Rubes

Awesome pics. Wish I could be you!

Yeah, just missing the preseason game on the 23rd.

Takeaways, for those interested: Eichel is as billed. He's a maestro out there. We'll see how he does against the big boys, but he plays with speed and vision. Rodriguez is a good player. Seemed like he stood out and was better than most of the other players. This guy was making plays left and right. Reinhart did not look great. Scored a goal, but didn't play fast, looked a little disinterested. Did score a nice goal at the end, though. #85 (Chapman, I think?) is a gamer. Like the way he played. Strong, fast, and fearless. #81, forgot his name, had a forgetful night. Not big enough for the NHL. Makarov, the goalie for the first half of the game, was strong and pitched a shutout. Seemed very confident. That's all I got! Lot of fun watching these guys.

Reinhart with one more to finish it off at 6-2. Good stuff.

Scratch that, it's Baptiste with two goals, Rodriguez with one. 5-0 after two.

Rodriguez with another goal. This guy is money!

Got to Buffalo for the opener and found out they're having a prospect challenge tournament, so I'm watching Sabres prospects open up a 3-0 lead in the first period against New Jersey. Eichel assisted on the first goal less than 40 seconds into the game. Dude is smooth as silk. Made a sick move later on and came a hair away from scoring. Rodriguez has a goal and assist already. This is some entertaining stuff.

Hey, it could happen. By the way, anybody know how Gronk has performed against Rex defenses? I'm boarding a plane and can't easily check.

Yeah, that's what I got this week.

I don't know that I'd say people generally think the Bills are a perennial doormat, just that they are a perennial average-to-below-average team, which is really boring to anyone who's not a fan of the team. If they were a real perennial doormat, I think people would maybe pay a little attention just because of the curiosity of it.

Well, at least I can wear his jersey to the game this weekend.

Careful, old man, you're showing your age.

Of course. But at the same time, why should anyone outside of Buffalo pay any attention to a team that hasn't made the playoffs since Clinton was president? It's quite ridiculous. We all tend to see the great potential in the team, and I think they will be very relevant this season, but to everyone else this is a team that has defined mediocrity for over a decade. Who would pay any attention to that?

Pittsburgh put up a decent fight there, and I think our offense and defense are both better.

If Bill is excited about it, well that just about clinches it for me!

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was trying to say. Not that TT is the QB we've been locking for, but for a new QB this is the situation we've been hoping for.

All those years, all those QBs, all those failures, all those different reasons. But here, at last, we have what would appear to be an ideal situation for a new QB: - A good offensive coordinator who has developed young QBs in the past - An impressively solid set of skill position players for support - A system set to emphasize the run and take pressure off the QB - A decent (it appears) offensive line - A powerful, elite defense to (hopefully) create opportunities and prevent shootouts - A young, smart, talented, but inexperienced QB who sat and learned behind an entrenched starter for 4 years in a good offensive system I mean, how much more could you ask for, aside from an additional inch or two of height?

Happens every season.

...the Bills to be the opening opponent for the Pats*** tomorrow night?

Man, I want this defense to be lights out. But the Colts have so many weapons, I see this being a real tough one.

Kinda makes you glad for the four preseason games instead of only two...gives the nicked up starters a couple of weeks to rest up and heal before the opener. If there were only two preseason games, we'd potentially have a bunch of skill players on the bench.

And he's not officially a starter in 2015. Harvin is.

Buffalo Bills PR @BuffaloBillsPR #NewFaces: The #Bills 1st regular season depth chart has just 2 offensive starters who started for the #Bills in '13. http://www.buffalobills.com/team/depth-chart.html That would be Eric Wood and Cordy Glenn for those of you keeping score at home.

Somebody buy that man a drink.

Like many, I was excited when they brought Rex in as HC, since that meant we'd very likely continue with the trend the last couple of years of outstanding defense, and perhaps even get better. Although the defense will be similar to what we had with Pettine, that defense had some definite weaknesses. Last year's defense with Schwartz was solid, but Rex's system is a bit different, putting more pressure on the DBs, so the results may not be the same. There's a lot of talk from the Bills that they are expecting great things from this defense, and they expect to be #1 overall. On the cusp of the season, I'm interested to hear if people think we'll actually improve compared to last year, or not. Obviously there are many different measures that could be used, but taking all of those measures into account, what is your sense of how the defense will perform this year? Personally, I expect some really good things, but I'm worried about our CBs not holding up in this system. I think the first quarter of the season may be less than stellar for the defense, but with improvement as the year goes on. I'm sure it's the cynic in me, and I don't have a lot of solid evidence to base this on, but I'm not really expecting a top 5 defense this year. I think they could be...but my concern about our DBs in general makes me doubt it.