2003Contenders

Wonder if he'll continue with his love for the Pats NOW?

I think Jauron is the right man for the job now -- to help lead us out of the wilderness. However, I'm thinking we may need an upgrade once the team's talent level is up to snuff, as I'm not sure he's capable of leading us deep into the playoffs.

Exactly, but for the unfortunate fact that the ball touched Sam Aiken's leg, it was perfectly executed.

Without knowing the context of the quote, I think he was maybe trying to give his defense some credit -- and accepting ample blame for the turnovers.

I don't know what it is that Willis is lacking. I don't question his heart or toughness in coming back from the knee injury -- and playing through the painful rib injury now. I don't know... It just doesn't seem like he uses his head. There are just too many times, where he's got an easy first down if he just moves forward -- but tries dancing around waiting for something "bigger" to develop. Funny enough, in the post game comments Willis made inferences recognizing that he spent too much time dancing rather than driving forward. The Chargers' interior line is not that exceptional... as JP's 4-5 yard QB sneaks should attest. Willis spent too much time trying to take everything to the outside -- and to the left in particular. The word is out that the left side of our line is superior to the right, so teams are starting to roll defenders in that direction. I think it is silly to suggest that A-Train has the skill-set that Willis does. (Did you check out Thomas' attempt at blocking Merriman?) However, Thomas does hit the hole and move forward with much greater acceleration than Willis does. I guess what it boils down to, is there is a time to dance -- and a time to just fire ahead and get those yards. Note that Green rushed for about 10 yards per carry against the Jets yesterday, so look for Willis to bounce back in the Meadowlands on Sunday.

Add to that also, with the fast tempo of the offense, it is vital that our own defense be able to stop the opponent -- and get back off the field. With our defense's inability to stop the run, they'd be completely exhausted by half time.

And probably the first Pats game too...

I agree that Tasker probably tries too hard not to be a homer sometimes. He also may be trying to do the reverse jinx sometimes. As for the LT lovefest, it's pretty hard NOT to be highly impressed by him. We could be talking about one of the greatest of all time here. Think about it: our defense loaded up the box most of the day, and we STILL couldn't stop him.

It was good to see darn few penalties. Considering the refs weren't exactly in our corner, that's a major achievement. Nice run back on the punt by Leonard. JP wasn't perfect -- but he did not embarrass himself in the Rivers-versus-JP comparison as Willis did in the LT-versus-Willis.

Well, he did have a big non-catch taken away by the refs, when they signalled JP "in the grasp" on a 20+ yard pass play.

I didn't see it, and it would be out of character for LT to have done that.

Agreed. There were too many times today (as has been the case all season) where Willis just needed to run forward for a couple of yards to get a first down, but instead danced too much before trying to head North. Maybe it's unfair with LT looking like a man among boys, but Willis looked very pale in comparison.

Good point... Our finishing 3rd last season, rather than 2nd or 4th made a difference. Somehow I think we would have won today against the Chiefs or Raiders instead of the Chargers, for example. Call it the luck of the draw.

In the PC, Jauron said that the first timeout was taken because the playclock was down to 1 second. He said that the officials did tell him about the toe-heel rule -- and in hind-sight he probably should not have challenged it. However, he thought it was worth the the risk, since he thought that there may have been a long enough pause between the toe and the heel touching.

Human nature dictates that the officials will usually err on the side of the home team. That seemed to strangely go the opposite way today. 1. The JP non-sack was a judgement call by the officials who ruled him in the grasp. That could just have easily been an advantage if JP had fumbled or thrown an INT there. For those who saw it, there was also a play earlier in the game where JP clearly grounded the ball -- but the officials called it an incomplete pass. 2. There was a non-call for pass interference intended for Lee Evans in the first half, where the ball was ruled uncatchable. On replay, I do think that Lee may have had a shot at it, if he wasn't being mauled. I have always hated that rule. To me it's still a penalty, since there was illegal contact outside the 5 yard buffer, right? At the very least, it should be a 5 yarder and automatic 1st down. 3. The Peerless near-catch along the sidelines should probably have been called a force-out. There is no question that he would have come down in bounds without the push -- since he darn near came down in bounds WITH it! Logic would dictate that the toe should represent one-foot-down, but the rule doesn't work that way. According to Jauron, the officials explained this rule to him during the timeout -- and he decided to challenge it anyway. I blame Jauron for the stupidity in challenging the call more than anything else. In the long run, it probably wouldn't have mattered, but it would have been nice to have had that last timeout. 4. The non-interference call on Josh Reed on the very next play was actually a good non-call. The ball was tipped -- and replays showed that pretty clearly. You could see the projectory of the ball change slightly after the tip. There were also numerous holding penalties on the Chargers' offense that were not called throughout the game. Oh, well... They say that there is holding on every play, I guess. I agree that the officials were not especially kind to the Bills -- and it DID seem like most of the close calls (and non-calls) went against the Bills. Still, I don't believe that there was any impropriety on the part of the officials today.

Given where we were on the field at the time, I could live with the decision to punt. I was more bothered by the decision to go into the fetal position with that last offensive position of the half. Three straight runs... and then a punt. That was also inexcusable that the refs gave the Chargers that extra time out with the non-requested measurement. Why was there a measurement in the first place? The Bills punting unit was already out on the field!

Given the well known Madden Jinx, let's hope that the 2007 cover boy is Tom Brady!

Yea, I think you're missing the point here. I despise Peter King, but I did not take this comment as any kind of slight against Buffalo. His point was just that as GREAT as Moorman has been, you don't realize HOW great, unless you understand that he punts in probably the stadium with the least desirable conditions.

Regardless how you rank them specifically, it's pretty clear that the top 5 teams in the NFL are the Colts, Chargers, Ravens, Bears, and Patriots. Before the season ends we will have had to play ALL of them.

He just laughs, says no comment -- and let's his play on the field do his talking.

That's what I was afraid of...

Besides, it's not as if Crowell did much either... except for MISS a ton of tackles.

Anybody know?

Note also that Garrard threw 4 ints in that last game against the Texans, largely becasue of his receivers.

We've beaten the Texans every time Carr was on his feet to finish the game. The one loss came when Jeff Posey knocked him out of the game -- and, uh, Tony Banks came off the bench to win it... If we knock Carr out again, then we have to deal with Sage Rosenfels coming in for relief. Remember him?