CodeMonkey

According to Nate Silvers Elo system, the biggest lock is the Pats* over the Jests at 86% chance of winning but you can't pick them. Based on the attached table, I think you would take the Cards over The Raiders at 78%.

First finish my dinner with the family. Then get ready for all the posts and threads about the zebras being the reason for the loss.

I wouldn't take the Vikings too lightly. All the analytics I've seen point to a fairly close game. The Jests maybe.

Bills 24-21. Everyone in Bills Nation holding their breath as the Vikings are moving the Ball with minutes left, only to falter and turn the ball over on downs.

CBS with spread (Bills -4.5): 5 take the Bills and 3 take the Vikings CBS straight up: All 8 and the computer take the Bills. Microsoft's Cortana says the Bills have a 64.4% chance of winning. Nate Silvers Elo has the game as the Bills as a 3.5 point favorite with a 62% chance of winning. It also shows that according to it, the Bills have a 18% chance of making the playoffs.

I don't know, but plenty here have no problem saying the officiating caused the Bills to lose with absolute certainty.

And these are exactly the stupid rules that need to be removed. Who the !@#$ cares if a WR is on the line or back a step from it.

Interviews with Whaley and Marrone have been all over the sports news here in Roch the past few days. Both of them making statements like he has not given the Bills one ounce of trouble and they want him on the team, and last Sunday was nothing more than a "numbers game". When the prospect of a trade comes up, Whaley says that they will listen to offers from other teams for any player on the roster. But they are not shopping anyone right now and have received no calls about Williams. Unless they are both lying it would seem Williams isn't going anywhere.

I remember feeling sorry for Gailey towards the end, in the pressers he always looked like such a tired and beaten old man. Marrone is starting to get that look now as well, except for the "old" part.

Exactly. Changing QBs is about as big of a "shake up" on the offensive side of the ball as there is.

Are the GB fans whining about bad calls against the small market teams? Probably not because GB has not sucked for the past 14 years.

Marrone is one too. I was watching his presser late last night and he made a comment along the lines of not wanting to say anything about the officiating that would get him in trouble or fined.

I remember that Cowher specifically, and probably most of the ones you listed as well, want a "franchise" QB already on the roster of any team they take over. Don't want to waste their time if the most important position is not adequately filled.

On TV one of the announcers commented that Hughes was beating the Pats* OL with his quickness and that the best way to negate that kind of quickness advantage was to run right at him.

They also disagreed with one that went the Bills way. Trying to look a little objectively, here are the penalty stats: Pats* 9 for 60 yards Bills 8 for 107 yards So the Cheatriats actually had more penalties called against them. The yardage difference looks huge until you remember that Duke Williams masterpiece of a PI that contributed 30 yards to the Bills total. But some will counter that it was when the penalties were called against the Bills that made the difference. You can't really argue subjective things like that. You either Billieve it or not. But if that is the argument, then you (not you specifically Dorkington, the forum software merged my posts ) are stating that the refs actively conspired against the Bills which is very different than simply being incompetent.

8 wins at this point is doable, though not a lock by any means. I will be very disappointed if the Bills don't win the next 2 against pretty bad teams which gets them to 5. So they would need 3 out of the remaining 8, with the likes of the Jests, Raiders, and Fish in those last 8.

My kids have pretty much jumped off of the Sabres bandwagon, but not the Bills for some reason. Though they expect neither team to do well. The Bills have sucked their entire lives. The Sabres though ripped their hearts out trading certain players that they liked, then sucked to boot. Hard to blame any young people for losing faith in either team.

As soon as the Bills can challenge a decent team, then I suspect Bills fans won't be outnumbered at the Ralph for any games. I suspect a lot of people had little expectations of the Bills winning yesterday. A lot of them probably sold their tickets to that game as soon as they got them knowing Pats* fans would buy them. Plus they did not know at that time that it would be Pegula day at the Ralph. It's pretty obvious why Bills fans in attendance wouldn't like it. Particularly the a-holes that like to harass the opponents fans and can't feel safety in numbers. I can't imagine the players care for it either. But it is what it is and I would expect the same when the Browns come to town and maybe even the pack. With the Jests sucking this season that game may be safe. And I am with you about scalping sucking.

It will be interesting to see the Bills-Browns game in November to gauge where both teams and coaches are. The Browns are 3-2 now after embarrassing the Stillers yesterday.

First of all how would you tell, ID everyone who comes in with a season ticket? Second the Bills as a business do not care who goes, as long as the tickets are sold so they are not about to alienate customers regardless of their team affiliation. Third, there are season ticket holders who do not live anywhere near Buffalo and cannot go to every home game. How could you penalize them for financially supporting the team?

I know and I was not implying otherwise. Some here seem to think differently though. Another example is on the Bills 2 point conversion. If you watch it again, look at the official after the catch. He is positioned perfectly and is looking right down the line at the time of the catch. Yet he hesitates and you can tell he has no idea if the ball "broke the plane" or not, and probably calls it a score knowing that it will get reviewed that way. The rules are the heart of the problem, and I'm not sure what the solution is.

Players and coaches always want consistency. Part of the problem are the rules in place. Tackle football is long periods of inactivity followed by short bursts of a great deal of simultaneous activity (except when the Philly offense is on the field ). The refs can't be everywhere at once, and the rules being so anal it almost makes it impossible to be officiated accurately. Then you add in human error on the "obvious" calls or non-calls and you have the 2014 NFL. Interestingly, I believe the call you are referring to where the ex official disagreed with the overturn because of consistency went in favor of the Bills if my memory is correct.

That was because hoodie called the timeout as soon as the pats recovered and the player was touched but the clock kept running. There were bad calls yesterday as there are every game, but that was not one.

No reason the Bills can't beat the next 2 teams. The Bills may be mediocre, but the Vikings and Jests are well below mediocre this season.

^^ This. What is everyone so surprised about? This is like when people were convinced that Gailey was a great find even though he was passed up by so many other teams, then were surprised when he wasn't. Orton is what he is, and always has been, a mediocre NFL QB. This should not be a surprise to anyone. He is an improvement over how Manuel was playing, however.