SectionC3

Totally agree with what you have to say. Quick question - I've heard that there is not much love for the Raiders in LA after they split town, and more hostility toward the Raiders than the Rams. Any truth to that? Even if the NFL thinks LA is a two-team market, it doesn't seem like the league would want two AFC teams (and three within 90 minutes if one counts San Diego) in the greater LA area assuming the Raiders are the team to move. One final thought: the wild card here is the Rams. The lease is up in a few years, the stadium is falling behind the times, and the market isn't anything extraordinary.

I totally agree on Kelsay and Preston. Funny that Kelsay and Preston, both mediocre players, are quoted making those comments. Preston's idiocy at the end of the first half against the Patriots precipitated what really was a microcosm of our season: Jauron and company come on the field and talk to the ref about how dumb our players are, while the Belichick and the Pats professionally trot off the field. As to Kelsay: make a play when it matters. The wake up call should have been missing the playoffs each of the last nine years, not the owner and the fans tiring of this mediocrity. This move is motivated by money. Ralph knows we aren't making the playoffs next year with that murderous schedule. Rather than pay two coaches and miss the playoffs, we'll keep Jauron and whack him after next year's 5-11 showing and several more weeks of "Jauron-isms": We tried really hard, but three points just doesn't get it done in this league." "We like the direction we're headed, and we expect to score touchdowns in 75% of our home games next year," etc. Hopefully, though, this makes the players accountable (not that they shouldn't have been already). They have their coach, now get the results. We should have won the division this year, so if this guy and this staff are what you say they are, do something about it next year. It's sad - I was thinking today about how Drury put pictures of the Stanley Cup all over the lockerroom before the Sabres' run. To do the same with the Lombardi Trophy at the Fieldhouse would be a joke. We can't even get a sniff of a wild card, let alone think about what should be our goal of winning a championship. Buffalo in the Super Bowl is sadly farfetched and beyond reality.

I'm going to "Bullough" this one but . . . don't go to Rome and insult the Romans. Coach Tuesday was correct in his assessment.

I have no inside info on Parcells, but I heard the same thing from a bartender at a joint Parcells apparently frequents in Saratoga. For what it's worth . . . .

Usually I don't get into the whole taking a shot at someone on an Internet message board thing, but anyone who would say that (regardless whether it's true) is . . . well, use your imagination. The weakest guy in the weight room always yells the loudest.

FYI for those going to today's game. Early word on the street is that part of the roof of the Fieldhouse has blown off. Many pre-game festivities involving tents or similar "structures" have been cancelled; part of the drive near the Fieldhouse (Drive 1?) may be closed (no word on that yet; haven't heard anything on the pre-game broadcast).

Some have - family can trump business.

Agreed on all counts. Bulldog and Howard are good guys, and as much as it pains me to say this . . . Bulldog really is unlistenable. Of course, I turned the show off a long time ago b/c of his arrogant partner, but that's another story. The point about the "humor" (and I use the term loosely) on the afternoon show is well-taken. I don't know if they're still doing those lame bits with the pseudo-PBP announcer, but wow were those lame.

I dislike JP just as much as, if not more, than the next guy. That said, if he can't execute the call we're talking about, he doesn't belong on this team or in the NFL. Nobody was asking him to do something he's not capable of, like, say, run the two-minute drill or get the team to the line with more than 8 seconds on the play clock. All they wanted was to use the wheels to do something that would have been simple for what hindsight shows us was probably any NFL quarterback other than JP.

