BuffOrange

rofl, me too. Dude you do know there's no Tooth Fairy right?

The UFC is obviously scared. Once Ric Flair locks in that Figure 4 it's all over.

I'm not "conveniently" witholding anything. Every team loses close games, but not every team comes that close to losing to horrible teams at home. It's not like any of those nailbiting losses were road games against good teams. I watched much of the Atlanta game - they were thoroughly outplayed as the yardage & ToP show, and they were a TD away from tying the game. It could've just've easily been a 14 pt game. And Atlanta was a mediocre team and it was at home. The first Pats game was a much bigger game for Miami than it was for NE, and they lost at home. The first Bills game - yeah they could've won that one if not for a slew of turnovers & penalties, but ya know....the Bills were a horrible team? No I think that's a fair assessment...I also see about 9 wins looking at their schedule. I just don't think they're a top 10 team as most of the "experts" seem to be saying/writing.

I'm sorry but I have to jump on the media-bashing bandwagon. It's incredible how the Dolphins went from supposedly the worst organization in the league last year (I never thought this BTW) to a top 10 upstart team on the same level as New England (I don't believe this either). They had like one nice win in San Diego. And they were 1 play away from losing at home and getting swept by the JP/Bollinger led Bills/Jets. And then the game vs. the Patriots practice squad team. Give me a break already. Most overrated team in football, just like the good old days.

Yeah, the ticky tack defensive holding calls on 3rd & 12 are annoying. Anybody notice that defensive holding or illegal contact is never called on 1st or 2nd down? Also agree on intentional grounding - needs to be called more. When it is called, it takes all the refs 30 seconds to stand around looking at each other and the defense has to beg & plead for the call before the flag finally comes out. It is also annoying that the majority of announcers don't even know the rule: Even if the QB is outside the pocket, he still has to get the ball past the line of scrimmage. Again, I don't see the blatant interference on deep balls in college that you're talking about very often.

I always hear people use this argument, but I don't ever remember seeing this actually happen in a College game. Giving a team a 50 yard gain for a bad call is a disgrace and it happens too often. It's the single worst game-changing call in sports outside of a phantom foul inside the PK box in soccer.

Haha nice

I think he's a pretty good QB. Not great, but there are only 2 great QB's in the league. Moss helps, but he only played what like 6 games without him? I think that's too small of a sample to say that he sucks without him; especially when he played pretty well the times Moss was injured in Minnesota.

Yeah, again I wish JP had played more but I guess I don't hold the same bitterness towards MM. I don't know how much of a difference it's going to make in the long run. I guess if JP stinks it up early in the year, starts to play well late and we miss the playoffs by a game, then I'll throw stones at Mularkey for 'stunting his progress'. The reality is though we're not a playoff team even with a good QB. I expect us to get destroyed in these first couple road games and I'm not going to call for JP's head if he doesn't play well early. The bottom line is the kid has to show progress and prove he can play towards the latter half of the season. If he doesn't, you can't point the figure elsewhere (well, except maybe for Donahoe ).

So basically GW > MM because he didn't have the benefit of Lebeau? I'm sorry I just don't follow that logic at all. If QB X has better WR's to work with than QB Y that is one factor to be taken into consdieration when comparing the two but it doesn't automatically mean QB Y is better. Whatever, I hope MM flames out in Miami as much as the next guy. I just don't think there's any empirical evidence to indicate GW did a better or even an equal job as a HC in his 3 years.

Was LeBeau there in 2003? I don't remember. FWIW I do think there's a good deal of luck involved with regard to turnovers. The point is the defense wasn't any better under a defensive HC with primarily the same players.

