Rubes

Reid Ferguson??

60,000 is probably just an early estimate, who knows what it will end up being. Chicago, Miami, and New England**** all have capacities in the 60-65,000 range.

How many more need to be cut?

Thanks. We've been discussing separately, it's a good question. I'll let you and @Figster decide if you want to post it.

As part of my job, I am occasionally asked by scientific journals to review research papers that are sent to them to check the science and make sure they meet an appropriate level of rigor to warrant publishing in the journal. If I do a good job, and the journal ultimately decides to publish the paper, they will on rare occasions ask me to write an editorial commentary to accompany the paper when it is published. Earlier this year, I was asked by a good journal to review a paper that looked at the impact of having fans at stadiums for NFL and NCAA football games in the fall of 2020 on the rates of COVID-19 in the surrounding communities, to see if in-person attendance was associated with local COVID-19 outbreaks. (Their results showed that it was not. You can read the research paper here if you want.) After I submitted my review, they asked me to write an accompanying commentary, so I was like, "Hell yeah!" When would I ever get another opportunity to write an article about science and football, two of my favorite things? And of course, if I was going to do this, you'd better damn well know that I'm going to find a way to slip in a reference to the Buffalo Bills. Damn straight I would. So of course I did. Apparently there was a group that performed an independent but unpublished study of the impact of attendance at the two Bills playoff games on COVID-19 in the Buffalo community and found no effect (one link to the story is here), so I gave a nod to the Bills by slipping in a reference to that study (despite not being able to actually see the study or know how rigorously it was done. I mean, ya gotta do what ya gotta do). So the commentary was just published last week. Here's the link to it if you have any interest. An article about science and football with a Buffalo Bills reference slipped in. One of my proudest accomplishments. LAMP! Just remember: I didn't have anything to do with the study itself, I just wrote an editorial about it. But if you have any questions about it feel free to ask. And please try not to go off the rails with the COVID stuff.

What, no one suggesting that we're now in good position to trade Tremaine for 2 1st-round picks?

If it’s going to be hot for the opener, I’d like to see us go all whites just to make Pittsburgh wear the black jerseys.

This is it for me, too. Even though I didn't know if the Allen pick would pan out the way we wanted it to, after watching his rookie year I was happy with it if only because he was so damn fun to watch play. He'd do something crazy every other play—crazy good or bad, but still crazy enough to say "wow, that was nuts." It was fun to watch, and he remains incredibly fun to watch (and much moreso now, of course). People will think I'm nuts but I also felt a similar way toward Tyrod. He was infuriating most of the time, but every few plays he'd do something wild, which was so much more entertaining to watch than someone like Orton, or EJ. He just didn't do nearly enough of it.

I think Kumerow has shown great value to the team, enough to keep him. I'd also consider that, as one of the top pass-happy teams in the league, it would be wise to keep more WR than usual in case guys go down—as was the case last year.

He is in the top 10, we just have to wait to find out where exactly.

I thought I heard it was only a penalty if it occurs within the space between the ends of the offensive line (eg, between a 2 TE set)? I could be making that up.

Expectations? I expect we'll all come to realize just how important Star is to the defensive front. Plus, we'll be playing a lot more unproven QBs this year than last year, so I do expect an improvement overall just from that.

I wish more people could understand this.

I *really* enjoyed that play in the second quarter where he and Epenesa converged and destroyed the Lions QB just after he released the ball.

Pool? No. Shower? ....

Everyone's too busy with the ongoing "should we pay sports journalists" war.

OMG that is the most hilarious tweet I've seen in a while.

According to McDermott, Josh won't be playing against the Lions. So there's that.

Strange conclusion, but you do you. We went 13-3 and made it to the AFCC with that middle-of-the-road defense. We looked great in many games, and struggled in several others. Still managed to do enough to get that far, but it wasn’t easy in the playoffs once we faced some of the really tough teams. And we all saw how we fared against the Titans and Chiefs. So yeah, if our defense doesn’t improve from last year’s middling effort, we’ll continue to have trouble with those teams. If we can improve, that will go a long way toward bringing us a championship.

Like the Rams? I was about to post something about the defense earlier and never got around to it. I was looking at the defensive rankings in different categories over the past 3 years, and it was interesting to see the trends. 2018 and 2019 were pretty good defensive years, with the rankings in many categories in the top 10, some in the top 5. Then 2020 came along, which was interesting in that our offense shot through the roof while our defense dropped in most statistical categories to the mid-teens. So what to expect from this coming year? More like 2018/19, or more like 2020? Like the Athletic article, I see us improving on defense. I agree that much of it will come with Star returning, the development of the younger players, and our ability to keep players on the field. I hope we get most categories up in the top 10. You'd think that if we could do that, we could write our ticket at least to the 2nd/3rd round of the playoffs, or further... Personally, I think our success this season hinges a great deal on how improved our defense is.

I was just about to post that. Also, Scrubs is flat-out awesome. I always thought they did a nice job with the cliché of surgeons being like the jocks and the internists as the nerds. The medicine in the show was pretty well done, too. I really respected the one where they diagnosed an organ donor with rabies post-donation. I think that was based on a real case. They had good taste in music, too.

I think it's a good question. When did my perspective start to change? For me, it was during the 2017 season, McDermott's first. We started strong, going 5-2 to start the season, but we had been through that before. I'm sure everyone else was like me in saying, "Sure, but we'll see what happens the rest of the way." It's all about how you finish, rather than how you start. So when McDermott's team finished the season 4-2, that was a good indicator that things were changing. The real moment, the one moment when I really thought things were changing for the Bills? Had to be the moment when Andy Dalton threw that 49-yard TD pass to Tyler Boyd on 4th-and-12. I mean, I nearly ***** my pants.