Phil The Thrill

The Bills did well in the first half but they came away with just 13 points, including one very long FG. So the game was never that far away from Dallas. I wouldn’t call 13-6 and 35-3 equal situations.

I’m watching the NFL Films documentary on the Houston Oilers. The 1992 team had NINE Pro-Bowl players. There was some serious talent - I think a lot of the blame goes to Jack Pardee who made the playoffs 6 years in a row but never won a playoff game

I remember the 27-3 game. Houston looked really good that week but the numbers weren’t staggering. In the first half of this game, Moon and the Oilers completely dominated the Bills defense - it’s insane

No but I mean from an offensive standpoint Maybe but they weren’t having a ton of success on the ground. White finished with 19 carries for 75 yards. Maybe a little less than normal for a 1992 RB, but not terrible low

We have TOO MANY HOLES TO FILL

It’s the offseason and it’s been slow on the NFL front, so a few weeks ago, I started watching the Bills-Oilers playoff game from 1993. I was floored at how awesome Houston looked in the first half. Moon was absolutely slinging it, and it appeared that the Bills DL couldn’t get anywhere near him. The Houston receivers were consistently winning matchups vs the Buffalo secondary. Basically it just looked TOO easy. Almost like some of the 2007 Bills defense trying to defend Tom Brady and Randy Moss. Here’s what I want to ask, because I couldn’t quite tell. From a schematic approach, what changed in the Oilers offense or with the Bills defense that allows the Houston offense to generate just 3 points in the second half? Also, it seems criminal that Moon and this offense never got a chance to player in a Super Bowl. They were a wicked talented offense with great talent at skills positions: WR: Jeffries, Givens, Slaughter, Duncan RB: Lorenzo White and Gary Brown. I forgot that in the following season, the team was in disarray coming off the playoff loss to the Bills but then rattled off 11 straight wins. The 93 team was even better and a legit SB contender, but they eventually were upset by Broadway Joe Montana. Still...man what a team.

Too bad Judge isn’t a coach/GM. People forget that Dave Gettleman is still GM. He traded up to draft Daniel Jones last season. He’s not taking a QB high in the draft. I’ll bet you anything.

I recently viewed a tweet from the 50th Anniversary game which showed all of the owners of the past. Can someone give me a breakdown of the ownership regimes of the Sabres? There seemed to be a lot of negativity and horror that these men were featured on the ice

There is about a 0.05% chance of this happening. If the Bills signed Jones it would be in direct contrast with how Beane and McDermott have built a roster over the past 3 years. First McDermott has always believed in a D-line rotation. The Bills have 2 up-and-coming DT’s in Harrison Phillips and Ed Oliver. I can’t see them invest the huge amount in a player to take snaps away from players that could be their future. Also if you followed what Beane has done - the only time he’s overpaid a free agent is at positions of glaring weakness. Star in 2018. Morse in 2019. I don’t think the Bills are bad enough at DT to give monster deal to. Same reason they won’t sign Amari Cooper either. It’s a GM fun thought....but one that won’t happen. I look for the Bills to sign several middle tier free agents and then to re-sign a few of their own players.

Tim Tebow has perhaps the greatest career out of any college QB

Oh yeah....nevermind the fact that this move SCREWED the Bills over for a few years. Ugh Whaley was such a terrible GM. Give me one example when a WR made a QB? It NEVER happens which is why everyone laughed at Whaley and why we all laugh at any Bills fan who has blind loyalty to Doug. He’s where he belongs - the island of Misfit and defective toys - the XFL

Sammy was the highest rated WR in the draft and was thought of an explosive WR. He clearly never lived up to his potential, but #4 for Sammy wasn’t crazy. What was crazy was the fact that the Bills traded up for a WR. Many in the media saw this as a foolish move, not because it was trading up for Sammy, but because it’s generally stupid to give up 2 #1’s for a WR when you don’t have an established QB. Many in the media laughed at Whaley, and deservedly so. Some Bills fans TO THIS DAY will try to defend the move and the pick and claim that Sammy was a bust. But this trade was terrible and set the team back. I hope Beane doesn’t give up the farm to draft a WR in the top 5. Something tells me he’s way smarter than Doug

Don’t you think that suppressing the audio in a situation which had the makings of a court case would have been an incredibly stupid move for the NFL? I love all these people from Cleveland saying “release the audio!” The NFL never does this unless it’s a court case. They don’t take orders from fans or the media. They investigate internally and don’t share ANY evidence to the public. Thats why I don’t buy that the NFL is hiding or destroying evidence. Because if this turns into a court case, their audio is evidence and they’re screwed. Whispered in his earhole in the half second it took for Rudolph to hit the turf

