Pyrite Gal

Personally, I think I will wait to see which systems they actually install before drawing the conclusion that they picked the right players for our systen. There are guesses one can make right now about the system based upon the vague hints they have dropped (we definitely seem to be shifting from a zone blitz to a Cover 2 based on Jauron;s words, but there are very different versions of how you design and how you implement the design of the Cover 2. Likely the Cover 2 we run will be more life the Tampa 2 which Farell used in Jax, but we do not know and any conclusions drawm about our scheme within the broad hints given may be right but may be wrong). In general, to some extent I hope Jaron and Marv are lieing or obfucscating in what they tell us because I would prefer that they lie to the enemy rather than tell us the truth.

It is sort of fun how the ratings have turned out. I would have had us slightly higher in some of their recent ratings (I think gave to little credit to improvements at the WR position as they do not seem to recognize that Evans had surpassed Moulds in his contributions to the O and that Evans staying and developing and that losing Moulds as a physical presence campared to what we would have lost as he got older is not s steep drop (in fact if Moulds has lost team support as exhibited by the hom-hum reaction to his suspension this may be addition by subtraction in terms of what his contribution this year would have been). However, I would have had us slightly lower in run defense as I think we have more talent playing the cover part of the Cover 2 than DL talent to run stop. I understand that other teams which run the Tampa 2 actually rely on under traditional weight DTs like we have. However, McCargo will need to be a hit rather than a reach and he will need to hit the ground fast as I have little confidence in the other 2 DTs besies Triplett. Us run stopping well in the Tampa 2 also means that it becomes even more important that TKO fully recover his health. It also is going to require a lot Fletcher who will need to register tackles at the same level he has in the past 5 years and also be a good cover guy if he gets Tampa 2 responsiblities for pass coverage. I think that some TSW folks are incorrect when they have concluded that Fletcher does not cover well because he is shorter than the norm. He makes up for the lack of height with a constant motor that has allowed him to go sideline to sideline. In addition, his great football mind has made him the D captain even with s better player like TKO around. Even if he loses a step as he ages, he can make a step in having good football smarts. However, I still have some doubts about our ability to stop the run as we are going to be pretty dependent on young players. Anderson will need to improve his game beyoud what he produced at DT his first two years, McCargo will need to demonstrate he is a first year starter we have come to expect from 1st round choices and I expect little contribution this year from second day choice Williams.

Not necessarily. The question is whether that is the type of money that the market was going to pay Fowler for his services. If the Bills judge those services to be an upgrade over what we have and also adequate to what we want from a center, I have no problems at all with the Bills paying him what market demands. I think you are right in that talent is what we need, but I think merely categorizing Fowler as a back-up does not really descibe what his play situation was last year. There are back-ups on their way out and back-ups on their way up and that is the question as to whether Fowler has enough talent or not. From looking at what can be written down on paper, i think a fuller more nuanced assessment of what kine of back-up Fowler was is this: 1. The Vikes went into 2005 with the plan that multi-time Pro Bowler Matt Birk would be there center. he was diagnosed however with various sprains and a hernia such that he went on IR befor the season began. 2. The Vikes chose 7 year vet, longtime Vike, and previous starter Cory Withrow over Fowler as Birk's replacement. This was not an unreasonable choice as it provided continuity. It is hard to say what this says about Fowler however. he was originally drafted by Cleveland and was well regarded coming out of college where he was a four year center. He did make some starts for Cleveland as a back-up and had some success there as he was the center in a couple of games where RB Suggs got over 100 yards rushing. However, he was not seen as the clear answer at C by Cleveland who drafted highly regarded Jeff Faine from ND to play center. Cleveland management has been so bad that being passed over by their braintrust may not be a bad thing. Not only did Fowler depart for other pastures as an FA when he could, but they even traded away Faine so who knows what they were thinking. 3. The Vikes struggled with Withrow at C losing a couple of games badly with him at C. Fowler was inactive the first game but eventually surpassed Withrow and took over the starting C job. In many ways I think it does not really do him justice or assess reality correctly to merely declare him a back-up. He not only took Withrow's job away but actually logged 9 starts for the Vikes last year. They went into the season knowing that Birk was IR'ed and figuring that longtime Vike Withrow and new acqusisiton Fowler could do the job. As it happened, it was Fowler who proved to be the winner of this battle. Most important for asessing our chances this does not seem to be by default. Fowler did get a shot over Withrow after some losses, but Fowler getting the job (first with Culpepper as QB and then with Johnson) the Vikes actually peeled off a 6 game winning streak that ended up with them posting a winning record with Fowler at C. It was a good move by the Vikes as Birk is back and last I saw Withrow was no longer in the NFL. 4. Probsbly most troubling for our prospects with Fowler is that he did not finish the season as starting C as he went down with an ankle injury which left him inactive the last two games. One hopes and assumes that the Bills docs checked him out and judged the ankle heeled and not a permanent issue. However, this points out the import of either have second on the depth chart at C geisinger truly develop and be ready to go if Fowler gets hurt again or more likely that natural center Preston is ready to go. 5. Overall, it would seem to be a mistake to assume the Bills overpaid for a back-up who was unwanted by the team which had him. All signs point to Pro Bowler Birk being healed and ready to go, Thus, the Vikes would have to pay what the market offered Fowler but likely he would be on the bench for them. Fowler was well-regarded in college (a first day pick at C), started a few games for C in which their run game was productive, but lost out to a pick by Cleve of Faine which was probably a best player available pick by them as many Bills fans were slobbering over him as well. He was signed by the Vikes who probably already saw that Birk would not be available to them in 2005 and they were going to go with Withrow but had their doubts about his ability. Fowler did not attract starting C money or interest as an FA from Cleve. but given that they drafted Faine and how bad Cleve was there were legit queestions which did not make him worth the big bucks unless you wanted to take a risk. It is not unreasonable from a talent perspective for the Bills to take a risk on Fowler for severa reasons: 1. His teams produced Ws or good rushing performances with him at C when they lost or got bad rushing performances with other players at C in both Cleveland and MN. 2. It is somewhat a concern that other OL braintrusts did not want to invest big bucks in Fowler, but given that the Cleve braintrusts are idiots in terms of results and their helter skelter player decisions and that the Vikes were committed to one of the best Cs in the league, Birk there may be answers to this concern that still allow Fowler to be a good player. 3. The wildcard ? is given that he ended last season with an injury, if we are taking the risk with him, the Bills docs need to have made a judgment of the quality of the one they made on WM that his injury is not a significant issue for us. Overall, the scuttlebutt I here of how Fowler looked on the field is that he was pretty good when he played. I think the whole Vikes OL was helped alot by moving to the quicker and judificous release of Johnson rather than requiring the OL to hold blocks indefinitely as they did for scrambler Culpepper. Fowler is a risk certainly but life is a risk and I think based on what I have heard of his performance and background and what I see of his stats and play he is a good risk for the Bills to take. He clearly seems to be an upgrade in talent at C over Teague (who I still think is better as an athletic LT) and may well prove to be the type of C we want if he stays healthy. Particularly under the new CBA where we are going to see the NFL minimum and the pay at all positions go up and the Bills specifically have a lot of cap room to work with, paying $2.3 million for Fowler is a dibable and good bet.

