Shaw66

Thanks for this. It relates to how I feel about the book. I imagine someone asking me why what I have to say in the book is relevant to anything, what makes it special, what credentials do I have? And I've realized that I wrote a book that's just about one fan's experience with Buffalo and the Bills. My experiences are different from yours, but they aren't better or worse. There are tens of thousands of people who have been fans of the Bills for decades, and they each have their own experiences. The only thing that makes me different is that I like to write, so I compiled a bunch of my experiences and put them on paper. If we were talking over a beer, we could go on all night, sharing yours and mine, big moments, crushing moments, funny moments, all of that. Maybe you need to pour a cold one before you start reading.

Yes. And Moore, too.

Thanks! That's cool. I'll have to get those.

Interesting. I agree. I think blitzing is becoming part of the defense, rather than something to do when the four aren't getting home. Making the defense more varied. Plus whatever they were doing with White is another example.

What a cool story. What a great thing to do for a Bills fan. I don't have a big red book. The details of games and seasons get away from me. But I have plenty of memories.

Sometime about 18 months ago, someone here started a thread called something like "Tell Us Your Favorite Bills Memory." I saw the title and immediately thought, "I have a lot of favorite memories. I'm not going to pick one." I moved on. Within a couple of hours, I had decided to write a book about being a Bills fan. And now I've done it. My memoir, FAN - Stories of Buffalo and the Bills, has been published and is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. In FAN, I've written about my life growing up in Amherst in the '50s, about my earliest memories of being a Browns fan, and about how I became a Bills fan when Mr. Wilson decided to invest in the AFL and in Buffalo. The book includes chapters about games I've attended, including the 1964 AFL championship game and Wide Right, my experiences as a season ticket holder, and plenty of other stories. If you're interested and want to see some of what I've written, I've posted the Preface to FAN on my blog, www.Hartfordtodayandtomorrow.com and also on the Amazon page. GO BILLS!

Tell me about it! I have to go up just about 5 rows, but I've almost gone down a couple of times. Life always presents new challenges.

I think this is the result of playing a lot of zone and rushing four. Somehow, when they play Lamar, they've learned to rush with discipline and keep him contained. Other teams, I think they turn the lineman loose a bit more, which means there are gaps for the QB to escape. It's part of the reason the Bills' rush defense numbers are bad.

Maybe. I was in the stadium and saw it only once. But it looked to me like Tre had him around the shoulders and held him in place until help came. But as I said, I only saw it once.

Me too. Just score 31 in the first half and coast home. They fell to one and three because they had to play Buffalo, Detroit, and Kansas City in the first four games. Brutal schedule.

Not in October. It's still only the beginning of the season. The 4Q statement game you speak of should happen in the first round of the playoffs. That's where you send a signal to the other teams in the playoffs that there's a monster in Western New York waiting for them.

