Buftex

I think that is the rule, rather than the exception in the NFL these days...it isn't just the Bills, and other sucky teams. There are, by my count, about 6 teams in the league that, barring injury, will have one very dominant ball carrier...that is why guys like McCoy, Charles and Peterson are so valuable. I don't think this is necessarily a reflection on the players, as much as an indication of where the game is heading right now...it is a passing game, few teams will have a 300 carry back...very few. My own personal rankings, I have CJ ranked as a top 20 back, somewhere around #15-17. I would be very pleased to get him in the late 2nd or 3rd round. Spiller will have a bit more value in PPR leagues as well...I just have a feeling that the Bills/Hackett will do a better job of taking advantage of Spillers talent...if they do, he could be a steal.

Not denying your credentials Tom....I have a bit of a resume myself. I have no issues with anything you have posted... but I also get tired of people who don't know a thing about what they are talking about, speaking so definitively on the topic. And the ones who compare their situation to somebody else's are particularly galling. Of course they are trying to escape pain...but the sources of that pain can come from any myriad of places...including low self esteem...chicken and egg argument...

The board psychologists are comparing a severed arm with a paper cut. Great... One persons depression is not anyone else's. Those like Shep Smith, and all the other armchair psychologists who knee-jerk to the "suicide is an act of selfishness" are a bit simple. Depression lies, they say. It convinces people that their loved ones would be better off without them... of course that isn't true, but when somebody suffers this disease, they are not thinking as rational as somebody, who say, has the blues every now and again.

Its going to come down to our defense slowing them down... As odd as it may sound, the Bears have the makings of a very potent offense. Bills have to "bring their A-game", so to speak...no slow start... I do believe this is a winnable game. It would be a huge win to start the season.

Can't it be the opposite of what you stated? I often wonder why people, like Todd Brigdes, seem the feel the need to chime in...

I "like" Steve Johnson on Facebook, he has had nothing but great things to say about the Bills..when the Bills started training camp, he posted a picture of himself from a Bills training camp in recent years, commented on how hard it was not to be there, and about dealing with change. Say what you want about the guy, but he loved being a Buffalo Bill.

Yeah..been saying it for a while, Mike Williams was, perhaps, the best lineup addition the Bills made this off-season, and they have made a few. I think he is the most physical receiver the Bills have had since Eric Moulds was in his prime.

Is that a live cam? Somebody pleas PM me when the poor guy makes it over the fence...

Not necessarly. Perhaps the Bills wanted more than Bryce Brown for Spiller, and nothing else was being offered. As low an opinion as some here seem to have of Spiller, at this point in their careers, Spiller is far more valuable than Brown. I think Brown is a nice player to get, especially for very little, but lets not forget, he had a bit of a reputation as a fumbler. Which is what made him expendable to the Eagles.

If you want to get an auto during the game, or on the field, in Carolina, my best recommendation is to park yourself behind the Bills bench, in the second half. As this is a pre-season game, I would be surprised if there weren't empty seats there... depending on how militant security is, you may be able to get stuff singed by some of the guys who are done for the night (the vets) as they are, essentially, milling around, talking with eachother, waiting for the game to be over. I have had some success with that...but that might also depend on the head coach...during the Marv and Wade Phillips years the sidelines were pretty loose...never cared to put in the effort after that. If the game were in Buffalo, I would recommend the parking lot where the Bills players park their cars, after the game. I got, literally, hundreds in the late 70's and 80's. Also, though things may have changed since then, visiting team buses would park in the same lot as well...got a lot of visting players that way...Terry Bradshaw, Steve Grogan, Bert Jones...

WTF? WTF?

Nice post. The only thing I question, if Marrone was that upset about this loss, or was placing such a high priority on winning it, why didn't he coach it to win it? Not saying he should have let the starters play longer (though I think EJ could have played longer, for him, not to win the game), or put starters in at the end, or anything like that...but there was no attempt made to conserve time at the end..hell, Marrone didin't even use all his timeouts! They pnly lost by 4 points. If he really wants the kids to go out and win this game, why not do what most coaches would do, and give them the opportunity...within reason, for a pre-season game anyways. If Marrone had done that in a regular season game, most would be calling for his head. I agree he seems very passionate, and I have no doubt he wants to win....but I don't really buy that his Jeckyl & Hyde routine with the media has anything to do with losing this pre-season game to the Giants. I think that is the real answer... he realizes he has much more important stuff to be doing, than answering a bunch of "silly questions". I know the feeling...working round the clock on a project at work, you are really focused, and then you have to step out for some required meeting...it is annoying. I will be interested to see if Marrone returns to his jabber-jaw forum in the future... As an aside, you guys who constantly rail on the media guys and their silly questions... you do realize, the whole thing is silly? What could anyone really hope to learn from one of these press conferences? It has been that way forever... I think Marrone could be a good, maybe great coach...but I hate to see him get himself so visibly worked up over such a meaningless thing, that is, unfortunately (for him) part of his job.

