BobChalmers

Thanks for grading your own post at the end and saving us the trouble.

Sure heard a lot of that same comment about a certain Von Miller who is on his way to defensive RoY honors.

True - but few teams lose this many. 19 or 20 on IR is nuts. This year has been especially painful in WHO has gone down. Our one pro-bowler from last year. Our only 1-st rounder on the starting offense, and now our league MVP candidate (well - runner-up candidate, since Rodgers is a lock). Moreover - how much depth can you have for your 1st round center or pro-bowl NT? You can only start one guy at each spot - you really don't want to spend resources stocking up on depth there. And WE HAD quality depth at OLT as it turned out - and then our backup went down too. At least neither of them was done for the season. I've argued the Bills' collapse began with Bell and Hairston going down - which led the Bills to make the decision to play Levitre out of position too. At least he'll finally be back at LG starting today - after what - five weeks?

Evans was done already. Less than a 1000 yards in his previous two seasons COMBINED. He has gone on to do even less. YES, we need a better #1 WR - like a Lee Evans IN HIS PRIME maybe, not the real Lee Evans of 2011. Getting a 4th for him was a steal - you have to be trying really hard to hate on Nix to convince yourself of anything else.

Correct. I think our OL (when healthy) has been amazing this year, and they've been covering for the weakness in the WR corps. Gailey and Nix were probably counting on Easely stepping up. When he finally played some in preseason you could see why they were excited about him. He's a difference-making athlete. Stevie is a good receiver - as is Nelson - and they have some size to create matchup problems, but not the speed to get consistent seperation. Evans 5 years ago would be a big help. Moulds in his prime would work too. I think WR is right up there with OLB for team needs. The cool thing is, those two spots might be the only BIG needs. Big improvement from years past.

Oh - I don't think Sanchez is any good, but I'd take him over all the Dolphins QB's combined.

Lots of teams don't have a shut-down corner. None have a pass-rush as bad as the Bills. NONE. QB's have all day to find the open guy against the Bills. The 10 sacks was obviously an abberaiton against a truly horrible Redskins offense. Without that game the Bills would be on track for a league record in inept pass-rushing. Losing Williams and Merriman (and yes, even Kelsay) hurts a lot - but obviously they needed more answers even with those guys. You can say Merriman was a shell of his former self - but look back at those early games - even when he wasn't getting the sack, he was getting pressure, often against double-teaming. That pressure was cutting down the time QB's had to expose the Bills DB's - helping lead to all those (NFL - leading) interceptions. If OLB isn't the first priority for next year there's a real problem in the front office. As for offense, they need a real athlete at WR - the guy Easely was supposed to be. That and they need to not get incredibly unlucky yet again keeping the OL healthy. No team can look good on offese w/o a first OR second string OLT able to play. Losing Wood on top of that is just ridiculous.

Ware sack at start was 100% Fitz's fault - he needs to see that and audible an extra blocker (Fred/Chandler, etc) over to the left. That Bills have scored as well as they have to this point with these mediocre WR's is proof Gailey is at least a great Offensive Coordinator. Stevie would be a great #2 - he's a mediocre #1. They have no WR's with speed - they were counting on Easely being that guy and he's on IR again. Bills have no pass-rushers - they were counting on Merriman and Williams and they are both on IR. Season's not over - but losing the most talented players on offense and defense for the year (Wood and Williams) is not a good sign. Note also - they were doing fine until BOTH Bell and Hairston went out - forcing Levitre - who was on his way to a Pro Bowl - to play out of poistion. Losing one OLT happens. Losing the starter AND the backup is just crappy luck. I'd add that the OL's excellent play when healthy has also been covering the deficiencies at WR. If Urbik plays well and Hairston and/or Bell get back SOON they might well recover and win as many as 10. @Jets and @Pats is tough without Wood and Williams though.

No question - Jones is the most overrated player on the team by the Bills staff. No clue what they see in him.

I think they will win 5, but I don't think 10-6 will do it this year, unfortunately. The AFC North swept the AFC East this year, and it shows in the results - they have 3 6-win teams, we have 3 5-win teams, each of which lost the head-to-head against one of the North teams. IF we can pass the Jets, we'll still need one of Bengals/Steelers/Ravens to lose 5 of 8. It could happen, but it's not likely. The Bills probably need to go on a run and win 6 more - it's conceivable with their schedule, but not easy.

