AKC

We could have used your "expertise" over the weekend. I'm guessing nothing at McAfee would have been missed

I wonder if it's this easy: We both agree the run D sucks this year, and we agree the pass D on 3rd downs is poor. Where we differ is in whether the overall decline of the defense has been caused by the field position given up on the first two downs or just poor execution of our pass defense.

The trench is for an honorable cause- I'm putting a "waterless" urinal in the corner of the garage and draining it down to a lower property. Since I have a full bar in the basement entered through a door in the garage it will provide a convenient spot to avoid accidents just like Big Bob's. And LA- that's not mud on those kness, it's blood. That should change your line of inquiry ;-)

Sadly the D Cup will be held at Clancy's Bar until the next match between the Bills and Raiders. The golf course is our only sanctuary, but by a much smaller margin than our opponents on the football field managed.

You were near Chile's favorite "excavation" area- I can only conclude the "quicksand" you're referring to is something you should get out of your shoe treads right away.

I'd think a strength of schedule debate between the two seasons would be tough to support considering last year the AFC East was far stronger and we weren't being manhandled by teams like the Saints and Raiders. If you're trying to say the defense of last year was overrated I won't argue against it- but was it substantially better then this one? Boy Howdy! I don't want to discourage your conversation about third downs especially considering the fact is that last season we caved in on 33% of them while this year we're giving up on 45% of them. Yes we're bad on third downs- but I simply can't disconnect that from the fact of what's happening on the first two downs where we're leaving teams with easier- or shorter- third down attempts. And therein lies my principal complaint about the run defense on first and second. I might be confused by your position- I'm guessing you're not saying the cumulative effect over the course of a game of a 7 yard pass in football is anywhere near that of a 5 yard run?

Among the alcohol soaked bruised and battered egos from the Raider loss, we additionally suffered a couple of material injuries- Apparently that trench I dug behind the garage last week was too inviting for Big Bob come "bedtime" after the game. Luckily his knees saved him from damaging any other body parts. See the link below- As for Kelly The Dog's parking skills, let's just say the tow strap on his vehicle was required BEFORE he had his first adult beverage. This just looked to him like the proper place to "squirrel away" a city vehicle ;-) D Cup Casualties

I don't know who compiles average opponents first/second/etc., so until we can get them entered I'll provide these stats that show just how dramatic that decline is: In 2004 we led the league in lowest average opponent drive when we allowed 22.53 yards per drive. In 2005 we've dropped to 19th in the league. In 2004 our DLine was 3rd in the league giving up an average of 3.73 yards per opponent carry, in 2005 we've fallen to 22nd. In 2004 our opponents gained 10 or more yards on only 15% of their running plays, in 2005 that number has more than doubled to 33%. That means that for every three runs against this '05 DLine our opponents can expect to hit one for over 10 yards! I will speak not from a statistical basis but from an observational one when I say that in 2004 we forced far more long third downs on the average than our current defense does. No stat offered in this string suggests anything to the contrary. The question in play is whether the decline in our defensive front due to the loss of a starting quality run stopper has caused the overall decline of the defense. For my money it's crystal clear- statistically we know that on average we gave our opponents the third worst third down field position in the league in 2004. This year there are only 12 teams doing a WORSE job than our first and second down units. That drop, basically all the short 2nd and 3rd down plays we're allowing, is the single biggest contributor to the Bill's decline on defense in 2005 IMO and further is arguably the single biggest factor in our overall decline. The difference between last year is one man- a run stuffer and a very good one at that- who by his good play on rushing downs forced opposing offenses to face many more third and longs than we're forcing now, and as a result we are giving up far more third down plays because our opponents options are expanded with a regularity of 2nd and short/3rd and short downs.

I've been wondering what they were doing these days at Abu Ghraib since they removed "climate therapy" from our bag of tricks. Falafel?

Then before addressing your other positions is it fair for me to assume that you acknowlege that as a result of the diminished run D in 2005 our opponents are seeing shorter yardage third downs to convert on the average verus they did against the far tougher on first and second down unit of 2004?

