st. pete gogolak

Sung to "I Believe" from "The Book of Morman" Ever since I was a child, I followed the Buffalo Bills. So what happened? My friends said that I was a just a little bit off. So what happened? It was supposed to be all so exiciting Watching a professional football team. But I allowed my faith to be shaken Oh what's the matter with me? I've always hoped for a winner. Why do other teams have all the luck. This was a time for my Bills to step up. So then, why do they always suck. A coach who punts from the opponents' 35? What's so bad about that? I must trust in our coach and front office Despite their penchant for drafting defensive backs. Now I must be completely devoted I can't have one shred of doubt. . . I believe that E.J. Manuel will be a franchise quarterback I believe that the Music City Miracle was won on a forward pass And I believe that Bill Polian was fired for calling Ralph Wilson's daughter the "C" word I am a Bills fan And a Bills fan just believes. You cannot just believe part way. You have to believe it will be fixed. My problem was doubting the blueprint Instead of believing in Buddy Nix. I can't allow myself to have any doubt It's time to set my worries free Time to show the world what Buffalo Bills football is all about And time to put off cancelling my DirecTV I believe it makes sense to keep using first round draft picks on running backs I believe we would have beat Tennessee if Wade Phillips hadn't been ordered to sit Doug Flutie And I believe Nicole Brown Simpson was killed by Columbian drug dealers. I am a Bills fan And dang it, a Bills' fan just believes. I know that I must continue to watch I can't be a fair weather fan I realize what's at stake If you can keep the faith Your prayers will be answered Just believe And have no fear! I believe Bill Billichek is really Satan! I believe the refs actually said "just give it to them". And I believe that in 1980 if Joe Ferguson hadn't suffered a high ankle sprain in the next to last regular season game the Bills would have won the Super Bowl. You can be a Bills fan A Bills fan who just believes! I believe that the Bills will win the Super Bowk in my lifetime. I believe that the Bills will never, ever leave Buffalo. And I believe that we play one home game a year in Toronto so that we can put a better product on the field. And you'll know it's all true. You'll just feel it. You'll be a Bills fan. And by gosh, A Bills fan just believes! Oh, I believe! I believe!

I think this is on topic. The really good coaches evaluate the talent that they have and adjust their schemes accordingly. Case in point. In the mid-80's, one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the league - Bruce Smith - lands in their lap. At that point, the Bills had been running a 3-4 for less than 10 years. Do they look at Smith (who I believe played at around 260 - 270 pounds) and say, "we have potentially the most dominant 4-3 DE in the history of the league! Let's change our system to accomodate him"? Nope, they stick with a 3-4 for the entire length of his career with Buffalo. Did he have a great, Hall of Fame career? Yes. Did he break the all-time sack record? Yes. But he did it in spite of the system the Bills were running, not because of it. The moral of the story is no matter what you've committed to in the past, look at your talent and adjust.

That must be the reason why the Convicts beat the Guards in "The Longest Yard".

Traditionally, to run a successful 3-4, you need first and foremost, a massive NT to plug up the middle and two athletic "tweeners" who can defend the run and rush the passer from the OLB position. The best thing John Butler ever did was bring in Ted Washington and Bryce Paup to play in Wade Phillips' 3-4. Nobody ran againt Ted Washington. (The only player I ever saw push Washington around was Barrett Robbins of the Raiders and God knows what chemicals he was on that day.) I don't see us having any of those players, with the exception of a vey healthy Merriman. Yes, Williams and Dareus can play NT and Dareus can play DE in a 3-4, but why play your two best defenders out of position? Barnett is a hell of a player. I can't believe that they can't find a spot for him in a 4-3. One thing we agree on. Either 4-3 or 3-4, we simply must improve DRAMATICALLY at OLB to even field a competitive defense.

I'd love to but I don't think any of these guys are still playing.