All I am saying is that take your pick, either way you choose leads to the conclusion that Ralph made a colossal error. There are those in the media who were pissed when their boy TD was let go because they lost a source who was inside the NFL system. I think this is actually the source of some of the kvetching some media are making about the Bills choice of Whitmer being pre-mature and that they were fools to trade up for McCargo. On the other hand you might feel that Ralph was totally correct to fire a football fool like TD, but even this agreement with his firing declares Ralph a fool for hiring this idiot in the first place and expecting him to do anything other than his team failing to make the playoffs in his 5 years. Either way you cut it, the buck stops with the owner who hires the GM. You get your choice as to whther he screwed in hiring TD or firing TD.

The other good thing is that this team will be a mystery to opponents as well for a good half the season. I think a key for us is going to be Fairchild and to some extent Farrell finding away to practice installation of a RAC based StL style O and for Jauron to train folks in a Cover 2 (assumably more like a Tampa 2 with Farrell as DC) without telegraphing to much of our tendencies at a particular down and distance throughout pre-season and as long as they can. One problem with the NFL is that it has become over-mechanized with coaches really running the show and there being little ability for individual players to freelance much in terms of plays. The days when an HC was strong enough to turn his offense over to a player like Kelly running the K-Gun are done. However, there is a certain reliance on teams being predictable as to opponents almost knowing exactly what they are likely to do in a particular situation which has come with this mechanization. In the early part of the season, one may see Bills opponents looking like Bledsoe the first time the Bills faced NE. Belicheck had his D mill around after the snap and not show what D formation they were going into. This non-approach befuddled Bledsoe (never a bright light when it came to improvising though he could run a set play with his ball handling skills to handle a pitch back from WM and rocket arm so he could fire the ball to Evans quite well) and they killed us. A key may well be Jauron/Farrell fooling opponents initially to they track our tendecies and then them switching up our tendencies to fool the next set of opponents after we show our hand a bit. If they suceed in this (and also somehow suceed in teaching the O to out guys in closed practices) we can steal a few games.

I'm pretty sure Davey went to AZ last year and I do not remember him getting any work at all. NE has been thin exactly in this way before as Bledsoe unexpectedly went down with a collapsed lung and an unsung second year pro named Brady took over for him. Its a neat story, but they can't expect lightening to strike twice in this all working out if injuey should happen to befall Brady. Suffice to say their best chance is if Brady is not hurt and from fellow teammates who will not be giving Brady any shoves in practice similar to one TV gave Losman which dl'ed him his rookie year and also NFL refs doing everything they can to protect Brady the effort will be made to avoid injury.

