yungmack

There you go, being rational. That's no way to play the "Fitz Sucks" game.

You might be right but then again, Fitz might be changing the call that Gailey gave him. He does have that option and apparently often uses it.

The question to me isn't whether the Bills can win w/o CJ and Freddy (I believe they can) but can they win WITH the corners they have.

Don't know how this ever got started but by now it's so ubiquitous it's probably even in some dictionaries. But it originated in England in, I think, either the late 18th or early 19th century from the word "fancier," as in "The king is a fancier of horse racing." Kind of like the now totally accepted mispronunciation of "Caitlin," which is simply the Gaelic/Irish spelling of "Kathleen."

Just want to toss this into the junkyard: Off the top of my head, didn't Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Andrew Luck, and Drew Brees have 3 interception games within the first two weeks? Any others you can think of? Do you know if fans in Denver, NY, Indy and NO are getting ready to commit suicide because of that? Just wondering.

Sacks ARE important and the Bills got 5 of them. And MW contributed mightily to that total. When you have to put two or more guys on him, this opens the door to other guys getting the sack. This is the most TEAM dependent of any major sport and stats should be understood in that light.

If you've been watching some of the other games so far, it's clear to me at least that these refs are a disaster. I haven't charted the effects of their calls (and more importantly, non-calls) but I'm sure someone out there with a talent for that sort of thing will do it. But so far it looks to me like they might very well be costing some teams victories. And worse, contributing to injuries. It's a joke so far with those guys

Excellent analysis by Galliford. Thanks for posting.

These guys made the cut...for now: S Delano Howell DE Kyle Moore FB/TE Dorin Dickerson OT Sam Young C-G Colin Brown LB Chris White K John Potter

Right now, this is the cut list according to this: WR Kamar Aiken, LB Tank Carder, WR Marcus Easley, DT Dwan Edwards, WR Derek Hagan, WR Ruvell Martin, WR Naaman Roosevelt.

And the Ravens cut Cordaro Howard...

According to this.

The facts are that he was seen as something of a bust and wasn't getting much play time. Then the Bills signed Flutie who was quickly relegated to back-up status. So the two of them wound up spending a lot of time working out together. When Flutie got his shot, he made Moulds his guy, his "Stevie" as it were. That's when Moulds' great run really began.

Good point as well. I thought using the wildcat when he did in Minnesota, and the direct snap to Spiller were done specifically to give the Jets something else to complicate their game planning. BTW, after Spiller made the first down on that play, Stevie dropped that easy quick out from Fitz which seemed to mark the beginning of the offense's collapse.

Did Lombardi nail it? The guy couldn't nail a 2x 4 with an air gun. There's a reason he and the other "genius" ex-GMs and ex-Head Coaches are sitting around a studio bloviating instead of running a team. The essence of offensive "gaming" of the defense is having an area that the D has to commit to overly defending. Once they do that, the offense has to be capable of taking advantage of the holes that open up. If the offense doesn't have the talent to do that, it becomes the dreaded "one-dimensional offense." As someone else pointed out on this thread, the short slant pass is intended to counter the blitz and "cheating up" on the run game. Once the D commits to stopping it, the run game AND the long ball come into play. Last year the Bills running game benefitted greatly with that approach, with Fred-Ex on his way to a spectacular season. But the long ball part of the equation was lacking because the Bills didn't have a burner. That's why TJ Graham is on the roster. If TJ has the impact I think he will and if the rest of the offense is at least as good as last year's was, then it's going to come down to Chan's play-calling and Fitz's arm. And that seems to bring us to the heart of the differences of opinion on this board, between those of us who believe that Chan's the Man and Fitz is the right guy for the job, and those who don't. And only time will tell who's right.

I don't know if this got mentioned anywhere in this thread but Gailey had the safeties making the defensive calls against the Vikes. That might have contributed to Sheppard's seeming problems. In any case, Gailey has junked that experiment.

I think all these cliches are the result of laziness combined with a lack of talent by the commentators. It's just "auto-speak" that passes for ability. If they hear a fresh phrase, they all seem to glom on to it within days and then its everywhere forever. One that annoys me is, "Are you kidding me?" And from baseball: "He hit a frozen rope."

They were the laziest announcers I've run across, not even bothering to learn the names of more than three or four Bills players, nor even bothering to look on the rosters sheets they must have had in front of them. I understand they're home team announcers, but how can you give your own fans a good idea of how a guy is doing if you don't bother telling them the strengths of the opponent? On top of being lazy, it was just plain rude to non-Vikes fans and casual non-Bills fans to not give the names and situations of Bills players. I don't think I've ever heard a worse broadcasting team in that regard.

I support women's equality. And I support women becoming football fans. However, there seem to be too many women on this thread, voicing opinions while suffering from PMS. How else to explain all the pointless bitching and the complete lack of understanding of what preseason games are meant to accomplish, which is mainly to see if your core players have progressed or regressed since last season, to see if any of the new guys have what it takes, and to try out things when the games don't matter to see how they are working and to give your regular season opponents something to think about. Oh yeah, and not to reveal too much of what you're going to do when the games do count. I forget the exact quote, but Marv Levy once said that if his team wins a preseason game, he figures he screwed up. By which I took him to mean that you try things that don't make sense to the average fan, and which you probably wouldn't do in the regular season, just to see how your guys handle it.

Sheppard was god awful...which might be the reason the other LBs looked awful. Right now, I think Sheppard is one of the guys who are playing themselves out of the starting position or right off the roster.

What interested me was the suggestion that the small market teams are a concern, and will be of interest to federal law makers. What I hope this means is that pressure will be put on the league to change the ownership rules, making community ownership an option.

Obama may be a mediocre president (or not), but unless you are among the very, very wealthy, a vote for his opponent is a knuckleheaded move.

The Bills passing game is all about quick release, often to a spot. That means putting the ball into tight spots and trusting the receiver to be where he's supposed to be. It is a high risk scheme that gets riskier when playing from behind in desperation, and when receivers who are less experienced in the scheme are forced into the lineup. That's precisely what happened in the second half of last season when Fitz's INTs soared. The improvement on the defense side should mean the opponent not only scores fewer points, but also has a lower time of possession. And maybe more turnovers. That should mean the offense won't be playing from deeply behind, and won't have to rely so heavily on the passing game to catch up which gives the opponent's D a huge advantage. If so, then we should rightly expect Fitz to be much improved in '12. Your paean to VY notwithstanding, my biggest concern right now is the backup QB slot. If Fitz gets injured again, all bets are off because I don't for a minute see Young or Thigpen as viable replacements for more than a couple of series of downs. I suspect Buddy is watching the waiver wire closely and I wouldn't be shocked to even see him make a trade.

Excellent synopsis, Mike. Thanks a bunch.

Even after he left the Bills, Ruben continued to make his home in Buffalo. And he still lives there. Now that's commitment.