I've been stewing about this too though for a different reason; regarding the guys you can get to help for reasonable salaries- for instance look at TE, a position where other teams brought in help like Anthony Becht on the cheap to give them a legitimate 2nd blocker for their 2TE packages. We've used the 2TE package all year long with the DREADFUL Ryan Nuefeld playing in it- when you KNOW your philosophy is going to call for a lot of 2TE sets, DO SOMETHING ON THE CHEAP to guarantee you have the bodies to plug into it.

You could make that argument only if football were a complete vacuum and all third downs were exactly the same circumstances. The unfortunate reality is that they are not. Dynamics like what happens on the first and second downs dramatically impact what happens on third down. Here's some facts you should consider: Last year we were the 4th stingiest team in the league simply allowing teams to rush for first downs against us. In fact, throughout 2004 only 33% of first downs against us came running the ball. This year we give up over half of first downs against us on the ground. What the stats support is what we all saw during most of our games last year- we were leaving teams in 3rd and 5, 3rd and 6 situations with regularity, and in many cases on their first series. This allowed us to bring in the specialized pass packages to play out on 3rd downs, and consequently end up in the top half of the league in third down defense. This year we're at the bottom. One measure of the quality of your rush defense is rushing TDs allowed. This season we've already given up 11, which is almost double what we gave up ALL SEASON in 2004 when we were the 2nd best league-wide. This is probably the single greatest statistical indication of the quality of your interior D Lineman. Last year we were holding premier NFL running backs to 30 and 40 yard games, this year we're giving journeymen the opportunity to establish career records. Here's the simple truth: In 2004 our quality starting DLine was able to put opposing teams into long third down situations and end up getting our defense off the field- this year's defense regularly sees 2nd and 2 and 3rd and 1, phenomenon almost unknown to our 2004 D! And each 2nd and 2 or 3rd and 1 is likely to end up in a new set of downs, the cumulaitve effect being what we've seen all year inthe 3rd and especially 4th quarters- a debilitated DLine who can no longer stop even #2 and 3 backs. The best managers in football have stacked the DT position on their own rosters. We have flotsam and jetsam after our #1. Pat Williams wasn't the only game in town- but Ron Edwards and Tim Anderson never belonged on the START square. Donahoe simply blew this season away by refusing to bring in someone who could have at the very minimum given us a second starting quality DT at a time when ALL our better opponents have 3 and 4. Instead he appears to have assembled one of the thinnest rosters in the league with limited depth across the board except maybe at RB and WR. What we have assembled is a Fantasy Football team, not a team built upon the contemporary principals of the best managers in the league. Unless of course that league is FF.

In light of the Peters promotion, JP Losman has tendered his resignation as our #2 QB and would prefer the opportunity to wait and play for a Professional Football team someday in the future.

It's surprising to me that many would identify the '05 season with the Parrish pick first and foremost. Many of the best managers in league history have regularly made surprising picks in the early rounds, maybe the big difference being that they still were able to draft for depth at the key line positions on their team. With our lack of any quality draft depth along both lines (or our inability to get a guy like Preston more reps), not to mention at other positions like LB, Donahoe has put together the antithical team to all the modern success stories- the bottom line is that our cupboard is bare while the most potent of our contemporaries have been able to draw up from their rosters to plug in when someone goes down or a change is necessary to firm up a weakness. It makes one questions whether Donahoe was awake all those years in Pittsburgh.

What single management move since the end of the 2004 season has had the most dramatic impact on the fortunes of the Buffalo Bills in 2005?

A colonoscopy?

Maybe April as the wake up call? Considering Simon or Traylor Or how about really getting nervous by June? Edwards for Williams

The answer is NOT on our roster. The talent we've got has already managed to decimate our LB corp and give up season and career performances to opposing RBs; the trading deadline has passed and it would seem that short of enticing someone out of retirement, "hopeless case" would be a fitting synopsis. We do not, nor have we had at any time this season, NFL quality starters and depth at DT.

