AKC

Would you stop being reasonable? Someone must pay for the Bill's failures and the QB is the one fans see with the ball the most- so it must be the QB who caused such a mess! I believe you're absolutely correct in your assessment of Bledsoe as you were in your assessment of Coy Wire. The QB is the lightning rod of most fans and apparently we're simply going to continue hearing the false characterizations of his skill set until the same set of fans gets to see JP Losman and learn about HIS faults before they inevitably call for HIS head. The frightening thing about Losman is that the worst fault in Drew's game- accuracy- is the same major concern regarding Mr. Losman according to a majority of the pre-draft analysis.

Brad Johnson. Trent Dilfer. Kurt Warner. Mark Rypien. Doug Williams. Yeah, no doubt there's ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that one of the top 10 most productive QBs All-Time in League History could EVER win a Super Bowl!

Thats' not my recollection of his Raider years and I didn't watch him in college- I remember him playing in a pretty pure pocket passing offense in Oakland. Here's a take from Dan Pastorini about Plunkett's style among other things: Dan Pastorini

At least some things are constant! If I understand your position that underachieving high paid offensive players should be scrapped, especially ones who don't pick up the team in big games and instead underperform, you are all for dumping Eric Moulds also?

The water torture that is our playoff history- drip... drip... drip...

I missed your posts yesterday- Moulds is the interesting study for one very big reason- he's the kind of guy who would NOT be returning next season to a team like the Pats based upon his pay/performance. The same team that moved Drew for similar, although not exactly the same, reasons. How Moulds is handled might say a lot about how much attention TD is paying to the best roster managers in the league right now.

I'm very interested to learn in which "Big Games" during his pro career has Eric "won the game" for us?

Before we went to Cincinnati it was acknowledged as a Big Game. It was only afterwards that to fit their arguments some have tried to downplay the game. We played 6 elimination games in a row, failing in the 7th. How does the math come out if you apply the "big game" measure to Jim Kelly? More importantly, how does Eric Moulds stack up to the "big game" measure? After all- he will make far more money than Bledsoe next year ;-)

Of course Bledsoe has a career of poor accuracy, especially in the short game, but I'd recommend you go back and watch the tape because Moulds inexcusable choke on Sunday did equal damage to our chances as the poor play at QB. Two "stars", two choke performances, two players making too much money for what they give us on the field.

Absolutely. If we're talking about a highly paid star who has NEVER come up in the big game- we can just as easily be talking about Eric Moulds as Drew Bledsoe. The standard some fans have set for Bledsoe is "what big game has he ever won for his team". Moulds is paid even more money than Bledsoe- how does Eric stack up to the same question?

They both played poorly, and considering next season Moulds is scheduled to make a lot more money than Bledsoe it seems only fair to consider that if we're cleaning house of overpaid and underperforming offensive stars the first order of business is deciding where we're shipping Mr. Moulds to.

It's never been about liking Bledsoe, it's always been about the alternatives. I'm astounded that our fan base is putting the dreadful O on Sunday fully on Bledsoe instead of rightfully sharing the blame between the two high paid "stars" of our O in Bledsoe and Moulds. Moulds was awful, dropping any chance we had on plays that Beldsoe executed properly. Moulds is AT LEAST as responsible for what happened to us Sunday but reading this board you'd think our "go to" receiver was just another victim of a Barney Fife performance at QB. Let Bledsoe go- he's likely to end up at another stop like Oakland, a team that took another prior #1 draft pick of the Pats, a guy who was out of the league because he was "stationary", "got sacked too often" and "had no pocket presence" but just happened to return to a team that lived on the long ball and that good fit earned Jim Plunkett and those Raider teams two Super Bowl rings.

The only true losers among Bill's fans are those who constantly wail on about the quarterback position while ignoring our problems at other positions, such as the major failures of Eric Moulds this season both early on and in the Steeler game. To denigrate other fans because they actually understand the game is not won at any single position shows a complete lack of class and manners- but then we knew that about you before now, didn't we?

It would be astounding were it not predictable that our two high paid offensive "stars", Bledsoe and Moulds, had awful games and yet there's barely a murmer about Moulds choking in the big game while the obsessives still rail on about the quarterback position. Moulds finished the season the same way he opened it, literally allowing our chances at victory to slip through his hands. How such a large portion of the fan base can't see the shared responsibility for these losses between our two offensive "stars" paints a disappointing picture of a fan base recognized in the past for possessing a solid grasp of the fundamentals of the game of football.

None other than- "dancing" with the apparently quite nimble in loafers Tom Brady. Speaking of QB controversies ;-)

Do you mean to tell me that just because we went from averaging 9 YPC when Villarial left the game to about 1.8 YPC that an Offensive Lineman could have that kind of impact on a game of football? Why, he's not a running back or receiver or for Heaven's sake a Quarterback- how could he POSSIBLY make such a difference in the potency of our rushing offense?

Yeah but if Bledsoe hadn't muffed that punt return or missed the Field Goal attempt, or maybe if he'd simply picked up those blitzes himself............. Poor quarterback play during a poor team performance- with special goat awards to the offense and to some degree the offensive play calling.

A team loss no doubt, much in the same fashion as our team wins along the way. That sadi, the most disappointing thing was waiting for one of the high-priced/high-profile players on offense to come up with a big play, yet on the overall they failed. Moulds was awful; a team isn't going to win with their "go to" WR dropping 2 or 3 balls in the "big game". Bledsoe's continued lack of accuracy in the short game creates difficulty that's merely exacerbated by the poor hands he's throwing to on many occasions. I suspect if Burns simply makes the easy play and picks up the blind side rusher the Steelers pay big for that blitz and it slows everything else down for the balance of the game. In fact just the opposite happened.

As a kid growing up in WNY with the Bills and the Yankees showing up on my cable stations I've had two different fan worlds to enjoy- one with a championship winning tradition unrivaled in sports and one an inveterate workmanlike underdog. While my youth was spent with an equal passion for both teams, as an adult I find myself far more drawn to the Bill's organization, community and promise. The team in '04 made a prideful run at the prize even though we're 5 or 6 roster spots away from fielding the type of complete teams that hold the top AFC spots right now. If there is anything I'll allow myself to be disappointed in this season it's been the limited but ugly segment of our fan base who have become increasingly hostile towards Bills players. Outside of this embarassing phenomenon I'm as proud of the '04 Bills as I have ever been of any of my Yankee teams- even the many of those who have come away on top of their sport. The trend for our football team is to the postive; I'll join you in the optimistic hope that was the original inspiration for the name taken from "fanatic", a derivative that is best described by how you, me and the vast majority of our community feel about the team that we love.

I'm skipping the 9:30 mass tomorrow morning.

I'll hoist one to you, me, and everyone else hoping for the same.

That's right, I forgot the one where you demanded that W/L was the only sign of a good QB! I had no idea winning would be this difficult for you.

I'm sure I missed a few-

That would be indisputable IF he would pull his head out of his butt feeling sorry for himself- but that's a big if. I'm not saying I can't understand his disappointment in falling to 2 on the Depth Chart but is there any chance he comes out in '05 totally ready to play the roles he's given (like all the quality #2s do)?

Different dynamics for Dillon since he's always been considered kind of a "Pigpen" character by teammates, leaving a risk of spreading any malaise he might suffer among the balance of the team. The risk has paid off handsomely so far for NE, we'll see what the future of it brings since the weakest point in Belichick's game looks to be his individual relationships with players. He can get a team to play for him but it's almost amusing how some of the biggest talents on his rosters don't trust him personally. I'm guessing there's room around the league for Travis to draw up a #2.