Fake-Fat Sunny

I think if the D had even done an average job of stopping the run so far (which is even more rediculous given our stated goals of 85 Bears or ravens like performance) it would have been a very different performance from JP this year. He was learning last year but clearly did show the results of learning and good performance from him in low pressure mop-up duty. He clearly is pressing and trying to do to much this year as he dumbly has taken responsiblity on his and his along shoulder because the D had been so wretched. He is just not capable (yet it is to be hoped) of production in these high pressure situations. Will he ever be able to produce in these situations? Well, in the NFL even for the best players the answer is always maybe when you look into the future. Clearly in the pass impovising while running for his life at Tulane and showing progress and growth as a pro moving up from the debacle at NE, to needless penalties but ending with a TD by handing off to WM, to a needless TO but again taking us to a score, he has shown the ability to play the pro game when others lead the team. This leadership has not happened around him this year and though I agree that he has completely failed to provide the leadership in terms of production you want from a QB so far, but declaring him ruined seems like a bit panicled to me. The Bills though virtue of the salary cap have invested a bubch of $ in JP and just as the Bills have not yet given up on their huge investment in M Williams despite spotty returns from him I think that it is probably more correct to think of the Bills dealing with JP in a way similar to the chances they have given him rather than them dealing with hims as though he were Ryan Leaf.

Faith is all about believing in something when there is know conclusive reasons to believe and when there are actually a ton of real worl occurences that indicate that one should not believe. Faith is about looking beyond reality even when there is no mathermatical reason for achieving out goals in the here and now. There is little more that need be said but have faith. As far as logical reasons, there are actually plenty of them to know it ain't over unitl its over as far as this season or even JP's career. Mathematically, we are facing a team that has done well so far thuis year, but I know few that are declaring this Fin team a lock for an SB win, berth, or even making the playoffs. Any team can win on any given Sunday and at home against this Fish team with this Buffalo team certainly gives us far more than no chance to beat them. We next go west which is hashistorically been tough for us, but with he coincidental help of cheezburgers we reversed this fate at the end of last year and against this hapless Raiders crew, this game is also doable. Getting the Jets at home with Vinny has to be one easily seen as winnable. It probably will not happen but easily we could be 4-3 at that point and though this not how we visualized it happening that record would be more than compettive in an AFC east that may be seeing a huge shift from the Pats led fortunes of the past couple of years. As far as JP, the key to the Bills winning is almost certainly not going to be Holcomb being good because the key to the Bills winning was almost certainly not going to be JP having to be more than a young QB with both steps forward and many steps back this year. I expect little from Holcomb but the occaisonal flashes he has shown in his journwyman career, but just as if JP were there the D needs to play better and the ST needs to keep up its level of play so that its additions are mere add ons because it will never carry a team particularly one whose D has failed to stop the run and whose O production has been limited to some good WM runs. As far as JP, I too am sorry to see him benched because I think neither failed play by him or failed play by Holcomb makes much difference for this team. I doubt he has given up on himself or his dreams even after this benching (and if he has then he wouldn't have made it anyway. So i do not think you are correct in declaring him a done deal. Even the worst disses of getting traded happened to Farve and Yound and B. Johnson was let go twice by teams before he won an SB. JP simply needs to suck it up and youi should as well. Have faith.

Yes, there would have been a controversy because there always is a controversy. If it was not JP should have done better, it might the D bearing criticims for failing to stop the run a lot this season, it might have been McGahee for blowing blitz pick-ups twice in the drive which led to the safety against TB, it might be the usual rants against the refs. If reality were different yes things would have been different, but the difference would merely be the bitchin and moanin would move elsewhere. Another irony is that if Lindell had made a chip shot he should made against Pitts, if Clements had not laid a PR on the carpet or the D had played with near the efficiency they showed against Pitts back-ups they showed the rest of the season, then perhaps we would be arguing today about Bledsoe.