It's not a slam dunk but I think it's a 4-3. Your best two players - K. Williams and Dareus - are natural DT's in a 4-3 and would make a potentially dominant twosome in the middle. The guy you drafted to be your NT - Troup - looks like a bust and no great loss if you move to a 4-3. If he can back up at DT, fine. You always look to rotate DL anyway. At DE, Kelsey is serviceable for another year, maybe two. At OLB, he's hopeless. At the other DE, Quinten Couples? If not, give Carrington a year at a 4-3 DE. He's shown flashes. You may have to move D. Edwards as he is best suited to 3-4 end. I agree that LB is a mess one way or the other. If you bring Merriman back, you can certainly bring him back as a situational pass rusher in a 4-3. That may be the proper role for him anyway, in either a 4-3 or a 3-4. Barnett and Sheppard are best suited as inside backers in a 3-4. Can one go outside in a 4-3 and can one play MLB in a 4-3? I'd like to think so but I'm not 100% sure. Either way, you definitely have to go FA to pick up an OLB and spend a high draft pick on a DE (if you go 4-3) or OLB (if you go 3-4).

The firing part was tongue in cheek. Seriously though, I don't think it's a good thing when your head coach is also your offensive coordinator. I'm all for firing Edwards but while you're at it, how about bringing in a legitimate offensive coordinator as well.

Being somewhat masochistic and having a hatred for Gregg Williams, I always thought the most interesting negative Bills' statistic was Greggo's defense going almost two full years without an interception from a safety. Think about that and let it sink in. It's almost an impossibility. New all-time low has to be going zero for twenty-three in third down conversions against your so-called division rival in one year. ZERO FOR TWENTY THREE. Isn't anything a firing offense around One Bills Drive these days?

Bills' Front Office to fans: "You f***ed up. You trusted us." Animal House.

Of course, if we had beaten Cinci and the Giants, we would have been 7-0 at that point in the season and now we would be 7-6, on the verge of losing our last nine games and in the middle of the most historic collapse in all of NFL history. Really, is that better than where we are now?

26.5 sacks in a nine year career! That's two good (not great) years for a good NFL DE or OLB. There is simply no better representative of Buffalo Bills football for the period 2000 - 2011 than Chris Kelsay. A monument to mediocrity!

Jimmy Johnson was on Mike & Mike the other day talking about how you don't want to have your head coach involved in play-calling. You want your head coach to be "managing the game", essentially telling his coordinators to speed the game up, slow it down, blitz more, etc. I think Chan is an outstanding offensive coordinator. I'm not sold on him as a head coach. If he is going to be head coach next year (which I am sure he will), the front office should consider bringing in a REAL OC, in addition to bringing in a REAL DC.

This is becoming urban legend. Dallas used its own #1 pick to draft Ware. It used the pick from the Losman trade to draft the immortal Bobby Carpenter. Doesn't make the Losman trade any better but if the deal ended up being Losman for Ware then you can rank it up there with LaMonica for Art Powell.

Good recall. That may have been the first "worst" game. Led to Joel Collier being fired and replaced by interim coach Harvey Johnson. I've never looked it up but Harvey may have the worst all-time won-loss record for NFL head coaches. Two stints as interim head coach with a stellar 2-23-1 record.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. What big name free agents did we sign this year? Brad Smith (waste of money) and Nick Barnett (nice pick-up). How about the year before? Cornell Green, Andra Davis and Dwan Edwards. How about the year before that? Drayton Florence? (I'm doing this from memory, can't go back that far.) I've love to see the Bills go after someone like Vincent Jackson and free them from having to draft a wide receiver but it never, ever happens. Ever.

Marv Levy absolutely, positively should have been fired after Super Bowl XXVII. If the goal is winning a Super Bowl you knew - you absolutely, positively knew - after that game that Levy would never win a Super Bowl, especially with that group of players. I've never been more embarrassed being a Bills fan than after that game. How he is in the Hall of Fame is beyond me. Good coach? Heck, yes. Great coach? Not in a million years. Oh yeah, we fired Polian after that game. So, to me, it's hands down the worst game in Bills history.

This is an interesting exercise to go through. Take another team, say New England. Who makes it for Top 5? Brady, of course. Gronkowski for sure. Welker and Mankins probably. Wilfork and Mayo maybe. What does that tell you? All draft choices, except for Welker who was a minor free agent pick-up. Green Bay. Rogers for sure. Jennings and Finley, maybe. Raji, Matthews and Woodson? Again, all draft choices except Woodson. Jets - Revis, Mangold, maybe Harris. All draft choices. I'm guessing that this is true for just about every team. Almost all of their Top 5 are home grown draft choices. It's not anything that every poster on this board didn't already know but it just hammers it home yet again. THE KEY AND MAYBE THE ONLY KEY IS DRAFTING WELL AND HOLDING ON TO THE TALENT THAT YOU DRAFT!

