AKC

Actually there were a few of us who took our lumps last season and off-season insisting Teague was primarily a victim of the undersized guy to his right last season and that a change of offensive strategy could make him a very positive contributor. One thing I forgot to mention is a guy I've had nothing good to say about in the uniform of Ron Edwards is playing an important, and often effective, role in this defense. He showed exceptional power on some of the plays he was in, pushing a triple team back 2 or 3 yards at one time. If he can somehow become consistent with the fire to play in this league he could become a huge positive in spelling the two starters in the middle.

But the content seems to be pretty accurate ;-) Don't I get a passing grade? I can't believe what I'm seeing at CBS! How in the world can they allow Rather to drag them into this corner? It is totally indefensible and it doesn't even seem possible that they are allowing it to continue. I can't imagine this won't have a historically negative impact on their reputation as a news provider.

One of the biggest surprises for ne this year so far is the touch that Bledsoe has shown- I don't ever remember him "settling" balls into his receivers hands in the past. I agree with you that for the most part Big Mike was "effective", but this guy needs a fire under his ass and get mean like the guy to his left. I'm hoping when he finally plays himself into shape, say mid-season, Villarial's attitude rubs off onhim.

I had a chance to review the first half last night, I’ll try to get to the second half today. Schobel played very well. Although his weakness has been defending runs in his face, he blows up two running plays in the first half and on one he gets under the OL’s pads, plants his feet and causes a tackle behind the LOS. On the other he slips his block and makes the tackle behind the LOS. Jax success came more easily going the other way, and if they didn’t game plan it they found Chris Kelsay a much softer target to run at. In their third offensive series the Jags take 4 runs in a row over our left side, three right on top of Kelsay. The result is 4 straight successful runs leading to 2 first downs. After a pas play though Kelsay looks like he’s tired of getting slapped around and he penetrates a run and drops the back for a 2 or 3 yard loss. Posey remains somewhat of a mystery; on one play he actually uses his arms to get off a TE block but on more plays than not he’s got “tentative” feet. And it’s his feet that it looks like he seems to be protecting. I don’t know if he’s ever had a leg injury and he favors it but my opinion after watching him in this game very closely is that he could use about a month in the tires to improve his chop steps- when there’s low traffic he seems to lose all his fundamentals and gets taken out of plays very easily. Jonas Jennings has such a sweet slide that if he is able to stay healthy I expect a pure passing team will offer him big money this coming off-season. Few tackles in the NFL get that perfect lateral movement. That said, he’s not nearly as good in the running game as he tends to carry a little too much weight up high. Teague has taken his versatile game from the pre-season to the regular season. You can see in Bledsoe’s body language out of the shotgun that he’s got confidence in the snaps coming from Trey. The team asks Teague to make a lot of second level blocks, many of them on the edge. They also don’t hesitate having him take one on one interior lineman assignments occasionally in the passing game. Chris Villarial is awesome to watch in run blocking- He plays all play long and for linebackers on the second level loafing as a play draws down WATCH OUT because he’ll put the wood to anyone if he’s not engaged and the whistle hasn’t been blown. He is above average on the move and excellent in short range blocking due to his persistence. On one play in our third offensive series you see Travis bounce off the line and then advance for 7 yards- it’s not a broken tackle, it’s actually Travis hitting Villarial who is just WORKING his assignment who has no chance to make a play on Travis. Right now LSmith is understandably the weak link on our Oline. On passing downs he’s getting help from Teague but he lets his assignment slip him even on run downs. His background considered he needs to be given time against the highest level of talent he’s ever played, but even today he’s an improvement over the previous starter. It will help this Oline big time when Teague can occasionally turn to Villarial’ side as Chris is not nearly as accomplished in the passing game as he is on run downs. Mixing up Teague’s attention will make it much tougher to set defensive line slots for teams playing us. Big Mike either is still getting his wind together or he just doesn’t put out any more effort than he thinks he has to on most plays. He also looked like he either had his foot stepped on in the first half or he is nursing some type of toe nick. Something we haven’t seen in a long time is a TE sealing an edge against a DE for a runner. Mark Campbell not only does this perfectly, he does it against DE Lionel Barnes who is definitely bigger than the 260 pounds they list him at on their roster. QB pressures given up by Big Mike, Villarial and Smith. Travis was stringing together brain farts on Sunday, first he misses a screen call by going to the wrong side of the field and on the very next play he blows his blocking assignment by letting his man straight through after getting his body between Jennings and Jenning's man. Maybe the fact that he gets knocked on his butt will help him to overcome the same mistake in the future.

