Sen. John Blutarsky

I'll trade 3 false starts for 1 personal foul every day of the week. I was at that Cleveland monstrosity and I swear to God if another Bill false started I was going to have to be removed from the building.

He knows McNabb is gone after this year.

He popped Cassel on that 4th and goal as well. Schobel had him by the ankle and Palmer laid the wood to clean up.

Well, it appears that someone in the FO finally decided that we needed to be a little less nice on the field which is totally fine with me. I have absolutely no problem with taking a player the rest of the league thinks is dirty. Rodney Harrison was dirty as hell, Hines Ward is labeled as dirty though I don't think he is, Wilfork is dirty, anybody have a problem with any of them on the squad? IIRC Leonard Smith didn't have a squeaky clean rep when we got him from the Cardinals either but he was a badass and brought the appropriate attitude to the defense. I'm loving the idea of Wood and Incognito at guard flanking Hangartner. That's a rolling ball of ginsu knives coming at you every down. Levitre kicks out to RT and that only leaves a LT to find whether it's Bell or someone else.

Jason Peters was a UDFA and sat on the PS as well. Fred Jackson played in Europe and AFL2. Tom Brady was a 6th round pick Teams miss people all the time.

I wouldn't say he foundered <sic> in Green Bay. He was a high #2 choice during that weird, nebulous period after Favre left but before it became clear that Aaron Rodgers was any good. Once Rodgers showed he could play there wasn't a place for Brohm. It's not as though Brohm went out and stunk it up and they went back to Rodgers, he was blocked by a good, more experienced, more highly paid player. It tells you something that they matched the Bills offer. If they thought he flat-out stunk they'd have let him walk. This kid would have been the #1 pick in the draft had he come out in 2007. If getting picked in round two and having to sit for a year+ after being the golden boy since high school shook the kid's ego a little bit would you be surprised? Look at it this way, the Bills didn't have to suffer through that. They get to have him for nothing and if he IS a real NFL QB that ego bruise will have lit a pretty big fire inside him. If it didn't then he's a chump but we didn't have to burn a high #2 to find out. As much as I want to see him, I don't think they'll play him this year unless they have to because of the line. The last thing you want to do right now is run a reclamation project out there behind that mess of a line. You'll ruin him for good. They are getting a good long look at what they have with him before the off-season so they can decide if they HAVE to go QB high or if they can address either of the lines at the top of rd 1. If it came down to it, I'd much rather have Suh or Cody than ANY of the QBs out there next year.

They don't have the right part. Thanks though.

I broke a mirror on my van today and I'm shopping for a replacement. Dealer wants $235.00. Autozone has one for $89.00. APW and Discount mirrors have the exact same one for 58.00 and 42.00 respectively. Actually I think they are the same people with multiple web addresses. Anyway, two basic questions, has anyone bought anything from either of those places. If so how was your experience? Two, is there any particular reason that I should buy the part from the dealer? It's an awfully lot more expensive for a pretty simple part (more than 5x as much!) FWIW, I'm not going to be overly sold on the quality construction angle given that I broke the original mirror today because it didn't give like it was supposed to when I nudged it up against the side of my garage door opening. Rather than pivot, it got stuck and shattered the plastic housing like instantly which was doubly annoying in that I know it's a tight squeeze so I'm VERY careful to go slow and look. I barely touched the thing, was hardly moving, and it basically exploded. Actually, since I'm pretty sure I'm not going to buy the dealer part has anyone had experience with either Kool Vue or Pilot brand aftermarket OEM spec parts? That would be the difference between Autozone and the online retailer. Something tells me they all come off the same assembly line anyway.