Understand that the Bills have quite a bit of leverage to get Peters to sign for RT money if the want to do that. Not only is he playing as an EFA (exclusive FA this year) and then will de facto be our propery playing as anRFA next year, but in theory we can tag him (which we will do as Seattle did with Jones and St. L did with Pace if he is in fact such a stud) which binds him to us (though at considerable but plannable cost) which means he will not be able to start with a new team until the 2009 season. The Bills have two pieces of leverage: 1. Price will run the risk of potential injury which might deny hin a huge pay day everytime he walks on the field. One year of risk is one thing, but three years of risk is something else and there will be a powerful incentive for him to sign rather than simply play out his deal in the hop/expectation of getting more $ later. 2. A long-term RT contract will be less than a long-term LT contract but it would still be by far the biggest check Peters ever got. If the Bils put multi-millions on the table even if is "merely" RT multi-milliona it will be hard for Peters to walk away.

Actually its my sense that Ralph has long gemerated some negative feelings amongst his felllow owners and some folks well connected in the NFL. Somebody (ies?) well connected somewhere may well have it in for Ralph which may well explain wny he has never gotten inducted in the HOF despite being a several time finalist and one of the original AFL owners. There are a number of episodes that Ralph has been involved in that are candidates for pissing off some NFL folks (some are not a problem as far as I am concerned but on some of these items Ralph took a stand I thought was unreasonable). 1. Many of course are familiar with Ralph;s recent canning of TD. Though I think this move is well justified by TD's record of failure, it clearly pissed off Mort since TD was one of his boys. I think this in part is at the base of ESPN using its post season rankings to pretty much rag on the Bills. However, though ESPN has shown some stupidity with their rankings, this is a legitimate indictment of Ralph in that either he screwed up in firing TD or else he screwed up by hiring TD. One way or the other in reality he screwed up. 2. I think some in the NFL have a bad taste about the way Ralph handled his firing of Wade in that he certainly had a right to can him (and was correct to do so as Wade came off like a Billy Joe Hobert when he publicly announced with 3 or 4 games left in the season that the Bills were done are far as making the playoffs even though they had a mathematical chance of making it. Jim Mora then HC of an Indy team with the exact same record as the Bills said that Wade was nuts for saying that and as long as Indy had a mathematical chance they were going for it. Indy made the playoffs (including logging a win over the Bills) and the Bills did not. Bu,'s son deserved to be canned. However, in a fit of pique probab;y explained by Ralph being pissed at how Butler had strung him along putting off contract talk til after the season and then flying the coop for CA, Ralph ignored everyone telling him this idea was a loset and challenged paying Wade the year remaining on his contract. Ralph lost in arbitration setting a bad precedent for disputes between HCs and owners. Though much of the reporting by the young Turks is prompted by recent events such as the debacle of the TD hiring or firing mistake and by his perceived Alzheimers like moments saying he did not understand the new CBA, there actually is some history of his alienating some NFL folk a few years back. 3. In addition, to these nuggets, my sense is that a big reason why some folks may be anti-Ralph regarding the HOF was the way things went dpwn with he retirement of Jim Kelly. In essence Ralph violated the restrictions of the salary cap by paying Jimbo a cool million bucks in return for his services in the past with no future cap hit for this allocation. Supposedly, Jimbo and Ralph had a handshake agreement that Jimbo was going to be rewarded by Ralph in his next contract when he became a free agent after what turned out to be his last season (96 or so). Hpwever. because Kelly got concussed out of the league in his final game, but insisted thar Ralph make good on his handshake. the million simply became walking away money so that Jimbo did not complain. In essence Ralph violated the nascent salary cap by getting service from Jim which never counted against the Bills cap. I was surprised other owners did not moan about this and would not be surprised if they are taking it out on Ralph in other ways. 4. Overall, there appears to be some hisory which goes pretty far back of Ralph either exercising his financial muscle to the disadvantage of the Bills fans or inconvrnience of other teams, but fortunately for him we still love him. This oddity MAY grate on someThese include: A. Ralph complained quite publicly and bitterly in the late 90s when attendance dipped from the incredibly high levels produced when the Bills were going to SB after SB in the early 90s and the Bill's were simply putting a worse product on the field. he went as far as putting a big ad in the Buffalo news in essence calling out Bills fans for not supporting the team. Fortunately the teams success turned around and the fans came back, but it really came off to some as sour grapes to have him complain at all about lack of fan support given how great rabid Bills fans were and the primitive level of customer support the Bills provided through the late 90s (ex. rather than running tickets through computers accessible throught the statdium like most teams, will calls were told to go to one window where tickets were divided into old shoe boxes. B. Ralph complained and kvetched and still forces the NFL to give the Bills home games at 1pm on Sunday as our regional marketing strategy make it hard for fans to commit the driving time to attending night (particularly non-weekend Monday) night games. This request can be done but the restriction is another item which complicates putting a schedule together. ironically many Bills fans blame the league for not featuring the Bills when actually it is the Bills who complained bitterly about hosting any night games. C. When the league stupidly was trying to enforce the black-out rule in all cases (the NFL eventually realized that the big money was not in ticket sales but in TV revenue and that it made better financial sense for them to provide product to sale commercials in large markets rather than attempt to raise attendance by threatening that it was the only way to see the game- TV was both "free" advertising and a bigger cash cow in the end than ticket sales) the Bills seemed to ask for extensions of the deadlines and try to sell every ticket they could and still get a chance to be on TV. This interplay also likely complicated NFL rule application and set odd precedent. Again fortunately, NFL economics overrode this odd case as rhe new CBAs led to increased popularity which reduced black-out issues and also teams reduced stadium seat amount and converted them to luxury boxes which not only made the blacout issue easier but also allowed owners not to split the premium seat $ with players. Some of this different people reacted different ways so I am uncetain how these issues rank in importance, but I think there is a long history of Ralph pissing his peers and some fans off and it is now coming back to haunt him in the complaints of younger writers.

