AKC

Actually Gannon was the color commentator for the Saints game which means he prepared by watching fim from every game of ours this season.

Anderson played Sunday with a run stopper's base, something Ron just wasn't capable of doing. It will be very interesting to see if Tim can do it back to back weeks or if it was merely the opposing talent last week.

It's your lucky week. The "Black Sheep" of my family lives there- and he knows where everything evil lurks. I'll hook you guys up via email-

Another way to look at the quotes is that "team" seems to be pretty strong while the QB change is making the headlines. The quotes from Moulds and Evans seem reasoned and the ones attributed to JP suggest that he can understand if not fully appreciate the decisionmaking and he also supports "all for one" with the goal being win now. The young QB and his teammates all agree we should do those things that put us in the best position to win now. I'd say if there's anyplace where things are a "mess" it's out here in fandom, with some fans saying winning now is of less importance than developing our future QB while others side with the players, team and management by supporting winning now at all costs. Personally it seems it's pretty shortsighted to ignore the weakened state of our division and not do all in our power to win over the next 4 weeks. Reassessing at the split would seem to make a lot more sense as far as recognizing whether we have any realistic shot at the playoffs or if we've gotten too far behind to make a run.

Get this- Eric Moulds has been historically one of if not the most overrated Buffalo Bill's "stars" over the course of his career. He receives the paycheck of an elite WR but I can tell you that he has never- ever- been among the ten "best" receivers in the game simply due to his failed concentration catching balls. There is no "elite" receiver in the league's history who so frequently drops catchable footballs as Mr. Moulds. Is he a valuable, talented WR and a lifelong Bill? Yes he is, and he should be recognized for those things. Is he an elite WR in the NFL? Not today, not yesterday and not by any objective measure. He simply is not a consistent receiver, and in the scope of the game that's his #1 job.

You are, of course correct my dear. If I may be allowed to fully dress the turkey: "he's a whiny little beeyotch who has never caught the football as consistently as any of the best Wide Receivers in the NFL" Hopefully KHolcomb has paid note to this and feeds the steadiest of diets to one Mr. Evans, who has shown signs of posessing the hands of a true top wideout.

You and Simon have similar opinions on Holcomb's abilities and this is another of the things that in my mind strongly support the move. For Sunday. And maybe for another 3 or 4 games. But I expect to see JP play even Sunday if Holcomb discovers some life in our choking offense. The kid was put on display as an elusive guy in the mold of Michael Vick and he's clearly not. The coaching staff fell in love with his foot speed and they forgot to make him a QB first- and right now he's not even that. The kid himself is dealing far better with this than one body of our fans- he's said the team needs to do what the team needs to do and I applaud him for that. Last week was a game to gauge progress- out of conference, on the road- I saw enough progress for a little while. This week isn't a gauge game- this is our season. We lose to Miami we become a grasping team who can't afford any letdowns, and even the good teams in the league suffer letdowns. I'm looking forward to this football game to tell me more about my team than I've been able to decipher from the first 4 games while we've been bringing up the kid. And I think the kid at this point can actually benefit more by having the pressure taken off for a week- or maybe a few weeks. Not to mention our coaching staff might just benefit from it too. Hopefully when they bring the kid back they recognize that they have to make him into a QB first and save the acrobatics for later in his career.

You can't play in the Super Bowl if you don't make the Playoffs. We can't make the Playoffs if we throw away this pivotal game in our schedule under the excuse we're giving somebody "experience". Win. Now.

22 first downs from our offense would make our defense FAR more effective. It's not a huge leap from our season average. We've got more to gain than we have to lose at this stage of the season.

The discussion is about the decison to start Holcomb, not about predictions of the outcome of the game. I can find a lot of ways to justify a temporary change at QB, and when studying the backgound of Mr. Holcomb the supporting evidence becomes even more compelling.

Throw away opportunity for potential? Not this fan. Opportunity is fleeting, potential is omnipresent. Win football games. Now.

OK, you all seem to agree we can weigh Mr. Losman's career stats as an important and critical part of the debate.

One game- exactly- the one this coming Sunday is the important game to me. That makes the history of how he can play being thrown into the pressure cooker important. At least we know he's played good ball before under even more trying circumstances.

