record this year.......

[Spikes16]

Here we go again, the Bills will tickle us with decent play just to let us down later in the year. Just like last year. They will keep it interesting just to choke like they did against the ninth stringers vs. Pittsburg last season. This crap pisses me off. We have no shot at the playoffs so put the kid in. Even if we do slide in due to the crappy AFC east, where the hell are we gonna go? I like winning the games also but I am just as concerned about the future and where we go next season. Go ahead, tear me apart, I fully expect it.

[Mark VI]

Does anyone have any spare Lexapro ? Little help ..

[Ramius]

Here we go again, the Bills will tickle us with decent play just to let us down later in the year.  Just like last year. They will keep it interesting just to choke like they did against the ninth stringers vs. Pittsburg last season. This crap pisses me off. We have no shot at the playoffs so put the kid in. Even if we do slide in due to the crappy AFC east, where the hell are we gonna go? I like winning the games also but I am just as concerned about the future and where we go next season. Go ahead, tear me apart, I fully expect it.

478610[/snapback]

 

Instructions to deal with your feelings...

 

1. Buy yourself a small rubber raft from your local sporting goods store

2. Proceed to the Power intakes parking area on the niagara river with said raft

3. Inflate raft

4. Set raft on river at bank

5. Place yourself and your DOOMED© thoughts in the raft

6. Push away from shore

7. Head approximately northwest on the river. Aim for the mist.

[Spikes16]

Instructions to deal with your feelings...

 

1. Buy yourself a small rubber raft from your local sporting goods store

2. Proceed to the Power intakes parking area on the niagara river with said raft

3. Inflate raft

4. Set raft on river at bank

5. Place yourself and your DOOMED© thoughts in the raft

6. Push away from shore

7. Head approximately northwest on the river. Aim for the mist.

478614[/snapback]

 

Now that I can do... TY

[Campy]

Here we go again, the Bills will tickle us with decent play just to let us down later in the year.  Just like last year. They will keep it interesting just to choke like they did against the ninth stringers vs. Pittsburg last season. This crap pisses me off. We have no shot at the playoffs so put the kid in. Even if we do slide in due to the crappy AFC east, where the hell are we gonna go? I like winning the games also but I am just as concerned about the future and where we go next season. Go ahead, tear me apart, I fully expect it.

478610[/snapback]

I agree. How dare they let us down again. After all of the blood sweat and work throughout camp logging on the internet to see how things are going in Pitsford, and THIS is how they thank us.

 

Why don't they think about the future? Oh, I know. It's because Ralph will die and the team will move. It's a joke and they're out to screw us real fans. Why don't they care what happens to this team? It's like TD and MM and the rest of them don't even want to win.

 

Why do we fans have to always go through this crap?

 

I'm sick of it, and I'm not going to take it anymore!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[/sarcasm]

[BB2004]

Here we go again, the Bills will tickle us with decent play just to let us down later in the year.  Just like last year. They will keep it interesting just to choke like they did against the ninth stringers vs. Pittsburg last season. This crap pisses me off. We have no shot at the playoffs so put the kid in. Even if we do slide in due to the crappy AFC east, where the hell are we gonna go? I like winning the games also but I am just as concerned about the future and where we go next season. Go ahead, tear me apart, I fully expect it.

478610[/snapback]

 

 

I think you've encouraged others to tear you apart. Eventually, no matter what happens we all want different things this season. The NFL is a win now league. There aren't 162 games like there is in Major League Baseball, or 82 games like there are in the National Basketball Association. There are 16 games and hopefully a handful more if you make it to the playoffs. The offseasons are quite long, especially if you're into football. So what the coaches are doing at this point is something that we have to accept. So far it has been positive.

[Dr. Fong]

I understand where you're coming from with this. It's almost as if you'd rather they just go 3-13 instead of 7-9 or 8-8 and just miss the playoffs again. I know that's not the "proper fan" way to look at things, but sometimes it's the way I feel. I don't know what this team needs to get over the hump, but I really wish they could figure it out and get there already.

[Navy Chief Navy Pride]

I agree.  How dare they let us down again.  After all of the blood sweat and work throughout camp logging on the internet to see how things are going in Pitsford, and THIS is how they thank us. 

