BuffaloWings

Any given Sunday...

I don't think EJ has even practiced yet, has he? I thought I saw an article last week that said he "was close to practicing". Spiller might miss another week. If his ankle is still barking, I still wouldn't put him out there. It's not worth risking a more severe injury if he can wait one more week.

Had the win against Miami come when the Fins were 3-0, then some would say it's a quality win. Miami has now lost 3 in a row after their 3-0 start, so it's hard to say how much of a "quality" team Miami is. In fact, we really won't know until December how good Miami really is. Just look at the Jets - in Week 1, I figured they'd be 6-10 at best this year with a rookie QB, a defense that lost some players and probably wasn't as good anymore, and no offensive weapons that would scare anyone. They're now 4-3 and a game behind the division lead. Are they a quality team? It wouldn't look so on paper, but they've grinded out 4 wins so far.

I still agree with others who say that it has to be more than just this weekend. If the Bills pull off a convincing win, it might confuse the media & experts...Brees was off his game, the NO defense was exposed, yada, yada, yada. If the Bills do it two weeks in a row against NO & KC, then some might take notice. Most, however, would feel it's a fluke if they keep either game close. Someone said earlier that because the Bills are in a small market, they won't get the attention until they make the playoffs again. E$PN, CB$, and Fox won't waste their time with the Bills because of this - why spend time talking about Fred Jackson when you can get the attention of NYC, Dallas, and Boston by ball-washing Rex Ryan, Jerry Jones, & Tom Brady? Getting to the playoffs will be the first step. Winning a playoff game will get them noticed.

When NBC took over the Sunday night games, the provision was that the games that were supposed to be scheduled for Monday night were moved to their Sunday night package. This way, they get the more attractive matchup and ratings. ESPN then took the original Sunday night games on Mondays. Then the games were scheduled based on star power and the teams' record the prior year - after last year, the NFL would want to put the Redskins, 49ers, Seahawks, & Falcons on prime time games so they can show off RGIII, Wilson, Kaepernick, etc. The Giants & Jets would get a handful of prime time games because they're the NYC market. It's an assumption that the teams who were in the playoffs would be good again, thus providing a potentially attractive game to the casual fan. They can't help that the Giants & Vikings suck this year. Every team does get a prime time game, which is why the Bills got the Thursday night game in Cleveland. They'll get a Sunday/Monday game again when they either make the playoffs or at least contend while EJ lights up the rest of the league.

I think this is what Marrone brings to this organization. He brought in assistants to run the offense and defense so that he could focus on the players and the games. Establishing a positive attitude was probably first and foremost on Brandon's mind when he hired him.

I don't think anyone's waving a foam finger today. I'm thrilled the Bills won - especially in the Fish house - but we should realize that there are still things to improve upon if this team is to be successful. Right now, I don't care if they fumble their way to a win...it's still a win. This is a young team still and winning games ugly or pretty is what they need. We shouldn't care how they win, just that they do. When the Bills become a legitimate playoff contender, then we'll worry about them not dominating their opponents. Right now, they're still a mediocre team, yet still improving. Have patience, everyone.

It depends...if Miami is controlling the game and makes a mistake at the end, which leads to a Bills score and a win, then yes...they stole a game. If the Bills control the game throughout and win by 7-10 points, then it's not a stolen game to me. Usually, we'll see the "better" teams come out of the fog by late October or early November. At that point, you can pretty much separate the contenders from the also-rans. Miami looked good the first few weeks and beat an Atlanta team that I didn't think they were better than. NO was too much for them and Baltimore is good one week, bad the next. Hard to tell...

I remember the days of 0-for-the 70s, but I'm past that. The Marino-Kelly rivalry was good, but I got over the Phins when Dan Marino constantly talked about beating Buffalo. These days, it's now time for EJ, Freddy, & Stevie to talk about beating the Patriots. I laugh at everyone who said Thurman was dead to them by playing 1 season in Miami. Personally, if the company I hated the most gave me a job when nobody else would, I wouldn't turn it down. I don't blame Thurman for going there...sure, I would have preferred he retire instead, but it shouldn't let anyone's respect for him diminish what he did in Buffalo.

