hondo in seattle

Celebrity chef, Geoffrey Zakarian, is a fan of the beef-on-weck at Charlie the Butcher. I had it the last time I was in Buffalo and it was good.

Now that I think about it, I think you're right. Still, Beane had two choices: A) Keep Diggs and his talent on the team. B) Get rid of Digg and his issues and take $31m hit. The fact that he chose Option B tells me all I want to know. I don't want him back.

I think he's the most exciting QB ever. He makes the most jaw-dropping plays. Sometimes he does thing with his arm that few others can do. Sometimes he does things with his legs few others can do. Sometimes he does both of those on the same play. But Brady and Brees, for example, we're just so frigging consistent. They were like machines, continually make good decisions, producing completion after completion. I haven't seen that level of consistency from Josh yet. One thing that bugs me, though, is that Josh has never had a good receiving group and a good OL in the same season. Part of his inconsistency and (admittedly overrated) turnover problem has been the need for him to run around and make plays under less-than-ideal circumstances.

I get what you're saying but I see it differently. It's not real money but it's not semantics either. By NFL accounting rules, it's just the same as if we wrote Diggs a check for $31 million. $70 million of Diggs' contract was guaranteed so I'm guessing some money did change hands when we traded Diggs though I don't know how much. I assume Diggs got the remainder of that $70m. In any case, the bookkeepers allocated $31 million for Diggs this year which meant we had $31 million less for other players. My point was, you don't take a dead cap hit like that unless you really want a player gone.

For brevity's sake (a lot of us have poor attention spans), this could have been two posts: (1) 30-point streak; (2) Philly. As for the streak, I don't really care. I just want the Bills to enter the playoffs healthy for once. And Brady came out swinging the past two games because he knew he had too. I expect a little more ground-and-pound against the Pats. Additionally, Joe and Josh have obviously found a rhythm but they've proven they're also capable of 10 point games. Sometimes DCs have great game plans. Sometimes offenses go cold. Sometimes both those things happen on the same Sunday. The 30-point streak will end. P.S. Welcome to the Mafia! Despite our occassional online curmudgeon grumpiness, it's a great place to be!

This is true but football is a team sport. While of Brady's hardware is impressive, I'm not entirely convinced that Brady was better than Drew Brees. For example, Brees has more 5,000 yard seasons than Brady and Mahomes combined. As well as six seasons completing over 70% of his passes. The guy was incredible. Do Brady and Mahomes have the rings because they were better QBs or because they played on better teams with better coaching staffs? OJ was a phenomenal player who played on bad teams. For example, the day OJ gained 273 yards, the QB was the inept Gary Marangi who went 4-19 for 29 yards. OJ got all those yards despite the defense focusing exclusively on him. It's not OJ's fault the Bills didn't win championships.

We ate 31 million in cap. That's the same as paying him.

Back in the 50s, 60s and early 70s - the very best athletes became running backs. Offenses revolved around bell cow running backs. Defenses were designed to stop running backs. And OJ may have been the greatest of the great. In 1973, when he gained 2003 yards, the back who would have led the league in rushing if not for OJ had 1144. When has another RB produced 75% more yards than the 2nd best guy? Or a QB? Or WR? Brady never did this; never came close. Tua had a great year last season: 4624 yards. Josh would have had to pass for over 8,000 yards to accomplish the equivalent of what OJ did in his best year.

And if he wasn't a killer. OJ's off-the-field exploits seem to make people underappreciate his other worldly on-the-field talent. And maybe that's how it should be. Back in the 1970's - before QBs took over the game - I would have argued that not only are Jim Brown and OJ the best RBs ever, they're the best football players ever.

I hope we set the world volume level for an open air stadium currently held by the Chiefs Kingdom: 142.2. The current Bills home game record is a mere 124.8 in the open bowl of Highmark.

I liked the first six words of your post but you lost me after that. I appreciate Diggs' talent. But Beane and McD decided to pay him $31 million this year. By my standards, that's a lot of money. And they paid him to go away - to play for someone else. I don't know what was going on in the locker room but when a team pays a player millions to go play for another team, that tells you something.

