Rubes

Funny, I was about to say the exact same thing. How depressing.

This defense is just plain soft, but they seem to do a decent job of holding average-to-poor offenses out of the end zone. If we could just find a defensive lineman or two who actually understood how to effectively rush the passer, we'd probably be a pretty darn good defense.

We come out after halftime behind 13-3, but we get the kickoff. I told myself we must get some points on the opening drive or forget it -- I'm turning off the game. McKelvin gets a nice return out to the 40, not bad. A couple nice plays gets another first down in Miami territory. Suddenly, it's 3rd and 2, and we need a first down badly -- we're at the Miami 39 and there's no way we kick a field goal from there. So of course Lynch gets the handoff and goes nowhere. Now it's 4th and 2 from the 39. It was here I told myself if we punt, that's it -- Jauron would be giving up on the team this season, so I would as well. Instead, what do you know, we go for it. It's an ugly play, but hey, it's a first down at the 29. Now we've got some momentum, and we're in business. So what happens? Two quick incompletions and it's 3rd and 10, followed by an awful pass for a 2 yard loss. But wait, there's a Miami penalty, so now it's 3rd and 5 instead. So what happens? Sack, fumble, 10 yard loss, and it's 4th down right back where we were on the previous 4th down. In comes the punting unit, up goes the white flag, and off goes the TV. Season done. And I don't even care anymore. Watching this team is the most joyless experience in all my years of watching this cursed team.

What, no Centers? Good grief, if there's one thing we need...

If there's one thing I have knowledge of, it's the flu shot. Please let me clear things up for you: You cannot get the flu from the flu shot (#1). Repeat after me. You cannot get the flu from a flu shot. Many people do feel crappy after getting the flu shot, but this is not the flu. Believe me, if you've ever had the flu, you'd know that this is not the flu. It's just your body's reaction to it, and it's far, FAR better than getting the flu. You cannot get the flu from the live vaccine (#2), although it's not recommended if you're going to be around people who have severely compromised immune systems. The virus is a complete wimp and can't cause the flu, but if you don't have an immune system it can still cause problems. Finally, the most important thing to consider: the flu shot helps prevent YOU from getting the flu, but more importantly, it helps prevent you from spreading the flu to other people, like your family. You CAN get the flu virus and spread it around before you know you have it, so get vaccinated. Do it for yourself, and do it for those around you. If you have small children, grandchildren, or elderly parents or grandparents, do it. For them. So stop screwing around and help save a life, for crying out loud.

Wow. Well said.

Hell, we lived right across the street.

Great find, thanks Lori. You know, there were some really interesting parts in that story: Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. These sound like the kind of things we're still saying about the team, 30 years later. More: Damn. Substitute some names from the recent past...Moulds, maybe. Or even some names from the present, like Evans. The song remains the same, eh?

Not that it matters, since we really do suck, but I can hardly believe that all we needed was two victories, at home, over the lowly Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers for our record to be 8-4 and us in first place in the division. Good grief.

:blink: Brilliant. Just brilliant.

You know, I actually thought about this as well a little while ago, and I agree it might have been one pass, but not that one. I thought it was the one a couple of plays before that, when Trent threw a perfectly set up screen pass to Freddie Jackson in the flat. Freddie had two blockers and a wide open field in front of him, and he dropped the ball. That would have been 6 for certain. After the play, I told my uncle that dropped ball is going to come back and haunt us. Couple plays later, Trent throws the pick-6, and we still haven't recovered. Ah, crap.

Well, I suppose cholera could grow on you if you lived with it long enough.

I agree with what The Dean is saying -- I think it just shows that a lot of people in this country are too narrow-minded and too self-concerned to actually look beyond their own issues and recognize the common underlying threads. Wouldn't you think blacks might see things in the same light? Problem is, fear, hatred, and bigotry don't follow logic.

I'm trying to imagine how a conversation maybe 100 years ago might have gone about a Southern black man who wanted to have sex with, or God forbid marry, a white woman. I'm imagining it probably would have sounded a lot like this thread in many ways. Good to see we've come so far.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

I've seen crazier sh-- in my life.

Yes. we're just about in field goal range after Royal catches that ball. But we still need more yards, especially since the kick is into the wind. Definitely want to try to get it inside 40 yards if possible. After the first run, it was clear that Cleveland was going to use all three timeouts to give themselves enough time to take the kickoff and get into FG range again. But that is predicated on them being able to stop us from getting a first down. So in order to take that option away, YOU NEED TO GET THE FIRST DOWN. By doing so, not only do you prevent them from getting another chance, but you also get the ball at least 10 yards closer. Yes, you risk a turnover, as you always do -- but ACTUALLY TRYING to get a first down gets you a shorter FG into the wind AND prevents them from a comeback. THAT'S why you actually MAKE AN ATTEMPT to get a first down, instead of frigging GIVING UP and settling for a difficult FG into a strong wind, with a chance for them to come back. Unbelievable. It's not rocket surgery.

