NewHampshireBillsFan

I'll give Jauron one more chance, Monday night in Foxboro*. If he can't get his challenge flag out in time to get the official's attention, if his team says after the game we weren't expecting what NE* did to us, if the team makes no adjustments, if they don't go after Brady's head, if he says after the game that its hard to win in the NFL, then that will be it for Jauron. But I have some crazy optimism about that game that we will finally turn things around.

I think it is good to have that as the #1 goal for the year at least until after the game is played. No use thinking about the playoffs until we have gotten this NE* losing streak eliminated. I always hate how polite DJ is when talking about the cheater* and his* team*. Hopefully, behind the scenes DJ is really getting the Bills into fever pitch about beating the crooks*. If we can do that the playoffs won't seem so remote anymore.

On the major sports radio channel in Boston, WEEI, I got new insight into how the Belicheat* video scandal has progressed in the minds of Boston's major sports radio hosts. A caller dared compare Ramirez's steroid violation (which the hosts think he is getting off too easy on) to Belicheat*'s penalty. This resulted in audible outrage by all the hosts. One host, Pete Shepherd, stated that ALL NFL coaches have used illegal video recording of opponents but Belicheat* happened to get caught. The other 3 hosts (4 hosts on the afternoon big show) didn't all agree that ALL coaches have used illegal video taping but felt Belicheat* was guilty of only a MINOR rules violation, not cheating. On the other hand Ramirez, all agreed, violated the very integrity of baseball with a steroids violation. So thanks a lot Roger Goodell! You shrewdly set up a penalty for NE* that allows this whole region and the whole national sports media to dismiss the Belcheat* incident as just a MINOR violation. In this area it is not even allowable to bring up the topic on the sports radio. By the way the caller was "blasted" off the radio for even daring to bring up the topic. The attitude toward Belicheat* on the part of the media here is: My attitude is:

I think the Bills could win the game against the Patsies* with fair officiating. I don't think it is reasonable based on past experience to expect fair officiating against NE*. We would have to overcome both the Patsies* and the officials to win the game. That may be difficult. Even in the SB years the officiating was decent for the Bills in the playoffs but not in the SB's, especially the Skin's game and somewhat the Giants game. In summary, it would be a miracle if the game was officiated evenly on Monday night in NE*. Expecting it to happen is unrealistic.

Until you win, no one is willing to take a chance on saying that you might be better than the last few years. And player rankings reflect the team's standing in almost all cases. The Bills are ranked lower than they will actually do and teams like NE* are ranked higher than they will actually do, esp. with Brady coming back from injury, etc. Unless they find a new way to cheat, no way the Patsies* go to the SB this year. That is just ridiculous. The refs may give them a few games, including the opening Monday night game, but NE* is not that great any more in terms of talent.

Number one you can't go by what was seen in OTA's as a guide to anything. More reasonable is to look at game films from last year of actual games. For issues like backup QB I'm glad the Bills mgt. doesn't consider Murphy's ideas. Ryan is about the best type of backup QB the Bills are likely to get. You don't want someone looking over Trent's shoulders to start, for one thing. Look what that did to Losman when he was the starter. A so called "proven" QB is likely to want to have a chance to start and we don't need that.

I think the Bills were the best team in the league in 1980 and only some bad luck in playoff pairings and terrible officiating in SD for the playoff game, kept them from the SB. I remember the Bills totally destroying the Raiders in Orchard Park, beating them 24-7 and knocking Plunket out of the game. The Raiders went on to win the SB after the '80 season. I think Anderson was just nervous that preseason and some of the misses were long ones. He certainly sounded very upset when he was cut and made the point that he had always kicked well in practice, etc. It is too crazy to imagine a 7th round pick would purposely try to miss kicks to get on with another team. Of course Pittsburgh did sign him immediately to a long term deal right after the Bills released him and Pittsburgh then did release its own incumbent kicker. But with Joel Bell if the Bills saw decent potential they would keep him through training camp. Teams don't play some game of keeping a player for OTA, dropping them, and signing them later for the practice squad. I can't think of a single player the Bills have done that with.

I think its crazy how much we cry over Peters, considering he didn't even play that great last year. Its like we accept Peter's own self promo after we of all people should know how much he messed up last year. I'll go out on a limb, the 2009 Bills will play better on the OL with both pass and run blocking even with 5 new people at all the positions.

