Peter

To those of you who keep on insisting that Willis is "counting the days" until he can leave the Bills, Willis bought a house in Orchard Park during the off season. It is also funny how many of you predicted that he would hold out by now. Of course, that never happened. Please stop with this nonsense. Whether Willis stays a Buffalo Bill will entirely depend on whether the Bills are willing to pay him market value and where we are in relation to the salary cap.

No.

I chose not to chose between the two.

Ask them.

To this day, I do not understand the hate that some people on this board have for RJ. The guy gave it his all. He showed more toughness playing behind that poor excuse of an offensive line and got the living sh*t kicked out of him. I will always respect the guy for the effort he gave -- even when the Flutopians were screaming for his head. The darkest day in Buffalo Bills history was when our own "fans" cheered when he got hurt. Before that day, I had always thought that we had the best fans in professional sports. If you want to know what the players thought of RJ and Flutie, I invite you to contact Thurman, Andre, or Bruce and ask them what they thought about each QB. As another poster said, he came back for the love of the game pure and simple. He certainly did not need the money. I will always respect the guy.

You are exactly correct.

Check out his post game comments on BuffaloBills.com. He says that he is 100%.

One of the most infuriating things in the documentary was that there were more journalists in Tora Bora than U.S. ground forces. There were only about 50 or so U.S. soldiers there. One of the CIA guys who was on the ground and was tracking OBL said that he requested about a battalion of Rangers, but they were never sent. Five years later and we still do not have him. Instead, we got involved in adventure in Iraq to fulfill the pre-9/11 goals of the neocons that had nothing to do with 9/11. The costs: 2,600 plus U.S. soldiers have died. There are about 62,000 wounded. About 125,000 Iraqis have died. We have spent $318 billion so far and could spend anywhere between $600 billion to $1 trillion when all is said and done. In the process, we removed Iran's counterweight and have made Iran more influential in the region. The gains: Saddam is in prison. There may be a democracy in Iraq (which may end up being a cost depending on who is elected in the future).

Happy birthday.

Bears Defensive Starters

Leinart looked great last night -- especially after a week and one-half of practice. He also looked great against one of the top defenses in the league. He is a leader, had the complete respect of his teamates at USC, and is a winner. I saw him play in person against the Sooners in the National Championship game during his junior year. His arm looked great. Leinart was fantastic against Notre Dame last year -- especially when he made that unbelievable throw on fourth and long against the cover two defense at the end of the game. I find it amazing that the JP supporters on this board have found it necessary to go out of their way to criticize Leinart. So far the comparison is not particularly favorable for JP. On draft day, I was hoping that we would either draft Leinart (or the Brick if he fell to us) or trade our pick for extra picks. For whatever reason, we did not pick Leinart and were not able to trade down and be confident that we could still pick Whitner. Someone earlier said that we are better off with JP and Whitner than we would be with Leinart and JP. That is really the wrong question. I love Marv and am pleasently surprised with DJ. Yet, I have wondered whether we were forced to pick two guys in the first round because of a need that WE CREATED. I hope that I am wrong about this, but I have a feeling that we would have been better off with Leinart, Lawyer Milloy, and Sam Adams than with JP, Whitner, and McCargo. [we probably still could have gotten McCargo in the second or traded up as we did if we really liked him]. We let Lawyer and Big Sam go because we were going to the cover two and had to change the personnel. Once again, we let the scheme dictate the personnel rather than the other way around. It kind of reminded me of what we did when GW was here to accomodate his scheme. It seems to me that is a philosophical difference that I will have and continue to have -- it is like the chicken and the egg. Our defensive scheme was fine for the key players that we had. We had one of the top defenses when GW took over. We then implemented his scheme and acquired the players suited for his scheme. We went through some growing pains and ultimately had one of the top defenses just a couple of years ago. We will now go through some more growing pains. I just hope that JP and the team can get it together and we can all look back and say how brilliant the Bills were to stick with JP and overhaul the defense. In the meantime, Leinart looks pretty darn good -- especially after a week and a half of practice. On the other hand, in his third year in the league, JP shows moments of brilliance and other moments that leave a lot of us scratching our heads. What is done is done. We will find out whether JP is the guy. The defense is going to have some growing pains. We will see if the o-line can protect JP and create some space for Willis. There are a lot of questions. Over the next several weeks, we will begin to find out some of the answers.

Bill or OJ?

Prior injury or not, I would take Culpepper or Carson Palmer over any QB on our roster. Every player is one play away from a severe injury. Culpepper has looked pretty darn good in the two games that I have seen him play so far this year.

That is pretty much true with any player in the NFL.

Culpepper looks pretty darn good. He is going to be tough to stop. He has recovered nicely. Did any of you see the short yardage situation with the QB sneak? We better start thinking about how we are going to stop that. The guy is a load. He is listed at 6-4 and 265 pounds. I remember when the Canes played UCF when Culpepper was there. The Canes were able to get all kinds of pressure on him, but it was like trying to tackle a tree trunk.

I never heard that. I liked Tucker.

Great photos Andy. Thanks.

That is a good point. DJ should have some insight regarding the guy and whether he is salvageable. From afar, he looks like a bust, but DJ would know more than any of us.

A couple of quick thoughts: 1. The defense looked "ok", but I still would have liked to have seen them play better given that the Bengals were without Carson Palmer and both starting tackles. There were occasions when our front seven was getting pushed around far too easily. It is still too early to tell (especially given that Takeo was not in there), but this is something that I am going to pay more attention to in future games. 2. On one of JP's fumbles, we had 6 guys blocking 4 rushers. Nevertheless, the Bengals front line was able to get to the QB. JP should have protected the ball, but there is no way that 6 blockers should have allowed 4 guys to get up the field the way that they did. 3. On the replay of the game that I saw, they appeared to have cut two of the Bills' offensive series in the second half (including one of the TDs when Nall was the QB). I remember last year that there were some series that were cut from preseason games on the NFL network.

I really enjoy breaking down the film.

If you guys watch the replay of the game, I think that she is the one that the camera focuses in on with 2:59 left in the third (just before the kickoff).

I was proud to vote for the hometown girl.

I agree.

That is true. Nevertheless, we all knew that we had a great team then regardless of the preseason record. Back then, we were trying not to get hurt and get some reps. Now, we are trying to fill so many more pieces of the puzzle.

I am pleasently surprised.