BuffaloWings

This is an excellent Bears team (so far), but I can't honestly see them going undefeated. I know they have a pretty soft schedule left and it's not a stretch to say they'll beat the Giants, Jets, and Patriots, but.... All three of those games are on the road and the Bears *should* have lost to the Vikings and Cardinals, where the offense was just bad and the defense helped win the game. Granted, you would need some luck along the way to a perfect season, but I just think the odds are against them - especially in this era of the NFL.

He wasn't on last night as a "broadcaster"...he was on as a guest. I believe he lives in the Phoenix area and they brought him on to talk about Phoenix and what the new stadium has brought to Arizona, etc. The commentary he provided was by his own accord.

And there was at least one other by Evans where he ran the route short of the marker. Lee knows better than that. Plays like this showed me these guys didn't show up to play yesterday. This was a complete team loss...Losman just won't get rid of the ball when he should (nor can he hang on to it when he's hit), the DL can't pressure the QB, the OL can't block, the CBs let Roy Williams and Kevin Jones run wild, and the WRs couldn't catch the ball. This team has scored 20 points once all year, which tells me the offense has a lot of work to do. What I'm hoping for is Losman to keep playing and keep learning so he can get some consistency with the OL he has. I hope Jauron & Fairchild understand that, also. The Bills won't be going anywhere this year, so they might as well have everyone take their lumps....and get rid of those God-awful ugly white jerseys.

JSP, I wish you would tell us how you *really* feel... I've been a die-hard Bills & Sabres fan for years and while I believe the Cigarette-Smoking man from The X-Files has something on us, I will NEVERY say that the Bills or Sabres will never win the Superbowl/Cup. I watch because I'm a fan of the game, I enjoy the competition, and it's a wonderful diversion from everything else. I'm watching the baseball playoffs, even though the Yankees flopped miserably...and this will be at least the 3rd time I'm watching the team that steamrolled the Yankees go on to win the World Series. As for the Bills....I'm typically an optimist, so I watch because I hope they'll win on any given Sunday. And I especially hope they win this week because it's my annual trek to Orchard Park from Albany.

About the only justification I can think of right now is that some of these winless teams will eventually win a game. Usually around week 6 or 7, I'll start picking a 0-win team....law of averages says they'll win *sometime* and I don't remember the last time the NFL had an 0-16 team. That said, I'd still pick the Bills this week.

ESPN has gotten worse over the past few years - probably because the corporate suits encourage the Tedy Bruschi-type love towards the Pats, Jets, Red Sox, and any other trendy big-name stars (Terrell Owens, etc). The Bills just aren't in a big enough market where they can afford to spend too much time. If the big corporations keep sponsoring them enough, we'll keep hearing how great the Patriots are....

I don't have HBO, so I don't watch Inside the NFL. The NFL doesn't allow any other network to have a highlight show, but only during the Sunday night prime time slot (7-8, Eastern). I don't see why ESPN couldn't do something at midnight.

The game itself works well - helps when Al Michaels is doing the show. So far, the highlight show is bad. Costas, Sharpe, Bettis, and Collinsworth aren't showing jack worth of highlights and are enjoying themselves a bit too much even when the highlights are on. Collinsworth needs to go. I actually enjoyed Primetime because they showed thorough highlights of every game. Berman can get annoying, but he's far better than anyone else. I wish ESPN would do a special midnight Primetime with him & Tom Jackson, because they can't do the games justice with "The NFL Blitz"...in fact, they don't even do all the games.

Well, it seems official. Here's the reply I got from Rich Becker: "I am sorry to ruin your birthday, but we will be showing the Cowboys game on Sunday. The decision is made by our programming department back up by statistical research. Having covered the Bills for 8 seasons when I was in western NY, I know first hand how passionate Bills fans are. I am sure we'll get several complaints, likely the same number we'd have received from Dallas fans if we went with the Bills game."

