AKC

No worries- We're facing the second worst rushing offense in the league next weekend. Feature back Lamont Jordan is averaging 3.6 YPC, almost a yard shy of Willis. Then again, the same could have been said last week about the Jets, who moved 4 or 5 spots up the rushing offense ladder by facing us-

There's a play in the first half that I thought showed exactly why JP had not become an effective "steward" of our offense yet- it was a 6 man blitz that was impossible for Holcomb not to see, the extra bodies were at the line well before the snap. Holcomb trusted the blocking scheme and threw downfield for a good gain- it may have been a slant to EMoulds- and the blocking was good enough to make the Jets pay for the weak coverage. This is exactly the type of play that JP spent the preseason and his regular season starts bailing out of. It's understandable that he wants to rely on his good feet, but the cost to the team is too high- we can't afford to miss those opportunities when our blockers do their job and give the QB the time to let the play develop. What we've seen from JP so far has been a reliance on his wheels that is not the stuff of which NFL Championships are made. Clearly the coaching staff carries some of the blame for the problem since they heavily promoted him using his legs for the whole time he's been with us until they realized it was seriously hurting his development. The bad news for them is they now have to correct it, and JP shows some resistance to the discipline areas for a QB, areas like getting your feet down and sliding or trusting the pocket and running through his progressions. The great news is that so far Losman's maturity, plus the fact that he had a similar situation happen to him at Tulane with Patrick Ramsey, has kept the goal of the team game in focus. And the film that Sam Wyche can sit JP through of Holcomb trusting the pocket is the greatest example of what the team needs JP to do- the questions that are left though are: A) Will he be able to absorb those lessons and play from the pocket? and; B) When is the right time to see if he's picking up A)? They're very difficult questions, but ones that are almost sure to go unanswered as long as we're in first place in our division. As much as this coaching staff would like to get JP back on the field, I don't think there's anything JP can do to make that happen- the starting QB for the Buffalo Bills right now will be decided exclusively on the play of Kelly Holcomb and not the potential of JP Losman.

Sunday the Bills will play the Raiders with the D Cup going to the victors- it's time the Cup is returned to responsible adult chaperones. The weekend's activities begin Saturday with the Bills Raiders Golf Tournament and will conclude with the game on Sunday afternoon. There's plenty of draft Labatt's Blue, Buffalo Wings and WNY football weather. If you're located in SoCal or Central Cal and you're interested in participating along with other TSW posters, PM me and I'll give you additional info.

Leave a seat open for me on the Gandy bandwagon- he's been a far superior run blocker to the previous tenant at the position and he works so hard on passing downs that he in a lot of ways makes up for his lack of good pass protection wheels. I suppose we'll have to continue ignoring all the talk about replacing a guy working as hard as Gandy is since the OLine is getting the blame that should be falling on the coaching staff and front office for using their talent poorly and failing to address the void at blocking TE in the offseason, a position that can be easily and economically filled in FA. If you're going to play two TE sets for your run game you need AT LEAST two decent blocking TEs- we have one in our whole system.

For the first few weeks of the season I allowed the incessant "Peters would make a great ____" posts to get under my skin, but now that his status is being elevated to Savior I am finally seeing the amusement in it all. The only surprise is that he hasn't yet been suggested as a replacement for Tony Masiello, but then again I may have missed the string ;-)

Mayock had been the lone bright spot on that program. Eisen is unwatchable, Lincoln Kennedy is way too Burl Ives and Woodson shows no sign of the effort he put in on the field- in fact I'd call him soft. At the same time, I'd love to see TD interviewed by the guy they "cut", Seth Joyner: "So Tom, why the bull sh-- naming your starting QB, the kid just isn't ready to play right now is he?" "Signing Jason Jefferson or even Weezy herself won't change the drop in run defense from 7th to 29th league-wide. Do you have any credible long term solution?"

I trust you'll take good care of CPirrone. We don't want him getting in any trouble at home ;-)

I see on his bio that he's now a State Assembly Rep, having served 12 years on the City Council. His website lists his "greatest accomplishments", 3 out of 7 relating to jamming the Coliseum Property up the NFL's butt.

He's a monster run blocker but not an effective pass blocking OG. I can't imagine why they'd want to move him unless it's related to protecting Brees on passing downs.

It's too bad because Carson had great dynamics- freeway access, surrounding neighborhood friendly to the concept and plenty of space to pull it off without transplanting anyone. It also had a great concept stadium (The Hacienda) drafted up by and being pushed by Mike Ovitz. The bed news was the property was formerly a commercial landfill and the toxic cleanup required would have extened the build-out time by about 6-8 more years than at other sites. Add this to the garbage politics of LA and Mark Ridley Thomas once again forces the Coliseum on a League that recognizes what a huge mistake it is to rest their LA hopes on that site. I hope the league stays out versus handing this hack a short-term victory.

The general boundaries of South Central are not the old South Central neighborhood that ran three or four blocks of Central Ave., instead from MLK Blvd. south to Imperial Highway and from Western to Long Beach Blvd. would be the footprint. The Coliseum property is on MLK. USC is adjacent on the north side, sparing it from being in "South Central", but really for cartographers only. Here's a little news from the SC campus yesterday-Campus Adventures South Pasadena is about 3.5 miles from the Rose Bowl, and it's far safer than the area surrounding the Coliseum. In fact the Coliseum is closer to Reginald Denny's favorite intersection at Florence and Normandy than SoPas is to the Rose Bowl. I've gone to plenty of games at the property, but I'm merely taking my own life in my hands going down there. I wouldn't do it with a kid or wife, and I've heard many, many Angelenos express exactly the same sentiments.

