Lori

True, that. "Jim Kelly's our quarterback, Marv Levy's our coach, and if you don't like it you can get out of town!!!!!" Sigh... them were the good ol' days....

Because he's not Drew? When the starting QB looks bad, the backup QB becomes the most popular player in town. And ever since Jim Kelly neared the end of his career, we've had plenty of practice at this. Honestly, though, I don't think people are attaching "savior" status to Losman just yet. Most of us just feel that since the season isn't going anywhere after January 2nd anyway -- for the fifth year in a row -- we might as well get the rook some playing time.

Good post, Fez. This deserves some more time on Page 1.

Now there's a frightening visual.

Right on, Bob. Seeya Sunday.

Likewise, Jay - WoooHoooooo! Congrats to all at Chez Sarama......

He'll still get votes, although his time in Buffalo will probably only serve to lessen his chances.... That article is comparing him to Brady, not to the other QBs in the Hall. Whether or not Brady's better won't be the criteria used by the HOF selectors. Also, it spends a fair amount of time on passer ratings. Wanna guess how many HOF QBs have a lifetime passer rating that ranks in the all-time top 20? Try 5. John Elway is 33rd, behind such luminaries as Brian Griese, Brad Johnson and Mark Brunell. Far as Bledsoe's concerned, think Dan Fouts. Similar stats, and Fouts never won an AFC championship. So does Drew get in? Debatable... but even if he's not a HOF-caliber QB, it's a long drop-off from there to "never-was". JMO....

They were throws, but they were still high-percentage stuff, nothing downfield. (Seeing as how teams other than the Bills actually can successfully complete screen passes on a regular basis...... ) I dunno, JMO. And yeah, you and Fez are right - he did get greedy by not taking the gimme FG.

At least learn how to spell Berman, willya? Thanks.

Sounds like a judgement call vis-a-vis your league rules. The box score does say 2-yd TD pass, but the NFL.com gamebook has this instead... I'm not sure how I'm going to rule on this in our league, either.

How many holding penalties did he have, anyway? I saw at least two. And did anyone else think Sherman almost cost GB the game? Great playcalls for the first 55 minutes, but then practically conceding a 3-and-out to get Minny to burn their TOs. Would've rather seen them at least try to get a first down, I think.....

A couple of notes: Even though they've been playing with a lead in almost all of their games, New England's D is ranked 21st in rushing yds against/game. Travis Henry averaged 4.4 yds/carry against them in the first game. Om runagain......... Agree completely about backing off the blitz, though. Unless Gray wants to watch McGee (unsuccessfully) chasing David Patten all over the field again. I think having Milloy instead of Wire at SS helps with that, though....

Yup, back-to-back. Denver first.

Ever watch "Bill Swerski's SuperFans" on SNL? "So - who do ya like?" "Da Bearrrrsss - 73-0." "I like Da Bearrrrsssss too, but it's not gonna be that close. 200 to negative 2." What, you mean you don't actually know people like that?

That's it in a nutshell. It looks like Mularkey is willing to learn from his mistakes; I never got that impression from GW. For example: when MM replaced Coy Wire in the middle of the first New England game, was there any doubt in your mind Wire wouldn't be starting at SS the following week? Compare that to how Gregg handled Eddie Robinson - everyone knew he was done, and there were other guys GW could have tried at that spot (including Greg Favors, now a starter in Jacksonville). But the only game Robinson didn't start that year was Cincinnati - the final game of the season - when the Bills opened up in a dime D. Another example: penalties. Williams had his opportunity laps, he talked about fixing the problem... but every single year he was here, the team ended up with over 100 penalties. And other than having them run laps, did he really do anything about solving the problem? Now, considering the Bills had 32 penalties after only four games this season, they'll probably end up in triple digits again. But instead of giving the stock "we just have to stop doing that" answer, Mularkey looked at how the Jets are so successful at keeping their penalty totals down, and decided to try what they're doing. MM's still a rookie, and he'll make mistakes... but I haven't seen him keep making the same mistakes. I like that.

