Rivermont Mike

^^^^^This! This! This!

The blog says the "fans and players" were asking for it. I think it's a pretty bad-ass look. Hey, maybe it works...

If they blow out the Packers it'll make your blue pants brown. GO BILLS!!!!!!

Right there with you.

Well, there was the call for the bootleg/hook-slide with intentional loss to set up a more-manageable 4th and 3. Come on, man! EDIT: GO BILLS!!!!

Amen.

Bills to the playoffs? Simple. We need to beat Green Bay; and the Falcons, Patriots, Raiders, Colts, Jaguars, Browns, and Broncos need to win. Boom. 6th seed at the end of Week 14. ATL is1.5 point dogs vs. PIT. OAK is a 10 point dog @ KC. JAX is a 13.5 dog @ BAL (ouch). CLE is a 1.5 point dog vs. CIN. (We're a six-point dog at The Ralph, but we'll take care of business.) GO BILLS!!!

^^^This. How in the *@#$ do you "power rank" 14 years of futility? Come on.

Back that up with facts. Four of 14 first-round QBs in the past five years are successful. Here are their first-year stats (or first 15 or 16 games) and a comparison to EJ (from nfl.com): Stafford - 13 games 1st and 2nd years: 19 TD/21 INT Newton - 16 games 1st year: 21 TD/17 INT Luck - 16 games 1st year: 23 TD/18 INT Tannehill - 16 games 1st year: 12 TD/13 INT EJ Manuel - 15 games 1st and 2nd years: 16 TD/12 INT So, maybe EJ is not the answer. But what if he needs just a bit more time to develop? Your impatience with the Bills not going to the playoffs has nothing to do with the right or wrong way to develop a quarterback. Orton's numbers are 14/7 for this year (http://www.nfl.com/p...444/careerstats). He's a veteran. So how do these numbers demonstrate that EJ is worse than Orton--or any of the successful 1st round picks, for that matter? EDIT: GO BILLS!!!!!!!

Fact: There have been 14 quarterbacks picked in the first rounds from 2009 to 2014 who were on their team for at least one season. Four are starting and considered bona fides by their management or by analysts. 10 are considered busts, soon-to-be-replaced, disappointments or career backups. This link has career yardage, rating, and TD/INT data. The bona fides: Stafford, Newton, Luck, Tannehill The not-so-muches: Sanchez, Freeman, Bradford, Tebow, Locker, Gabbert, Ponder, Griffin III, Weeden, EJ The question: Given all this, is EJ a bust or is it too soon to call? If you answer "bust," back it up with data. I say that it is way too soon to make the call on this guy. To call him a bust at this point, in my opinion, is a knee-jerk reaction based on wishful thinking. If you're looking for the next "franchise quarterback" and you're hoping for the next Luck, you're going to be looking for a long time. A 28.5 percent success rate (and some of those guys on the bona fide list looked crappy their first year or two) is not really sufficient to call EJ a bust yet.

I agree completely, C.B97. It's even worse for Bills fans because 1) they love their team, 2) they know how important the QB position is, 3) we haven't been to the playoffs for a million years, 4) they see other teams' @*#& sixth-rounders become HOF QBs, and 5) there's this pervasive "win right now" mentality. In fact, the number of first-round QBs that make an immediate impact is relatively small. I don't think that this has anything to do with the right or wrong way to develop a starting quarterback. This is about impatience and "I've given thousands of dollars to this team so I deserve _______." The QB position has been particularly bad, and I get frustrated week after week watching our D hand the ball to our O and us come away with three points or nothing. KO is the latest in a succession of disappointments, most of whom never had a prayer because they were surrounded by bad coaching and questionable talent or because they were being compared to #12. How do you win in either of those scenarios? Best case scenario, IMHO, is a FA pickup of an experienced QB who actually has something to offer EJ. Also, my Christmas wish is that TSW will stop with the "EJ is a bust" nonsense. While I am waiting for that to happen, I'm going to hop on my magical unicorn (the one that farts gold coins) and take a ride to the other side of the rainbow.

