MattM

Not a chance--they'd never have the class to show back up here. Hats off to our Jet friend......

Yeah, baby!!! About time!!!

I've been here screaming at my TV--"We need 5 more yards to make this a makeable FG in this wind!" and instead Dick just lets the clock run out after running a wide sweep play instead of just running up the gut twice to get those 4-5 yards. Incredible, just incredible.....

Nice call--so, tell me, do we win this game?

Joe Cribbs

Plus 1..........

Agreed, but it seems to be a given that ANY new owner of the Bills, in Buffalo or elsewhere, is going to have the debt to finance, so the question becomes where is it easier to finance the debt? Unfortunately, I'd say the answer is likely to be outside Buffalo--a shrinking population, little to no corporate HQs, an average income per resident that is less than most other parts of the country, etc. Realistically, I think the best Bills fans can hope for after RW's passing is that the team is sold to someone who will keep the team in the region--ie., the Niagara Frontier Bills, playing some games in Toronto and some in Buffalo. A sad state some may say, but much preferable to the other option of moving to a place like LA.....

I think Rodney passed that info on to Junior and some of the other guys over at Gillette--you know the team full of "over the hill vets" who just seem to crank it up a notch after arriving in Cheatsville. The only reason Rodney was caught was he was dumb enough to use his own name and address when ordering the stuff. How many of his old teammates were smart enough not to do that--I'm wagering a whole bunch of them myself.....

I lived in Japan for a year in the early 90s and missed all those games (including the Oilers comeback game) other than the Super Bowl when Dallas blew us out, which I got to watch early in the morning before work.....

Muchas gracias for the reply, but to me it's as much about the timing of the penalties and whether they were valid or not that causes suspicion. Simply because the Pats get flagged on average as much as the next team or approx. so doesn't really disprove my point. Many of the things that seem to get called against Pats opponents don't seem to be valid to many fans watching around the League or are at the least "extremely rarely" called (witness the Carr PI and the Harbaugh penalty last week for one of each there) and/or seem to come at crucial spots in a game when the Pats need a break to either come back from being down (that Ravens game two years ago I literally turned to my wife and said right before their last drive that the Pats would drive the field and score and if they seemed to get stopped the hankies would fly) or keep their opponent who's rallying down (like, for ex., the multiple ticky tack calls against the Bills in the 4th quarter of the 2006 opener). All that said, I myself was a bit shocked yesterday that Merriweather actually got flagged for taunting, as that's usually the kind of thing that the Pats get on someone else, so who knows, maybe someone's outbid them this year for the refs' services As noted originally, I'm not at the point where I actually think there's a conspiracy a la the Serie A, but still would not be surprised if we later found out that there indeed was something untoward going on the last few years there.....

+2, and before watching this game I really didn't like McDaniel, but I do now.....

Of course--do you expect anything less by now? How many data points do folks need to see that something is really funny about the the officiating in their games.....

At least there's a pretty good chance that this gets Dick fired (or at least it should) due to the penalties and errors that basically cost us this game. This one's on the O and special teams--an undermanned D did its job.....

A little early to be running for the bus, but I suspect our "rash of injuries" may continue as the team circles the drain.....

Hey, Tim, I recall a discussion in the offseason re: the New England Patriots and biased officiating (and being called a conspiracy theorist, but I can forgive and forget on that). Anyone else find it somewhat funny and ironic that here we are with the first real set of controversies around officiating and lo and behold, golly gee, it's another set of charges that the refs are favoring, drum roll please, none other than the Pats. How many data points do folks need before coming to the conclusion that something is indeed weird with them and the officials? I mean we've already got the Tuck Rule, the Colts AFCCG, the 2007 Ravens game, several games against the Bills (the worst probably being the 2006 opener-I've got that one TIVOed and some of those calls and no calls never cease to amaze me), an OT game against the Texans a few years back in which a very late PI way away from the play saved the game by taking away a Brady pick, etc. I also found it interesting that the media seemed to sanitize this story somewhat in terms of making it be about the RTP calls, as I recall reading initial quotes from Ravens players likening the whole game to the 2007 joke of a game against the Pats, which to me points to the much bigger, more general issue with New England and not just whether RTP calls protect QBs. Those quotes seemed to disappear from later articles on the story (perhaps after the NFL spinmeisters got through with the stories). I watched a good bit of the game (but admittedly not all of it) myself and found the PI or whatever it was on Carr, followed shortly thereafter by a bizarre call on Harbaugh for another 15, just plain ridiculous, as well as the spots and that fake field goal play, so to me it wasn't just the RTPs as a story as it's now being portrayed in the media. Someone really needs to look at this in a serious way for, as Ray Lewis would say, "the integrity of the game." Call me a conspiracy theorist again all you want, but I just know what my eyes see and from that angle it doesn't seem at all fair the way their games are called. I'm not saying that I can explain why it's happening and I agree with you that a large conspiracy is very tough to pull off, but it has been done before, and recently, in a major sport (look no further than the Italian soccer scandal two or three years ago, involving multiple teams and multiple refs). Money is a powerful motivator and can come from any number of sources (team ownership or a rogue employee with a slush fund within an organization, the League, a ratings driven TV network, gamblers, etc.), so who knows. I'm not to the point of believing necessarily that there is such a conspiracy, but I am at the point where it wouldn't really surprise me at all if we found out that such a conspiracy existed..... All that said, hope you've been well and are happy with the move to Buffalo, PS From someone else's thread--looks like at least the Onion is taking it seriously: http://www.theonion.com/content/from_print...early_receiving

