Offside Number 76

Both Dallas and Arizona have looked bad today. This isn't a good home Arizona team; these are two teams that are playing bad football today.

If I had to guess, it's because at the time, Atlanta was up by two scores and wanted to run time off of the clock. I'm not saying it was the smartest strategy, but I think that--and not lack of confidence in Ryan--was the reason.

You missed his point entirely.

Did you write this from your phone?

From what I saw, it was lost on the lines--both of them. No pressure on Warner without a blitz (which they usually expected, leading James to large gains), and poor run-blocking and protection on offense. Playcalling wasn't great, but the lines, wow, they were bad.

What he said. It wasn't a helmet-to-helmet hit. Their helmets DID hit each other, but that's not what the NFL ban is about. This was a legit, full-body tackle, and while I'm not sure whether the concussion happened when the helmets connected or when Edwards's head hit the floor, it doesn't matter. It was clean; this isn't another Wilfork incident. Sometimes the injuries just happen.

I always have loved the no-huddle offense, and I wouldn't mind seeing it back in Buffalo some day. But by its nature, it depends upon an experienced QB. We don't have one here now.

I really like reading about coverage from the other team's POV. I can read the newspaper articles, but I can't always get a sense of what was said during the game. Thanks for this.

A taunting call to offset unnecessary roughness? An ejection on the FIRST personal foul? I think a couple of calls went our way.

It wasn't written well, actually. I made it pretty easy for you to misunderstand. Sorry 'bout that.

How long before Quinn starts? Once the season is out of control, it only makes sense to give him the experience...but they might think he can salvage & turn to him sooner.

No. Philly is beating previously-unbeaten Pittsburgh. This is good for Bills fans.

Brees on his own 20 with 8 seconds left. I'd hook and lateral with Bush on the back end of that play.

Philly is 1:21 away from making sure that at least one of the AFC divisions won't have a 3-0 team. Unfortunately, Gramatica just missed a kick, and the Broncos remain up by two with a couple of minutes left there.

The clock still is your enemy at that point because you are not in field goal range and you don't know how many plays you'll need to get there. (Will it be three ten-yard gains? Or a couple of series where it takes all four downs to get ten yards?) His point was to get a play off before the two-minute warning, which the Bills did. Then you can manage the clock if you manage to get into field goal range, which again the Bills did. Fouts's insistence (and he did say it more than once) that the Bills should first seek a field goal first, then a touchdown, was completely stupid. This wasn't. Some of his other statements weren't so bad--he recognized the simultaneous possession issue on the "interception," for example. The guy wasn't the worst analyst I've ever heard, but the bar isn't set really high by the other announcers out there. Hopefully we can get some better crews when the Bills start playing division games or high-profile games. I'm not optimistic about the next two weeks.

More often after hockey games, but sometimes after football games, I like to see what the fans of other teams have to say on their message boards. Win or lose. I just like to read the other opinion, even if it maddens me (it often does). Anyway. Last week, I read a Seahawks board. I only could find one that wasn't part of espn, nfl, scout, etc. The board that I did find was foul, mostly, which surprised me because it's Seattle, and it's supposed to be filled with mellow, coffee drinkin' folks. But this was like a Philadelphia Flyers message board instead. With double the death threats. Today, a google search for "Jacksonville Jaguars Message Board" turned up nothing besides the Jags' official site and the page on scout.com that every team has. Kind of made me think (that's never good)... 1. We fill that bowl in OP almost always. Whether the team is good or bad, we seem to get right behind it. We don't need to leave sections "dark," even if the seats sell after "blackout hour," because we fill the stadium. 2. We have passionate fans who show up and who actually care about posting on at least two (that I know of) UNofficial message boards. We don't need a forum on bills.com or scouts.com or whatever (but it's nice that those forums are there). We have this, and at least one other independent site, to work with. Yeah, there are a lot of idiotic opinions (usually mine, when I post), but at least we have forums where opinions aren't controlled. Not every fan groups has that. 3. We can't spell for sh&t, and we have little, if any, command of the English language. But we do have regard for one another, even if it's disguised sometimes. What's really cool? Folks planning tailgate parties and even mid-week lunches (I'm looking at you, you Friday Nick Taho freaks) on a message board, even inviting strangers. I've lived in other NFL cities; I've never seen this sense of community among fans. Again, I'm a hockey guy. I don't know football well (as a game), and I don't pretend to. But I do know that this area puts out more energy on a Sunday than Niagara Mohawk (or whatever it's called now) ships downstate in a year. Move freaking Jax to Toronto. Move the Raiders to LA (again). Put the Cardinals in Mexico City. But don't move this team. There aren't fans like this everywhere. Maybe in a few places. Not everywhere, not by a stretch.

