Utah John

OK, OK, just asking, not recommending.

OK, I'm not trolling or being intentionally argumentative. But here goes. We have a great defensive line, not just the starters but every backup as well. We have three really good LBs on the field, plus adequate backups. Where will Kiko fit next year, if the Bills are able to bring Spikes back? On the other hand, the Bills desperately need upgrades at a couple of positions on the offensive side, and they could stand an upgrade at safety as well. The question is, as good as Kiko is, would you trade him for a really good, proven, QB? How about two dominant offensive lineman? Or would you never want to trade him and are thinking of coming out to Utah to explain things to me in person?

I want to point out that Orton plays offense. He's never on the field at the same time as Brady, Rodgers, or Manning. It's up to the defense to limit their production, not our QB. The idea that QBs are going mano a mano like starting pitchers in baseball do, is exaggerated. All QBs want to win and they try their best when going up against a good opponent, but unless a QB really screws up and causes turnovers to give the other team short fields, it's not usually the case that a great QB on one team can neutralize a great QB on the other. The Jets beat the Steelers a couple weeks ago. I don't think Michael Vick was what gave Roethlisberger problems. Actually after yesterday I can't even imagine what it was on the Jets that gave Roethlisberger problems. But they must have figured something out.

I think there were some missed calls but for the most part the calls were consistent. It's not like one team or the other was called tighter than the other. None of the Bills sacks were close to illegal, though some were pretty violent. Overall, I think this was one of the best officiated games the Bills have had this year.

After reading mannc's comments about the long-term value of the club, I have to agree with him. Spending more to make the team more successful would have created more value in the long run. So Littman's more of a villain than I thought, with no redeeming value at all, and it's a shame Ralph gave Littman so much power.

For years I thought I was the only one who remembered the names of the villians, I've been blasting Jeff Littman and Walt Coleman here for years. Or maybe no one else dared type their names. Whatever the cause it's good to see more people aware of the damage that Littman did to the organization. We all think, as does Polian (and Pegula), that the purpose of a professional sports franchise is to win championships. Littman thought it was to make money for his boss. How many times were the Bills a player or two from being a contender, and instead we got somebody cheap. More importantly, and this is vastly underappreciated, the Bills have NOT shelled out like other teams for coaches. Not just HCs but all through the staff. There is no salary cap on the coaching staff, and most teams try to get the best staff they can. Sometimes the Bills have good coordinators and assistants, but usually there's one good coordinator and one guy willing to work for cheap to get started on his career. Not that present day circumstances should be any guide. From my perspective, there are a lot of good bean counters out there, and darned few football geniuses. The Bills' product was football, and in a truly professional organization that should have been the priority. If Littman and Polian clashed, find another bean counter. So Wilson died and left a fortune and very generous estate, giving back to the city a lot of the money fans paid for tickets over the years. Wonderful. A little less back now and a Lombardi trophy or two at OBD would be a good deal in the eyes of most of us.

No practicing is a bad thing. The coaches put a lot of effort every game into figuring out plays to give the team an advantage, and not having the chance to run through the plays a couple of times really makes it hard to execute during a game. I also don't know whether conditioning is an issue. Would players really lose their aerobic conditioning levels if they can't work out normally for a couple of days?

How about I move the ball forward this much, so the Patriots can get a first down.

Merriman was hurt and a shell of his original self. He was worth a look-see but the Bills kept him around too long, after it was clear he was never going to get good again. Moeaki was also hurt but now is recovered and playing for Seattle. He caught a TD against KC but I don't know how much he played. He always appeared to have the talent but couldn't keep from getting hurt. Blount is not hurt and just has a bad attitude. He probably won't want to sit, and if Freddie comes back, sit he will. But he runs like Cookie Gilchrist used to. Geez, he'd be good for the Bills, better than Dixon, if he decides to put it together.

So don't remove the snow from the field. Push the snow from the seating areas down ONTO the field. Mark off the yard lines with colored paint. I grew up in West Seneca and some of the best football games we had as a kid were under that kind of conditions. Neither the Bills nor the Jets will make the playoffs so what the heck, give the players and fans an experience they'll never forget.

A head coach giving bland non-answers to the media is just showing the same kind of discipline he expects from his players not jumping offsides.

Odds are, considering the Bills non-astuteness in drafting, that if they didn't take Watkins and waited to take another guy they didn't think quite had Watkins' talent, they'd have picked some complete loser, and we would be watching Watkins plus all those other rookies doing so well, play on other teams. I think it's a tribute to Watkins, and a clue to his future value, that he's been able to do so well catching passes from Manuel for four games and "bad Orton" for the last two.