I tend not to mak predictions actually because the game interests me because I'm not really sure what will happen next. I think folks likfe game of chance because of the uncertainty which is involved. I can think of few games more boring than one which I know it so well I can predict what will happen. As far as cliffnoting my post in response to your prediction. IMHO, the measure of a real fan comes not from them always predicting victory, but in always hoping for victory even when it is irrational to do this. To me a fake fan is one who hopes for or predicrts defeat even when it is irrational to do so. I can certainly see true fans seeing DOOM for the Bills. However, I don't think a true fan predicts doom for reasons that are not in touch with rationality. Certainly the Bills sucked last year and there are a lot of rational reasons to expect them to suck again in this rebuilding year. However, it does strike me as irrational to predict we are going to be 0-16, 1-15 or even 3-13 unless one not only thinks we will suck for rational reasons, but also believe our opponents that we are going to lose 13 games to (or 15 or 16) for some reason are not going to suck as bad (or worse for those predicting DOOM) than we will. I simply haver seen no rational showing from those who predict 3-13 or worse that: NYJ NYJ Det GB Hou TN are not going to suck as bad (or in fact worse) than we will and all 6 of these games strike me as eminently winnable and we likely will be favored when we are home against these teams. Further MI MI MN Jax SD Balt are all teams that were better than us at the end of last season, but there is not an unreasonable chance that when we face them they will suck and we will likely be favored against them when we are home. Finally, I expect we will be beaten by CHI- a 13-3 team oddly with substantial questions because the O sucks, but their D was so good and we play them on the road that it looks bad for us. IND- a seemingly top quality team which was heavily impacted last year by clincing so early and then its HC suffering a devastating crisis that questions do reign. However, on the road I doubt we will be competitive against them. NE- I expect NE to beat us on the road, but actually after a lousy draft amd some of the talent which brought them 3 SB victories in the last 5 season cashing in on new jobs or simply enjoying the fruits of their win, i actually expect we will split with them this season. One can be a fan and still predict a lot of losses. However, to predict a loss based simply on the likely true assessment we will suck without also making some assessment of whether our opponent will be great, suck or suck worse than us strikes me as irrational. Predicting we will lose or expecting we will lose for irrational reasons does no strike me as being a good fan. Hoping (or even expecting for some true diehards) that we will win even when there is no rational reason to do this is what I think being a good fan is all about.

