st pete gogolak

Dealer’s choice.

My “Mahones Ball Washing Thread” should NOT have been merged into a Mahones v. Brady thread. Totally different topics. Could care less about comparisons between the two. My thread concerned the MEDIA. Specifically how the talking heads judge QB greatness upon the rings to the exclusion of pretty much everything else and give QB’s credit for championships to the exclusion of pretty much anyone else.

Don’t get me wrong. I agree he is a great QB, but so many more factors go into winning a championship: HC, OC, decent OL and skill positions. Defense for God’s sakes. Just hate when commentators act like it’s Borg v. McEnroe.

Nope. Rings should not be sole criteria of greatness.

I enjoy Mike Greenberg and Get Up but yesterday and today they ran segments entitled “Does a Super Bowl Win Make Mahones an Immortal?”. The point being that no NFL player has won two MVP’s and three championships in his first seven seasons. Only players who have accomplished that are Bird, Russell, LaFluer, Musial, Mantle and DiMaggio (admittedly a pretty awesome list). This stuff drives me crazy. Football is the ultimate team game. It’s not tennis. It’s not golf. Heck, even in basketball one player has immeasurably more impact on the game than any one football player. Please tell me that Brady would have won 7 SB’s if Brady’s Colts had to beat Manning’s Patriots every year? And I give Brady enormous credit for (1) winning 4 rings after age 36 (just insane) and (2) winning a title with the Bucs. If the Bills had kept their draft pick and selected Mahones would he be going for his third ring this Sunday? Mahones is good. He is very good. But please, please stop measuring QB’s in a vacuum based solely on the number of rings that they have.

Legitimate question. How did we get here? What tremendous swings did we take to go “all in”? Miller, ok, that was a giant swing and a miss because of the injury. Diggs? He’s produced and has been paid accordingly. Am I missing something? The Rams went “all in” and won a Super Bowl. What did we get? The fuzzy end of the lollipop.

I lean towards evaporated instead of condensed. Depends on the recipe.

Does this mean there will be a screen pass to a RB? I’ll believe it when I see it.

Nobody’s dumb enough to actually do this.

As someone pointed out, the freaky thing is that Diggs’ 2023 was a duplicate of his 2022 season - great first half, disappeared in the second half and the playoffs. That fact doesn’t point to Diggs “aging out”. Is it injuries, coincidence, something else? Have no idea but 30 shouldn’t be the end of the road for an elite receiver.

Doesn’t this scream playing Taron full time at FS (assuming Williams is one of your 11 best D players)? It solves a lot of problems.

For some inane reason just finished watching highlights of 1998 Bills Dolphins playoff game. Is it legal to draft Eric Moulds a second time? Guy was such a beast.

Quick. Who was NE’s TE in Brady’s first three SB’s?

Our base D seemingly forever now has been a 4 - 2 - 5. If Dorian Williams makes the same jump between first and second year as Bernard (yeah, I know, BIG if), why not play some 4 - 3 - 4 to get Milano, Bernard and Williams on the field at the same time, simply as a change of pace? Better yet, if we move to 4 - 3 as our base D, it can solve some immediate problems on D without signing a bunch of FA’s or depending on rookies to start. Is there any reason Taron Johnson can’t be full time starting FS? Good tackler, ball hawk, veteran. Keep Poyer another year as SS. CB’s are Douglas and Benford. Elam can come in as nickel, maybe even play some press against slot or TE to take advantage of his supposed strengths. Milano, Bernard and Williams at LB with Spector giving some vet depth. Up front, Rousseau, Oliver, DQ (only FA signing) and Miller. Of course, still need to go heavy on D in draft (after going WR in #1). Find next year’s replacements for Poyer, Jones and Miller early and draft some CB’s late. Ideally, you’d like to find a starting DE to allow Miller to play third-down pass rushing specialist (maybe find a way to squeeze money for AJE). is it ideal? No. But I think it’s realistic given the cap constraints.

Did we fail to go after Haley because of Polish or because of Ralph? Damn autocorrect. Polian, not Polish.

