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I agree with most of your observations. We should have had that game yesterday. We were simply flat.

Over and over again we hear from the FO on how we need a TE who can block. I humbly submit that it's easier to find a pass catching TE and teach him to block than to find a TE who can block and teach him to catch. TE simply hasn't been a priority for the FO the last few years and it shows...Sure wish we had Courtney Anderson now... C

Lynch might be bigger, stronger and more talented. He also gives is all. But Fred Jackson for whatever reason hits the holes cleaner & gains more yards. I don't know why. Maybe he just fits the blocking scheme better. Regardless I'm glad the staff used him more yesterday. C

Too bad our D was on the bench sipping Gatorade and looking at the scoreboard...Maybe if they tackled and took their heads out their a**es we'd be at 6-0 - just like the Titans... I'm an Edwards guy - NOW - but c'mon for a Defensive leader to come out and say that...That's just scapegoating...

Per CNN http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/...ex.html?eref=T1 Holy Cr*p...This is way cool.

As good as Ryan was - I thought the real superstar in the game yesterday was Roddy White. He caught everything thrown his way. C

After playing us, he might feel like he can play 10 more seasons...

I agree. This game wasn't about turnovers. At least not to any appreciable degree. The D was where it all began and started. Oh, the offense didn't help - but AZ was slanting us to death on the short and middle stuff. WTF? Except for that vicious hit on Warner by Mitchell, there was just no, "Let's Get After Them." It's like they were neutered or something...Maybe they were afraid to give up the big play - But when your CBs are 10 yards off the receiver - that's just silly. Fitzg. needs to be jammed at the line ala Owens. To his credit - Greer was doing that occasionally. But he lost the size advantage. Also our safeties were not as intimidating back there as they normally are. I don't know, it seems we lost this game shortly after Edwards went down. I just can't believe that with guys like Stroud, Poz, Whitner and Mitchell - they didn't get their tails up and say no more TDs for AZ. They just didn't make Warner do something different...BTW, that's about as good as I've ever seen Warner play. Holy cr8p, he looked All World out there.... C

I want to be fair in this discussion. Like all teams we have strong points and weak points. But to some degree we have been living on borrowed time on the offensive side of the ball. You can't sleep walk for 3 quarters and "believe" you'll pull it out in the 4th quarter. To a large extent, that's on the O line. I think they have been atrocious this year in their ability to run block. That left side should be annihilating defenses. Our middle is so damn soft. Fowler keeps being blown back and the other two guards overcompensate. Lynch has to gain yards mostly by himself when he goes up the middle. The way the line plays now, Jackson is the better RB for this team. He as an ability to be slippery and making his "footprint" small. Also having a pass rusher come at your QB unblocked is just plain inexcusable. A back should at least be chipping him. I have no idea why our blocking scheme didn't pick up the safety. Most of our ills this year are either directly or indirectly a result of Oline play. I don't even want to get into the whole Jason Peters thing - though I think he had a relatively good game yesterday. Only yesterday did I see how much having Edwards back there helped compensate for our shortcomings. I thought JP played well - but he is too excitable and overly emotional to calm a team down when their backs are against the wall. Finally, our receivers seem incapable of making themselves available as targets when the chips are down. I like Josh Reed's play this season in that respect - but Hardy's development had better accelerate. I don't know why Steve Johnson isn't on the field. He has great hands. Maybe his route running is suspect. I think our run offense is great when we have some good blocking. Our WRs can make plays when the QB has more than 2.5 seconds to make a throw. Our TEs just make up the numbers. I had high hopes for Schouman but he has been hopeless so far. Royal is just a locker room lawyer. He's not Witten. Not even close. As for the defense, pass rush has been a problem all along this year, but it was mitigated by us playing impotent offenses for the most part. Not getting to the quarterback is gonna hurt us unless Schobel steps us consistently. Stroud is double teamed all the time, so I have no idea what Schobel's excuse is. He was being owned by Gandy yesterday for Cr**sake. I have belief in Jauron, Schonert and Fewell - but somebody had better light a fire under both of our lines. There's too much talent there for them to be mediocre. Thank God for our kicking game. It always is gonna give us a chance. I also want to see more Youbouty than McKelvin in the secondary. Dude's a player. We have a good history of fixing stuff during the bye, hopefully that holds true for us again. Sure we're 4-1 but the next 5 games are so are gonna be brutal. And in our conference... C

Live here in NashVegas. I think the T**s are a more consistent team. Having said that - if they fall behind say by 14pts, they'd be hard pressed to have to come back. So the secret to beating them is to jump ahead and play keep away. But with that D that's awfully hard to do. C

I don't mind Hardy dropping and missing passes. I have a problem with him playing "soft" - He hasn't shown the ability to be aggressive for the ball. It's weird. That has nothing to do with route running and inexperience. It's attitude. So far he hasn't been bringing it... The guy looks like a monster but doesn't play like one...Jenkins at least is aggressive.