Season on the line and these jokers don't even try to get it closer than 47 yards into a strong wind. What a joke. I had such high hopes for this coaching staff at the start of the year, and instead it's more of the same crap.

Unbelievable. I think I officially hate Jauron now.

Although I was thinking the same thing, in the end it doesn't really matter. All a team has to do is something slightly different than usual, and it will completely befuddle our offense. Then Dick and everyone else can sing the mantra: "They did some things we weren't expecting." Honestly, if this team doesn't see exactly what they are expecting, it's like they crap their pants or something.

Yeah, I guess that's what I was saying.

I'm not so sure we need all of those players, necessarily...one more D-lineman, a playmaker, will help a lot. We definitely need a new Center, but I think Butler is probably serviceable at the RG position, when healthy. I'm not ready to give up on Dockery just yet.

I don't necessarily believe the run game has to be working well for play action to be effective. You just have to run enough times for the defense to be looking for it. I think we run enough as it is for it to work -- although I agree it would work better if we actually gain yards when we run the ball.

1. It Really Comes Down To This: our offensive line is not very good, and our defensive line is not very good. It's really not much more complicated than that. Sure, we could have better play calling on offense, but play calling doesn't matter a whole lot if the line can't run block or pass block very well. 2. It Really Comes Down To This #2: After a handful of games, offensive and defensive coordinators have enough film on you to discover your weaknesses. Good teams find them and exploit them; bad teams don't. It was pretty clear once we hit the Rams game that opposing offensive coordinators had figured out our defense, with only a few game-saving plays helping us against the Rams and Chargers. By the San Diego or Miami game, it was pretty clear that opposing defensive coordinators had pretty much figured out how to confuse our offense. Neither Turk nor Perry have had any good answers to this. Part of this is because of injuries, but that excuse only goes so far. 3. As far as those injuries go, does our defensive line miss Schobel? Sure, of course. Not because Schobel would be in there making tackles and sacks by the boatload, but because he at least commands some additional attention. Right now, the only lineman that demands more than single blocking is maybe Stroud, and even then teams can usually get by with blocking him one-on-one. With Schobel in there, it maybe frees up Williams or Stroud to make some plays because of the attention given to Schobel. Without him, we're constantly playing 4 on 5 up front, and we're not winning. 4. Do we really need to keep proving it to ourselves week after week that Duke Preston is not very good? Oh, and by the way, Kirk Chambers isn't all that fantastic either. I can't recall how many times I saw our offensive linemen getting pushed around, or standing around watching the play collapse in front of them. Everyone, including Dockery and Walker. Seriously, I find this difficult to fathom. 5. I don't know what it is, but Turk's play calling is just all out of sync. We keep dropping into the shotgun on 3rd and 1's, and forget about throwing the ball when we get inside the 10 yard line. At the beginning of the game, when Marshawn rips off a 7 yard gain on 1st down, Turk follows this up with two pass calls, both of which fail, and we end up failing to convert 2nd and 3. When we got the turnover in the 4th and ripped off some great runs, we had a 2nd and 5. Turk follows this up again with two pass calls, both of which fail, game over. Seriously, when the run is working, it's not terrible to stick with it. Stop outthinking yourself. 6. And please, just once: how about a play action fake? Especially around the goal line? 7. An encapsulation of this team: when we got the turnover, we absolutely needed to get at least 3 points from it, and we got nothing. Then, with one last chance, when we needed the defense to step up and stop them, we allow a 9 minute drive to ice it. The more things change, the more they stay the same. 8. All I would like is just one playmaker on defense, preferably the defensive line. We get absolutely zero pressure on opposing quarterbacks, even when we blitz. It's really pathetic, actually. We will never go anywhere until we figure out how to pressure opposing quarterbacks. 9. We have really turned into a cream puff team. Nobody fears our offense, and nobody fears our defense. It pains me to say that. 10. There is no better place in ths country to watch the Bills when you're away from home than McFadden's in D.C. Case closed. As bad as things look, I still like our chances to rip off our next 3 in a row against Cleveland, K.C., and San Francisco. That would make us 8-4 with 3 of our last 4 games against our division opponents, two of them at "home." That would be the true gut check for 2008. We're no Super Bowl contender, but if we have any hope of eventually getting there, we need to stand up and make something happen, not curl up and die like so many Bills teams in the past. We'll see.

I don't care if anyone does, but apparently you don't see that. You don't think we have a shot? Fine, I don't care. Why should anyone go to the ridiculous trouble of trying to convince you?