Chan over Chin is a one trick pony...

I think you are really underappreciating what Thurman meant to the Bills offense. And we are talking about greatest Bills, afterall. Thurman was Marshall Faulk before there was Marshall Faulk. Emmitt was a fine running back, but I am not so sure he could have done what Thurman did in the Bills offense...and perhaps vice-versa...Thurman was a much sneakier runner than Smith.

Brazil is known for its' "lady boys"

Good for her. Spurs are being progressive..i am sure it will piss somebody off somewhere!

I know Mike Schopp is a scourge here, but I liked his take in this whole new "surley Marrone" persona. He said, essentially, "people seemed impressed by his long winded explanations to most questions last year, and now they are upset that he is giving short answers. I say, "who cares"? Whether the answers to questions are short, or long, he is only going to tell you what he wants to tell you, you aren't going to get anything out of him...so who cares if he is "nice" or terse with your answers. Schopp is right. It may also lend some insight into Schopp as well.

You can make a very legit argument that Bruce Smith is the greatest Buffalo Bill of all time, depending on your criteria. If we are just talking as pure football players, it has to be OJ or Bruce. Now, if you are talking about performance and intangibles, Jim Kelly has a legit claim to that title. There may have been no more important a player in team history.

I have no doubt that answering "stupid questions' every day is likely very tedious...but what are "smart questions" or "good questions" they can ask? Why does the NFL bother to mandate that their employees talk to the press at all?

Yeah, I noticed a big change in his appearance last season, just between week 1 and week 17.

Good point...though his miserableness seems deep seated to me.. he always looks pissed. Found this article from his days at SU: http://orangefizz.net/2012/08/doug-marrones-media-day-crankiness-grabs-syracuse-fans-attention/

Nick...I am with you, although, I don't think he is unhappy with his job... just kind of worry-wart in general. He really does remind me a bit of Tom Couglin, before he started winning Super Bowls. There was an interesting article about Marrone at the beginning of training camp, where he basically says that he "always" mad (maybe it was another word, other than "mad", but something to that effect, can't find the article now),,,he said it is just part of who he is. We all know there have been plenty of good coaches in NFL history with this persona (Pacrcells, Belechik, Couglin come most recently to mind), as well as other sports, so I am trying not to make that to mean that he can't be successful. I just wonder if all players react as well to that kind of demeanor, all the time. You might say, "well screw the players", they are getting paid to play a child' game, yadda yadda yadda... but the truth is, in modern sports, players have nearly as much power as the head coach behind the scenes. I have no reason to suspect that Marrone has "lost his team" or anything like that, and accept that notion that it is just his style... but I do feel like there is some unspoken frustration going on, in this case. I remember, as a rookie NFL HC, I thought Marrone was extra chatty with the media...but it appears those days are over. I have also sensed the same thing, on occasion, with EJ Manuel. I think these guys are not deaf to criticism, and some kind of fall into these sort of defensive postures...winning is the cure all!

I honestly don't know what to make of Doug Marrone. I want to like him, but I find him hard to listen to, I don't think he has proven a thing as a coach yet. I like some of the reasoning for his demeanor here, I just wish I could buy them. He has always struck me (or at least since coming to Buffalo) as fairly negative and thin-skinned. I don't mind at all the notion that he just wants his team to be serious about winning, pre-season or not, but then, he doesn't really do anything to help insure that his team wins. It may be nothing (and really it is), but if he was so serious about winning the HOF game, why end the game, down by four points, with time-outs to burn. And why play a game of "playing not to get hurt" with your QB, who could use some work? All this might be cool, if from time to time, I haven't found myself wondering what the !@#$ Marrone is thinking along the sidelines, during real, regular season games. Seems he could use all the practice he can get, knowing how to manage timeouts, paly inside two minutes, etc etc. If you want your young team to keep their eye on the prize, play to win at all coats, and all the other clichés, you should probably coach the same way. I am not suggesting something like putting first stringers in in the fourth quarter, but use these preseason games to work out all the kinks with your team, and your coaching staff, rather than treating them like, you know, meaningless exhibitions. The Bills aren't good enough to waste opportunities like these. This isn't the Seahawks or the Broncos....and to whoever suggested that Marrone doesn't want his team to have built in excuses for losing, that sounds great, but I think Marrone does it all the time...I am fully behind EJ Manuel, but Marrone makes excuses for him at every turn.

The house next to my sisters went up in flames last week...on Elmwood. It was all over the news...though her place suffered no fire damage, it was severely damaged by fire hoses... turns out water may be almost as bad for your house as fire! She sent me a picture over the weekend of her dining room ceiling that just collapsed over night....the BN reported (the morning after the fire) that her house suffered $2500 in damages...not even close!