Rubes

The thing that worries me the most about JP is that the guy doesn't seem to know how NOT to take a hit. He got absolutely pasted a few times during this game, often when he didn't need to. On a number of occasions, he looked like he could barely get up after the shot he took. This guy had better learn to protect himself a little better or he won't make it to the end of the season.

Can you post a linky to the original thread, I can't remember if I'm in the Survivor group.

Nope...we took out all of the screen passes and instead inserted passes to the TE.

Well, you can blame it a little bit on the offense. I mean, if you look at the scoring: BUF: 3 FGs, 1 TD ATL: 3 TDs, 1 FG That tells you a little something. We need to start scoring TDs, not FGs. And we need to stop other teams from scoring TDs.

Luck has nothing to do with it.

A true story. A story about a Bills team. A mostly young team, one that hadn’t tasted the playoffs for a very long time. Oh, they came close. The year before, they had only to beat a relatively mediocre conference opponent in the last home game of the season to finally clinch a playoff spot. Instead, they came out flat and laid an egg, losing the game and, as a result, eliminating themselves from the playoffs. They were described by a local writer as “one part preoccupied and one part wound too tightly.” It was disappointing, but the team would use it as motivation for the following season. They came into that next season with a strong defense and a young, inexperienced offense, with a lot of studs at the skill positions. The year started out on a high note, with a victory in the home opener. The defense dominated that game, but the offense had its troubles, particularly the young talented QB. A local writer described his game this way: “He came out hot in the first half, but he couldn’t quite close the sale once the Bills came close to the 20-yard line. If he had been a little sharper close to the goal line, Buffalo might have had a commanding lead at halftime.” The Bills didn’t score much, but it was just enough, with their suffocating defense. The following weeks were similar, with low-scoring nail-biters that essentialy came down to the field goal kicker. The defense continued its domination, but the offense also continued to sputter. In the first three games, the offense managed only 2 touchdowns, and the young QB had only 1 touchdown pass and a couple of interceptions. But most of their games early on were at home, and they did well enough there to win. Soon they would go on the road against a tough NFC opponent, one with an efficient offense and a stellar defense. It was time to see just how ready the Bills were to compete with good teams on the road. If they could continue to play tough defense and good enough offense, they just might make a statement. In the end, they did make a statement: they weren’t ready yet for the big time. As one local writer put it: “Sunday was the day the Bills were supposed to show they could play with the NFL’s big boys. Instead, (they were) tormented for 2 hours and 59 minutes.” The Bills could only manage a single field goal. Their offensive output included a mind-boggling 24-yard loss on one run, a net of zero yards rushing, and six sacks against. The defense played decently, but allowed enough big plays, especially on third downs, to put this one too far out of reach for the struggling offense. They gave up 67% of third downs, the feared pass rush had no sacks, and there were numerous lapses in coverage. People began wondering if those previous wins were just lucky, coming against inferior opponents. They began wondering if the defense really was as good as they thought. They wondered if the offense would ever get on track. There was much hand wringing. Sound familiar? Of course, this isn’t the story of the 2005 Bills, it’s the 1988 Bills. But the similarities are interesting. So what happened after that humbling loss? The following week they came back home to play another tough opponent. Things didn’t look good in the first half. The offense continued to sputter, with the young QB tossing an interception on his second pass of the game, followed by four possessions that led to zero points. By then, the Bills found themselves down 17-0, and the home crowd started booing their offense and their young QB. That little wake-up call seemed to turn things around for the team, especially the offense. Suddenly, they came alive, outscoring their opponent the rest of the way, 34-6. Said the coach of his young QB: “I told him he came of age as an NFL quarterback. He got booed by the home fans.” Said his star receiver: “People gotta realize you can’t be perfect all the time. He isn’t God and he’s not gonna come out winging touchdown passes all the time and be accurate on every pass. He’s only one man and the whole team’s gotta help him out.” We all know what happened after that. Of course, I’m not trying to say the 2005 Bills are the same as the 1988 Bills, nor is JP in the same league as Jimbo, at least not yet. But there are some similarities in those seasons. Sometimes it takes a while to get the offense all on one page. Sometimes the defense has bad days and doesn’t live up to its expectations. Sometimes you go on the road and get slapped in the face by a superior opponent. And sometimes, despite all that, great things still lie ahead. Even the same season.