I agbgree this true. Likewise for me it was a game I could/should have gone to as it was THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED and the bills were at home against the Oilers, it was not sold out and i woulda/coulda gone. Ywt, this was unplanned and the usual gang was not going, I would save a few nickels (inconsequesntial to me actually compared to the joy of going), but I also had made commitments to my lovely wife (which is consequential to me) to use significant parts of that day around the house to get some things done). We agreed that while she was downstairs getting the household books in order (she is smart enough not to trust me to arrange stuff that makes a difference) I would be upstairs with the game tuned in on the radio doing work in my home office for some DC-based clients (who at least pretend to make a difference in the world which certainly does not compare in import to keeping our household books in order). At any rate, I listened in pain and agony as we fell further and further behind during the first half. Still having grown up in Chicago where I entered sports viewing by rooting for the '69 Cubs (who I am still devoted to to this day my Die-Hard Cubs Fan Club Card with a starting date in my birth year in the 50s when i was born is still in my wallet though I joined in the 70s) as the sprung to in an "insurmountable" league lead only to do an el foldo to the Amaxin' Mets of that year) I was used to rooting when my team was down and out. Yet when they almost immediately gave up a TD on a return by the Oilers, even plucky me who took the Bills into my heart when I married a Buffalo gal (who actually used to go to Bills games until she witnessed my psychosis of devotion and began to develop whiplash from shaking her head watching games with me), turned off the radio in disgust and charged downstairs to share my lamentations (which got a hug from her rather than the usual headshake). Yet, I trooped bacl upstairs, looked at the radio sitting silently, looked at my tape deck where cueing up some oldies might make me forget some wounds, and looked at my compueter and then turned back on the game. In the moral equivalent of those who demonstrated the same quandary and fears, but true mettle driving back to the stadium and scaling a fence when they weren't let back in (at least I did not abandon them in a loss, but my going up and downstairs and turning back on the radio was a limited test) showed some real devotion after they failed a test by leaving. At any rate, the devotion of those who came and never left, the devotion of those who left and scaled the fence to get back in, and even the heartfeltdevotion of those of us who turned of the game in disgust but turned it back on are signs this is more than just a sports team for many of us. I must admit my first reaction to your story was that a "real fan" would go to the game, but actually these are real fans, but other real fans also share the game on a fuzzy TV with their dad, share a hug with their wife before they tune back in to hear us win one for the gipper, or crowd into Niagara Square the day after our first SB loss and let Scotty Norwood know that we all shared the wide right miss together and because we were together it was OK (well mostly OK but couldn't he have kicked this very long but makeable FG a little to the left goshdarnit). Still I find my thoughts dealing with a league that used to be a sport that also happened to be a business and now is a busiiness that happens to be a sport. It is still more a devotion to me, but it is impossible for this fan to ignore the transiency which now rules the league under the salary cap, the owners sharing the big money with the players as the were forced to do after they essentially destroyed the NFLPA in the mid-80s lockout, but then met the reality that they needed the NFLPA if they wished to survive and that actually they made far bigger bucks as partners with the players rather than beatng the crap out of them in some mano-a-mano set-to. The business dealings simply have too big of an effect with what goes on on the field for me to ignore. Though I tend not to get any enjoyment out the ICE-like pleasure of taking multiple positions on the same issue and then claiming perfect knowledge when one occurs, I do put far too much time and attention into the business side of the game. I've tried to warp this business distraction into my devotion rather than simply ignoring this reality which rules the game. One side-effect of this though is it has really taken me away from the true innocence and devotion I used to feel for the game to still be devoted to it but in a much more mercenary kind of way which I think reflects itself sometimes in the actions you seem to feel disdain for. Its hard for me to blame the owner or the players for following the American way of making as many dimes as the market will bear though. Also, when all except for one of 24 consecutive games are likely to be sellouts and thus I can watch them with the fringe and the bathroom nearby, it becomes a little hypocritical (obviously no rule against that on TSW or as a fan) for me to have much disdain for the mercenary side of this game I do love. Thanks for triggering the memories with your post though!

