RuntheDamnBall

And we passed it on crucial third-and-short situations that could have kept the game going. And we also passed when we had a lead and could have put it away with a time-consuming drive. The Titans knew what they were doing. We have a rookie OC who is learning as much as the rest of them.

idiots.

Who's getting in a whole-hog panic? Looks to me like Goode is. He's the guy using faulty logic to perform a character assassination of an American-born and raised citizen by equating him with illegal immigrants and terrorists. To me, no strong religious element should be a controlling factor in our day-to-day political society. That Ellison 'met with' (meaning spoke to) the North American Imams Federation -- not the AOU -- and may have talked with the AOU's leader should not imply he agrees with him, and you know this. WND is taking this meeting and turning it into something more than it is, unless they have his speech documented or any follow-up discussion with Ellison regarding the alleged meeting with this guy. As it is, their shoddy-ass 'journalism' includes little-to-no direct quotation from Ellison himself. It's a classic tactic of character assassination: make loose, shadowy connections look more connected than they are, deny the subject a voice in the article, and you can paint the picture as you see it. WND also has a real nice op-ed column on there about how Ellison is not fit to be a congressman. Don Rumsfeld 'met' with Saddam Hussein, and Bush meets with Dobson, but I'm not automatically asserting that they shared the same views or were even sympathetic to each other. You assess someone based on their actions. And so far, Ellison's actions have been statesmanlike and his words indicate that he plans to legislate as a US Congressman who has respect for this country's diverse religious traditions. If he proves otherwise, you can bet in a minute he'll be gone.

1) The swearing-in ceremony where the Bible is traditionally used is not an OFFICIAL ceremony and has nothing to do with the duties of the elected official. It's a ceremony period. 2) Read this (bolded for emphasis): Also note that noted member of the "liberal media" , Wolf Blitzer tried to bait Ellison into badmouthing Goode and Ellison refused to do so, and with eloquence. But of course, Ellison is just an evil Muslim who follows the the "so-called religion of peace." Come on. What Goode said was 1) stupid, 2) logically a preposterous argument -- linking an American-born citizen who converted to Islam to illegal immigration and terrorism, and 3) unbefitting a representative of this country, unless you really want to buy BJ's argument that we're deserving idiots. If stuff like this doesn't go criticized, heavily, we're in worse shape than he may think. Goode's free to say this stuff, but he looks the stupider for it.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Rich. Glad you're here to keep us on our toes, always.

A star for Buffalo. Which we all know means less to the rest of the league. We've dealt with that consistently. Ovechkin is one of the very best, one of the guys the league is banking on like Crosby. The Sabres are a team that can win. I know which I'd rather root for. Also, the league doesn't hand out fifteen game suspensions like water. Brooks Orpik probably deserved more than 3 games for his hit on Cole last year and that did a lot more damage than was done to Danny. Guarantee if the guy received a concussion that put him out for weeks, Ovie sees some further discipline. Basically, the NHL assigns suspensions on a pretty limited basis for dirty hits that cause major injury. That's a lot of qualifiers. We'll take Ovechkin sort of at his word in that he made a really stupid play, and we're going to make sure he is not feeling too good after the 26th. But outright headhunting and goon hockey is just dumb, especially for a team as good as ours.

Mair and Goose got ejected from that game sticking up for their man, Joe. What else can you ask for? You know as well as I do that the league has always protected its stars. Always. Bertuzzi was an exception because his foul was so egregious, it caused a big injury, and it was on open-ice. We are winning by playing within the rules. If you want to see an example of what gooning it up and playing by the old rules does for you, look down the road at the idiots masquerading as hockey players in orange and black.

How about "Merry Christmas from the NFL. As a gift to you and your families, we're lifting all blackouts this holiday weekend." Too bad their wealth is more important than PR and at this point, the opinions of fans make little difference except for in ways in which they can be useful and profitable.

I'd rather ours were the standup guys who stick up for themselves but don't take the cheap shot. You'd be the first guy blaming Peters if he pulled a Bertuzzi the next time these teams met. Ovechkin should have been fined more and suspended. He wasn't. That's the league's problem, not the Sabres'. They should just play their game. As it is, It wasn't like Ovechkin leaving that game helped the Sabres to victory in that one.

that's a great one. To me a few of the saddest songs in the world have got to be on Neil Young's Tonight's the Night. Nick Drake's "Black-Eyed Dog" is up there, too, and who could forget Dylan: "Simple Twist of Fate"? But my choice: Lou Reed's "Street Hassle." It's the flip-side of the euphoria on "Heroin."