Albany, I have argued this ad nauseam in the past, so I hesitate to write too much w/ so many posters on board, i'll just have to repeat it a month from now. I also didn't agree w/ the way the Sam Adams situation went down last year. I have no idea what happened in the locker room though. I also don't understand why Holcomb played towards the end. I think it's somewhat of a stretch to say it was purely for selfish reasons, as he did have a 5yr contract and ultimately chose to quit, leaving $ on the table. I guess my evaluation of coaches is more preparation/performance related. People have short memories and had unwarranted high expectations last year, so the most recent disastrous season is fresh in everyone's mind. To me the most shocking part of the Miami debacle wasn't that we blew a lead, but that we had a 21-3 lead in the first place. In 2001 we blew a 21-10 lead vs. Miami at home with about 5 minutes left which i thought was just as embarassing. The offense sucked and yet they scored on just about every opening posession...MM gets no credit for this? We couldn't score a single f*&%ing offensive TD in 7 games in 2003...SEVEN OUT OF SIXTEEN! How was that not the worst coaching performance ever? Granted, MM was an offensive coach and GW wasn't, but that doesn't explain how the team went from 32nd to 1st in takeaways from 2003-2004.

It doesn't matter because everyone in the same division plays basically the same schedule. Unfortunately the Bills don't get to play the Bills twice though.

rofl, these comments are sooo retarded. Did you watch any games in 2001/2003?

Davidson is the Blues GM now? Sad to see him go but no need to overpay w/ they have i guess. Also, the Bruins payed Chara a lot, which is bizzare; don't they need lots of help?

Yes, every season since 1994 is the fault of the coaches.

Doesn't it go without saying that Chris Watson is the best?

I don't think you can give Gruden too much credit for the one Super Bowl he did win. Brad Johnson at QB, Michael Pittman at RB, a very mediocre OL and they were somehow an offensive juggernaut in the postseason. While their defense was very good, it was not '85 Bears or '00 Ravens "all-time great". One of the least talented champions ever IMO. He's still young so I think he can get there if he manages to grind out more playoff teams. Bellicheck & Bellicheck - lock, Cowher probably in. Shannahan is close, but he's another guy who has some years left. I've personally never been a big Holmgren fan. I think just about any coach could've won the title once in Favre's prime, much like Switzer/Dallas in '95. People also tend to forget that they were better than the Denver team they lost to in '97. Both teams were great offensively, but Green Bay had the better defense and really had no business losing that game - clearly outcoached by Shannahan. Also, if you take away last year his tenure in Seattle has been barely average. He won two of the worst divisions in NFL history ('99 AFC West and '05 NFC West) and in both those years lost in the first round to two of the worst playoff teams in NFL history at home ('99 Dolphins and '05 Rams).

I'm not a huge Willis fan, but that ranking is typical bandwagon "base everything on the previous year rather than the big picture" syndrome...preview magazines always do the same thing w/ their team predictions. Off the top of my head: AFCE -R. Brown? AFCN - R. Johnson AFCS - D. Davis AFCW - L. Johnson L. Tomlinson NFCE - Portis, Barber NFCN - ?? NFCS - Cadillac?, McAllister NFCW - S. Jackson?, Alexander, James I dunno, I think all the ones w/ "?'s" are all debatable either way, but I don't know where you find 7 more RB's in addition to this.

Agreed. If anything I would say YPC and net punting are underrated; since rushing is generally a statistic measured by yardage and punting by gross (50 yard punt into the endzone for a 30 yd net, yipee!).

It is kinda ridiculous that we're all starving for the days of Pete Metzelars. Not that he wasn't a good player or anything, but the fact that we haven't anybody even close to his caliber (other than Remiersma for like 1 year in '98?) is pretty sad.

Completely agree. They do like the same 5 games over and over again: Cowboys-9ers "the catch", Broncos-Browns "the drive" and "the fumble", Cowboys-Packers Ice Bowl, Dolphins-Chargers Winslow game, maybe like 2 others. WTF - what about some of the Raiders-Steelers games, or the Raiders-Dolphins game, or some of the Vikings playoff games in the 70's...how did they get to all those SB's? I have no idea cause they only do the freaking SB games. Didn't the Cowboys & 9ers play some good games in the 70's as well? How about a Bills game from the '90's other than Houston or one of the Miami games other than the one lame ass '98 game? Chargers-Dolphins in '94 was an awesome game, never seen any footage of that. That's it I'm sending a cover letter to Steve Sabol.

Much like the WR position, there are 45 "top 5" LB's.

It's not April 1 is it?