nodnarb

dave, it ain't happening. There's no way in hell that the bills beat the patriots next week. If they do, I'll be happy. But they won't. And if they do, which they won't, I'll be the first to provide my crow recipe and cooking instructions. But I won't have to do that, cuz there's no way in hell that we can take them, especially at home. We'll get outcoached and outplayed, and if I had access to a sports book, I'd lay an easy thousand on the Pats and walk away with a $500 take. Easiest $500 anyone can make next Sunday. But I'd be happier to lose that $1000. But how can you have any confidence in these coaches when they haven't had a 200+ yard passing game in 13 games? How can you believe when they haven't beaten anybody of consequence in 24 games? How can you have any confidence in these coaches when they have yet to prove that they're an upgrade over gregg williams and kevin gilbride? I like Mike Mularkey and I REALLY like Sam Wyche, but so far this group is not getting it done. The playcalling has been consistently poor and bewildering, and I don't hear any ownership from the head coach. I just listened to his Monday comments on buffalobills.com. He said "we were beat in the trenches", etc, which is true, but WHY were they beat? Were they unprepared? Have they overestimated their players? Was the scheme a problem? Was the game plan a flop? Was there a failure to adjust, or a failure in the adjustments? Surely these all played a role, and they all point to the coaching, not players. I'd take our players with Belichick before I'd take his players with our coaches, let's put it that way.

I haven't felt this bad after a Bills game in a while. The Raiders are a baaad team, and they had nobodies prancing around in their secondary. What do we do? We call a bewilderingly bad game on both sides of the ball (coaching) and the players appear to give up with ten minutes left (desire, will). MM said they had called deep passes - does this mean that Kelly kept checking them off at the line? Well guess what? That's what defenses do - they move around to try to force you into audibles, which are typically easier to predict than the hundreds of plays on a coach's cheatsheet. It's not Kelly's fault that our offense continues to stink. It's coaching. He'll do what you tell him. If you want him to run the plays as called, don't let him audible out of situations *that you have deemed critical for a deep shot*. Let Sam Wyche determine if a defensive front calls for an audible. *Put your team in the best situation to be successful at all times.* I'm not seeing that. What I'm seeing is a team that still has only beaten 2 playoff teams in 24 games (St. Louis and Seattle last year). Seattle remains our most impressive win...I consider the Rams one of the softest teams in the league. This should not impress anybody. I was concerned that the Jets game might give us false hope - the Jets have a lot of great players but their coaches are mediocre strategists. I'm starting to think that we might have mediocre strategists, too. And nothing could be more deflating, because you can't overcome that. You can overcome player injury of any degree if you have the right coach. You can beat teams you're not supposed to beat if you have the right coach. I like Mike Mularkey, I really do. But I'm not convinced he's the right coach. I can't wear that "I BILLIEVE" shirt, but I might considering wearing a "I WANT TO BILLIEVE" shirt. He hasn't proven anything to me yet. And a considerable amount of time has passed. Group sigh: 1, 2, 3...SIGH....

you have every right to be pissed and fed up with this mediocre team. I can no longer hold the fort as a TD apologist. They haven't proven anything in 5 years. Except that they can't consistenty win, they can't beat playoff teams, our offense is consistently dreadful, and our defense is consistently overrated. Not a good legacy to date.

I've agreed for a while that the Bills are overrated, mainly by themselves. Mularkey hasn't proven anything to me yet. How many times are we going to score on our first possession and then peder out until we look like a bunch of girl scouts by the 4th quarter? If you think we have a shot, you're deluded. I almost drank the kool-aid last week, but I decided to wait. Now I'll pass. Maybe next year. But not likely.

I don't care what anybody says, we're going to lose this game primarily due to coaching and playcalling. Once again we face a team with their starting DBs out of the game, and yet we fail to call or even attempt any deep balls. Watch, we might even try a couple in garbage time...and they'll WORK! I hope at least now our defense can STFU about being great, cuz they're merely decent, and never good enough when it matters most. I didn't want to be right when I said that we'd see many more games like this.

Can you say 3-5?

