UConn James

Sh--, this team's identity is a lot like our uniforms. Much like we retained the standard Bills logo, we want to have some connection with a hard-nose run-first, run-second, run-third attitude. With the Titans-style away uni yolk, we added in a little bit of Gregg's cooking on the D (mostly, despite all the turnover, we're still affected by him getting rid of the "fat guys." We've got a Denver-like stripe up the rib gussets (not sure what we take from them). We took on the dark navy blue of the Pats* about the time we picked up Bledsoe and Milloy.... We wanna be like everyone else, and thereby, we aren't ourselves. Basically, we've been a team of castoffs. We've been a team of nobodies. We've been essentially an upper-level farm team to the other 31 clubs. We're now an amalgam of good athletes with good character who play hard and week-in and week-out, are often in games until the end some way or another, then kick the fans in the nuts. If this Bills team could ever get actual coaching that has clear goals, get a few roster upgrades (DE, TE, & C especially), they could be contenders late in the season rather than these start slow-win in October-crash in December or Start strong-finish weak patterns we've run into. Currently, we have a coach that looks, acts and sounds like death warmed over doesn't really give us an identity. We're still plain yogurt waiting for what kind of fruit we're going to be paired with. DJ does not have an offensive philosophy other than Disinterested / Sgt. Schultz 'I see nutszing, I hear nutszing! I know nutszing!' / Scared Sh--less. The people in charge at OBD have no idea what they want to be.

Depends on where the projections are, who the FO determines is the C they want, etc. Probably best either to trade down to later 1st and use an extra pick or two on a DE(s), or stay and trade back up to get Mack, et al. I just want a good combo of smart, big and nasty at the position; someone who won't get blown back toward the QB like every one of our centers since Hull (Jerry O, the kid who went to the Giants --- drawing a blank here, Teague, Fowler, and Preston). Draft process doesn't always go smoothly, tho, and then again, there's four thousand things that'll happen b/w now and April. It would be nice to not have to pay an UFA center the kind of $ they see, and perhaps spend that money elsewhere. Would be nice to get into the habit of developing some of our own OL. Also, I'd say that our OL is much closer to being a finished product than the DL. It would be nice to actually complete a unit rather than scurrying around trying to fill holes at various and sundry spots on the roster. This may be the year we get to relax a little bit in that regard and finally address some longstanding needs.

Easy. Put whipped topping on this turd and say that it's shoo-fly-pie. Ralph holds it up to his mouth with the spoon and hums, "Mmmm!" yet is careful not to take a bite (similar to how our mothers used to con us into eating pureed peas and liver).

Uhpt! Money's gone. Sorry. Up and vanished like a fart in the wind! Here's betting that Madoff has a "heart attack" at the precise best time from a legal standpoint where any remaining assets will be a bear to find or collect. Then, he spends the rest of his days enjoying sunshine and margaritas with Ken Lay in a non-extraditing country. Tell me there's not a witness protection-style program for wealthy cons who buy in. About the only reason the upper-echelon cons get busted and/or face real punishment for white-collar crime is A) if they don't have enough $ to grease enough wheels or B) if they go into it intending to keep it all (or most) for themselves. Occasionally, they run into an honest-broker prosecutor who's not ordered from higher up to drop a case or they can't find anyone on the inside who'll sabotage evidence (For a comparative small-potatoes example, see: Simpson, OJ and his HOF ring, and then just magnify the scope). Then again, Paulson and Bernanke are currently running a bigger con than Madoff ever dreamed of operating. The uber-rich aren't stupid. They know that it's going to be quite a while before they see the kind of cooperation they get at the highest levels of US govt. Like rats deserting the ship and trying to stuff their cheeks with as many crumbs as they can before they hit the drink.

He told Dierdorf and Gumbel that he was trying to put together a "highlight reel" so he could be more attractive to his next team. To borrow a JP-ism.... 'Sometimes you hold onto the ball too long hoping to resurrect your career. Whoops!'

But likewise, changing coaches has just been new window dressings as well. We've had three regimes come through since our last playoff appearance. We still play our CBs 10-15 yards off the opponents WRs. We still abandon one part of the offensive scheme in favor of another (Common sense says we should run? Pass! Common sense says we should pass? Run!). The faces and places change, and the output stays the same. We still develop players only to let them walk. On the lines, we still rely on technique and finesse rather that real grit, domination and making the other team hurt. We have the biggest and tallest OL in the league, and yet, get consistently blown off the LOS. It's like the gates of OBD have that, "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here."

OK. "Hmmm. Bills are on the schedule for next year? I think I'll put that up as a win. In pen."

Link

Wow. I just wake up and here I get to puke in my mouth. Doesn't surprise me, tho. This is only the latest confirmation that things need to change at the very top of the organization in order for anything to change. The Bills are the AFC's version of the Lions b/c ineptness is rewarded and excuses are tolerated. We are not a couple-few players away from competing. Mere roster swaps in the absence of anything else isn't going to do much. Until Ralph sells or dies, so that someone whose primary interest is about winning football games... I may watch, but since games aren't on here very frequently these days, I probably won't. My heart doesn't care enough and is not enough to override the basic desire to not get kicked in the nuts every !@#$ week. Lots of other things to be doing on Sundays.

What if there were an explosive device or something in the shoe? That's something they suspect of everyone who tries to get on an airplane.... And yet, not one agent comes to shield the president. This is an agency that reamed itself when that dude handed Bush a dime at his inauguration in 2000.

