Shaw66

All these guides over here are telling me about Euripides and Pericles and John Clees. Learned it all from Mr. Reed, 10th grade World History.

I went to a good high school!

They seem similar to me.

Why isn't he more revered? Well, us old guys remember Joe Ferguson, and Joe was the real deal. Tyrod wishes he could play like Joe.

This time of year is horrible. No Bills news. Just waiting for training camp to start, and hoping no one gets arrested for doing something stupid. The measure of how bad it is is that people actually are reading this thread.

Very little sports clothing in Europe, except soccer stuff. Ive seen one Cubs hat, a few Yankees caps, and one Chiefs Super Bowl tee shirt.

Yes, I am. I thought about not posting, but I realized that a LAMP would be an upgrade for the forum these days.

I broke out my blue Bills polo shirt to wear to the Acropolis today. Through the mobs of people, an excited Buffalonian shouted, "GO BILLS!!!" We're everywhere.

I agree about this. They haven't been intense enough in the okayoffs, and I'm sure McD knows that. And I fully expect to see more aggressive play calling on the defense, all season long. It adds to unpredictability, and McD likes that.

I don't think there is anything that McDermott doesn't get. McDermott sees what wins in the playoffs. Last season he didn't have the personnel to play any other way. As I said, I think if he has his starters in the playoffs next season, you'll see a different style of defense.

I think this analysis is correct. The data about Jackson and Elam point out the bend-don't-break nature of McDermott's defense. It's always frustrating to see how easily the Bills give up yardage, but at the end of the season the frustration has to be tempered by the fact that, on average over time, McD's defense stops teams better than others. The problem is that in the playoffs, you're not playing the averages - you're playing one game, and you have to stop people. Now, maybe the answer to that is to get White back healthy. When White's back in form, he can take his man man-to-man, especially if the offense lines up their #2 guy against him. When that happens, the Bills can double the other side, and with that defense the Bills get more stops, which is what's needed in the playoffs. Also, we just have to wait and see about Elam. He had good cover skills coming out of college, and we didn't see him stand out much in that area. Frankly, I think in college he didn't need much more than good cover skills, and he probably never learned much of anything about more sophisticated defensive backfield schemes, which the Bills run a lot of. He struggled with the defense most of last season. I'm hopeful that this season he'll be more comfortable in the defense, which will also make him more comfortable when he's in man. And I'm not counting Benford out, either. Bottom line, though, is that it's tough to win in the playoffs when your defensive scheme is bend-don't-break and your corners are mediocre, as this chart shows about Elam and Jackson. White-Elam-Johnson-Poyer-Hyde are the guys I want on the field in the playoffs.

I've refused to read this thread but I do check in from time to time just to see what's being said. Has anyone mentioned the fact that there were more than 100 NFL head coaches who had the job for four or fewer seasons. Who's to say how many of those would have made it to a Super Bowl? Bottom line is that there simple isn't enough data to prove much of anything on this subject.

My phone showed me some Yahoo article that said something like the Bills are under the most pressure to win of any team. So, it's more than a few Wahoos here. Still, like you, I think it's a lot of Ballyhoo.

I think this is a good take. The only way the Super Bowl is relevant is if there is some fan uprising, a revolt of sorts, but the only relevant part of a fan revolution would be decrease in ticket sales. If they're competitive and selling tickets, McBeane probably are safe. As others have said, may times, all this "hot seat" stuff is just something to write and talk about during the off season.

I'm travelling and not on here much these days. I wanted to reply to this thread when it began, and I have no idea at all whether this has been discussed in the 36 pages available to me: I'm a big supporter of Beane and McDermott. I have a lot of confidence in them. I will be proved right or I will be proved wrong. However, I do not think their contract extensions answer the "hot seat" question. There is no salary cap for coaches and GMs, which makes firing them different from cutting players. Cutting players costs money AND impairs your ability to build by creating dead cap money. Cutting coaches and GMs just cost money. Most owners can afford the lost money much better than teams can afford the dead cap. If the Pegulas get tired of the McBeane show, I don't think the extension will keep them from making a move. I don't think they will make a move, because I don't think they'll get tired of the show. Instead, I think they'll be celebrating a Super Bowl win, and there will be more extensions to come.

In case no one else answered, the answer is no, the thread still shows up. I know from personal experience. From that perspective, Einstein has done a valuable public service and should be commended.

Having struck out twice in earlier opportunities to buy, I passed this time around. Good to see that someone got tickets.

And this shows, despite what Goodell says, how much respect they have for the people who fill their stadiums every week.

I was told to log in at 10, and I did. I had tickets in my basket, I'm not sure what time it was, but it wouldn't complete the sale.

Had tickets in my basket, too, but it wouldn't complete the transaction with any card I tried. Total BS.

Thanks.

Interesting point about the dline. It's high quality quantity, in that there six or eight very good football players there, but unless and until the real Miller returns, there's no true high-end quality. I guess the difference is that the great players are just a problem to handle one on one. The only way to deal with the great players is with double teams. The Bills have a bunch of dlinemen who are very good, but none who demand double teams. That's what Miller was supposed to be, and he was. When (if) he returns to form, then all of those other very good but not great guys become very effective.

I agree with a lot of this. It's all a mess. Some of it is driven by people like us, who have an insatiable appetite for information, so the publishers are desperate to give us something, anything. If they don't, we go someplace else where they do. The result is that we get more and more crap in the news, inaccurate information, rumor passing as news, etc. Add to that the fact that the publishers are in it for a profit, so they're always trying to reduce expenses. Good editors, therefore, are a double problem - they hold up the publication of the crappy news that we all get sucked into reading, and they cost money. Goodbye editors. And it's not just newspapers; it's books, too. Since you can self-publish your book, the real publishers can't afford to spend a lot of time and money with one or more editors who actually will help make your book readable. Think about the Diggs issue for just a minute. Start with the premise that none of us knows what's going on, because the Bills have been quite tight-lipped about it. Just like Dawson Knox's brother, Kim's illness, Josh's elbow. We don't find out what's going on until after the fact. So, it's a given that there's no news. And, in fact, the only news that would be meaningful at this time of year would be if Diggs were cut or traded. If that happened, we'd find out immediately. So, why are we reading stuff that we know has no substance to it? And even if it did, and we got an in-depth article from verified sources that Diggs is unhappy about A, B, and C, and he's talked to D, E, and F, etc. So what? There is only one question: Will Diggs be in the Bills lineup, with a good state of mind, on opening day? And there is only one answer, which won't be known until kickoff. Still, we keep getting sucked into reading that stuff.

Well, it's more than that at this time of year, but fundamentally your right. They take last year's analysis and tweak it based on what they think about the off-season, etc. Same as anyone else. If you watch their analysis over the course of a season, it gets increasingly better, because the analysis increasingly is driven by the current year's data and less by their predictions.

Yes to all of this, and if Williams can make the jump to the NFL to replace Edmunds, watch out. I don't have any idea, really, whether he can play in the NFL or how soon, but his style of play fills in exactly the things that I always thought were missing in Edmunds: effectiveness as a blitzer, aggressive, attacking tackler in the run game. If he is those things and isn't a liability in pass defense, watch out. McDermott will have a field day with him.