The Avenger

Yeah - the reference was to Mike Williams - we're not exactly batting .1000 when we pick at #4.....

Yes! The 4th overall pick! We have such good luck with that! Top 5 money for a top 5 bust!

I'll second that and add that Mike Schneck also dogs it when trying to score - all the dude seems to do is snap the ball in the opposite direction of the goal line - at least Moorman gets the ball going towards the right end zone....

I agree with your thoughst on the o-line being the root of our problems (it's only taken years for many to recognize that), but you can't draft experienced linemen in the draft. We can draft skill positions in the draft, but we really need some experienced FA help for the line.

He can come back to the NFL if he agrees to coach the Patriots - I'll welcome that.

Adjustments? We don't need no stinkin' adjustments!

Hey, who let Tom Donahoe in here? Care to put a golden spin on anything else? McGahee's injury gives us a terriffic opportunity to evaluate Shaud Williams!

Only if the Whammy Weenie remains devoid of team colors (green and yellow) and continues to use lead-based paint - now THAT'S marketing!

Actually, the holiday stress was for effect (a bit of hyperbole) - just that little something to put the latest loss over the top. I think most of us do get some sort of stress for the holidays - doesn't mean we don't enjoy the season, our families, etc. In the grand scheme of things the holiday season is fantastic and I'll always be thankful that the Bills are in WNY, but it still didn't make me feel any better at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon (on the bright side, all of my lights now light, so I feel I've obtained some measure of victory)...

A rating is based on the number of households watching a given channel at a given time - it's is an actual number of people watching a show (by actual, they mean a number dervived from a statistical sample). A share is the percentage of television housholds tuned to a particular channel at a particular time. Ratings show you how many people are watching, share shows how much of the total audience you captured. I don't think there's any way Buffalo could do well on a ratings basis - it's simply not a large enough area in terms of population. The rankings must be based on share - showing that football in those locations dominates anything else that is on. Oddly, this discussion has parallels to the state of the NFL in general. There are towns where football is king and the support (share) is high (Buffalo, Green Bay), but to a large extent the league cares more about how many people are watching (rating). How else can you possibly explain why the league is dying to get a team in L.A. when the community seems generally indifferent to it and teams with good support like Buffalo are often talked about as reloaction candidates?

Excellent article in the Rocky Mountain News that follows the officer responsible for family notifications for fallen Marines. Nothing political about it at all (not pro or anti war), just an excellent piece of writing I thought other might want to read - a super read. Enjoy! Final Salute

That was hillarious - Tayman is really funny.

Let's see, we had 2 golden opportunities to take the lead in the AFC East and be in the driver's seat and we BLEW BOTH OF THEM. Now all of a sudden we are going to get some more opportunities and capitalize on them? I don't think so. I don't care what New England does or doesn't do - we've had our chances and we haven't done anything with them so I have little faith that we'll make the playoffs. Start Losman - missing the playoffs and starting a guy next year with 4-5 games under his belt is a recipe for another failed season.

As much as I want the Bills to do well NOW (man, I'm sick of waiting), I think they need to start JP ASAP and take their lumps now and better prepare for the future. If you look at the standings we are still right in the race, but if you watch the team you'll see it probably isn't going to happen. Schedules aside, the Bills had 2 great opportunities to take the lead in the AFC East and blew both of them - all of a sudden we are going to start capitalizing on opportunities? I don't think so. If JP gets some playing time at least we get something out of the season. If we end the season out of the playoffs AND JP is still as green as he is now I'm going to be ripped. The plan is already a year behind - JP was supposed tp play some last season and be ready this season. Get on with it already...

Did you read that article? James Mexico?? Are you kidding me? How did Vick get mixed up in this??

We actually do OK up here in Boston - the Bill Backers chapter in Boston is big and going strong - on any given game day we have a few hundred people watching the game. Now if we could only find a way to avoid having to interact with local Pats fans on Mondays, particularly this upcoming Monday....

I'm in Boston so the game in unavoidable. I'm going to see Springsteen and afterwards I'll stop by the Harp to see how the Bills Backers Boston are doing. Monday I'll get up, get ready for work and decide whether I'll actually go work alongside gloating Pats fans or just kill myself before leaving the house.

I have Sirius in my car and love it, but I rarely listen to it via my computer because they used to limit what you could listen to on the Internet to only their music channels. I see now that you can listen to channels other than music - comedy, even NFL radio. Anybody know if you can listen to games on Sunday when they are broadcast on Sirius? That would be awesome - one of the reasons I bought Sirius and then found out I couldn't do it.

