BuffOrange

This might actually be the first legitimate criticism of playcalling I've read on this board in a few years. It does seem like the pitchouts work better than our interior OLmen getting mauled.

It's a stupid cliche but it means we're not as good as everyone thinks after a win or as bad after a loss. We'll be fine if we quit making mistakes, but obviously not good enough to have much margin for error.

He's our best pass-rusher. That's not news. I don't think he would've stopped them from running down our throats on the last drive.

You ask "what happened" as if it's something we've ever had.

From what I saw of the Oakland game, he was shaky with lots of time. Of course we don't have Asomugha.

QB - Favre. It's fantasy ball, who cares about int's? RB - Turner is a no-brainer with that matchup and I like Lynch better than Jones. WR - I couldn't have been more wrong about Jennings in the preseason. Hasn't he reached "every week guy" status? Would go Royal over Avery but it's close. Browns D

Thanks I just didn't think anyone was actually reading this, and frankly there are fewer games I feel strongly about each week. Obviously with Houston you have to realize after 4 straight home games they're probably not as good as they've looked lately. I still think they're about equal to Minny on a neutral field and it should be a +3 line. While I thought the Vikings were better than their record a few weeks ago after a tough early schedule, I don't think that's the case anymore after the refs gave them games vs. the Saints & Lions. The other game I feel dirty going against "my Ravens" and my respect for Football Outsiders, who thinks Balt should be favored by 3. But basically Ravens +1 @Cleveland would be a -5 line @Baltimore and yet they were only -1 in Week 3 (where we correctly picked the Ravens of course). Obviously some of this discrepancy is Vegas starting to catch on to the Ravens being a decent team, but more than that I think the Browns have improved as much as anyone in the last six weeks and I'm not sure the lines are reflecting that right now. Something is telling me to take Dallas +9 too but we won't because well, it's Brad Johnson on the road.

Whitner > Stroud & Lynch? Good one.

These "Evans #1?" threads are no less dumb than they were two years ago. Plz stop.

I am getting lazy with the write ups here, but here we go. Week 9 Houston +4.5 @ Minnesota Cleveland -1 vs. Baltimore Last Week: 2-1 YTD: 16-7-1

Bellicheat pwning Bledsoe goes back farther than 2002. Playoff Game #1 Hard fought rematch of this game. This was of course prior to the 7-6 shootout loss to Kordell Stuart in '97. As for '96, look at the Jags point totals vs. Buffalo & Denver (30-27 W's) compared to the NE game (20-6 L), and remember the Pats scored a defensive TD in that game.

The thing is just about every team in the league has Kelsays, Denneys, Crowells & Reeds. Bills fans either think they're better than they are or the worst players ever instead of what they are - easily replaceable run of the mill NFL players. The other guys are of course nice players - it's impossible not to accumulate a few of them when you're the GM of a team that picks in the top half every year. To be fair, it is equally impossible to not make a few bonehead moves in that length of time. But when those bonehead moves are the magnitude of Bledsoe, Lossman, McGahee, Mike and Pat Williams - you're talking about 5 wasted 1st round picks in addition to letting go of what was the most valuable player on defense. Those are not minor F-ups, they are colossal disasters. I remember reading a Mort chat in Decmber of '01 - the 3-13 season - where he mentioned how much he loved their heart and they were heading in the right direction, "watch out in a year or two", etc....4 years later he was still making excuses. It's really hard to respect the guy even though I mock the "media respect" whiners on this board 90% of the time. But yeah, good for him for at least fielding this question I guess.

Oakland was a nice game for their stats. They didn't run the ball well vs. the Chiefs or Bengals.

They have?

Terrible post. Cottrell's D's have stunk in every stint since here - NYJ, Minny, SD; and the talent he had to work with in those places even without Merriman was closer to this year's Bills than 06 & 07.

Andre & Ralph will get in eventually though probably not this year. Tasker has an outside shot long-term. Talley/Hull I know are fan favorites for good reason but realistically forget it...Pro Bowls play a big role in the process whether it's fair or not.

Don't give a crap about the wildcard. It's a bad division. Go win it.

Best post of the thread. It's not "safe" to double down on 11 vs. 10, but that doesn't mean you're correctly "playing the odds" if you don't.

I don't buy the "get a yard or you deserve to lose" logic, but I definitely would've went for it because of the bolded part. And you're right - when you kick the FG a relatively few % of fans/media blame the coach. When you go for it and miss, it's always the coach's fault - see opening day game @NE a couple years ago.

To be fair, 90% of the callers make Jessica Simpson look smart.

I definitely don't remember a non-QB Bill who was defended against any criticism so vigorously by so many. I continue to be reminded of Henry Jones: Great locker room guy, ok player, and no aspect of his game really stands out. Actually that's a pretty generous comparison since Jones was at least a very good cover guy at times. I don't know if he would've made a play on Ginn if Mitchell didn't get him from behind (he got juked out of his jock). The Ricky Williams TD was also puzzling as he was standing in the endzone seemingly unblocked. Maybe those of us critics just have unrealistic expectations if we're not comforted by the fact that the Safety from Texas/Oakland sucks.

OK, I'll copy the 95% of WR's you don't cherrypick who aren't good as rookies on that memo.

A-

The ability to see WR separation is to me one of the nicer benefits of seeing a game live. All I've seen is spot duty on tv, so I have no idea - maybe season tix holders can chime in. But yeah, I can see how he'd remind you too much of Matt Jones.

Or the same division record and a better conference record.