finknottle

I think the Exxon-Mobile figure comes from a loose distinguishing between 'commercially owned' and 'quasi-government ownd;' with things like Russian oil falling in the latter. Anyway, so what if they ratchet up the cost? Ideally speaking, behavior will adjust and society will adjust. Maybe some farmers will find it more profitable to stop selling their lands for development and decide to make organic fuels instead. Maybe people will stop buying hummers. I still see no need for government price intervention in any situation other than to moderate abrupt spikes. And that is on national security grounds rather than to punish gouging. Here's a hypothetical question: Refiner X figures out an incredible way to produce finished output at the same quanity and quality but using only 10% of the raw crude. They keep the refining metod a trade secret, and continue to price the output at the current unchanged market price thereby making a whopping profit. Are they gouging? Should they be punished for their innovation?

JP seems to be playing it conservatively, ala Roth. I happened to look at the Bears-Bengals stats. The Bears are in trouble offensively, and had this rookie Orton unexpectadly step in to the starting job the last week of preseason due to injury to Rex Grossman and the essential suckiness of Chad Hutchinson. They are so bad offensively that they seem to be letting him air it out, with predictable results: 17/39, 147 yards, 5 (!) int today. But hey, they have defense, are tired of waiting on injury-prone qb's, and have nothing to lose. So my question is this: talent aside, by next season who will be the more ready qb, Losman or Orton?

Yeah, and who's he throwing to? Terry Glenn? Keyshawn Johnson? Can you say retread??? I'm not one to fall for hometown hype, but I'd take Moulds-Evans in a heartbreat.

yeah, I don't think the problem at this point is lack of offensive weapons.

just stirring the pot...

Thanks - I musta missed that what with all the cringing and closing my eyes in dread... Still, I did see him make a good number of plays. And I'm not expecting him to be great - I just consider us fortunate if he pans out as a decent starter.

Even the announcers were making that point when the Falcons were down to two corners because of injury...

... and I don't mean WM. I'm not as impressed as everybody here is that he was almost as productive as Dunn and Duckett. For me the bright spot is the continued development of Terrence McGee into a solid legitimate NFL starter. Looks like his occasional good play last year was not a flash in the pan... This is critical given the probability of losing NC.

How do you figure 6? Are you still chalking up Miami as wins?

Let not lose sight of the fact that even though WM did well, he wasn't as good today as Atlanta's rushing tandem. They outgained him 172 yards to 140 on the same number of carries. Both Dunn and Duckett had higher yards per carry. Both had longer breakaway runs. He wasn't a bright spot in an otherwise abysmal performance, he was a patch of adequacy.

This would be the Falcon, with Vick playing on a tender hamstring and the defense down to only 2 cornerbacks?

I find it creepy and unnerving that WM averaged 5.19 yards per touch, while the passing game averaged 3.25 yards per attempt. On the other hand, before we get two excted about WM (27 for 140) remember that the Falcon tandem went 27 for 172, 6.37 yards per carry. Throw in Vick and they went 36 for 236, 6.56 ypc. So I wouldn't rush to proclaim him a difference maker just yet. Good, but no better than the other legit backs around the league. Give him 10 more carries, and another 50 yards - so what? We still lose this one.

That's fine, but we were sold a bill of goods that said we were going to be a playoff contender this year, and that Losman now would be an upgrade over Bledsoe. (It's not hard to go back and find threads blasting any national reporter who dared suggest that the Bills would be taking a step backwards in Losman's first year.) So the point is that JP has been sold as somebody who is now ready to step in and take the reigns, and I think it is fair that that be the benchmark against which he is measured.

3.25 yards per passing attempt. Moulds 3/18 with a long of 8. Evans 2/7 with a long of 6. I don't think I've ever seen such passing impotence. Even a team getting shut down will usually get at least one 20+ pass off.

Yeah, well, that's not what the front office was saying and selling last spring.

we were 17th going into the game, smack average. Last years "#2 defense" was only 13th in holding them on 3rd down.

btw, i'm really impressed with McGee this game. He been up front making tackles, running down the backs on the big runs, ...

yup. I don't like blaming things on officiating, but I think there have been way too many gifts to the Falcons here...

What is the over-under on yards passing by Losman this game? 100?

I'm sick of posters going on about our D's ranking... if we can't stop them on 3rd down, like that 3rd and 6 from the 7, then our defense is average.

Sam Aiken again comes up big on the kick-off! He must be pumped or something...

what's this? big reception by Sam Aiken?? (ok, 12 yrds counts as big for the Bills this year)

pick-off by Kelsey!

So far the passing is looking suspicsously like last week, stat-wise... an 8 yarder to moulds, a 6 yarder to Evens, and Reed is the workhorse at 2 for 24 yards.

Can somebody give me an argument as to why oil companies shouldn't be allowed the charge what the market will bare? Why are they different from other businesses?