I think any team which is SURE they are gonna beat some other team on the road right now is simply foolish and is putting themselves in an excellent position to be cruising for a bruising. Looking at your deathless predictions: Houston- This is simply a bad team and any depression one can muster about the Bills leading to assumptions of bad outcomes is even more legit to muster about Houston. Not one we should put in the W column as we are on the road, but easily not one we should put in the loss column either as this game is eminently winnable even at this early point. Baltimore: Way to early in the season for any certainty on this one, I have it pegged as a likely loss at this too early point but I suspect/expect this game to be competitive. Green Bay- Another bad team and this one we get at home. Even favr was at least uncertain about whether they did enough and despite his great talent at his age he is actually on of the great pieces of uncertainty regarding this team. Even if you assume we are troubled this year and get some bad breaks this one is not unreasomable to put in the W column for us at this point. The only reason to put it in the L column is if you have some firm belief that the Pack is back. What positive case would you make for them? Detroit- These were two teams whose GMs mismanaged their rebuilding. The differences are that Millen was screwing up even worse than TD was and that Millen is still with Detroit. Again its a road game and home advantage counts for something in this league (though clearly it is not determinative), but one would need to make a case for why you think Detroit has righted the ship of football to count this as a definite loss. Minn- On the face of it are prospects are not good facing a team which produced a winning record last year. However, MN is simply not that imposing. The Bills produced a similar 9-7 record the year before last and the Vikes are not so deadlock certain to improve that a similar fate to our reality last year is not impossible for this opponent. I think that this game will actually come at a crtical point in the season for the Bills. The likelihood is we will be 1-2 at this point (though maybe 2-1 as I think that we are more likely to upset the Fins in MI than than NYJ is likely to upset us though I do not expect either event to occur and feel free to make a case for why someone is a NYJ believer if you want). In either case I think we will have strong incentive to beat the Vikes at the Ralph and anyone who locks this one in as a definite L needs to simply make a positive case for the Vikes ratber than simply feel negative about the Bills, SD- Likewise with them. One cannot feel confident as a Bill facing a team which made the playoffs last year. However, if one predicts an L for the Bills the necessary thing to make this more than simply a sad sack prediction which says more about the predictor than the team would be to lay out a case why one is such a believer in Philip Rivers and SD rather than simply feeling negative about the Bills. I think one can easily still be a good Bills fans and predict losses by the Bills. Hpwever, the mark of a good fan is that these predictions are based on a rational judgement that the opponent is better than us. I think one is a non-fan when one irrationally predicts your team will lose (Rationality is not the total determinant here as I think a good fan easily irrationally believes their team will win). However, i think any fans commitment to the team is questionable when all they are about is irrationally predicting doom. So predicting 3-13 is a fine thing for a fan to do. However, if one is going to ijvest in DOOM then this choice raises the bar for this decision to be based on some rational assessment, not simply that we will be bad but that our opponents are going to be good. My sense is that the predictions the Bills will be winless are laughable not because I think that the Bills are going to be that great, but that I am fairly certain that a number of teams from NYJ (whom we play twice), Houston, Detroit, Tennesee, and Green Bay are gonna be that bad. Even if this is half true I see 3 wins here and there is a second tier of teams including Miami, Baltimore, SD, MN, and Jax who are also not that imposing and can lose to anybody anywhere. If the oddly shaped ball bounces the right way for us I can easily see us finding 2 Ws in thes six games. A decision that we are gonna wion 3 means a decision to believe in these opponents.

Like most of my posts I do them for me rather than for the readers. Part ofthe reason for my being overly lengthy and verbose (in addition to me just being sloppy) is that I'm thinking in print. I appreciate any commentary, but I do this for myself. Likewise, remembering OJ's crimes is something I do for myself and I feel better about my thinking when I keep reality in mind in addition to the NFL. I really am not posting to force folks to remember that which I think you are right most folks do remember and OJ will never have the love of the crowd which he squandered through his heinous crimes.

Yhe tough part is going to be managing the downgrade in experience as Milloy and Vincent have seen a lot of plays and can diagnose what is happening before it occurs. If these youngsters get into a read and react war with not simply Peyton Manning, but any pro QB the result is not gonna be pretty for us. Whitmer seems to have the phusical talent to start immediaely while Simpson as a second day choice will be doing quite well if he is capable of starting next year. TV can play a critical role if he uses the obvious respect he has gained from his fellow players to be a coach and a good example of how to read plays based on down/distance and tendencies and how individual players line up on the field. If he does this teaching and Whitner is ready to learn he will be a better SS right from the start. The best chance that Simpson has of contributing as a position player this year is if h learns the lessons of being a pro thst all rookies must learn even better by learning from the coaches and TV. Yobouty also has first round physical talent but likely dropped to the 3ed round because many folks felt he needed another year in school. He can learn even more and give us the leverage to negotiate hard and let BC go if necessary if Yobouty takes advantage of us having a former multiple Pro Bowl CB on the roster in TV,

I find it much more difficult to see how we are going to do a reasonable job in stopping the run with out top 4 DTs on the depth chart maxing out at 305 lbs. than I see our LGE situation as a problem for this team. Schobel has put up consistent sack and pressure #s over his career (the totals are particularly impressive given that he did a lot of pass coverage duty in our zone blitz rather than rushing) and has improved his ability to show some strength and stand his ground as he has learned better techniques that I also have little worry about his side. On the other side, DEs Denny and Kelsay will duel again as they were essentially dubbed co-starters in our zone blitz package. I do not thinl either is a great player but I suspect one of these two will prove to be adequate at the position. The issue to me is that it appears that Jauron/Farrell appear to want to run a D where the DTs estimate/guess the point of attack and try to blow through this spot to disrupt the running play or pressure the QB. The question in my mind is whether our LBs will be able to fill the gaps when they guess wrong.