I agree with where I think you're going. Most fans excoriated Jauron and the staff for sitting on the ball at the end of the Cleveland game. Today, he made a mildly gutsy call to try to WIN THE GAME and he's getting killed for it. Look at it this way: we had two or three nice runs before the ill-fated waggle. DJ tried to put the ball in the hands of a QB with wheels to get him outside, take the cheap flick to the TE if it's there, and if not pick up a yard or two (while staying in bounds and rolling the clock) to set up a 3rd and 3-ish. If he completes that pass for a first down, it's basically lights out, and the time to call the waggle was perfect. We just had an idiot QB run the play, and I think DJ said as much in the post-game by stating something like "I can't put [A FIFTH-YEAR, FORMER FIRST ROUND QUARTERBACK] in that position." I'm still on the fire DJ team, but I understand the play call and credit him for being a stand up guy and refusing to publicly put JP in his rightful place beneath the tires of the bus. If you don't like the series at the end of the Cleveland game (I'm one of those people), you can't bash DJ for showing some nuts and trust in the waste from Tulane and trying to win the game.

Totally agree.

I'll renew. Gotta keep the faith.

Don't give him too much credit. Where is Joe Dufek on that last? Seriously, the whole bit about JP competing for a job somewhere next year, as if it wasn't comical beforehand, is now a joke. That dude will be lucky to run scout team somewhere next year.

I agree with the last point, as well as the other points that OJ's name should be scrubbed from the Wall of Fame. The Judge was, I think, smart not to give him the max. Probably lessens the odds that the sentence is disturbed on appeal. Reality is, this guy is old and will probably die in prison, and not necessarily because of the length of the sentence. The food is pretty bad in prison and people don't tend to reach old age on the "inside."

There are so many things to say here. I don't even know where to start. 1. As to the Ralph point . . . You may be on to something here, and was an issue I pondered today at the stadium. Anyone ever deal with an elderly relative? You get old, and you become a cantekerous pain in the *ss for whom nothing ever goes right. Ralph is 90, and assuming he has his marbles, there's a fairly good chance he's just like all of the aforedescribed aging relatives who do well to cook for themselves on a daily basis, let alone run an NFL franchise. 2. Totally agree on the Marshawn point. I hate throwing the ball on 3rd and 1 and 3rd and 2 to begin with, but what really chapped me was the gimmicky dive play to Jackson lined up at fullback when Marshawn had been gashing the defense all day. 3. Jauron needs to stick with the system. What I mean by that is this. If we're going to play this boring, ball control game, that's fine. Problem is, when the points are there in front of us, we can't deviate from the system on the repeated fourth and stupids. In other words, if it's third and one and you're going to go for it on fourth down, run the ball twice instead of getting cute and stupid and compressing the field on a waggle with a QB who may or may not have been hurt at the time. Or, better yet, take the field goal when it's there in front of you instead of horsing around on fourth and medium to fourth and long. 4. We scored 51 fewer points this week than we did last week. That has to be some kind of record. No passion, no hope, no more Jauron. I don't care whether Ralph signed him to an extension - Ralph can't take the money with him, and Jauron isn't taking us to a Super Bowl, let alone the playoffs.

I totally agree with that point. I was at the game and sat basically right in front of the 20-yard miss. It looked to me like the snap was high and the ball slipped when Moorman tried to push it to the turf, but it did happen fairly quickly. I typically watch warmups about half an hour before the game, and one thing that jumped out at me was Neil's struggles to accurately snap the ball with any velocity.

totally agree

He was compensated rather nicely for his voluntary participation during those years. That said, stand up guy who deserves to play for a winner before he's done. As to Nate, I'll think about how he didn't knock down the ball on that long 4th down play against Jax a few years ago in a loss that ultimately may have caused us to miss the playoffs. After that, I'll ignore him.

