maddog

From Leo Roth's article this morning. "One sack killed momentum after a fake punt." Let's recap the drive after the fake punt. Travis Henry rushes for -5 yards Drew Bledsoe sacked for -1 yards Willis McGahee rushes for -10 yards Despite the two rushes for -15 yards, it was the one sack for -1 yards that killed the momentum of the drive. I guess it fit the story - doesn't matter whether it is true or not

I think Brady and Pennington are both good quarterbacks. However, there is little doubt in my mind that Pennington would thrive in the New England system. I'm not so sure that Brady would be as successful as he currently is with the Jets though. I'm sure both teams are pretty happy with what they each have.

You know what is frustrating - when Bledsoe played for the Pats and Parcells, he was virtually impossible to sack. In 1994 he threw almost 700 passes and was sacked just 22 times. Even Bruce had a hard time getting to him (Can you say Bruce Armstrong).

Here are the career sack stats for many of today's (and one of yesterday's) QB's. Rob Johnson's sack figures are simply amazing. He was acked once every 6.8 pass attempts. DB has a long way to go before he is in RJs class. Bledsoe's career stats don't look too bad. However, he's towards the top of the list for his Buffalo tenure. Scanning through the list of names seems to indicate that for the most part sacks are more of a function of team play that QB nimbleness. Manning and Testaverde are among the least often sacked while Vick, McNabb & Culpepper are among the most often sacked. No hidden message here, just interesting stuff. Pass attempts per sack R.Johnson 6.8 Vick 10.6 Bledsoe (Buf) 11.2 McNabb 12.7 Hasselbeck 12.9 Culpepper 13.2 Plummer 14.6 T. Green 15.4 Warner 15.6 Brady 15.9 Bledsoe (career) 16.1 Pennington 16.5 McNair 17.1 Testaverde 17.5 Fiedler 18.0 Favre 18.7 Flutie 21.2 S. Matthews 25.6 Manning 27.9

Can you please find the quote from someone in the Bills administration where they say they are playing Bledsoe "because there are no other options"

They never would have overturned that call. Never. Too much judgment involved. It was the right move by Mularkey & staff not to challenge.

Please tell me how we know that Bledsoe is "to(sic) stupid to make the right reads" Can you please describe for me and all the others on this board the audibles and reads he made during the Raiders game, which ones were wrong, and what they should have been. Statements like this are absolutely ridiculous.

I think it's too easy to pin the offensive problems on one person or even one unit (Bledsoe, Henry, O-line,etc.) However, I think it is a bit more complex. If you think about offenses that have been successful, there have been smash mouth types and spread em out, big play types. Neither one better than the other. But the one thing they had in common was that all the pieces fit together and complemented each other. Indy (spread em out) - strong line play, versatile RB who can catch, QB can't run but that doesn't matter, receivers who can make big plays. recent Tennessee (smash mouth) - versatile QB who doesn't take negative plays. fairly one dimensional RB, TE who can move the chains Glory days Buffalo - strong line play, versatile RB who can catch, QB can't run but that doesn't matter, receivers who can make big plays. Our current Bills offensive players just don't seem to fit properly. We are trying more of a smash mouth, ball control offense but our receivers drop too many balls, don't have a TE that can sit down at the first down marker and move the chains (Wycheck, Coates, Bavaro) and take too many negative plays (penalties & sacks) We could try going more wide open, down the field but I don't think Henry is versatile enough nor is the line play dependable enough. I know it is too simple to characterize all offenses as one or the other. Maybe our players could be effective in some type of hybrid offense that has characteristics of both. We can only hope!

No way. In the harsh Nov/Dec wind, I don't think Fiedler could throw the ball 20 yards downfield.

I think this has been mentioned elsewhere, but that play was identical to the Ricky Williams touchdown against the Bills last year. Unfortunately, They gave RW the touchdown and not TH. They are both judgment calls as to when the forward momentum was stopped. I agree with most posters that Mularkey did the right thing in not reviewing the play. There is little chance they overturn the call and 2nd half timeouts are too valuable to lose in a close game.

If it was a simple as that, every immobile QB would get max blitzed all the time. Teams should start to do that to Peyton Manning. Geez, If only the Bills had known it was that easy in SB XXVI, they could have employed that fail safe strategy against Mark Rypien.

NC, I'm all with you on this one. It was inevitable that this first hint of a subpar performance, the Bledsoe vultures would be circling. "He's missing wide open receivers" - I'm having a hard time thinking of a wide open receiver Bledsoe missed. He took one bad sack Sunday, the one that took them out of field goal range. The other sacks were either jailbreaks, uncovered blockers (Buchanan) or were 3rd and long when he's holding onto the ball trying to make a play for a first down. How come nobody wants to talk about the 2.7 yard per rush the Bills are averaging - second worst in the league. I'm not trying to throw Henry overboard here, but the lack of offensive production is rooted in subpar line play. If we capitalize on the 1st and goal opportunity in either game, people's outlook may be different. Hopefully, the line play will improve.

It's nice to see someone with some perspective. Unfortunately for many fans everything is black and white. You win, your team is great. You lose, they suck. I just wish people would relax a bit and see how things play out.

The problem with this logic is that it is circular. Other than pro player personnel scouts, we (fans, writers, etc.) are not qualified to rate the play of many players other than the skill positions. When teams play well, all of a sudden their players become "stars" or known commodities. For example, look at all the Carolina Panthers that weren't on the list last year. Did they all of a sudden all become top 100 players? Of course not. I'm sure there were not four Carolina Panthers on the list year. In fact, it looks like there were just two Patriots (Seymour and Law) on last years list and we all know what the Pats did. I don't have access to the list from last year, but if it was compiled after week 1 of the NFL season, as this years list is, the Bills on the list would have included Bledsoe, Moulds, Spikes and Henry and maybe even Ruben Brown. All I'm saying is that these lists are based on the current conventional wisdom. They don't prove what teams are good. They reflect what teams people think are good.

While I'm not sure that Rian Lindell is the answer, I think it is misguided to suggest that Steve Christie should have been retained or is a better alternative. Since 2000 (Lindell's first year in the league), here are their stats: Under 40 yards: Lindell 49 out of 55 (89.1%) Christie 43 out of 48 (89.6%) 40 yards and over: Lindell 27 out of 49 (55.1%) Christie 22 out of 39 (56.4%) They are quite comparable and in the lower half of the league. Unfortunately, there is not much out there. My answer - Mike Nugent Ohio State 33 of 41 (80.5%) inside of 40 18 of 24 (75%) outside of 40 7 of his 14 misses were his freshman year.