silvermike

Great Defense vs. Great Defense tends not to make for good games, especially since not only were both offenses mediocre, they're also both fairly conservative, particularly since you know what you're up against. You end up with a game that has a lot of smashes into the line followed by incomplete passes, rather than risky plays that lead downfield or to interceptions or sacks. Great Defense vs. Great Offense is exciting from that "unstoppable force meets immovable object" kind of perspective, and then everybody loves a shootout. Cardinals-Eagles was a fun game because it had two teams that regardless of talent, played aggressive offense and aggresive defense.

Kinda. IN some ways, it's almost the opposite. The Big Money players that leave the team - Nate Clements, Willis McGahee - go on to have fairly run-of-the-mill careers with other teams. It's just the guys we run out of town or cut in disgrace that seem to catch on. Lord knows we could afford Bannan and Leonard.

If that's Warner and Roethlisberger, what are Trent and JP?

That's a pretty good sized contract for a street FA. There must have been a bidding war.

I think Baltimore definitely has gotten more guts from McGahee than he was giving to the Bills. I think that one might rest on the coaches, but it might be the fact that McGahee is a huge jerk. Still though, he was an average-to-okay RB for the Bills and he's still basically one for the Ravens. Jimmy Leonard is playing hard, but I believe he's an injury fill in, not a starter. He and Bannan are fill ins, and while they're playing well, they're on an excellent defense, and the raw talent there gives them more chances to make plays. Gandy, on the other hand, seems like a real averagenaut even on the Cardinals. He got blown up today, and is it possible Warner's a lefty? Levi Brown is a great tackle, and he's on the other side.

I think it was generally a pretty heavily overofficiated game.

It's the 15 yard roughing the kicker that was appalling. That was the biggest phantom penalty I've ever seen. Thank God it was moot.

Hmmm...what could possibly be different between those two men? You get the benefit of the doubt when you're a six point favorite in the Super Bowl instead of...whatever it is Jauron is doing this week.

At least with the Steelers, they can blame it on the QB. Didn't we call a running play?

There's still Russ Grimm out there. If the Jets and Raiders bite on other coaches, I'd like to see Grimm get our job in 2010.

I'd be pretty willing to believe that the agent made up the "3 year offer from Buffalo with a BIG signing bonus" to get Cassel to toe his line in negotiations to come with the Patriots. And Cassel told his mom and the mom told you. I don't believe that the rumor is actually true though.

You want the Bills to cease to exist. Period. Get the hell off this board.

For the Bills to be a laughingstock, 50% of NFL fans at least would have to be able to name the head coach we've kept and why it's bad that we did. Nobody cares out there.

Schumer's in his second term. What kind of term limits are you looking for?

He'd have to be a LOT better than Daniel Graham to merit any consideration in the first round. Graham's had fewer catches than Robert Royal in each of the past four seasons.

Look - every draft pick could go horribly wrong. You can draft a can't-miss, next-Bruce Smith DE and end up with another Erik Flowers. So you just have to go with the best information you have. A Crabtree pick going bust isn't any worse for us than Everette Brown going bust. So if we think there's a good chance Crabtree will be a Randy Moss/Larry Fitz caliber WR, I think there's absolutely no question that we draft him at #11. You don't leave that kind of talent on the board to address a need. However, with ten teams in front of us, there's no way Crabtree drops to us if the consensus opinion of the scouts is that he's an All-Pro.

I'll note that Alex Mack isn't in that top 32 - and there is another center there. Maybe he's not all that and gets attention because he shares a name with a Larissa Oelynk character?

I wouldn't be pissed if we sent Kelsay off the roster for a CFLer.

If we added Raji to the rotation, could Spencer Johnson start at DE? I know he's played there situationally.

Thus thought all of us, circa January 2008. Anyway, it's remarkable how many fired coaches did better than Jauron. Gruden was 9-7, Mangini was 9-7, Shanahan was 8-8. And all with playoff appearances and between them, three Super Bowl wins.

Yes, the historical patterns of discrimination against white coaches in the National Football League is a serious issue.

Schonert WAS a huge upgrade from Fairchild. It doesn't mean he was good, but it means that Fairchild was an embarassingly bad OC.

Remember, Fassel got unceremoniously fired by Brian Billick when he was last an OC, at which point the offense markedly improved.

I mean, if Arizona wins the Super Bowl, Kurt might decided to hang'em up. So I guess that's not unreasonable. But yeah, I think McNabb's gonna stick around at least another season in Philly.

What self-respecting criminal is going to come to Buffalo? To make any serious money running drugs, you need a club scene to sell E in and a business class willing to pay top dollar for coke. You're not going to get anyone to town to sell joints at Dave and Buster's.