unless there are a lot of other changes that happen with it. Theoretically, the benching of a player who MM hitched his wagon to his fate when he decided with TD to trade Bledsoe sends a message to all players that neither money spent by Ralph, nor ego to try to claim it will all work out in the end is going to be enough to give a player a start. However, if the Bill problems can actually be changed by this simple mind game and suddenly the D will not miss tackles they should make and stop the run, they will improve in 3rd down conversion D, WM will suffenly learn to b;ocl well consistently in the redzone, they will improve in redzone production, etcetera then actually this team has even bigger leadership problems than we expected. The players should have motivated themselves to play and MM should have provided motivation and structure from the start. If sitting JP turns the onfield performance around I for one will be pleased as punch to see us win, but also deeply disappointed in these professional athletes that they needed this threat to perform. One can make the case that JP's performance bears the blame for the lack of redzone TDs (though actually this problem strikes me as a coaching issue as they failed to train JP to adapt productively to the switch from improvising at Tulane to the consistency needed from an NFL QB) but if this threat suceeds in also revitalizing the D it says a lot about the lack of leadership of the field and also the personal pride and motivation of the athletes. I will love it if it works and we get the W, but i will find it disappointing to think how badly the players failed in the first 4 games and how poor the decision was by the braintrust to resign Bledsoe in the first place and then take the cap hit for cutting him in exchange for a QB they have failed to train to be productive.

OKay, its a start, then what do you do next. That is and has always been the key qyestion. Whether you start or sit JP is a minor point compared to this real question.

There is a one word correct answer to this question. NO! The notion that the Bills are fixed by merely replacing Losman with Holcomb is simply foolish. The more real question for those who recognize the reality that there are a number of fixes which need to be put in place and they simply advocate this as a good starting point this is fine, but is not much as far as opinions go without some indication what the next additional steps are and why they view starting with benching Losman as a first step in this rebuilding program. I do not see this case being credibly made anywhere. To paraphrase Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, the question of a QB fix is actually question 486 (actually it is probably question 5 or 7) to answer and we are back on question 2. The issue of replacing JP (or not) is extremely important, but there are some other questions to be answered and issues to play out before we get to this also major step and those are the questions which interest me more. My sense is that a more intelligent order (but one which needs to be subjected to other ideas and alteration) is: 1. Do we have a shot at reclaiming this season or are we playing for the future? A: Yes, this season ain't over by a longshot. We were 0-4 last year with a tough Pats team in front of us in the division. This year we are 1-3 but playing the are they real or not Fins at home this week who are leading the division at 2-1. If we beat them this week all bets are off as the division battle is at a game in difference roughly so clearly thoughts of emphasizing onlly the future are pre-mature. 2. What are the keys to beating the Fins this weekend? A: There are a bunch of them, but a strategy of switching Losman for Holcomb and having him lead us to simply outcoring the Fins does not strike me as a reasonable prime strategy for winning. As was the case when the season began, I think the strategy revolves around stopping the run, running, and getting some added help from ST which makes this one a laugher. For me the Bills D simply presents some much larger challenges for work and improvement thant the O maladies JP has been a big part of. Specifically, unless the D improves in: a. Stopping the run. b. 3rd down conversion stops c. Getting turnovers like last year, I think we will lose even with lightsout play by Holcomb if we do not get turnovers Toward that end, I think the emphasis needs to be on: 1. Sam Adams needs to be talked to about his game. Initially, he needs to concentrate on using his bulk run stopping rather than using his incredibly qquick first step for pressuring the passer. If we can stop the run, then this will force Miami into passing and Sam can go wild rushing the passer then, but for now emphasizing him fortifying the center of the DL will be the key. 2. The DBs and LBs simply need to perform better on 3rd down. All too many time they and the team have been very good on the first two downs and forced the opponent into a 3rd and long only to give up the first and keep the drive going. The D players can do it as they have done so on the first two downs, but here the missed tackles and poor plays are hurting us and they simply need to step up or benching a star like Milloy (who has been the culprit on a couple of the 3rd downs may be the thing to do. 3. The D will need to strike a careful balance in producing more turnovers as this can lead to us getting burned on a risky play. However, the best players strike this balance well and it needs to be done. B. In addition to these D remphasis being a key to beating the Fins, I think O play is obviously critical, but we already are doing SOME of the right things here as WM must continue to run the ball well and must be given some shots at running it. Losman has sucked. but I am less concerned about this if the D is doing its job well. I'm interested in working to try to calm JP down a bit and rein him in. If he does not do this. i have no problem going to Holcomb earlier, but he needs to realize the game does not rest on his shoulders and play like it. TE and outlet passes are a problem. I'm probably looking hard in practice this week at trying to use Peters more as a TE than T because I think he presents abetter passing threat than Campbell etc. We are thin at T so maybe I have to abandon this approach, but I'm looking at it. ST has been pretty good on some plays but obviously cannot carry both the D and the O. If the D stiffens against the run and the O keeps running the ball I think ST can do the job.