Yep. he consulted with them about hiring Linnehan and overseeing last years draft. I'll see if I can find that piece. C

I think Trent likes Kara...

That Marv is a wiley one...I also love what Modrak has done for us so far. I'm OK with some of our top picks - but deep in the late rounds is where our scouting staff has shined. I really like Steve Johnson this year. But man they sure whiffed on Wright the RB... And someone mentioned earlier - good DTs are rare. So are good safeties. But a good DT will make an above average safety "look" great. C

Yeah, kinda like a QB from Stanford who got beaten up so bad it prepped him for a great NFL career ;-) I'm still scratching my head over that one... C

yes, yes I understand why they didn't pick him...My money would have been on Ngata. The guy is unblockable. I think we would have been a little ahead in our rebuild if we had gotten him. I like Whitner - now. Though I still remain to be convinced he was a legit top 10 pick. As for throwing turds on sh-- Mountain - you kidding me? Cutler played at Vanderbilt man...Any O-line even ours at the time, and he would have thought he had all day...Plus he has serious wheels and is tough as nails... I agree Donte was a safe pick - not a big risk - yet no big upside. And ultimately that might have been the call - let's not screw this up. Still I heard that Wilson loved Cutler - and if Levy loved him too - I am surprised they didn't pull the trigger. C

I think Whitner is developing well. But we had our choice of Ngata or Cutler. I would have traded down and picked Whitner - if I I was so hot on him. Or picked Ngata. But if this was a luxury pick - which it wasn't - I would have gotten Cutler. I work at Vandy. You could tell the kid was something special. Plus he's from Santa Claus, IND. You gotta love that. C

Like our team this year. But our O makes me nervous - still. We can't spot this team 7 possessions and expect to come out ahead. They have a killer running game. Our big guys on the O-line could wilt in the heat. Our WRs need to step up. Edwards needs to get the "cobwebs out" *before* the game. Or he's gonna be getting foggy during the game. I think our D is gonna be the difference maker. But our O can't lose it for us. Our O-line is huge and their Dline is fast and in better condition for that heat. That's an almost even match up. Special teams can kill them too - but they have to be in condition to beat the heat.

Yay

OK, but come on - can anyone say Costanzo (sp?) is a better player than Crowell? I'll bet dollars to donuts that he would have come back better than what he is/was. Plus the meat of our schedule doesn't start until week 6! I like Brandon - but they just cut their noses off to spite their face. Read the updated IR piece on buffalobills.com They guy was/is a team captain and was trying hard to get his knee better. Yeah, that reads a**hole in my book. C

It's all a matter of perspective. I think Crowell tried to go all through the off season with a bad knee and then felt it wasn't worth his entire career to not take care of it with a simple scope. A scope for Ch***sake. That's 4 weeks on the outside. I don't understand why the team put him on IR. This is just a pissing contest initiated by the front office. The guy up to this point has been a team player. Makes no sense whatsoever to end his season. If he kills his knee and ends his career - I'd be upset at myself, if I was him, to not take care of it with a simple procedure. The Merriman thing - that's a whole other ball of wax. He is one hit or a bad knife away from being done - for good. C

I have no idea what you mean by that last asterisked sentence - but as for why the kid needs space to write in the Buff News, because this is America...It's his constitutional right. He didn't say he was speaking for *all* Buffalo Bills fans - just for him and probably some others...I'm not really sure where you got "moral fiber etc. etc." He did say Lynch didn't take the moral high road...I for one agree. For a 15 year old, he seems pretty articulate to me. Not a perfectly written article - but hell if our posts here were held to that standard - this would be a very sparse board... C

Oh yeah, no validity at all for a kid to voice his disappointment about a role model. Nope he is the real idiot not the guy who actually hit someone and hid in his house for 3 weeks. Seems to me he has much right to have his article published in a public forum as much as folks who post here - Good Lord, you wonder why kids are disillusioned with adults and some of our hypocrisy. C

Scully, there's something out there... Mulder Must Have Been Gay

I don't know, John. I think we want to keep our athletic heroes up on a pedestal. And they always constantly fall short. I don't think Marshawn is a bad guy. But he was caught and obviously embarrassed. This has become a public spectacle. I think he got some sh*tty advice from his counsel. They were going for the "if we can get away with it" strategy. That's great for avoiding liability - but I think as for the public perception of his image - that has taken a beating. This whole thing could have been minimized if he just came out sooner with a similar statement. From the very beginning this was about CYA, as opposed to any motivation to preserve one's integrity. Can you imagine someone like Pozluszny pulling this schit? I think the moment he scores the winning TD on the field in a close game, all will be forgiven. But as far as our trust in Marshawn's moral compass, that's been ratcheted down more than a few notches... C