I was born in 1979, so I fully appreciate the run from 1987 through 1996. I went to every playoff game with the exception of the wild card game against the Oilers in 1988, and have attended a vast majority of the regular season games since 1990. The last time the Bills hosted a playoff game was in 1996 - I was a senior in high school. Since that time, I've had three graduations, moved from Buffalo to Geneseo to Buffalo to Rochester to Buffalo, and worked four jobs in my professional field. At the time of that game, Bill freakin' Clinton was still a first term President, Doug Flutie still played in Canada, we hadn't heard of Monica Lewinsky, the millennium, George W. Bush (oh, for those days), 9/11, etc. Kind of amazing, isn't it? Anyhow, this current run of mediocrity sucks. It just plain sucks. It was nice to go to the stadium on a Monday night - kind of reminded me of the Dallas game last year, which was the closest thing I've seen in terms of atmosphere to a playoff game since the "run," but this playing not to lose routine is getting old. On some level, at some time, if you're going to lose and going to suck and going to struggle, you may as well do it in a blaze of glory. I'm not talking about hiring some idiot proclaiming that we're going to have the best defense in the history of the NFL (been there, 3G), or drafting a bunch of "skilled" morons from the U to loaf around at running back and field punts on the 1-yard line. I'm talking about playing to win the d*mn game. Like trying to get that extra first down when you have the ball on your opponent's 34 with a minute left at the end of a long cold night with the wind in your face. Like showing some fire when, I don't know, you have half a dozen bad calls go against you at New England (as usual). Like disciplining a player for a stupid penalty, or a stupid fumble or getting in someone's face--referee or player--when something unacceptable happens. Like, just one time, showing an unwillingness to do anything other than win, rather than succumb to the fear of losing. Whatever we're doing right now, it isn't working, and it's time for someone in Orchard Park to get upset about it.

I'm usually not on the fire the coach bandwagon, but this is getting out of hand. I cannot believe we played so conservatively on the last set of downs. Yes, Lindell is paid to make those kicks, but that's a long field goal into the wind on a cold night. Overall, I think we're tired of watching the same moribound loser-mentality football for the last seven years. The Jauron formula only works if we can run the ball and avoid frequently throwing it to the other team. We ran with some effectiveness tonight, but lost the turnover battle (again). I don't know who the right guy is for this team, but this operation is going nowhere fast. Either somebody young or preferably somebody with some fire. As totally absurd as this sounds (and is), I'd take Jim Kelly at this point if for no other reason than he cares and will light a fire under this bunch. Every team I root for sucks and I'm frustrated. Good night.

I don't condone the use of the "r-word," but I can't disagree with your general premise. Mr. McKelvin may be a fine person and was given many gifts, but he's a little lacking in the brains department. I haven't heard one remotely intelligible thing leave his mouth since he was drafted. It might be too early to call him a bust, but there's no doubt he won't be designing rockets anytime soon.

I think the senior senator from New York has enough pull to "caution" the NFL against allowing the Bills to leave New York State. Your comment about Schumer "robbing taxpayer money" is stupid and requires no further discussion.

Chuck Schumer strongly disagrees.

Normally I wouldn't have blamed him for going for it, but they ran, what, three plays from the 2 or inside immediately before the failed conversion. The conversion play might have been the fourth-best call in that situation. The play calling on that whole set of downs was so obvious. The dive on 2nd down before the timeout, and then lining the ball up on the left hash to roll Thigpen right on the conversion - not very creative and very predictable.

The reality of the GR situation is that the Sabres are their bread and butter. Nothing against the Bills, but the station, likely subconsciously, has taken a negative tact against the Bills since the days of Chuck Dickerson. I don't remember exactly who cut GR off from the Bills - there are a lot of suspects, including Levy, Wade Phillips and Donahoe. The reality is that GR's programming relative to the Bills has been based on whining and complaining for the better part of the past decade. The act wears thin after awhile, not because it's GR, but because people simply grow tired of listening to it. The whiner line is the perfect example. There are a handful of reactionary morons who will want to fire the coach midway through the second quarter and give him an extension in the fourth quarter once the score changes, and GR's "politics" appeal to people like that. Paul Hamilton is another shining example of a whiny, bitter reporter whose negativity grows stale. In any event, GR has been propped up the past few years by the Sabres, and that trend appears to be changing. S&R are crushing Schopp and the Bulldog in the afternoon, and GR's mornings and midday programming are no great shakes. IF the current trends continue, there will be a lot less of GR to complain about when the cold winds of November 2009 start to blow.