I'm in the same boat, Rico. The Bills absolutely can win this game... or they can live down to the team's history in recent primetime roadies, and get rolled by double digits. And I honestly don't have a clue which way it's going to go. Here's my random thoughts on this game. Guess they disappeared under the onslaught of Scott Peterson posts Friday.......

That would be Zig Fracassi, late of WNSA. Good to hear he's doing OK.

Sounds like those kids need a lesson in something other than sales..... Speaking as an officer of our local United Fund, we try to make sure everyone who donates money to our campaign - whether it's a corporation handing us a $5000 check, or an elderly lady digging a couple of $1 bills out of her change purse - knows how much we appreciate their thoughtfulness, and that we'll use their donation to help the people of our community.

Really? Cool. Our local affiliates pick up the post-game show, so I'll have a good signal for it. Kinda figured having Gaenzler do both pre- and post-games was just a short-term, "disaster-QB" fix....

Instead of picking one particular stat for this week's NotW, I decided to see just how many ways I could work the number zero into the equation. Managed to find quite a few; I like some of them better than others.... 0: Number of Patriots home losses since December 22, 2002. 0: Number of Bills road wins since November 30, 2003. Okay, that's not so good. Add in the extra electricity a prime-time game generates, and you can put a very large checkmark in the "home-field advantage" box for New England. If the Patriots get out to an early lead, it could be over quick.... Or perhaps not. Here's a few more items from my list, all from the first New England game- 0: Number of times Willis McGahee touched the ball. With Travis Henry running well, McGahee barely saw the field - in a quick re-scan of the game before work last night, I have him marked down for a total of 3 plays. Obviously, that will change this week. 0: Number of plays Lawyer Milloy was on the field for. (Remember, Milloy was still two weeks away from returning to the lineup.) A few stats for comparison: Total net yards/game given up in games without Milloy - 298.0; with Milloy - 218.3. Yards/play given up without Milloy - 5.10; with Milloy - 3.97. Third-down percentage without Milloy - 28-65, 43.1%; with Milloy - 10-39, 25.6%. And the most important one of all - 1-4 without Milloy, 2-1 with Milloy. I said it before, and I'll say it again: if Lawyer doesn't get hurt in the preseason, this team has a winning record right now. 0: Number of total catches by Josh Reed and Bobby Shaw. Reed dropped what would have been a first down, and had a false start; Shaw was invisible. The coaching staff must not have been ready to trust Lee Evans just yet, though, because both Shaw and Reed got more playing time than he did. That, too, will be a different story this week... just in time for Evans to line up against New England's backup CBs. Gameplan: -Run the ball and play defense. Game management, Drew. Go ahead and take a few shots at those CBs, but please no "wicky-wacky" playcalls this week, Tom C. -Brady can beat the blitz. This is a fact. Give McGee a hand against Patten this time; the wily old vet taught the young'un a few lessons in Buffalo. The Patriots are a great team, but their injury issues could start to sap their legendary resilience. The Bills aren't a great team... yet... but they are getting better. If they can continue to improve on their unforced errors (dumb penalties, dropped passes, missed blocks, etc.), and if they can avoid making the Big Mistake (i.e., 4th-and-3 QB bootleg/sack/fumble/Patriot TD), the Bills can win this game. That said, though, those are pretty big ifs........

Or at least until he can run without a limp?

21st in the league, giving up 4.2 yds/carry and 119 yds/game. That's 23.1 yards/game more than Buffalo's rush D. 21st out of 32 teams? Yes, I'd say that qualifies as mediocre.

Right on, Campy/Simon. I just reviewed the tape of the first game before heading to work last night, and every single big play they made in the passing game came against a DB blitz.

But then again, McGahee hasn't had the opportunity to run against a mediocre Patriots run D yet, either - he never touched the ball in the meeting in Buffalo, while Travis Henry was busy having his best game of the season. (4.1 ypc, vs. 3.2 ypc in the rest of the games he's played so far.)

That's what I'm thinking, too. Interesting way for them to make a point.