I don't know about that. Coaching in college is much different than the pros. It's more about recruiting than actual coaching ability. That's why Steve Spurrier is a great college coach and terrible in the NFL. He can get recruits but his actual coaching is marginal. In college he could just line up a better team than yours 90% of the time. It's sort of why Saban is great in college too. He's a great recruiter. For college coaches I put more stock in guys who win in bad situations or do about as well as they can given the talent they get. Notre Dame just hasn't been a very good football team in general. I don't see them as poorly coached. I give Jim Harbaugh big credit for his huge wins out at Stanford. He has no recruits to speak of, hasn't been there long enough to really have a team of his guys yet, and still beat two top 10 teams in consecutive weeks including USC on the road. That speaks to good coaching, getting more from your team than you really ought to get. Urban Meyer is a wildcard since he won a lot at Utah but now he has the benefit of a huge talent advantage AND he seems to be a decent coach on top of it. He took a Bowling Green team who had gone 4-7, 5-6, 5-6 and 2-9 the previous 4 years and went 8-3 and 9-3 the next two years before going to Utah where he promptly took another 5-6 team and won 2 straight bowl games including the Fiesta Bowl where they trounced Pitt. Then he went to Florida where he could actually get top recruits, won a national title with the previous coach's recruits, and then won another with his own in 2 years later and BTW is poised to win another. For me HE is a good football coach. He has elevated every program he has been at, both with his own players as well as those of the previous regime since he wasn't at Bowling Green or Utah long enough to see any recruits past their sophomore seasons. I might consider him, especially if we get a strong GM in here to worry about the player acquisition piece. He'll be expensive but if he wins 3 BCS title in 5 years at one of the top schools in the country where else is there for him to go? He'll have basically had a whole college career of success in 5 seasons and he's only 45 years old. Could he stay at Florida and try to be one of the great college coaches of all time? Sure. It's unlikely that any other college would be able to wrestle him away so the question is does Urban Meyer want to leave Florida as a God and find a new challenge. maybe, maybe not. I'm sure a lot of you will pooh pooh that talk and point to people like Nick Saban, etc as huge NFL flops. In turn I'd point to Pork Faced Satan who turned around Oklahoma State in 5 years then went to Miami and went 52-9 with 1 title win in 5 seasons then went to the NFL and turned Dallas around in a hurry. By the time he got to Miami (Dolphins) what was left for him to achieve? The common thread during his ascent was he won wherever he was with whatever players he had at the time. If we can get a good GM, get me some Urban Meyer.

The Bills saying they are interested in hiring Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden or Mike Shanahan is akin to me saying I'm interested in purchasing a Bugatti Veyron. Am I interested? Yes. Do I have the bankroll? No. Thus I drive away in my Honda. Sadly, Ralph's bankroll puts him in the used Kia department...

I concede the NT point 100% and I suggested we have to go someone to fill that hole in my OP. OLB on the other hand I disagree entirely. Bryce Paup was a great rush backer and was not the best athlete on the field. We had Sam Rogers and Gabe Northern as bookend OLBs on a #1 ranked 3-4 defense on this team. Neither one of those guys were world beaters at anything. Your premise that Schobel has never stood up is just false, he's been in coverage more than a little bit in his career in zone drops. I'm not saying that he's great at it but Demarcus Ware isn't great in coverage either. What you need out of your OLBs in a 3-4 is pass rush and versatility not raw athleticism. What Schobel CAN do is rush inside or outside from that spot on the field. The 3-4 tries to make mismatches with blocking and if you can get Schobel on a TE thats a win. Maybin is not and will not be stout enough at the POA to be a DE in any scheme. Either he stands up or he's a bust and they can be done with him anyway. He CAN run like hell and is long, he would cover a lot of ground in space, would be hard to throw over and would also feast on RBs and TEs blocking. If he can cover even a little bit that's good enough. He's got Poz and Mitchell (or his replacement) to cover him with less ground to cover to get there. Kevin Greene never covered anyone in his life but was a great 3-4 OLB for a very long time. What we do have a hell of a lot of on this team are 3-4 DEs and ILBs. If we stay with the 4-3 let's assume that the Tampon-2 is gone. If we assume that, it's not like we can just plug and play with who we have anyway. We still need to get 2 OLBs who are bigger than smurfs and are fast - those guys are rare and expensive. We still need to get more stout at DT. We still need more from DE. We might need a MLB since Poz hasn't really shown the range to be a MLB. We're basically shopping for the same positions anyway, it's just a question of what do you want to buy and who will be cheaper to get.

Unless you're bringing in Shanahan to be czar and are planning on getting an HC later. I wouldn't be shocked...

It's only a head scratcher in how it didn't happen about a year ago...or earlier.

