten pressure on Collins. The problem, as it has been for about four years, is that the Bills have to blitz in order to get pressure on the QB, and that creates mismatches in the secondary.

All they really need to do is just let Willis McGahee run the ball. When they refuse to do that, they don't move the ball.

No, you aren't off base. McGee has been much better than he's given credit for since day one as a starter. He wasn't perfect, but even early last year, you could see that he was going to be a good one. The only thing he lacks is height; he can cover, he can tackle and he can make a play on the ball. I think he may actually be better than Winfield was due to his big play ability. His return skills just made him that much more valuable. I would have considered him worthy of this contract extension this past offseason and I think the Bills are getting a bargain if he signs. Its a great move locking him up with a relatively inexpensive contract before his price goes through the roof.

They've allowed about 1,000 yards rushing in 6 games so far and about 5 yards per rush. Clearly, someone isn't getting the job done. In past years, we had two excellent DTs to occupy blockers, take up space, and pick up the slack for a pair of average DEs. Now that we only really have one DL that a defense has to worry about, they can gameplan their running game around and away from him, and the numbers above have been the result. The Bills have far too many overachievers on their DL. Its fine when you have one of them, but you can have too many. 3/4 of your starting DL is too many, and the lack of true talent is taking a toll.

The other three guys aren't doing anything against the run, either. At least I know Adams can play. The other three aren't going to strike fear into too many offenses. For all the whining about the OL, I'm beginning to believe that DE and DT are our biggest needs going into this offseason. Its not just a luxury; we really need an elite pass rusher and another quality run stuffer up front.

That's the key question and its why I think the Bills have to make the playoffs in order for this to be a successful switch. We'll know in about 11 weeks if it was a good call or not. The negative with Holcomb is that he doesn't have much arm strength. He throws a lot of 0-8 yard passes and on the ones that are thrown to the sidelines, the ball just takes too long to get there. Before long, the DBs are going to start jumping the routes regularly, much like happened yesterday on the INT returned to the 1 yard line. That said, Holcomb is playing fairly well. He usually makes good decisions and is accurate enough. He's playing well enough to not get the Bills beat and well enough to hang onto the starting job for now. He, and the team, were much better than last week.

This guy("Brandon") has been trashing the Bills all day! We could have won by 50 and he would have said it was the wind or a string of luck. Just another Troll, with nothing to do! 470963[/snapback] Namecalling? Seems to me like the pot might be calling the kettle black. As I've stated repeatedly, a win is a win, but what I saw today is not encouraging. For most of the day, they looked like the same team I've watched for the first four games.

Actually, no, I do not think we would have won this game with Losman, but that comes with a big disclaimer: I think our first three drives were the result of the team getting an emotional boost from the QB switch. The rest of the game was much more representative of how I think they'll actually play next week and even further down the road, which is to say a lot closer to how they've played all year. I see the QB switch as having an overall minimal effect in the longer term of the season and just sacrifices development time for Losman with little advantage in the W/L column.

The Bills called 19 passes (including those resulting in sacks) vs 18 runs on those 8 possessions. That's not a conservative play balance (although the plays themselves might have been). Still, you expect better than 72 yards on 37 plays for two thirds of a game.

I've been criticizing their performance after a quick start, but I did not realize it was THAT bad. Ouch. http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/drives/NFL_20051009_MIA@BUF

He had one nearly disastrous mistake late in the game with the lateral. That could have cost us a FG in what was a three point game.

You know what? I don't disagree. I think the Bills have problems that go much further than the QB spot. I'm simply pointing out that for all the bitching about Losman, we needed a lot more than we got out of Holcomb in the 2nd half today, too. Part of that is the QB's fault (Losman and Holcomb). Part of that is also the surrounding talent and coaching. This offense is not very good and I think Holcomb is just a bandaid for one of many weak positions.

That would be the correct course of action at this point. That said, I do feel that the first half was more a result of the team getting an emotional boost from the QB switch. Once that wore off and the team came back to reality, they looked like the Bills of the first four games. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the Texans game.

I'm not whining. I'm simply looking at it realistically. We won. I don't think we'll win many more playing like today.