BuffOrange

Tim, some thoughts on the division landscape after hearing you do a couple interviews already. I definitely agree that NE is the class of the division still (that almost goes without saying). As far as the other 3 teams are concerned, media pundits have been dead wrong about the predicted 2nd-4th place finishers in an "NFC South" sort of way for I don't know how many years running. To recap: August 06 ---> OMG Saban is God, Jets & Bills several notches below Fish. August 07 ---> Mangenius August 08 ---> Miami is the worst team ever. Until one of these teams other than NE proves they can do anything for more than one season, I'm not buying this idea that there's this huge gap between 2nd and 4th place. I'm with the Sully aritcle. Why not?

I kinda feel like the good guy wrestler who just clocked his partner with a steel chair to turn bad. Yah, it hurts a little to sell your soul. But contrary to what Tony Kornheiser said on last year's MNF intro, America never really rooted for us because we were the "small market underdog" (GB and KC achieve that admiration from neutral fans but Buffalo has somehow never done it). So I just kinda think F-- the fans, they never cared about us anyway; maybe selling out will be good for us like it was for Shawn Michaels when he threw Marty Jannetty thru a glass door.

We need impact players on the front 7. June or Peterson would be ok, but not enough. Get somebody in round 1 of the draft. I don't even care if it's a run-stuffer, an edge-rusher, or a hybrid LB. Just find 1 nasty player on the front 7. Do this and now we instantly have an average defense. On offense, my first priority would be a Guard. You can moan about our TE situation (I've certainly have) but in reality it's not as imperative now with our WR weapons. Our offense is either going to be very good if Trent gets it, or very ordinary again if he doesn't. It's that simple.

About as well as all of the offseasons when we did nothing.

Very nice win. The defensive boards are still infuriating but that's almost like complaining about the Bills pass-rush at this point. I think we're a #5 seed in the ncaa's now.

+1. Well done.

Flynn may not be ready, but he's still a 1st round pick so he has an excuse to leave. Lol @ Devo in the NBA.

Wish I could've seen it; no nat'l tv appears to be a good thing. If there's a positive about the last two years it's that Selection Sunday will have that Christmas morning feeling again. As mentioned they just gotta show up on Tuesday. The other plus of winning these games is avoiding the 8/9 seed and 50/50 shot of a road game vs. UNC in the 2nd round (since Pitt & Uconn will both be #1's).

"ZOMG a holdout wants more $! = bad attitude."

ESPN got the scoop on the Shannahan to KC story though.

That's a great message board soundbite and all, but unless you're in a 30 team league it's been a while since we had a 2nd WR that was drafted in FF.

I didn't really want to comment on that game until I let it sink in for a couple days. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. It's a lot easier to not fold up the tents after blowing a big lead when you're at home, so I don't want to give them too much credit for that. I'll take the W though, and it was good to see AO back. Looking forward to the Nova game, hopefully another 30k+ crowd.

I was surprised we didn't get more killed on the glass. At least in the 1st half it was 1 shot for them every possession. AO & Rautins really need to get healthy or else we're 1 and done in the tourney if we make it. Can still be a Sweet 16 team with them at 100% though imo. I'm not going to pick that Uconn team to win the whole thing (as I ususally do when they're good). I feel they're like past Pittsburgh teams in that I don't know where they're going for a basket in a tie game w/ 2 min's left. Also if Thabeet gets in foul trouble (which can happen with non-BE refs) that's a problem for them.

I've found this to be an interesting blog. Those metrics apparently don't like Oklahoma that much. How good is OU

Tiresome for sure. WTF, we can't even compete vs. a decent team on the road anymore. I can't put into words how much I hate Devo and wish he were gone after this year. I guess our only hope is that AO still isn't healthy and will get there in a couple weeks, but who knows; we'll have to play a lot better to beat that team in the dome because it's not like Wachovia is an intimidating place to play (the building was almost half orange fans).

I 2nd the idea that the BigXII to me is meh but for those odds sure why not - like JR said they got the stud and the backcourt. I haven't been following Kenpom ratings as much this year but those sort of metrics (like Football Outsiders) are always good for gambling purposes - they loved Kansas last year (who played much better D than UNC). As mentioned there's a ton of luck with the draw though. <3 March Madness btw; I've already decided to take those first 2 days off from work this yr.

I don't really hate 'em as much as most Philly locals do. Tentative plan is to pregame at a Cuse bar around the baseball stadium, then Pat's Steak after the game. Not worried about getting beat up since ya know, it's Villanova.

Finally a good game, and Rautins/AO still weren't all there. Ongenaut provided some good energy on defense. Going to the Nova game Saturday...

More so than other positions these rankings look way different every year. Turner (who carried my fantasy team) is getting way too much love here. A lot of his success came from quantity of carries, as metrics didn't indicate their running game was that great. Of course there's something to be said for durability, but it'll be interesting to see how he plays in '09 after a 400 carry season. Chris Johnson will probably be one of the newcomers to these rankings after next year. He ran really well against teams that are impossible to run on - Pittsburgh and Baltimore until he got hurt.

I listen to him enough to know there's a 99% chance you're misquoting him. He has said over and over again he's a harsher judge than most for the HOF. He has also told Simms on his show that he wouldn't vote for him.

Jim Nance of all people swayed me to the side of changing the rule. Reason being that kickers are so much better, rules favor the offense more than ever, and teams kick off from further back. Clearly 1st possession is a bigger advantage than it was 20 years ago. College is a stupid gimmick and I can't be convinced otherwise. I love that idea.

This x100

Yah this is what it boils down to. It was one of the few plays of its ilk I've seen where I didn't have a strong opinion. The defender did hit him before his arm moved forward, but otoh it he did not have an 'empty hand' when his arm was moving forward. I'm not convinced it was incomplete but anyone who says that's a slam-dunk either way is either lying or hasn't watched enough football to see much crazier things overturned.

Yah when you're the Cardinals you take the ball. I wouldn't go so far as to say they didn't play to their strength, because it's not like they pretended to be a smashmouth team and run on 1st down. I thought Tomlin kicking the FG on the 6 inch line was just as big of an error, especially when you have a QB that big.

There are some team similarities as far as the #1 defense, a couple nice WR's and a subpar OL/running game. The Steelers D was better than #1 though, it was like "best since 2000 Ravens" good. Their schedule was also much tougher than ours. IIRC Moulds was injured for 3 games in October, not at the end of the year. He was at Flutie's disposal when we lost to the Raiders & Giants at home - who were both lousy teams that year. Pitt didn't lose games like that. If we hadn't then we're not playing @Nashville on wildcard weekend.