TigerJ
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Posts posted by TigerJ
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Losman didn't have much of a team period around him at Tulane, and yes, he was running for his life much of the time. That he had decent stats is to his credit and no one else's. I'll trust the Bills at this point to make the right choice. What I think may happen is that after Losman has had a couple weeks to practice, the Bills may put him in during garbage time if Buffalo is in a game where they are either far ahead or behind with no chance to catch up. There will be no pressure. If the Bills are leading, he'll spend most of his time handing off. If they're losing the opposing team is likely to throw a prevent defense at him and concede the underneath stuff, which Losman will be instructed to take.
I would be a little surprised to see Buffalo start him this season, but I think Sam Wyche is one of the best in the business as a QB coach, and I think Buffalo will handle him very carefully. Losman, BTW, has it all over Todd Collins in terms of physical talent. It's not really fair to compare the two of them.
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Ross Tucker will start until Teague is back. He is not quite as athletic as Teague, but if you recall, the offensive line play improved last season when Tucker started the last few games at right guard over Mike Pukecillo. Tucker is smart and tough. He 's not as athletic as Teague, but I think he has a quick enough first step to handle it. He is a little bigger and stronger than Teague. I won't be a fool and say there is no difference between a starter and a backup. The guys who start do so for a reason. Just ask Pukecillo who no longer does. But I don't think the dropoff is going to be huge. Center is Tucker's natural position IMO.
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All I know is that I feel a whole lot more secure with Jonas Jennings at left tackle than I ever did when John Fina manned the spot.
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Once he's healthy, and has had a chance to practice for a couple weeks, I would not be surprised to see him at garbage time in some games. However, I'm not convinced that Buffalo regards Bledsoe's season as an utter failure. The Oakland game revealed that there are still a lot of problems dealing with blitzes. Drew did exactly what was asked of him in the Jacksonville game. In the NE game, a lot of the sacks happenned when Buffalo was playing catch up and there was pressure on Drew to complete something deep. NE took advantage of the situation. I would not, however, be disappointed to see Losman start sometime in November once he's had a chance to get back into the swing of things. I want to see what he has. I want to see if he can play with some discipline so he doesn't get himself killed by running all over the place (an occasional scramble is fine).
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First off, anyone claiming that Bledsoe had anything more than a MINOR part in the loss, has their head up their ass.
I agree, it was a team effort.
The others (sacks) were the fault of Smith for tripping himYou can't simply assign blame to Lawrence Smith either. When the ball is snapped, depending on the design of the play, linemen may have responsibilities elsewhere from the position in which they line up. They have to move quickly to get to those positions. It is generally up to the QB to backpedal quickly enough from center after the snap to avoid the traffic. It happens some times that an offensive lineman trips, or steps on the foot of the QB. You have to admit that Bledsoe is slower of foot than most QBs however, and it is incumbent on the team, Bledsoe and the linemen, with help from coaches, to get that whole mess straightened out so those plays work.
Second of all, and THIS is the part that has me PISSED, the refs !@#$ed the Bills out of 19 points. Yes folks, 19 points. The first was on the Pats' FG drive where they called a stevestojan RTP call on FletcherYeah, that was a seriously blown call.
The next was when Kevin Thomas downed the ball at the 2 yard line and on the first play Brady stood in the endzone (holding the ball too long but guess what? No one got near him for at least 5 seconds), couldn't find anyone, and while in the pocket threw the ball out of bounds and way over the receiver's head. That's intentional grounding and a safety.Officials NEVER call intentional grounding in that kind of situation. Yeah, everyone knows the QB is throwing the ball away, but as long as a receiver is in the general area, it's not intentional grounding even if the ball is way over the receiver's head.
The next was on the Pats' TD drive before the half, where Givens fumbles the ball without being touched.Yup, bad call.
And the last was Dillon's fumble on the Pats' last TD drive.Don't recall.
I know some will talk about the "blatant hold" on Moorman's run on the Bills' 1st TD drive, but the Bills player had his hands inside the Pats player's shoulders, and that's legal. Even if you were to take that out, that's still 12 points. Other things I noticed were Givens getting away with offensive pass interference and Rodney Harrison getting away with hitting a defenseless receiver (Neufeld).Yeah, Rodney Harrison was playing pretty dirty and got away with it. Other than the phantom helmet to helmet call on Fletcher, it's tough to be too hard on penalty calling by officials. It's a pretty subjective business, and I think it's safe to assume Buffalo players got away with a few too. I agree that Buffalo played well enough to win if they cut out the stupid mistakes at critical points in the game, and considering the injuries on the offensive line and secondary their play was very solid. All of which makes the stupid mistakes that much harder to stomach.
