SinceThe70s

You've made a few subjective inferences about me here: 1) That I agree with the blind side block call. I've never expressed an opinion on that call, no clue why you brought it up. Two completely different plays/calls IMO. 2) The way I watch a game ("spend your weekends watching Robert’s Rules of Order" ). Please tell me what my reaction was after the play unfolded on Saturday and how it affected the way I watched the game. Here's a hint: it would probably surprise you. Discussing what happened after a game and the way I watch a game are two completely different things.

I go back to the tuck rule. I never understood why that rule was ever on the books in the first place and I only recall ever seeing it applied once. But I grudgingly had to admit that it was applied correctly at the time. Fortunately once Al Davis passed away they got rid of the rule. I don't see any need to change this rule. Just apply it correctly. I'm over any impact it had on the game, but not how it reflects on the current state of NFL officiating.They have got to get better.

I was worried they were gonna put him in concussion protocol.

Holding may not be clearly defined and what constitutes a legal catch has definitely been a problem. But I'm not sure what's ambiguous about: ARTICLE 2. FAIR-CATCH SIGNAL Item 1. Valid Fair-Catch Signal. A fair-catch signal is valid if it is made while the kick is in flight by a player who fully extends one arm above his helmet and waves it from side to side. A receiver is permitted to legally raise his hand(s) to his helmet to shield his eyes from the sun, but is not permitted to raise them above his helmet except to signal for a fair catch. The ref correctly determined that no fair catch signal was made as did the Bills coverage team. Had the Bills coverage team left the field the returner would have been free to run it back for a TD and we'd all be talking about how dumb they were because it was a live ball. Since it was a live ball and the returner decided (after catching the kickoff) not to return it , the next potential area of ambiguity is the dead ball. As pointed out earlier, the relevant part of the rule book appears to be: ARTICLE 1. DEAD BALL DECLARED An official shall declare the ball dead and the down ended: when a runner declares himself down by: falling to the ground, or kneeling, and clearly making no immediate effort to advance. sliding. When a runner slides, the ball is dead the instant he touches the ground with anything other than his hands or his feet. Nobody in their right mind is arguing what the returners intent was. Problem is, intent was irrelevant. He didn't fall to the ground, he didn't kneel and he actually walked forward with the ball. I'm not sure how significant the blown call was. Probably should have been a safety. The entire game would have changed maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. What bothers me is in a year when the quality of NFL officiating appears to be at an all time low and in an era where the NFL is trying to take the subjectivity out of the calls a ref has to make (i.e. - the 5 vs. 15 yard facemask distinction) they applied a subjective standard to a rule that had no wiggle room for subjectivity. It's another shining example of how poor the current state of NFL officiating is right now.

You left out John Parry.

If you want to destroy my sweater Hold this thread as I walk away

I could see Gruden wanting Brady, not so sure the Raiders would interest Brady.

Not to nitpick, but wasn't that second down? Either way it was glorious. Not sure what I enjoyed the most: the Edelman drop, Bradys pick 6 or Belichick losing his sh!t when Vrabel clowned him on the rules loophole that Belichick initially exposed against the Jets.

Reminds me of when DeSean Jackson dropped the ball before crossing the goal line. There was no interpretation by the refs that his intent was to drop it after crossing the goal line. He made a dumb/lazy mistake and paid the price.

My friend is a huge Jets fan and his comment last night was that the Bills are the only AFC East team that got better this year.

Unless I'm mistaken, Houston got called for 4 penalties: unsportsmanlike (off-setting), two false starts by Tunsil and a delay of game (intentional?) on a punt. Did I miss any? No in play penalties? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but how is that possible? Especially for a team that was getting dominated for over a half?

You're a salt in the wound type, eh?

That was a beautiful thing. The fact that Vrabel did it in New England made it better. Even better was Belichik exposed the rule in a 33-0 win over the Jets.

I just recently became a big fan of the Titans.

It makes a bad day a little bit better. Ravens/Titans will be a slugfest. The 300 yard truthers won't like that one.

When positive goes negative. Didn't take long, did it?

FGs instead of TDs when we had control of the game.

With no apologies whatsoever to "At The Hop": Well you can smoke it You can chew it You can really try and do it smokin' pot You can sing it in a song You can smoke it in a bong smokin' pot Well it's the latest sensation That's sweepin' the nation Smokin' pot Lets Go! Let's go smoke some pot! Let's go smoke some pot! Oh baby! Let's go smoke some pot! Let's go smoke some pot! Oh baby! Come on, let's go smoke some pot!

Life time Long Islander, father was from Chicago so no ties to local teams. When I first started watching football, Jets and Giants were low on star value (Namath was on his last legs) and not winning. Somehow every year I liked a different team - who by coincidence had just won the SB. Dad took me aside and explained the error in my way. Back to the star value, I absolutely loved OJ - still one of the most exciting players I've ever seen - and since the Bills were from NY a choice was made and I never looked back. By 4th or 5th grade I was rocking a Bills jacket and hat to school (which was very unusual down here) and puts it around 1972-73.

LOL. Similar story on a smaller scale. I'm also an out of towner, but have been to Buffalo for three games (all wins). If you ever get a chance make the trip, you won't regret it. My box of Flutie Flakes (along with a few other Bills items) has been on display since the Steelers game.

Smokin', Smokin' We're cookin' tonight, just keep on tokin'

Agreed on the push back and Hopkins being the (IMO much) better player. I happen to like the stats vs. eye test debates. But are any posts here particularly productive? 8 hours left to kill. Go Bills!

On the matter of incredibly uninteresting, we disagree. I found it interesting that he posted stats which on the surface suggested there wasn't such a large gap between the contributions of the two players this year. Doesn't mean that the stats prove that. On the contrary, I took a superficial attempt at substantiating the 'implication' by looking at first down receptions and came up empty. And I don't think OP needed to imply any opinion when he specifically said the Bills should worry more about the RB's than Hopkins due to the stats. On that matter OP and I disagree.

Frampton Comes Alive! Fun fact: part of the album was recorded at the Long Island Arena. Never saw a show there, but wifey saw Styx and a better claim to fame is the Long Island Ducks: The Ducks are most famously known for player-head coach John Brophy, who is believed to be the role model for Paul Newman's character of Reggie Dunlop in the movie Slap Shot.[2] Brophy encouraged and epitomized "old-time hockey" and brash physical play, retired as the league's career leader in penalty minutes, and was once suspended for half of a season for knocking down a referee.

I don't think OP ever asserted that Hopkins was better than Brown, he just made an interesting statistical comparison between the two for this year. OP's assertion that McD and company should be more concerned with Hyde and Duke as a result is unfounded IMO.