Albany,n.y.

Winner------Loser Pitt 28 Miami 17 (decided) Atl 17 Car 14 TB 17 Bal 14 BILLS 31 NE 0 Cin 40 KC 30 Den 27 STL 24 Clev 10 NO 3 Jets 24 Tenn 10 Phil 30 Hou 17 Sea 38 Det 10 Chi 24 GB 10 Jack 21 Dal 17 SF 38 Ari 32 Ind 31 NYG 17 Was 10 Minn 7 SD 31 Oak 27

That was opening day against the hated Dolphins. The Bills had not made the playoffs the previous 5 seasons and had a losing record each of the last 4 seasons. In addition, the opponent had beaten the Bills 20 straight times. Well that day the Bills opened some eyes defeating the Dolphins 17-7. The team went on to start the season 5-0 before ending up 11-5, earning their 1st playoff berth since 1974, ushering in a new (although too short lived) era of winning Buffalo Bills football. The pent up frustration of the fans was so evident on that day, that when the game ended, the fans stormed the field and tore down the goal posts, ON OPENING DAY! I've never seen this before or after and in today's era of added stadium security, will never happen again in an NFL game. Just like that day in 1980, the Bills are in a long playoff drought playing a team that has owned them (Patriots 10-1 last 11 games). While there won't be any home field advantage, or fans storming the field, with the start of a new season, I can dream of today being the 9/7/80 of the 2000s.

Does anyone have any confirmation of Smith getting cut other than Chris Brown's story? I'm getting suspicious since I haven't found a transaction involving Smith getting cut from the Patriots anywhere on the net with the exception of people who read Brown.

Scroll down to PFT Pic of the day. Warning: Don't have any liquids in your mouth when viewing. http://profootballtalk.com/

Are you coming to the tailgate at Hammer's? Stop by & meet us.

It took LJ longer than McGahee to establish himself. Go back to the middle of 2004, when LJ was backing up Priest Holmes. Around the trading deadline, KC thought he was a bust & rumors were rampant that they'd take a mid-2nd day pick (5-6th round) to get Johnson out of there. He was buried on the bench and disgruntled. How soon everyone forgets.

Going back in the time machine: Why would Knox trade up for Perry Tuttle, dumb move. Should have drafted Mike Quick. Matt Kofler in the 2nd round? Give me a break! 3rd round-That Eugene Marv guy has some potential, but the Metzelaars guy Seattle picked in our spot looks like a player. The rest of our draft looks pretty bad, at least Knox got us a kicker to replace Mike-Mayer. That Anderson guy should be entrenched as our kicker for the next decade or two

It all comes down to this on Sunday: Before the game the linebacker coming off an injury who will get all the media attention will be Tedy Bruschi. I hope Takeo will gain added incentive by being slighted by the media. He's the one those pre-game shows should be focusing on, not Bruschi. If Takeo goes wild, having a game big enough to lead the Bills to victory, the legend of Bruschi ends and the legend of Takeo takes its place. Please Takeo, do it for all of us, the world has seen enough of the Patriots & Tedy Bruschi.

They caught Bucky, you can come out now.

Remember when Donahoe put all those clippings in the press room in an attempt to say he was right choosing Mike Williams over Bryant McKinnie? Does TD still live in WNY, or has he crawled back to Pittsburgh? If he's still in the Buffalo are someone should print the link and dump a ton of them on his front lawn. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5948942

Link http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/08/ny.manhunt/index.html

Logic 101: Underdog wins the game underdog covers. If the spread was Patriots-1 the Bills would still cover. The game won't be close, Bills by at least 10!

Bruschi Mania

Mularkey will have 3 extra days to gameplan the offense... Nick Saban will have three extra days to trash Mularkey's offensive game plan & by next Sunday will want to put Mularkey on the Bills plane back to Buffalo.

Elmore Smith

I'll take Jauron's record of never having mass dissent on any team he's coached, coupled with the compliments of former players, to safely predict that he will not lose control of the team. I think Jauron is the perfect coach for this team at this time.

SF beat the St. Louis Rams opening week last year & knocked me out week 1. SF beat Arizona twice the year they went 2-14. Are you nervous yet?

We've got 56 people in our pool, and 26 picked NE. I almost picked the Bills over NE, but went safer & picked NFC Champ Seattle to beat Detroit. Another hot pick in our pool is Arizona. When has Arizona ever been a safe pick in a suicide pool?

If Mularkey had called Ralph & Marv's bluff, I'm almost certain that after a period of re-evaluation, Marv would have fired Mularkey even if he hadn't resigned. I can't see any way that Mularkey could still be coaching this team after what has come out about last year's nonsense. ...and if Miami does well and Mularkey joins Gregg Williams as a hot assistant coach, any team that is even thinking of hiring the guy as a head coach should just read all the quotes and come to their senses. My football fantasy is that Saban gets mad at Huizenga, quits & Mularkey is named head coach of the Dolphins.

When I first moved to Albany in 1988, I took a portable TV out Rt 20 until I got Utica in for the Bears game at 1:00 and then went to the thruway rest stop 60 miles west for a 4:00 game against Seattle-ate at the Burger King at halftime. Then I found out they had games on sattelites in bars.

The good news is that unless they do something really crazy, the Bills-Dolphins game next week will be on in Albany because Jets-NE is the 4:15 game of the CBS doubleheader.

After Sunday you can change Red Sox to Patriots

From his interview on BB.com on TBD front page: Like coach says, we’re not going to come out with crazy stuff, we just have to be smarter and sharper. On the team being different this year Yeah, it’s a lot different. Not to say the last two years were bad. (We have) different types of players. It’s a different team and locker room with a different attitude, you’ve been in there. If things don’t go right, it’s not going to be like last year with guys getting on each other. Verdict: Mike Mularkey guilty of crazy call coaching and coaching a divided locker room.

It's official: Jets @ Tennessee on WRGB. F' them! NFL Football NY Jets @ Tennessee

The last time I looked Nick Saban was Miami's HC, not Mularkey. Mularkey will be kept in check by Saban-he will not have free reign to ruin Miami like he did with the Bills.