The plan on how to turn it around from 1-3 needs to start with an all out attempt to be come 2-3. Much of an attempt to try to become 9-7, 13-3 or whatever simoply undercuts the attempt to become 2-3. The Bills need to focus on the field entirely on squishing the Fish, MM and the braintrust should keep in mind and planning (but take little substantive action) in planning for future games. We fans can visualize about what to do and what the future wholes since out thoughts are pretty meaningless anyway. However, it is times like these where the more focus there is on one game at a time, the more likely we are to win that game.

The argument that you make that what this organization needs is stability and therefore what we need to do is abandon the plan and make massive changes is simply contradictory.

Like all Bills fans I am really disappointed in the lack of production by JPL as our QB. There seem to be two reasons primarily for this being the case. I express them in no particular order of import because both things NECESSARILY must occur in order for the Bills to get the production we need at QB and neither is SUFFICIENT in and of itself to work if the other item is missing. 1. JP must simply play better- He is at fault and the blame is correctly on him for not performing the items necessary to be successful in the NFL. He is a great athlete no doubt. He has a strong will also. His running for his life, improvising and still suceeding at Tulane are real indicators of his athletic talent. However, this style will not suceed in the long run against the faster, bigger. amarter pro players. I have no doubts that JP is a great athlete and so much better than those who wail in the media or on TSW that he is a bad athlete that the comparison ain't even funny. However, JP simply develop and show productive playing a more under control game and not free-lancing. If he has the skill to rein it in a bit and still be effective then he will be good. If not, the mistake is the Bills braintrust and though understandable we will pay the cost. 2. The braintrust needs to simply coach better- What JP is being asked to do is a lot but other QBs have done this so it is not an unreasonable request. He has the athletic skills, is working hard and showing good diligence and seems to have the mental ability to see things and answer questions (Jim Kelly has demonstrated you do not need to be a mental giant or even a high quality person to be successful at QB). A large share of the blame falls to the coaching staff which simply has not called productive games given JPs strengths and limitations. The O is so bad and the team has been so non-competitive, that if one is looking to answer the question of where do you start first, the player or the coaches, i think these coaches made a decision to go with a young player at QB rather than a vet specifically so they could do exactly what they wanted. If one is looking to play the blame game, you have to blame the coaches first. I think they have made this bed and we are going to have to stay the course with JP to try to make it work.

Such is life with the double-edged sword of the market economy. Big markets are big markets and when decisions about column inches or the opinions stated in an article are driven by the market then other issues such as fairness, balance or even accuracy take a back seat. Certainly these "side-issues" such as accuracy should be at the center of articles and coverage and I am happy that some still advocate this, our advocacy needs to also realize that money talks and the rest often walks in our market economy. The NFL used to a sport that happened to also be a business. Now it is a business that also happens to be a sport.

While I disagree with the concept that Posey has been a stiff all along (if true then it is even more amazing the the Bills racked up the 5th statistically ranked D in 03 and the 2nd statistically ranked D in '04 with this stiff at OLB) there can be little argument that he and the whole Bills run D have been horrendous this year. The dirty little secret (since folks do not speak ill of the dead) is that Spikes simply did not play very well before his untimely injury. In addition to his generally OK play at best against Carr there were two of his plays this season which made me cringe. In one he did a good job in recognizing that the Bills were in the wrong D against TBm but the Bucs simply raped and took advantage of him when they snapped the ball while his back was turned to the line of scrimmage as he tried to move players around. The run came straight through his area and any credit he gets for at least recognizing our vulnerability goes straight down the tubes as he should have spent a little more time using his body rather than his brain on the play. If things were so bad he needed a bunch of time to rearrange our D properly the right call was a TO. I don't remember the specific of the second play I cringed at his performance in that game, but he like Posey and the rest of the D simply succked against TB and AT. Will his talent be difficult to replace now that he is hurt? Yepper! Will it be hard to get better production out of his OLB spot that he produced against TB or ATL? No, not really because it is hard to do worse.

