KurtGodel77

I think we can get a second round pick by trading Travis this off-season. Maybe even a high second round pick. We could really use a pick like that on a safety or an OL.

I heard rumors that Miami was considering offering their first round pick for TH. They wanted to save their season. Now that it's past the trading deadline, the trade won't happen.

Miami's first round pick would help the team more than Travis can. Willis is a workhorse back too. For that matter, Joe Burns is a workhorse back, but he doesn't have Travis's talent. Travis doesn't have McGahee's talent.

Willis is clearly a better back than Travis. Not just because of the individual contribution he makes to the team--running for over 100 yards--but because of the way his style of play affects the game as a whole. When the defense is sending jerk blitzers up the middle, a quick toss to Willis will allow him to break the ball to the outside. That should be good for five yards or more. Had we traded Henry to Miami, they would have a running back controversy upon the return of Ricky Williams. They would also lack a first round pick in next year's draft. A running back controversy, with Travis clearly being second-best. No first round pick next year. These problems should sound familiar. Only with the trade, they would have been Miami's problems, instead of our own.

We need to look not just at the individual contributions of both backs, but also at the way their style of play affects the overall game. The textbook way to beat Bledsoe is to send blitzers up the middle. A between-the-tackles back like Henry won't punish the defense for using this strategy on running plays. On the other hand, if you blitz up the middle when WM is running the ball, chances are he'll break it to the outside, and make your blitzers in the middle look pretty useless. Even if you have one guy on the outside there to make the tackle, chances are he'll be dragged forward a few yards before WM goes down. Having WM on the field forces the defense away from the style of play that works best against our OL and Bledsoe. And don't even get me started on blitz pickup, screen passes, or dumpoff passes!

That is some good info. Keep it coming!

Uh, Jay Fiedler hardly looked like an all pro this past Sunday. The Bills have played hard, and each of our losses has been close. Most have also been due to questionable officiating (50 yards of needless penalties on the lone Jets' TD drive, the New England fumble that got negated due to a premature whistle, the unnecessary roughness penalty on London Fletcher--also New England--and then the phantom holding calls in the Raiders game to wipe out our best plays). If the games had been officiated fairly, we'd definitely have wins against the Jets and the Raiders, and there is a 50/50 chance we'd have won against the Patriots too. But this past Sunday, the Bills overcame the bad officiating--specifically the holding call against Campbell to wipe out a 3rd and 10 conversion. We won despite the officials, and we can win despite them again! -James

Mularkey should have fired Gray before the season, to hire Dave McGinnis. McGinnis was a good enough defensive coordinator that they made him Arizona's head coach. He didn't work out as head coach, but he is a great defensive coordinator.

I didn't like the way that Morris ran all over our defense in the first half. Nor was I pleased with that 7:00+ drive Miami used to kill the third quarter. In the second half of that Miami game, our offense looked as good as our defense. At least.

In my scenario, Aiken moves up to #3 this year, and pairs with Evans to be part of our top two next year. Evans may already be the best WR on this team.

I think this may have been more about Eric Moulds and Sam Aiken than about Bobby Shaw. The Bills are likely to cut or trade Eric Moulds after the season: 1. Eric Moulds is declining 2. His cap figure will be $8 million next season 3. Sam Aiken has the same height and weight as Moulds 4. TD will be unable to resist the temptation to solve his cap problems by cutting an overpaid, declining Butler player. 5. When the Losman era begins, it will make sense for him to build chemistry with younger WRs who will be here a while. We can really attack our cap problems by cutting Moulds, but ONLY if we know that Sam Aiken can step into Moulds' shoes. That means getting Aiken playing time NOW rather than later. With Josh Reed underachieving and Bobby Shaw gone, the door is now wide open for Aiken to move into the #3 WR spot this year; en route to being one of our two starting WRs next year. I realize that Aiken for Moulds will probably be a downgrade. But with salary cap problems, you are going to get hurt somewhere. Probably Aiken for Moulds will give us a lot of salary cap improvement for only a little pain.

Just what I've always wanted . . . I guess.

Evans seems to give us one really big play each game--a HUGE play each game. That's a lot for a rookie. He could give us even more if we were able to give Bledsoe the time he needs to go deep.

EVERY GAME WE'VE HAD has been a heartbreaker loss.

In that case, he'll be gone next year. There is no way TD is going to take an $8 million cap hit for a declining Butler player.

I really hope that Mularkey gives McGahee more playing time as the year goes on. We really need to do more running. When we do throw, it should often be a deep strike. Let's look at our scoring: This week: Deep pass to Evans: TD Turnover by defense: short drive results in a TD Last week: Deep pass to Evans: sets us up for a FG Deep pass to Moulds: TD So ALL of our scoring these past two weeks has come because of deep passes on offense or turnovers.

McGahee: 5.2 yards/carry (3 yards a carry after you take away his longest run) Henry: 2.8 yards/carry (1.7 yards/carry after you take away his longest run) Willis: can pass protect, can catch passes, can run outside or inside, gives you a big play when you need one

Two of Butler's four playoff appearances came when we had Kelly under center. Kelly was a pre-Butler pick. The first of the two non-Kelly appearances came when Flutie replaced Johnson, the second when Johnson replaced Flutie. A few years later, both players would be replaced, and neither would be starting for another NFL team.

Butler's biggest problem was that he didn't find us a QB. His QBs were Todd Collins (inept), Billy Joe Hoebart (inept), Rob Johnson (too easy to sack), and Doug Flutie (too old, not a long-term solution, not accurate enough). We had a good defense, and an offensive line that could run block well, and some talent at non-QB skill positions, but without a QB you really can't build anything long term.

Next year I think we can really improve behind players like McGahee, Losman, and Evans. Evans seems to play a little better each week.

Headline writers!!

For some reason I thought that Cincy loss was in the divisional round. I guess I was wrong.

All right: I admit our offense is doing poorly in both passing and running. It might not be the line though. Defenses are sending a lot of blitzes up the middle. If we run the ball up the middle, the blitzing linebacker makes the tackle. If we throw, the extra blitzer sacks Bledsoe. We can't run it to the outside that well, because Travis is more of a between-the-tackles type runner. We can't have the QB roll out of the pocket, because Drew isn't any kind of a runner at all. It would be nice to use our backs as extra blockers on passing downs, but the only back who can block (McGahee) doesn't see a lot of snaps. In fact I believe that McGahee (when healthy) will solve a lot of our problems, because he will be able to be a better outside runner than Travis.

Unfortunately intolerant behavior is all too common on the Left. It's rare to meet a liberal who is particularly tolerant of conservative points of view.

If there are any headline writers on these boards, admit it: you've been waiting for a game to come down to the final minute, with the Bills leading and the opposing offense driving down the field. Buffalo's last defensive play would be an interception by Coy Wire, allowing our offense to run out the clock. "Game comes down to the Wire" the headline writers would write. I'm sure they've been salivating over this ever since Wire got drafted, in fact.