BuffOrange

It's also the quality of hits, not just the quanity. Drew ducks his head and clams up (his vintage standstill 360 if you will) at the site of a pass-rush, which allows him to avoid most of the bone-crushing shots to ribs other QB's take.

I was thinking the same thing. Combine all the kids who inexplicably like the guy with all the people who wear Raiders' black gear just to be "cool", combined with all the actual Raider fans...man, those sales are going to be sick.

I hate to nitpick...Ok that's a lie, I like to nitpick. Lee Evans > Don Beebe by a mile. Would anyone even remember Beebe if not for the Leon Lett play? Does ANYBODY remember him dropping 2 TD's vs. the Redskins in the SB? Current defense > SB defense. Moulds is no Reed, and McGahee is no Thurman, and the OL obviously isn't close. Also, current AFC > early 90's AFC. You were excited when Flutie took over?

No, the NBA is in the dumps. Whether people want to admit it or not, the league has completely lost touch with suburban white America. The ratings for the Spurs-Nets Finals 2 years ago were an embarassment; and I'd imagine that won't be much better this year with all of the big markets going nowhere fast. That Lebron kid is great and fun to watch, but until his team becomes a contender, the league will struggle. It appears MLB will always be popular no matter what, though I have no idea why.

Yeh, well, perhaps I shouldn't have quoted you since I didn't mean to say "hey RuntheDamnBall bite me" as much as it was supposed to be a general comment to Drew Nation. Plus, I've always wondered why H. Jones doesn't get more love from Bills fans. I agree by the way. Even if he wins a 13-10 game against the 49ers and we lose a shootout that same week, this board will be a circus. Heck, the Midget lost about 15 in a row in SD, and his fans still haven't shut up 4 years later.

Write this down. He will be rejuvenated with his new team for about a half-season, while the Sean Salisburys of the world tell the rest of the league what idiots they are for not going after such a great QB. Then he will go back to being Drew and stink for the rest of his career. If that sounds morbid, then bite me. Guys like Henry Jones who gave their blood & sweat for a winning organization for a longer period of time were treated much worse, and got less 'thanks' from the fans & management.

Of course it's the admission of a mistake. Why is that a negative? I mean, the Bledsoe trade was a mistake. The admission that it was a mistake is not a mistake. A lot of people (myself included) would be claiming TD is too stuborn if this move hadn't been made. I give TD credit on this one for moving forward, and doing what's best for the organization instead of desperately trying to save face.

Were you one of those guys who thought TD drafted McGahee because his agent pretended to be on the phone? Sorry, I'm not trying to be a pr!ck; and Lord knows I'm not a TD apologist, but that theory is just ridiculous. Maybe on opening day, they sell 400 more tickets and 100 more hot dogs if JP starts. But in the long run, winning is what sells tickets. Obviously they don't feel Drew gives them the best chance to do that. Hell, this was the same front office that chose Rob Johnson over the Midget. Do you think that was a popular decision with the fans?

So there's a slight chance we go 6-10 and miss the playoffs, instead of 8-8 and miss the playoffs. That's it - that's the extent of the downside. I just cannot fathom how anybody could even consider this a "gamble".

Believe it or not, there is some middle ground between missing the playoffs every year with the #2 ranked defense, and the 2 greatest QB's of my lifetime (Montana & Elway). Hard to believe, I know.

Exactly why Pitt is a good candidate to pick to choke in the 1st couple rounds when you're filling out your brackets. The Big East refs are accustomed to their clutch & grab, but when they get refs in the tourney who actually call fouls, they can't play basketball. However, unlike the Uconn game 'Cuse cannot use that as an excuse. Krauser hit some miracle shots; while Warrick & Pace vanished in crunch-time. With tough road games on the horizon vs. BC & Uconn, they're in danger of finishing 0-5 against the top teams in the conference - Not a good sign. This team really needs to make an uncharacteristic run in the Big East Tourney for me to have any faith in them. As for Pace - it is clearly more about matchups with him than it is motivation. The guy can play against a smaller defender in man-to-man; but he obviously isn't as effective against a physical defense, or a zone, nor is the whole team in general since nobody can consistently make an outside shot.

