Sen. John Blutarsky

Probably, but who will still be here in 2013?

Tipped and dropped but Evans didn't exactly battle for the ball either, as a matter of fact if Evans had tried to come back to the ball rather than try to shield the defender he would have gotten a PI call at least.

Denver -9 is scary. Seattle absoultely destroyed Oakland on Monday and they only got 16 points. Oakland's defense hasn't been that bad, it's been their offense that has been brutal. Plus, it's Jake Plummer, since when is he not the most inconsistent week to week NFL starter? Indianapolis -12 is easy money. The Steelers -4 baffles me as well, they haven't shown any signs of life at all the last couple weeks and the Saints have been pretty good. The 4 makes a field goal win by the Steelers a loss for the bettor as well. That line smells fishy.

I wasn't particularly pleased with Mr. Whitner's tackling this weekend but I agree that he's been good overall. He doesn't have the stats to make the Pro-Bowl but he'll make the all-rookie team.

Until Holcomb got knocked out cold during the Kansas City game...yeah they were great...

Apparently they've had a number of Sundays off as well...

Because a 3 step drop only works when the defense isn't rolling up the coverage. Our blocking situation tells defenses that they don't have to defend further than 15 yards because they'll get to the QB by then. Until we show that we can consistently block long enough to throw a 15-25 yard pass the entire defense will be compressed into the first 15 yard area. Think of it like throwing in the red zone. It's hard because the entire defense is in a small space and there isn't a lot of room. Unless we're able to get off and complete a few longer throws the defense won't defend it because they don't have to.

We also don't play them again until next season and quite frankly I don't think the backup safety had much bearing on whether or not we beat NE this season, or next for that matter.

It isn't just the plays that he's sacked either. The TD to Evans was a perfect example of how the protection is screwing up the offense. Evans made a double move on Harris, JP held the ball until the exact second that Evans made his 2nd break. This is exactly what he's supposed to do. He threw the ball right on time to the right man who was open. He couldn't step into the throw because he was about to get crushed by the d-line so he got it out there to a place where he was pretty sure it'd be completed. It was underthrown but it was thrown, same thign happened on the eaqrlier throw to Evans that was dropped, if JP had the chance to step into the throw he would have had a chance to lay it out in front of Evans a little more and it would have been another very long TD. Those of you who talk about checkdowns, there are fewer checkdowns AVAILABLE when you have to keep TEs and backs in to block. If they're blocking they aren't running routes. When the last time we had less than 7 guys blocking on a passing down? Our backs can't get into routes because they're either chipping DE's or picking up blitzers and our TE's are generally helping our tackle. I think we are underutilizing people like Parrish (and even Evans) with our lack of WR screens but when it's 3rd and 8 it's tough to convert that regualrly with screen passes. Our offense has collectively contributed to it's own demise. How many times this year have we had a 4,5,or 6 yard run on first down only to false start on 2nd down and end up in 2nd and 11, 10, or 9? LOTS. We have negated our own success frequently. How many times have we gotten to 3rd and one and gotten stuffed in the backfield when we try to run for it? Recognizing the shortcomings of the offensive UNIT doesn't make one an apologist. I struggle to see where any QB would have success with the number of penalties and lack of protection that JP gets. Look what happened to McNabb last year in a sinmilar situation. His line was a sieve and they needed Westbrook and Smith to block, McNabb was awful. Look at how much better he is this season with less receiving talent because they can block better. Don't forget, Philly has more 3 step drops than anyone, it isn't a magic bullet. If you can't block you can't block and the defense knows it. They squat on all the short stuff and dare you to throw it deep. Why do you think that Harris bit on the same double move twice in the same game? They schemed all week to jump anything less than 15 yards because they beleived they would get to the QB before they could throw it further. They were right, except for those 2 plays, one was dropped, one was a 45 yard completion. Expect more of the same next week. Indy will gamble that Freeney and Brock can get to the QB before we can beat the coverage for long plays, why shouldn't they think that? Their LBs are very fast and cover very well so 3 step drops aren't going to fix that. We have to run the ball better, stop taking penalties, stop dropping passes and god forbid block better. The problem with this is it sets up a catch 22. If we run well any defense will bring a safety down into the box and creep up their corners for run support. It almost compounds our passing trouble if we don't block because it crowds the short throws even more and increases the number of blitzes the defense brings (even if they are "run blitzes" - in many respects a blitz is a blitz, a run blitz just tries to fill gaps, if that gap is vacant they get to the QB just like any other blitz). Running doesn't necessarily set up the pass. It sets up the intermediate to deep pass and if you can't block well enough to exploit that area you won't be able to throw at all. This is where we are as an offense right now. Again, it doesn't make me a JP apologist to be able to dissect a systemic problem rather than point the finger at one guy.