Forget about the McDermott “insight”. Mistake on my part. As far as most embarrassing day in Bills history, several good suggestions but still say it has to be SB XXVII. On the biggest stage with most of America watching you fumble the ball EIGHT times, lose five, throw four interceptions, give up TWO defensive TD’s and lose 52 - 17, that is the most embarrassing day in Bills history. Case closed.

I agree with this 100%. I always wondered how those games would have turned out if you take Haley and Thomas Everett (another offseason Cowboy pickup) off the Cowboys and put them on the Bills. Have a hard time thinking any team would be able be beat a Bills team with Haley and Bruce Smith rushing the passer.

Giants - had a party at the house; Redskins - wife gave birth to our daughter during the game; Cowboys I - watched it alone; went for a bike ride the second half; Cowboys I I - went golfing.

The recent back and forth whether to move on from McDermott because he “can’t get us over the hump” takes me back to one game: Super Bowl XXVII against the Dallas Cowboys. The Bills had an up and down 1992 season, failing to win the division and losing Kelly to injury last game of the season. The playoffs, however, were memorable, starting with the Comeback against the Oilers, followed by impressive road wins against the Steelers with Reich again at QB, and the Dolphins, with Kelly back at QB. The Super Bowl, however, was a debacle and an embarrassment. No question Cowboys had a very strong team and frankly a better team. It shouldn’t have been a blowout. It’s interesting to look at stats and play-by-play from the game. Bills had more first downs and total yardage was relatively close. Final score - 52 - 17! Two key sequences. Down 14 - 7, Bills has second and goal from Dallas one. Two runs and an interception followed. Later, Bills down 21 - 7, Bills had first and goal inside the Dallas 5 and settled for a FG. That was pretty much all she wrote. The embarrassing part was that the Bills fumbled eight times and lost five and threw four interceptions, two each by Kelly and Reich. Nine turnovers in the biggest game of the year!!!! It’s hard to imagine a less well prepared team going into a big game. Levy was a good coach, not a great coach. It was clear after that game that he’d never lead the Bills to a SB win. Do you fire a coach who has led you to three straight SB’s? In hindsight, the answer is, yeah you probably do. Blow it up and let your GM start the rebuild. Instead we fire the GM and keep the coach. Does this give any insight to our present situation? I think yes. McDermott should be on the hot seat this year. Super Bowl or bust. If we don’t do in 2024, time to move on.

13 seconds infinitely worse. Why? Because the last 13 seconds - from the screw up on the kickoff to the ridiculous defensive alignments on the following two plays - raised the legitimate question whether this HC and this staff were capable of winning a Super Bowl. Jury is still out on that (unless the verdict has already been returned). The other thing. Immediately after 13 seconds, I was convinced we beat Bengals at home and beat Rams in SB. Do you really believe that now? I don’t. Cinci went into Arrowhead and won. That certainly had the capability to go into Highmark and win. Same thing this year. Yeah, Jackson stunk but Ravens D is legit. Close game but 50/50 whether we go on the road and beat the Ravens.

Let’s do better than 4 - 2 in the division and schedule won’t look too bad.

So even though our D has been statistically very good in the regular season the last four years, good offenses have blown us up in the playoffs each of the last four years. Is it players, schemes, injuries, or something else? Not sure but I lean toward scheme. I would love to see us imitate the Rams “Greatest Show on Turf” defense. It wasn’t particularly talented but it complimented a high powered offense by being super aggressive, causing a lot of turnovers and playing well with a lead. Do we have the personnel to blitz more, play more press coverage? Have no idea. Will Babich have the authority to remake the defense? I’m guessing no. We’re clearly going to pick a bunch of players on the defensive side in the upcoming draft so we’ll have a better idea about the direction of the defense at the end of April.

If Reid retires after the SB, would Spags or EB be in line for HC? Would Spags be po’d being passed over for a 30 something offensive guru?

Bingo! You can design special teams that actually disposes with special teamers. Every kickoff goes into the end zone (eminently doable); every punt goes OB or at least angled (this is where Azaria could come in - long punt but no hang time? Doesn’t matter if it is OB); kickoff returns? Always take the start on the 25.

Re “no stopping Mahomes two years ago”. Bengals D says hold my beer.