chicot

? What did Iran have to do with 9/11?

Never said that they were just a minor inconvenience. Obviously, they can cause death and injury and are terrifying to those affected by them. Nevertheless, there's no chance they will destroy Israel. What Israel needs to do is what it has always needed to. Obey international law, dismantle their illegal settlements and withdraw from all occupied territories and allow the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. In the long term, the biggest threat to Israel is not terrorism but simple demographics. Sooner or later, the Palestinian population in Israel and the West Bank is going to be the majority. At which point, the Palestinians can simply say "fine, you won't give us our land back. Annexe the West Bank and give us the vote then."

Destroyed? I don't think there's much chance of Hamas's rockets doing that. What I'm getting at is whether or not the Israeli action will actually achieve the aim of stopping the rockets. I don't think it will. In fact, I think it's pretty likely that Hamas actually wants a ground operation - all it needs to be able to do is survive in order to claim a victory (of sorts).

All well and good fishface, but the question is how best to achieve that aim in an acceptable manner.

According to me?! I think you'll find that it's you who is trying to imply that Israel is the sum total of all Jewishness and I'm actually arguing the reverse.

Israeli equivalent, not Jewish equivalent.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Membership of a political party is not the same thing as religion. I doubt very much that unconditional support of Israel and every action it takes is a prerequisite for Jewishness, which seems to be what you're implying. Not all Jews live in Israel (not even a majority) and not every Jew has unconditional support for Israel come what may.

?! What the hell does this mean? Is there some special test for Jewishness that a Jew must pass before they are considered a "real" Jew?

I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand. I doubt that he could be any worse than Jauron. His time with the Jets, while ultimately unsuccessful, was hardly an unmitigated disaster. As others in this thread have pointed out, other coaches have failed early on in their careers and gone on to later success. At 37, he's young enough to learn from his mistakes and do better second time around. Sure, we'd all like to get Cowher, Schottenheimer, (insert name here) but we all know that Ralph is cheap and is unlikely to spend the money to get them. Having just been fired, Mangini may actually be available at a price Wilson is willing to pay.

Did you not find the Denver game entertaining then? (After all, that is what this thread is about). 53 points were scored, the lead changed hands quite a few times and the Bills won in the end. You could hardly call it a boring game yet you still choose to winge about the magical 300 yd barrier not being breached.

The Bills scored 30 against Denver and you still weren't satisfied.

So, you like watching passing offenses. Fair enough. All things being equal, I like watching passing offenses as well. However, most of all, I like to watch the Bills win and whatever it takes to put the W in the column is good enough for me. Maybe I'm misinterpreting you, but it seems to me that you are trying to use the lack of a 300 yd passing game as a knock against Trent. The thing is there are plenty of other things that impact how many yards a qb throws for other than the competency or otherwise of the qb in question. Perhaps, the opposing team is focusing on taking away the passing game, in which case the logical course of action is to run the ball. Or, as happened against Denver, the return game is working well and drives are starting at midfield. To just focus blindly on 300 yards passing as a yardstick, regardless of context, is shortsighted.

I'm not sure how fair it is to stick all the blame on Wade for the RJ/Flutie situation without knowing exactly how much interference there was coming from Wilson. My guess (and it's no more than that) is that if it was solely down to Wade, Flutie would have started the playoff game against the Titans.

I really don't understand your obsession with the 300 yard thing. Bottom line is that the Bills scored more points than the Broncos and they won the game. The offence put up 30 points and that is not bad by any standard. I don't give a damn whether Trent throws for 300 or 3 yards as long as the Bills outscore the opposition. Would you rather he had thrown for 300 yards and they lost the game?

I think you're thinking of Riddick Bowe. I remember him throwing the WBC belt into a trash can so that he wouldn't have to face Lewis.

At least Tyson has had the sense to know when he's past it and quit boxing. Unlike Holyfield, who'll probably still be fighting when he's in his fifties.

So the Browns (4-10) are good whereas the Chargers (6-8) are crappy?

The thrower showed pretty good accuracy. The first one was right on target. Ok, the second was a bit high but not nearly as high as JP's attempted pass to Reed that was picked off. Also, he still managed to get it away when the pressure was right in his face, not hanging onto it for too long like someone we could mention.

Yeah, he looked like he had a pretty good arm. Well, the Bills are going to need another qb next season ...

Unlike Reagan, he remembered to duck.

I don't really buy that theory. Was Cleveland that good? Was San Francisco? And yet the Bills lost to both. Something has gone wrong with the Bills - they are clearly not playing to anything like the level they were earlier on in the season. I don't think it can all be explained away by the schedule getting tougher.

Think you're selling Paup a bit short there. Yes, the presence of Bruce on the other side helped Paup a lot but 17.5 sacks is still 17.5 sacks.

I remember it that way too. I think Pittsburgh jumped out to a big lead, but the Bills came right back. Van Pelt came in but then Kelly came back in to finish off a drive. I also recall Paup having a very big game - I think they were moving him around to create favourable matchups. The fact that they were managing to get a decent pass rush with Bruce out makes you wonder what might have been had he been there opposite Paup ...

The pass was too high but Royal didn't seem to make any effort at all to go for the ball. Whether that was because he had no chance of getting it or it was just another of his all too frequent gaffes, I don't know.

Or Josh Reed came back.