TigerJ

TO might be even better at poisoning a locker room.

Very funny, except it comes from Gregg Easterbrook, not Kiper.

I think if Okoye is on the board, Buffalo picks him, but that is a far from a sure thing. Hall and Willis are the next two most likely picks, not necessarily in that order.

I think to have any chance at all, they would need to switch him to guard. He's too slow for a tackle.

With seven losses, I'm not going to worry about the math of Buffalo making the playoffs until we get closer to the end of the season. When I start out watching the football season my working assumption is that it will take a 10-6 record to make a wild card slot.

I couldn't watch the game (blackout), but I definitely have some feelings. 1. The offensive line has definitely improved their pass blocking, but what's going on with running the ball? 2. Losman didn't have a great game, but it's very tough for a QB to lead his team to victory with no running game. 3. LT is a great running back, probably the best in the game right now, but he's not as good as Buffalo made him appear. 4. It was probably a mistake to put Whitner one on one with Gates. He's just to small to match up to the TE. I think the injury to Crowell really threw a wrench into the deefensive works. Crowell has made a number of big plays in pass defense this season in the area where the tight end is most active. 5. It's easy to say nice things about Jason Peters. He deserves them. But how about Pennington's play as a rookie on the other side. No he's nowehere near as good as Peters at this point, but he may have enough upside to let Buffalo look elsewere in the draft besides offensive tackle. 6. Why did the officials call so few penalties? Five total on both teams. There were several infractions they didn't call?

The Cover 2 is supposed to be fairly straight forward as a defensive scheme, but requires a lot of discipline and solid technique from players. It may be that it takes a fair amount of time for the defensive linemen (other than Tripplett who knhows the system already) to really get the technique down and become more disciplined. If hat is the case, Buffalo should get some imporovement next year just from having a year with the system under their belts. I hope they don't depend on that alone however. I think Buffalo does need to upgrade the talent level, particularly on the interior of the defensive line. I think a good player for ?Buffalo to target is Amobi Okoye from Louisville. He has Kyle Williams' smarts and dedication, but he has more natural strength and talent, and he's only 19 years old.

Both the Bills and Jets have significantly improved themselves since the last time they played, at least in certain areas. Buffalo blows at run defense, but they have also faced some outstanding running backs like LT. Hopefully, they will do a better job of containing Leon Washington. Buffalo has improved their pass rush since the last time they played the Jets, and may be able to get more pressure on Pennington. On the other side of the ball, Buffalo's running game has been erratic. Some weeks they've been OK, sometimes they've really stunk. However the passing game has improved with JP Losman gaining confidence and the offensive line providing much better protection. I'll pick the Bills to win, but that's partly the homer in me. I can certainly see why national media pundits might go for the Jets in this game.

I assume that Christian Okoye remained in the US after his retirement from football, so if Amobi Okoye immigrated to the US from Africa, I don't think he would be any closer than a cousin, if that. They do both hail from Nigeria. I did a search on the name Okoye, and came up with a lot of Nigerian born persons and persons descended from Nigerians with the name Okoye, so it appears as if Okoye is a pretty common Nigerian name.

I'm liking Okoye at this point. He's going to be a 20 year old rookie next year with four years of college. That he was able to play division one college football as a 16 year old is impressive. I think it's pretty safe to assume that he's going to continue to grow into his body, which means he's going to get stronger. He's already strong and athletic and has good upside. He's also really smart, and a great fit for Buffalo. He would instantly start for Kyle Williams, who is a player but has less talent. Okoye would be an instant upgrade in Buffalo's embarrassingly poor run defense.

I think the failure to sell out is a delayed reaction to the decline of the Bills last year. I don't think the Bills sold quite as many season tickets this season, and walkups are more affected by who the opponent is and weather. Last week the opponent was Jacksonville. Even though they're a pretty good team, there is no sense of rivalry. This week the opponent is the Chargers. They are a very good or even great team, but the weather is supposed to be lousy. I think Miami sells out in December because of the rivalry. I don't think the Tennessee game will.

I think Marv is honor bound and will not franchise Nate. Whether Nate is interested in a fair deal and wants toshow some loyalty to the team that drafted him and now looks like they may finally be on track toward real improvement, or simply wants to go to the highest bidder is up to him. Buffalo is in good cap shape and should be able to make a very nice offer, but some team out there will be stupid enough to break the bank (like San Francisco and Jonas Jennings) and will offer more than what Buffalo is willing to do.

A TV station can be well outside the blackout radius and still be blacked out if their signal reaches anywhere inside the blackout area.

