Utah John

Seriously? You could even be thinking that? Who cares what race a player is?!!?

Every time Albert does a Bills-NJJ game he makes a point of saying the Jets are really a New York team. He's a homer who can't face up to the facts that they play in a different state. The announcers yesterday, like all the Fox announcers we've endured this year, know the NFC teams and players much better than they do the AFC. I'm sure the AFC announcers aren't as good when they do NFC games. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Who among us would NOT watch a Bills game because the announcers were bad? It could be Fran Drescher calling the game and Sarah Palin doing color, and I would still watch.

I think most successful teams have a Bobby Chandler / Wes Welker / Wayne Chrebet kind of guy. They're tough, they work their butts off, they find ways to make plays when the prototype WRs don't.

We've all got first-hand experience rooting for bad teams, or should I say teams having bad years. Even in the worst of times the Bills would rise up on occasion and fight hard against a better opponent, sometimes winning and sometimes losing. Anyone remember what happens next? Collapse, which starts with C which rhymes with T which stands for Trouble. The Browns beat the Steelers, then tanked against Jacksonville. Come on. The Jets played about as well as they can against the Pats. But they're a bad team, rotten at the core, without the intestinal fortitude to keep coming back week after week with a strong effort.

It was a fumble. He wasn't far from being down with the ball in control, but he didn't make it. Welcome to the NFL, 7/11, and watch out for those strippers.

So KO has more turnovers than EJ. That's bad. But how many drives did Orton keep alive with a good, competent, professional completion to a slightly open receiver, when EJ checked down, missed completely, took a sack, or ran for 3 yards less than needed for the first down?

The ironic thing is he's been playing the last couple of weeks like he was trying not to get hurt, to keep his re-sale value up. So he breaks a long one, gets caught FROM BEHIND (geez how fast was that Viking) which probably surprised him, lands wrong, and now he's injured anyway. Spiller might be back, but only if the numbers work for everyone. He loves Jackson but Fred might not be back either -- I love that guy but some RBs get old quick -- so if one half of a happy couple leaves the other probably will too. Let's see how Brown does against the Jets. That's a tough intro for a RB -- running into the NJJ D-line which is quite good, behind our O-line which isn't. If Brown finds a way to excel in this situation, that will be a push in the back out the door for CJ.

Look at it this way. The Bills are 2-2 in New York State and 2-1 outside the state, with wins at Chicago and Detroit and the only loss coming when EJ finally reached rock bottom against the Texans. Since this game is in New Jersey, the Bills are odds-on favorites.

There is always a ref on the spot for catches at that part of the field, including yesterday. There was a ref right there watching the catch to see if it was a completed reception, in bounds. Why that ref didn't place the ball properly is a mystery.

Years ago, when the Bills were great and Bill Polian was the GM, he had a show on a local channel. After an unimpressive win, I remember a situation where he was responding to a question like this discussion and he turned to one of the fans in the studio audience, and asked the fan what the important thing to accomplish during the game is. The fan answered, "Win the game." Polian just turned to whoever had asked the question and said something like, "See, he gets it. He knows." You can go back to the Bills glory days and find 3 or 4 wins each year when they pulled one out of their butts. So what. Winning those games was the difference between not making the playoffs and getting home field advantage through the playoffs. Yesterday they didn't start out great, considering Hogan's early fumble, but that followed a good initial stop by the D and a sharp drive by the Bills' O. After Hogan's fumble the whole team started having a little trouble, and the Vikings started playing better. After Jackson and Spiller both went down, the O had serious problems. I think they didn't get Dixon prepared to be the only RB and so the O couldn't run a lot of plays. Getting limited to basic plays is a bad thing, especially with a rotten O line. I think the defensive game plan was an experiment by Schwartz. He had been focusing on the run so much that the pass D wasn't very good. He tried balancing things and ended up not stopping either very well. Good thing the Vikings O is bad. The Bills made Jennings look a lot better than he really is. I think Brown was acquired as Spiller's replacement assuming Spiller would leave after this year, and Brown will be the featured back against the NJJ. The running game will be a lot more capable, and that will help address one problem from yesterday. But LG, RG, and RT are still going to struggle against the Jets D line. The Bills have a fighting chance to win next Sunday but they're weak where the opposition is strong, and the Jets have been off since Thursday night. Tough game next Sunday, and the Bills will need to elevate their game.

The placement was definitely wrong, and I had the same thought, that if it was closer they could have tried to run it in. The problem with the booth replays in the last two minutes is that an official timeout for the review would have been a huge advantage for the Bills, who were desperately trying to stop the clock. And then once the next play was snapped (the spike) it was too late to review the previous play (the catch). Maybe the rule about not reviewing a play after the next play starts can be modified for this situation.

Another way to look at this is that Henderson has had 21 months with Gilmore and hasn't gotten through to him. Gilmore might have reached his potential or maybe he can improve, but none of us see that improvement going on.

It's a trap game if the Bills are looking ahead to their NEXT game, against the Jets, and failing to prepare adequately for this week's game. If I'm the Vikings, I'm looking at this week's game as a chance to get the season back on its rails by beating an inconsistent opponent at their house. The Bills are probably figuring they're going to reel off six straight wins (MN, NJJ, KC after our bye, Miami, NJJ again, and Cleveland) which they have the talent to do, but how many times have we seen this movie before? They could be 9-3 after all that, but more likely they'll be 5-7, and Marrone (or at least Hackett) will be replaced.

