Red Squirrel

I don't deny they love him, but I sense less childishness than I normally get from Jets fans. In '06, they had Mangenius posters on their bedroom walls by week 2.

I'm not so sure I agree with the highlighted part; I'm in their media market, and my sense is while there are some Jets fans that eat up the trash talk, Ryan is still viewed warily here. They know they really jumped the gun by nicknaming their previous fat slob coach "Mangenius"; they know that for all Mangini's quirks, he didn't leave the cupboard bare. And there is some recognition that shooting your mouth off like Ryan does creates bulletin board material. Of course, one more win, and he'll be the best thing since Rockne, because that's just the way Jets fans are.

There's a lot of breathless talk about these coordinators turning down interviews; let's see how uninterested they are after their teams are eliminated. An awful lot of this talk from Schottenheimer and Grimm (which we haven't actually heard from his mouth) could be designed to show their current players they are still loyal to them. Let's see what happens after this weekend's games. The two guys I mentioned might be done for the year, or other names might pop up from eliminated teams. I can only speak for myself, but the only experienced coach I liked going into this process was Cowher, and I like him less and less every time I see him grunting and slobbering his way through another halftime show on CBS. And I HATED how Donahoe rushed out and signed Greggggg and deemed it more important to sign a HC rightnow than to give proper consideration to candidates that still had teams in the playoffs. I am still patient about this process.

#1, you probably heard some knob on ESPN or CBS say this, and they have a vested interest in hyping a product they've paid a lot of money for. #2, if many teams within your league have weak non-conference schedules, then you can't compare yourself in a positive OR negative way with other conferences; this is just common sense. #3, when you have the 4 tomato cans in the beginning, you only need 2 wins afterward to be bowl eligible; this has already happened several times, and not just in the SEC. #4, the scheduling scenario you describe DOESN'T EXIST.

The SEC has HUGE built in advantages; in most conferences, there are only one or two schools that get quality fan support win or lose; that number is about 7 in the SEC. A big reason for this is in darn near every SEC town, there is no competition for the sports fan's dollar. So the stadiums are just rockin'. And that is great. And what follows, obviously, are massive athletic department budgets, fantastic facilities, salaries for coaches that would cause our team's owner to have a stroke. The problem is that SEC schools are also bullies. They regularly schedule almost all of their non-conference games at home against tomato cans. The 12th game in the schedule...in the PAC-10, it became a conference game. In the SEC, it's a game against a Louisiana directional school. Most fans who are serious about college football know this; it's why we hate the SEC, and root against it even when it means rooting for other schools with severely skewed priorities like Texas. Basically, what I'm saying is: SEC fans, keep up the chant. You can win 6 out of 10 BCS championships, and you still are underachievers.

He should be happy; he's been grossly overpaid for years.

You're kind of blurring two issues here; first off, no defense works well without good athletes (and I agree that we don't have enough of them). Secondly, cover 2 is about having the safeties play deeper, one on each side of the field. This part of the scheme is something the Bills executed EXTREMELY well this year (were 1st or 2nd most of season in passer efficiency rating defense). There is nothing written in stone saying a cover 2 has to be with a 4-3 or 3-4 front, and there is no requirement that the D has small players, like Jauron and Fewell wound up putting on the field this year (perhaps it is over this issue that Nix views Frazier as an upgrade over Fewell). It IS necessary to have one LB on the field who can cover the middle of the field as well as a DB, but most teams regardless of scheme try to have a guy like that out there, anyway. I've posted before on Harbaugh; I saw enough of him the last couple years that I can say with conviction that he is a much better recruiter and motivator than game coach. He makes strange decisions, and IMO we'll be better off if he stays where he is.

I tore Haslett down pretty good in another thread, but if he can turn LaRon Landry into a player, I might change my mind. That dud makes Whitner look like a HoFer. (I meant to type "dude" and it accidentally came out "dud"; what do they call that, a Freudian typo?)

That quote from the chat makes it sound more like Modrak wanted Cushing over Maybin.