I can't believe that- he looks lighter in his legs than 2004. I'll pull games and look at the seasons side by side.

Problem #1 is that no responsible parent would take their family to a South Central LA game in the Coliseum. A USC player during practice a few years back was shot there by a stray bullet flying around the neighborhood. One of the LA Councilman, Mark Ridley Thomas, has effectively blocked every other viable option to using the Coliseum since he insists any team end up in his district, and in LA politics each councilman is like his own little dictator- the mayor here is an ornament. Once again the Coliseum of late has become the "front-runner" for any NFL relocation/expansion. And I can tell you as a resident for 20 years there's no way they'll do any better considering how awful the surrounding neighborhoods to the Coliseum are, Fort USC offering no indication of what you're up against when you travel to South Central LA. It's like building a windowless restaurant on top of a landfill and wondering why no one wants a window seat.

I fall to the other side of this. I think the weight Willis shed this past off-season has made him more tentative and less deliberate, not to mention less powerful. The things he did that I liked last year are gone- he looks much easier to bring down. I'd like to see him put that extra 15 pounds back on, maybe even 20. And I agree with McThrillis- the line we have is good at run blocking; when you consider how little blocking help they get from our TEs/backs they seem unfairly targeted.

Since the idea of a run of 38 point offensive outbursts does more for my libido, please do expound on all the ways in which the hag we've got right now in the bedroom with the shopping bag dispenser mounted on her side brings you greater pleasure?

Since leaving WNY I've lived in Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, Houston and southern Florida. I've spent the last 20 years in an AWFUL sports town (L.A.) If we had an 18 inning game at Dodger Stadium, or especially at the Ed, there would be people leaving the parking lot during the 10th trying to get out beeping at those so stupid they were just arriving assuming the time on the ticket was Eastern Time Zone.

It's peculiar- you seem to suggest that someone were "exposed" so that all had power over him from that point forward. Apparently the NFC didn't get your memo. yawn.......................

I'm with you- I found HTown an above average sports town with good fans. Throwing a few back with Big Earl and Joe Niekro are some of my favorite "sports" memories.

Hmmm- Not my recollection of the Bill's games I attended in the Coliseum. I'd go so far as to say no more than 3 or 4% Bill's fans. But then my memory has always been challenged by my beverage appetite ;-)

He was definitely holding his knee- the good thing for Steelheads is he walked off- but a tear in the knee would spell a LONG layoff. OTOH, having CBatch your third option at point guard is hardly the worst thing a team could face.

Merely that point production is the major achilles heel of the 2005 Bills and it was a strength of our offense over the second half of 2004. You're correct that (like every QB) Bledsoe has his warts, and surely he's no fit for a team with poor pass blocking, but even with all the awful things about his game he was productive here. Lack of productivity at the QB spot has been tough on all the other areas of our team to date in 2005. We look like we can muster enough D to win if we can get 20-25 first downs from the offense; those measures were easily met by the Bledsoe offenses on most Sundays. We'll ultimately be better off, but I think maybe for a little bit different reason. Right now we might very well have a better record had we kept Bledsoe, because even with all those warts he does have a weapon that complements our WR squad much more so than the Cowboys IMO. At the same time the 2005 Bills have too many roster holes to be considered a threat in the post season. The prudent thing is to give the best effort we can to get in position to win, as the coaching staff finally did this past Sunday. And make no mistake about it- the coaching staff has Losman sitting to make him sit in the pocket. After all the speculation about how a mobile QB would help out our offense and make better use of our weapons, the coaching staff has decided they need to turn JP Losman into- well-- Drew Bledsoe! Bledsoe/Losman seems to be a perfect example of "be careful what you wish for". In my mind our coaches blew it by "wishing for" a mobile QB, and as a result they encouraged JP to run. It took them a few weeks of regular season starts to realize what a huge error that was, but they're apparently through it. Now we'll have to wait and see how many weeks JP has to sit and watch someone throw from the pocket before they'll try him out again. And the bad news all the way around is that the jackasses on this board who continue to spew hatred of a QB who played for us prove week after week just how little they understand the position by their need for continued attacks against a guy who seems to have landed himself in a good spot for himself and his toolbox. And since I'm hesitant to feel sympathetic towards anyone with a star on their uniform I'll confine my sympathy to the poor kids trying to make something happen with our current offense- it seems just a matter of weeks before the hate spewers will pick up their banners of vile to begin maligning another quarterback wearing a Bill's uni. Ignorance remains among the greatest of the shames.

If you wanted to weigh the other side of that theory you might begin by considering that for the last 10 games of 2004 we averaged something along the lines of 36 points a game.

It's beyond irresponsible to ask this guy to play in our run and pass D packages PLUS add extra snaps on offense. IMO just continued evidence of our coaching staff's failure to recognize and properly utilize the personnel on our roster. I'm beginning to question Mularkey's management acumen.

That's the point though- add quality DT depth to any defense and watch the overall quality of the D rise faster than adding depth at any other position. Watch quality DT depth walk away and watch your defense decline.

A defense can stay on the field all day if they have DT depth, a luxury of which we are bereft. Indy- there's a team with DT depth. Even when their offense isn't clicking they can rotate bodies into their line packages to keep guys fresh. We on the other hand entered the season with razor thin depth at DT and that's even been reduced. We are forced to rely on our offense to try and hold the ball for 20-25 first downs just to keep our starting DTs from collapsing from their workload.