Whites Bay

I'll probably catch the requisite load of fecal material for this, but I've been impressed with Sheik Yobouty. I watched him come in on a CB blitz at the end of the game on Thursday, and he hammered the living snot out of the QB. That's one big kid. He really whipped the QB around for a little bit before he dropped him. It's probably too late for the Sheik to make the roster, but I hope he makes it for two reasons: 1) I think he'd be a good addition at the bottom end of the DB corps, and someone who might grow to the mid-level thereof; 2) I'd just like to see some of the Sheik trashers get the chicken bone stuck in their throats. But that's just me, isn't it?

Chicago at Buffalo 1992. We used to tailgate with about 7 groups, and it was our (my brother and I) turn to bring the food and beer. At the preceding tailgate party, some limp-wristed nancy-boy had brought Kentucky Fried Chicken and Genny Light. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Genny Light to a tailgate. But I digress. We determined that it was the very honor of our family name at stake to improve the program, so we spent hours shopping and preparing for the gig. The order of the day was chicken and beef kabobs (excellent, if you must ask). For drinks? Well, you can screw that Genny Light crap. This was back before NAFTA - we drove to St. Kitts and got Bradors. For those of you who have never had Bradors, understand that drinking a bottle of that brew is like putting blue steel in your mouth and pulling the trigger. I was so damn proud of myself, as I knew that THIS would be the tailgate party to end all tailgate parties. On to the big event. The grills are fired up, the kabobs are sizzling, and it's time to break out the cold ones. We'd brought our stash of hooch from Ontario, and someone else had brought a cooler full of.......Genny Light. You know where this is going, don't you? Guess which cooler they fell upon like locusts? The goddamn horse piss Genny Light!! Here I am sitting here with a cooler full of nectar-of-the-Gods Molson's Bradors, and these Philistines are reaching for Genny Light. It was like the whole world had suddenly overdosed on stupid pills. So what did I do? I did what everyone on this board would do. I started drinking Bradors like the world was about to end. What the hell? The schit's about $1.75 a bottle, and no one else deigns to drink it, and warm beer.....well, sucks. On to the game. I can't say that I blacked out, but I have to admit that my memories aren't the sharpest. On to the point of the post. I do remember standing on my seat with my brother holding my belt at my waist to keep me from spilling into the row in front of me. I'm not a big person, but I have a big voice. And I'm not kidding. I remember leaning forward with my brother holding me with all his might, and I screamed "DITKA.....YOU SUUUU---UUUUU---UUUUCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! at the top of my lungs, and pointing to my crotch. I'm certain that if I could get the tape of that game, I could probably catch my voice on the national feed. I had a headache that lastest about 2 days after that one. Not one of my nobler moments. Ah, youth. By the way, where's The Dean?

I guess there WOULD be blood after three days. I'd need a nap afterwards.

My brother and I have ruminated on the Losman situation throughout training camp. Losman has done a superb job of: 1) Being the good sport, the consumate team player, the antichrist of whining. Locker room cancer? Forget it. The guy's a model citizen. 2) Being a damn good quarterback. A great quarterback? Hell no. But he's all business, he's acting like a veteran, he's a solid presence as the Number 2. He AIN'T doing this because he wants to be HERE next year. He's no dope, and neither is his agent. My guess? He'll have multiple offers once the season ends, but he's going to be the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings next year. Why Minnesota? 1) A solid Left Tackle 2) A so-so Running Back (just wanted to see if you're paying attention) 3) Nine (9) games guaranteed in a domed stadium, with an extremely high probability of 10 or 11 games in a dome per year. Think about it. With Peterson lined up in the backfield, opposing teams have to - HAVE TO - stack 8 in the box. If they don't, they'll get killed. No wind interference in the dome, his back side is covered, and his preference is to heave the bomb. Get him a couple of screamer WRs, and Losman will throw for 3,500+. The Vikes may not get far in the playoffs using that formula, but who in this forum wouldn't kill for 3-4 years of losing in the first few rounds of the Big Dance? Get your #7 Vikings jerseys lined up now.

I echo your caution about the injury bug, Bill. The Peters situation....not so much. But I can assure you that I'm keeping my rose-colored glasses and chest-thumping in the office to a minimum this year. I believe I read we had a league-high 18 players on IR last year. Talk about the wrong stat with which to lead the league. A couple of question/observations regarding the Jets and Dolphins: 1) If we could lead the league in injuries last year, what's to say it won't be the Jets and Dolphins? I guess my point is...relax. No one has any idea. I'm holding my breath, and praying the turf on the opposing sideline gets a lot more wear-and-tear from "the cart" this year. 2) Question. What is the bigger impact for the hapless Dolphins - the addition of Pennington, or the loss of Taylor? The buzz is all about Pennington, but - sheesh - Taylor was a Pro Bowler several times over. Pennington predictably couldn't throw more than 30 yards....I don't mean with accuracy, I mean he physically couldn't heave the rock that far, period. 3) Farve to NYJ may not be as bad as Namath to San Francisco, but it will more likely be along the lines of Montana to Kansas City. A good addition? Absolutely. The be-all and end-all? Not at 38-going-on-39. I can tell you that 39 is getting REALLY small in MY rearview mirror, and there's a lot of truth to the old line "And you know that you're over the hill when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill". Favre's a good addition to the NYJ, but there are going to be a lot of teams that want to roll out the welcome mat. He's going to get hit a lot, and hit hard. And he's going to screw up. The Jets this year are not the Packers last year. You want rose-colored glasses? Go to a Jets fan board.