Thanks for the info! I sent along my urging for them to do the right thing, but I don't know how much it will help. What really irks me is that Sunday will be my birthday and I'll be stuck with the TO bullsh*t for 3 hours during a game in which he may not even play.

Great...like we haven't heard enough about TO's crap. This is a joke - the only real NFL team in the state of NY can't even be seen in a market where there are more than enough Bills fans.

....then they have a glimmer of hope, which is the last thing they should have had. Miami (*cough*overrated*cough*) was thoroughly dominated all game long and had no business getting close. Whitner made an outstanding play to keep the game out of reach.

I'm saying right now...these guys are going to be good. Not only did they defend the passes, but they covered so well, Culpepper had nothing to throw to. The DBs have great speed and can keep the field covered. Miami is clearly overrated - the media created the hype that they'd challenge New England for the division based on the meaningless 6-game win streak last year and Culpepper's arrival (who is also overrated).

But we can't look at it this way, since hindsight and retrospect go out the window. If the Bills kick the field goal, the game is likely to be played differently than how it really was played out. I probably would have called for the FG, as my nature is to be conservative. But with a 10-point lead and the Bills *in control of the game*, my thinking is that DJ went for it to see what type of guts he had with the offense. This is part of him being a "players coach" - give them the confidence that they can make a 4th & 1 inside the opponents 10. I wouldn't be surprised if he did this again...though maybe not next week.

The Sunday night rights include highlights from 7-8 (or whatever). Once NBC got the rights to the game, they got rights to the highlights, which means ESPN couldn't do it anymore. I tried watching their "Football Night in America", but it was painful. Maybe it will get better, but the hosts were having too much fun and didn't seem to take the highlights seriously enough for me. It's only Week 1.

I also liked Maguire for a while, but once they put him & Theismann together, he turned bad. He spent most of his time arguing with Thiesmann and then degenerated into an entertainer and away from a football analyst. I'm sure E$PN had a lot to do with that....

I liked Joe when he first started, but his act is too tiresome now. He tries too hard to be entertaining. Putting him with Aikman is ok, but watching baseball with him & McCarver is too much. If Joe would just call the game, he'd be more tolerable.

I completely agree...only because I want to see for myself exactly what Nall has. We know what Holcomb has (or hasn't), so we might as well give Nall his chance. I've heard lots of good things about him, so let's see it.

Talented, yes. Mature, no. Combine that with the wrong people telling him how great he was and how he should fight the NFL to get drafted early because of how great he was. Just makes you wanna go

This is just another silly thing that ESPN is trying to do. Pulling meaningless stats out of their a$$ is just the start. Did anyone see their coverage of the White Sox/Angels last night? The CF camera was positioned so that their advertisement display behind home plate was in full view, while the pitcher/hitter/catcher/ump were all on the right half of the screen. Maybe that's an HD thing (which I don't have), but it was quite irritating.

I know this is the way it is these days, but Donte hasn't proven a thing yet. Dude...sign the 6-year deal and get into camp. Yeah, you may not be starting on opening day, but show the coaches you're ready to play. If I were Marv, I'd tell him "OK...we'll start the season without you if we have to."

Well.....my cable service has been pretty solid and I don't want to go through the hassle just to get one channel. That said, TWC should be able to provide this without much cost. The NFL Network would pay for itself (for them) after not very long.

It seems as if the NFL Network might be doing the pushing for us....or so they say, at least. NFL Network

I'll agree to all of that. The coaching staff realized that JP wasn't ready and wanted to win at the same time. Bad combination right there. If they had just stayed patient and realized they weren't going to win anything once they got to 1-4, then they *might* have stuck JP back into the spot to learn on the job. The biggest problem was Mularkey wanted to win to save his job.

I live in the Albany area, also. TW frustrates me sometimes with their minimal communication to customers, but the service overall is pretty solid. They've been saying for months that they're negotiating to get the NFL Network, but I haven't seen much proof that they'll get it soon.