Utah John

The 64 team was better. Any team with Cookie Gilchrist was better. My understanding is that it was Saban who got fed up with Gilchrist's antics, and not Wilson, who wanted him gone. Also note that Gilchrist had only one good year left after he was traded so maybe Saban figured he'd sell high.

The fish beat the Chargers because Rivers stunk. The Miami defense helped him stink but it was largely an individual effort. Also the SD defense was getting beat by ordinary players making ordinary plays, not by superstars making amazing plays. This was SD's third loss in a row. Something has come off the rails for the Chargers. Miami is looking good, no question, but they happened to hit a wounded opponent when their own game peaked. It happens.

What a great argument to be able to have. I think all four of them, including Hughes, as well as Wynne and Charles, are all being given the chance to shine, since the guys surrounding them are all good. No weak links, no soft spots. However the other way to read this is that they'd all be less effective if they were the only good lineman on some other team, and the other team could game plan for him. So who would be great in that situation? MW would keep playing hard but would be double teamed to death. KW was actually in that situation with the Bills before MW and MD arrived, and while the league recognized his ability, the fans didn't, because he was negated. Only MD, in my opinion, would hold up as the stud among twigs, if he were in that situation. He can beat double teams and still disrupt plays. He's finally arrived after a couple of years of waiting, and what a force he is.

TJ Graham made TJ Graham worthless... This.

You ready for that pass rush, Bills Mafia? You can take that question two ways. Are we ready to see the Bills pass rush dominate the Chiefs? Or, are we ready to see the Chiefs pass rush against our bad O-line. Either way it will be a good day for the sack stats on both teams. Boy I hope Fred Jackson is ready to return.

The Bills have four winnable games coming up before the December gauntlet. Good teams win the games they're supposed to, and they compete and win sometimes in their tough games. The only letdown so far this year was the Houston game, which I still fear will be the difference. If the Bills are 9-3 at the end of November, which is entirely realistic, they have a very good chance because they'll have beaten their direct WC competition with games against four other teams remaining.

The Chiefs are almost as inconsistent as the Jets. The Jets looked better playing in Foxboro the week before they played the Bills, than the Broncos did last night. Then the Jets went out and were a trash fire against the Bills, in NJ. Then they played pretty well yesterday. It must be an oddsmaker's nightmare to set the line for Jets games. The Chiefs are also up and down. They destroyed the Pats then found it hard to get out of their own way. Last year they were a pick six on a stupid play, and a fumble recovery on a stupid play, away from losing to the hapless Bills while on their way to a great season record. Who knows what team shows up on Sunday. The Bills OTOH are pretty consistent. They were about the same quality the first four games, trending gradually downward to the Texans game. Since Orton took over, they've been at the same B+ level every game, which has been good enough for three wins but not to beat the Pats. If they keep getting B+ play they'll finish 9-7, unless they chance into playing a better team when that other team has a bad day.

The storyline from last night's game will be that Brady beat Manning, which he usually does. But Brady does not play defense. I think Belichick spends days and days in the off-season working up new defensive schemes specifically to stop Manning. Manning is Belichick's white whale, except unlike Ahab, Belichick usually wins. Brady played very well last night. No surprise there, he's a great QB. I don't think Denver does anything special to try to stop him, which is a serious mistake. Also I do agree that the Pats tend to get away with penalties that other teams get called for, but that's not the difference between the teams. The difference is coaching. As much as I dislike Belichick, I have to acknowledge he's a great coach.

Schwartz. Partly because he's a great DC and was a good HC, and partly to take him away from us. I would rather see the NJJs take a coordinator away from the Pats, of course.

Style points don't count. Margin of victory doesn't count except sometimes in tiebreakers. What counts is winning the game you're playing, and positioning yourself to win later games. Also, very few injuries came from this game. Another advantage to the boring, conservative approach.

The point is, they were playing the Vikes and the Jets. I assume Hackett has plays ready to go that he doesn't want to reveal to opponents until he needs them. So he went boring and conservative, and bled the clock away against the Jets, and turned things over to the defense to win. Worked out. The question is, can they raise their game when they're playing a better team? Everyone is assuming that because they didn't do more against the Jets, that they couldn't have done more. Remember back to the preseason when they looked like a trash fire, and everyone was panicking. Then they went to Chicago and beat the Bears. Perhaps we should consider that the Bills are approaching games professionally, as opportunities to win with the least cost and without giving any edge to future opponents.

How many points? Enough to win. Box checked.