I'm just so grateful this is not Buffalo's media circus. The Peters issue is enough of a headache. Go, Farve, Go!

Along the same lines, I couldn't care less about the strength of the NFC....all I care about THIS year is the strength of the NFC West. I'm also buoyed by the fact that the Bills don't even sniff the West Coast. The farthest they're going to have to travel this year will be Phoenix, AZ. It's a lot of little things that add up to an increase in the probability that the season record will tip from 8-8 to 10-6. And that should be just enough. Good point on the AFC North/NFC East scheduling. Having only one playoff team from that group would be a BIG issue. Bummer about the AFC South/NFC Central. That makes me think the Bills are eventually going to be squaring up against the Titans or Jags. That September 14th game is going to be January in September for the Bills.

That's the one! Thanks, James. As I recall, that sweet move cost the Broncos a 3rd-round pick. Where's ItalianMobster when you need him?

He was cut somewhere near the end of training camp last year. Possibly the last cut. Nothing over which to raise eyebrows except for one small facet of the story. I think - THINK - that he represented the first time in 2 (?) or 3 (?) years in which the Bills actually had the luxury of cutting a draft pick. I don't have the patience to dig this up, so take it with a grain of salt (the size of your head). But I remember thinking it at the time. In other words....the Front Office had finally rebuilt things to the point where we didn't need every breathing body from our draft. (In retrospect, however, the Bills could possibly have used Ah You with all the injuries experienced last year, but 2007 was an exceptionally bad year in that regard). I suppose a TRUE measure of the F.O.s ability to clean up the personnel mess would be if they had the luxury of cutting a 4th or 5th round draft pick. Who was that kid out of OSU...the running back that signed with the Broncos a couple of years ago, showed up fat and stupid, and then ended up busted on a gun charge at a night club?

Is that like "I wouldn't touch her with a 10-foot Hungarian"? Or "Their opinions are Czechs apart". Or "Byrd flew over the North Bulgarian". Jesus, learn how to spell. It's really not that difficult.

Speaking for those of us who 1) Can't attend, and; 2) HAVE several of those annoying conference calls lined up today, and; 3) Have been waiting for what seems like years for this day; THANK YOU!

Didn't Parrish break his wrist in training camp, and Donohoe couldn't bring himself to stating that it was actually a break? I could be thinking of someone else, but I remember thinking that it something to do with the durability of the University of Miami players (Everett and Parrish both went out that year). I could be wrong.

"Untracked". As in...."Team X really has to get untracked or they're going to be finished by the third quarter". The expression is "On Track". Like....when a train derails, it can't move very far, or very fast. When the train gets back "on track", the flange on the inner wall of the wheels lines up with the rails, and the train can go forward and backward. To be "untracked" is a bastardization of the expression "derailed". I can't, for the life of me, understand why television sports announcers can't fuggin' figure this out. Dick Enberg used to be the worst offender, and might still be. I don't know, because I usually have to hit the mute when I see him, or else I'll end up throwing it at the TV (again). Jesus, what a goddamn idiot.

Neither of us can state with certainty what the offense was supposed to be doing at any given point. We aren't on the sidelines, and last year's play calling carried with it an element of randomity that bordered on F'ed-uppedness. Not all of it related to the play of the quarterback, whether it be J.P. Losman or Trent Edwards. In general, a quick release assists an offense by (a) keeping a quarterback's bones in one piece, and (b) wearing down pass-rushing defensive ends. Dan Marino, dick that he is, was notorious for frustrating all DEs - including Bruce Smith. How will it help Edwards? If the line keeps pass-blocking as well as it did last year, and if he's actually allowed to audible, you might see (a) a higher completion percentage as the primary receiver on any given set could now change at the line, and (b) a greater tendency for the team to actually be able to hold on to a lead at the end of the game by dint of the fact that the opposing pass rush might be lacking the "high gear" in the fourth quarter. Time will tell. Maybe he'll suck.

I can't speak for "everyone", and I can't say that my views are entirely "objective", in that I've never had the time, energy, interest or capability to sit down and watch endless tapes on Trent Edwards' performance last year. Given these provisos, however, the primary strength I could discern in Edwards' technique is his quick release. This is particularly true when compared to Losman, who, while not exactly Bledsoesque, did have a tendency to hold the ball too long behind a suspect offensive line while waiting for the double-team on Evans to turn into a triple-team. I can't tell you whether Edwards has a natural instinct to get rid of the ball in a New York Minute, or whether the play called for it, or whether he was running around out there like a bug on crack. The ball DID seem to get out a lot faster. Related to that point, it seemed that he had the presence of mind to throw the ball away (sidelines, back of the end zone) rather than take a sack, or thread a needle that wasn't there. Again, these are not "objective". I'm not an ex-coach or X-and-O geek. I'm stating these as a fan of the game who watches the game through goggles that get increasingly fogged by Molson by the fourth quarter.

