MattM

Bills 27, Pats* 28--the Bills surprise the League and have the game in hand until some new calls never before seen in NFL history come out of the "rulebook" (or Bob Kraft's checkbook, take your pick). More seriously, Pats* 27, Bills 17. This one will be closer than a lot of folks think.....

I was going to say the same thing--if this game is remotely close, look for the hankies to come out in the 4th quarter, like they do every time we play these guys close. The usual something is still rotten in Denmark I'll bet.....

A lot of you conveniently forget a basic fact--that you simply cannot charge in Buffalo more than a fraction of what you can charge in large market cities for tickets, merchandise, etc. Complain about Ralph being cheap all you want, but the fact is that there's no corporate base in Western NY to buy luxury boxes and the average fan here can pay about 30% of what an average fan can afford to pay in a place like NY or Boston. Those are facts, and the result is that Ralph starts with a large disadvantage vis-a-vis many other owners/teams in larger markets. As others have noted, when things like luxury boxes in other cities inflate the cap, welcome to the MLB-ization of the NFL--how'd that work out for baseball? Their ratings have plummeted precipitiously over the last 20 years to the point where they no longer have a real network contract (those of you old enough will certainly remember, for ex, NBC's Saturday national games and ABC's Monday Night Baseball from the '70s) and many folks who used to love to follow that game (like myself) could care less about it now. Unless you're a Yankee or Red Sox fan, you can forget having a consistently good team no matter how hard they try--watch what happens to the Devil Rays over the next couple of years as an example. This Yankee offseason is another example--didn't make the playoffs this past year, so let's buy every major FA out there. I suspect they've at least bought themselves an AL East crown, if not more, but time will tell. And before you all say, "well, people who try to buy championships usually fail", I say you may be right part of the time, but it certainly helps your competitiveness--for ex., who else thinks the Jests would have been a lot closer to another 4-12 without their free agent spending this past offseason than to the 10-6 they may end up?

I saw the same thing--what a shock, a key first down at midfield wiped out by a phantom call on the Pats* opponent. Will wonders never cease. And here I was hoping that perhaps Bob Kraft's Ref Retirement Fund was invested with Bernie Madoff......

Perfect game for me--the two teams I hate most in all of sports? The Cheatahs* and the 'Pokes. Two "birds" , one stone--sweet......

If they don't go DE in the first round this year, they're nuts. That's the only way we'll get a quality end (potentially), as those guys never hit FA.

Read Peter King's column today--he didn't think it should have been overturned, and he's the biggest "NFL Officiating"/Mike Pereira rah, rah guy around......

I said the same thing in another thread yesterday--glad to see I'm not the only one who will no doubt be called a conspiracy theorist by Pats* fans--anyone who watched that replay knows there's no way in heck that that call on the field should have been overturned on that video evidence. It was all just too weird.....

I honestly think that Jauron will be such a "good chap" in that regard (i.e., contract or not, he will exit gracefully if requested and paid a little bit, but not the entire value of the contract).

Who was the biggest beneficiary of all of this (after the Steelers, of course)? None other than the New England Cheatahs, who look to likely be out of the running for the AFCE title and now must rely on a wildcard birth they're chasing along with the Ravens. Had the Ravens won they'd likely have pretty much sealed the Cheatahs' fates--I'm used to seeing bad calls in their own games go their way, but this is a new low (as anyone watching that play saw, there was no way in h*ll that there was enough visual evidence to overturn the call on the field in Pittsburgh).....

I wondered about that, too--some Jet had both arms wrapped around Steve Johnson's waist on that play in a very easy to see area and yet no flag. Complete garbage if you ask me, but, hey, got to make sure the major media markets are served come playoff time, right?

Personally, I don't think he ever did. It was all just an excuse so Jauron wouldn't get criticized for yanking him in the Fins 9ers game....

He's a huge Pats* homer--he and King both.....

Only problem with that is that it looks like the two good ones will be gone well before we pick.....