According to the announcers though NO's D wanted to see JP moved out of the pocket as they felt his inaccuracy became more pronounced (as it does with most normal folks) when he is on the move. I'm not sure that designed rollouts actually help his accuracy UNLESS the cause of the problem is in fact that he is too hyped up and when he is on the move there is more of a flow to his throws than when he has time in the pocket and simply throws long. My sense from watching him is that JP's bad throws do tend to come because he is simply over-excited. Unfortunately for those of us getting frustrated the best cures for JP may well be time and experience rather than a mechanical fix.

NM as the bad production simply defies intelligent outside analysis.

Thanks. Its good someone notices since my wife refuses to.

My sense was that Stamer was a good sub last year who had a lot to offer on ST and even showed some on field skills from time to time as in the athleticism he showed on his INT last year where he tipped a pass and caught it for the INT. However, I think many of the rants that he was good enough to start came not from anything anyone saw formally in his play (this is why it gets very quiet when someone asks for specific examples of Stamer's play) but instead because folks wanted to see Posey sat down or even cut. Its hard to prove a negative so explaining Stamer's limitations is tough. Its hard to make the case for Posey over Stamer because Posey's positives do no appear to be the usual stat sheet positives (sack or INT numvers) but other intangibles about play quality where what the coaches judge is infinitely more important than waht us fans think we see. Overall, i think the positives which Posey showed over Stamer were: 1. Posey did better and quicker reads of the O. its not surprising since Posey has a few years of experience over Staner and is particularly cruicial to making the Bills D function (which it has not the last two games but Posey does not seem to be the main issue in this failure). The OLB position in question is one that I think CD Nuttan has it right when he calls this position "The Keeper." The Keeper's job in the gray zone blitz appears to be of that player filling a gap at the POA on a run play or dropping back in zone coverage when he reads pass. This player will not rack up a bunch of sacks and when he has done his job the QB does not even throw a pass in his direction because he clearly has the play covered. Up until the outage the last two games, Posey (with Denny as his backup often it seemed) was doing a great job making reads and Stamer showed no indicvation he could do better. 2. Posey is a couple of inches taller. 3. Posey is faster than Stamer. The interesting thing is the switches in the Bills depth chart after the injury to Spikes. Rather than staying on the outside (either stepping up as our stating WLB or being back-up SLB). It is former back-up MLB Crowell moving into Spikes spot and Stamer moving to back-up MLB, The Bills seem to view the LBs as pretty interchangeable inside or middle and within the hierarchy, Crowell is the 4th best LB and on the field to back-up not only Spikes but Fletcher. it is unclear whether it is Stamer of Haggan who is seen as our 5th best LB by the coaches (my guess it is Stamer) but the injury to Spikes means he is going to be asked to step up and play position more and likely we will look for some leadership and stud plays from him on ST as well.

There is no doubt that WM is a far better blocker that Henry was coming out of college if only because Henry was simply horrible at bliz pick-up as a rookie (any comparisons between where WM is on blitz pick-up skills and to what extent Henry went up (like any player) and down (like any player who has given up on his team) or whether he was always bad at blitz pick-up are simply irrelevant for assessing WM's skills in blitz pick-up. I think some posters got all gooey in the pants about WM's skills as a bltiz pick-up guy last year as part of their overwhelming desire to trash Henry. WM proved to be a great back last year in productivity because: 1. He could take a lot more pounding that the conventional wisdom deemed he could after his injuries. He bulked a lot and showed great toughness and the ability to carry the rock over 30 times a game if necessary and to seem to gore stronger while the opposing D flagged. 2. He showed good speed after he muscled through the initial hits and gave the Bills a breakawy threat they never got from Henry who would run out of gas after 25-40 (at best if he ever got that far) yards and could be brought down from the rear. 3. He developed a tremendous stiff arm and the ability to not only punish but even injurre DBs who hit him at the end of a run. However, WM showed nothing as far as I could see last year in terms of blitz pick-up and I would welcome folks citing specific plays or game situations where this was the case rather than saying that of course any knowledgable watcher could see it. One of the big falsehoods laid out regarding last year was that the drop in Bledsoe's sack numbers could somehow be attributed to WM's skills at blitz pick-up. The sack numbers dropped certainly, but from my review of the games it was: 1. Better blocking by the 04 OL than the horrid 03 OL. 2. The speed and outside running threat WM presented which stopped blitzers from selling out to the blitz to sack DB and instead make sure the outside runs were covered. 3. Better playcalling by TC than Kevin Killdrive which recognized you had to use Bledsoe at least on occaision on the delayed draw to force blitzers not to sell out on the rush. I saw no specific plays last year that showed any WM blityz pick-up skills and we saw two (2) specific plays against Tampa where WM's b;itz pick-up work was horrible and to my mind were a big part of costing us 2 points which we never recovered from. A. On 1st and 10 from our 1 WM had the nlitz pick-up on Squiers who blew past our OL on this risky 1st down pass call. WM ended up being little more than a speed bump in Squires way who though he did not get the sack, was engaged so ineefectively by WM going down to cut him that Squiers was able to jump up and block JP's pass which fortunately fell to the ground rather than being INTed in our enzone. B. On 3rd and 6, WM canno get full blame for the safety as a good D play call by TB overloaded the rush to JPs right and WM had to choose between 2 blitzers. he probably correctly took the inside guy, but again failed to engage the blitzer at all (it appears he whiffed completely) and the blitzer was delayed going around the futilely diving WM but he was a factor in the play as 2 other blitzers were hard after JP and the WM delayed blitzer simply dropped off in the flat taking that outlet pass opportunity away from JP who eventrually ran out of the back of the endzone hanging onto the ball. I think WM is a great runner, an asset to the Bills, and clearly was a far better choice as the Bills RB than TH, but WM's skills at blitz pick-up appear to me to be just as bad as any young players and no one has been able to site specific plays pr tangiable evidence to cite blitz pick-up as being one of the better features of WMs game.

