hondo in seattle

Buffalo is a somewhat bigger version of Dayton - both midwestern, rust-belt cities - but Buffalo is on the water, so maybe a trip to Canalside or some other waterfront locale might be nice. Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy!

At a 66-year old man, I can neither confirm nor deny these reports. Happy Birthday, SDS!

Zach Wilson vs. Joe Burrow (2021) Zach Wilson: 14/22 for 102 yards, 1 passing TD, 91 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD → QBR: 92.4 Joe Burrow: 37/46 for 525 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs (historic day) → QBR: 89.3 Huh?

I don't even like country but this is freaking awesome! Am I out of touch or is a song about an individual football game unusual?

I didn't know about this. I'll have to check it out next time I'm in Buffalo. This is a little idiosyncratic, but I visit Parkside Chocolate on Main Street roughly every other time I'm in town. I like chocolate and I like architecture and Parkside Chocolate is a little, decaying architectural gem with decent chocolates, including Buffalo's unique "sponge candy."

Here's the problem... Passer rating evaluates efficiency, not contribution. Imagine this game... We're playing a team with a great O line and All-Pros at the skill positions. But their starting QB and his backup are both hurt. The Head Coach has zero confidence in the 3rd-stringer and only allows him to throw 6 passes during the game - all screens against a D that doesn't respect the QB and only worries about the run game. The QB's stat line is 4-6 for 40 yards with zero picks and zero TDs. Meanwhile, Josh goes 40 for 60 for 400 yards against a D that's intensely focused on stopping him, moves the team up and down the field, rushes for 4 TDs, and leads his team to a 34-0 victory. Despite his heroics, Josh's passer rating will be the same as the scrub's. They both had the same completion, interception, and TD percentage, as well as the same yards per attempt. That's crazy.

QBR has had some other weird anomalies over the years. I probably like it less than 'passer rating' but don't like either one.

Where are you coming from?

First of all, I hope you have fun and the Bills deliver a victory! As a former Buffalonian who (I duck as I type this) has visited and lived in bigger & better cities, I'll say that Buffalo has its charms. IMHO it's food scene is not world-class. It doesn't have any Michelin-starred restaurants. As far as I know, no James Beard award-winning chefs. Asian food is far better on the West Coast. Latin food is far better in the border states. Almost everything is better in NYC. But I do highly recommend the Buffalo classics: Wings and Beef-on-Weck. And if there were a way to measure this, I think Buffalo would lead the nation in most good pizzerias per capita. "Buffalo Pizza" with its cup-and-char pepperoni and cheesy overload is a thing in its own right. You can find some good Polish food, too, since a lot of Poles live in Buffalo. In my opinion, btw, Mighty Taco (mentioned previously) used to be awesome but has faded over the years into a grim shadow of Taco Bell. Niagara Falls is a must-see. Both the Canadian and American sides (including Goat Island). The Maid of the Mist boat ride is definitely worth the money. It'll take you to a spot where you're nearly surrounded by cascading water. Very cool. If you're into architecture, there's a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the city and another about 20 or 30 minutes to the south. Both are open to the public. In fact, there's a lot of good/great architecture in Buffalo dating to the early 1900s when Buffalo was a booming metropolis, though much of it is in rough condition now. The zoo and some of the museums are decent. In my opinion, none are must-see. If you like presidential history, you can see the house where McKinley died after being shot in Buffalo, and a different house a few blocks away where Teddy Roosevelt was then sworn in. But of these are skippable, too. Delaware Park (mentioned previously) is frustrating. It was beautifully designed in the 1860s by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the same landscape architects who designed Central Park and some other fantastic spaces. But in the 1960s, we stupidly built a highway down the middle of Delaware Park, forever scarring it. I recommend wearing Bills gear every day. The Mafia is for real. I've lived in or near KC, SF, Oakland, Indy, Atlanta, Seattle, San Diego, and St. Louis, and been to nearly every other NFL city. Buffalo's love of their team is different. You might want to stop at The Bills Store, next to the stadium, to get outfitted.

Jimmy, you make TBD a more entertaining place. Thank you. I'll shed a tear for you when your J-E-S-T-S get crushed this weekend.

You make a good case, and I hate arguing against Josh because I love the guy and believe he carries this offense. But the traditional way of measuring offensive skill players is by how many yards they produce versus their positional peers. So let's look at the top ten rushers in OJ's MVP season and the top 10 passers in Josh's MVP season. OJ had nearly as many yards as the next two very talented guys combined. Josh didn't even make the list. And, btw, OJ won MVP with 95% of the votes. Josh barely edged out Lamar 383-362, and a few people voted against Lamar only because they thought Lamar already had two MVPs and it was Josh's turn to get one. Josh is great. But he's not head-and-shoulders above his peers the way OJ was. NFL fans and analysts argue who the best QB is today: Josh, Mahomes, Burrow, etc. There was no serious argument in OJ's day who the best RB was.