In a Wildcard Playoff against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2003, Kelly Holcomb threw for the third most passing yards in NFL postseason history. A) His running game featured William Green, a career disappointment who has even today never run for 1000 yards in a season over his career. B) He was throwing to a receiving corps of Kevin Johnson, Dennis Northcut, Quincy Morgan plus our very own Mark Campbell at TE. C) He was protected by an offensive line consisting of Ryan Tucker, Paul Zakauskas, a twilight Dave Wohlabaugh, Ross Verba and Barry Stokes. (Lori- feel free to correct me here) D) It was Holcomb’s first start in 14 games for the Browns.

I think the personnel is more than adequate to run the ball down our opponents throats but unfortunately Villarial has been hampered by his injury more than is recognized and Teague is only effective when he has a strong and reliable guard to one side or the other. He can't cover for two guards in pass pro and unfortunately Bennie and a dinged up Villarial is not a good situation for him. Gandy has been a good addition, especially his range and willingness in the run game. Jerman obviously is overmatched, but he's a backup and you have to learn to play and cover for your backups. On the other side, Anderson had his first near-full game in the run D last week and for I believe 8 series he played better than Edwards has his whole career. It was only in the last defensive series, when our defense had been on the field for 30 minutes already, that our lack of any depth at DT bit us in the butt in the way of fatigue, with the Saints gaining over a third of their rushing yards for the game in one single game-ending series. I'll grant you that the depth at DT is a concern- but it's of greater concern if we're not getting first downs and consequently losing the TOP game. We'll be OK, while thin, at DT if we can move the chains on offense IMO. Edwards injury appears to have improved our ability to stop the run. With our DEs and our pressure overall, I think it's unfair to recognize we have the #1 pass D in the NFL and yet have some fans claiming we're not getting any pressure- that's simply unrealistic AFAIC. Shoring up our run vulnerability with a personnel change should help this D to get better in a hurry, and there's no better way for our run D to get better than for our offense to get us some first downs. Preferably 25 ;-)

We seem to have much to disagree on this season ;-) Let me start by pointing out that the Top 6 aren't the teams that make the playoffs. Secondly I wouldn't discount our ability in any way to end up in the playoffs if we simply make better use of our talent- meaning let's use the talent we have to best posiiton ourselves to win on Sundays. As you pointed out, you think it's perfectly reasonable for KH to play better than JP against the Fish and the coaches this week apparently agree with you. Bravo! Step one to winning- use the talent that puts you in the best position to win! Now let's see if they use that run blocking offensive line effectively Sunday and sit the overchallenged Ryan Neufeld in favor of a body who can either catch or block since Neufeld can do neither. Due to injury we'll start our most effective run stopping DLine, that's another positive no matter how it came about. We've been in position all year to win games if we could simply string together some freaking first downs after the first quarter! And if the offense can gain some confidence and allow this offensive line to focus on what they're good at, then win some games and get the young QB reps when our opponent is back on their heels, perhaps he too can get some quality field time where he has some timeto learn stewardship. And if this all leads to a playoff berth in our weakened division, would the experience of being in the playoffs with a winning team not be a million times better than being the starter for a 6-10 loser who's locker was emptied long before the first Wild Card games?

It's very easy to make the argument here though that Anderson is at least as effective as the guy he's taking over for- I actually think he's better on rushing downs than Edwards- he has a run stuffer's base and sets his lower body up well, something Edwards has never been able to figure out. Abandoning the season when the AFC East is looking like it's been kicked down a few steps would be crazy right now- there's no reason we can't find a way to take our first division game and not simply play the "development" excuse if in fact they feel JP's too spooked to come out playing well, and you'll have to admit that you wouldn't want to bet JP will "come out playing well" against Miami; why not see how Holcomb does out of the chute with the added benefit of a full week of practice as the starter? I expect JP Losman to be our starter for a long time, I also expect our Head Coach to do EVERYTHING in his power to win this season, especially considering that our division appears to be there for the taking, probably at 9-7. Also this might allow the coaches to get off their reliance on JP's toolbox and get back to a play action scheme that our OLine is far better suited to play than the blaster drill passing offense they've given us so far. Bottom line is that there's lots more to experience than simple playing time. It might be time we get our future star quarterback some experience in the victory department. That might even prove to him that he doesn't have to carry this team to grab the gold ring, he simply needs to go out and execute. And that might be the best thing about starting Holcomb- both our talented sophomore and our coaching staff might get back onto a page in fundamental offense they've been ignoring while they've all been so star-struck by JP's feet.

We'll be facing Keith Traylor this week, a guy who was available during the off-season. And of course Cory Simon being added to the rotation in Indy certainly didn't hurt them. I don't know if Grady has 15-20 good downs in him a game anymore. He hasn't been able to finish a season healthy since 2001. Maybe in a limited role he could survive, but we're awful static with our situation packages and he'd probably have to play too much for us.