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I still believe there is talent on these Bills. There may be some holes, but I think there is sufficient talent to be a strong team. I guess that's what makes me more frustrated than anything else. If I was convinced they were talent poor, I would just resign myself to the fact that it's going to be a terrible season, like three years ago. But these Bills are better than that. Take away even some of the stupidity, lack of concentration etc. that we've seen the last 4 weeks and Buffalo could conceivably be 3-0. (Let's leave the officiating out of this discussion OK. I'll concede that may have made a difference too.) At 0-3, Buffalo is not mathematically out of the playoffs. It's way too early for that, but realistically, I don't see Buffalo going 10-3 the rest of the way, which is what it would take. I suppose, I would take some encouragement idf Buffalo went 9-4 the rest of the way, particularly if we finish strong.
So, how are you feeling to this point? Do you still hold out hope for the playoffs? What would it take to salvage something out of this season for you?
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I think it the offence fumbles the ball bach into their own end zone and out of play without anyone recovering, then the offence should keep the ball at the one yard line. If a defensive player fumbles into the endzone and out of play, then I think the ball should come out to the 20 in the possession of the team that last possessed it. (defense) Had it happened that way yesterday and Buffalo did not challenge the play that led to Fletcher getting the ball in the first place, then Buffalo would have ended up with the ball on the NE 20.
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You mean the way they are not using McGahee.
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If Pataki runs again, I'd be tempted to vote for Golisano.
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I'm not an Erie County resident, but I sympathise with county government. The problem is unfunded state mandates. The state government decides it would be nice to help the poor, the unemployed and underemployed with medicaid and other benefits, but these are county level programs that counties have to pay for. An add running on Buffalo TV lately states that %100 of county property taxes in Erie County goes to fund Medicaid. The county has no choice in the matter. The county raises taxes. Industries and people with jobs leave town and a hiegher percentage of the residents who remain are on the public dole with fewwer people to pay for their benefits. It's a vicious cycle.
From an outsider's point of view, it looks to me as if Giamgra is doing the best he can in a losing battle. He has pushed the concept of a regional government, which in theory is more cost efficient because it means fewer bureaucrats. But change has been too slow in coming because lots of those same buereaucrats like running their own little kingdom.
Joel Giambra has stated this will be his last term as Erie County Executive. My guess is he saw the handwriting on the wall, and knew this fiscal crisis was coming and knew that the fiscal medicine to try and keep things afloat would be so onerous that he would be unelectable in another term.
My choice as villian in all this is New York State, and its perpetual government by impasse. I don't like governor Pataki. I'm not thrilled with the state senate, and I think the state assembly is probably the worst governing body in the country. As far as I know, NYState is the only state government that adds a surccharge to your state income taxes to cover purchases you might have made out of state or ordered from out of state. It doesn't matter if you actually made purchases like that or not. You pay the tax anyway. I will not live in NYS when I retire. As far as I'm concerned, NYS accomplishes less with higher taxes than any other state in the country.
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In football, success breed cockiness among fans. We would be the same way if our Bills were riding a 17 game win streak.
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You spoke of tents earlier, 89. I have a few tent camping stories. I used to take groups of junior high kids on a backpacking camp in the Allegheny National Forest in PA. We taught them how to set up their tents, how to operate camp stoves and cook. One group of particularly cocky city kids one time were going to cook their meal. They lit their stove, set their aluminum pot on it, and then went to get water. By the time they got back, they'd burned a hole in their pot.
A few years later I led a camp for fathers and sons. We canoed to a water access only campground, also in Allegheny National Forest. We set up camp in an area where there were apple trees. In the evening the deer came down off the hill looking for green apples that had fallen from the trees. Some of the kids were able to get within a foot or two of these half tame deer. They were absolutely thrilled.
Then there's my scary animal story. My wife and i were tent camping with our three kids several years ago. We didn't even think about wild animals being in the area. In our foolishness we put garbage in a plastic bag and leaned it against a tree. That night it rained. Sometime in the middle of the night we woke up to a the sound of raccoons fighting over our garbage. I didn't realize raccoons could sound so nasty. So here we are. It's raining out, raccoons are fighting and they sound like they weigh about 60 lbs apiece (in reality they were probably no more than 30 lbs), and all of a sudden I have to go to the bathroom.
Any more tenting stories out there?
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I hear ya. Will pray. I'm not up on lung cancer types. Are some types concidered more or less curable than others? Where does this type lie?
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I was in Thompson Hall (the cafeteria) at seminary awaiting my afternoon class and plotting how I would convert you all.
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Preemptive strike eh? Do you suspect they have WMD?