Are you OK then with waiting until week 12 or week 13 to get JP some playing time? I'm not. There needs to be a decision made prior to that - are we realistically trying to get to the playoffs or is it time we take some lumps and get the Kid some experience?

Before the season started Donahoe said that this was not a rebuilding year and that the Bills would strive to get to the playoffs. He said having an inexperienced QB would not prevent us from reaching the post season - he expected JP to come up to speed quickly and be able to get us to the playoffs. Sounded great - we get the playoffs AND young QB who would come up to speed quickly and be able to lead an NFL team (think 2004 Steelers). Unfortunately, it doesn't look like those things aren't going to happen. JP's learning curve has been much steeper than anticipated. As a result, the playoffs are really out of reach with him behind center. The Bills have 2 options at this point - shoot for the playoffs or get Losman in there to continue his learning - it's pretty obvious you aren't going to be able to do BOTH things. As a Bills fan, I'd take either one of these things - a playoff appearance or a QB prepared to win in the future. What I fear is that when all is said and done we will end up with NEITHER thing - no playoffs, and a QB still as green as they come. That's when the season becomes a wash and that's when I get really upset as a fan. Kelly Holcomb taking us to 7-9 is an ugly thought. To me the choice is obvious - play JP and give up the idea of the post season. Call it throwing in the towel if you wish, but I see that the problems on this team go way beyond who's at QB, and consequently the playoffs aren't realistic (even with the Pats losing games). The sooner we realize this, the better off we'll be. I think many fans will be OK with getting JP some experience at the expense of some wins - I know I am.

Sunday Countdown is pushing their upcoming segment "Keshawn vs. Michael Irvin". If there is any justice in the world this will be fought with deadly weapons. I hate both of those guys!

I don't think they "ruined" JP, but things certainly have not gone acording to plans. The plan was to have him see playing time last season and potentially start later in the season. The broken leg kept him out as we went 0-4, and by the time he was ready to play the team had it in gear and the Bills decided not to upset that situation by making a change at QB. Had we gotten to the playoffs I think most would have agreed it was a good move. Unfortuantely, we didn't make the playoffs so the presure to do so has increased. The team felt that it should stick to its original plan to have Losman start in 2005, and that's the decision that has really hurt. J.P. really missed his "mentoring year" which is crucial for development. I don't see the Bills "ruining" him, but if he doesn't get plenty of playing time to learn at the NFL level he's never going to develop. My long term fear as that he spends time developing here but is never capable enough to lead the team and he ends up on another team as a great QB. Time will tell.

My guess is that's it's in the same range as Willis McGahee's.....

Let me start by saying that I am NOT at all optimistic that the Bills will turn things around this season - we are in far worse shape than we were last year at this time even though we have 1 more win. That said, I don't think it is time to jettison everyone on the starting roster. Have you any idea what the cap hit would be for all your suggestions? Do you have replacements in mind for the guys you cast off? How much would we have to pay the replacements? It's easy to say get rid of everyone, but harder to do it in practice. I'll address your starters on the list: Moulds isn't performing well right now, but who is? He's on the downside of his career, but not all the passing game woes fall on him. He didn't thow that pick to the Saints DB this weekend - JP didn't throw for the right route. I think you'd agree that if Moulds is on the downside of his career Evans is on the upside, and I don't see him doing substantially more than Moulds. Mike Williams has been a disappointment in that he has never lived up to his draft position or paycheck. His cap hit for this year was $6.5M, not sure what it is next year but my guess is he's too expensive to cut given that we'd have to get a replacement (and tackles don't come cheap - look at what they paid for Jonas Jennings). He's solid, but not spectacular and in my opinion it would cost us more to replace him than to keep him. Posey is playing for small money. I'm OK with getting rid of him, but I think his replacement won't be much better for the same amount of money. If we want better production here it'll cost us more. I don't see noything wrong with the way Nate Clements is playing - he's one of the better coverage CBs in the game (although I don't think I agree with his assessment that he's the best). We can get rid of him without a cap hit, but a replacement is going to cost us. We can get someone cheaper for sure, but I can hear people complaining now about how bad the new guy sucks when he doesn't play as well as Nate. I think Vincent is a good safety. I'm not ready to show him the door after the first 4 games of the season. He's underperformed like most others, but I see no reason to single him out as playing any worse than others. Campbell probably would have been gone this year had Kevin Everett not gone down and Euhas wasn't also injured. Given the injury situation, we need him now. In the 12 steps of grieving for the loss of the season I can say I'm past denial and bargaining, but I'm not yet with you at the anger stage.

Lonnie Johnson - there's your REAL problem. Get rid of him and we're in one of those "addition by subtraction" situations.