macaroni

Actually the REAL reason Drew was run out of town is because the brain trust didn't want another QB contraversy on their hands ....... if they just "handed the job" to JP without a competition (which they did), and JP sh-- the bed (which he did) the fans/media would be screaming almost on a game to game basis. With KH as second string ...... the fans/media were at least patient enough to last four games and were gratefully willing to accept JP a second time later in the season, when KH got hurt. No one in "Bills fan land" ever expected KH to be our starting QB .... many on this board still believe that the depth chart reads JP ... KH ..... but I suspect, the brain trust at One Bills Drive have swapped the depth chart, and are just paying "lip service" to starting JP.

IMHO ...... MM can't start JP next week, it could very well end in disaster. Let me paint a picture ....... After Holcombs performance in last weeks game against Cinci, he is pulled and JP starts this weekends game against the Jets. For some "inexplanable reason", the Bills decide to play this game like they've played so many season ending games the last few years (visions of getting spanked by the Steelers scrubs last year) and truely "run for the bus". They play like a team who really doesn't like the way their head coach treats the vets, they play like a team who doesn't particularly like, if not JP himself, at least the way he was "handed the job", they play like a team pretty much in disarray just trying to end the season. In an equally inexplanable reason, the Jets play for pride in their last home game .... they play to show their appreciation to their fans who've show loyalty through a season of dibilitating injuries .... they play to show their appreciation to their coach who has believed in them throughout the season, they play to show that they are a prideful bunch with heart. Now picture the Bills getting spanked in a monumental fashion ....... Next picture the field day the press and fans will have "comparing" Holcombs and Losmans seasons ........... ugly at best ..... agree??? Now I'm not saying this WILL happen, it's not a prediction ...... but you must admit, it's within the realm of possibilities. Then again ................ what happens if Holcomb starts .......... and wonder of wonder we do well ................ I can almost see the JP vs Holcomb battle lines forming ..... this could turn ugly

IMHO ...... that was a classic example of a "good team" walking into a game at home against a "poor team" and expecting a laugher ........ I would hazard a guess that the Bengles EXPECTED to win right up to that last interception run back for a TD. Just goes to show you that there IS a reason they play the game instead of just awarding the victory to the heavy favorite

On the way into the Rockpile ......... buying two bags of hot fresh roasted peanuts from the vendor (on Best st. I believe) one bag for each coat pocket. We kept our hands warm through the first quarter ....... ate them during the rest of the game. I still can't smell roasted peanuts without thinking of Buffalo mid-winter during the 60's.

I didn't actually mean to be MM specific, but generally Rookie Head Coach, with experianced ex-head coach assistants.

Two others who made the list; HM: Ted Washington, Oakland -- Somebody has to be gobbling up blockers and pushing the pocket so that Burgess can make all of those sacks. See what I mean? He's STLL playing well ... can you believe that after this year we will have gotten rid of Washington, Williams, and Adams ...... and STILL won't be able to stop the run or rush the passer. HM: Mike Pucillo, Cleveland -- Has filled in admirably at three different spots on the line for the appropriately named Dawgs. Could it be THAT Mike Pucillo, he's been my whipping boy for so long it never entered my mind that maybe it COULD have been piss poor coaching ..... I wonder if Mike Williams will make this list next year???

This brought up an interesting thought ...... I know there is a "chain of command" so to speak ...... and I know MM is the HEAD coach ..... but we DO have Wyche, and we DID have Lebeau on the staff (both with head coaching experiance). I would think some sort of "mentoring" would be going on with the rookie (and now second year) coach. I mean to say that both Sam and Dick have "been there, seen that" I would think MM would want to "lean" on their experiance a little bit ... and if MM did not activly seek help both Sam and Dick would offer help in the form of suggestions (behind the closed doors of the coaching offices to be sure so as to not undermine MM's authority).

