dpberr

Carpenter is having an off year by his standards. So what. Norwood and Christie had lean years too.

It's all fun and games until you're the one cowering under the table waiting for death to come. The United States has an Islamic terrorism problem. It also has a drug cartel, organized crime and gang problem. It has a mental illness problem. We have a problem taking the gloves off and addressing any of the above. What it does not have is a gun problem. I don't recall after OKC that we had a fertilizer and U-haul truck problem. Or after 9/11 an airplane problem.

They need to start firing these referees instead of reassigning them to other games.

The one thing no player on the defense has is the experience. One of the reasons the Ryan scheme worked well in Baltimore and New York was because you had guys like Ray Lewis and David Harris anchoring that linebacker unit. They instinctively knew the scheme and what to apply when. IMO, they ask a lot of Preston Brown. He's only in his second year, and he's not only the shot caller of a complicated defense but he's also got to out strategize the opposing quarterback. If there was one Jets player that *should* have come to the Bills, it was David Harris.

I enjoy the show's attention to detail. You feel like you're watching something filmed in 1979. Only show on TV that I have an interest in watching "live." I found the Ronald Reagan a bit odd and I don't understand the whole UFO angle that they are pushing.

Robert Kraft.

One of these days we will get serious about mental health issues and background checks. I'm a gun owner and appreciate the right to own guns. However, I'm not blind to the fact that something has to be done to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable as much as we can. I'm not a big fan of the President but he has a point - there are people on No-Fly lists that can't fly on an airplane but could walk into a gun store and purchase weapons. There are people who can't purchase fertilizer yet can purchase weapons. Post OKC, the Feds assembled a watch list due to concerns you had others out there manufacturing truck bombs. There are people who have PFAs against them and yet can purchase weapons. We can clean up the background checks and the loopholes without taking all the guns away. I've never understood why the NRA refuses to support measures like those.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic. If you watched the Steelers/Seahawks game, the Steelers secondary is a complete disaster. Further, Jarvis Jones is too fat and slow and Ryan Shazier is too thin and injury prone at linebacker. If they combined the two, they'd have one good linebacker. The defense will betray them - they aren't an automatic lock. Really, if we're talking the 6th seed, no one is a lock.

The Steelers are starting Russ Cockrell. They can lose two games just like anyone else.

Bills Spurs Pirates Being a Pirates fan prepares you for being a Bills fan. The Pirates went 21 seasons without a playoff appearance. Spoiled by over two decades of outstanding Spurs basketball.

Philly is a mess. Crap offense and defense schemes. His knees will ultimately betray him but he's a solid linebacker.

Tony Romo. Cowboys go nowhere without him.

Schwartz's defense played to the strength of the talent on hand, whether by design or good fortune. Ryan's defense ignores that consideration completely. Anyone who drops freaking MARCEL DAREUS into coverage should be fired ten seconds after that play.

Pulled? Let's do "fired" instead. I think once some of these fools lose their jobs, the others will study that rule book a little more intently.

The coaching and the leadership have been a big disappointment. I agree that the failure of this year is almost all on Ryan and his staff. Their hubris has killed this season. Another poster on the board (in another thread) summed it up - he never saw a coaching staff go out of their way to game plan away from the team's strengths. The coaching staff has made the critical error of believing their own press. We have perhaps the best front four in all of football. Let's not blitz. Not elaborate enough! We have this fantastic wide receiver. Let's not throw to him. Way too simple. We have this fantastic fullback. Let's only use him sparingly in the run game. Fullbacks? That's not trendy.

I too am one of those fans that feel the Bills had their shot and missed. The Bills just can't get this coaching thing right.

You assume a private business has any obligation whatsoever to be "fair" to the consumers. Free agency is what did it for me. That was the day the NFL started dying a slow death. It was a private business instituting mandatory asset reallocation for the purpose of controlling the product to make even more money.

LSU will give him a blank check. I think Les Miles will go to Miami or try a Texas rebuild. What sucks for Philadelphia is Lurie pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table for Chip Kelly and that's a bet with years of consequences.

It won't end until the majority of owners revolt and seek change from within. For now, they are fat and happy just making lots of money on their purchases. Have to remember, Kraft is at the apex of his power, at the head of the table. He put his own guy in the Commissioners office. He's got the legalized sports betting "fantasy football" that was years in the making, and an extremely profitable franchise. All of them are making great money because of him. Ralph Wilson irritated many of the "new" owners over the years - he was often the lone dissenting opinion in a sea of yes men owners on subjects ranging from free agency to CBAs - and I think he and his franchise paid for it.

No. Absolutely not. I think linebacker is a pressing need.

I know I'm just a fan but I've watched every game this season of Roman's offense and I don't understand it from one game to the next. As I stated in another thread, we deliberately will not throw to Clay or Watkins. We ignored Robert Woods for the entire season until last night. Why do we have a fullback yet run out of shotgun sets a lot? Why won't you throw to your best players EVERY game? We have one great pass catching TE in Clay and a good one in Gragg yet we won't throw to them. To me, it's bizarre. It feels like a coordinator trying to out think the room just like Hackett did.

All of those games are winnable. They aren't "beating the Patriots in Foxboro" odds. You are competing against Alex Smith, TJ Yates and Ryan Fitzpatrick. It's a gauntlet we can get through. The Steelers are a huge IF given their injuries. They are about as sure a bet as we are.

I don't understand the offensive play calling. We will focus on Watkins or Clay some games, ignore them others. We don't pass to Woods for most of the season, last night we did. We have a FB yet run a lot out of one-back shotgun.

I applaud the OP for the topic. At this point, I only watch the Bills with interest. I love the Bills. I'll casually watch the other games but I'd say I'm more of a Bills fan than I am an NFL fan. I think the NFL product has suffered from too many teams, too many rules. The game experience inside the stadium has deteriorated too - it is too expensive and not family-friendly. When you ask people about what they think is the golden era of NFL football, you'd be surprised at how people answer with nearly any decade before free-agency and BIG NFL.

Doesn't a 3-4 defense beat an ACE formation? You almost need your light coverage linebackers from circa 2009 back.