I give him the whole season. Then I ask whether he really sucked or did he look bad because the team was losing and playing poorly around him. There have been games this season where he sucked big time. The Indianapolis game was not one of them. He had a good completion percentage and did not turn the ball over. "But," his detractors say, " he only attempted 12 passes. The coaching staff doesn't trust him." No one has beaten the Colts this season, but the teams that came closest, Denver, Tennessee, and Buffalo are the teams that focussed most on the run and attempted the fewest number of passes. Add to that the fact that Buffalo's line sucks, and the game plan versus Indianapolis was less about not trusting Losman and more about doing what works best against a terrific team. If fans had not already decided they hated Losman before the game, they might actually have been impressed with Fairchild's strategy. If Losman does not look good the rest of the way and decide to go in a different direction for next year, I'm OK with their decision, but if instead they decide to bolster the offensive line and retain Losman, that does not bother me a bit, except that I'm getting a little tired of all the negative Nancies.

I'm here. I think the Bills are better off in the long run. Yes, their record is one worse at this point in the season. However, the Bills have changed offensive and defensive systems with the new coaching staff. It takes most teams some time to get comfortable with new systems so they are not having to think about what to do, and instead can react. The fact that the Bills are young exacerbates the problem, because young players tend to make more mistakes. Mularkey clearly was not able to set a direction and then stick with it. He named a starting QB, then yanked him. He said he was going to run the ball, then ended up passing it. The word was that Jerry Gray had alienated most of the defensive players, and that Mularkey had little communication with his assistants. He didn't trust Tom Clements, yanking play calling responsibilities from his coordinator. I think as the Bills gradually acquire young players who fit the new system and help them mature, they will get much better. I believe the Bills now have some direction and confident, calm coaches, and it is just a matter of time before they click.

You would have to convince the Marv and the coaching staff, particularly Perry Fewell, not only that Haynesworth's character is not flawed, but that a 320 lb 6'6" DT is the type of player Buffalo needs fot the Tampa 2 offence. Good luck.

Limited to the option of those 4, I picked Joe Thomas. I would look first to trade down however.

I just saw Jamarcus Russell for the first time the other day. The way he looks I would almost think defensive tackles might bounce off him. Man, is he thick.

QI Sports: at #11 Jake Long OT Michigan http://qisports.com/nfldraft.html Draft Season: at #11 Levi Brown OT Penn State http://draftseason.com/index2.php?Page_Name=LupagusMock The Football Expert: at #8 Levi Brown http://thefootballexpert.com/abromowitzmockdraft.html Consensus Draft Services: at #12 Levi Brown http://condraft.com/mocks/round-1.html Huddle Geeks at #8 Frank Okam DT Texas http://huddlegeeks.com/NFL_Draft/mockdraft.htm Great Blue North at #12 Frank Okam http://www.gbnreport.com/2007projection.html Michael Band @ Draft Ace at #12 Ted Ginn WR Ohio State http://www.draftace.com/draft2007/michaelband/mockdraft.htm Heard's Football Report at #12 Buster Davis LB Fl State http://heardsfootballreport.com/mockdraft.html Scott Wright @ NFL Draft Countdown at #8 Sam Baker OT USC http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/sub/mockdraft.html

That's pretty close to what I think.

On several of the sacks, the defensive linemen almost beat Losman back to the deepest point of his drop and were waiting for him. How is a quarterback supposed to perform when the protection is that bad?

Thank you. JP did what was asked of him today. The protection from the offensive line was pathetic, non-existent. JP played terrible in some games this season. Today was not one of them.

Since I am a Christian pastor, I respectfully disagree with Mr. John. But since the British were boorish Colonialists for several hundred years, I propose we ban the Brits.

Thanks for the homework. I will also discount Brady's times. He does throw mostly quick passes and timing routes. The big thing I notice between Manning and JP is the range of times. In the list of passing plays involving Manning, there are 4 plays where he held the ball better than 4 seconds, the longest was five seconds. At the other end, he got rid of the ball twice in less than 2 seconds, the shortest being 1.2 seconds. JP's longest time in the pocket was 3.9 seconds and his shortest, 1.7 seconds. He was under 2 seconds 3 times. Obviously, when Manning held the ball for a mere 1.2 seconds, that was a quick hitter. Any reading of the defense had to occur before the snap. I think it might help the Bills to have some of those plays in their arsenal and work to execute quickly. The only way JP could ever figure on taking 5 seconds for a play to develop would be to scramble around outside the pocket to buy time.

Welcome to TBD, ManningColts. When your team is 3-5 playing an undefeated team, there's not much point in anybody talking smack. Buffalo's best hope is to be able to run the ball efectively and finish off drives with touchdowns. If Indianapolis committed some uncharacteristic mistakes on offense, that might open the door for the Bills to steal one, but if Manning and the Colts play anywhere close to the way they're capable of playing, the best the Bills can hope to do is keep it close.