It’s the end of September, and one quarter of the Bills’ 2025 campaign is in the books. It’s a good time to take stock. Let’s take a moment to think about the realities of the NFL season. The first four to six games of the season are problematic, because the wins and losses count but the games are, in a sense, preseason games. Every season it’s the same: teams spend October and as much as half of October trying to figure out how to play. It wasn’t always this way. In the 50s and 60s, the season was 12 games long. Teams played five preseason games, the first two or three to get into shape and practice plays, the last two or three to fine-tune offenses and defenses. Along the way, the teams figured out which rookies could contribute. There was no free agency; except for trades, there were no new veterans in training camp. Today, those five preseason games are the first five games of the regular season. The games we now call preseason games are actually scrimmages designed to install offenses and defenses and work out new and unproven players to see if they might be able to contribute to the team. The players who will actually play during the regular season barely see the field in the modern preseason. In the modern NFL, each season teams are faced with the problem of playing preseason games in September that actually count in the standings. That is, the objective is to win games at the same time the coaches are trying to put together the team that will win games when the actual season begins sometime in October. That’s when we begin to see which teams actually are good and which teams that, despite having won a lot in September, really aren’t so good. What are the team objectives while they play these preseason games that count? 1. Win games 2. Avoid major injuries 3. Work your rookies and newcomers into the offensive, defensive, and special teams units 4. Begin to develop your offensive and defensive identities So, how are the Bills doing as the preseason winds down and the true regular season—mid-October and beyond—approaches? Very well, thank you very much. Number one, win games. Can’t do better than 4-0. Every team in the AFC that began the season with serious hopes of playing for the Lombardi trophy (Bengals, Ravens, Chargers, Chiefs) is now chasing the Bills. In fact, every team in the entire AFC is now chasing the Bills. Some fans are quick to say, “Yes, they’re four-and-oh, but blah, blah, blah.” It’s preseason, and all the “blah, blah, blah” is simply stuff the team will continue to work on as the preseason winds down and the real games begin. Four-and-oh is four-and-oh, and at this point in the season, pretty much nothing else matters. Number two, no major injuries. Check. As usual, the Bills know more than they’re saying, but—knock wood—there have been no season-ending injuries, and the guys who are down at the moment, including Ed Oliver, Matt Milano, and Spencer Brown, all seem likely to return in the upcoming weeks. Tyler Bass may be the biggest question mark, but Matt Prater has proven to be an excellent replacement. Number three, work your rookies and newcomers in. Check. Getting the newcomers up the learning curve in preseason is critical to late-season success, because there will be injuries, some guys are going to be asked to step up. TJ Sanders and Deone Walker both are getting serious playing time on the defensive line. Dorian Strong held up at corner against the Ravens, and the Bills were working into the lineup against the Saints. (Max Hairston, the Bills’ number one draft pick, is missing out on the opportunity to work into the rotation, at least for now, but Tre’Davious White and Strong are getting the job done at the #2 corner spot.) Cole Bishop, not a rookie but was still playing like one this summer, now seems to be settling into his safety spot. Put aside his spectacular read, reaction, and interception against the Saints; he was consistently in position, consistently tackling, and just generally playing like he belongs out there. Jackson Hawes is playing like he belongs out there, too. Joey Bosa is making plays, which is why the Bills brought him to Buffalo. Shaq Thompson, who played for Sean McDermott in Carolina, is making his presence felt. Number 4, establish your identity. It’s happening. The Bills are a team that can run the ball and can pass efficiently. They are a team that can be exposed to good running attacks but that stops the pass effectively—Sean McDermott’s style. They are resilient; they make mistakes, but they play through them, and at the end of the game they are ready to deliver the plays they need to win. They delivered those plays in spectacular fashion against the Ravens. The games against the Jets, the Dolphins, and the Saints all seemed closer than fans expected them to be, but in each game the Bills took charge when they needed to close out the win. Is everything great with the Bills? No; there are plenty of areas of concern. For me, one of my biggest is that three-headed running-back-by-committee that worked so well last season is missing. James Cook has been spectacular, but Ty Johnson has done little and Ray Davis has disappeared. It’s a long season, and pounding James Cook for 120 yards every game isn’t a great plan for a long season. Pass rush hasn’t been great, but maybe the Bills will benefit when Oliver returns, their two free agents come off suspension, and their rookies continue to develop. All of those guys also may help shore up the run defense, too. Here are a few things I particularly like: 1. The passing game. Every play, the Bills plug in a different collection of skill position players, and every play the defenses have to adjust. Each guy is a threat in his own way: Kincaid, Knox, Hawes, Shakir (oh, my, what a run after catch!), Coleman, Palmer, Moore, Shavers, Samuels, Cook, Johnson. And Josh Allen knows how to find them. His throw in the middle to Shakir on third and eight was miraculous. 2. Terrell Bernard. Lightning quick to the ball. 3. Tre’Davious White. A lot of fans are bashing him, but if he weren’t getting the job done as the number two corner, the Bills wouldn’t be leading the league in yards passing per game. Sure, teams are completing passes underneath against White, but he’s not giving up big plays, and he’s making big tackles. His play on the ball and his tackle to hold Alvin Kamara to two yards on fourth and three was spectacular. Unless I’m mistaken, I saw White lined up once or twice as the single deep safety. 4. Keon Coleman is looking like his head is now into the game and in sync with Josh Allen. 5. Cook has been sensational. The Patriots are coming alive. Sunday night will be another challenge as the Bills continue to become the team they want to be. Let the regular season begin! GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Leaf was a bigger bust, but it's a good comparison.

Defensive back. He was a big deal in college, like Tory Hunter. Projected as a star at two positions, starred at neither. It's a testament to how hard it is to draft. One guy is a first round HOF player, one guy has a mediocre career, and yet during the draft it was an actual debate over who should go first.

There was a lot of debate that year about weather Simpson or Keyes should go first in the draft. Keyes was a two-way star, and teams were talking about whether he could play both sides of the ball, and if not, where was he best suited. Second, last game of the season, the Bills were at the Raiders and driving for the touchdown that would win the game and cost the Bills the number one pick overall. Ed Rutkowski was the quarterback by that time of the season. Down around the 5-yard line with little time left on the clock Rutkowski rolled right and fumbled. The Raiders recovered, the Bills lost and lost again the next week. That's how OJ ended up in Buffalo.

Everyone laughed at this comment, but it seems to me it's pretty simple: First, if you need someone to do a job, it's best to find someone who's already done the job. Jake Browning is an undrafted free agent QB who's barely been able to get off the practice squad. Russell Wilson has won a Super Bowl. Second, I've been amazed, like everyone else, at Wilson's decline, and I don't think he's anyone's quarterback of the future. However, I didn't think Joe Flacco could play in the NFL any longer, either, but he's shown that his experience alone is enough to enable him to make good decisions for his team. Third, remarkably the Giants have been unable to put any talent around their quarterback - in fact, they let a quarterback and a running back go. Wilson is struggling back there in part because he isn't what he was and in part because he has no help. In Cinci he'd have some real talent and a well-conceived offense to direct - he'd have to do less than the Giants need him to do. If I'm the Bengals, I know at least this: You can't win without a QB. If your QB goes down for a couple games, you struggle through with your backup. But if you have a quality QB with a quality team around him, and the QB goes down for three months, it's a wasted season unless you find someone who can do the job. Going forward with an inexperienced guy who never has projected to be an NFL success and who has no experience on the field is not a formula for 2025 success. Bengals have to do something.