Timing and pressure are two big factors impacting scores (along with difficulty of the questions) and are a key to why the results of the test are often misinterpreted or misused. The scores may have some relevancy comparing one player to another who took the same test in the same circumstances, but lumping the results together or comparing different groups to each other simply does nor produce easily comparable results. An individual may have a particular score because of a particular issue or problem (he can answer questions correctly, but needs time to figure it out. He needs time not simply to get the right answer, but time to eliminate a bunch of wrong answers because he sees more possibilities than the norm because he is bright. He sucks when he judges he has too much time on a test because too many possibilities enter his head and there is little penalty for getting it wrong but a bad score, but actually excels in the game because if he gets it wrong he may get hit hard or he and his teammates will fail). However, this particular problem may be fairly irrelevant to the tasks a player has to use to become a good player. Alternately, the human body compensates for many deficits by using other tools to accomplish the task (his physical reflexes are sharper because mentally he is a hair slow on the uptake- this makes little difference in a test but can make all the difference on the field). A test is a measure on paper, but the game is not played on paper. Wonderlic is a wonderful tool, but it is only a tool. You can have the best drill in the world with the hardest bit, but if your task is to make an omelette your tool is pretty worthless (thought the results may be interesting isn't there some TV reality show about cooking with carpenter's tools).

Simplify...simplify. This sounds like the starting point for getting better.

Folks do seem to be making this too complicated and looking for plots where it is doubtful none exist because even if they did it would make little difference. My sense is that MM is ruled here by two general and occaisionally contradictory guidelines: 1. Under league rules designed to at least have the appearance of a level playing field of information to allow for more betting on games (a key to fan interest and if folks feel that insiders has significantly more inside info on injuries they may bet less) and also to increase news about the product being sold (even if its bad news just spell the name right) injury information is given out widely and regularly during the regular season. 2. Keep injury information to ourselves and under wraps as much as possible (not possible as much during regular season under guideline 1) because information about health issues are difficult to predict perfectly, somewhat subject to privacy (though pro players give up a lot of rights to this in exchange for getting the big bucks), and surprise in whether a player will or will not start and how effective he may be can have a game effect. Given the balance between the two guidelines (the only general rules are that there is not one rule that overwhelms everything else and if our little brains insist on there being only one, money walks and everything else simply talks) it is not surprising that one would hear different things regarding injury status in pre-season (not much at all) and regular season (simple reports he is out each week and then a progression along the doubtful/probable trail). The big picture here us that there is probably no significant conspiracy theory here or info that tells one about the heart and soul of the MM character as the Bills have much more meaningful issues and problems to deal with right now besides the Parrish health status.

