WhitewalkerInPhilly

I think this week sums up the difference between geno and ej knocks really well. geno has brighter flashes of greatness, but whe he's bad, he hurts the team more than ej when he's bad.

we need a more realistic trade. maybe mario for skelton /sarcasm/

i'm not going to say that brady is over...but so far this year, he's looking human. the pats have drawn a relatively easy opening few weeks, playing the dolphins and losing on the road, beating up on a vikings team with no answer at qb, and barely squeaking by oakland. it looks like it might be happening boys. brady's slide may have begun.

I was looking over an article Bucky brooks wrote at the start of preseason, about how the big nickel is becoming trendy as a way to match up against 2wr, 2 te, 1 rb formations, something i suspect to see a lot of with the chargers talented te's such as gates, and pretty good wr's and an injured starting rb. in it, he specifically mentions that aaron williams fits the mold well as a big, physical safety who still has coverage skills. this might be how we play it.

does anyone else think that we'll be seeing a lot of nickel out there on sunday while woodhead is tricky, i am far more worried about the passing attack. graham has been playing really well so far and i can see him used to cover gates, as graham is one of our bigger cb's probably with a. williams as support.

here' one stat i like...going into tonight's game, the bills rank 5th in points scored.

let's do a quick rundown on whaley's offseason moves this week. -byrd was part of a saints defense that has looked god awful. -corey graham had a beast of a day for the second week in a row. -dixon had a blocked punt -spikes helped shut down forte last week, and i believe he helped shut down miller fter moreno went out. -his first pick the one people, myself included, said he traded too much for had over 100 yards and a touchdown -preston brown had 12 tackles -randall johnson recovered the blocked punt -henderson, a 7th round pick rookie, outplayed a probowler -and my favorite, hughes was a constant presence and had a sack, while the man whaley traded him for couldn't crack the battered miami staring roster and is only noted for whiffing on cj's return. so far, well done whaley

this. even if it wasn't i wouldn't be sweating it after all of the non-calls on the false starts, them getting ticky tack with hughes when he moved, and two unsportsmanlike conduct on players on the sideline when the ref wasn't looking where he was going and ran into smith and when someone got upset on a non-called late hit.

it was pretty loud at my bar too but even then i kept noticing them constantly getting the downs wrong, and reported lee smith in when he was inactive. i would be surprised if they had a few mixed drinks of their own in hand.

... yeah, i was watching them do the pre-game. it's almost laughable how much they've written off the bills so far. i bet houston gets ranked over buffalo spite of them beating washington with rg3 playing and an oakland team playing a rookie 4th rounder because they have no better option.

i feel compelled to point out that their wins have come against washington with a dreadful looking griffin, and then against oakland. they then play the giants. they may be 3-0 when we meet them, but our schedule will have been undisputedly harder.

I'll admit, when we got to the 7th round my knowledge about him was nil. I honestly thought that he would get cut if he was like Da'Rick, or would be stashed on IR to let him grow a year. I didn't think that he would make the team, let alone start, let alone dominate one of the best pass rushers in the league. Plus, unlike Kujo, he has the quick feet to play LT if (god forbid) he has to. It was always a low risk, high reward pick, but it's nice to see one go so well.

Look, I'll say this in Sully's defense: When he is negative, he is often right. Behind a pessimist is a dissapointed optimist. I get the feeling that hi heart has been broken along with all of ours, and unlike us he doesn't have the luxury of looking away. In addition, read the article he wrote this morning. It was one of the most positive things I've seen him write.

i am a little worried, but last week was a trio of wr's that people were calling the best group in the league, and now we have gilmore back.

it sounds like the dolphins lb corps are as battered as we hoped.

I'll be packing up to head to McFadden's in Philly! We all line up at the door until they open and joke that we don't have a drinking problem, we have a football problem Go Bills! On a more analytic note, how do you think Hackett is going to deal with the 5-2 Miami seems intent on putting on the field? If they really are intent on putting 5 guys on the line with their LB group the way it is, I would love to see a lot of sweeps and quick routes in space to Watkins.