The knee injury wrecked the key part of his game, which is his running ability. I don't think he was inherently any more fragile than Russell Wilson, for example. He was just ruined by a greedy coach, and in truth by his own selfish desire to go be superman in that playoff game. I think he will never regain the full speed and mobility he had before, which is a real shame, because he was a lot of fun to watch (and I am definitely not a Skins fan). Was the trade a bad one? Well, the Rams seem to have screwed up most of the draft picks they got, and RGIII isn't much good anymore, so this looks like a classic lose-lose.

I realize Fred Jackson is trying to come back, but Tate might be an upgrade over Dixon and Brown. I think the Bills should sign him if he clears waivers with teams with poorer records. It always helps to get a guy on your team who's pissed off at his former team, just before you play that former team. Also I understand Marrone has never been happy about Pettine leaving so soon, so this might be a way of poking Pettine in the eye, just a little.

No, there's a lot of talent and skill in the organization. Get rid of the weaker parts. Part of the problem went away when Ralph passed and his cling-on parasites like Littman left the picture. Those people were what was holding back the team. The healing is underway with the source of the infection cut out, but some pretty bad decisions of the past are still haunting the team. Whaley is a gambler, thank heavens for that. The Watkins trade in 20 years will look either genius or foolish, mostly depending on whether he stays healthy. The EJ pick was Nix's and Whaley chose not to spend a high pick on a new QB after just a partial year of watching EJ. He effectively maneuvered to get a good backup, Orton, after apparently trying out everyone listed on that long post a little earlier and realizaing none of them would do. I think he tried hard to get help for the O line, with a second rounder who looks like a complete bust. Well, we've done worse on the O line. Remember Mike Williams, the flubby OT we picked 4th overall instead of Bryant McKinnie? Whaley made good moves with the RBs, bringing in replacements for Fred Jackson, who might have a year or two left, and Spiller, whom he expects to leave as a FA. I haven't seen much from either Dixon or Brown but when they get a decent call they do OK. The defense is mighty and will upgrade with Kiko's return. I really have to agree with most fans that Hackett needs to go. The offense is holding back the team, and it was holding them back even before Spiller and Jackson were injured. If Marrone won't fire Hackett, fire Marrone too. Keep Schwartz if he'll stay, though I suspect he's expecting HC offers after this year. If Marrone is leaving, I'd say move up Schwartz if he wants to stay.

Where to start. The reason Coleman hates the Bills is that Ralph Wilson tried to get the NFL to bar him from doing any Bills games, after two outrageous calls in the 1998 game in Foxboro gave the Pats a game. First was the famous "just give it to 'em" shift of a ball forward by at least two yards after a Pats reception, keeping a drive alive. And then at the end, Bledsoe threw a hail Mary which was knocked down, with the normal amount of contact in the end zone, and PI was called, allowing Bledsoe to complete a 1 yard pass to Ben Coates after time ran out. Wade Phillips pulled his team off the field in protest, so the Pats got a 2 pt conversion against no one on the other side. The definition of intentional grounding that's discussed on the air is the ball has to be within five yards of the receiver. Not so. Look at the definition on the NFL page: http://www.nfl.com/r...g "Intentional grounding will be called when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion." Mike Carey, a former ref, should know that. If Watkins had been looking back, he could have made a play on the ball. Who knows what the route was supposed to be, and what adjustments Watkins was making based on the coverage. There is no way that call should have been made. The PI call on Gilmore was the worst actual call of the night. (There were several non-calls that were actually worse.) Here's the page on the NFL rule on PI: http://www.nfl.com/r...erference It includes the following text: Actions that do not constitute pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Incidental contact by a defender’s hands, arms, or body when both players are competing for the ball, or neither player is looking for the ball. If there is any question whether contact is incidental, the ruling shall be no interference. (b) Inadvertent tangling of feet when both players are playing the ball or neither player is playing the ball. © Contact that would normally be considered pass interference, but the pass is clearly uncatchable by the involved players. (d) Laying a hand on a receiver that does not restrict the receiver in an attempt to make a play on the ball. (e) Contact by a defender who has gained position on a receiver in an attempt to catch the ball. Gilmore got his right arm in as the ball arrived and knocked it away. A terrific, athletic move. His left arm touched the receiver's back but DID NOT restrict the receiver in any way. The really scary thing is that Coleman and his crew are graded out by the league as one of the top crews. I guess their scoring system throws out their best game and their worst game of the year, so they get to crap all over the field once per year and keep their jobs, and actually do playoff games some years. Yikes.