My point is that actually one should not deny reality. Should consideration of his heinour off field activities cause us to totally ignore his on field accomplishments? No. Should consideration of his great on field accomplishments cause us to totally ignore his heinous off field activities? No. TSW is generally about football and not about off-field activity. sp I think the TT v. OJ debate as players is legit. However, is off-field activities were so heinous that I think that even amidst the many posts which offer legitimate debate on the football stuff even if some opinions are ultimately inaccurate, its also more than legit for posts which highlight his heinour acts and hope he rots in hell for them is legit as well.

I think it is pretty clear that the likely starters on OL this year (Gandy, Reyes, Fowler, Villarial and Peters) are better than the starters last year (If someone wants to advocate that the MW, Anderson gang was better feel free to speak up for them). The question is whether this OL has the depth when guys go down to injury or if one of the newbies pulls an Anderson. This is unlikely as Reyes wasa solid starter fpr Barolina at RG and the well-regarded youngster they wanted to unseat him could not do so until Reyes became an FA and there was no way they were going to pay him starter money even though he is a proven NFL starter quality OL player. Fowler also filled in well from all I here when Birk got injured in front of him, but when this multiple Pro Bowler came back and Fowler was ab FA, there was no way they were going to pay him the starter money the market was likely to give him. He has never started 16 so there are questions about Fowler, but its not talent kist that he has never done it before. I like Preston but he is backing up both Fowler and Villarial who I think is unlikely to last all season. It hets pretty thin at back-up with wildcard Gibson probably best of this lot. If we get lucky with injury I think we will be OK but I doubt we will.

My sense is that the facts offered up by contrsting Bledsoe\s performance under TC with Bledsoe's performance under Killdrive show fairly clearly that it is specifically because Bledsoe cannot escape sacks and has a propensity to cough the ball up when taking these hits that it is critical that the OC call a particular style of game to be most succssful with Bledsoe. I think their is a clear difference between the success Bledsoe had (none) running the second go round of the Killdrive scheme and that he had running the TC scheme (a winning record and missing the playoffs when they got killed in the last game). I do not think Bledsoe is good enough to lead a team to the SB anhmore (he was before as he did this early in his career unless he has a great ST and D to back him up) He know clearly needs as well supporting leadership on the O. He almost made the playoffs with the Bills and last year with the Boys, but fell short as his deficits were not over come by his teammates being great players. Thiugh I doubt the Boys even get to the SB under almost all circumstances, he could well get to the playoffs with this team given the strong guidance of Parcells and a number of talented players (including that idiot TD the Boys have accumulated. Do you disagree and think there is no chance the Boys with Bledsoe at QB will male the playoffs? Bledsoe ain't goshes gift to QBing, but he easily could be adequate enough at QB to be one of the few QBs in the NFL to lead his team to the playoffs as their offensive signal transferer.

No these discussions and even specifc tribute being paid to OJs tremendous virtually unparalled on field accomplishments should not be squelched at all. However, what also should not be squelched are rememberances also of his almost certain crimes against humanity. I think it is a fair solution which does not ignore either fact to see the usual TSW lusty debate about all things football, but to also hae inserted in the particular case of a great travesty against man and society mention that I hope OJ burns in Hades for a good long time. He deserves both to be praised for being an outstanding RB for the Bills and to chastised, pilloroed, his name spit upon and be laughed at as a walking sick joke for getting away witout long term incarceration or maybe the death penalty for a double murder. I do not see why one would have any problem with this bow to reality.

I know I'm on a bit of a high horse, but OJ's recent money-gribbing activity and some societal acceptance of fame for any reason has just triggered me to respond to even reasonable discussion of his past on the field accomplishments with efforts which attempt to never forget his off the field hiorrible acts. I can live in a world where the footbsll facts of OJ are discussed as long as the moral issues are also raised and not simply set aside as though life and killing do not matter.

OJ sliced his ex-wife and a passer-by up. this is all the football you need know about this comparison.