I'm watching it right now- and it's almost like a movie plot. I believe Rather is truly melting down- a guy who is placed in a position to report the news, not make it, has been involved at the very least with presenting fabricated evidence and it's looking more and more as if he may have been involved with the fabrication itself. His inability to report the truth in this case should result in a landslide of emails to CBS demanding his removal. Their address is evening@cbsnews.com

Coelho makes a very good point in an interview with CBS news (I guess that is if we're to believe anything from them:) regarding the structure of their campaign organizations: “Here are two groups that have never gotten along and have fought, and it is a lot over money,” says Coehlo. "Because in the Democratic Party the consultants get paid for the creation and the placement of [advertising]. Republicans only pay you for the creation.” While it's admirable that Coelho recognizes the Republicans are better businessmen, why in the world wouldn't each Democratic candidate be at least enough in control of his campaign to dicate the terms of the consultant deals? Am I missing something here- it doesn't strike me that the Coelho statements are focused on just this campaign, but instead on national Dem campaigns in general?

We've got an interesting opening 3 games against 3 of the 4 best quality interior DLines in the NFL: opener against JAX with Stroud and Henderson, this week against the rotation of Ted Washington, Warren Saap and John Parella, and then the line Belichick has built. It would be a very good sign from my seat for the balance of the season if we are able to run for over 100 yards (as we did against the Jags) for the other two games. Our OLine play is on the other side of the spectrum from the past three years when we were basically playing one on one football along the line. It's been years since I've seen as many of our line players pulling outside the opposite tackle, throwing cross body run blocks and just generally staying very active instead of trying to simply beat the guy opposite them. If the kid at LG can get his footwork in space together we might just become the kind of team that is able to put a lot of 36 and 38 minute TOP games together, and it's my opinion that the kind of running back to feature in that is a guy who is patient waiting for his blocks while being able to hold onto the football. The good news for us is it appears we have a guy who meets that description on our roster ;-)

I understand it is your intention to be a contributing guest on the subject of football here on TSW, and I welcome you completely in that capacity while looking forward to sharing observations from the alternative viewpoint of a division rival. Please excuse my presumption that you were just another of the Patsy bottom-feeders who spend their time here posting repetitive drivel. I didn't go back to re-watch your opener in depth but it appeared to me that the base set of your defensive line regularly used 3 DTs against the Colts with Traylor coming for the most part off one of the end spots. Did you get a feel for the interior DLine scheme for the whole game and do you think it is merely a match-up design or something we should expect to see more this year?

Just to be fair to you I'd like to ask you one question- Is English your first language?

Excuse me- I forgot the bus marked "Pat's Trolls" was the tiny short one in the parking lot. I hate to throw off your GED studies by confusing you with some very simple realities for the rest of us, but productivity is by definition measured in a quantitative manner as I, and the official website of the NFL, have pointed out. You apparently are welcome to offer your uneducated hypotheses here in a Buffalo Bills forum, but never mistake my exposing your inability to reason or accept logic as a friendly gesture. I don't see the the Pat's fans who have polluted this forum in the past year as capable of becoming "contributors" as many other opposing team's fans before them have become over time. But in every case there was some exercise of manners in their cases. On the other hand if your intention here is to participate in a discussion of our division excuse my cold welcome. I see the garbage offered by others under the same flag you wave and assume you're as much of a louse as some of them. If you'd like to talk about the dynamics of the game of football in the manner of a guest in another's home I'll be the first to apoligize for the reception.

OK, let's try your comprehension one more time since you've been a dismal failure up to this point, and no, I don't give out little golden stars. Perhaps a little pointed cap would fit your head nicely though? Official League post using "QB Production" to describe total passing yards

phiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...........................wphoooooooooooooooooo I'm.....I'm beginnning to see it!!!!

No doubt our coverage teams were better and Lindell with a little more air on his kicks played a aprt in allowing them time to get downfield, for the record his kicks were to the 10, 3 and 1.

The existence of information is no guarantee that all will be able to comprehend it.

Uh, Trevor, that's EXACTLY what a field goal means- the offense never got over the goal line (which would count 6 points and warrant an extra point attempt) and the kicking unit was required to score points.

Over his career he's remained among the worst in the NFL in putting the ball into the end zone on his kick-offs, and once again on Sunday he failed to reach it. I agree he's been striking the ball better and getting some additional distance and on most kicks more air time, but again he's working from such an area of low expectations that landing only one on the 10 Sunday qualifies for a big day on KOs for the guy. We were one of the 3 worst teams in '03 on opponents position after the return. I won't hold the whole problem against the coverage team because I feel his short kicks were additionally too flat. Maybe the bigger problem is that he missed both of his FGs over 50 yards and went 3 of 7 from over 40 (35th in the league) last year. This season opens up with him being one of only two kickers in the league to miss a 40-50 yard FG. More importantly his head coach doesn't have faith in him- the guy who watches him at practice day after day and who meets regularly with his position coach to talk about his potential. It could be more of an indictment on Mularkey but my only record for the coach is this one game- I've had a lot more time to watch Rian. I don't have the explanation for why a guy who cedes Lindell 40 pounds and 5 inches in Miami puts over 20 more kicks out of the end zone every season, but if Sunday was any indication we're on our way to asking that question once again this year.