McGee: WHEW

I hope McGee is okay, cuz that would be a HUGE loss for us. HUGE. It looked like a badly sprained knee to me. Beyond that, this game is unfolding precisely as I feared it would. Again we're facing a beaten up secondary that wasn't even that good to begin with, and yet we don't challenge them deep. Our defense can't get off the field on 3rd down, and can't tackle a running back with first contact. Where's Parrish? Why run right at Ted Washington for God's sake? I hope they'll turn it around, but right now we're getting outcoached by...gulp...Norv Turner. He's using his receivers well, and they are INFERIOR receivers to ours (except for a *healthy* Moss). And by the way...Hey Mike, when you're down 10-7 and it's 4th and goal and your OLine hasn't given you much of a push yet, you TIE THE GAME. Hated that call. grumble grumble this is a game we NEED going into foxboro next week. Realistically, our only hope is to stay in the green versus the AFC.

willis should probably shut the fug up. LT is the best back in the game, certainly the most complete back, and has proven it every year he has played. Willis has a long way to go to catch up to LT's level of production. Same goes for Alexander. Look at the guy's TDs and yardage. Willis needs to learn that respect is gained from production, not assertions. He doesn't have the stats or the verbal ability to defend himself here. ** But he certainly has the talent to get there. **

And since McGuire always begins his sentences with "You talk about..." (seriously, count them), he'll say "You talk about courage? You talk about heart? Tedy Brusci is the (your superlative here) ever to play the game. I mean, are you kidding me?"

I just watched what you watched and he never said that, unless I saw something else. They mentioned losman and holcomb and harrington, and the comment by salisbury was that Harrington will NOT be the starter there next year. He never said anything about Holcomb.

no doubt that tedy is going to serve as a major line of pre-game coke for that team. The crowd will be louder than they've ever been. The team will be more pumped than they've been all season. Figures. But hey, none of us expected us to win at foxboro - oh wait, gillette. We all had an L in that slot already. I mean yea, I hope that Mularkey tells his team that, yes, they are going to be pumped and motivated and mean. Let's go out there and steal their thunder. Meet them in every aspect and take them off the stage...and then see them actually do it. But come on. The Bills have laid an egg in Massachussetts for how many years now? Which is why I'm happy to hear that the Raiders won't have Moss. We get a little break there if it's true. They're not the same without him and Clements on Porter is a win for us. I think we smoke 'em, and enter the bye 4-4 and right in the hunt. But then the schedule gets *really* ugly.

I did some bitching and I stand behind all of it. And there will still be plenty of misery left in this season to further validate any earlier bitching. I think the defense needs to do better on 3rd down FAST because the remaining schedule is brutal. I still think that 9-7 is the most likely result. Hope I'm wrong. With the AFC looking like it is right now, 10-6 could earn a team a home playoff game.

I agree that we shouldn't get overly jubilant. We're .500 and look at the rest of the schedule. BRUTAL. At Jets and At Oakland are probably the easiest games left. 1 -- the run D doesn't stink, it just can't keep giving up giant plays. Remove two giant runs and we held Martin pretty well. Yea but...I know. 2 -- true. And I won't say "Better, though", because we played a guy who was not playing football nary 2 weeks ago. 3 -- the playcalling seemed more fluid and confident today. But I'd like to see more deep balls. Kelly has the arm.

This is the way I expected our line to block all along. This is how I expected McGahee to run. Have they found themselves, at long last? Let's hope so. Now let's see if they can do it again. And again. Terrence McGee is the single most amazing kick returner I have ever seen. Yea, yea. Deion. Well, Fug Deion. Yea yea, Dante. But Dante has limited value to his team outside of special teams. McGee IS one of the best middle round gems of all time for the Buffalo Bills. The guy has eyes on his temples. Sam Adams still gets off the ball faster than any big man I've ever seen. I'm still pissed that we're getting gashed for giant running plays. Moulds looks like he's determined to play his best ball, which is great to see. I'd like to see us go deep more often. Lee Evans is exceptional. Get him the ball. Trey Teague had a great game. I haven't typed that many times. I hope the Bills extend McGee for the long term. We can't let him get away. Like, ever. The loss of Spikes was huge, but I think Crowell is doing his job competently. I would not want to tackle Willis with a head of steam. I'd snap in half. It's strange to think that we're at the top of the division right now. I keep wondering what our record would be if Holcomb started all along. The water under that bridge is pretty clear. Ryan Denney? Geez! The boy CAN do more than stop stretch runs. Some nice key sacks today, as well as last week. Took him long enough...those crazy mormons. Josh Reed threw some nice blocks. Campell is underrated. The guy is TOUGH. But his BillsVision interviews suck. Is Greer injured, or did King overtake him at nickel? Didn't see him out there. Did I say I'd like to see them call more deep balls? We have the players to do it. Do it. The one time we tried, we got picked. Yes. But it's the same as punting. They took over on their own 15. And PI calls are being thrown around liberally. Use 'em. http://www.nfl.com/standings

That's the ACLU in action. They want to create a Victim State, and they're gaining traction.

I agree. I've watched Duke closely and even if he was a 10 year vet I'd say he was playing really well - perhaps the best of the lot. He looks like a great find, and the scouting dept. deserves some credit. Middle round gems like him and Terrence McGee (who I believe is going to be considered Great in time) cannot be denied.

