Bob in STL

Bills ball?

What rule is next?

Sacrialidge. (Sp?)

Tuck rule needs to go

Defense is listening to me

Cinci came to play. Time for our defense to make some plays.

Time for defense to make a play

not liking all the long passes. Bills need to run and take the short stuff.

I was at the Pats* game and I watched the OL-DL with bonoculars on almost every snap. The Pats have an excellent OL and a system that gets the ball out quickly. Merriman had a good game. He was held a few times but he and Kyle were instrumental in taking away the run. The Pats had a 21 point lead and they could not run on us. Merriman had pressure. The sacks will come. This is not going to be popular but I will say it. Kelsay is having a good season.

Good point. The increase opportunites for a forced fumble also increases opportunities for a long run back too. This play will get very tricky once the cold weather and wind sets in. We could see kicks going out of bounds (bad), or more forced funbles (good). I like the aggressiveness but we need to call it at the right time.

Funny stuff on the Fitz- Brady comments. Brady may be somewhat of a prima-donna but the guy is a fantastic QB and it felt great to beat him. I just do not want to ever see Fitz, or any Bills QB, wearing Ugh Boots. Ugh No comment on Gish.

The structure you mention I always have. The difference is feeling good after the game on sunday and having it carry through the week.

Harsh? Sorry if I was harsh. I did not mean to be harsh or show any disrespect to the Albany Bills fans. I would expect that there are a lot of WNY transplants in the area. How many are in your Albany Bills Backers chapter? My past experience, which is way past (as in 1977 thru 1981), is that Albany is Giants territory, with some Jets fans too. Once upon a time we Bills fans were the subject of Bills jokes and slurs about Buffalo and Rochester from the good folks from the CD (kind of like in Ms. Gish’s article only 30 years prior). I am sure these fine citizens were only joking and there were no hard feelings either way, just college kid stuff. My point about crossing Albany off the list as Bills territory is more geographical and is proven by the TV networks and which game the select to cover. Why would an Albanite (or is it Albanian?) drive 5+ hours to a Bills game when he can go to a Giants/Jets game in half the time? Do the Bills market heavily in the area like they do in Rochester and in Southern Ontario? I go to Binghamton for business on occasion and watch Bills games with majority Jets and Giants fans in the sports bars. If I ever get to the fair city of Albany again I will look up the Albany Bills Backers. If you ever make it out to St. Louis please come watch the game with the Bills Backers in our town. Cheers!

Media attention - It is fun but too much promotion is a bad thing. They need to stay humble and play like they are proving themselves. They have a long season in front of them and I feel that if they miss the playoffs again this will just look like another misssed opportunity. Marv - I love Marv but he was not a good GM. The Jauron selection was not inspiring and he was defending Dickie J and his players right up to the start of the sesson. As for Freddy Jax, Marv did not find him. Jackson went to Coe College which is where Marv got his undergraduate degree. Jackson's coach called Marv told him about Jackson. This was a one of those "please give one of our guys a look" thing. Credit Marv and Co, when they gave him a look they liked what they saw but then again Marv also drafted Marshawn Lynch in the first round.

Agree. Merriman has played fantastic against the run and he is getting pressure on pass plays. Just a matter of time and his sacks will come.

^^ Well, you called it. The fans that trashed her have now given her a bigger stage. I avoided this thread and will propbably regret jumping in here, but to the people that wrote the negative comments to the first article you did nothing to help the perception of Bills fans or the city. You only reinforced her point. My dealings with people from Albany go back to the late 70's and early 80's. I was a student at RIT and even back then the Albany people that I met where Giants fans and they seeemed to enjoy mocking both Buffalo and Rochester. I sensed some kind elitest attitude because they were from the state capitol. Later, I lived in Pittsfield, MA and worked for GE as a coop student (intern). There were many Albany people working at GE at the time. The Bills were in the best part of the Chuck Knox era and even then there was no kinship between them and the Bills. They were Giants/Jets fans and they had an arrogance to them. My exposure to people from Albany was not good. Let's cross Albany of the list of potential Bills turf and move on. Who cares what this writer thinks. Let's not validate her any further by writing her back.

It is moments like these that made great minds such as Issac Newton think of gravity by watching an apple fall from a tree.

WOW. Some of you guys must be gods or something. I think the Jills are great. I saw them at the game last week live and they have some beauties. A few would look good on other squads too. I guess that is a benefit of turning 50. Less critical.

