BuffOrange

Please post the link where I said 10-6 was blasphemy. They're not a lousy 6-10 team. They're not a SB contender. Anyone who argued either point last week was smoking dope. The idea behind the excitement of #12's injury is that since the Bills are likely neither of those things themselves, they now have a non-zero chance of winning the division. edit: sorry, I (foolishly) thought it was "about me" when you quoted me.

I was rooting for the Jets because listening to media hype (which I stopped caring about some time ago anyway) is a small price to pay for what I think helps the Bills' chances of winning the division.

Of course they're an above .500 team.

I think yur right. There's no way you can take any chance of an incompletion and leaving them 70 seconds when you're guaranteed to give them 30 sec's max by running (not to mention a FG attempt of less than 40 yards).

The play worked because Evans got off a jam, fake juked the safety to the post, then got to the corner, then made a nice catch will Trent threw a perfect strike while having all day to throw on a long developing 3rd&6 play which the defense knew we were going to throw. So as usual: Win = good playcalling Lose = awful playcalling.

This post doesn't flow well imo.

Interesting...I actually don't think that theory is too crazy.

Was that actually a designed pass play? Anyone else find that inexplicably insane if it was?

Can't disagree with that... I do respect that bonehead call (successful or not) more than all of the decisions coach's make for the sake of avoiding media/fan criticism though.

Wow, that was awful. The Norv Chargers are like the Wade Bills. Can't have much worse luck. Shannahan= balls.

Nice job of punting when you're down by 9 with 4 minutes left. I don't care if it's 4th&90, why are you quitting? Mangenius - you are a gutless chump.

Well it was clear to any non-JP apologist that the OL was a lot better in protection than in run-blcoking in almost every game last year. Since continuity as a unit is usually a bigger asset in protection than in the running game, there's no reason this should come as a surprise with getting everyone back this year. In this particular game I actually thought it was better than usual considering we didn't have the ball in the 3rd Qtr, and the transition to a lot of spread/shotgun in the 4th Qtr. The 10 yard TD run up the gut on 1st down is also a lot more impressive to me than a 3rd down draw play for a TD that we saw last week (and against Denver last year) - at least in terms of evaluating the run-blocking.

5.5

This. Who knows if we had taken the Florida DE this year if Jax didn't trade up for him. My guess is probably yes. Since he was gone, the worst thing we could've done was reach for another one, or Malcolm Kelly as many suggested. Denney & Kelsay are not good starters - it's strange how this is universally agreed upon after every loss, but now "zomg 5 sacks!"? It is one game - you don't draft based on opening day stats from the previous year.

This thread be crazy. The Bills on the road. Straight up. As a 5.5 dog. In a suicide pool. Seriously? The Saints on the road in a pick 'em without Colston against a playoff team coming off 10 days rest. Really? Houston - well I like that team a little, but not after last week. See how Schaub & their defense improves and then maybe take them later when they have a 3 game home stretch vs. Miami, Detroit, & Cincy. Dallas - The Eagles are good and they almost always play well in Dallas. Remember what our offense looked like @Tampa in '05 when JP made his first road start after beating a crappy team at home on opening day? That's what Falcons fans are going to feel like this week. I can't really fault anyone for taking the Giants even though I personally never take a road team.

I don't know what to think about Cutler. You mentioned he chokes when they need him - which is true to the extent that he had the worst 4th Qtr QB rating last year; but you gotta wonder how much of that was diabetes/fatigue, ya know? Probably one of the smartest things espn has done in recent years is feature a column from 'Football Outsiders' - who know what they're talking about more than espn....they like Warner's matchup a lot better, so I'd probably go with him. Supposedly Cutler has a cake schedule after this week, so they'll be plenty of starts for him... I'd say it's probably close enough to go with your gut though.

Week 2 Cleveland + 6 vs. Pittsburgh - This Browns team may very well by my kryptonite already. I just think out of all the lines this week, this was the one that changed the most based on Week 1; meaning this same game likely would've been Cleve -1 or 2 last week. Maybe they're that bad and the Steelers are that good. I'll take my chances that neither team was as good/bad as they looked. Stick a fork in them if they open 0-2 at home. Tampa Bay -7 vs. Atlanta - Briefly touched on this in the Turner thread. Even with Garcia iffy; rookie QB making first road start against a good defense has too many gruesome, ugly possibilities to me. The Bucs had arguably the most impressive loss of last week in NO. Philly +7 @Dallas - The Eagles thrashing of the Rams doesn't really influence me much, but they're a team I liked before the season. I don't think the road team winning both games last year was a total fluke in the sense that Reid/McNabb have always been a good road duo and Dallas has a below average homefield advantage. It doesn't hurt that Football Outsiders likes the Eagles better to begin with. KC -3.5 vs. Oakland - This is one matchup where I'm weighing Week 1 more heavily than others. Given the Raiders' circumstances of opening night, at home, against a division rival who isn't that good - simply one of the most pitiful performances I have ever seen. I'd lay this number if they're travelling to USC. Huard playing instead of Croyle can't hurt the Chiefs. YTD: 2-1 because I couldn't pull the trigger on other games I liked. I kinda lean GB -3 @Detroit this week, but since there's a 95% chance of it being Bob Matthews' "Best Bet" in his Friday column, I'm going to stay away.

I don't really count because I'm in a girly 8 team league where you can only carry 3 RB's (WTF?). But I got him really late; and only picked him instead of Thomas Jones because Jones has the same bye week as Steven Jackson. I'm pretty happy about having him as a RB3 for the rest of the year, though honestly I'm expecting the Falcons offense to look like the Bills circa '05 when JP made his first road start @Tampa in week 2.

It's a shame that such an important area of our country's history is now populated by the biggest scumbags in the land. The league wants to protect JP "golden boy" Lossman but they couldn't care less about Brady. Sure, lets go with that theory.

Yeah, teams that move the ball better and have the lead for most of the game usually win.

I was thinking about this throughout the game. I can only assume the Fox audio sucked.

I thought for sure the NE/NYJ line would be off the board for a while. Since it's not I'm not surprised at the line though.

Agree that April is the man and Stroud is a beast. Expected him to help the run D, but pressure on the QB up the gut is something we couldn't even do w/ Pat Williams. Edwards was ok, not great. I thought he threw the endzone ball to Evans (before the Lynch td) too late but I could be wrong. For any/all of Jauron's weaknesses I haven't frequently had the feeling that his teams weren't ready to play in the last two years, so I'm not sure why that should come as a surprise. I liked Schonert going for the endzone after the fumble. I don't have any complaints about the secondary but I'm a little hesitant to praise them that much. I mean on top getting pressure up front, the Hawks scrubs dropped a lot of passes, their TE was wide open on a deep seam despite 3 blue shirts in the area and fortunately Hass overthrew him.

Would you prefer him to take a sack or throw the ball away on 4th down?

Yah I was surprised the protection didn't miss a beat. I guess I didn't think as highly of the run blocking as others. The draw play for a TD was nice but that 3rd&long trickery (which everyone would hate if it didn't work) was executed well in week 1 last year too. It wasn't like we knocked anyone off the ball.