Lothar

I think the Mike Martz fans here are way off base. Martz coached a dome team, inherited practically all his good players (just take a look at HIS drafts for comparison), chased a great special teams coach out of town (his STs are still the worst in football), has perennially had horrible defenses, but somehow managed to be competitive in the worst division in football plus he has serious health issues - and besides that, is a true smug ass. Now what characteristic from those above would make him qualified to coach a Northeastern blue-collar team? Just askin' ...

I don't know how Coleman saw that knee being down at contact - especially to overrule.

actually - i think rule of thumb is the other way. Crowd noise, etc - you want to extend the game at home, everything else been equal.

First, haven't seen your name in these parts in a long time - welcome back unless I've missed your posts. Second, I disagree with the premise that Williams didn't get support from Donahoe. TD let Williams pick his own coaches - if anything, he should have realized that Greggo didn't know squat about coaching personnel outside of defense.

That whole article is completely disrespectful of the Patriots. I mean not 1 single tiny iota of a mention of his holiness, Teddy B. Even Brady doesn't mention Bruschi by name. Is this like a Greek gods melodrama? Tom and Teddy throwing thunderbolts of respect at each other while still keeping peace on this earth as they struggle mightily toward a Superbowl. The great writers of our age must be writing odes to this momentous event even as the playoffs intensify. In all seriousness, Bellicheck makes this defense go. Ever since AB1 (after Bledsoe), Brady has markedly improved each year. While completely overrated his 1st year, he's definitely among the elite in the league now. However, if Bruschi ever learned to throw a football ...

what a game - not sure if Young's coming out, but he's the best college QB I've ever seen - the bigger the game, the better he is.

I've watched a bit of Pac-10 football this year - I don't think USC is as good as they have been the previous 2 years. I do think that SC has a better offense than even Carson Palmer's final go-around - that OL may be as good as some pro teams. Their defense is somewhat dubious this year though and I really think that Texas will pull off the upset. Also, Vince Young is Michael Vick on steroids. He runs past DBs like they were standing still - and he's as big as some LBs. He sold me when he brought his team back against some tough defenses last year, both running and throwing. Note that he has a higher passer rating than Leinart despite the latter having more weapons.

OUCH! Looks like Thomas suffered a serious injury in the game - playing defense of all things. This would surely drop him from surefire 1st rounder to ... depending on the extent of the damage.

sorry - i didn't see the thread below ...

Wow if he's even a mouth breather at this point, I'd have signed him for the vet minimum. It appears that several teams wanted him to come to camp next year but the Pats took a flyer on him now. I'd still take a healthy Tucker over Anderson ... too bad he couldn't stay healthy.

It was $10 mil over 5 years I believe - and at least according to Buschbaum (RIP), he was descibed as an over-achiever. Looking at those names below - Panos, Nails - yikes! ... and I don't think Panos ever was healthy that year. Our OL over the last 10 years seem snakebit with regard to injuries. The Pro Football Weekly Internet Edition asked contributing editor Joel Buchsbaum for his thoughts on the subject. Q: What’s the scouting report on Dusty Zeigler? Buchsbaum: He played guard with the Bills last year; he’ll play center with the Giants. He’s a scrappy, tough, tenacious, pumped-up overachiever type of guy who’s good enough, not great. You always want better, but he gets the job done. Also, if the Giants start (Luke) Petitgout and (Mike) Rosenthal, they’ll have three Notre Dame starting offensive linemen. Q: What does losing Zeigler mean to the Bills? Buchsbaum: From Buffalo’s standpoint, it doesn’t hurt badly if they can re-sign Ruben Brown and Joe Panos is healthy. But if they lose one of those guys, that means they’d have to go to Jamie Nails, and Nails is too fat and runs out of gas too quickly.

I really thought Gray might have learned some solid fundamentals from his time with both GW and Lebeau - but his lack of adjustments and mis-read of DL capability - point out he's in over his head. A good coach can adapt to stay competitive, make adjustments on the fly. Wade-O even, used to routinely make halftime adjustments during his tenure as DC - I remember remarking on this board how even if we looked lost on D early on, we'd almost always clamp down after halftime on whatever was working for the opposition. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Jerry's good at thinking on his feet. We have A gameplan - sometimes pretty good - like the one against Carolina. But he has a hard time making changes on the fly or throwing wrinkles into the formations. It was either all blitz all the time - or back off and play cover 2 - I see no nuances in his style. Whoever the new coach is, I'd like to see if Dom Capers might be his pick for DC. McNally's probably an even bigger disappointment. I heard, perhaps wrongly, that he doesn't like superstar players - he works better with hard workers who have tools. At least last year I thought that the line when healthy (with Tucker instead of Pucillo) was decent at run blocking, mediocre at pass blocking. Gandy for Jennings is probably a slight downgrade but he's shown himself to be a passable LT. But what did McNally possibly see in Bennie Anderson? I was worried during training camp when we signed a Dolphin reject to be our primary backup, then when we lost depth due to the Tucker injury, we basically put all our marbles on 2 things: Anderson better be the road grader they promised, and the line better stay healthy. I think preseason showed that Bennie was a bust. So it was just a matter of time before the existing line with a below average center (Teague), a good but aging RG (Villy), a tenuous RT (Williams) and a passable LT (Gandy) were overmatched when injuries started occuring. Maybe TD dictated terms to McNally but I think Mouse over-estimated the hand he was dealt. I'm willing to give him a little slack since he has shown an ability to build a good OL from the scrap heap (Pudgy Parker and Zeigler on the Giants come to mind), but we gotta have more solid depth. Even last year, Tucker and our swing tackle were pretty decent. With both gone, only the supreme athleticism of Peters is making this line move up from catastrophic to simply awful.

