silvermike

If you're a Lions fan, are you rooting for 0-16 at this point? If you're going to be historically bad, you might as well be legendarily bad.

I'd call a week on injury to Tom Brady good fortune. We just decided to lose to Matt Cassel. In short, the way to make the playoffs is to win every game.

Teddy who? As far as next year goes, I think the Bills' problems at LB aren't about not having enough standout players - Poz and Mitchell are a solid duo - it's about how awful the depth chart gets so quickly. They're paper thin! We need to bring in some solid veterans who can give us some breathing room.

The Jets have to give up a bigger draft pick for making the playoffs. That's, uh, you know, some kind of something.

Here's what it's going to look like, folks: Option A: The Bills win out At 11-5, the Bills are very likely to make the playoffs. They would beat the Dolphins, knocking them down to 10-6 at best - passing them. The Patriots would max out at 11-5 as well, but I think there's a pretty good chance they lose to either Pittsburgh or Arizona and we pass them thusly. But if they win out, we'd be tied in record, split head-to-head, and even in the division. Next up is common games, where it'll be another draw. So you go to conference record, where the Bills would be 8-4 and the Patriots 7-5. We'd edge them. The Jets are next on the target list, and they could be 12-4 even if we win the rest of our games. If they're 11-5, we go to merry tiebreaker land. They split with us, one down. The divisional games count on where that loss comes from: if they lose to Miami, we're tied up at 3-3, but if they beat Miami en route to 11-5, they'll pass us automatically. But if they're 11-5 with a loss to Miami, we go to common games. The Jets' losses to San Diego and Oakland will cost them - we'd pass them here. If we catch the Patriots but not the Jets, there's still no guarantees out in the other divisions, where Baltimore and Indianapolis could both be 12-4. If Baltimore drops only a game against either Washington or Dallas, they pass us on their conference record. But if they get it against an AFC team, it starts going down the list again. Both teams would be 11-5 and 8-4 in the conference. Common games are next, and the Ravens will edge us here, even if they take a loss to Bills-defeated Jacksonville. So the Ravens need two losses from Pittsburgh, Washington, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Cincinnati. The Colts will be not be possible to catch at 11-5 in any way, since they would have at least a 9-3 conference record. So root for at least two losses from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Tennessee. So to sum up: The Bills win the division at 11-5 IF the Jets lose to Miami or lose any two other games. They make the wildcard at 11-5 IF either: The Ravens lose at least two more games or the Colts lose at least two more games. Option B: The Bills go 10-6 Making the playoffs at 10-6 is significantly more difficult. Losing to San Francisco would make it laughable that the team could win four in a row after that against much better teams, and a division loss would drop our chances down to almost nothing. So say it comes vs. the Broncos. Now, first up the Dolphins, would could still finish 10-6 even if they lost to us. If they do, they would have beat the Jets in week 17 and win any tiebreaker with us. Another loss would be tricky for them to come by: KC, St., Louis, and San Francisco are on the table. The Patriots would need another loss to come down to 10-6 with us. They'd hold tiebreakers unless it came against Seattle, Arizona, or Oakland on common games. A loss to Oakland from them would get us ahead on conference games, otherwise, it goes down to strength of victory, where we would be defeated. Realistically, they'd need two losses out of Seattle, Arizona, Oakland, and Pittsburgh for us to pass. And we're not passing the Jets at 10-6. It's mathematically possible, but extremely unlikely. They would have to lose to the Dolphins, who would also have to lose another game them behind us. Then they'd have to lose a game out of Denver, San Francisco and Seattle. And of course, lose to us in there. That's a 3-3 finish against mediocre teams for a team on a 5-0 tear. Okay, so on to a wild card race with Baltimore and Indy. Again, our weak conference record (7-5) would require Indy to lose at least three conference games, which would put them behind us anyway. I don't think the Colts are finishing 2-3, considering they'd need to lose to Cincy, Cleveland, or Detroit. Baltimore could tie us at 10-6 and have a 7-5 conference record, but they'd still beat us on common games. Meaning they'll need to lose three of Cincy, Washington, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Jax. So, again, to sum it up: at 10-6, the Bills need to have: The Dolphins lose to the Jets or lose two games out of STL, SF, KC. AND The Patriots lose to Oakland or lose two games out of PIT, SEA, ARI AND Indy lose three to Cleveland, Jacksonville, Detroit, Cincinnati and Tenneseee or Baltimore lose three to Cincy, Washington, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Jacksonville. Or only pass one of the Colts/Pats and then both of Indy/Baltimore.

Yeah, that was just Bucky being obnoxious. He's right about the playoffs, but he's a jerk regardless.

I'd take them against the Bills offense, at their current advanced ages, even shorthanded two players.

Nobody gets anything for mid-depth chart receivers. Dante Hall got traded for a 5th round pick - that's probably the ceiling for Roscoe.

Yeah, my opinion that the Jets suck and all their players are overrated garbage isn't really backed up by evidence anymore, is it?