Walt Coleman. That should be all I have to say for anyone paying attention. This guy's crew simply screws the Bills. The bad ball placement, the ridiculous PI, are completely consistent with this referee's behavior, going back to the time when Ralph Wilson tried to get the league not to assign him to any more Bills games. Coleman was the ref for the infamous "Just give it to 'em" game against the Pats, where Bledsoe (yes it goes back this far) led completed a pass at least two yards short of a first down on a critical drive, and they moved the ball ahead so they could win. Coleman could not be a difference maker if the Bills were a complete team, but they have gaping holes in a couple of spots, and it killed them last night. Wasting this defense (although I think this was Schwartz's weakest game) due to a pop-gun offense behind a rag tag O line, is an insult. Kiss Jerry Hughes goodbye. He can get a boatload of money AND play for a contender next year.

In defense of Hackett, the play calling is limited by the situation. In obvious passing downs, the Bills had to throw quick passes because the lousy O line couldn't pass protect, and even then Orton had to throw a lot away. Must have been 5 or 6 plays where he intentionally threw it into the ground. We'll never know what this year's team could have been with decent O line play. They tried to patch it instead of investing in it, and Marrone's arrogant assumption that he could coach up bottom feeders is what really cost the team this year. Will the defense all be back next year? Can they pay Jerry Hughes what he's worth, plus keep the other three stars on the D line? Brandon Spikes disappeared tonight but he has been playing well on a one year contract. I'd like to see him back along with Brown and Bradham fighting for snaps with Kiko next year, plus there's no guarantee that Kiko will have the same year next year that he did last year. The secondary needs one more play maker. I think Dixon and Brown were brought in since Spiller probably won't be back, and Fred Jackson, all praise and honor to one of my top favorite Bills, but he's getting old and won't be around long. Are Dixon and Brown the answer at RB? I think we're set at WR, really loaded, and just (just?) need two good guards and maybe a RT. The Bills are allergic to athletic TEs so just stop thinking there's an answer there. Look at it this way. We made it to mid-November before we gave up and started thinking about next year. That's improvement. Finally, the only way to break the Flutie curse is to bring him back in some capacity, maybe a QB coach. If 15 years hasn't convinced you yet, benching Flutie for Rob Johnson has voodoo'd this team.

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

I've been assuming 10 wins will be needed to get a WC berth, but it seems like all our competition has to play each other. Unless exactly two other teams run the table, 9-7 gets us tied up. Then the tie breakers come in, which looks bad for us now but who knows how all those other games will go. 9-7 could be enough, which almost absolutely requires beating Miami, NJJ, Cleveland, and Oakland. And really if you can't beat those four, go home, because you don't deserve to be in the playoffs.

Wilcots is a time-filler, nothing more. He fills up the time between plays reciting cliches we all know, and when he tries to get specific he's usually wrong. I don't think I heard Wilcots mention Hackett even once during the game. All the references to play calling were about Marrone, who doesn't call the plays although I'm sure does make the decision whether to go for it on fourth down. I actually think the Chiefs game was Hackett's best so far. The pulling linemen (see the All-22 Review), the variety of play calls all were good moves. Hackett just didn't compensate when it was clear that Orton was having a sub-par game. Too many situations where it was Orton success or bust, and we busted.

There are two reasons why it would have made more sense to run instead of pass on the last drive. First, Orton was not playing as well as he can, and he hadn't all day. So don't put the game in the hands of the guy who's having a tough day. Second, you don't do it against the top pass defense in the league. Another reason is that if you're thinking it's four down territory (obviously the Bills were thinking that) then the idea should be to use up as much of the clock as possible so Smith has little time to come back. I'll give Hackett some slack because he saw his receivers getting open, and hadn't seen Orton have a below-par day previously. But, he should have recognized that another approach was needed in this situation.

Orton was not throwing accurately at the end, and I think the mistake was putting the game in his hands at that moment. I agree there was no reason not to try a couple of shorter routes or runs, at least to get the first down. But the larger question is, what kind of clock management was that? Four passes, if you're successful you get 3 point lead and leave over 3 minutes of the 4th quarter for Smith to work with. If the idea is to get a TD or bust on that drive, use up the clock! The largest question is, FG or pass on 4th down. I think the FG is the smart play. Carpenter is lights out, the wind was at his back. If all they needed was another FG, all the Bills needed to do was get to the Chiefs 40, or maybe not that far, and Carpenter could do the rest. Even starting with only 25 seconds or whatever they had, they could have made that work.

There was a post a couple pages back that I'm too lazy to dig up, that suggested younger referees would be in better position, and there would be fewer missed calls. Was it last year, or the year before, when we suffered through the clown show of replacement refs? Being an official at this level is really hard, and I'll take a 50 year old guy with 25 years of experience over some whippersnapper who gets the wool pulled over his eyes. Anyway, not trying to start an argument, but I think that suggestion would be a bad idea.