Nice...a positive spin! The only doom & gloom I felt was that the game was there for the taking when Hoyer went down and we didn't take advantage. Weeden looked terrible at first, but settled in and ate up our depleted secondary. Had EJ not gone down, I think there's a great chance they keep moving the ball and get more points. Tuel didn't look good, but I'll give him a bit of a pass...he was thrust into a tough spot, though he still has to be ready. I still think this group can win now - as long as EJ is ok, they can get into a better offensive rhythm and score more points. The schedule ahead isn't too promising, but you never know.

This. I'm a fan and always want my team to win. I don't let my life get ruined after a loss like some others do. Others have already mentioned this, but I want to emphasize it more - Freddy & CJ were excellent, gutting it out through injuries. Did everyone else see Spiller break away from the defense on his TD run on a bad ankle? Freddy wasn't flashy, but grinded out yards and got the offense into more-than-managable 3rd downs. I'm also glad he got the ball on the 1 yard line twice (for my fantasy team purposes). I also haven't seen anyone mention the OL. They had their bad moments, but they did a good job all night of keeping some holes open enough for the RBs and protecting the QB. They could have been better, but they didn't lose the game for us. Yes, the game was there for the taking once Hoyer left the game. Weeden looked horrible the first two series and the Bills didn't capitalize. As well as the defense played, they needed to make a big play and get a turnover in the second half. But I see this team on the cusp of winning a bunch of games, as long as EJ is ok.

A career backup to Tom Brady and one year in a dysfunctional Arizona team. He's looked pretty good the past couple of weeks and now has confidence...not many things are as dangerous as a confident QB. The Bills are good at stopping the run and Cleveland's running game is iffy with McGahee & Ogbannaya. They do have Josh Gordon back, which has been helping their passing game. If Hoyer does his job, he'll pick on the Bills secondary and we'll see a lot of catches by Gordon & Jordan Cameron. The Bills will just have to go after whoever Joe Haden isn't covering - Woods is starting to make a presence, so if Haden is on him, then Stevie might have a big game...EJ has to recognize that and capitalize. I don't think they'll be able to run the ball well enough, so we might see a lot of balls in the air tonight from both sides.

He may be, but I'm willing to wait and see what happens when EJ gets himself together - i.e., a few more weeks of game action under his belt so he can get used to the speed of the game. They easily could be limiting things while EJ has more time to develop. I would hope that he does it ASAP. That said, I also agree with MULARKEY - call a screen or two, run some play action. It looked like EJ was doing the play action later in the game, but he needs to work on that - he wasn't fooling anyone, it was clear they needed to throw the ball, and the running game was not there. You can't do play action unless you've already shown some success running the ball.

This. He was inaccurate and had a bad day throwing the ball, but this is no reason to give up on him. I agreed with Rich Gannon's point that he needs to give the receivers a chance. Many of those fades landed 4 feet out of bounds. At least throw it in play and give our guy a chance to make a play on it. Hackett will point that out this week and EJ will get better.

It really is awesome once you get even farther north into the southern Adirondacks. Once the peak hits (usually early-mid October), some of the sights around here are phenomenal. I really don't mind Gannon too much. I'd rather have him than Dierdorf or even Phil Simms, who constantly ball-wash the better teams of the league and give zero attention to anyone else. As for Marv, I've always thought he was an ok announcer - not flashy, but he gets the job done. He was always a bit annoying, which dropped him down a level or two for me.

They have to be a bit frugal with their timeouts. I don't remember any instance earlier in the half where it would have been useful to challenge a play or call a TO. You can say they got lucky, but at the same time, Marrone called the timeouts when he had to. That gave them more than enough time to try and score at the end. Like mitch said...common sense. So far, Marrone has shown decent game management, which has been lacking for a very long time.