Why are conservetard pro-lifers (and pro-life means just that, let's not play God and try to make exceptions for folks who may or may not have been correctly convicted) for the death penalty? And what liberal is "for" abortion? I thought liberals were "for" choice. I really do not understand this at all. Please enlighten me. (Don't really care one way or the other. Just sick of this being an issue, what with a war and an economic collapse going on. And sick of "religious righters" getting the US to kill innocents abroad, and getting OUR innocent kids killed abroad, for made-up reasons (there were NEVER weapons in Iraq, and the goof you elected knew or should have known that). Or do those lives not matter in your so-called "pro-life" philosophy?) You know, you, and people who think like you, have screwed up this country beyond belief over the last eight years, and the effects will last longer. Stop it with your supposedly moral bs, which in reality could not be less Christian. It's not an issue anymore. Keep your family the way you want; don't even bother with the folks like me who think that, maybe, there are reasons to keep abortion legal. By all means, continue to cherish your religious beliefs. But continuing to use the issue for electioneering is wrecking this country, and as a result (via the Reagan doctrine, and I daresay he was a conservative who appointed a pro-choice SC Justice (O'Connor)), the world.

Bullsh*t. Look at what has happened downtown the last five years, and stop shitting on my town.

Rome came through with Edwards as his interview guest on his TV bit this afternoon, too--but there was scant discussion of the NE situation. Most of it focused on Trent as a new starter and Trent's relationship with Evans. Edwards was on the radio version yesterday, from what I understand, as well. The Bills actually are getting the national attention that they deserve right now--that is, credit for a decent win on Sunday and a shot at the division title. They're not getting national headline coverage, because: 1) Brady, 2a) Favre, 2b) Rodgers, and 3) see 1, 2a, and 2b. It doesn't mean there's a lack of respect. It means there are bigger stories out there.

(I'm paraphrasing.)

I see your Forbes, and I raise you one freaking awesome article about Buffalo from New York Magazine: http://nymag.com/realestate/features/49491/ By the way, where does Mal ("Steve") Forbes rank on the list of presidential contenders the last ten years? Bottom ten? Or is there a ten below the bottom ten, for him?

From what I saw, Seattle's D looked weak. Rivers was allowed to throw a long pass that looked like it was from a college game (the WR was way too open, the DL had some, but not much, pressure). Nice 50 yard throw. That led to the first SD score, it was not a SD drive in chunks. And Seattle's D gave up 88 yards on the first 7 carries by somebody not named Tomlinson, but Sproles--in the first half, when the starters were in. Seattle looked beatable with the long ball and with a RB who can juke. (But is that the Bills?)

And that's the reason I'm a Bills fan. I'm no football scholar; I even somewhat dislike the pro game. But I lived away from here for a while and loved the fact that I could go to a Bills bar somewhere else and have something in common with a complete stranger. And now that I'm back, I love the atmosphere here during a game--whether in my folks' living room, at the stadium, or in a bar somewhere. As far as sports go, football never will be hockey for me. (And I'm not going to get into an argument here about which fans are better, or more sincere, or more rabid, or whatever. Not the point here.) But the Bills create a sense of community that begins at Tops on a September Saturday morning when you start asking a complete stranger how he plans to cook those steaks in the parking lot and what his group is washing 'em down with, and ends with that last shot of bad whisky in (unfortunately, lately) December, and doesn't really stop in between. It is good stuff.

From the "article": "...usually in -10 weather..." Wow. First, it very rarely dips below 15 here during the day, much less below 0. And "usually?" Irresponsible bs. How 'bout we average the temps of home games across the last ten seasons or so? I'll bet the average is right around 45, and I'll take that 45 average rather than Arizona's 75 average if I never have to see a game in 110 degree weather.

Thanks a lot for posting that. I would have missed it even if it were on the main page. Pretty funny to see how he schooled a couple of folks at the end.