Ozymandius

Alright I'll take Minnesota then.

Yeah, I'd be wary of Denver as well. Plummer on the road can really bite you in the butt sometimes. Hey daquix, looks I owe you $20 from the bet on the Pats vs Indy. How about you let me go double or nothing? Give me your slate of picks for this week and I'll go opposite on one of them.

Yeah, it really comes down to how good the Rutgers defense is. RU is too one dimensional to score much on Thursday, and the best they can hope for is if Teel plays mistake-free football and doesn't give Louisville the short field. So the game comes down to whether the Rutgers defense is for real because they have to carry the team and slow down Louisville's powerful attack. Louisville beat Rutgers 56-5 last year (not a misprint). Let's see how much has changed in a year.

I still fear the Steelers third string.

You know, I didn't believe in Rutgers a few weeks, but I'm inclined to agree now. At the very least, they're going to scare the hell out of Louisville on Thursday.

Evans is going to be huge second half of the season, I think.

They actually drafted those DBs in preparation for the departure of Troy Vincent and that tall corner that came from Notre Dame who was really good, too.

Agree with Dibs. This game's only a watershed moment if the Bills blow out GB. If GB blows out the Bills, we can still have another watershed moment down the line. Plus, any loss has the silver lining of getting us closer to the top of the draft. After seeing Sam Baker struggle against Oregon St (could be outlier game, though), I'm not convinced he's a good alternative to Joe Thomas yet.

34-24 is a bit too high-scoring with two great defenses, imo.

Look at the little game the Pats and Colts are playing with the injury report: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/injuries;_ylt=...CEGkBw4JM1DubYF

No. The Bills sign minimum wage linemen who suck. Guys like Steinbach won't be paid minimum wage. We should pony up and at least try to get him. Again, it depends on the price. The salary cap might preclude a team from re-signing a stud. Dwight Freeney is going to be a UFA for example. But when we sign guys for the vet minimum, they're probably going to suck.

If the Bills go defense first round, I hope Alan Branch will have chosen to leave Michigan a year early. He's probably the only DT any team should consider in the first round. Injury-free resume and dominant at the college level for a high-major team. He's probably one of the top 10 players in college football right now.

Haha, sure. You're on.

The difference between the Pats D and the Denver D is that the Pats d-line can generate consistent pressure, something the Denver d-line has struggled with while still being a very good overall defense. Denver's back 7 is awesome but even they will get torched by Peyton if he's not feeling pressure, which is what happened. New England's defense is just a better matchup for Indy than Denver.

Why do they need an excuse? They're 6-1. Nobody's perfect. Plus, if you want an excuse, try Brady hadn't gotten used to his new receivers yet. Seems like he was in tune with them Monday night. I'm hardly guaranteeing this game or anything. But I want to see Indy beat a full-strength NE before I EVER pick them against the Patriots.

Their secondary was ravaged--besides Hobbs, who was a rookie, who played? It was Bruschi's first or second game back, I forget. Did Seymour even play -- noticed he was missing from your list. Other players were banged up New England was killed by injuries last season; let's not pretend that didn't happen. Colts are NE's b1tch. One fluke game against an injury-ravaged team doesn't change that. Do it again, I say.

His team wasn't close to healthy then. They are now.

I do, and nowhere do I take away credit from them.

By far the most important piece still remains. The Genius. Bill Belichick. I'd be surprised if Indy beat a healthy NE team this year. And they wouldn't stand a chance if it were December.

I would LOVE for the Bills' finish to match your outlook. But you know how they are... just when you think they can get in position to get dominant line help, they'll do something stupid like upset Cincinnati. I WISH with all my might the Bills could get in position to draft Joe Thomas but with that soft schedule, I highly doubt it. We'll finish with 6 wins and draft Leon Hall to replace Nate, with whom we agreed we wouldn't franchise so we lose him for nothing.

Agreed. Steinbach should be the clear option A for improving this offseason. The Bills should throw all sorts of money and hos at him to see if he'll bite. Failing that, a decent backup option would be Derrick Dockery.

Nice post. It's a bit disheartening to see that JP falls into the bucket that succeeds at an 11% rate. Basically, if there are reasons that keep a QB from being drafted in the top half of a draft, those reasons are extremely likely to catch up to him in the pros and cause him to fail. If JP sucks, it's because he SHOULD suck. Not his fault, really -- it was the Bills' fault, the Bills' stupidity for drafting him in the first place, especially without a good team in place so he can develop properly.

JP needs to stay the starter for this season and perhaps next season as well (2007 FA QBS leave much to be desired). Still, he can play better. That was Romo's second start... apparently you CAN learn from the bench.

I think besides protecting JP's blindside better, the Bills were looking to improve the runblocking a bit. I believe they think Gandy is stronger at the point of attack than Reyes, which is why he's in there. Keep in mind, McNally has always liked Gandy, even at LT. By moving him to guard where quickness isn't that big a deal, they probably think he's going to be a good player.

No need to apologize, bro, and I do think you're a good poster. Very good, actually. I'm not really scared or insulted by your posts. I do find it strange that you were able to recall comments I made months ago, but it's probably because you have a good memory and I have a poor one. Thousands of opinions get flung around these boards during draft time, and I can't remember one opinion from anyone other than Bill in NYC wants offensive linemen (but I think we ALL know that, and we love him, and we hope he gets his wish one day). As for Mr. "I Know These Things", I do admit I'm SORTA like that. I'm a dick, I know that. I have strong opinions about things. I do think someone who watches (and gambles) (succesfully) on college football can have a meaningful opinion on how good players are. I never say I'm infallible and I freely admit I get lots of stuff wrong, though. But I do try to back up my opinions with observations or stats or something, and I don't think people should be like "oh why don't you get a job as a scout." I mean, why would I want to be a scout. They get paid sh--. At any rate, no hard feelings. And I would destroy the pictures because you'd probably get sued or jailed for showing them to anyone :-)