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Bill Belichick reportedly put together a whole catalogue of the trick plays Mularkey has used over his years as coordinator for Pittsburgh just so NE would be prepared for them. Maybe Buffalo can run plays that look like all those trick plays but do something else, like run a flea flicker and have Drew pitch out a WR who then runs an end around instead of throwing to a WR on a fly route. It probably won't work, but we'd all get a good laugh out of it.
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Part of it is that Losman has never been asked the question before. That's the first time his thoughts have ever been aired on the subject. Drew Bledsoe has been asked alot going back over the last two seasons, the last season in particular. It's almost impossible to answer the same question week after week without starting to sound trite or insincere. While I loved Losman's answer and his attitude, I don't believe he's ready to start at QB for Buffalo. Drew is still, and should be the starter.
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Just one more factor to take into consideration. How are you connecting to the internet? Do you have dial-up, DSL or Cable. Allthough you might think every computer is going to have both an internal dial-up modem and an ethernet connection, a low end machine might not. We bought two E-machines last may. I'm using one. A little better one we bought for my daughter for college (better because it has a DVD burner we thought she might need because she's majoring in communication with a concentration in media). our computer at home has an ethernet card in it from the store. We took my daughter to college and attempted to set her computer up on the college network only to discover no ethernet card. It wasn't a big deal We were able to buy an ethernet card at a nearby (10 miles) Staple's store for $10 after rebate and I took the cover off the computer and put it in. I'm no computer geek, but it was easy. It was just one more trip that contributed to a very long day.
I have one more website you might want to check out:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/ca...c.asp?CatId=118
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I agree that in substance what Losman says and what Bledsoe says are the same. Somehow it takes on a little different flavor the way Losman says it. When Bledsoe uses the "E" word, I tend to get an impression of separation. "We're good players, but then there is this execution thing that prevents us from performing like the good players we are. But it's not our fault, it's the fault of the execution. When Losman says it, the impression is, "We screwed up. It's our fault. Until we get it right we don't deserve credit for being good players." I wouldn't presume to know what Bledsoe and Losman are thinking. Maybe their attitudes are identical. I just get the impression over all that Losman takes losing more personally, and therefore might be the kind of guy who will work even harder to keep from losing.
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I think both of them are right, seriously. Mularkey is right to keep reminding them that this is not a talent poor team. They have the ability to be good. It's important that the team believe that or they will be self limiting. They will never play better than they think they are.
Losman is right to focus on the execution. Just believing you have talent isn't good enough. Mularkey is pulling. Losman is pushing. Maybe between them they can get this wagon moving. BTW, I think with is comments, Losman is showing real leadership potential.
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"Let us pray. That's our only hope at this point."
"We're supposed to be dolphins but at this point I think we're only a school of carp about yay big."
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You didn't hear him right. He said "We have to execute everyone who makes a mistake."
Actually, what he said is perfectly true to a point. However, the words tend to bite when they say it and then go out and fail to execute. I though the offensive game plan versus the Raiders left something to be desired in that I didn't see much of anything in the offence designed to neutralize the blitz. There are plays that will help youo do that and Buffalo just didn't run any of them with any kind of frequency.
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Where do you go when the cavity is in your brain?
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"They have two really good returners in [Terrance] McGee and [Nate] Clements. Those guys have had a lot of big returns. Their numbers aren’t that high because they have gotten a couple of longs ones called back which it is kind of hard to find what they were calling them back for."
I saw that too, Bufforange.
I also saw this:
"They got the ball on the one-yard line, and it looks like he is in and they don’t give it to him. "
Even Belichick thinks Buffalo got the shaft.
Is Mularkey's honeymoon over?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Absolutely, if you mean he's taking heat from fans. I don't think that means he ought to be fired now or even at the end of the season. He made a major mistake when he pulled the famous "I know more than you" line on Jerry Sullivan in a post game press conference. That was a classic Gregg Williams approach. But I don't think it can be conclusively said that he's doing a bad job on the basis of the three losses so far. None of Buffalo's opponents so far has a sub .500 record. Obviously their last opponent is the reigning Super Bowl champion. They have done a lot of good things. They played New England very tough. In the last game of the season last year, NE completely befuddled the Bills offence, but in Sunday's game, Buffalo moved the ball well. I'm very frustrated with the penalties and dumb mistakes, but I have to concede a first time head coach needs more time to be judged on whether he can establish discipline on a team.
Some will make a comparison with Atlanta which has a new, first time head coach and is 4-0 to this point. I think Atlanta has had an easier schedule though, with two bad teams in San Francisco and Arizona, and two erratic teams in Saint Louis and Carolina. Carolina was in the Super Bowl, but they are playing .500 ball so far, the same as Saint Louis. I'm as unhappy as any Bills fan, but I never support rash actions made on the spur of the moment. Gregg Williams had three years. I think Mularkey ought to have no less than two to produce a winner.