I aggree thst it seems virtually impossible that Dallas will get anywhere near the SB thios year. However. a comparison of Bledsoe's performance in 2003 under the predictable non-changing Noffense of Kevin Killdrive and the 2004 team under Clements which still fell short of the playoffs, but pulled off an impressive win streak with Bledsoe at the helm is clear. Clements did a lot of things with the Bills offense which were better than Killdrive's scheme (not hard given how bad things got under Gilbride) but even if the team was ultimately not capable of making the playoffs with Bledsoe at the helm (Bledsoe's failings make it impossible to get in if your ST is not going to pick up the slack if your kicker misses chip shots and your PR guy lays it on the carpet and your D gets throttled by a bunch of back-ups), it still is clear that Bledsoe can be used productively if you do several things: 1. You gotta run him even though he is not a great runner- Killdrive clearly was not gonna run Bledsoe because he would not be mistaken for John Elway. However, by Clements occaisionally calling plays like the QB draw, rthis combined with the McGahee stiff arm to stop opposing blitzers from selling out to the pass rush and stay at home a few secs to make sure that even Bledsoe would not fall forward for a gain of 5-7 on a QB draw when the blitzers did not stay at home because they were taking outside routes to the pocket. 2. Bledsoe is a statue but he has great hands- TC and MM used a lot of trick plays which utilized the fact that Bledsoe could gather in the somewhat inconsistent pitches from WM and hit a streaking Evans or occaisionally Moulds who ran a stop and go after the initial hand-off to WM. The Bills propensity for the trick play stopped DCs from selling out to stop the run or on the pass blitz and did a lot to make WM a more effective rusher and to reduce Bledsoe sacks. Just as Bledsoe saved the Bills and Teagues hide a number of times as he learned how to do the shotgun, Bledsoe shopwed good skills in gatheing in WM pitchbscks and still be able to track and hit the WR. 3. Bledsoe has little ability to improvise well but he has the experience to run set trick plays well- An exampl folks may remember was when MM called a TO on 4th and 1 to stop Lindell from trying a 40+ FG. The Bills instead appeared to line-up and run a QB sneak with non-riner Bledsoe. At the last minute instead of fdiving into the line he turned and pitched wide to WM who scampered the 40+ yards into the endzone. Bledsoe did a great job faking the sneak and doing the pitch. Opponents remembered and this made opponents stay at home in the future. I.m not saying at all Bledsoe is a good rusher (he ain't). I am simply saying that an extreme view that he has nothing to offer (and certainly and extreme view he is a good player) are both incorrect. With the right play calling Bledsoe can be utilized to make the Pro Bowl (as he did in 2002 after NE tossed him correctly for Brady), to lead a team to a winning record (as he did with the Bills in 2004 even though they fell short of the playoffs) and even lead a team to a winning record and come down to the last game in a playoff run (as Dallas did last year). Or instead do you want to deny reality to hold to a doctrine that Bledsoe canot do anything.

There is a reasonable football comparison here, but OJs sin of almost certainly murdering his ex-wife and an innocent bystander is so huge that footbsll comparisons of the Juice simply leave a foul taste and smell. All players are human and transgress and have failings. However, the difference between stupidly loading yourself up on steroids, thowing drinks in women's faces, or forgetting your helmet in the SB (this last one is an actual TT sin) simply does not compare to the transgression of taking someone's life. When I compare TT and OJs stats I always am led to the conclusion that TT is a player who has more impressive accomplishments IMHO because I like his diverse style and I hope OJ burns in nether world forever.

The problem is that reality is also on opposite sides on this one. The fact is that while QB rating is a grossly inadequate measure for fully assessing QB performance it is also the BEST measure available. It can be used for: 1. Reasonable comparative assessment of Qs in the same year. 2. To make a good ballpark assessment of who is good and who is less than good. 3. Identification of which specific area a player may have shortcomings. However, one simply needs to be careful about looking at the internals as to why a particular QB excelled or did badly in the ratings (Dink and dunkers can look better than they are or high risk long passers whose long INTs are essentially punts but can devastate a rating look worse). The rating is the best comprehensive rating of QBs going, but it is simply prone to a lot of overstatement as people attempt to use it to compare QB performance across years or even in different eras, or without looking at the specifics to note why a rating is good or not good.