Nothing. At this point you pretty much have to ride things out. Too late for new coaches and you don't want to reach for a free agent just to do something, same with trades. I guess that is why new GM's are never hired at this point in the cycle.

Give the Bills credit. How many QB's have left the Bills to go on to star for other teams after Lamonica. I don't think JP will even do as well as Rob Johnson did in his post Bills era. Whether JP lands on another roster for awhile or not, I don't think he would do well enough for us to regret the Bills let him go. As far as coaching don't forget that Sam Wyche, a former HC, spent a huge amount of time with JP to try to teach him everything about being an NFL QB. Face it, JP is just not that bright and he tends to get an attitude that he is not getting a fair shake way to easily. No team wants a QB with those 2 qualities.

Its not uncommon for losing coaches to lose the players motivation. That hasn't happened with the Bills, to DJ's credit. He may not be a very good coach, but it makes no sense to suddenly try to be some tough guy with the players to prove to US that he can be tough.

The least problem the Bills have is with a potentially uncapped year or a new labor agreement. Buffalo is a small market team in a league of owners determined to maximize their investment. Sooner or later the way the NFL is going Buffalo will have a hard time even surviving as a team and already we are having trouble competing at a high level. The point is whats it to us what happens to the NFL next year regarding the CBA? Its not like any option looks that great for the Bills at this point. But that aside the odds are the NFL management is not going to allow this golden cow to deteriorate and will reach some agreement with the players union in time to prevent an uncapped year. The union also will have an incentive not to tick off the fans, especially in this tough economy. The damages of even one uncapped year can be significant. How do you get the genie back in the bottle? If some team suddenly has a payroll of $160 million how to you get it back to $120 million for the next year when a new agreement is reached.

OJ Simpson said many years ago when he was still with the team that the practices were pretty short in the latter part of the season because it was so cold that no one wanted to be out very long. That may not be an ideal situation, but it is clear that back in the day the Bills owned most teams in our stadium in the latter part of each season, not at all the case nowadays. I could see a mixture of indoor/outdoor practices as being the best. I don't see the point that DJ makes that it is better to practice indoors to be able to see exactly how the play should be run. If that play didn't work well in the cold or wind when practiced outside maybe it is the wrong kind of call for outside for that time of year! Esp. Trent better learn to throw well in wind like Ferguson and Kelly did in their days. Ferguson said that he knew he would have to learn to throw in those conditions in Buffalo because the weather was going to be that way. I never hear Trent talk that way or maybe I missed it when he did.

Its all good as far as the Bills are concerned. The only way the Bills can compete with wealthier franchises is if the rich teams make mistakes. There is no bigger risk of a mistake than in drafting a QB very high and then investing all the money and hopes in the young kid. I don't see this kid becoming a great cold weather QB and the Jets have other question marks which puts even more pressure on the rookie QB. Even if he ends up as a good QB it will take time and the Bills definitely have a chance to take two from the Jets this year. I'm not saying the Bills don't have ? marks as well, but just saying we have a chance to take 2.

Man, the NE* Patsies* sure are thankful we take losing with such ease and grace. Donahoe was always talking about how much he respected the cheaters* and DJ also follows suit. In the 70's at least everyone in Miami knew the Bills hated their guts and knew they would be in for 2 tough and brutal games each year. If we don't learn to stop being so polite to NE* we will NEVER win this division again. We need players of character that will go after Brady's head. Character means first and foremost that you will not allow your team and city to be humiliated by a bunch of cheaters*.

At least he has a smart agent there to do damage control. Still Vince Young will probably be out of the league within 3 to 4 years.

I think Levy had a lot of input in the draft when he was here. I mean Levy would have liked to have coached again and if he couldn't do that he certainly would have wanted to be heavily involved in personnel. Every time Levy was interviewed about the draft and free agent signings he made it seem like he was the decider. Remember how after he drafted Whitner he gave that long summary about how all the SB teams of the last several years had all pro SS's. The point is Levy came back to be involved and not a figurehead. He mentioned that the difference between the GM's job and HC was that his job as GM was now mostly in the off season for the draft and free agent signings. Of course Levy relied heavily on Modrak for serious understanding of how good various prospects were. I think DJ only got more input when Levy left since it left only Modrak and DJ who had serious football backgrounds. I hate to say it because I will always admire Levy, but he should bear any blame about the drafts he was involved in and not DJ.

