AKC

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.

I agree with you 100% BBevis- I considered the Bills/Bengals a "Big Game" and you clearly were putting a good product on the home field at the time- both teams had to have the game and Buff played well enough to earn it. The only unfortunate thing is we'll have to do our work against the Steeler with Maddox at the helm, which will become the excuse for others- and even a tiny little percentage of our own fans, to claim it a less than "quality" win. But for the 99.5% of the rest of us Bill's fans it should be the same thing our win over your team represented- a big win an a big game against a quality opponent.

In addition to being meaningless when analyzing a running back's ability to hang onto the football, "lost fumbles" is an oxymoron. A fumble is ALL READY a lost ball. What happens after that is more a process of how well your teammates clean up after your mess.

I have to believe that the presence of a solid cover guy at FS is giving him more room to play ball the way he wants to. We moved up a notch in the quality of our D when Vincent took up with Milloy as our safety tandem. We'll get to test that out next week with Maddox, a guy who will throw balls at our safeties in play action.

We were hollering at that too- the one where he uses just enough hand on the first guys helmet to slip outside and then do his "uncanny" forward stumble for another 6 yards! It's always best when Tasker is calling our games- the second game Tasker had with Willis playing this year he said "he's not a real physical runner". That's become the common yell for my room full of fans every time Willis gets a touch now ;-)

It's an unfortunate truth that Travis on the bench has made the Bills better on the field. Willis is at least a willing, and sometimes very effective, backfield blocker who is always moving to find the unblocked rusher. Travis on the other hand has trouble stopping guys he knows he'll be responsible to block from before the start of the play. You hate to pick on a guy who ran hard for us through minor nicks and major dings but the simple change in running styles between he and Willis has made all of our OLine talent look better. Travis gets the ball runs into whatever is in front of him, Willis gets ball/reads field/makes decisions. Both ran hard, but only one runs with excellent instincts and dare I say smarts. None of this though should diminish the fact that Chris Villarial is the real deal in run blocking, a tenacious player who never clocks out before the whistle. I'd go so far as to credit his aquisition as a more important personnel move than the selection of Lee Evans in giving us an offense that shares the credit with our other units in improving to become a good football team today. Of course in the long run Evans will be horse that sells the jerseys- and no doubt rightfully so in the future, but for my money, this season, Villarial has been the big impact guy.

I'm guessing he's going to command a lot more money to play in a pure passing offense than he will be worth to us with our play action scheme. He's got possibly the best slide in football but he's hardly outstanding in run blocking. It's quite possible Big Mike moves to his spot and we pick up a RT in FA for about 1/3rd of what we'd have had to pay Jonas.

I'm guessing that SF's strategy will be to keep a safety up on Lee all game but leave Moulds covered with a Free Safety who's playing CB due to injuries on their roster. Eric with single coverage will draw Bledsoe's attention all day.

That statement is absolutely false. At this time, with this team playing possibly the best TEAM football in the league, there's but a tiny fraction who are still so ingrained in some foolish position that they can't be downright giddy like the majority of our fan base. We all understand that your pre-season postion hasn't played out the way you insisted it would- I'd welcome you to let go of your disappointment in being wrong and join the rest of us in supporting this team 100%. You can't imagine how awesome it is until you jump onboard!