Ennjay

Actually I think it's Mondays at 9 (Eastern), in the vacated MNF spot for us die-hards.

Terrific show. More tension, minute-to-minute, than anything else on TV. I thought it lost its way towards the end of last year (the Sherry/David Palmer storyline just got completely stupid, and what was the deal with what's-her-name and the baby and Chase?), but killing off Sherry, axing Palmer as president, and cutting off CTU suggests the producers know that and are setting up for a fresh start.

In a roundabout way that's really my point. I held on to faith in Bledsoe as long as I could, thinking it was Kilbride's fault or the line's fault or whatever, and that in the right schemes he would just have to push the right buttons and get the job done without really being a star (like, say, Trent Dilfer in Baltimore their SB year or Brad Johnson in Tampa Bay their SB year). What he showed yesterday, like he did against the Patriots in November, is that in a big game against a smart defense he bottoms out. So It looks like it's time to just go with JP, with Bledsoe on the bench. I don't know what an "open competition" accomplishes, if there really is such a thing. I was trying to say that a truly "open competition" would likely favor Bledsoe in preseason.

Good points all and I too would like to see JP catch fire next year. There's a threshold problem however: with the vanilla defenses, limited efforts, and quick substitutions you see in the first two preseason games (when the decisions are really made), there really is no way JP can look better than Drew unless the coaches don't base it on game performance. Opposing D's will not zero in on Drew's weaknesses in preseason the way they do in the regular season. Meanwhile he'll have the advantage of working with an improvng line that needs to get its work in too. Even if JP starts a game and Drew plays the second half, second- and third-string D's will not be running the stunts and misdirections that make Drew look bad. So starting JP will require the coaches to make some kind of leap of faith based on his atholetic ability, because they sure won't base it on his superior game management or defense reading in the preseason -- there just won't be a significant advantage there for him.

Does anyone else remember the Anaheim Amigos of the original ABA -- the one that John Y. Brown passed through on his way to gutting the Braves?

For those of us not watching the Bills on TV, how was the crowd at the end? Cheering? (Mostly Steeler fans?) Booing?

The Bergen Record (writing about the Jets' plans) says the San Diego home game is Saturday night. That would make the Indy home game Sunday afternoon. The NFL.com schedule page says the Sunday AFC (CBS) game is at 1 p.m., so that would also force the other AFC game to be Saturday night. NFL.com doesn't (yet) say which home team has which slot.

Sure, that would work. You can also bake your own from a mix -- you add one egg and it takes about 15 minutes.

Have you tried corn bread instead of crackers? The sweetness goes really well with chili spices.

I find that really interesting. The Peerless deal was supposed to cement Vick as a weapon because he'd have a downfield go-to receiver if defenses bunched the o-line to take away the Vick run. So after two years they would give up on Peerless? They need the cap space that much? And they have other receivers?

That was Darren Woodson from Dallas.

I've been reading all year that Jennings is from Georgia and the Falcons have an interest. I know nothing whatsoever about either the Falcons' o-line or their cap situation. It's just possible that the Falcons have two tackles they like and no cap room anyway. Does anyone on this board know anything about either?

This is a joke, right? Charlotte Bobcats. First-year expansion team replacing the Hornets, who moved to New Orleans about three years ago. (Maybe you missed it.) Something like the Cleveland and Houston expansions in the NFL. Named after the principal owner, Robert "Bob" Johnson, pubisher of Ebony and Jet and first African American principal owner of a major sports franchise (if you consider the NBA "major"). For a while Michael Jordan (a North Carolina native) was supposed to be putting money in, but he backed out when ownership wouldn't let him run the show (like that disaster he created in Washington). Coach and GM is Bernie Bickerstaff, who has to be among the worst of either in the NBA.

Is anyone listening to this? The Niners color man just said he had to look up in the media guide where the "Buffalo Bill" name came from. Are these guys really NFL broadcasters?

Didn't he just go over?

I'm listening to the Bills feed, watching the play-by-play on nfl.com Gamecenter, with the Jets-Pats game on my TV. I assume so's everybody else, right? Can it get any better?

Thanks. Who are these announcers? They sound really mediocre -- were Niner broadcasts this weak when they had Montana and Young?

Thanks. Strange there's no page on nfl.com.

Why would anyone give two bobbleheads of the same guy?

I can't find the page for future opponents on either nfl.com or buffalobills.com. Can anyone help me out?

There seems to be a lot of negativity towards Moulds because he complained about losing and indicated he could want something better. (It's a quibble, but he didn't actually say he wanted out and he hasn't demanded anything yet.) I actually like it when players get upset about losing. I like the attitude and I like the pressure it puts on management. And unlike, say Terrel Owens, who torched SF as best he could all last season before his agent actually screwed up his exit (remember that?), Moulds is no locker-room problem. So yeah, I wish he never wanted out, and yeah, I think he's had better seasons, but no, I'm not down on him and I want him back.

Nice memories, but a correction or two: Tom Janek never punted in a game. Paul Maguire was the Bills' punter in those days. The return was 102 yards. (Janek, by the way, was a safety picked up in a trade with Denver. I think he replaced Hagood Clarke.) Jack Spikes was a fullback and kick returner, not a punter. I think he went to Miami in the expansion draft but I'm not sure. If I could only remember what happened yesterday as well as I can remember this stuff . . .

Yeah, I remember watching that MNF game with a friend when we had both finished college exams earlier that day. Cosell was upset about it. The Courier didn't fold until September of '82.

That's one of the great all-time questions. The Bills used to have a pattern of two or three years up and five or six years down. It seemed like when they were on the bottom Ralph would hire somebody who knew what he was doing (Lou Saban twice, Chuck Knox) but once the team had a little success he or his Detroit brain trust would decide they knew better and start making the decisions (like hiring Stew Barber as GM or putting Harvey Johnson in charge). I think he reached a point in the late 80's where he got either tired or fed up with thinking he knew it all. And now he's in his late 80's. Someone also told me once that in the late 80's (the decade, not his age) Ralph's daughter got involved with the team and talked him into staying out of day-to-day management. I don't know if that's true.

As I remember the Oakland game was on Thanksgiving Day. I recall watching the game before we sat down for dinner. I also remember the win and tie from that year when we went 1-12-1. The win was vs. the Jets, like somebody said above. The tie was 17-17 with pre-Shula Miami in the one decent game Kay Stephenson ever played. He had the Bills up 17-0 at the half but got a shoulder injury that put him out for the season. In the second half the Bills did nothing and Miami came back. This was before they ever lifted the blackout rule for home games and both games were at WMS. I remember playing our own neighborhood games during both the Jets and Miami games while somebody had a very loud transistor radio turned on to Van Miller so we could follow the Bills.