I think given time and strength training, plus a great big bag of those things NFL linemen don't take, Tim Anderson might become a very good run stuffing lineman in the NFL. He has good form on most downs, he just is too small today to be impactive. Can Sam do it? I think Bill's Fan makes the point well- he's the "complementary" linemen and to force him to "hold up ground", something more difficult for him than a PW type by his higher center of gravity, once again would find us doing the thing that got us into this disaster to begin with- trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. Sam is a penetrating DT who by the nature of his incredible size becomes a major asset in the run game- if he's playing next to a run stuffer. I suggested this off-season that if Edwards ended up our starting DT next to Sam in run packages, we'd see 200 and 250 yard rushing days against us- If anyone would care to see me revise that figure to 350 yards simply suggest Sam Adams manning the NT spot in a 3-4.

It was the great miscalculation of this past off-season. Look at it this way- even with a much weakened offense when compared to the last half of 2004, with PWilliams on our roster today we'd probably be a 5-2 team, or at worst 4-3 and in command of our division entering week 8. Instead we're a freaking laughingstock due to A) the inability of Ron Edwards to carry PW's jock in any positive way and B) our depth at DT to fill out the balance of the roles vacated by Edwards moving from our pass packages to our rushing package. The biggest problem I have with the miscalculations are that they seem so easy to recognize, and I'm going to bring them up one more time to suggest how some of the "remedies" offered in this string have no chance of working. First of all your run stuffer needs a low center of gravity like PW. Sam Adams has a high center for a big man and unfortunately he isn't the answer to any team's need for a solid run stuffer. Sam will always be the answer at penetrating DT, but not at the "stuffer" position. Edwards has a similar center of gravity to Sam, yet his far lesser talents at penetrating agsint run blocking leaves him, as pointed out here, a guy who's only attracting one body across the line. Sam demands 2 simply because of the trouble his first two steps will cause the offense. Anderson has a body type that might someday- with another 30 or 40 pounds of HGH permeated muscle- may become good in the run-stuffing role since he has the lower center of gravity you like in a run stuffer, he simply hasn't yet gained the size and strength to attract what is ultimately 1.5 blockers- a primary blocker and another assigned to chip him first before moving upfield. What has been proven pretty dramatically in the biggest personnel gaffe made by our management in many years AFAIC is that: A) The critical downs on defense are the running downs. The best teams have put an emphasis on the interior players in their run scheme because these are the guys that make your defense good. Sure the one gappers that play in the pass package will get the press and in most cases the bigger bucks, but it's the men of the run package who defenses are built upon. It's far easier to find acceptable talent at the pass package interior than the guys who play on 1st down, yet it's the 1st down linemen who have a dramatically larger influence on the quality of your D. Ron Edwards played in a top NFL defense as a passing down interior lineman last season- this year he his move to the run set precipitated the disaster we have become- and with NO end in site unless Lauvale Sape somehow does an Incredible Hulk impersonation for the balance of the season. B) Quality interior defensive linemen, even if they're specialists who only play run package defense, are some of the least visible players in the league yet they can be the most critical of all in today's NFL. And to prove that argument I offer you the 2005 Buffalo Bills, a train wreck out of the gate due to the incredibly unforgiveable failure of our management to add even ONE credible DT to our roster in the offseason, an off-season in which it became clear to some of us that depth at DT was by far our biggest problem. I think most students of the modern NFL could have objectively looked at our situation and penciled us in for a veteran run stuffer PLUS a true young talent not looking for the development time Tim Anderson had proven to need. The sad truth is the worst has happened- the lack of depth at DT has led to our inability to stop ANY offense but the Texans and our LBs being beat up and worse. The indicators are all there to suppose ONE single move to shore up the spot next to Big Sam would have kept us NFL contenders, instead we'll whimper this season away without even experiencing the hope of pretenders.

Stop being reasonable. My favorite off-season witticism: "Pat Willians is only on the field for 1/3rd of our plays" Based upon scientific results it is possible to support the conclusion the they are the most important 1/3rd!

I'm thinking something along the lines of pinned plus a feature like flashing/fading etc., something to catch the eye up on top.

Somehow I've manuevered for the past 14 years with Sheri without a "formal" arrangement, but should things ever get difficult I'm quite certain the State of California won't let that become a problem for anyone ;-)

Let's just say I've spent the last 5 years trying to turn my girl into Lori.

I can definitely get behind a rule like that. Where do I send my donation?