Kraft and Jones did well, but if I recall the "Law of 72" correctly, Snyder's annual return comes out to about 7%, not sparkling by any means in a normal investment market.....

Ahhh, the old jealousy argument, used when all else fails. Nope, sir, not having any of it. I personally like other "dynasties", like the Steelers (old and new ones) and the old Raiders and the current Colts, for example. I like some teams that happen to be good (but unlike many Pats* "fans" that's often not the only reason that I like them). I enjoy good, tough football played by good teams coached by good coaches (which has made being a Bills fan tough this last decade!). If I don't like the Pats* because I'm jealous of them, why then would I like the Steelers or Colts? I don't like teams that cheat or coaches that try to skirt the rules and push the envelope as far as they can in every area that they can, and that's largely been the MO of Belicheat in New England*. I also don't like teams that seem to get the League's favor or that are owned by those owners that are trying to destroy the League's competitive balance (ie., Jones and Snyder as well as Kraft), although I've always hated the 'Pokes and their oh, so wholesome "America's Team" garbage image. On the officiating stuff, you'll see that I've long been a critic of New England* in that regard, but that's just based on watching the same thing happen year after year. Notice how almost every time there's a controversial bunch of game deciding calls it's one team that's involved and those calls always seem to go in that team's direction? Too many data points to ignore. I just believe what my eyes tell me. As I've said before, I don't know the cause of it, but I do know it when I see it.....

Good for Harbaugh--he's complaining officially to the League about this: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/33184004/ns/sports-nfl/ Interesting choice of a biased headline, to wit the use of the term "grumble". "Complains" would have sufficed. Tough to trust the mainstream media these days when conflicts of interest abound (like multi-billion dollar TV deals)......

I'm not saying that's what I believe has happened. I'm at the stage, however, where if presented with evidence of that, I really wouldn't be too shocked, as it would explain an awful lot of what I've seen the last few years when it comes to the officiating in their games.....

Yeah, that's one we see every day alright. The announcers themselves yesterday said that was an extremely rare call and you mean to tell me that other coaches haven't sworn at refs in the last few years. Give us all a break. That's ridiculous. There are just too many data points to deny the pro-Pats* bias in officiating in this League and I, for one, am glad that other folks are starting to notice.....

Or intentional fraud/corruption. That remains a possibility. Perhaps you were trying to cover that in your last factor, but I don't think that went far enough....

Have you EVER seen a coach flagged like that? The announcers hadn't. I can't think of too much he could have said to them that they haven't heard in other games where flags don't seem to fly, but then again, those other games didn't involve the Pats* needing some momentum either.....

Doesn't matter the motivation behind the cheating--money is money and that's what would cause it. That money could come from gamblers, that money could come from a League or network that wanted a particular team to go far in the playoffs for ratings reasons or that money could come from an owner who want to win at all costs and is willing to cheat to do so (not that that's what I'm saying is happening here, but that it is a potential situation in which an owner could cheat). The common denominator is money, plain and simple. And that soccer scandal in Italy involved multiple teams and multiple refs, BTW. Funny how Pats* fanboy troll just doesn't even address arguments that go against his point of view (to wit, the Carr/Harbaugh penalties and this).....

I should also add that Donaghy tried to finger other refs as well in the NBA, but to date the FBI hasn't bought it.....

Before you get too far down that "I'm shocked" path" that's actually happened in modern times in at least one other major league--look no further than the Serie A Italian soccer scandal a few years ago, when that's exactly what happened.....