I'm afraid of any team with a decent running game right now. We have little to no ability to stop it. The only teams we have "stopped" from running the ball are teams that gave up on it early...everyone else has ripped us apart on the ground. Green Bay 27 Buffalo 13...our offense still sucks too.

Ya know what? I don't care. Whatether it's right or wrong you have to know better than to do that. It's like wearing a Klan outfit on the East Side. You SHOULD have the right to express yourself however you want, the reality is that you put yourself in danger by doing it. Of the 75,000 people at an event like that the liklihood of running into 20 to 30 drunken/angry and/or stupid people is very high and you should be aware of that before you do it. That stadium is the size of a small city on game day. You won't find a city of that size anywhere in the world that doesn't have a minority of angry, frustrated people who need little provocation for violence. It isn't right or ok that those people did that and they should be punished severely but you have to take some responsibility for yourself as a person and realize: a: you are tremendously outnumbered b: your team is probably going to win by many points c: this will anger and frustrate many people d: many of these people will have been drinking heavily Boston has no room to talk about this either. I challenge the person who wrote it to go to a Red Sox game dressed in Yankee gear. Anyone think he won't have a big problem? Especially if he mouths off to someone, even a little bit? This should not have happened, but it does happen and this guy didn't do anything to prevent it from happening to himself. I'm sure that some of you are annoyed right now because I'm suggesting that the Pats fan should have acted differently to protect himself. If this is the wrong way of thinking, why do you lock your car, or your house, or put your wallet in your front pocket when you're in a crowd, or avoid driving through a bad neighborhood at night even when you aren't doing anything wrong? Because you are taking responsibility for protecting yourself from the minority of people in a large group that will do you harm even though you didn't really do anything to deserve it. You PREVENT the problem which is what this guy could have done by choosing his outfit diffrently.

Don't you have to build before you can rebuild? This team has been a smoking pile of rubble for an extremely long time now.

Until the QB we have beats them he can be easily dismissed. It's going to take more than once. One loss can be dismissed as a fluke, if we start splitting with NE regularly they'll respect JP, and our team in general, more. I would disrespect us too if I were them.

It's more that a number of you deluded yourselves into thinking we could beat the odds on favorite to win the NFC in their house. The '90-'93 Bills would have struggled to win yesterday and this team isn't in the same universe as those.

Yards don't win the game. Willis is leading the league in rushing but has 1 TD. he's been great between the 20's. Losman is averaging 1 TD a game both passing and rushing. Evans hasn't come close to sniffing the end zone yet o a ball he actually caught, there were what 2 PI calls in his favor? My entire point was that we've been moving the ball and not scoring against lesser competition, I don't see that translating well against a Bears defense who will likely shut us down much more often than any defense we've faced yet. Our offense, improved though it is, isn't scaring anyone. It won't until those 3's become 6's on a regular basis.