I agree with this. Back when I was an unrefined little pisspot, I thought it was hilarious when Haslett kicked Terry Bradshaw in the head. It wasn't; it was a punk move by a guy that is better at getting attention for himself than anything else. Just like his rambling about steroids.

The points you make are fair, but my recollection is there were several pass interference penalties on SF early in the game. These types of penalties wouldn't have much to do with crowd noise (other than to increase it afterwords). I readily admit that I am going solely on memory here, because complete historical boxscores and game reports are hard to find. And whether it was 25 or 22 is not exactly turning my argument on it's ear. Meanwhile, the Pats are getting punked, and I'm sure we agree that's a good thing.

I guess you misunderstood something I typed in a prior post, and I have no idea why. I never said anything bad about Johnson's performance in the Tennessee game. But once again, you prove my initial point; you have excuses out your wazoo about why Johnson didn't leave that game with a 158 passer rating, but you just won't concede that the same reasons why he didn't could possibly account for why Flutie had a few ragged games in '99. One game that was quite similar was the Baltimore game. It was obvious that the Ravens were building a top D (see: the following season), but winning the game wasn't enough. The AZ game, which I was at, a Cards DB who never made a good play his entire pro career made a circus catch INT. The two losses in the middle of the season against the Raiders and Seahawks...no defense those two days, and the Bills had to chuck and chuck and chuck the whole game. See what I mean? Excuses are easy to come by, and I could say the same thing you did...how would those games be different with Johnson? And there is an obvious answer....Rob would eventually have fallen on the ball again, and Doug would have been back out of necessity. And on that note, I'm outta here.

Hmmm. Almost sounds fair, if you can overlook the patronizing use of the term "Flutopians". But then you pretty much ignored what I wrote, and then added something that is utter nonsense about 2000.

I now pronounce myself "Mr. Indisputable!" Boy, that's not very hard to do.

And you're living in a dream world if you think things would have been better in 1999 if Johnson had been the starter...and my evidence is...2000! And 2001!

You must have forgotten how the 1998 season started; and you must have forgotten how things worked out the next season, too. And the one after that.

More like: Bills fans...still bitter that the Johnson fans would rather lose games than admit they were wrong.

Fitz as primary passer: 5-4 (won last 3 in Cincy last year, too) Edwards: 1-5 I'm not in love with Fitz, either. He had a few games where it looked like if he tried to pee on the field, he would have missed it. But the record is the record. The *team* plays far better with Fitz, and Edwards needs to reestablish himself somewhere else.

Now for the truth: (as Bills) Johnson: 1 rush per 6.0 pass attempts. Flutie, 1 rush per 6.2 pass attempts. Do I have to drag out the sacks per pass attempt stat, too?

Johnson's performance in the 49ers game is kind of overstated. The 49ers just didn't mentally show up for the game. They had something like 25 penalties that day. And eventually they did wake up and almost came back to win it. I agree with you that RJ did a heckuva job against the Titans; I don't think that winning the game would have altered the future for him. He was just a fragile guy (his wikipedia entry describes his elbow tendon before Tommy John surgery as being frayed from overuse; if I were him, I'd edit that myself, because that's just embarrassing), and he reacted horribly to defensive pressure. Somebody here asks the question, why is this still going on? Here's an answer: Johnson's fans, much like Edwards' fans today, have a litany of excuses why their man doesn't do better. Which is fine. Until they forget that the guy they don't like is winning with the same bad O-line, the same dumb coaches, etc.

Amen. No pun intended.

I don't see this article as proof any more than Marcellus Wiley saying it on ESPN a dozen times. He doesn't quote anyone; it's just connect-the-dots. Not that I don't believe it to be true.

I got you beat; In addition to the Bills, I root for the Mets, Knicks, and ASU. There's 4 turds floating in my bowl of soup.

I think Fred is more "turned out" than tuned in these days.

If you are right, I hope the new coach lives up to the way you spelled his name!