Be careful, if one is going to try to site reality that Ws and Ls arer how you are judged in this league then one needs to actually embrace all of reality and recognize that while this use to be a sport that also happened to be a business, it now increasingly is a business that happens to also be a sport. The reality is that one is not simply judged in this league when it comes to whether you keep your job or even judged Executive of the Year not simply by your W/L record but the course of the bottom-line financially and the directions profits have taken under your direction. These two aspects are of course deeply related and it is really tough to continually but a bad product in terms of W/L on the field and still keep the turnstiles pumping. Howevwer, by the measures which matter an awful lot: 1. 17 or so of the last 18 Bills homegames were sellouts. 2. Buoyed by a league that is now making money just not hand over fist but is picking up dollars with its teeth and toes too as the players and owners have operated as though they are partners rather than combatants, the value of the team is estimated to have doubled in TDs tenure. 3. In addition to being buoyed by the rise in the league, under TD the team has finally moved well into the 20th century and even is threatening to move into the 21st century with their business partnershps and regional marketing strategy. The move to St. John's Fisher allows the team to market more heavily to downstate populations, provides a better income source to the team than the good ol days in Fredonia and the team has rapidly progressed into computerization when it was not very long ago that the will calls were sorted into shoeboxes. TD just got a big extension on his contract and the TD blasters not only fail to recognize the reality that he at worst is a mixed bag on the field in terms of pulling off some great high-profile moves (reading the market beautifully on Peerless, picking Mcgahee and still getting Kelsay, not trading Travis until he got a first day pick for him, snd havig it not work out on the field, but doing a nifty read in picking off Reed which allowed him to let PP go and stealing Denney off the phone from Pittsburgh as he has avoided the DE need by going for Reed- nothing works out 100% of the time but this was a sweet read). This good news is easily balanced by the huge mistakes he made in passing on two now successful HC's Fox and Lewis to take the now fired GW, resigning Bledsoe after a horrid 2003, and the big one of not making the playoffs in his tenure. However, any real assessment on simplyhow he has done in atttracting on field talent in terms of players and management is a mixed bag in total rather than a total failure and when one factors in the financial off field performance keeping TD here is a no-brainer for RWS. Ralph wanting to win it all before he goes to the great beyond is really the only hope folks who want to get rid of TD have and how Ralph feels inside who knows. The NFL (as shown in its slow crawl toward and need for discipline from above to actually judge people solely based on performance rather than skin color is till a good ol boys network whete who you know no longer rules all but it still isn't perfect yet at all. If you want to look at reality TD is the man here for the forseeable future.

Getting back to the column, such an overarching indictment of TD based on the horrid play of the last two games seems like sloppy columnist work given that even after an 0-4 start the play and fortunes of the Bills turned around completely. If it happens again this year this column essentially becomes inoperative and the equivalent of Emily Latella saying oh nevermind. DiCeasare may want to claim that this is merely a matter of timing and on the face of it this column is a retrospective look at TD's entire career. Fine if this is the perspective he wants to take. However, this analysis would need to draw clearer lines between the differences and alleged motivations for hiring him of the GW years and the current MM regime. It does not make a rational distinction between the 2. It does not do so because the same problem occurs in assessing the MM time period that it is simply too soon to draw overarccing conclusions on the teams play because: 1. 1 season plus three games is simply too short a time to draw a real conclusion that TD take 2 is a failed effort. 2. The "failed effort" of TD take 2 actually has a 10-9 winning record so far. Not great but not a record of abject failure either. 3. Perhaps one wants to predict that the prospects are now so bad with JP's play and Spikes injury. Perhaps, but given that the next 4 games are quite winnable such a prediction is pretty arguable and simply says more about DiCesare than the Bills. Overall, the opinions expressed seem pretty thinly justified and the analysis does not even rise to the fair and balanced level of Fox News as it does not seem to recognize there is difference between the two coaches nor does it really measure the fullness of the things TD has done well with the problems. it simply is not a very impressive iopinion piece.