I'm not so sure about that. Dick may be a horrible coach, but he's not a, for lack of a better word, "dick". If he knows Ralph no longer wants him around (and in fairness to Ralp, from his quotes the last two weeks, I'd say he's seen enough) I suspect he'll do the right thing and leave, extension or not, after negotiating a buyout of some kind from Wilson shortly after the season's over. That's my prediction for what happens here.....

What's really so funny is that most of you posting negatively and calling for the heads of the players and coaching staff were many of the same folks praising them to high heaven after going 4-0 and 5-1. We weren't as good then as you all thought and we aren't as bad now as you all think--with the exception of the Cardinals game and perhaps the Pats* game the Bills haven't really been blown out or manhandled this year. They were in all of their other games until late, but just couldn't finish the job. To be expected with a young QB and youth at other key positions--not what people here want to hear, but it's true. I'm as frustrated as any of you with the ups and downs of this team, but I'm not quite as ready yet to completely throw them under the bus--that might change tonight, but until then.....

Yeah, if B'more can go 1-3 down the stretch (they have the Skins, Jags, Steelers and Cowpokes, so it's not completely improbable) and we win out, we actually have a decent shot of getting the 6. Again, I'm not predicting any of this will happen, but there seem to be more ways for us to make the dance than some people seem to realize.....

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/playoffscenari...amp;14=04000000 If we win out and get a couple of breaks (namely Miami beating the Jets in the last week of the season and losing to SF or Oakland and NE losing to Az, which I think will actually happen, or any other game (Sea or Oak)) we would actually make the playoffs if I'm reading this correctly. We'd be the 3 seed with a home playoff game to boot. Not that I expect any of this to occur, mind you, but I didn't realize that there were actually a number of scenarios by which we might get there. A man's gotta have a dream, I suppose (until tomorrow at 7 or so I'm guessing).....

That one ended our SB run--I remember it well, and also remember being mad as heck at Bruce for failing to do something as simple as getting a flu shot. So easily preventible--it still makes me mad thinking about it..... Who was the guy who replaced him that day--anyone remember?

This whole thing smells pretty bad to me--smells like a coverup by Jauron to insulate himself from criticism for pulling his young starter to try to spark the team.....

Personally, I think that what they got caught doing was the tip of the iceberg--there were many other reports out of NE over the years, including things like headsets going out at inopportune times (Marinelli and Del Rio reported that, for ex.) Check out the NYT article from May of this year that also quoted several members of the NFL Competition Cttee saying that it was really only one team (NE) that kept coming up in complaints of shady goings on over and over......

I was at the Foreman game as well--now that was a COLD game. I still remember having to peel back the layers to take a pee in the men's room..... PS Sorry about the slap there, Jim--I saw the join date and suspected a Pats* troll trying a new technique. If I'm wrong about that, my bad.

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patrio...e-but-fact.html I recall seeing that response several times last year from Pats* fans when folks were talking about the record 17 guys we had on IR. Well, you know what I have to say to them this year--WAAAA, WAAAA, WAAAA......

For daring to touch a Patriot* King Goodell will no doubt have him hind and quartered in the public square. I suspect he'll get a lot more of a penalty than Light did for punching Crowder in the face last week--all for a play which shouldn't have even had a flag thrown on it, but that's "justice" in the modern day, "Big Market Money Talks (Especially Bob Kraft's)" NFL......

"It will be interesting to see if Trent is truthful about his "injury" in the postgame sessions. We all know that Jauron used the injury card so that he couldn't get called out if and when Losman sucked in the second half (and/or to salve TE's brittle psyche for getting pulled). I'm not buying it and no one else should either. Horrific decision all around. Like him or not, Trent is the future of the franchise at QB, so benching him does him no good confidence-wise. If Losman had done well, what then? Ride the hot hand as far as he'll take you (not likely to be the playoffs), watch him leave in FA and then go back to the guy you've dumped? Complete crap all around--what a f-ing joke....." My auto post on this topic (from even before the press conference--this is all Jauron covering his arse and Trent going along with it to (a) protect his coach and (b) protect his own rep.....