No. That's crap, and I'm calling you on it. Enough of this! Riddle me this, Batman - where's Asante Samuel playing today? Even if he wasn't a first-round pick (and I have better things to do with my time than to figure it out), he was a franchise-level player, and he was playing for a team with.....oh.....$5.00 extra dollars in their savings account that COULD have spent that $5.00 on his paltry salary demands. Look, a top-flight player in today's league is going to laser-lock on the "cha-ching", and I can't blame them. And it doesn't matter whether you're playing for a "farm team", or whether you're playing for the World Chumps*. Stop whipping the front office for mistakes that aren't mistakes. This same thread exists on 31 other bulletin boards. Enough.

You got me thinking: James Corner Cox Yobouty Wilson Wendling Who else? I know there are others, but I'm working off an Air Card and the damn thing's too slow to dig around on the internet. That IS quality depth. I'm not meaning to stir your ire with this post, Bill in NYC, but all excluding Corner and Cox have SOME playing time, and Corner was a 4th rounder. I think the secondary is going to make itself known in the league by the second half of the season (assuming they don't get torched in the first half). You're right, KO, Tom Brady probably isn't shaking in his boots at this point. Talk to me sometime in the week before the season finale..........

I acknowledge that: 1) This is the time of year when there's NOTHING to subtantiate ANYTHING 2) This is the time of year when I get sucked into this team....Jesus, over-and-over-and-over.... 3) No one with the IQ higher than sheeps dags should give a rats hairy ass about these rankings This having been said, I'm starting to like this secondary. A lot. There's going to be a boatload of heat on McLovin' to perform to the level at which he was drafted, but you have to look at: Whitner Simpson (coming off injury, I know) McGee McLovin' Are you serious? Step into the wayback machine, set the destinometer to 2005, and tell me you wouldn't have given up a couple of body parts to get that line up. These guys start playing on the same page and that's going to be a tough nut for any quarterback.

Who do I BELIEVE will be the most pleasant surprise, or who do I HOPE will be the most pleasant surprise? I HOPE the most pleasant surprise will be Turk Schoenert. (I apologize to all if I've misspelled his name.) Everything else is irrelevant.

Not worth contemplating.

While it's difficult to nail an entire season down to a single joint in a single player, you're right to a significant degree. If that B-mofo is healthy, good heavens, it changes the entire equation. By the way, the offseason bites the big green weenie.

There's a reason for the dearth of worthwhile posts during the offseason. There's nothing worth discussing. Trust me on something. Once things get rolling in about 5 weeks, no will talk about this offseason. They won't talk about it in the future. They won't talk about it in the present. They won't talk about it in past imperfect. It just won't be talked about at all.

For what it's worth, being from Rochester DOES count for something! My family was one of the original settlers in the area, going back to 1804. That's right - 1804. We once owned the land that is now Inspiration Point, and Bay Road (in a prior iteration) was named for a branch of my family. And I'm damn proud of it. I've traveled the entire world, and have filled three passports. I've moved from New York to SoCal, to New Jersey, to Michigan, to Massachusetts, to Rhode Island, to Salt Lake City and have finally been blessed to move back to upstate New York. For less money. By choice. By choice. Because it was time to give my kids what I had - a great upbringing, a great school district, a cottage on the lake, and the roll-your-sleeves-up mindset that is lacking in the nanoscopic crania found in folks in OC, SF, Tri-State Metro and friggin' every other place I've lived. Thomas Wolfe was an idiot. An inbred. A cretin. The crudescence that I scrape from my shoes. Perhaps the lowest form of life. Because you CAN go home again. F. U. Let me say that again. F.U. Thomas Wolfe. I can, and have, come home again. And I have no patience for the whiners on this board that say they can't. And as has been stated by another poster, thanks for starting this topic. This is something I've been meaning to say for a long time.

In reality, of course, there's no 14-year-old that writes like that. That having been said....well, kid, it's best that you learn these lessons earlier than later. The Bills ARE supposed to win. And they will. Keep feeding the dream, because it beats the alternative. Mr. Spaceman - The Byrds

Look, I don't want to lecture you, yoonyour, but.....think about it. You're contributing ideas in a forum that is based on the written word. It's not based on oral presentation, or on photographs, or on music. It's based on the written word. If you're going to come into a restaurant and slobber all over the table, you're going to have people look at you a little funny. If you're going to ride in an elevator and fart, you're going to have people that will criticize you. If you're going to come to a message board and display your ignorance of your mother tongue (I know, that's a big assumption on my part), you're going to have people bust your stones. Put a little thought into it. It's not that hard. Go read some Hemingway - you'll learn how to write in short, sharp sentences. And you might grow a little bit while you're at it. My recommendation is "In Our Time", a collection of short stories from early in his career. "Big Two-Hearted River I & II" is one of my favorites. Try it.