Walker at 31 is totally ridiculous. Obviously the writer got way to swept up in the Peters trade and drama. McKelvin instead of McGee? Do you get the feeling these national writers know a LOT less than we do, at least about the Bills. I guess 32 teams is a lot to keep up with and the lower rated teams don't rate much time at all, I guess. Still, back when Larry Felser used to write the Sporting News column I think he had much more awareness of the AFC teams than national writers have nowadays.

New gameplan every time they played the Bills? What's the big deal with that. They* probably put a fresh tape in their videorecorder every time they played us as well.

One thing ironic about this in the field house versus outside discussion is that years ago before we got the field house the talk around town was that the Bills had a big disadvantage because elite teams had indoor practice facilities that allowed them to more precisely run plays, etc. The thinking then was that Ralph had to cough up the money (which he eventually did) to bring us up to the level of other teams that hand indoor facilities. Now we complain out team is a bunch of wimps (which they are somewhat) because they practice inside. Ralph must feel he can't win with fans.

This is a silly story for so many reasons as has been pointed out by many of the posters. One simple thing to add is the Rams and Bills would not play each other very often as they are not going to be in the same division. They are not even in the same conference and the NFL is not going to rearrange several divisions to get them in the same division. The NFL has let the Jets/Giants and SF/Oakland stay in separate conferences through several rearrangements of divisions over the last 40 years.

13-0 I watched as NE* beat the Bills in the heavy wind in RWS last December while Jackson ran for what, 136 yard, and Cassel did a better job of passing under the conditions than Edwards. Kelly or Ferguson would have been able to do something more even with that wind. I think: 1.) You should have a great running game in the NFL even for warm weather, but you better have a QB that teams know CAN pass in cold and even windy weather to keep the defense from just stacking 8 men on the line all day. 2.) We should at LEAST be able to pass better at RWS in rough weather than the opponents! That was a given in the Kelly or Ferguson days.

The NFL is not the same league it was even 20 years ago. The financial aspect of the league has eaten up almost everything else connected to it. I will not project the demise of the NFL but I think fans in many of the cities will become more disillusioned with the NFL as it relates to the non-elite market teams. Even with a salary cap the NFL may become more like MLB where many teams don't have a real chance of winning the super bowl. Look at the Bills and Bengals now--we are almost in that boat now because we can't afford decent GMs and coaches. I think the NFL will push the "event" of football like big matchups and the super teams like the Patsies*, the fantasy leagues, and deep down be happy that many fans gamble and therefore have a rooting interest because of that. Fans of small size cites have become and will become more disillusioned and as teams like the Rams move that disillusionment may deepen as they wonder if their team may be next to move.

In all the discussion about whether Trent is prepared or not well enough by DJ and the assistants, why not turn things around a little. When was the last time any opponent went before the media after a game and said the Bills did things we just were not expecting. We seem to always be trying to figure out our opponents and we never seem to have any new innovation to confuse them. The coaching staff is in over its head, even though I like DJ, Perry, and Turk as people and root for them. Maybe this year with TO we will be able to come up with some schemes people don't expect or at least execute in a way they can't stop us.

It all comes down to Brady*. Will the refs let teams get close to him without calling a personal foul as soon as he is touched. Because he has been injured and is getting older the key is for teams to really smack Brady* like our QB's always get smacked by the opposition. Remember Edwards's concussion coming from being smacked head down into the turf? If you really pressure and smack Brady around he will probably start to get more nagging injuries. I'm glad Rex Ryan is in our division now because he learned from his dad how to not let teams like the Patsies* just let their start QB simply beat you all day. You got to make a QB pay for it when he burns you a couple of times. The Bills front office loves to talk about how some player has a nasty streak. They should draft DL with nasty streaks. I'm not too encouraged by Maybin on that score. Look at Wilfork* and Losman. We should look at like we owe Brady for that. Look at Bruce Smith and Boomer Esiason for the Jets. To this day Boomer can't understand why Bruce had it out for him. The cheating Brady* shouldn't have to wonder about that for the Bills if they go after him*.