This is the benefit of the no-huddle. You'll see many times when they have a quick 3-and-out and then see the disadvantage of the no-huddle. However, when you're used to getting to the line immediately after the play ends, the 2-minute drill just feels like nothing different. Winning games on 2-minute drives in the 4th quarter are the stuff of Joe Montana, John Elway, & Tom Brady (*shudder*). I'm not saying Manuel is any of those 3 HoF QBs, but when you win games like that, it only helps your confidence and your team's trust in you. What I like already is that they've had a crushing loss and an exhilarating, last-minute win. Both of those are character-builders. That said, let's just remember that we've only seen EJ in two whole games. We all like what we see, but given our recent history of Edwards & Fitz flaming out after great starts, let's temper our enthusiasm until we see more of this.

Generally, the line is for betting purposes and not necessarily a reflection of who should win. This really does have either the NY bias all over it or it's just saying the Jets have a big of an advantage because they're at home. I'd still pick the Bills with that line.

Until they learn how to win these games, yes. I get the feeling that Marrone will harp on fixing these mistakes ad nauseum. You're never going to get rid of 100% of these mistakes, but reducing them will be quite significant. We'll see how the coaches handle this. I'm just not sure if I should be encouraged by a close loss to a better team or frustrated that they could have won without a few mistakes. I guess they're one in the same...I'm cautiously optimistic because even with those mistakes, they were 20 seconds from a win.

There isn't exactly a lot of tape to watch...and what can they gather from less than a game against Indy and less than a quarter against Minnesota? The book will come out after 4-5 games as to how to defend against him. That's when he needs to adjust his game.

I think the whole idea is to see what kind of talent and skills they bring to Hackett's offense. There's no way either Leinart or Lewis would be expected to know the offense in less than a week and run it in a game situation. My guess is that the coaches just want to see what they brought to the table. We're not looking for the next Jim Kelly right now, just enough for someone to hold the clipboard and/or compete with Tuel for 2nd string. I didn't see any of the game, but Leinart's lack of mobility and arm strength can't help his cause here.

Players get hurt, period. It happens...it's part of life. This doesn't mean we should be reducing the amount of games. Cutting the preseason games or eliminating them altogether is a knee-jerk reaction to someone getting injured. If we only had camp practices and players got hurt then, do we eliminate any practicing? Preseason games are the best way to evaluate the 2nd & 3rd string talent and get the starters in game-ready shape. This shouldn't end.

Indeed - Scully & Garagiola will always be the voices I remember growing up in the 70s/80s. As much as Colinsworth is a tool in the studio, I think he's actually one of the best color analysts in the game. Troy Aikman also pleasantly surprised me as an analyst. The best play-by-play guys I've watched/listened to are Al Michaels and Dick Enberg, hands down. Both do a great job of just calling the game and not getting into too many side stories or BS. They're on the downside of their careers, so they're not as good as they used to be, but I still think they're the best of anyone I've ever paid attention to. I wish we could hear more of Enberg on a national level.

But Trent even showed the "it" factor in the regular season games. He looked solid replacing JP in 2007 until he was injured, but won the starting job in 2008 and went 5-1 (including two game-winning 4th quarter drives) before the concussion really took effect. He lost his confidence and never really got it back. Let's see what Tuel has. The comments from Leach are curious, but I'm not sure I want to trust anything he says. Some QBs in college are just OK, but thrive in the NFL. We're still 10-11 days away from opening day and there's still talk that EJ might be ready. Exercise patience before we jump off the ledge.

I'm really getting sick of this...stuff like this gets rehashed over & over again (yes, I know that's redundant). I haven't read this, but I know that it surely creates an interesting story and/or discussion. Just getting tired of seeing this crap all the time. It's time for Marrone & Co. to change the losing culture.