Two points. First, the Bills were playing the NJJ in NJ, a week after the NJJs almost (shoulda) beat the Patriots in Foxboro. Tom Brady a week earlier was 20/37 for 261 and three TDs, and he was fighting hard for the win all the way. I think Orton could easily have had 400 yards against that secondary if necessary, but he did enough to win easily, he didn't get pummeled behind our rotten O line against the Jets great pass rush, he didn't throw any picks or do anything to light a fire under the Jets -- let's just enjoy the win. Second, it's the season to talk about coaching moves, and I think the biggest threat is that Schwartz becomes the new HC of the Jets next season. The Bills pulled a rabbit out of their hat when Pettine left suddenly, but who would Schwartz's replacement be? And who's the better coach, Marrone or Schwartz? The Jets will get their personnel situation figured out in 3 or 4 years, and if Schwartz is still their guy, watch out.

Weather determines the outcome. Bills can't run behind that O line, whether Fred is back or not. Chiefs run run run and can't pass. On a snowy field, advantage Chiefs since our D line won't get traction. Dry field, Bills.

The 1999 team was one covered kickoff from a very realistic run to the Super Bowl, where I think they would have beaten Saint Louis. This year's defense has its strengths but let's not get carried away.

So basically this move stashes a guy away for the rest of the year. The Bills still have to pay his salary, but they don't have to cut or waive him where another team could pick him up. Maybe they want to keep him around to compete for a job next year. But, he's not in a situation where he could latch on with another team that needs safety help right now. To me, this sounds like an abuse of the IR category, which I thought was to be used when a player is actually Injured and therefore put on Reserve.

Look not only at current ability but at future cost. Some of the Bills strong D linemen will get big pay raises next year, particularly Jerry Hughes. He deserves it too. But the Bills have a lot of money already locked up on the D line and he will probably not be here next year. I would try to re-sign him NOW and if that doesn't work then trade him. Seriously. Jarius Wynne has been playing well enough to take snaps away from Mario Williams so one of them could switch to the RDE position, with plenty of backups remaining. The Bills have a nice problem with so much D line talent but it's still a problem nevertheless. And the weakness on the O line is appalling. This is the kind of tough, hard-nosed, cold-eyed move that Belichick makes ever year or so, that has kept his team younger and stronger.

Not only did the Bills waste a 3rd rounder on Graham, they actually traded up in the round to be sure of getting him. Not the worst pick in Bills history, by far, but still pretty disappointing.

Under the unspoken rules of the NFL, it would have been disrespectful to put EJ in to mop up. Disrespectful to the Jets. To Orton. Most of all, to EJ, who needs to get past this time and get his head back around the idea that he's a starter, not a mopper-upper. I really think the Bills' plan is to let Orton play this year and next, while EJ sits and watches like Aaron Rogers did, and then let him take over.

The Bills have a better record playing outside New York State this year (3-1) than at home (2-2). This is a good trend. It has a lot to do with the strength of the team being the defense, especially the D line.

Hey, Doug, my eyes are up here!

Most importantly though, the personnel will still be very good, provided they pony up the cash to keep Jerry Hughes. Yeah, I think Hughes will be the first salary cap victim. Jarius Wynne will be next year's Hughes. I love Hughes, I think stealing him for ...gosh I can never remember that guy's name... is a major reason the D is so good this year. But there's too much money on the D line and too many holes on the O line. Something has to give.

Here's all I can think of in defense of Hackett's play calling yesterday. Napoleon said, 'Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.' The Jets were clearly not in gear and seemed determined to screw up. The worst thing the Bills could do was toss an easy pick six or fumble on an exposed play like a screen, and give the Jets a chance. So the Bills had all those runs into the middle of the line, all those three and outs, all those 3 minutes of possession time that did nothing for us but gave the Jets less time to do anything of their own. So now and then Orton would pass, and that worked out fine. It was boring but still satisfying watching the game bleed away while the Bills slowly built up their margin of victory.

I think the key isn't Kiko or Spikes, it's Schwartz. He'll want to leave if there's any HC job available. I hope there's someone on his staff who is picking up his system and who won't follow him to Schwartz's next job as (dare I say it?) HC of the New Jersey Jets.

Another nice problem to have -- none of those guys are really getting old. Mario Williams and Spikes have been in the league a few years but have lots of mileage left. Kyle Williams is not slowing down at all and probably has three or four good years left. The rest are young guys with many years of dominance in their future. We should face facts that we won't be able to keep all these guys. We have at least 7 starter-quality D linemen. If Brown and Bradham develop as expected, and Kiko returns, and Spikes comes back, I pity the opposition. But from our perspective we have too much talent to keep everyone, other teams will raid the Bills and overpay. There will be some tough decisions ahead about which ones to keep and which ones to let walk. The cold hard calculation is to let the older guys go (KWill and MWill) but KWill provides such leadership, we need him around particularly if Fred Jackson doesn't come back at full speed.