CodeMonkey

Not that this is a surprise, but ESPN has all 13 taking the pats*. CBS with spread (Bills +9.5) has it 5-3 pats*. No spread has all 8 pats*.

In addition, some teams play fairly frequent non-league tournament matches with teams from other countries as well. Tackle football playing only Sundays and for a short season would not be difficult for a team in London to schedule games and a venue around soccer.

The magic answer is that there is no magic answer. The Bills have sucked for a very VERY long time and sadly it is going to take some time to get back to respectability. Unless Manuel somehow transforms into the second coming of Jim Kelly this offseason and Spiller becomes an every down back, that's just the way it is.

Anyone but NE, the fish, or the Stillers.

Boy I don't know. I have difficulty watching minor league sports now because the quality of play is low. The talent pool is so shallow already in the NFL that if they dilute it further so that they can make more money it may cross the quality threshold where I won't want to watch anymore. Then again, I haven't stopped watching the Bills these last 14 years so who knows

There is no reason to believe he is telling a "bold faced lie" here. His opinion may differ greatly from yours and many hard core Bills fans who really Billieve Manuel is a "franchise", or at least a viable NFL starting QB. Personally I have not seen much so far that leads me to believe Manuel is a slam dunk franchise QB. Or for that matter even a good starting QB. But the person earlier who graded Manuel as "incomplete" rings true with me. With the injuries (which are themselves reason for concern) and him being a rookie it really is too early to know what the Bills have in him. Which really does put the Bills FO in a bit of a bind when it comes to the upcoming draft. And we can do is wait, hope and trust that the Bills FO ends up doing the smart thing, whatever that is.

Those were my initial thoughts as well. There is not enough good talent to support the teams now, how can you add more unless quantity is more important than quality.

Boy that is for sure. But it nice to see it happen to the fish and not the Bills once in a while.

Well it certainly has "Bills fans whining about a ref-screw-job" written all over it. Nice to see it is already a work in progress. This is probably why there is so much ref whining here. If you go into every game looking for it, then you are going to see it. Whether it is there or not. For me this game rests squarely on the shoulders of the Bills D. If they can shut down Tom Terrific the Bills have a good chance. Otherwise the Bills are looking at a double digit loss for this season.

I'm not sure how you see the offense as significantly worse. They exchanged Fitz for Manuel, which this season was a regression. But with far more potential upside. They have what may well end being a viable backup QB in Lewis. The OL is slightly worse. The WR depth is better. RB is the same. OC is a sizeable downgrade from Gailey. As someone pointed out earlier, statistically they are the same as last year on the offensive side of the ball and that makes sense when you look at all of the players and coaches.

My oldest son was unhappy about that as well. But I told him to sit down and think about it for a minute. After a few seconds I could see the 3 possession game light bulb turn on over his head. I suspect for the boo'ing fans it was a knee jerk emotional response like it was for him at first.

Thread closed in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Absolutely yesterday meant something to the fish. And it is always good to sweep a division opponent. But in my opinion the fish are not a good team (yet they somehow they managed a 8-7 record this season so far). And even though NE is not what they once were, they are definitely better than the fish, particularly in winter weather.

I would agree with this, particularly since the game does mean something to NE.

If the Bills can't/won't utilize a "speed back" as you call him, then what is the point of keeping him? Keeping him in that scenario would be the silly thing IMO.

You can't fool us ... you will be drinking it again win or lose next week

I think we are all very ready for a repeat of that!

I do not share the thought of many in this thread about how great the play was today. To me it was two bad teams in bad weather. Those two factors combined makes a Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz game, which is what I saw today. I thought Robey and Freddy J. had great games. Several on the Bills D had solid to good games. Spiller impresses me less and less every game. Thad could well make a decent backup. That's about it. When the Bills D has that good of a result against a good team in good weather, and the offense joins them, then I will be optimistic. Until then a win is always better than a loss, but unfortunately it's just same ole, same ole.

It should be blacked out.

Sadly for Buffalo and good for him, when he leaves Buffalo he will probably land on a team whose offense will be well suited for a situational back like him.

A superbowl ... in Buffalo ... in February ... with no dome. No way in hell. And that's not even mentioning not enough hotel rooms and 5 star establishments for the rich people to party in.

The idea was to reward the area for building the new stadium. Who in their right mind would want the superbowl played in crap weather. The NFL wants to showcase their product, not to put on a showcase of how to handoff the ball or incomplete passes.

Yup, except for the fact that covers a LOT of people if you consider that the economy in the Buffalo area is not exactly stellar and the number of elderly in the area as well. The NFL is a business and should have the right to conduct it's business however they choose. But when the business accepts taxpayer money, and also is given special exemptions regarding anti-trust etc. then in my opinion they forfeit some of those rights. And how about the elderly who were season ticket holders for many years? The NFL expects loyalty from it's fans, but how about giving some of that loyalty back.

For the future of the franchise it does not matter at all. But Bills fans, and any fan of any team I would think, would rather see their team win than lose.

I have to believe that even if blackouts motivated people to want to get tickets, they are smart enough these days to go to stubhub or some other reseller outlet where the prices for "throw away" games are in most cases significantly lower. Thus not affecting the teams bottom line except for incidentals like parking, food and beverage etc.