Seattle tried that last week and were extraordinarily unsuccessful. You face the pass protection dilemma when you spread out. If Chicago's front four can get heat w/o linebackers/safeties blitzing spreading out the defense does nothing. It's 5 against 4 because you've taken the TEs out and presumably the fullback. I'd take Tommie Harris in a 1-1 matchup against any lineman on our roster. I'd probably take him in most double teams we can bring. I like the ace formation for this one. Two Wrs, 2 TEs and 1 RB. Very flexible, able to shift to either side because it's a balanced alignment and in the run game it puts our TEs on their OLBs which size wise is a win for us. Chicago's scheme is similar to ours, get up field and swarm to the ball with zone over the top. TE's can shred the middle of a Cover 2 if you can keep your QB upright. In the run game think misdirection and traps. The D-line likes to penetrate and get to the ball, trap them in that. Nothing slow developing or outside the tackle because that allows their LBs to flow to the ball en masse. We haven't seen much play action from JP all year and I think that will be a key part of our passing game. We have to take advantage of Chicago's speed and willingness to chase the ball. While play action occasionally hits a bomb for you because it fools the safety it more often opens up the middle of the field where the LB is supposed to drop into coverage. Make Briggs, Urlacher etc. take false steps then drop the ball over thier head a couple times, that will slow pursuit to the ball in the run game as well. Test backside contain as well. Play action to the right then drag the TE or slot reciver across the formation from the left. No reverses or bootlegs, they are too fast.

Which of our hands isn't tied behind our backs on offense? Our running game is good between the 20's and while JP is improved our pass protection isn't anything to write home about. I certainly wouldn't consider our offense to be "test" for anyone. If we're going to win this game it's going to have to be an ugly win because we aren't going to be putting up big numbers. A win will be like 9-7 or 13-10 because our defense plays out of it's mind and/or Grossman decides to be terrible this week. We need the defense and special teams to get us field position all day long so we can at least kick field goals. Turnovers will be huge. If the BEars give it away we can sneak out with a win, if we force no turnovers we're in trouble. We haven't 3 and outed many people this year which has backed up our offense most of the time. A loss on the other hand will likely be out of hand, if we get behind by more than 7 points in the first half the bears will win be more than 20. We'll have to pass and you can't be one-dimensional against a defense that good.

Amen. I'm sure Roethlisberger's QB rating is god awful right now. Anyone here who wouldn't rather have Ben?

Get ready for a steady diet of Chester Taylor. They WILL feed him the ball 25-30 times next week and unless they find a way to get quick heat on Johnson he's gong to pick us apart in the same way Pennington did, with short throws.

Marv has caught a lot of crap for having to pay TV's salary because of the timing of his IR placement. I'm not sure if I buy that. We just did the president of the union a major solid, don't think that stuff doesn't get passed around among the players and agents when they are looking for places to do deals. Marv COULD have dumped TV earlier and saved some cash, but for his 2 million + he bought himself a bunch of goodwill with a player (washed up or not) who has a lot of pull. TV is either setting himself up to coach or be an agent, my guess is agent and either way the Bills helped him out big time.

Amen to that though, some of the biggest fights I remember were at Jets games. The UB frats buy blocks of tickets get liquored up and, since most of the are from down there they fight with the liquored up Bills fans in the end zones.

Baltimore is going to destroy Oakland. Oakland is going across the country on a short week to play Baltimore in their home opener after they went on the road and crushed Tampa. Bad Bad Bad for Oakland.

You remember though Thanks for the correction.

First round flop or not, if he's not horrifically broken he's better depth than Eric Powell. Plus he can rotate in at 2 positions, DE and DT. It sounds like the Saints had to let him go because of injuries in toher places, same reason we had our Troy Vincent move this week. If Bowen were healthy Vincent isn't on IR, if the Saints didn't lose 2 FBs in one game Haynes is still on the squad.

Hard to hate Shula? For YEARS we all felt like he owned the refs and it felt like every time we played them the game was officiated like last weeks debacle. It's pretty easy to hate Shula. He was the one constant that carried on through the decades, he was the link to the 0 for the 70's for all of us who were too young to hate them then. As for Marino, how can you hate the Dolphins and not hate their best quarterback? Yeah we beat him a lot, but thats part of what made beating them fun, we beat HIM.