Nor would I ask you to. One of the great things that attracts fans of the strategy side of football to this board is the ability to explore our opinions and then come back to discuss whether these have played out on the field during the game. As with a handful of other posters, I appreciate your consideration of your own opinions and your willingness to turn it into cohesive text and discussion. As far as QB, I believe he has an utter lack of confidence in his time and that leaves him absolutelu out of control. He's like a kid with hyperactive ADD and he is of little use, but at the same time he has to get it out of his system. Typically an OC will give him easy sideline outs ot let him gain some rythym and confidence. We have one of the best WRs in the league to throw these to in Moulds, it might be the strength of Moulds game at this point in time. But the desire to go downfield seems to obsess the coaching strategy each week. I'd like to see them give the kid a little confidence by using the field along the sidelines, which also loosens up the running game. Evans will still draw consume 2 up top while Eric keeps the O moving. Forget downfield for one freaking quarter and let us get s good start, maybe even a good balanced start considering the opponent. And with a little confidence in his line we could have the kind of caretaker Sunday we were expecting coming into 05 from the QB position.

Like a hyena, the fan with the 29th rated passer facing the top pass defense in the league sees cackling as an appropriate retort to conventional NFL wisdom.

An NFL defense that holds their opponent to less than 20 points would typically be spared being fingered by fans as the culprit in a loss- especially a defense who was forced onto the field for at least two extra series by their ineffective offense. I think you give too little credit to a DLine who played a solid 30 minutes with virtually no quality depth behind them. It's hard to ignore that Duece McAlister racked up over 45% of his rushing yardage on their final drive. If we can simply put together 20 first downs on offense, the D we're fielding now is capable of making the Fish look inept. Problem we've been having though is our offense since week 2 has been averaging about 13 first downs a game.

Expect an improved run defense with Anderson playing now for Edwards. Had we split TOP with the Saints this past week the run defense would have had a very good outing, and look for the same. Bottom line, I expect the D to give us 30 minutes of good football. If our offense can take the other side of that by holding the ball for an equal amount of time we'll have a good day. If the offense needs the D to play 35-40 minutes our lack of DT depth will once again cause us to fail to meet the test.

Just to clarify your predicitons: A) The Fish will match their season total for picks against us on Sunday. Which would, of course, be more picks than our starter has thrown in the first 4 games of the season combined. B) Ronnie Brown, who's not even among the top 40 running backs with his 3.9 YPC average (worse than Shaud Williams, Sammy Morris and 40 others) will walk across the Bill's defense. C) Gus Frerotte, the 29th ranked passer in the league, will have a Y.A. Tittlesque game. It's an amazing grasp of the game you show ;-) Now when reality strikes you on Monday I predict you'll find that the Dolphins in their 4th game of 2005 looked suprisingly similar to the Bills in their 4th game. And it will be a game that makes it perfectly clear just how bad you blew it taking Ronnie Brown instead of Cadillac Williams.

At this point he's proving that mobility is no cure for defensive pressure. He's so damn nervous that he rarely if ever looks off his primary receiver. And when he pulls it down he commits 100% to the run. I was watching some clips from the Eagle/Chiefs game. McNabb is flushed on a play and he takes off to his left, looking totally as if he's commiting to run- and yet when he sees a receiver open 3 or 4 steps into it he dumps the ball and lets his receiver pick up 15 yards and take the hit at the end of the play. A totally veteran play. We can only hope that JP's field vision starts to improve soon, and it sure does seem that history proves that running the ball is the single best way to slow down the game for your QB. The QB we've got on the field needs desperately for the game to slow down some so he can gain the experience playing the QB position the right way instead of playing with fear as he is right now. He'll learn nothing playing with fear, and we'll win scant few games with him running scared.

I'd say your basic premise begins with a flaw in the comparison, that being that yardage in the air would have to be weighted equally to yardage gained rushing if we consider the number of passes to the number of rushes. The ratio here is actually about 3:1. You might want to try using yards per attempt but it still is an imperfect comparison. Also you acknowledge that better teams pass less in the end of the game; of course- there's no reason to pass with a lead, the clock ticking and a defense reeling against your running attack! The disparity you show is simply the historical difference in yardage between a rushing attempt and a completed pass and the resultant effect of an effective running game on the necessity to pass. I'd say your stats actually suggest that passing the ball is by far the less desirable thing for winning teams, and hence why winning teams aren't passing the ball in the 4th quarter.