That's if they even get to the FT line, which they didn't do the other night. I think their downfall will be everyone not named Warrick/Gmac sucking. The sophmore class is just a travesty. I like Pace, but he's a defensive liability on the back-end of the 2-3 zone as Uconn showed. Tough stretch coming up with Nova/Pitt/BC, and Uconn again. I think we're due for a BE tourney win; which would hopefully ensure a #3 seed. I'm not sure Boeheim even cares about that tournament though. But if Uconn's undeserved #2 seed last year is any indication to how much the selection committee values it, he should probably start to care.

Good game - I'll have to pop that in tonight; thanks for reminding me. Rocceo - dude - bump up the difficulty - how hard is that? My biggest gripe is that there's a glitch in season/franchise mode. If a team suffers too many injuries the game will freeze when you're trying to play the next game, and so you have to manually sign FA's or edit the lines for that team. Pain on the butt, but the gameplay is 2nd to none.

You aren't kidding... I'm really hoping Cuse can hold on to a #3 seed. If they get their usual 4/5 there's a decent chance they'll be playing Illinois in Chicago in Round 3.

Are you referring to 1994? We got killed that game 40-something to 17. I don't think they can. He's top 5 all-time in every major category, is he not?

It's a double-standard that makes a lot of sense. Please, can we stop pretending like men & women are the same? They're not.

Is that why they've had a bye in the Big East tournament the last 2 years despite playing home-and-homes with all the top teams? They're 8-2 in the BE this year. Uconn just has the Orange number. Cuse couldn't beat them in their championship season with Carmello, either. But with the number of McDonald's All-Americans Uconn has, they're the ones underachieving; look at the standings.

McDonough/Raftery/Bilas is by far the best team in all of sports IMO. They have some funny good-natured ribbing among each other, they're not afraid to criticize officials (I thought I was watching the 72 Olympics in Munich last night...no home cooking for the Cuse) and they have good objective insight on the actual game. A little man-to-man....nickel dimer.

Heh, I think Andy Reid's coaching as well as his explanation can best be summed up by:

They're both right....cause he's clearly an ACC homer. I agree with the "can't stand listening to him talk" part though. I have to say - McDonough, Raftery, and Bilas are outstanding. Best broadcasting team in all of sports. I hope they're doing the Uconn/Cuse game tonight.

You think there's a chance Vitale might be doing that game?

How about a reject from Cleveland.. I hear Butch Davis is available.

That does reek of "we're just happy to be here". Athletes are always saying they don't read the papers; but then they base their hunger to win on other people's expectations? I do think that's kind of a loser's mentality. I mean, it's entirely possible that he wanted to win the game as much as anybody; and was just putting a positive spin on a question that was asked of him. I just think that's a dumb thing for him to say. After the Falcons win he said "a lot of people counted us out, etc". Who? Like you weren't favored to win that game? I like McNabb but he always does that "us against the world" crappy routine. The Patriots beat the Rams because Brady and the rest of the team wanted to win for themselves; I don't they cared so much about proving John the Sportswriter wrong. That may be part of the reason they win as favorites AND underdogs. The pointspread doesn't matter to them, and it shouldn't.

Miami didn't run the ball real well against them. Neither did we last year. I'm not saying you should throw every down against them, but I don't think there's a particular formula for beating their defense. You just have to hit a deep pass or 2 and don't make any mistakes. Defensively, you have to be better than solid; because Brady will pick apart a "solid" defense all day long. You're right about the opportunistic part though. If you only have one chance all game to intercept a ball, you have to make the play.

Andy Reid calls all the plays, and the Eagles have ALWAYS been a pass-happy team since he's been there. They were pretty successful with it this year. NE is just a better team. They didn't play their best game either, and they finished the season with one starter in the secondary from Week 1.