Giants' ownership traditionally has been like the Steelers' ownership. Both stress continuity. They stick with their GMs and their coaches to allow them to build the team in their image, allow it all to come together. I never was thrilled with Daboll, and I agree others who have said that his body of work really isn't that impressive. He's bounced around a lot. I also never was a Daniel Jones fan, but at least we could see that he was solid and stable. The fact that Daboll allowed both Jones and Barkley to leave, without any good idea of where they were going, really is the killer for Daboll. Ownership may believe in continuity, but after several years there has to be some evidence that they're building toward success. One basic sign is when the new coach comes in and there's almost immediate improvement. McDermott did it; DeMarco Ryans did it. Others have, too. Daboll came in and nothing much seemed to change.

Whoa! Wilson to Cinci is a good idea. Cinci desperately needs someone, because they don't want to waste a season.

Lamar's look and sound and personality all is classic American Black subculture, and Josh is classic white suburban mainstream culture. The majority of the viewers are white mainstream, so Josh is the guy the advertisers want. Gatorade and Oakley actually are going for the cool, subculture, athlete image (which sells to the subculture and also to the young male cool-jock wannabes), so Lamar is great for them.

I'm driving from CT to. Home Friday. My third straight game. Let's keep winning. That's a haul!

Yeah, I agree. I don't think those guys are playing because McDermott has a different philosophy. If they weren't developing through training camp, Beane would have been active picking up guys as they got cut elsewhere. They could have thrown Phillips in there Sunday, if they thought someone wasn't ready, but that didn't happen. Still, there's no question that getting the playing time is a great opportunity to continue their NFL educations. It means they should know what they're doing when the second half of the season comes around. I feel the same way about Bishop. He's not playing because of an injury, but if he weren't minimally competent he would be playing. It could have been Hamlin or even Poyer. But since he's at least decent the playing time is a great way to get him up the learning curve and ready for the second half. And it was great that Dorian Strong got the time he did against the Ravens, and now he's getting more spot time. All those guys getting playing time is good for the games to come.

This is literally true: I was watching the draft, expecting Darnold and Mayfield to go early, and hoping that if the Bills got a chance to get a QB it would be Rosen. I wasn't a big Rosen guy, but I thought at least he'd stabilize things and move the franchise forward. But like others, his attitude bothered me. He was so smug, so confident in himself and so obnoxious telling us all. Allen's perceived question marks scared me. Then the trade up happened, the message went up saying the pick was in, and suddenly I just flipped. My brain started screaming, "TAKE THE TALENT! TAKE THE TALENT!!! TAKE ALLEN!!!" I'd like to say I knew what was coming from Allen, but I didn't. It was purely my gut, and I have no idea where it came from.

I keep thinking the rookies will improve, and they probably will, and I keep forgetting that two veterans are coming off suspension. If the Bills can be at something close to full strength, they are going to be throwing an amazing variety of skill sets at offensive lines, with different combinations of guys playing, and with them rotating positions. Offensive linemen will be facing three or four or even five different guys over the course of the game, all with different skill sets.

Yes, Hap, you have been kind of a broken record on the subject, and it was hard to argue with you. McDermott's defensive line has been loaded with guys who are very good at handling their assignments but few guys who can create on their own. Rousseau is the highest level example of that - he's really good at his position, consistent pass rush that is a bother but doesn't get home much, excellent run stopping and pursuit, but he isn't a problem. Nobody on the line has been a problem except, as you say, Miller. As I said, my seats were low and I didn't spend much time trying to focus on any particular player - White a little, Bosa a little, but mostly I was just watching the play go by. However, as the game went along and I just watched the plays, I kept seeing someone on the d line flash by, and every time I checked, it was Bosa. He was coming off the line, bursting off the line, immediately putting the blocker on the defensive. He just kept flashing into and out of my view. It was pretty clear that the Jets felt his presence on a lot of plays when he didn't actually make a play. And, of course, he can finish. The punch out to cause the fumble was beautiful, not to mention his pursuit on the play. All of it is what you and I have talked about often - another difference maker beyond Allen, a guy who is disruptive and who forces the offense to account for him on every play. The question is can he harness his creative energy within the system, so that he's both disruptive and responsible for his assignment. He got burned more than once against the Ravens, crashing down the line to pursue the running back while Jackson kept the ball and ran past him to open field. I think he can. He was so animated on the bench in the fourth quarter. He played all those years on a team that was, in my view, mid-level dysfunctional. The Chargers always pretended to be good but never had what it takes to actually be good. Now he finds himself on a team where he's welcome and appreciated, and a team that actually is good. On the bench, he looked like he was celebrating the fact that his career has taken him to what may be the perfect place for him: a contender that will platoon him and that will look for ways for him to use his special talents.

That's amazing. A great way to watch the Bills, and the perty fizzles because the game is a non-event.