TigerJ

I think it the offence fumbles the ball bach into their own end zone and out of play without anyone recovering, then the offence should keep the ball at the one yard line. If a defensive player fumbles into the endzone and out of play, then I think the ball should come out to the 20 in the possession of the team that last possessed it. (defense) Had it happened that way yesterday and Buffalo did not challenge the play that led to Fletcher getting the ball in the first place, then Buffalo would have ended up with the ball on the NE 20.

You mean the way they are not using McGahee.

If Pataki runs again, I'd be tempted to vote for Golisano.

I'm not an Erie County resident, but I sympathise with county government. The problem is unfunded state mandates. The state government decides it would be nice to help the poor, the unemployed and underemployed with medicaid and other benefits, but these are county level programs that counties have to pay for. An add running on Buffalo TV lately states that %100 of county property taxes in Erie County goes to fund Medicaid. The county has no choice in the matter. The county raises taxes. Industries and people with jobs leave town and a hiegher percentage of the residents who remain are on the public dole with fewwer people to pay for their benefits. It's a vicious cycle. From an outsider's point of view, it looks to me as if Giamgra is doing the best he can in a losing battle. He has pushed the concept of a regional government, which in theory is more cost efficient because it means fewer bureaucrats. But change has been too slow in coming because lots of those same buereaucrats like running their own little kingdom. Joel Giambra has stated this will be his last term as Erie County Executive. My guess is he saw the handwriting on the wall, and knew this fiscal crisis was coming and knew that the fiscal medicine to try and keep things afloat would be so onerous that he would be unelectable in another term. My choice as villian in all this is New York State, and its perpetual government by impasse. I don't like governor Pataki. I'm not thrilled with the state senate, and I think the state assembly is probably the worst governing body in the country. As far as I know, NYState is the only state government that adds a surccharge to your state income taxes to cover purchases you might have made out of state or ordered from out of state. It doesn't matter if you actually made purchases like that or not. You pay the tax anyway. I will not live in NYS when I retire. As far as I'm concerned, NYS accomplishes less with higher taxes than any other state in the country.

In football, success breed cockiness among fans. We would be the same way if our Bills were riding a 17 game win streak.

You spoke of tents earlier, 89. I have a few tent camping stories. I used to take groups of junior high kids on a backpacking camp in the Allegheny National Forest in PA. We taught them how to set up their tents, how to operate camp stoves and cook. One group of particularly cocky city kids one time were going to cook their meal. They lit their stove, set their aluminum pot on it, and then went to get water. By the time they got back, they'd burned a hole in their pot. A few years later I led a camp for fathers and sons. We canoed to a water access only campground, also in Allegheny National Forest. We set up camp in an area where there were apple trees. In the evening the deer came down off the hill looking for green apples that had fallen from the trees. Some of the kids were able to get within a foot or two of these half tame deer. They were absolutely thrilled. Then there's my scary animal story. My wife and i were tent camping with our three kids several years ago. We didn't even think about wild animals being in the area. In our foolishness we put garbage in a plastic bag and leaned it against a tree. That night it rained. Sometime in the middle of the night we woke up to a the sound of raccoons fighting over our garbage. I didn't realize raccoons could sound so nasty. So here we are. It's raining out, raccoons are fighting and they sound like they weigh about 60 lbs apiece (in reality they were probably no more than 30 lbs), and all of a sudden I have to go to the bathroom. Any more tenting stories out there?

I hear ya. Will pray. I'm not up on lung cancer types. Are some types concidered more or less curable than others? Where does this type lie?

I was in Thompson Hall (the cafeteria) at seminary awaiting my afternoon class and plotting how I would convert you all.

Preemptive strike eh? Do you suspect they have WMD?

Bill Belichick reportedly put together a whole catalogue of the trick plays Mularkey has used over his years as coordinator for Pittsburgh just so NE would be prepared for them. Maybe Buffalo can run plays that look like all those trick plays but do something else, like run a flea flicker and have Drew pitch out a WR who then runs an end around instead of throwing to a WR on a fly route. It probably won't work, but we'd all get a good laugh out of it.

Part of it is that Losman has never been asked the question before. That's the first time his thoughts have ever been aired on the subject. Drew Bledsoe has been asked alot going back over the last two seasons, the last season in particular. It's almost impossible to answer the same question week after week without starting to sound trite or insincere. While I loved Losman's answer and his attitude, I don't believe he's ready to start at QB for Buffalo. Drew is still, and should be the starter.