My sense IMHO is: QB- folks overemphasize the importance of the heavily marketed position. It is important as the QB transfers the play calls and touches the ball on virtually all offensive plays. However, being important does not mean that D play (the QB ain't on the field at all), ST play (the QB ain't on the field at all), are not essential also and even the O play needs solid OL play and good playcalling to get the most out of a QB. If you QB is talented that is great and if you have Peyton Manning then a QB emphasis as far as your prospects is warranted (though the fact is even with Manning you don't get o the SB without a ticket. Your QB does need to be adequate to get to the playoffs. but adequacy does not meand you have to be Tom Brady, it can mean a number of things from simply OK and keep your team out of trouble to even bad in the cas of a stud D like Chicago last year. I do not think any one of the three QB candidates is likely to be adequate, but I do think that in combination it is likely 1 of these 3 will be adequate. Losman probably not but most likely to step up of the 3. Nall is a wildcard which makes him least likelly to be adequate but he is intriguing. KH has never been consistent enough to be a starter in his ten years of play but ten years gives him the smarts to stay out of trouble. I think the OL play and play calling by the coaches are much biigger question marks than one of these three proving to be adequate. OL- Run and stop the run determines alot. This OL will say alot about how well we run. The good news is the probable starters look far better than last years starters (though this says more about the cutworthy inadequacy of MW and Anderson and the less than commanding presence of Teague. The problem is that we look pretty thin at back-up and the braintrust is going to need to develop these players or miraculously avoid injury. RB- The whining about WM is mostly amusing. This "average" RB somehow finished in the top third in yards gained rushing and really was not used as a receiver the way many felt he should have been. Whats funny is that folks accuse him of running at half speed but then fail to acknowledge that he gained over 1000 yards running half speed. I think the bigger running issues are that our back-up Thomas should be better than Williams (not saying much)and is a wildcard and we got little from the FB. Injury is my biggest worry about WM. WR- We have the speed in Evans, Price and Parrish and some RAC potential in Reed. The key here to me is scheme and if we can get these olayers in spots they can do what they can do and not what they have trouble doing, this may be a potent rather than troubled unit. TE- The game here is for the TE to be a 6th blocker and to occaisonally use them as a change-up. This is Royals game and if Everett shows some of the promise which got him drafted the receiving unit looks very scary to opponents . ST- This unit finished first statistically two years in a row and the emphasis Matve places on ST with April getting promoted to Asst. GC means that this unit can stay productive. DBs- This looks like a strength for this team with the switch to the Cover 2 playing to that strength. Clements will have plenty of incentive to perform in his tag year and arguably McGee is a better player. Folks appear to be completely missing the boat in predicting or advocating cutting TV as he led the team in combined turnover, the scheme switch goes to his strength and diminishes reliance on folks biggest complaint about him. Most important, immediate starter Whitmer, needs a year talent Yobouty and second day pick who needs some schooling Simpson will be able to get on the field coaching from TV/ LB- A lot will be demanded of this unit and if TKO comes back and allows Crowell to replace Posey and join Fletcher who still is productive despite folks seemingly expect him to go on Medicare this unit if whole is up to the challenge. In contrast to the lack of depth on the OL. at LB the backups are alll good players. This will be a challenge but is one we can meet. DL- The biggest wildcard on the team. I agree with folks who simply do not see how we can play a traditional run stopping success with the top 4 DTs maxung out at 304 lbs. However, this means to me not that we are simply DOOMED, but that former NFL Coach of the Uear and Farrell are going to play some different style and approach than the norm. They have forgotten more about D play than us posters even remember. With penmetrating DTs who will need to be backed up with afggressive LBs and a high motor DES who if they pressure evey play I do not care how many sacks they get. Overall, i see only 3 of the 16 games are we virtually certain to lose (NE, CHI, IND on the road) and though we will also lose our fair share of the remaining 13 I think these all will be competiive games where if the ball bounces the right way and we buld confidenc and momenturm we can possibllu or pronanly win in some cases. The bottom line is that we are undefeated right now and I think the 0-16 or 3013 predictions say alot more about the outlook on life of the predictor than it does about the team.

Mad Buff I think you dhoulf hesr flea out and think abput what he is saying. You are right that one certainly needs to consider the reality that the bloacking in front of Willis sucked and he was often playing with a QB who offered no alternative effective O threat in JP or little long pass worry from KH. One would have to be a fool to deny this. One would also be ignoring reality unless one acknowledged that he gained over 1000 yards. Yet, as flea points out he carried the ball an inordinate numbers of times for the Bills and gained the tenth greatest number of rushing yards without hitting the holes hard or trying very hard. He accomplished what he accimplished with no breakaway speed and what flead demonstrates was a weak effort. After reading flea's post I am really psyched now because if one realizes that WM did all this being lackadaisical, can you imagine what he will accomplish if he merely ramps it up to a 3/4 effort. There are those who would argue that WM is in it only for the money and does not care about the team. Well, flea provides in his post an answer to this whine as well. WM clearly does not want to be here. If you combine this thought with the notion he is only in it for the money it is no wonder that WM has taken 4-10 lns. off with his workouts at the U this off-season. Obvioudly his plan is to work at 75%+ effort this year rack up a bunch of yards and then hold out for the big $ and jumo ship. I certainly had my doubts about how things would go with WM thiis year, but thanks to flea pointing out that he finished in the top 10 in rushing yards with a half-aa;ed effort, we can only be osyched as Bills fans to see his results when he ramps it up to a 2/3 or 3/4 effort as he goes after a big payday when he and Drew R. holdout next year. Flea has got me really psyced about our RB prospects behind WM in 2006.

Almost sll things involving the QB are over-rated in this game. Football is interesting because it is such a team game as asport. Yet given our short attention spans and small brains as Americans the business of selling stuff leads to an overfocus on the QB and his importance. He is important since he handles the ball and call signals on offensive snaps, but they get far too much blame for things not going well and far too much credit for tems winning. Thus the QB rating is probably the most over-rated stat. Folks who should no better based on some of their posts use this tool to compare QBs across seasons and even across decades when the rules of the game in terms of how they are enforced and even how they are written change all the time. The QB rating itself has been changed and refined over time so though you may be able to compare one QBs performace to another using this tool in the same year, it simply has little reasonable application in different years. Still even though it is a flawed tool, it is the best tool we have for measuring a QB. It should be used but it is easily abused amd thus it is often overrated.