BuffOrange

No, they're right. Standard tard football fan blaming coaches and giving players the free pass. Remember all those posts about the Bills throwing in a tie game vs. NE? Yah me neither.

Haha, so true. There's just something about overvaluing 2nd day draft picks that make people feel like a smart/educated football fan; much like blaming all of Lossman's suckage on the OL.

As rare as trades are the odds are pretty much always in your favor to say "it probably won't happen". You might as well say Jacksonville probably won't beat Pittsburgh.

You might want to bet the mortgage on Philly (bottom 3rd team) -1 @ Washington (good team) since records are obviously gospel at this point in the season.

Bill Simmons just epitomizes all of that. From the loveable loser to that guy. He's the lead-theorist on the "guys who claim the NFL changed the interference rules so that the Colts could finally beat the Pats". That's funny because I remember hearing announcers long before 2003 talking about the 5yard chuck, and how there was no contact allowed after that. But since the refs didn't actually enforce it against NE, it wasn't really a rule. But wait how do you then justify the tuck rule which was never enforced? "oh well, it was a rule". Nice hypocrisy. Such insufferable self-absorbed scum.

It seems like most fans either feel like you do, or are writing angry emails to the Colin Cowherds of the world who don't give us enough respect. I don't know man, you often have to find that happy medium in life. That's where I am, and I feel like I'm in a good place right now with the Bills. I agree with a lot of what you're saying about the takeaways - they're not sustainable and anyone who thinks they are is kidding themselves. I also agree with most of what Cowherd has said. Homefield may have made the difference in 3 of our wins so far. How many games would we win if we played the 3game road trip the Jets just did? Very possibly zero. Another thing nobody is talking about is the offense has very quietly put up 13 and 24 points the last two weeks - not a cause for panic, but not exactly fireworks either. I hope Gailey can stay one step ahead of these defenses... The bottom line right now is that despite some of these red flags, we've put ourselves in a position at 4-1, where we can "come down to earth" a bit and still get to the playoffs, which is really all anyone is realistically hoping for this year. Sweep Miami, beat Denver, Tennessee, split with the Jets, get 1 of the Giants/Skins games - there's 10 wins. This team can do that I think without getting crazy lucky bounces; they just need to avoid the collapsing like a house of cards '08 replay. The Jets I think are one of the biggest keys - a 2game lead over them can evaporate quickly if we lose that 1st game against them - suddenly it's a 1game lead and we have to beat them at their place or else lose the tiebreaker. We need to bury them here - I hope the crowd is as loud as ever for that game.

Yup. I think he thought he had safety help over the top but something in the middle of the field occupied the safety instead. Looked like a good play design and Vick screwed up.

And Dallas, who overcame a ton of injuries in winning @SF. Yah, I'd rather have SF & Cincy. The Jets are fun to laugh at because they talk a lot; and I have been at the front of the line in calling them overrated for over a year now. But I don't think there is much of a difference right now between them and Cincy. What do you think the Bengals record would be if they had a 3 game road trip of Oakland, Baltimore, and NE?

Yes he has. I've never found it funny because who is he making fun of? I never hear anyone say "who cares we lost, it was an nfc game" or "season over, that was an afc game". It's funny that people take him seriously though I guess.

Remember the last time the Bills were in the playoffs? They were an 11-5 team playing a road wildcard game against a 13-3 team. Meanwhile a garbage 9-7 Seattle team was hosting an equally garbage 9-7 Miami team that same weekend. Why do you suppose that was? Jacksonville has also played road wildcard games in their last two playoff appearances against teams they finished "ahead of" in the conference standings - NE in '06 and Pittsburgh in '07. So it's pretty foolish to think that teams in Peyton Manning's division haven't been hurt by his presence because he's only won one SB. There is also the matter of playing him twice/year.

He does talk out of his ass. But if you wouldn't trade our remaining schedule for the Steelers in a heartbeat, I don't know what to tell you. Their toughest remaining road games are SF and Cincy.

Your definition of courage is different than most. Saying that he won't live up to the hype might be the least courageous prediction ever; because odds are pretty good he won't be one of the 2-3 best QB's ever. Living up to the hype and having a mediocre career are two vastly different things.

That's a good point. From what I understand Aaron Ross is their McKelvin.

I mean seriously, comparing this guy to Reggie Bush and then throwing out "credibility" jabs...wow.

Everyone seems to be thinking strictly about 2012. "No way a rookie can do __". Well yah, but so what. I don't want the best prospect coming out of college since Elway in our division for the next 15 years - pretty simple really. I don't think they're going to lose enough games to get him though.

Moreover people apparently think Brandon Jacobs is good

It's pretty bwahahaha to think that's not a reasonable comparison. Both have a great reg. season record and a history of choking home playoff games. Cowher broke thru and got his ring after 14 years only after he was lucky enough to have Carson Palmer's knee get ruined, followed by some of the worst officiating ever in the SB.

I don't think it's so ridiculous. Although recent history doesn't necessarily support this point, I still think it is very, very difficult to win 3 road games in the playoffs. Bill Barnwell wrote an interesting article before the season that 10-6 teams only beat 7-9 teams on the road about 55% of the time - the double digit point spread in that NO-Seattle game was pretty ridiculous.

Very true. The only year they weren't sloppy and erratic was the year after they won the SB. They also apparently have no homefield advantage. Somebody told me Seattle turned the ball over twice in the redzone? If so wow, that's an even worse loss than I thought.

I think it's more like 65% and 10% instead of 80% and 20% - if we're giving up 80 yards in a minute and no time outs 1 in 5 times then our defense needs even more help than I think it does. But I am quibbling a bit. Either way the math usually does favor going for it. Coaches are conservative there because nobody blames them when they punt and lose; where as everybody calls for their heads and gives the players a free pass when they don't make it on 4th down.

We swept the division in '93 and '96.

I was going to mention that site too. They pretty much ignore records in their ratings. We turned the ball over three times in those two games btw, although one was a 4th down play vs NE.

I think it's a close decision. If they had only needed a FG I like going for it more. But you really need to have a terrible defensive breakdown to give up an 80 yard TD drive in a minute when they have no time outs. So I wouldn't really get on Gailey either way. Punting on their 37 was definitely dumb however.

Yes that's clearly what I was saying.

You know the offense only scored 13 points last week, right? It's hard to ease too much off the gas pedal when you're not driving very fast to begin with. They did throw the ball on 3rd&1 up by 7 with 8 minutes left last week - you may have heard about that play. We didn't get the lead today with downfield throws, but with runs, slants, and screens - which isn't surprising given the Eagles weakness at LB. They did a better job of defending those plays in the 2nd half, so ya I would've liked to have seen them take a deep shot with Stevie once. But I didn't see much indication that the coaches were just crossing their fingers hoping the 31 points would stand up. Now if you want to rip punting on 4th&7 from the opponent's 37 I can totally get behind that.