I believe that 'being investigated as an arson' at this point doesn't necessarily mean arson, just as 'being investigated as a homicide' doesn't always mean it was foul play. Probably was arson, but until the final conclusions are made, you're jumping to them. E.g. Many buildings have electrical panels right inside the front door. Perhaps something short-circuited? Also, why should Palin be apologizing for somebody trying to torch the church (if that is the case)?!? Hey, I didn't vote for either ticket. Was closest to M/P but they didn't earn my vote. Might have helped a smidgen if I knew what I would be voting for in a VP. All style, no substance.

From his forehead to his chin was just dull red. Don't they have sani-wipes / wet-naps on the sidelines?

Wait. Is that 'sports talker' or 'sport stalker'?

Yep. Let's hear something for Derek Fine and Steve Johnson as well.

Except he bounded back up to take another. Where was SS during this? Thirty seconds after and he's still standing there alone, as if this couldn't have been a diversion. Twenty'll get you one that the dude's going to see adobe walls and the inside of a rice bag for a while, if not Abu Ghraib.

Let's not all get ahead of ourselves. The church I went to as a kid burned down and everyone said arson. Turned out to be something was sparked by the heating system. Shouldn't jump to conclusions when you have little to no evidence. I say this as a registered Republican who watched and followed the campaign closely. I have no idea what her points of view are. Unless "You betcha!", "shout-out" and "hockey mom" are code for something. Were we supposed to intuit her specific views based on the fact that she's Republican-branded? Since she had her Down's Syndrome baby, I guess she's pro-life <shrug>. Does she support stem cell research? I don't know. 'We're gonna get Americans better health care and feeling better!' and other such nebulous comments are not points of view... they're nebulous comments. I didn't hear one damn thing of substance come out of her mouth. She didn't even clearly express what the top of the ticket's views were, nevermind her own.

Getting rid of OCs, QBs, head coaches, and even GMs is just hacking at the branches. To solve the problem, you need to strike the root. Sadly... the root = Ralph.

Those plays are always like seeing a car accident in slow motion. You know it's coming, you know exactly what's going to happen, you just can't do anything about it. Hey, JP, there's some footage for your "highlight reel" you f---! Seriously, you're a nice guy, but you suck at playing quarterback.

Almost every time with that roll-out where he faces one sideline... pressure from his backside... sack... fumble. High passes. Forced throws when he's got a man in the flat (ML was open three times but JP went double-coverage). D played as well as can be expected (still no pass rush). ST had a good day. ML & FJ were lights out (Turk still treating the run like the red-headed stepchild at times tho). This should've been a W, barely. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for 9 years now.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?s=&am...t&p=1245373 Whoops. Seems like Old Man Wilson's neighborhood block put in an HDTV for him. You know, maybe at least encourage him to clean up a little. Ralph's been thinking of laying it down and putting it up on cinder blocks as a table to hold his meds, tho.

I'm just going to go on the record to say that this thread is sacrilege. It is pure sacrilege.

They could do worse. I think Edsall has done all he can do for my alma mater. Really had a Bills-like season --- started 5-0, finished 2-5. Has to be given credit for his defenses (that's been his career focus), but not much going on offense outside of Donald Brown. Hope it's a good game for anyone going.

I'm being purely objective when I write that the best thing for the team would be for Ralph to sell or die. Like Quint's note, tho, it's merely a desire for the entity that's holding the team back to get out of the way. I want whatever's going to happen to the franchise, to happen --- tired of the constant limbo and getting kicked in the nuts. May sound heartless, but from an objective pov, one of those two things is what needs to happen for the machination at OBD to change. History has shown that any success the Bills will have is going to happen in spite of how RW operates the team in the modern era. Even on the worst days, I don't wish RW, the person, physical harm/illness. I liken the situation to living in a neighborhood where there's a grand old Victorian house on the main corner that's in disrepair. Old man Wilson who lives there who has the means, but won't paint, won't do any landscaping, won't replace a gas range with three out of four non-functional burners, won't fix the leaky roof, won't empty the trash that's accumulated inside the house b/c "Antiques Roadshow" has gone to his head and he thinks everything he owns is worth $2,000-3,000, etc. Pretty much, he doesn't want to do anything beyond emergency absolutely-must-do repairs and changing lightbulbs. Essentially, he's waiting to die. There's a whole host of people who'd like to move in and fix the place up to make it the gem of the neighborhood again. Old man won't sell, tho. He wants to keep living there and watch Matlock reruns, eat half-warm TV dinners and collecting his $900/month Social Security check. I mean, you're just really disappointed and frustrated by what could be and isn't b/c of a certain mindset. When the old man does go, it'll be sad to see his relations' loss, and I think the people in the neighborhood will more lament the loss of who Mr. Wilson used to be before he started giving everyone his 'old man stares' and yelling at the neighborhood kids to stay 15 feet away from his mailbox. By the time the new person takes over, the foundation may be irreparable and the house may have to be razed but I'd rather know that before the place falls down on itself and/or becomes a crack house.

I didn't watch yesterday and I didn't care that I wasn't watching. That's a new feeling.

Ralph's role should be the macrocosm --- the main thing he should be doing is the above or thinking about a new stadium and representing the team at the league meetings/CBA, if he still gives a sh-- about his legacy in Buffalo. His concern should be high-level decisions, and barring that, he should be taking warm baths and eating more fiber. Instead, he regularly delves into the microcosm in ways that don't help the team.