Orton is pretty good, which is hugely better than EJ. At the rate EJ was self-destructing, he would've turned into a pile of smoking ash after one more bonehead play. He needs to be sitting and watching, like the plan was all along, to be ready to take over in a year or two. Orton is better than merely competent. He makes a lot of difficult throws requiring precise touch and accuracy, and not that many poor ones. He's a good ball handler, just as you'd expect with a veteran. Before the season we all figured the Bills just needed neutral play from the QB, not having net damage done, with the offense's skill positions and the D-line giving us the edge. Turns out the O-line is really bad, bad enough to stop our running attack but interestingly not bad enough to stop Orton. Hmmmm, maybe this is something else he deserves credit for. So looking back at the preseason equation, it turned out EJ was a large negative, and that clearly cost the Houston game. But we don't just have neutral play from Orton, we're getting positive net results. Over 300 yards against Detroit, and 299 against the Pats. Pretty darned good.

Hogan hasn't bounced around. The Bills picked him up based on his athleticism. He played lacrosse at Penn State for his fulltime college career, then played one year of football at Monmouth. Got some experience but realistically has always been a project. But, so far he's turning out really well. Excellent ST work, athletic enough to get open. As he gains experience running routes and recognizing defenses, he's all upside. He also is not a complainer, whiner, etc. He looks like he could develop into Steve Tasker v2.

I think Williams is just frustrated with the role he's got. He was still growing up in Buffalo when the Pats started beating the Bills all the time, and I think he wanted to play in this game even more than others. What's going on now is adjustments following the injury to Easley, which means Hogan is needed on STs. So Hogan is the guy after Watkins, Woods, and Goodwin. If Williams was great on STs he'd probably be playing.. Instead of a fifth WR the Bills put in three TE sets, which makes sense considering the rotten play from their guards. I don't think this is meant as a slap at Williams at least not very much.

Many of us will remember a Bills-Pats game when Bledsoe was still their QB. Close game, the Bills had the Pats stopped and were in position to win, the Pats complete a pass that's far from a first down, and one of the Bills players reports hearing one ref tell another one, "just give it to them." First down, Pats. Pats win. What's the relationship? That was Walt Coleman's crew too. Ralph was so mad about this he tried to get the league to stop assigning Coleman to Bills games. Welcome to the big boy league, Mr Pegula. Deposit funds here, and bend over there.

Spikes isn't a cover guy. He's there to smash RBs, and that's really important against the Pats, to take their power run game away and make them one-dimensional. Gronk is the only receiver they have with really special capabilities. Stuff the run, double Gronk, and make Brady uncomfortable with our front four.

Sometimes a band-aide is all you need. The team was built this year to expect only weak play from the QB. Anything beyond that is for this year a bonus. From the looks of Orton, he's a competent, middle of the pack capability, which is far beyond what EJ was doing. Whether Orton is better or worse than Fitz, we'll have to wait and see. At least for now, he's a lot cheaper than Fitz.

Then we did what we're supposed to, win at home. Need to finish 6-2 at home, or better, and 4-4 on the road. The path to 10 wins either includes winning on Sunday or upsetting Green Bay in December. Six home games left, NE - MN - KC - NJJ - CL - GB and all are winnable though NE and GB are tough. We have 5 road games left, NJJ - MI - DE - OAK - NE, and should win NJJ and OAK, getting to 4-4 on the road. So if the Bills lose to both NE and GB at home, they need to pick up one more road win, probably Miami, which is realistic but always tough. EJ costing the Houston game will really bite if we drop another winnable game and settle for 9 wins. Or if it turns out 10 wins doesn't get us in. For all the one game at a time guys, sure I get it, but it's important to understand what's at stake this week.

This is about the league enforcing expectations about what a team is supposed to get from its community. If Buffalo gets away without a new stadium every 30 years, and comfy suites for the visitors, other teams and cities won't feel like they have to provide them either. $1.4B provides a lot of grace period, and I don't get the feeling the Pegulas are doing this to make money. They have more than they know what to do with and want to help the community. God bless 'em. A lot of the other owners are out to make a buck.

If your glass is half full of Kool-Aid, you don't have a problem. Go Bills!

Whatever. He's a good receiver and I'm glad the Bills didn't have to cover him and Johnson at the same time. He can say what he wants. I didn't really like the Bills carrying Schwartz either.

My only complaint about Fox announcers is that they don't know that much about AFC teams. The announcers for the Bears game made mistake after mistake. My guess is the announcers this week will know the Pats pretty well and won't know squat about the Bills. Ah, but so what, it's still football and the Bills are playing for first place in October. Life is good.

My problem wasn't with Ralph Wilson, it was with the organization he set up to run the Bills. The worst part was the penny pinchers who prevented the Bills from spending what was available under the cap to build depth in the roster. Jeff Littman, glad to see you leaving. Also bad was Ralph's poor personnel hiring practices and then his demolition of the effective management team he had that built the SB teams. For many years in the 60s and 70s, the Bills front offices were terrible. Lousy drafting, bad coaches. We got lucky with Polian, Butler, and Smith. And then Ralph drove them all away, leading to another decade plus of lousy teams. Ralph was a generous man who cared about his players. There were stories about how he helped injured players get on with their lives after leaving the game. He was just not an effective owner when it came to building a strong competitive team and maintaining that level.