This is the key question. I'll be honest, during OTAs and training camp I was drinking the Kool-Aid. I wasn't thinking playoffs, but I definitely was looking for a winning record. Then the preseason games hit, and I was praying for 8-8 and expecting 6-10 again. So, yeah, this season has been a surprise.There are gaps. Shore up the O-line and you have the option of sticking a mobile third-year QB back there or heading to free agency to pick up a veteran. Either way--with better pass protection, this offense converts more third downs and dominates the ground game. And that lets the OC and QB start opening up the passing game.

With all due respect to a lot of other posters whose contributions I enjoy, you are now my second-favorite contributor on TSW. My favorite is the guy who does the "A few thoughts about the game in no particular order" posts. Those are excellent. That said, I appreciate that you walked through this team point-by-point and highlighted the positive. I don't believe in moral victories or any of that crap, but there are positive indicators on which the 2014 Bills can build. There are serious needs, to be sure, but you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Thanks, Section 122. I was having a pretty lousy post-Sunday Monday, and your post helped a lot.

I agree. Speaking of the view from Denver, I Googled "Kyle Orton slide" and guess what comes up first on the results: Today's column by the inimitable Mr. Jerry Sullivan. I know that he's not a Bills fan, and I know that he's not paid to be a "homer," but Hell--now he's writing stuff that even the opposing team's media can rerun. Link to Sully's article.

So...your team is down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and trying to come back and you consider that garbage time? You know, you're right, because NO team has ever come back from a three-touchdown deficit to win a game. How silly of me to think that it is even possible. (And don't give me the "the Bills were playing like crap so..." BS. I saw that the game was a hot mess, but they were still in it.) Did you declare it garbage time at the beginning of the 4th and stop watching the game, or were you sitting there hoping like most of the rest of us that they would somehow put up the points? If it's the former, then you're right. If it's the latter, then you're an analyst with razor-sharp 20-20 hindsight. Those seem to be in abundance on TSW.

No need to eat crow. The media don't want to appear to be out of their minds for picking a team that, on paper, they believe has no chance to win. (Except Ditka, who's awesome.) After 14 years of no-playoff football, it's a hell of a lot easier and safer for a Bills fan to take a fatalistic approach, pile up the sandbags, and come out with "Well, I hope they win, but [insert masses of O and D data, in-depth analysis, "I'm not a homer," etc.] here. Many of them have never seen the Bills have a winning season, so I cannot blame them. I think it is safe to assume that just about everyone on here, save for a few trolls, are passionate Bills fans. Everyone deals with that in a different way and there no right or wrong. If someone wants to assert that "just because I think Hackett is a _____, it doesn't mean that I'm not a fan," fine. If someone (like me) wants to follow the team for 48 years and yell at a TV screen hundreds of miles from The Ralph and end every season with, "Next year they'll put it together," that doesn't make me any more or any less a fan. If you love this team and want to B word about the coaching, players, stadium, go for it. If you love this team and want to do the opposite, go for it. If I see "Go Bills!" at the end of a post, I don't care what the person has written--I know they feel the same way I do about this team. No crow. No apologies. No regrets. GO BILLS!!!!

GO DITKA! GO BILLS!

Mental health?

Here's an idea for fans--the Bills are already doing this: How about we focus on going 1-0 on Sunday?

"Losing feeling in my toes." "Nothing like a new car smell" "Chicken parm you taste so good." "Jerry Hughes you crushed my nads." -- Peyton "Nationwide" Manning Edit: Oh yeah. Predictions. Bills 31 Denver 30.

Williams did Johnny Football a favor by shoving him to the ground. If he hit Manziel full-on at full speed and landed on top of him, there'd be nothing left but an orange-y-brown, ego-soaked, greasy smear.

I agree with you. If you're managing an NFL team (which is *always* a good investment) as part of a extensive portfolio of businesses and your objective is to maximize profit, then favoring Littman makes sense. That was Wilson's approach. If your NFL team is a predominant part of the your holdings, then hiring football people and beancounters who can strike a balance makes sense. We will find out where the Pegulas stand over the next few years.

For. The. Win.

Heated cup holders.

Yeah, yeah. But what do the New York Times analytics say we should do?