Just one more factor to take into consideration. How are you connecting to the internet? Do you have dial-up, DSL or Cable. Allthough you might think every computer is going to have both an internal dial-up modem and an ethernet connection, a low end machine might not. We bought two E-machines last may. I'm using one. A little better one we bought for my daughter for college (better because it has a DVD burner we thought she might need because she's majoring in communication with a concentration in media). our computer at home has an ethernet card in it from the store. We took my daughter to college and attempted to set her computer up on the college network only to discover no ethernet card. It wasn't a big deal We were able to buy an ethernet card at a nearby (10 miles) Staple's store for $10 after rebate and I took the cover off the computer and put it in. I'm no computer geek, but it was easy. It was just one more trip that contributed to a very long day. I have one more website you might want to check out: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/ca...c.asp?CatId=118

I agree that in substance what Losman says and what Bledsoe says are the same. Somehow it takes on a little different flavor the way Losman says it. When Bledsoe uses the "E" word, I tend to get an impression of separation. "We're good players, but then there is this execution thing that prevents us from performing like the good players we are. But it's not our fault, it's the fault of the execution. When Losman says it, the impression is, "We screwed up. It's our fault. Until we get it right we don't deserve credit for being good players." I wouldn't presume to know what Bledsoe and Losman are thinking. Maybe their attitudes are identical. I just get the impression over all that Losman takes losing more personally, and therefore might be the kind of guy who will work even harder to keep from losing.

I think both of them are right, seriously. Mularkey is right to keep reminding them that this is not a talent poor team. They have the ability to be good. It's important that the team believe that or they will be self limiting. They will never play better than they think they are. Losman is right to focus on the execution. Just believing you have talent isn't good enough. Mularkey is pulling. Losman is pushing. Maybe between them they can get this wagon moving. BTW, I think with is comments, Losman is showing real leadership potential.

"Let us pray. That's our only hope at this point." "We're supposed to be dolphins but at this point I think we're only a school of carp about yay big."

You didn't hear him right. He said "We have to execute everyone who makes a mistake." Actually, what he said is perfectly true to a point. However, the words tend to bite when they say it and then go out and fail to execute. I though the offensive game plan versus the Raiders left something to be desired in that I didn't see much of anything in the offence designed to neutralize the blitz. There are plays that will help youo do that and Buffalo just didn't run any of them with any kind of frequency.

Where do you go when the cavity is in your brain?

"They have two really good returners in [Terrance] McGee and [Nate] Clements. Those guys have had a lot of big returns. Their numbers aren’t that high because they have gotten a couple of longs ones called back which it is kind of hard to find what they were calling them back for." I saw that too, Bufforange. I also saw this: "They got the ball on the one-yard line, and it looks like he is in and they don’t give it to him. " Even Belichick thinks Buffalo got the shaft.

You had periods so I didn't miss the few times you didn't have capitals. And you didn't run everything into one huge misshapen paragraph. Good report.

The ESPN guys might be right, but it may also be little more than a guess. They have to pick a winner, then they have to give an explanation for their choice. They could just as easily have blamed poor blitz pickup.

The state is supposed to be working on it, making it a lot easier for developers to acquire property on which mobile home parks have been built so those parks can be removed and hurricane resistant housing built in it stead. It is a lengthy process, however. With 20% of the homes in Florida affected by this summer's hurricanes, I bet the process moves along alot more quickly for a while.

A while ago there were reports that his injury was worse than initially reported. He's going to be out a few more weeks.

Actually Parkfield might be one of the safest places in Calilfornia to live, at least a lot safer than LA or San Francisco. That assumes you have an earthquake resistant building of course. The high frequency of quakes means the rock formations underground are in essence more easily broken, so pressure is released more frequently and does not have the chance to build up. Underground, near LA and San Francisco, the rock formations have much less give. The two tectonic plates that move against each other along the San Andreas are going to keep moving however. Because the plates are locked up at San Francisco and LA, the pressure builds up far more. The result is less frequent, but far more destructive quakes. By the way, erynthered, I'm a pretty good speller, unless I get careless and let my typos go uncorrected.

More or less. My answer to the question,"Can Buffalo beat NE?" Of course. They have the personnel. Buffalo has solid running backs, good receivers, a QB with a great arm. NE is less of a threat on defense than they were, particularly in the middle of the line. Travis Henry should finally be able to run up the middle. Colvin is active this year and he's tough to account for, but Buffalo should be able to move the ball and score. When Buffalo is on defense they have showl they have ability to shut down top flight running backs (Fred Taylor). They have an excellent secondary. Will Buffalo beat NE? At this point I have to say "No." They have to prove they can eliminate mistakes and avoid lapses. If there is one thing that characterizes a Bill Belichick team it is the fact that they out execute their opponents. They don't make mistakes. Buffalo's personell is probably as good as that of the Patriots, but they make mistakes and until they prove they can play a whole game without critical errors and lapses, I can't pick them to win against a team like NE. NE 17 - Buffalo 13.

I couldn't disagree with you more. Prayer belongs wherever people want to do it. It's not like second hand smoke that's going to hurt someone. No, in school, kids can't and should not be allowed to be disruptive and pray out loud anywhere and anytime they want. But if kids want to get together and do it in school and they are not bothering other people my constitution and yours says they have that right.