sullim4

Well that worked exactly like I thought it would...

He should be suspended for that, and not just one game, either. They had him wrapped up, no excuse to lead with your helmet like that and go after the runner's head.

Bingo. La Nova pizza sitting under a heat lamp for an hour or boneless "wings" with Duff's sauce aren't exactly delicacies.

I hadn't been to a game in Buffalo for a while before last week - I think Chan Gailey's final game against the Jets was the last time I was in Orchard Park. Anyway, I noticed that the fans were significantly better behaved this time. Plenty of drunks but no one obnoxiously intoxicated, no open fires on the ground in the parking lot, no public urination that I could see, and no fights. Everyone was fairly respectful towards opposing team fans. The atmosphere was very positive and was a pleasant surprise to me based on past poor experiences. I've historically gone later in the season, usually when the team has been eliminated, so maybe that's the reason why I have a negative impression of the in-stadium experience... but regardless, it was a welcome change and made me feel proud to be a Bills fan. Keep it up.

You could tell in the stadium that there was movement happening pre-snap that didn't happen with their other punts. I thought the same thing about it being a fake. If casual fans could pick up on it, chances are the players knew too.

I don't understand this at all... our guy is solid and knows the wind pattern in Orchard Park. Why give that up? If anything, the K position has been the one that's been worrisome.

The Bills offense is dependent on the running game. If Shady doesn't have a good game, the Bills will be lucky to score more than 10 points. We saw that today.

This happens all the time in business - companies get stuck in a certain way of thinking and then get bit in the behind when the times change. Business school case studies have numerous examples of this - Sony with the Walkman. Blockbuster with the video store. Kodak with film. Hell the company I work for, Microsoft, got killed in the phone business by Apple because they failed to adapt. I mean, do you have any examples demonstrating that newspapers have tried revenue streams other than ad-supported revenue and subscription-based revenue? These are the same wells they've been tapping since the dawn of the newspaper. Most of these papers are controlled by large groups like Hearst or Gannett, neither of which seem eager to change. To make money in the media realm nowadays, you have to be creative. Newspapers still think they can survive by printing stories from 8PM the previous day on physical paper, delivering to homes each morning, and supplement that with online subscriptions. That's just not going to work in 2017, and the financials of the major newspapers prove that. Again, I'll reiterate... give me a media pass for $20 good across most newspapers and media outlets across the nation, let me pick and choose articles I want to read at whatever price you want to attach, say $.25 per view... and then I think you'd see some traction. Micropayments are all the rage right now. Or, team with one of the big media companies that has captive customers (like Comcast or Charter), and offer their customers access to your content for a cut of their fees. That's what ESPN3 is doing right now.

My two cents... The media would be wise to learn how other industries monetize their free services. Google is able to offer search and GMail for free because of data mining. Microsoft does the same thing with Outlook mail. Facebook and Twitter with social media. The COGS on these services are billions of dollars per year and somehow these services are profitable - consumers exchange their personal data for a free service. This is the model that's proving to be profitable nowadays. The newsprint media is married to advertising and subscriptions as a form of revenue because that's all they know. But have they given any thought to partnering with, say, Amazon to deliver content to Prime subscribers for a cut of the Prime revenue? Or, ally with a bunch of newspapers and offer a system where you can pay five cents per article read across multiple sources? How about partnering with libraries to offer access for their members, similar to what Consumer Reports does? Why not offer to bundle it with internet subscriptions like ESPN3 does with the major cable internet providers? Heck, if you really want to have an honest conversation about costs, why are newspapers still printing hardcopies and delivering them? Most newspapers are losing money on their print subscribers. I know the administrators of this board are fairly close to a number of members of the media, so I understand why they feel the way that they feel. But times change and the media refuses to change with them. They're locked into old thinking and refuse to change.

I kind of disagree with this. When I was growing up, Miami, Shula, and Marino were public enemy #1. That hate pales in comparison to the loathing I've developed for NE*, Brady, and Belichick. Honestly I don't think Miami cracks my top three anymore - NE*, Dallas, and Seattle are there for me now.

This is a ridiculous contract. He has never won a playoff game and has a career losing record as a starter. I wouldn't even consider him one of the elite quarterbacks in the league, let alone the guy that should be the highest paid.

Same group of people that think Peterman is the next Joe Montana...

I read TSW before I watched the first preseason game. Based on the comments here, I thought he had a stellar game. When I actually watched it, I was sorely disappointed. I'm not sure I understand the love for this guy. He looked like Jeff Tuel.