I do believe we play SD at home my friend. But yeah, I'm excited about this game, especially seeing what they could do against the Bears, the "sneaky Superbowl contenders, who will most certainly beat the Bills"

I try to keep it to more player/scheme reasons why the Bills would win. That said: 1) The Miami LB group took a big hits in injuries in the Patriots game. This is less evident in the pass first Pats, but when you have CJ, Freddy and Boobie slamming into you for four quarters, I expect the vaunted Dolphins run D to take a hit. 2) The Dolphins seem like a slightly weaker Bears. They have a decent, but inconsistent QB who uses better WR's to make up for it. (I would take the Bears' any day), a bruiser at RB (only less versatile than Matt Forte) and (with injuries) a decent but average O-line. If Schwartz can gameplan the Bears, he should be able to game plan the Phins. 3) The Miami rush, though looking tough, are going to have the same problem the Bears had, which is the Bills extremely deep and talented RB corps pounding the rock and as such are not going to be able to blitz as much. We saw what that allowed EJ last week. 4)....ok, this one is personal...but the Bills just won a huge upset on the road. They come back for their home opener, against their historic rival, and then the fan find out that Pegula is the solid lock on next owner. If the Ralph is not screaming for blood on Sunday, I'll be shocked.

Wow, there' a lot to catch up on here. I'm pretty sure that's the reason too. Never mind that the Bills were the biggest underdogs outside of the Jags, who lost by 17. The Power Rankings have been particularly disrespectful. You mean like the zone read plays that let EJ casually stroll into the end zone? Short answer? No. Longer answer? No, but they're not a bad as we would like. I think, like us, they've done a pretty good job rebuilding their team the past few years. I have a gut feeling (no evidence) that when Brady leaves, the Bills and Phins are going back to their old rivalry. Holy crap, I heard it was bad, but not that bad. Pouncy being gone must make Kyle lick his chops.

I would not underestimate Moreno. Or Miami. Or any team which has beaten the Patriots this year. That said, the Patriots run defense was abysmal last year, which wasn't helped by them putting Spikes on IR because the Hoodie had a hissy fit. Matt Forte is a hell of a running back, and I would venture to say that he's better than Spiller or Jackson on their own. With Spikes, Brown and Bradham in the lineup on Sunday...well, Moreno is a power back, so I would like to see Spikes maul the guy all day. I would say that with all of the WR threats the Bears had, Schwartz cooked up a "bend don't break" gameplan. Miami had good receivers, but I remember hearing in the offseason that the Bears WR corps had crowned themselves bet in the league, and the talking heads seemed to agree with them at the time. I'm not sure if I would trade them for Watkins, Woods and Williams right now.

So..I wonder if the ravens would be willing to give up some draft picks for a servicable rb.

but wait, i heard that ej is captain checkdown 2.0 and checkdowns are bad. i suppose when you're tom brady or geno smith and you do it, you're a genius.

I can see why they're depressed. Before the game, I read an article titled "Why the Buffalo Bills are a Must Win for Chicago". Mostly, it was ragging on us (haha!) but they do have a really brutal schedule after this playing Atlanta (who had their huge comeback), Carolina, and Green Bay and New England on the road. That Bears team was pretty talented, but that's a rough schedule. I'm kind of hoping they tear it up now so we don't get the "Man, that Bears team just was awful this year, no wonder the Bills beat them. Never mind that we pegged them as a Super Bowl contender, because the Bills could never do anything good ever." I've looked at other fanboards. I know for damn sure we have a better board than the Ravens, Pats, Phins and Bears. As much as we ride Beerball and the mods sometimes, they do a damn good job overall. ... Jesus Tapdancing Christ. Look, when Sully is negative you know that he knows something about the game, and you have a part in the back of your brain whispering "He has a point" which you try to shut out. You know that he's been heartbroken before with all of us. Rosenbloom lacks that. The only team he was more negative on than his own Bears was the Bills.

The man played well, no ifs ands or buts. Considering that he was brought in to ensure against the exact situation he was thrust into, which was a starter getting injured. I loved the pickup, it was good to see him doing well.

NO SUCH THING AS AN UGLY WIN!