No wonder people like Martha Burk have something to say.

Let's just say, I haven't yet found any good ones like your avatar's...

If you're into the 2-D side scroller games and you really like old-school Japanese game design, check out Doukutsu Monogatari ("Cave Story"). It's a freeware game (hard to believe, but it's true) that has versions for Mac and Windows. It was originally made in Japanese, but recently there have been English translations available. I haven't been a big arcade-type 2-D scroller-type gamer for many years, but this one really should be checked out if you haven't seen it before. It's got 80's-style graphics and music, but it's just really well done. From one web site: Check it out and download it here. You have to first download the game, and then the English translator patcher. The control keys are as follows: q - inventory w - map (you have to find it first) a - previous weapon (first you have to find more than one weapon) s - next weapon (first you have to find more than one weapon) z - jump / select / speed up dialogue x - shoot (first you have to find a gun) The arrow keys do multiple things, including movement and aiming your weapon. The most important one is the down arrow. It causes you to "interact" with whatever you are standing in front of. If it's a door, you go through the door; if it's a person, you interact with the person; if it's an object, you look at or use the object. The arrow keys also are used for movement and aiming your weapon. So: down arrow - go through doors, interact with people/ objects, aim weapon down (only while jumping) up arrow - aim weapon up left arrow - go left/aim left right arrow - go right/aim right tab - toggles fullscreen (very nice) One important note is that the Z key is used to make selections, like on the main menu. It's also used to advance dialogue when it pauses. Finally, if you hold down the Z key during dialogue, it speeds up the dialogue. This is a very cool game. Enjoy!!

We should only be so lucky. But it would be a "horrible Bills fan" thread instead, I suppose. You think this is bad? I'm too ashamed to tell you what will happen during the Miami game weekend. Ugh.

No kidding. The worst part was having to spend the day with a bunch of Bears fans whooping it up as they crushed Detroit and bragged about how much better Kyle Orton is than JP. As if!

I was at my wife's cousin's wedding last week in Illinois and didn't get to watch the Bills game. I'm fairly certain that had a major impact on the game's outcome. That said, I will be properly seated for this weekend's game. If that ain't good news, I don't know what is.

I don't think I could have possibly said that better.

Milloy is probably the MVP of the defense if only for the fact that he keeps Coy off the field.

Even if you live there, ya gotta root for the Steelers this week. Don't worry about them, they'll find a way to blow it at the end of the season.

Hey, does anyone else here play the Jerry Sullivan game, too? You know, glance up and down the headlines on the front of TBD and try to pick out the Sully article. Pick the most negative-sounding one, and you're guaranteed to be right about 90% of the time.

Ah yes, another writer who knows more than everybody else. I sure as hell don't think the defense played a great game, but I still think the defense would have been better if the offense had done anything to stay on the field longer. You don't agree? Who cares.

...is now the #2 defense in the NFL. Of course, that's primarily due to the new #1 defense in the NFL. Had our offense been able to generate anything, then we might have continued to be #1...

Perhaps, but a screen pass from your own 4 yard line is asking for disaster. Not that we didn't have a disaster anyway...

Looking at the play as it was drawn out in the Buff News today, I really wish we had tried to run to the left on that play. I think Willis would still be running.

What's really interesting is that there is a realistic chance that everybody in the AFC East could be 1-2 after next week. Weird.

He got crunched like a peanut shell on that play, too.

D* claims that they do carry the NFL Network stuff in HD (when it's HD material) on channel 84, but I've never seen anything available on that channel. They definitely don't have their sh-- together when it comes to the NFL Network on HD.

...now finally available in the iTunes Music Store! Woo hoo! I've waited a while for that...

True, but I was pretty impressed with Lindell's kickoffs. At least two made it to the end zone line, and with our coverage teams, that's a pretty good recipe.