Brandon

Agreed, and as I said a page or two back, its kind of hard to believe that a guy who went out of his way to provide his team with footballs in poor shape for practice never discussed or considered how air pressure changes might affect handling of the ball. I don't believe that for a second.

Wouldn't surprise me. But yeah, they've done everything possible to make the practice footballs as bad as possible, but they've never talked about air pressure or football specifications. Anyone buying that?

One thing to keep in mind about his defenses in Detroit. That same 0-16 team had one of the absolute worst defenses in NFL history. They gave up 6470 yards and 517 points in 2008. He took them from dead last in the league to a respectable 13th and 16th in his final two seasons.

If I had my choice, I think it would probably be Schwartz. Normally, I'm not a big fan of hiring DCs as head coaches, especially when the offense is as awful as this one has been, but at the same time, there's something to be said for continuity. By retaining Schwartz, you likely guarantee that the defense remains one of the better units in the league, and they've proven that with a good defense, they can be fairly competitive. If he learned from his mistakes in Detroit and if he can find a decent offensive coordinator and if Whaley can find a decent QB, it just might work out. In any event, I think its the move with the least downside, as opposed to picking an outsider who will inevitably blow up the roster yet again.

I just heard about it this morning. I can't say I was ever a fan of his, but as far as I'm concerned, if he can't take a little criticism from the media and/or is afraid to face a little adversity now that his QB has quit on him, well, screw this guy. Don't let the door hit you in the backside on the way out, Saint Doug.

For the most part, it was just the same old Bills. They had a great year defensively, but squandered it with one of the more miserable offensive performances in the last several years.

Probably not. If you look at the full season stats, he's actually having one of the better years of his career. This is already his 3rd best season in terms of TD passes and he has thrown for about his career averages in yardage and interceptions. He's also beating his career averages in terms of yardage per attempt and per completion. And the Broncos are winning. He may decide that he's had enough, but the numbers strongly suggest that he can still play at a very high level.

The catch is that the Colts didn't have the benefit of hindsight that you now do. They had the choice between someone who was universally viewed as a franchise QB, or to trade back and take a chance that someone, including a guy named Russell Wilson who was passed over 74 times, might outplay their draft position. Could they have rolled the dice, traded down, and come out better off? Possibly. But finding a franchise QB and posting three 10+ win seasons in three years, is a clear success, as far as I'm concerned.

Luck is in his third year in the league. In those three years, the Colts have finished 11-5, 11-5 and are 10-5 this season. Seems that they're doing OK to me.

While I wouldn't exactly call it a bad year, I wouldn't call it a good one, either. The team is likely headed to an 8-8 finish, which is exactly one game better than Dick Jauron's Bills finished three years in a row. That really doesn't impress me a whole lot. If there's a bright side, at least they're good at something for a change. They can play defense. Unfortunately, the offense is headed for a bottom third finish for the 11th time in 12 years.

I think they're a top 5 D, or close to it, anyway. The problem is, they're just a 'very good' defense, not a dominant one. Every now and then, they're going to have a bad game, even against offenses like Oakland's where it shouldn't happen. But they're still the reason why this team was even in the running at this point in December.

So when does Dick Jauron 2.0 get **** canned?

Go to their regular stats page and rearrange the stats to rank them by yards-per-attempt, which is generally a good measure of the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of a team's passing game. Orton is 31st of 34 qualifying QBs.

With the way it went down, I would think so. There were a number of reasons why I thought this was one of the worst episodes in the entire series. That was one of them.

Went a couple of times before the season closed here. No luck.

Absolutely not.

I'm in the first group. Although I wouldn't be in the least bit upset to see some of the laws repealed, I'm more or less satisfied with the federal law as it stands (and I don't live in a restrictive state). I've always believed that 'gun control' is more about the person than the firearms. Either a person is responsible enough to own them or they aren't. Passing restrictions on the weapons themselves approaches it from the wrong angle and accomplishes little except to remove the rights of those who are guilty of nothing.

That's kinda been my problem as well. Every time I consider it, I stumble across something else. It'll probably end up being one of those things I end up kicking myself for never buying once they're sold out.

Nice. I've thought about ordering one a few times but could never bring myself to do it.

True, but in fairness to EJ, you also have to consider that Orton is 3rd in the league in pass attempts per game, where EJ was 20th. Granted, given that Orton is averaging 7.2 yards per attempt vs 6.4 for EJ, he'd have more yards for the same number of attempts.

Yep. I do think the better QB is starting right now, but I also don't think EJ was anywhere near as bad as some of his critics make him out to be. Hopefully he'll learn from his time on the bench, because honestly, he's probably going to have to play some later this year unless the pass protection improves.

There's really not a huge statistical difference between he and Manuel from an overall standpoint. Given that they have a similar number of attempts, you can make a decent direct comparison. Orton: 124 attempts, 85 completions (68.5%), 890 yards, 5 TD, 3 INT, 7.2 YPA, 10.5 YPC, 13 sacks. Manuel: 131 attempts, 76 completions (58.0%) 832 yards, 5 TD, 3 INT, 6.4 YPA, 11.0 YPC, 7 sacks Point production is pretty similar, 19.75 with Manuel, 18.7 with Orton. That largely agrees with what I've seen. There's not a huge overall difference, except for one. Orton makes plays late in games that EJ doesn't and that's why he's on the field instead.

9 catches, 240 yards and 1 TD. Speaking for myself, I can overlook an early fumble on a day like that.

It came along a season later. That game happened in 1998. The Bills defense was good in '98, but not at the level of the '99 version.

Not only still arguing, but still arguing about which QB stunk marginally less than the other.