If I recall correctly ..... Antonio Gates was a Basket Ball player who was signed because somebody saw an athletic ability that could be converted to the Football field as a TE. I think the Peters situation is quite similar .... I do believe he was primarily an oversized basket ball player who played one season of college football, and he was signed by the Bills with the intent of developing a bigger stronger Anonio Gates. While I agree that a player can "grow" into a job or position ..... my problem is .... why haven't we "grown" one of our backup linemen who have been collecting a paycheck because they were actually supposed to be able to play on the line, instead of "converting" Peters. If we were "chock blocked" with gifted TEs, I may be able to phathom the reasoning ....... but all in all I'd rather have Peters playing TE as our roster stands now.

Once again ...... I don't think anyone is "blaming the w/l record" on JP .... they are just saying that JP pretty much sucked this year......... I think if this thread were about the Defense ..... people would be saying the defense pretty much sucked this year ....... if the thread was about the O-line we would be saying that the O-line sucked this year, same about coaching, game planning, play calling, etc, etc, etc. But I DO agree with you that the record can not be blamed on any one player or aspect of the game ..... but it is a result of widespread "suckage".

My problem with TD does not hinge on any single move or decision .... IMHO, the draft is a crap shoot at best, so to fault him because "player A" was supposed to be a super star, and just didn't pan out is just plain wacky. To fault him for any individual move/trade/cut is also unrealistic because we will never have all of the "inside" specific details going into the decision. What I DO fault TD for is his philosophies (both stated and inferred) on building a team. Early in his tenure he had stated that retaining a sucessful kicker, or persuing a good kicker was not important because (and I quote) "Kickers are a dime a dozen in the NFL." He painfully learned his lesson that year. I suspect he has the same philosophy about the linemen on both sides of the ball, we've been plugging in has has beens and never will be's for the last five years, and then blaming "poor execution" when we should have been blaming "poor talent". The Bills are quick to point out that we can not afford to pay a Jennings, Pat Williams, Ruben Brown ..... we've let them walk ..... and tried to plug in Bennie Andersons, Pucillios (or what ever his name was) and others too numerous and bad to remember. I hate to always return to the "Peters experiment" ..... but the mere thought that an undrafted rookie TE was the best fit we had on our roster for a RT replacement this year really baffels me ..... and once deposed as a starter, our "injured" starting RT was inserted to TRY and play LG instead of a Healthy LG backup ...... well if I had hair, I'd be pulling it out. Unfortunately I'm not astute enough to be familiar with who is out there that can replace TD, so I can't help you there ...... but I DO feel he needs to be replaced.

I haven't seen much "bashing" of JP ....... a lot of people saying that he pretty much sucks this year (which he has by the way) but not much bashing. But I think it's been the consenses of the board from day one that "suckage" was pretty much expected until JP gets some playing time under his belt (with the exception of the misguided few who espoused that anybody would do better than Bledsoe). Face it .... we are all Bills fans here (with the exception of the Patsy and Dogfish tolls) and everyone hopes JP matures into a great QB

No .. no ..no no no .... Those aren't MY words ...... those are words that WOULD be mine if I were MM (and I'm not) trying to save my job. And to answer yor question as if I were MM (which I'm not) "Why yes, Kelly could do fine as our QB next year. We don't need a gunslinger type of QB ..... what we need is a "game management" type of QB who can move the chains. We need to develop a mistake free Offense who can sustain drives, along with an opportunistic defense. This team CAN play a field position game where the offense takes advantage of good field position, and the Special teams gives them good field position, and the defense creates turnovers putting the offense in even BETTER field position. We have the Special teams already in place, minus the injury problems of this year we also are almost there with the defense, and with a veteren "game managment" type of QB, and some tweeking of the line, the offense is pretty darn close" Please keep in mind ...... those words are as they come out of MM's mouth (which is not mine).

