Cotton Fitzsimmons

Barbarian, my good man, if YE OLE is following what you are saying, your logic dictates that field goals are not a necessary evil and can be abolished, because teams can simply go for it on 4th down and create more excitement in the game. If that is the case, why is the same not true for punters? Why would the punt be a necessary evil? Couldn't teams simply go for it on 4th down, therefore creating more excitement in the game?

Big UPS to Beerball!

Howard does and has lurked this board for some time. One of YE OLE's favorite anecdotes traces origin back about 10 years ago to THE SIMONCAST. Tom Galley was Howard's producer back in those days and YE OLE decided to pay homage to the man behind the scenes by affectionately referring to him as "Back Alley Galley" and making it a point to mention him early and often in all of YE's posts. So, mid afternoon rolls around one day, and YE OLE is tuned to Empire (Channel 626 for those of us on DirecTV in those days), and Ricky Jay comes on to give scores/updates leading into a break. Much to YE OLE's delight, Ricky Jay and Howard get into a little conversation where Ricky responds "I don't know, you'll have to ask old 'Back Alley Galley' over there." Naturally, YE OLE had to follow up on this and emailed the show requesting the back story on this "Back Alley Galley" and asking if he was perhaps a "bar room brawler" in a past life. The next segment, Howard read the email and asked Ricky Jay about the origins of all of this nonsense. Ricky Jay explained that it came from some knucklehead at Two Bills Drive and he thought it was hillarious, and had to bring it to the air. That knucklehead of course was yours truly. The moment was surreal, as from that day forward, YE OLE had to embrace the fact that important people in the Buffalo sports scene read what the good folks of this forum have to say.

Russell "Spaulding" Wilson... well played sir!

Mr. BaBaBa, Hammer aside from being a fine, stand up human being, has no reason to distort the truth with regard to his lot. Hammer's lot is indeed legendary and it's not at all surprising that Lee chose to show up there. That is the fact, Jack!

YE OLE understands that some here have a greater disdain for Fitz' ability than others, and YE OLE would not argue that an upgrade at QB couldn't greatly improve our chances. That said, this "Anybody but Fitz" mentality is misguided. Have we forgotten how bad a QB can really be? In the 15 years since Kelly retired Fitz is far and away better than anything we've gotten from the QB position outside of Flutie and Bledsoe. We've had a cast of characters here that couldn't eclipse 100-150 yds. passing on a regular basis, and it almost required an act of God to get into the endzone. If we have a chance to land a guy with a bonafide chance to be an upper echelon QB in this league, by all means lets go for it, but if we're talking about replacing Fitz with the second coming of Van Pelt, Holcolm, or Losman, no thanks.

Fish can't stop Spiller But Chan can; goes pass heavy YIKES! Interception

Fluffhead, my good fellow, this happens frequently in the NFL. You may recall the painful loss at Miami in the wildcard round in '98, as just one of many examples. A game that ended in agonizing comedy of errors. Andre Reed getting jobbed at the goal line... Reed getting up to argue the point and getting flagged, and finally THE FLUTE MAN coughing up the rock to seal the deal.

By week 8, we the fans, resign ourselves to the reality that we once again are going to miss the playoffs.

Hazed, my good fellow, YE OLE heard this too in the post game and was angered by this. Chan and Wanny are great friends and Chan has the utmost respect for Wanny as a coach... as such he's completely handed all dealings with that unit to Wanny. On the flipside he completely controls the offensive side of the ball and fulfills all duties of offensive coordinator right down to playcalling. What we've ended up with seemingly is a staff that's devoid of a true head coaching presence as Chan seems more intent on solely micromanaging the offense and an offensive coordinator in Modkins who is a coordinator in name only (What exactly does this guy do?). Then you have Wanny, who had a history of being associated with some good defensive units over the years, but who has also proven to be rather mediocre to a train wreck at times as a head coach. And I say this, because, essentially Chan has made Wanny a de facto head coach over his portion of the team. Chan even made it clear in an interview before the season that Dave works WITH Chan and not FOR Chan. Not to get caught up in semantics, and clearly Chan was trying to express the respect he has for Wanny, but we're getting to a point now where Chan has to take responsibility for this team and get things on the right track. So far this regime has given us nothing more than a slightly worse version of the Jauron era in terms of W/L. Jauron's teams were fairly unwatchable at times, but I give him credit in the sense that he consistently got 7-9 out of less talented teams than Chan has right now.