 

Why don't they think about the future?  Oh, I know.  It's because Ralph will die and the team will move.  It's a joke and they're out to screw us real fans.  Why don't they care what happens to this team?  It's like TD and MM and the rest of them don't even want to win. 

 

Why do we fans have to always go through this crap?   

 

I'm sick of it, and I'm not going to take it anymore!    

[/sarcasm]

478620[/snapback]

 

 

Save some emotiocons for the rest of us already

[Spikes16]

I understand where you're coming from with this.  It's almost as if you'd rather they just go 3-13 instead of 7-9 or 8-8 and just miss the playoffs again.  I know that's not the "proper fan" way to look at things, but sometimes it's the way I feel.  I don't know what this team needs to get over the hump, but I really wish they could figure it out and get there already.

478628[/snapback]

 

Thank you.. I dont like to feel this way about my team but I am sick and tired of looking forward to next season. Because that is all we have. Yea, Kelly will win some games, I like him, but come on. You "rose colored glasses" repliers know exactly what I mean and you know I am right. Just keep settling for the TD way. Buy your tickets and enjoy the winning streak vs. crap teams. Talk to me when we beat NE ,.....That will be a joke.

[Chilly]

you know I am right

478652[/snapback]

 

When you have to rely on "You know I am right", the argument has been lost.

 

[meazza]

Here we go again, the Bills will tickle us with decent play just to let us down later in the year.  Just like last year. They will keep it interesting just to choke like they did against the ninth stringers vs. Pittsburg last season. This crap pisses me off. We have no shot at the playoffs so put the kid in. Even if we do slide in due to the crappy AFC east, where the hell are we gonna go? I like winning the games also but I am just as concerned about the future and where we go next season. Go ahead, tear me apart, I fully expect it.

478610[/snapback]

 

 

ive come to the conclusion that you can never really build a team... its just not possible.. every year with free agency and such players move around... do you remember the first year bledsoe was in buffalo we were claiming how all we needed was to go get some guys on defence and we would be dominant and then we went and get that defence and we lost some of our offence and so on... basically you have to win now with what you have.. rebuilding is bull sh-- look at the cardinals the browns and other teams

we may have beaten 2 crappy teams in the dolphins and jets but u never know what will happen

[Stussy109]

The past is history, the future a mystery, so why not enjoy the PRESENT?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Questions about the past and general approach seem to me to be a question of what should have been done differently (which fairly quickly devolves into a woulda/coulda/shoulda discussion which can be fun for a short time- if only we had drafted Tra Thomas/Tim Dwight instead of trading for RJ-) or simple mindless complaining (WE'RE DOOMED) which strikes me as no fun at all.

 

If you see some other realistic alternative to these paths I'm all eyes.

 

As far as what coul have been done differently, I look at it this way:

 

1. In essence winning the game is about running and stopping the run, we would have profited from a better focus on the OL and DL but this did not happen and it is why we are paying now.

 

2. The Bills braintrust can be correctly faulted for poor execution on the OL but I think folks are wrong when they claim that TD does not recognize the import of the OL to the team's fate. Every year he has been here they have used at least one oftheir 7 picks on an OL player and often/usually taken one on the first day; Of these picks none have become the new Tony Boselli but they have tried:

 

2001- They selected Jennings on the first day of the draft and he did provide the Bills with a starter at LT who was good enough to get a huge $ contract (actually too huge to make him logical to rsign given his history of injury) so overall this was an intelligent choice for whom it is difficult to find fault with the braintrust for selecting. Marques Sullivan was selected on the second day and was good enough to start for the Bills though in the big picture he simply was not a good enough player, I'd judge JJ as a B grade choice and though the Sullivan pick is an indicator of their effort he is a C- or D choice at best.