That's true, but not the premise of my original question. I'm pointing out that this "clucth" kicker has had to bail out the new wunderkid in all the biggest games he's played in, while the wunderkid has hardly stellar records in the same crunch time of those big games. In fact in the 4th quarter of big games INTs and fumbles are more common for Brady than TDs. But how 'bout that Pat's kicker!

This might help you- Most Productive QBs in NFL History

Your making imperfect analogies versus looking at the record I've isolated- the big kick by Vinatieri, a 48 yarder, won the game to win the Pat's first Super Bowl. You're proposing subjectivity where I've provided objectivity. In SB33 Terrel Davis didn't score a single touchdown. It's fair to conclude that there were any number of backs who might have complemented Elway, especially considering the continued success of Shanahan's rushing ofenses since, but just ont he subjective side of Elway/Davis I don't think a guy who didn't contribute a single point to his team at the RB spot means he's a must have player. Unles Reed made the the winning catch in each one of the big games he doesn't fit the model. Warner without Bruce and Holt? Since Bruce had the game-winning touchdown in their SB win you have one perfectly objective example and I agree- Bruce was instrumental to the Super Bowl win. The difference with Vinatieri is that Brady isn't passing him the ball, he's stepping up all alone after his QB fails to move the offense over the goal line. And he's the best in the league, IMO, with everything on the line. He's proven it and deserves the accolades fans throw on Brady, a guy who is riding on Vinatieri's coattails but sucking up all the credit. And I'm relvied that you won't be bending over for Tom Brady, there's been WAY too much of that by Pat's fans over the past few years ;-)

I don't know how successful you'll be in the spread with our coverage which is pretty good at every level except the last, but you could use multiple tight ends to draw down a more "challenged" coverage guy like Coy Wire and work on him. I didn't see much of your game last week and didn't notice Parella in the game or on the stat line- I assume he was in your DT rotation?

One of my best friends lived in Denver during the Elway years and I spent enough time there to witness the fan reaction to the first 3 Super Bowl losses. Elway was amassing the still-standing record of most sacked QB in history and 10% of the fan base and the most critical of their sports media used phrases like "has no pocket presence"- "can't get rid of the ball fast enough"- "one-dimensional" and other familiar little sayings that QBs have hung on them when their team is performing poorly. 10% of fans in Denver and that part of the media that had picked him as the target of keeping their own careers on track were actually screaming for his replacement right up until his first ring. Most football autorities agree that it was only when Elway accepted the fact that he was NOT the "difference-maker" that he'd been touted as all his career that he became a Super Bowl winner.

1) I couldn't give a stevestojan about Brady except for those coronating him as some type of ageless talent at QB. The book on his has just begun, and as I've pointed out and had no credible refutation, if he'd had the quality of kicker we have right now his jersey would be anything but common around the country. 2) Surprisingly Pat's fans are worse guests here than Dolphins fans. Among Dolphin fans we've actually attracted a few who have become contributors to the better information available on TBD. On the other hand for at least the visible part the Pat's fan contributions have amounted to little more than granddstanding with a vacuum of actual football knowledge. Funny how not one of them, and to be fair I'll leave out T-Bone since he really would prefer to be a Bill's fan, was around before the Pats won the '01 Super Bowl. 3) Yes, I'm a Bill's fan and have been since they were first formed.

It's always better to be a registered jackass like Foxboro Mike than an unregistered one. Try a little harder :-)

Your correction is noted and accepted. My personal position on Beldsoe has always been that it's foolish to ignore the fact that he's one of the most productive QBs in history and one of today's most experienced at every level including the playoffs and two Super Bowls plus a Super Bowl ring. I find the suggestions that he's not capable of being the starting QB on a Super Bowl winner to be naive and void of the historical occasions of experienced QBs who have won their Super Bowls at the tail end of careers that were considered up to that point "disappointing". Elway and Plunkett stand out as particularly relevant examples- both facing a vocal majority of fans claiming they took too many sacks and couldn't win the big one yet finishing strong to cap off thier time in the league. Let's hope the system brought in by the Mularkey regime revitalizes the "old timer" running our offense to the benefit of the team. Last week was arguably a step in the right direction, and surely the impetus for some of the scumsucking trolls on this board to begin to try and minimize some of their past positions.

You'll need to pass me a line to the hookah so I can enjoy the same hallucination you're having about our QB being mentioned in this string......