I wasn't sold on Brady last year. And after the Ravens game, I'd seen enough and wanted him gone. But I'm eating my words now. We're averaging 31.8 ypg without star receivers or RBs and we've scored 40+ the past two games. Brady has schemed running attacks in games, good passing attacks in other games, and several games with excellent balance. Obviously, the offense runs through Josh but beyond him there seems to be a new hero every week. Brady is impressing me. Hope he sets the record for most consecutive 30 point games and gets no job offers anyway.

So disappointed that this didn't count.

I have a lot of respect for the Bengals because of the class their coach, players, and fans showed when Hamlin got hurt. And yet I confess to a certain sadistic pleasure when watching our rivals fall apart.

I didn't want to go to Buffalo either but wasn't given a choice - my mom gave birth there. Met an Indian Silicon Valley techie who went to school at UB. Said he'll always have a love for Buffalo because people there are truly different. Although he currently lives in the Bay Area and is thus a 49er fan, he's also a big Bills fan. Says it was unavoidable after 4 years at UB - mafia mania is joyous, contagious, and bonds people together in a unique way. And that the unpretentious, warm people taught him a lot about "the American Way." Goff doesn't know what he missed and, in retrospect, I'm happy my mom pushed me out where she did.

One thing I'll add... in Josh's favor despite me thinking recency bias is a problem. When Brady was still playing, people were already hailing him as the GOAT largely because of the rings. But - other than the rings - how much better was Brady than some of his contemporaries: Brees, Manning, Rodgers, etc? These other guys often produced more yards, TDs, etc. But Brady played on better teams with better coaches and hoisted Lombardis. And, look, he was very talented but I never saw him make throws that other elite QBs couldn't make. His game was presnap reads, good decision making, and accuracy. His consistency is what wowed you, not any individual play. OJ, on the other hand, made plays no other RB could make. Bruce had sacks that very few others could have duplicated. Brady wasn't like that - but Josh is. Sometimes your jaw drops when he does something that makes you think something like: well, maybe Mahomes could have done that but no one else.

I think there's a certain group of fans who overrates Beane's roster-building and conversely underrates McD making lemonade with lemons. McD is the primary reason that our D has been mostly good the past 7 years. We've never been loaded with talent but McD has mostly made it work through scheme, teamwork, and preparation. But when the other team schemes on offense as well as we do on defense, then it became a matter of talent. And we lose that battle. Chris Simms, depressingly, put it this way: "Bills defense just doesn’t have a singular player who can wreck a game. They rely so much on scheme over talent. And when Bills play a team that can overpower them up front and get forced into M2M, it’s over."

I think there might be some recency bias here. Both Bruce and OJ are arguably GOATs at their positions. Bruce has the NFL career sack record. And back when offenses were built around RBs, OJ had a season when he nearly doubled the yardage of his nearest competitor. No other RB, QB, or WR ever had a season like that. It would be like a QB throwing for something like 8,000 yards this season. Few are claiming that Josh is the GOAT at QB. But I do acknowledge that QB is the most important position in football today and if I was drafting an all-time Bills team to play by today's rules, I'd draft him first.

I wore the zubaz sweats yesterday. They're undefeated so far this season.

The problem is that McD will sit Josh once we have a big lead. We might not get to 30. You forget to mention the Bills only practiced once last week because of the snowstorm. And still beat the hottest team in the league.

It's an awful weekend for sports only because I expect the Bills to lose. If the Bills in fact beat the Lions, it's a wonderful weekend IMHO regardless of what else is happening. Truly wonderful.

Judy Battista asks, "What did you get out of this?" Terry provides a very nice answer that has never mentions the main truth: He got hundreds of millions of dollars without giving up any control. I'm not criticizing, just saying. It's kind of like asking free agents why they chose to sign with a certain team. They rarely answer, "They offered the most money" even though that was usually the deciding factor.

I once read an article by a pizza connoisseur who had traveled all over the US sampling pizza. He said two of the best cities were obvious: NY and Chicago. But he opined that he'd place two other cities in the top three: Detroit and Buffalo. For me, pizza is THE choice for Sunday's game.

I don't watch Goff a lot and have never noticed that weakness. I hope it becomes obvious even to folks like me on Sunday.

It's a team sport. In the Rams game, Allen was the entire team. The defense didn't show up. The run game (outside of Allen) didn't show up. The special teams didn't show up. Allen was a spectacular one-man show and that wasn't enough. And, sadly, the Lions have a better overall team. But I sincerely hope you're right.