Indeed. And while I hope he gets well, the Rams are probably better off for the next six weeks.

I didn't see that, but I DID see: * Lawyer Milloy miss 3 key tackles. * Jerry Gray's prevent "stragegy" almost lose the game for us. We got LUCKY with that marginal fumble. Did anyone doubt that they were about to score and steal it 21-20? * The offense literally refuse to make adjustments at halftime. We haven't scored a TD in the 2nd half for a reason. What I'm seeing is an offensive philosophy that this team is going to play conservative ball - calling plays like running mcgahee straight ahead into a 9 man box when Moulds has an easy 8 yards on a swing pass. Bulletin: We're not GOOD ENOUGH to run an offense that's founded on winning in the trenches. * Mularkey/Clements continued failure to get our receivers running and catching passes in spots, running skinnies and seams and in-routes, and a bewildering lack of deep passes when we have guys that are built for that task. I hate to bring this up, but it's no mistake that Drew is a top 5 statistical performer so far. They're crafting an offense around what he does well, and it's working. Mularkey put Drew into his stubborn Pittsburgh offense, which was not utilizing his strenghts nor protecting against his many shortcomings. I believe he wasn't putting the team in the best position to be successful. On top of that, the protection that Drew is getting in Dallas should serve as a direct slam on our personnel team's assemblage of offensive linemen. He's had enough time to butter his toast back there. Again, the smartest coaches will always be winners in this game. They know how to scheme, plan, prepare, and exploit. I'm not at all convinced that we have that. Mularkey has a LOT to prove. Yea, we won the game. Whoop de doo. I've never felt more disappointed after a win than I do right now. Cuz I know this team, both offense and defense (I still think our ST is the absolute BEST in the league), will not get very far using the strategies they've employed thus far. Again, Mularkey wants to be a methodical, chip away at the defense type of team. WE DON'T HAVE THE LINEMEN nor the depth to win that way with any consistency. This team will only have a chance if they scheme to always catch defenses off guard. It's going to require smoke and mirrors and gadgets to get it done. Mularkey is supposed to have his pockets full of these but we don't often see them because he believes he can win using vanilla strategy. I don't think he's right. And I'm not impressed by Tom Clements as a playcaller, either. I was more impressed by the game that Linehan called. Yep, I'm whining post-win. Consider it a diatribe in advance of the outcoaching we're going to witness as we fall to 8-8 this season. Prove me wrong, Mike. Prove me wrong. I'd love you for it.

when shannon speaks, i think of that guy from Fat Albert with the pink ski hat on his head. Was his name mush mouth or something like that?

WHEW! Man I hate games like that.

BULLETIN: Lawyer Milloy is not a good tackler anymore. I've seen him whiff on 3 key RB tackles, and his technique is terrible.

Memo: Many Rookie QBs have been benched in their first year starting. Eli Manning, Carson Palmer...? Ring a bell? Losman needs this big bite of reality. He thinks he's better than he is. He has a serious problem pulling the trigger and it only seems to show up in games. DANGEROUS. He needs time to undo this glitch. Bring on Holcomb.

Horrid offense aside, I think Jerry Gray is largely responsible for this slide. He didn't blitz a stationary QB (Griese), was public about how he should have in hindsight, and since then has blitzed two of the most mobile QBs in the league, to no avail. Jerry Gray is calling games on pride. He's trying to do it "his way" rather than copying what has worked versus the Saints, blueprints that other teams have shown us. Offensively, JP has hamstrung the offense but the offensive line hasn't done its job, either. Teams are pinning their ears back on JP and JP can't make the easy plays, our linemen are getting tired out, and they're getting pushed backwards. It's pathetic, and it starts with TD, although I'm more disappointed in Mularkey and his coaches than I am TD at this point. Wyche said before the season: If this team isn't successful, it will be because of coaching.

Disagree. Losman's problem in college was that he didn't see the field well, held onto the ball too long, and would take off running if his first receiver wasn't open. He hasn't changed a bit. He can answer correctly in the classroom, but if you can't get it done on the field, you can't get it done on the field. Maybe JP will be good one day. But he's NOT READY to start in the NFL. He is NOT capable of leading this team to a victory in a tough situation. We won vs. Houson because their offense was pathetic. If you think our receivers aren't getting open...gimme a break. Losman CANNOT PULL THE TRIGGER. I'm telling you, this coaching staff is quietly growing concerned, because a hesitant QB is the worst affliction you can have, and it seems to be a part of his core makeup. Maybe he'll get over it. Maybe he'll be good. Maybe he'll prove Donahoe and his scouts were smart. But maybe not. I'd prepare your heart for a lot more pain. Nick Saban is going to embarrass us at home next week.