I don't understand the people who say that we were headed for a 7-9 or 8-8 season but now are looking at 4-12. Watkins is not worth 4 wins. Shady McCoy? Sure. But not Sammy. Taylor never made him a consistent target and Sammy was off the field way too often. I like the trade. They get a high second rounder for someone who was going to leave next year unless we used the franchise tag (in which case he becomes a malcontent).

I did some investigation into this last year. The big question to ask yourself is what exactly you want/need to power during an outage. For us, most of our major appliances (water heater, stovetop, fireplace) are natural gas, and don't require electricity to run. We'd lose the furnace, but our natural gas fireplace is more than capable of heating our house up. We basically determined that in an outage situation, we wanted the refrigerator and microwave in addition to a few other appliances like our TV, cable modem, lamps, etc. The key thing here is that you don't need to power all of these at one. This made the portable units a lot more appealing given the cost difference. The refrigerator, while a large consumer of electricity, doesn't have to run at the same time as the microwave. So you just plug in what you need at the moment, unplug what you don't, and manage it from there. If you want to get really fancy, you can hook it up with a transfer switch to your house's panel, and flick individual breakers on and off to manage usage. We ended up buying a Honda EU2000i and are very happy with the unit. The obvious advantage of the whole-home units is that you get instant-on backup power and unless there's a gas leak in the neighborhood which requires gas shutoff (not always a given here in earthquake country), you're golden. For us, the cost just didn't seem like it was worth it. The portable units, while less convenient, have the advantage of being able to travel with you for camping, in addition to being significantly cheaper and being able to operate after an earthquake. They can also be re-worked to run off of propane or natural gas, although the later would likely require you to seek out a pro.

I was so pissed after that Steelers game. I didn't think anything could top that... ... I never knew I could be so wrong.

I'd pick Bledsoe over Fitz easily. Probably over Tryod as well.

"Garbage" Fitzpatrick playing, but I'm cooking turkey necks? http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19750735/vince-young-questions-why-ryan-fitzpatrick-job

One of those TSW epic threads... http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/23265-donahoe-is-the-son-of-satan/

Son of Satan! And he likes to drink babies' blood.

100% fine bringing him in on the veteran minimum. I don't think he will make the team, but if it means he can transition to a coaching role and mend fences with the team, I am fine with it. I'd be quite surprised if he has something left in the tank... but he's proven people wrong before. The worst case scenario is that he brings a little veteran leadership to the locker room.

Sunday, Sept 10 - Bills vs. Jets - WIN Sunday, Sept 17 - Bills @ Panthers - LOSS Sunday, Sept. 24 - Bills vs. Broncos - LOSS Sunday, Oct 1 - Bills @ Falcons - LOSS Sunday, Oct 8 - Bills @ Bengals - LOSS Sunday, Oct 22 - Bills vs. Buccaneers - WIN Sunday, Oct 29 - Bills vs. Raiders - LOSS Thursday, Nov 2 - Bills @ Jets - WIN Sunday, Nov 12 - Bills vs. Saints - WIN Sunday, Nov 19 - Bills @ Chargers - WIN Sunday, Nov 26 - Bills @ Chefs - LOSS Sunday, Dec 3 - Bills vs. Patriots* - LOSS Sunday, Dec 10 - Bills vs. Colts - LOSS Sunday, Dec 17 - Bills vs Fish - WIN Sunday, Dec 24 - Bills @ Patriots* - LOSS Sunday, Dec 31 - Bills @ Fish - LOSS 6-10... Sounds about right.

This is exactly why many of us have been calling for Russ' head. Regardless of what we are told about his lack of involvement with respect to hockey/football decisions, we don't believe it, and it seems that he does indeed have Terry and Kim's ear with respect to stuff like this.

Side note: I was wine tasting in Sonoma yesterday at a place called Imagery. One of the guys behind the counter sees my Bills hat and asks if I know who Doug Whaley is. I say "yes, he's our incompetent general manager". Turns out the guy knows him and is good friends with him. Showed me some texts about the draft with him and that he was feeling good about it. Of course I felt bad at the time that I called him incompetent. Now? Not really sure.

I don't understand why this didn't happen at the end of the season. Doing this now just gives me this feeling that the Pegulas don't know what they are doing. It is kind of bush league to fire your GM immediately after the draft unless it's for insubordination or something similar. If you trusted him enough to help select your head coach and put together a draft board, two of the most important parts of the job, what could have possibly changed between the end of the season and now?