Seriously, everyone sees Cowher as vulturing over the Carolina job, well if John Fox wins games he ain't gonna get fired kids. FWIW, if they Do fire Fox I'll take him in a second, their problems are 100% at QB.

Here's my solution. our guys are too small right? OK. 3-4 then. Spencer Johnson kicks out to DE along with Kelsay/Denney and a cheaper FA. Stroud is the immediate NT but we try to go get one to rotate with Williams. Maybin and Schobel go to OLB (and don't give me crap about Schobel, he's already in coverage in this BS defense as a DE) Poz and Mitchell go inside or we sign someone like Kirk Morrison from Oakland to come to ILB. DBs remain virtually the same. CB is fine, Byrd is fine. We fish or cut bait with Whitner and sign a guy like Ryan Clark while we groom a replacement from elsewhere. Obviously there are bigger FA names out there but we're not going to be able to go sign Peppers AND Wilfork AND DeMeco Ryans AND Karlos Dansby so I tried to make the best of what we've already got and sprinkled in some mid level FAs. The way isee it we need new players either way so it's just a matter of picking which style you want to run. I feel like Schobel and Maybin scream to be 3-4 OLBs and Poz is a clear cut 3-4 ILB while guys like Kelsay Denney and Johnson can be productive 3-4 ends. The big hole is NT..Can Stroud play it? Can we get a Wilfork type guy in here? God forbid we unearth one like we did with Ted Washington.

It's ridiculous to speculate on a coach when you know a GM is coming in as well. Let's say Cowher comes in as GM and hires Grimm as HC with Haslett as DC and the OC of your choice. You still reaching for the barf bag? I'd be pretty OK with that.

I see Ralph as a creature of habit and when crisis arises he runs to comfort. The last time the Bills were this bad for this long a period of time he reached into the bag and pulled out Chuck Knox and signed him to a 6 year 1.2 million dollar contract. $200k per season in an era when Jack Lambert had to hold out to get that much the year before. I wasn't around at the time but I'm guessing that was pretty close to stupid money for a coach and Knox had just come off a run with the Rams that was very very impressive and was only 46 years old. He'd have been a hot commodity and he would be today in similar circumstances. Imagine a 46 year old FA coach with a 54-15 career record who won 10 games in 5 of 5 years, made the playoffs in 5 of 5 years and made it to the NFC title game 3 times in 5 years. How hot a coach would that be? That's the guy Ralph went out and got at that point. While I won't believe it until I see it he does have a past track record of doing something like that. However, I hope he also realizes that this is not the time to cheap out on a GM either. We need a real GM with a good track record and they ain't cheap.

Jerry Glanville also resigned from Portland State today. What's your point?

Voting Byrd into the Pro Bowl as a rookie will just hasten his eventual departure from the team in a contract squabble.

He and Tom Donahoe had a power struggle which Cowher eventually won. Donahoe left the Steelers after the 1999 season. Before we get all hot and bothered with Cowher, please remember, Steelers fans HATED his game management and he lost several AFC Championship games at home. He's actually very similar to Andy Reid and Marty Schottenheimer in that way Now I understand that we'd all like to GET to an AFC Championship game but life with Cowher wasn't all roses. He was under some fire after the 2003 season where they went 6-10 and canned Mike Mularkey as OC. Personally I'd like to have him, but only if he's 100% committed. If he's half into retirement mode I'm not interested. I think it's more likely that he or Schottenheimer would come on as GM/President a la Parcells with a new, younger, coach in tow. I'd be curious to see if Cowher would go get Russ Grimm to be his HC. He was with Cowher his last 6 years in Pittsburgh so you have to figure that they know each other well and would work well together. I've also thought that Jim Harbaugh of Stanford sounds like a Bills HC candidate and these last two weeks (beat Oregon at home and waxed USC on the road) have probably bumped him up all sorts of radar screens. I'd actually be ok with an arrangement like that. An experienced guy at the helm who knows what kind of team he wants to build and a coach with some fire who can get everything there is to get out of his players. Stanford has no business beating the people they are beating (thumpings on top of it).

By halftime...

OK, just checking.

I've gotten those e-mails before and I don't recall them having that return address. Interesting? Or am I crazy?

I agree