Garrett and his team are incredibly stupid for doubling down on the story. If you are to believe Garrett: 1. Rudolph said the slur in the second that he was going down. 2. Garrett purposely kept didn’t tell anyone about the slur because he wanted to wait until the trial so as not to “justify” his actions. He had the wherewithal to do this as soon as he was suspended and walked off the field that Sunday. 3. The NFL is purposely suppressing the evidence which contains the slur and purposely protecting Rudolph and it’s image. These all seem so incredibly far-fetched. It’s looking more and more like a contrived alibi to garner sympathy for Garrett and it’s clearly not working to anyone that isn’t a Browns fan

Tony Jefferson? Dude plays more like George Jefferson

“rare” happy and successful marriages?

That’s because Whaley sucked as a GM. My point is....Rex was not a “head scratcher”

I would argue that resigning Dick Jauron early in the 2007 season was more of a killer. It meant DJ got to stay about 1 and a half years longer than he should have. It also set the team back. Again - this was all due to the fact that Ralph didn’t want to hire a real GM after his experience with Donahoe I wouldn’t call the Rex Ryan hire to be headscratch. At the time, he had a reputation as a “good” coach - laugh if you will, he did. Many thought that Rex was a sacrificial lamb for Jets management who couldn’t get him talent to work with. Despite this, his NYJ teams played hard for him. At the time in 2015, Rex was considered a top coaching candidate. The hire was a disaster....but at the time it made sense

Can’t you be grateful for Ralph’s loyalty and philanthropy to the area, while also recognizing - he was a terrible terrible owner for a long time?

I’m sorry but Ralph was a terrible owner toward the final decade of his ownership. He hurt the team....period. To his credit, when he fired Butler, he did try to get a big name to run the Bills. Ralph did something uncharacteristic....he opened up his wallet (I’m sure some moths fluttered out of the billfold) and have Tom Donahoe a big money deal and a lot of power. He named him President which was shocking. Donahoe was given credit for the Steelers resurgence in the mid to late 90’s and he was a hot candidate. In the end, Donahoe wouldn’t hire a coach who threatened to usurp his power (like Bill Cowher did). He could do much better than 9-7 plus everyone hates him at OBD. It was a swing and a miss. It didn’t work so Ralph fired him - I admire the effort. The worst decision was replacing him with Marv Levy as GM. Levy had no GM experience and was about 80 at the time. It was clear that he was just a figurehead to sell tickets. So rather than hiring a real GM to actually win...Ralph hired someone he was comfortable with because...he’s the owner and he wanted to dammit! Of course, Marv was terrible and hired bad coaches. Eventually he faded into the background and Ralph refused to hire a “real GM.” He then hired Buddy Nix because he felt comfortable with him. Ralph screwed those team so bad during these years.

It’s crazy.... it seems like fans are actually enjoying the XFL. Mostly positive feedback

XFL is going to be a joke. I think that you need a break from sports. The offseason is fun because it builds anticipation and it’s different. I don’t think there’s enough substantial interest in spring football to justify the investment they’ve made. Over saturation is not a good thing - and it’s the very reason why WWE’s viewership and attendance continually drop year after year. Too much of a good thing is not good!

There’s no way it happens. No chance in hell. Burrow is from OH and the perfect player they need. Miami could have 10 first round picks, they won’t trade.

I’m not taking about the salary when I say Ralph is cheap. I’m talking more about his decisions not to make the big hire at coach and GM when it was clear he needed a strong leader. He did that once with Tom Donahoe...never again. And it was the primary reason why the Bills stunk for 2 decades. Look at Ralph’s hires at GM and Coach since Donahoe. Cheap as F

I can agree that the sample size is small with Pegula, but there are some definite similarities between the ways that Ralph ran the Bills in the mid 2000’s and how Terry is running the Sabres now. Also, Ralph has a long tenure and did very well with his hires of Levy and Polian, but the Ralph that I remember was a terrible owner. He stuck his nose in coaching decisions, empowered the wrong people and then was too afraid to give money or power to any viable candidate to lead the franchise. He also held the threat of relocation over the fans head and seemed like he didn’t give a sh*t about the team, as long as that shared revenue was roll in’ in. Again, this is Ralph the football owner and not the philanthropist. He did some good things for the WNY area, but as a foot a owner....he wasn’t good