Maybe .... just MAYBE .... MM has decided that JP is not HIS pick for next years starting QB, and he's giving KH some experiance. If I were MM (and I'm not) facing the end of the year evaluation with Ralph, my gameplan to save my job would be something like this....... "Look Mr. Wilson, we gave the kid the best shot we could, twice this season, he just don't have it. Giving JP his fair chance pretty much bunged up the season for us, once we got him out we were fighting an uphill battle, and then the injuries set in. We have Holcomb, and we can get another vet QB ... and I really think we can compete next year. All we have to do is get rid of some malcontents like Adams, get a vet caretaker QB, and heal up our injured players like Spikes and Williams and we've got a pretty damn solid team here .... We don't want to screw it up now do we Mr. Wilson ..... ahhhh ...... Mr. Wilson ....... errrrrr ...... Ralph ..... waddya think .... let's give it another go." I'm not saying Ralph will buy this tripe ........ but then again ....... I wouldn't bet against it.

IMHO ........... he's worth at least as much if not more than any of the offensive linemen currently sitting on the bench ......... oh wait .... that would be too expensive ........ How about paying him just $1 more that the guy he beat out for the position ......... oh wait .... never mind ........

I may be off base on this ..... but I don't necessarily want MM fired for his w/l record, or onfield performance this season ..... IMHO ..... head coaches like QB's WRs etc need to learn as they go ..... with any "new kid" you are going to have a learning curve, so I'm willing to give a new head coach a free pass for a little bit. The reason I DO want him fired is his seemingly childish style of interpersonal relationships. Drew publicly states he doesn't want to "hand over" the starting QB job to "the kid" without a competition for it ..... and he's cut, without a viable "plan B" at QB, to me smacks of MM showing Bledsoe whos boss I thought MM striped the OC of playcalling responsibilities because of piss poor uninspired play calling in addition to bone headed trick plays ... but since MM has been calling the plays I've seen no difference .... I suspect a confilt of opinion, and MM pulls the "I'm the boss and you're in time out card". I think the Handling of Sam Adams is purely MM showing Sam who's the boss I think the handling of the Moulds thing is purely MM showing Eric who's boss I suspect Mike Williams was embarressed at Left Guard, and then left to languish on the bench, is MM making an example of MW. I suspect the whole JP/KH starter thing is some kind of "show of power". MM can not only NOT lead a team ..... he can't even "play nice" with his teammates.

I'd take Russ Grimm ........ after all look how well the steelers have been doing .... you just can't go wrong picking up one of their assistants ....... oh wait ...... nevermind

Why the stalking and charactor assasination against RICO??? That wasn't even a remotely "trollistic" post.

What JP SHOULD have said was; "There are two reasons why I'm not starting, and one of them isn't because I can't throw an accurate pass."

This is just a what if .... devils advocate type of thing .... but, what if; Holcomb DOES direct the offense well ... and by some wild quirk of fate wins this week end earning him the start for the final game in which he also directs the offense well winning against the Jets. At the start of next season do we once again hand the team over to JP? If we do ... how short of a leash does he have if he starts the season slowly .... one game ..... two games????? I'm not really arguing against your post ... I too would like to see the team finish strong. As a matter of fact I don't even have strong feelings either way about the posible answers to the question, I'm just wondering.

Miami has Chambers ..... and we can't cover him so he tears us up Denver has Smith ..... and we can't cover him so he tears us up Cinci has BOTH Johnson and Who's-Yer-Momma ...... how the heck do we cover both? Cinci kicks butt this weekend .... I'll bet they score 40

But ...... but ..... but ........ JP needs the experiance I say send the kid in .... let him take his punishment like a man

and what would those 2 or 3 players (their positions) be that will take us "over the top"?

Lets see; The Patriots probably won't be bitten quite as hard by the injury bug next year. The Dolphins will be one year further along on their rebuilding plan (which seems to be going fairly well so far). The Jets will probably need less than the 597 QBs they used this year, and just really need to replace their RB which is probably the easiest "position" to fill with a first year player. The Bills will be starting a total makeover of the O-line and 1/2 of the D-line, looking for a new WR, maybe a new DB, and playing an inexperianced QB, and in all probability doing this under a new coaching staff. At this point in time I think we looked DOOMED for next year.

With the excessive consumption of alcohol the fans are just exercising their inalienable rights in the pursuit of happiness ............. and their "acting like asses" is just an expression of their 1st ammendment right of free speech

Actually the first loss was the hardest for me ...... it ruined our chances for an undefeated season ...... oh well, maybe next year