I'm not sure why someone who built an offense predicated on a great QB and versatile RB will be a good choice. I too have heard good things about Childress but you gotta get someone who's adaptable - and shown that he can adjust to different personnel - not sure I see that from him yet.

Interesting stuff Mike. One thing that may add more credence to your analysis is to use a weighted average or a trend function. For example, the Bills after the 1st 4 games last year sucked in every offensive category. But as Willis got going, the points per game, quarterback completion rates, 3rd down conversions - all started improving. That was one reason why I felt JP would be ok this year. Bledsoe ranked ~26th in the league last year - if JP picked up the offense quickly (re: not looking overwhelmed) - we shouldn't have missed a beat. Now with Takeo's loss and our somehat wimpy Run D, I still think we can be successful, albeit it may take a mediocre 15-20th ranked QB to keep us in the playoff hunt. I think Holcomb fits the bill.

Alright Satellite Boy - my Directivo. Time Warner Cable - is that some kinda East Coast internet connectivity thingy?

I think he's just quoting relative rank with respect to the NFL - 29th out of 31 etc.

if that was your sign CL, I saw it during either the opening credits - or right after coming back from a commercial - during the game. I'll have to check out the tivo and let you know.

I remember an interview with a scout on NFL Network earlier this year where just this question was posed to him. His argument was that Sumo wrestlers are trained to fight for about 3 minutes - absolutely zero endurance - else you know they would be paid a gonzo amount of money to man the NFL trenches.

Thurman played for OK State, not the Sooners

I know some of you are willing to sacrifice the present for the future. I'd like to see what KH can do over the next couple games. If he wins those, and they're back in the race, you gotta go with the guy who gives you short term hope. Now if KH stumbles, I think Losman's in a great situation. He comes in with the team and the fans knowing he's the best option the team has. For those of you willing to throw away the season - I'd agree if the AFCE was as strong as last year. I want a chance at the playoffs. Losman's time will come - maybe as soon as next weekend. But until then, I want the best chance at winning now.

LOL - that's classic

Except the same thing could be said about AVP. Give Holcombe a week to prepare - he's a decent, not great QB. Let's just see if we can salvage the season. If it doesn't work, I agree pull the plug - and let JP grow up. But until then, it's not fair to the rest of the team.

C'mon CL, you willing to throw in the season after 4 games? I still believe in JP, but the game's just moving too fast for him. Can you imagine what Jason Taylor and the Miami D will do to this kid? Give the team some hope - you can see how their confidence in the coaching staff is slipping.

Hear me out. I still believe in JP but throwing him into an angry Bills crowd with a staunch Dolphin D could make the situation worse. Right now the team seems to be losing confidence in JP. Unlike last year when the defense played well enough in our 1st 4 games for fans to see light at the end of the tunnel, we're not gonna win games with this D. Why not throw a wrinkle into Miami's preparation (they did have a bye week), see if we can get a semblance of a passing game going. I don't care how much people want to coddle JP but averaging less than a 100 yards per game the last 3 weeks is not giving this team a chance to win. If Holcombe struggles, it's easier to bring JP back and the team won't feel like MM's throwing the season away. This division's wide open with all the injuries and beating Miami would definitely put us back in the race. The plan this season was to play conservative, win games with D and special teams. Obviously our D has serious issues now - for Gray's D to be really effective, we need to get on top of other teams like last year - that's when the exotic blitzes work. When we fall behind, we're obviously not the same caliber team. Staying the course means throwing in the towel. Let's see what Holcombe can do with a week of prep. As soon as we are eliminated or KH looks like a failure, bring back JP with less pressure on him. In retrospect, that may have been the better move from the start of the season anyway. Bledsoe apologists need not apply - his game right now is no better than KH AND he (a) can't win big games plus (b) he couldn't be a backup at his salary.

Spikes could be done for the year, Harrison's injury looks serious (Pats don't skip a beat however), Pennington's arm still iffy. Don't look now but the Fins may be the biggest challenge to the Pats unless the Bills and Jets get their games turned around..