Especially since there's no real indication - on gamedays, anyway - that Donald Jones is really any kind of difference maker as an NFL WR. I'm no UB homer, but Roosevelt shows me more from what I've seen - and David Nelson is clearly a more effective WR. Jones may have more speed than Nelson, but it's pretty obvious he doesn't have more speed than a decent NFL corner - so what exactly does he bring to the table that's better than Nelson's size and hands? Better than Roosevelt's hands and shiftyness in traffic?

I can't agree with that. Given that they play each other twice this month - if they split it doesn't matter who wins which game, and based on a split, we wouldn't be any closer to knowing which team is going forward, obviously. This week is a stage-setter. The Bills might have more pressure/expectation as the home team, but then again, the Jets are coming off the bye which is their own advantage. The NEXT game at the end of the month becomes an absolute must-win for whoever loses this week - that is pretty much a lock. If either team (but especially the Jets) gets swept in these two games, they are pretty much toast. The Buffalo Bill(Cody)s' two dominating wins were against the Chiefs and Redskins. It's pretty clearly a racial/cultural domination thing.

I spent much of the day listening to 980AM in nearby D.C. because I am totally amused by the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's made doubly wonderful since they got the coach (Shanahan) the Bills tried to get but thought was too good for our team. It's double that joy because the 'Skins fans are so inappropriately overconfident in their team. They have barely been better than the Bills over the last decade, but for some reason, every year, they assume they are a playoff team.

500M+ refers to the word "most" you used. There are over 1B Christians in the world. You didn't say fraction the first time - you said "most" => so I translated for you (>500M) to illustrate the absurdity of your claim. Your speaking for them was odd at a minimum, and to be upfront - more than a little arrogant. I'm not a big public prayer guy myself - but it's flat out disturbing how freaked out so many want to be about it. There are lots of NFL players who do some sort of prayer as their TD celebration, etc. and have been for decades. Why all sudden is it necessary to mock this behavior? I'm thinking it has more to do with the attitude of the people doing the mocking than the players who are doing the same praying they always have.

Your "hunch" is, by defintion, ignorant. Why you would choose to insult over 500 Million+ people you have never met by demonstrating your ignorance of them is a mystery to say the least.

Yes, they are tied. That's why it's called a tie-breaker.

I have generally regarded Aikman as the best color-man in the NFL. I changed my mind last night. He was brutally awful yesterday. I didn't see it as biased - he just sounded like he was drunk - or maybe re-concussed somehow. Twice he repeated the same exact comment his play-by-play guy had made - not to reinforce it - but as if he didn't realize he was repeating it. In fairness to the bizarre sounding "struggling team" comment - I think later he clarified it to the Bills defense he was referring to - and that certainly is fair. The Redskins were having offensive troubles, and from their perspective, had every reason to think the team with the 30th run and 30th pass defense would be chance to get their offense back on track. I really do wonder about Aikman's sobriety - there was some reference to his partying in Toronto over the weekend. In the end - if we want national media types to know who the heck the Bills are and what they are doing - they need to win and they need to make the playoffs. Hopefully we're getting there.

They were talented and large but ridiculously inexperienced. They've finally had some time to play and learn. OLimemen need time to mature - and being badly injured as Wood and Bell were didn't help. Those of us who were preaching patience last year aren't all that surprised.

Agreed. What happened the last time we played a red, gold, and white team named after native americans...? The Bills already destroyed the Chiefs - time to pwn the D.C. Squaws! ...Oh, that AND, the Redskins are a horrible team - although I am a little jealous of their rookie OLB Kerrigan.

Because it's clearly the biggest need on the team?? What would be a greater need?

YUCK Levitre's been kicking butt as a LG, and both Bell and Hairston were doing very well at OLT. You really think Rheinhart >> Bell/Hairston?? Bell and Hairston both out means Bills are worse at two positions now.

All reports I've seen say Bell will be back well before Hairston.

2nd easiest. Fish are fighting the Colts for the rights to Andrew Luck.

No way OLT is that high a need. Before Bell went out Bills had given up what - 3 sacks? Time to stop bashing them. The OL is one of the main reasons the team is where it is this year. P6 OLB is P1 - was a glaring need last year and still is - just not _as_ bad. WR "Feature" is P2 When Stevie is our #2 and Nelson and Roosevelt are the extras in the slot we will have a WR corps to fear. We have some good guys, but Stevie Johnson is no Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, or Larry Fitzgerald. QB is P3 I'll give you DE is still a need of sorts. P3 on that too CB P4

This. Rodgers would have to take a step back for Freddy to have a realistic chance, but he certainly should be among the finalists at this point.