The 7-11 Defense There's 11 on the field but they play like there's only 7, and someone's always open.

Well, only if you count that one pass the opposing QB threw away and Hawes caught while sitting on the bench.

It's not OJ's fault the team around him sucked. But I'll acknowledge that Josh probably adds more W's to the win column than OJ did. Still, the Bills have never had a player as dominant as OJ was in his prime.

With 9 years of experience, this guy has a career average of 47.3 yards per punt (net 42.2). He supposedly excels at deep directional punting and has 183 punts downed inside the red zone. In 2024, he signed a 3-year, $9 million contract with the Steelers, but injured his ACL in Week 1 and missed the rest of the season. When Johnston got hurt last year, the Steelers signed Corliss Whitman to replace him. The two punters duked it out this preseason for the job. Johnston lost.

I don't think our starting trio is as weak as you think it is, but I do agree with this: Beane hasn't done Josh a lot of favors. Earlier in his career, it was only Josh's athleticism that kept him somewhat upright. You'd think a GM with a great QB would want to give him a great bodyguard. Beane took his time with that. You'd also think that a GM would give his talented thrower some good guys to throw to. Beane success with that has been a mixed bag. I miss the days when the Bills had Reed, Lofton, and Beebe on the same roster. I'm afraid that when Josh retires and his critics, looking at the stats, assert he wasn't the GOAT or doesn't deserve the HOF or junk like that, his apologists will say, "Well, he had a sh*tty line for half his career and sh*tty receivers for the other half."

I occasionally check out other boards. It's not just homerism to say ours is better. It just is. Thanks, all.

Good point, but I'd rather forget that one.

I disagree. Even Moore and Curtis Samuel are borderline #2s. Each has started about half their NFL games. I agree that Shakir, Palmer, and Coleman aren't #1s. But they would all be starters on most other teams.

As great as the game was, I don't know if it warrants a name. The Comeback, 13 Seconds, The Homerun Throwback - those were all playoff games. This game, arguably, wasn't as meaningful and won't be as memorable. But if I had to name it, I'd riff off the previous suggestions: The 15-716 Game.

I get the point but what he really needs to do is practice good leadership. I knew army leaders who were skinny and somewhat nerdy who nonetheless successfully led guys into combat. Unlike McDaniel, they had a command presence, spoke with confidence, acted decisively, and led by example. I do appreciate that Tua said something to the effect that McDaniel was the first coach to believe in him. Good stuff. But I remember seeing McDaniel on Hard Knocks or whatever and thinking: "That guy is not a leader of men."

Hold on a minute. I hate to bring this up because I don't like the man but... Back when the best athletes became RBs, and RBs were winning Heismans and getting picked #1 overall in the draft, and coaches believed you had to establish the run first, and defenses defended the run first, and LBers were brutal RB-killers with manly names like Dick Butkis and Chuck Bednarik, we had OJ. In 1973, the best of the league's freakishly talented RBs could only manage at best 1,144 yards against the era's man-eating defenses. Except for OJ, who ran for 2,003 yards. That would be something like Josh throwing for 7,000 yards one year when Lamar, Mahomes, and today's other greats only threw for 4,000 at best. No accomplishment in the NFL comes close to what OJ did in 1973. And, btw, Joe Ferguson only threw for 939 yards that year despite starting every game. We had no passing attack. OJ was our offense, and defenses that were already pre-built to stop the run focused exclusively on him. The opponent's game plan was simple: stop OJ and you win. But no one could.

True. And then the other thing about Brady was his diet and fitness regimen that allowed him to play at a high level for a long time and smash a bunch of career records.

Similar story. I made Buffalo Wings and wore my 17 Jersey - to no avail. But in the 4th quarter, I brought my husky (wearing her own gear) into the living room where I was watching the game. "Snow, you stay with me for the rest of the game and bring me luck."

From a game theory, statistical, and/or probabilistic point of view, it was the right decision. Simple math says so. From a subjective point of view, it's hard to say. How much would've that first two-point conversion, which was likely to be converted, meant beyond the scoreboard in terms of momentum and team morale? How much would failing the two-point conversion - which was unlikely but did happen - hurt momentum and morale? Given the probabilities, was it worth the risk? You decide. But I think a lot of coaches would've made the same decision that Sean made.