Dan

Just curious - as I've never had the privilege and honor of being inside the Ralph on gameday - do they do any sort of screening of drunk fans as they're entering the stadium? Or is all (or the worst) of the problems in the lot? As to an earlier comment, why would someone act as such? I would suggest immaturity and a complete lack of responsibility or knowledge of appropriate public behavior that's rampant in our society.

Excellent discussion going on here. Several good points have been brought up. However, I'm not sure that I see the staying successful long term as being much harder than the rebuilding. I would suggest that the most difficult part of staying successful is having the money to pay the players. Deciding which ones to keep should be fairly easy, because you see their contribution to the team first hand. However, having the money or convincing the owner to spend the money will almost certainly limit who can be kept. Which, I think, is why it's so important to bring in team-first oriented players. Those are the guys most likely to give you a home town discount, as opposed to the Clements-type that insist on testing the FA market and going to the highest bidder. I think this concern - having money to stay competitive long-term - was the primary factor in the Peters saga this summer. It's imperative for the Bills to sign guys to contracts and manage when those contracts expire and players need to be re-signed. If too many player contract expire at the same time, then you have too much cash going out in a single year. And this is probably an area where Brandon should excel. The initial talent evaluations have been done, the contracts negotiated, he'll just have to manage the ship and keep it from toppling. It will get interesting though to see how and if all the young guys are re-signed. This will be key to any long-term success of the Bills.

Are Cutler and Rivers really that good? It seems their names always come up in the talk of top young QBs. I guess I just don't get it.

You gotta love Langston Walker. His play on the field is speaking for itself and his "68 seconds" shorts are great. I look forward to them every week. This guy is funny: When asked if he was fully recovered from playing in the heat, offensive tackle Langston Walker played coy. “Being the well-conditioned athlete that I am, every thing is easy for me. But just to make sure that some of the other guys on the team don’t feel bad, yes, I did have a tough practice,” he said with a smile. Bills Notebook - Niagara Gazette

I was worried pretty much throughout the game. It felt good to come out with the opening drive for 7 minutes and score. Then watch the Jags go 3 and out. All was good. But by the 3rd quarter those good feelings were long gone and the dread of "oh no, they're blowin' it again" was all I could think. Even when the Jags got the ball back with 26 seconds left down by 4, I thought... please, please the game ain't over yet. I'm afraid it'll take several more solid wins before I have the kind of confidence I used to have in this team.

Actually... if you buy Kelly's analysis, it'd be closer to a B- .

Well, all you had to do was watch that Denver game if you had any doubts.

No Schit. What was that all about? down by 7, 3 minutes left and you kick a FG?

Because the announcer knew, just as we all did, that there was no way the refs were going to let Denver lose that game. I'm not sure how much Hochuli costs, but Bowen apparently paid it.

And either way ESPN and the rest of the national media will be claiming the winner is a lock for winning the division.

You're giving Fairchild a lot of credit. No way he goes for the field goal at the half, nor the quick TD after the turnover (in week 1).

Defensively: Youboty. He was solid in coverage. Seemed to be the only guy that could tackle. And he had a great sack. Offensively: Trent. He was everything you want a QB to be. The big throw to Evans was clutch. That was a critical time in the game - late 4th quarter, down by 6, 3rd down and long. The game was on his shoulders and he delivered big time. The Hardy throw was good, but if incomplete, we still had chances. Hardy's catch, Jackson's RAC - both would not be possible without great throws by Edwards. Great game on the road. **Honorable mention: Langston Walker. He seemed to play the whole game shifting back and forth from RT to LT (when Peters went out for a breather). How often do you see a guy shifting from RT to LT throughout a game like that and not make and major mistakes? Whomever has said he's over paid, should apologize. The guy has been worth every penny since he got here, especially this year with Peter's nonsense.

Exactly. The ref was right there to make the call. There was absolutely nothing in the few replays they showed to think his toes or any other part of his foot was out. I'd say good call and good use of replay.

Well.. people have been saying for a while that Poz was going to rip some guy's head off. I guess they knew what they were talking about!

The McCargo hold was as blatant as it gets.

Exactly what I was just saying to a Bronco friend of mine. That call was absolutely the worst call I've seen in years. It really begs the question... just how much does a professional NFL referee cost? Because, I'm sorry, the only way I can explain that is the ref was on the take.

Well looks like tehy just "lost" to San Fran as well. Man those Seahawks are good.

WOW! That's just friggin horrible!!!

I thought that play was huge at the time. Now in hindsight, seeing how the 3rd quarter went... it may have won the game for us.

How would you feel if that silly lateral, hook and ladder kinda play worked and the Jags won? I see your point. But the Bills have had plenty of moral victories. We need some actual victories to with all that moral fiber. Today we got it. The win means alot.

You hate to say a week 2 game is really that important.. or that it determines if you're a pretender or a contender. But... This was no doubt a hugely important win, likely establishing the Bills as legitimate early contenders for a playoff spot. Two wins against 2007 playoff teams - one on the road and come from behind. It's the type of game that goes a long way to giving the team confidence in themselves and the coaches.

I'm getting this pumped up, nervous feeling in my gut like I do before all big Bills games. They need to start the game already and get the first sack on Gerrard out of the way!

I find it hard to even write a response. I'm sure it was tougher for you. I still prefer to not recount much of what I experienced in the days after. Thank you for all you do. And that last sentence.. please. That's all I've wanted to see on the news for 7 years. But, ya know, I don't even care anymore to see it on the news. If you find him and he disappears from thought forever, I can live with that.

If the Federal Government got all the profit from the refined gas at that new refinery, then I'd be all for the Federal Government building a new refinery. If an oil company that's making billions of dollars in profits each year needs a new refinery so badly, why don't they just go and build one? I guess I just don't understand why my tax dollars should go toward building a refinery that some oil company is going to then charge me an arm and a leg for the gas from that refinery. The problem with high gas prices is that we depend entirely too much on gas (and oil). If people want to remove the pressures of high gas, the solution is not building new refineries or finding more oil. It's finding a viable alternative to an oil-powered society. Drilling more oil and/or refining more gas just allows the the big oil guys to continue their strangle hold on this country. But I digress, back to my original point, why do we want less government involvement in our lives, but we demand the government to build refineries allow oil companies to drill? Seems like we don't want the government to help small guys, but we have no problem with the government helping the big guys.

I completely agree. I usually enjoy the Bills Zone videos. Definitely some of the best out there. But, for this one, when I clicked on the link and saw I had to register.... well, I opted out. I'm sure this video is great. I'm sure there are no strings attached to the registration. However, it's just a personal preference. I veer away from websites that make you register to see anything on them. If I do, its usually all completely falsified information, anyway. No big deal either way, I suppose.