Word on the street is, Siefert was taking Vince to meet up with Wanny at a local Karaoke bar where the two of them are going to peform Falco's "Der Kommissar"

Maybe Fitz isn't the long term answer here and this team needs to address the QB situation, but through 7 games we are 8th in the league in points scored. We are 31st in the league in points against. As YE OLE brought up in another thread, this defense is on pace to give up 519 points this season. We need to really think about how bad that is. Just for a reference point, the 2001 team under Gregg "High School" Williams with rookies and journeymen all over the defense (real heavy hitters the likes of Raion Hill, Jay Foreman, Brandon Spoon, Erik Flowers, Leif Larsen, etc.) gave up 420 points that entire season. That team was in complete rebuilding mode, but seriously think back to how piss poor that unit was, and think how much worse this unit is playing. With all due respect to those who disagree... it doesn't matter how untimely Fitz's bad throws were today, or through the first half of this season for that matter, because this defense is terrible in epic fashion. This isn't just going to rival the worst defensive units in our franchise history... it's going to rival the worst units in the entire history of this league. Again, this team is ranked 8th in the league in points scored. We can and have done much worse than this over the past decade+. I'm all for finding a better QB, but Fitzpatrick for all of his physical limitations and poor throws is getting this offense in the endzone enough to win games... and today was no exception.

Here's the situation with the defense, gents... through 7 games we're on pace to give up 519 points this season. The 2001 Buffalo Bills in complete rebuilding mode with rookies and journeymen all over the field (we're talking Brandon Spoon, Raion Hill, Chidi Ahanatu) gave up 420 points all season.

We in here talkin' bout PRACTICE ... not a game... PRACTICE

LiterateStylish, my good friend, bravo! When YE OLE read this, he actually envisioned the Most Interesting Man in the World in his usual attire under center, sending Charles and/or McCluster in motion, and proceeding to gun it out there, catching the passes from you like they usually do... you'd hit them in stride and they'd take it to the house. On a side note, YE OLE agrees with your post wtr to SUPER MARIO.

CJ should sport a yellow blazer next week in Cleveland, a la Chad Johnson a few years back.

Inkman, my friend, you may be right. But it is still hard to believe that these guys seem to be so dysfunctional in such a public way. How much that will impact their preparedness on Sunday may be nill. Although, YE OLE has a feeling we are going to see a dominant showing by the good guys.

This is the gift that keeps giving gents. These fellows know there's a game Sunday, right? Sanchez: Tebow sells seats... http://www.nfl.com/n..._headline_stack Holmes: Sanchez 'rattled' by Tebow trade http://www.nfl.com/n..._headline_stack

Rex talks a big game Ruvell Martin hits paydirt Jets hang heads in shame

The Jambrones have released their latest offering, gents... Enjoy!

Indeed you are, my good fellow. If a well learned scholar of the game such as BillnutinHouston, YE OLE must be on to something here, gents!

Can't argue with you there, Coach. The 2010 draft doesn't look good top to bottom. Moats looks like a decent late rd. find out of that class, and CJ has some talent, but hasn't made the impact you'd hope out of a top 10 pick yet (perhaps due to circumstance as much as talent). But, I would definitely have hoped to get more out of Troup, Carrington, and Easley, which appears to be absolutely nothing at this point.

Perhaps we should be more concerned if all of our late round picks were making the roster, as it would be indication that our existing talent is subpar. Coach Tuesday, my good fellow, YE OLE is with you on the the 1st/2nd/3rd rd. guys. Nix needs to be hitting on those more than not. But when you get into 5th, 6th, 7th, UDFA's it becomes more of a numbers game. Bring in a pool of these guys and maybe you hit on Fred Jackson or Stevie Johnson. However, there's a reason that these guys go late in the draft and if their talent level is such that they're going to automatically make your roster, that speaks to where our talent level has been in past years when this team hasn't been good. Look at who New England drafted in the 5th-7th rounds from 2010 to 2011: Marcus Cannon, Lee Smith, Markell Carter, Malcolm Williams, Zoltan Mesko, Ted Larsen, Thomas Welch, Brandon Deadrick, Kade Weston, and Zach Robinson Only 4 of those 10 picks have seen any playing time with New England. Lee Smith we poached from them much like our late round picks are getting picked up off waivers this year. I simply use New England as an example, but you can find similar situations with many of the perennial powers in the league. Aside from the rare exceptions when a Kyle Williams type falls through the cracks, if players of Mark Asper caliber were making any significant contribution to this team, we would rue the day. It would be shades of Jamie Nails and Marcus Spriggs all over again, gents!

The Bills are THE WHIP... that's the fact Jack!

Cale, my good fellow, what is it that you expect out of a backup QB? We can debate whether the organization could have or should have done more over the past couple of years to bring in a higher caliber starting QB, but just looking at this T-Jack move through the lens of what it is: acquiring a backup QB, it seems like he is one of the better backups in the league. You're getting a guy who has been in the league for 6 years and has a good bit of experience under his belt. He's been 17-17 as a starter, career TD/INT ratio is 38/35. In his most recent body of work, last season, he threw for over 3000 yards and completed a hair over 60% of his passes, and was 7-7 with a Seahawks team that I don't think anyone would say was loaded with talent. Maybe it's just YE OLE... but if you can get a backup that can come in and complete 60% of his passes and play .500 ball, that's a good backup QB. That prevents your season from going into the tank if your starter goes down for a short stretch. If you're expecting much better than that out of a #2, they would more than likely be locked up as a starter somewhere.