I must admit that I enjoyed the Monday Night spectaclr at Rich and thanl Bob for the memories, but I also am glad that they are simply fun memories because those spectacles were generally a disaster to go to. Traffic flow at Rich in the old days was a monster in the best of times with nice weather on a sunny day. However taking on the traffic flow after work in the dark was simply yuuuch. I would always tell folks after traveling across country on a night flight that I took the redeye every 4 or 5 years to remind myself why i never to the redeye and the Monday nighters at the Ralph were about the same for me. I think the last one I went to was one against the Rams where some Frank Reich heroics salvaged the game for us. However, we missed the kickoff and the fun of tailgating as we got our act together after work and since it involved the paymaster and not God there was no forgiveness if we snuck out of our duties early so we got to the game when we got to the game. We actually were pretty close to the Ralph at kickoff time, but we spend much of the first quarter waiting at a stoplight while they let folks through 20 at a time alternating turns. We quickly ran into the stadium, so of course nobody remebered where we parked. Fortunately we saw the bright yellow van we parked behind in a slowly moving line and where able to walk toward it and find out where he parked. We got home late invigorated by the win, looked like crap the next day around work amd my guess is we were pretty unproductive the whole week but we had a great time. The memories are fun, but it does remind me of folks talking about their old days at school where they had to get up before they went to sleep, walk uphill both ways both to and from school, and slog miles through the snow and arrive with wet shoes (what you had shoes? Boy were you lucky. I feel sorry for the kids and yunguns today because they never get the Monday night pleasure since the Bills adopted a regional marketing strategy that insists on 1:00 Sunday starts (with the occaisonal 4:15 if we have too but they owe us bigtime). However, I must admit that this old fogey feels like the youngins are on their own and I enjoy curling up with a brewski to watch the Bills on Monday or Sunday night playing on the left coast or up in New England. Ahh the good ol days.

I laughed out loud as well over both Pegleg Akers and JP Lazarus. It remined me of one of my favorite books as a kid because it introduced me to Science Fiction, DUNE. Paul Atreides had just killed Jamis in a duel and the tribe said to their leader Stilgat, "Stil. needs a name." The name he chose Muad Dib was significant because the the Fremen name for the lowly mouse who though small is wise to the ways of the desert. it was also a big choice because that name was also the name in the historic texts of the being who saved them. He altered it also in that he called himself Paul Muad-Dib honoring his roots. So as a vote of confidence I dub Lindell money for my purposes. The verdict is still to be determined whether this MONEY is a good invesmennt or merely chump change!

I also see the point that Nick is making and have had the same thoughts myself. is the injury to Spikes a big loss of a incredibly talented player? Yes. Can he be replaced and the team actually perform better against the run? Yes to that also? In fact, if onlu because we have produiced so badly in the last two games, one irony is that even with worse play with loss of Spikes we will probably perform better. The fact is that AT led the league in rushing last year with the singular and unique abilities and threats that vick provided. Even with the murderer's row of good rushers we are set to face in the next 4 games, i think I would much rather face a Fuece McCallister led rushing attack from a discombobulated NO team, a Miami team that has been surprising but Wickry will not be back and it is in our house, Curtis Martin leding a discombobulated Jets team into our house and whatever the Raiders are throwing against the wall when we take our cheesburgers to the left coast in 4 weeks than face Michael Vick (or the emerging cadillac for that matter). In addition to the competition being tough over the next 4 but probably not as tough, there are other ways to make up for the loss of Spikes: 1. Players have to step up- The best caser occurence in real life was that in 2001 NE lost their 1st round drafted, multiple Pro Bowl recipient, former player in the SB Drew Bledsoe to a sudden injury. They replaced him with a 2nd year player who showed no (sero, zippo, nada) signs of being a pick to guide them to the SB. I think Spikes is far better than Bledsoe but whatever a Bill will have to step-up and surprising thimgs can happen. 2. The Scheme is Key- A good scheme does not make a good team, but a good scheme can make a team better. There is a challenge here the Bills can profit from and the coaches will simply have to put the players in the best position foor them to make plays. Can the team actually perform better because the coaches do not use the extraordinary skills of Spikes as a crutch and actually cheat the LBs more to support the run stffening it and the pressure then falls on asking more one/one coverage from Clements/McGee? Could be we will see. 3. Is our team a TEAM?- The reason that NE has won so much in my mind is that the way they announced themselves in the first SB was key. The bagged the individual announcements of a feature unit and instead introduced themselves as a TEAM. At crunch tiime this made the difference. I am I happy about losing Spikes? No. Do i think Spikes cam be replaced and the Bills actually will perform better? Yes. it will be hard for it to be worse and in the end players imply have to step up. Left to norma;ity some will and some won't. but if we are a TEAM we will.