I was going to post a link to that article too. Great read. I love this quote from Chan: I think a lot of our players have faced some adversity in their [football] tenure but with the right resistance and character you figure to be successful, he says. I hope this area sees that. [Fans] probably do identify with the way that we are fighting our rears off to be successful and do it the right way. He pauses again. That may or may not be true but I think it might be, he says. I love Chan's point ... be successful and do it the right way. I have been gone for 30 years and still go back to Buffalo as much as I can. I love my hometown and I think the people there have a certain character that is hard to find in other places.

Ryan fumbled the interview ... first saying that Joe was not a Jet, then saying he was a Jet (once a Jet always a Jet or some nonsense like that).

If Barnett is our best LB right now, and he was let go by The Pack, think about how much more talent we need? I hope that Sheppard, Batten, or Moats can develop into good starters. I recall in the Polian/Butler eras that we hit on LBs in the draft all the time.

Roosevelt played a whole series where we ended up punting. Compared to the other WRs he looks very small and slight in build. Fitz tried to hit him with a pass but his route was poorly run and he did not get open. I think he had a drop too. I grabbed my bonoculars to make sure Nelson was only resting and not hurt. Just not impressed. I did see two blitzes in the seconds half, both were DBs and I recall one was by Byrd. Both blitzes were picked up with ease. On one Welker had a long catch and run. Blitzing is not a good idea against Brady/Welker/Hernandez/Gronkowski. I want Spiller to get more reps but I don't know how at this point? After watching Jackson do everything, including great pass blocking, it is hard to see how Spiller fits in. Hopefully Chan finds a way to use this kid. I am going back on Nov 11th. I will try one of the above.

On the positive side I had a great dinner at Frank's Sunny Italy on Saturday night. Ot is on Delaware and Tacoma. Huge portions, family dinning, and reasonable cost.

I was in Buffalo for the weekend and went to the game. Great day, perfect weather (warm actually) and despite all the negative feedback on the parking, things seem to go smooth. We got to ECC at 10:15 and there was tons of parking places so we parked in our usual spot no problem. We went into the Stadium via gate 4 about 30 minutes before kickoff. No long lines and no big deal on the pat down. The crowd was great. On to football: 1. I watched the OL and DL on almost every down with binoculars. I can see a rivalry in the making. Wood and Wilfork were as great matchup. Wood took a few penalties but he did not back down. Wilfork continues to live up to his image as a dirty player. 2. I was hard on the OL in preseason and they are proving me wrong. The look good. Levitre was a beast. Rhinehart or Urbik, I saw no difference in the play. The tackles were solid too. 3. Our DBs all played a well, despite the numbers put up by Brady. They made plays when we needed them. 4. Our DL did not get much pressure at all. With a few exceptions Brady had all day. I saw some pressure from Merriman that almost resulted in grounding penalty. Merriman kind of slowed down on the tackle and fell to Bradys feet. On the next play Merriman was held or hooked by interior linemen, could have been Mankins. Blatant holding was missed. The Pats * ended up scoring their 3rd TD. 5. Barnett is our best LB right now. We need better players on the front seven. 6. Seeing Spiller on the bench, Troup hurt again and Carrington getting limited reps. So far our best players from that draft were not even drafted. 7. Not enough words to say about Freddie Jackson. His pass blocking was great and that factor alone will keep Spiller on the bench. 8. Our young receivers are looking very good. Roosevelt is a big drop off from Jones, Johnson and Nelson though. 9. We had another one of the those TE TDs 10. Fitz overcame a slow start and his leadership is infectious. I sense the change in the attitude of this team. They are well spoken, well prepared and well coached. The losing culture is changing. They are accountable to themselves and to their team mates. They trust their coaches. This team is much different than 2008. Final note: You guys are always talking best wings, best pizza. I went to Duffs on Sheridan. I havent been there in 30 years. The wings were bad. To me, they use way too much vinegar and no butter flavor at all. You can do better at almost any bar or restaurant. This was the only disappointment on my trip. Duffs is living on an old rep IMO.

They forced us to run by playing a two man line and taking away the crossing patterns. We did not figure it out until it was too late. Everytime we saw the two man line we should have pounded the ball down their throats. That would have opened up the pass. Our staff did not adjust until to late. Thurman would have had 200 yards on the ground with ease. Man ... our team was so much better.