 

2002- Again the Bills devoted 2 picks to the OL (I think it is really hard for one to claim that the Bills have not at least tried to make this work and there simply is a difference between trying and failing or foolishly ignoring this issue as Butler seemed to do sometimes. By picking Mike Williams as the 4th pick overall, the Bills clearly indicated that they viewed OL improvement as a key for this team. I think that MW can be judged as being a big disappointment in his career so far with his recent injury being the latest bad real world outcome. However, I think it is incorrect to accurse the Bills of bad assessment here as the two reasonable choices for this pick were MW and McKinnie and of these two disappointing players they picked the better of the two. The better performer in the first round was the guy picked at LT in the 20s (Levi Jones I think) but this is total woulda/coulda/shoulda as I think there was a pretty clear concensus of McKinnie and MW being the class of the LTs. The MW pick did not work out which makes it a bad pick but it was not an unreasonable one for them to make without hindsight. The second day pick of Pucillo once again emphasizes the import the Bills put on OL and they did get some poor performance out of him as a starter, but the fact he ended up getting benched and cut after starting makes him a D at best. The final verdict is still out on MW but he looks like a C in terns of results.

 

2003- Sobieski was the only OL pick that year and given the success the O had in 2002 focusing elsewhere and trying to make the significant early investments already on the team payoff was not an unreasonable strategy. Even still the team attempted to build the OL from this position of perceived strength by using a pick on Sobieski who was judged one of the most talented prospects around who had some problems with the injury bug. I think if you asked TD about 2003 he would have labeled this a speculative draft whose future success would be dictated by how the docs felt things worked out as much as anything. WMs hard work and good fortune make the braintrusts work here a success, but I think that they viewed Sobieski as also having the same context but it has not worked out.

 

2004- McFarland was the choice and though he did some PT as a rookie he has to be judged an F as he got cut. Still even in this context his pick and cut is a sign of how things have changed under JMac as the Bills are even more active in the FA market than under the biggest mistake the braintrust made with the OL which is hiring GW who was allowed by the passive-aggressive management style of TD to hire first his buddy Vinky and then the under-experienced Ruel to coach the OL. the fact this happened under the failed Sheppard and then Kevin Killdrive as OC also points to the prime OL development GM failing of TD.

 

he simply pick a not-ready-for-primetime guy as HC and the meltdown at OL is where this failure has been apparent.

 

2005- Again saw he Bills devote 2 picks to OL development as Duke Preston looks like a winning pick and late pick Geisinger is too early to tell but may be on the McFarland track.

 

Still overall it does not correspond with reality to claim the Bills have not focused properly in terms of OL development. It is a an appropriate priority for them. There is a hindsight assessment that their work has not suceeded, but this is all 20/20 and the accusation that they have not devoted a lot or appropriate resources to the OL is simply wrong. One can make the woulda/coulda argument their picks did not work, but given that the choices they made were reasonable ones (the failed MW over the failed McKinnie) I think it reduces harping against their choices to whining.

 

 

3. On the DL side of the ball I think there are two factors at work here:

 

A. We Bills fans are spoiled as we judge and expect all DL players to meet the Bruce Smith level of achievement. its not surprising that all DL players are judged as having failed at this level of success. The actual more realistic standard of achievement is probably more the Phil Hansen or Jim Jeffcoat level. By the Bruce standard Schobel is a failure. by the Hansen/Jeffcoat standard Schobel has work to do and longevity is the big X factor but clearly he is on track for his career being judged a success.

 

B. The big error here though from the braintrust was switching to a 4-3 from a 3-4 at the exact same time we were in the process of losing Big Ted and Bruce to the cap, losing Wiley to FA and Hansen to retuirement. The zone blitz is a good move because we simply do not have the horses on DL even after some good drafting produced Schoble, Denney and Kelsay and excellet FA work got Adams.

 

This is a team which probably would be doing better stopping the run if in the woulds/coulds/shoulda past we had stuck with the 3-4 and built around what turned out to be one of the best LB corps in the NFL but hindsight is 20/20.

 

The over-focus has instead been on the QB issue, but to me this is mostly about marketing and not about winning. Its hard to pick QBs as it is hard to pick any good players, but though I totally disblieve TD when he said good kickers are a dime a dozen and this is not true of any position, it probably is more true for QB than most positions.

 

Despite the QB shortage, the fact remains that is has been iminently possible to find great QBs capable of winning the SB in the 6th round of the draft (Brady), from the cut reject pile (Johnson, Dilfer), from K-Mart (whathisname with St. Louis) and in fact virtually anywhere except the first round of the draft since the last QB to deliver an SB win to a team that selected him in the first was Dallas choosing Aikman in 1989.