Well, I'm doing my part. It's just that it seems to find its way into every thread these days. It's far past bordering on ridiculous.

I predict the Bills and Titans will play an NFL regulation football game in front of some people.

"Vote for Rory": evidence that yes, people really are that dumb.

Apparently someone hasn't read this:

1) this has been over-discussed, to put it mildly. 2) the more sage reporters on this board can and have told you that some of the most exciting Bills games (yes, even in the Super Bowl era) did not sell out. Christmas eve is asking a lot of people, especially in the cold. Nonetheless, I've got four tickets. We may or may not go. I get to see my family all of four times a year so spending a whole day on football is a bit of a luxury. I wonder how many games are selling out. Even more, I wonder how many games will have full attendance given that many franchises sell out with season tickets. Furthermore, Buffalo is a struggling city of 300,000 with a hotter hockey team. Yes, the metro-area is considerably larger, but it's Christmas eve. Relax. If you feel that strongly about it, go and support them. Don't chastise everyone else who might have other obligations.

YES!

He didn't. But he also set back the seasoning of Losman and never game him a game plan that was going to aid him in his success. He was thrown into the fire. And running into the middle of a pile over and over again does not constitute a real running game plan if you ask me. In fact, it's one of the problems I continue to have with this team. I just see a stubbornness, and not a patience, in Mularkey. I see the opposite in Jauron, and it probably starts from the top-down with an organization that is refusing to promise anything besides hard work and progress, and again, building something. Mularkey and Donahoe just wanted the quick fix, always. If you want to blame that on fans, I think that's a mistake. Any GM making his decisions to simply try and impress fans is a fool and it will backfire. And if you want to blame it on Ralph, well, 1) he pays the bills and 2) I'd love to see some evidence.

On one hand he was successful as you put it (9-7 season). On the other it was impossible for him to succeed. Which is it? Can it not be that he bears some responsibility for some of his bad decisions? I think we're seeing right now that the Losman situation could have been handled better. We're seeing that by trusting and developing good talent with character we can do better than we can by entrusting the line to poor veteran journeymen and underachievers (Greg Jerman, Mike Williams). We're seeing that by sticking with the run and a conservative gameplan while taking a few shots we can actually run with some pretty good teams. To me, it's just the opposite of the way you cast it. Marv and Jauron bring hope, and not the false hope that sells tickets immediately, the kind Donahoe brought with him, but hope that we'll actually try and build something in this rebuilding process instead of shooting for the moon and failing miserably year in, year out. If you are not more hopeful and excited for the Bills team than in years, I don't know what would stir your emotions up. As for him being a good HC someday, maybe. He would have to show me that he can learn something and adjust. He did not show evidence of an ability to do so his first time out, nor does it seem he is doing much or enough of this in Miami.

Wouldn't you at least agree that this was Donahoe's (and by extension Mularkey's) tendency also? It happened with Bledsoe. It happened with Losman. With Mularkey, it happened with the run at the most inopportune times. We saw the guy abandon the one thing that was working for him when his team was down by just 7 points. I think you're a smart dude -- that's why it's all the more baffling to me that you pop up now and then to defend a guy who has just made some boneheaded football decisions that continue to set back whatever team he works with. I'll admit he had a good rep in Pittsburgh, but he's done not much to define himself since, rookie season record notwithstanding.

No they didn't. Bills started 2-2.

A WNYer and SUNY Fredonia grad produces that show. Pretty cool stuff.

It's not the cold weather. It's the swirling winds in the cold weather. Your kicker's range will be a bit neutralized and Vince will have to get used to his ball moving in some ways he's not used to. The ground game (and you have a decent one) will be your best friend in this kind of environment.

I like Vince, but he has a lot to learn. It'll be interesting to see whether that happens or not. I've felt the same way about our guy for awhile. Finally looks like that is starting to happen and most of us, save for a few knuckleheads, are very happy about it. I think the use of a couple of our speedier LB/SS types will help counter Vince this time out. But I've been wrong plenty of times and that's why they play the games, innit?

I have to say that the progress of Ellison and Pennington, two guys whom I thought would have a VERY tough time making the roster, is quite impressive. I am really glad that Jauron and the staff moved in favor of the new guys they chose rather than some of the retreads from Jauron's past and the Mularkey era (think Greg Jerman -- thank GOD that guy is gone). By the way, ol' Greg, our third in line at tackle last year: not in the league this year. What a find that guy was. Viva Pennington.

Peters will probably get in when his reputation precedes him, as with these guys who made it this year, Ruben Brown, and a host of others. For OLs and other positions where stats don't tell the story, selections often occur when guys are past the years in which they truly excelled.