The fact is that this is LT's 8th season, and it's truly rare to get top flight production from your RB for that long. Look at his 2001 classmates: Deuce McAllister is in his third season in tandem with Reggie Bush, and has been lately losing carries to Pierre Thomas. Travis Henry is out of the league, though of course, he's had his series of problems. Rudi Johnson has been dumped as washed up. LaMont Jordan can't get on the field because of some guy named BenJarvus. And you want old and washed up? Anthony Thomas came out the same year as LT. And none of those guys had anything like the level of focus that LT commanded. Go back a year, and it's all guys who are clearly past their prime and almost past their ability to stay in the league: Shaun Alexander, Reuben Droughns, Thomas Jones, Jamal Lewis - none of those guys is the best RB on their team right now.

McNabb's not VINCE Young at all - if anything, he's closer to being a (much worse) version of STeve Young. They're both accurate passers who have thrived in West Coast offenses relying on quick, short passes. And both of them have been able to beat you on the ground. Of course, McNabb doesn't have the skills Steve did, nor the coaching, nor the WR corps. But McNabb came within three points of winning the Super Bowl with TO - imagine if he had TO and Jerry Rice.

Next year we get our answer. Cassel's a UFA. If he goes and chokes it up in Minnesota, we'll know it was the system. But if he brings the Lions offense to life, well, they had another hit. And if he stays and backs up Brady, you can be certain it's all system.

Defensive lineman, offensive lineman, best available. Same as every other year. Edit: I mean same as I say every other year.

The Sabres are fine. They're in a slump - it's a long season and these things happen. But it's a solid team that's been smartly built, with key talent retained and developed. The Bills are the ones that haven't won a playoff game in 12 years.

I'll say this - Kelly Holcomb had playoff experience. How many other Bills QB can say that?

Which proven winner do you want to bring in? Cowher says he's done coaching. Schottenheimer says he's done coaching. You can disbelieve them, but they're both longshots. Who else is out there? Brian Billick?

When the Bills make the playoffs again - and it won't be this season - they'll do it with Trent Edwards at QB, or they'll do it with a QB who isn't on the roster. There's no Second Coming of Losman on the horizon, and Hamdan is...well, come on. There's nothing to gain from not playing Edwards.

I'll chip in on gas if you want to drive down to Nashville and convince him.

Their basketball game against Ohio a few years ago certainly proved that to be true.

I'm not convinced the Bills D is as bad as we give them credit for. I think they're just overshadowed by an abysmal offense. I'm not saying they're GOOD, don't get me wrong. I just think of them as solidly average. We rank 14th in points-per-game. That's respectable, if not special. 13th in yards-per-game, too. And in this whole time, we've only given up more than two TDs in a game once, in that blowout in the desert. We suck at picking off passes - only 5 - but bear in mind, it helps to be facing a QB who's behind and taking risks, and our D is almost never in that position. The same goes for our humiliatingly low sack total, but we're in the top 10 in pass deflections. The coverage isn't bad. We get beat by #1 WRs, but are among the league's best in terms of #2 and #3 WRs and TEs, which makes sense for a team with plenty of decent CBs but no shutdown man, and a solid corps of safeties. It may not feel like it, but the Bills aren't bad at getting off the field on 3rd down. We're 10th in the league, allowing a 37% conversion rate. Look, I'm not saying they're world beaters. I'm saying they're a good-enough defense for a team that had any semblance of a coherent offensive attack. And we don't have one. Give these guys a few more chances to rest, the knowledge that giving up the occasional big play won't blow it altogether for their chances to win, and they'll do their job.

Nice to see a Buffalo football team with heart.

If you can be the better team for four quarters, you'll win almost every game. If you try to play close then stab for a win at the last minute, well, you're as good as a kicker from 50 yards away. Jauron has shown that he's happy with 50-50 teams, who go somewhere around 8-8.

We can argue about 3-4, 4-3, and cover-2 all day, the point is to have a coach who is successful in whatever system they choose to run and who runs the system that best suits their players. Minnesota runs a great Cover-2. So did the Bears in their Super Bowl season and of course, the Bucs themselves. Of course, so do the Lions and the Bills. Meanwhile, the Titans have a ferocious 4-3, and Haslett has a terrible one in St. Louis. The Steelers run a top notch 3-4, and the Browns used it to blow three straight leads before they were bailed out by some combination of Jauron, Edwards, and Lindell. Get a better coach, get a better defensive coordinator, and get better defenders. Bouncing around between systems only requires you to spend more effort bringing in new system guys.

I want Jim Schwartz - DC of the Titans. You know, if it's Christmastime and all.

Center and DE. By far our most screaming needs. Do yourself a favor and don't look at how much we're paying Kelsay. After that, we desperately need a pass catching tight end or a solid #2 WR. Johnson, Fine, or Hardy could develop, however. Then down the list, lead-blocking FB, LB, and a ton of depth on the offensive line.