Bingo! I'm ok with this if the plan is to resign Bell and have Pears and Hairston fight it out for starting RT, with Hairston being able fill in at LT if Bell goes down. But, I'm afraid with the Bills that's not the plan. This guarantees that Hairston will be penciled in at starting LT with no obvious back-up on the roster. So, Hairston, who looks like a real find as a road-grader RT, will be somewhat out of position at LT, with a just above journeyman RT and zero depth. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Not worried. Just rank speculation.

This really should have its own thread under the title "Rate John Butler's Reign as Bills' GM". I agree that Polian's firing was the beginning of the end but I think your critique of Butler is too harsh in some respects and not harsh enough in other respects. You're way too hard on Butler's drafts. Butler had a real knack for finding pretty good football players at the bottom of the first round. Fina was a servicable left tackle for a decade. Maybe a grade below someone like a Matt Light. I'd take that in a heartbeat. Burris and Thomas Smith were quality NFL cornerbacks for a long time. Sam Cowert was a great pick. The Antoine Winfield/Peerless Price/Shawn Bryson/Keith Newman draft was a great draft. He hired Wade Phillips, a great DC and a better head coach than the clowns that came after him. He put together the best free agent class in Bills' history (Ted Washington, Bryce Paup and Jim Jeffcoat -all designed to make a 3-4 defense work). On the other hand, he had no concept how to handle a salary cap and gave too much money to scrubs like Ken Irvin and Jerry Ostroski. He had no clue how to find a qb (Todd Collins was a bad pick, traded for Billy Joe Hobart and made one of the two or three worst trades in Bills' history by trading a #1 and a #4 for Rob Johnson and then compounded that mistake by immediately giving him a huge contract before he played a down for the Bills. Of course, he had the guts to sign Flutie so he should get credit for that. And yeah, he had some bad drafts, topped off by the all-time FU to Ralph - the 2000 draft of Erik Flowers, Tavares Tillman and Corey Moore. Given all the above I have to say that John Butler was a seriously overrate GM and clearly is at least partially responsible for the situation the Bills find themselves in today.

Clearly, they are not the Packers. But that begs the question why? The Packers have a terrific front office and we have a horrific front office. Your reason no. 1 is in my opinion full explanation for why the Packers are great and we stink. My only point was that I don't think the other three reasons are legitimate and that you only have to look at the Packers to prove the point.

Now that Miami has dumped Sparano, the rumor mill has cranked up and has Miami taking a run at Cowher. Frankly, I don't see him going back to coaching but if he did, he obviously has a man-crush on Gailey. Would Gailey leave a head coaching gig to take an OC gig under Cowher? Before you dismiss it out of hand consider (1) when Gregg Williams was fired he would up as the Redskins' DC with a PAY RAISE from his salary as Bills' HC; and (2) isn't that essentially what Mike Mularky did?

I don't have a response to (1) but here is my response to (2), (3) and (4). With respect to (2) the Green Bay Packers. With respect to (3) the Green Bay Packers. With respect to (4) the Green Bay Packers. In other words, the last three reasons you give for why the franchise stinks are pure BS.

Turner's gone. I think Spagnola's gone in STL. (Now there is a potenial DC if he is interested.) Coughhlin stays. Reid stays. Garrett - may depend on how last three weeks go. Raheem Morris in Tampa Bay should be fired but Buc's owners the Glazers are far cheaper than Ralph and are loath to eat a contract.

With Houston in the playoffs, if the Lions get in, it will leave us out there by our lonesome. Twelve years and no playoffs. Good in one sense. I hate the posts where the argument is, "yeah we suck but [fill in the blank] is worse". After this year, you can't use that as a crutch. It's just us. Do you realize that since the 2001 season, New England has won over TWICE as many games as the Bills? TWICE!!!! They've AVERAGED over 12 wins a season. We've won 9 games. Once. Can you imagine an owner who would put up for one second being dominated so completely by a division rival? But our owner is comatose, his minions care about the bottom-line to the exclusion of all else and his heirs care about maximizing their take once he is gone. Good Lord, MAKE IT STOP!