Simon

I actually thought Van Roten also played OK the week before, when he had to come in for Bates in the Jets game.

Do we really need a new thread every time some random knucklehead says something on Twitter?

That mystique is mostly manufactured hindsight and didn't exist in real time, imo. They were my 2nd favorite team behind the Bills back then, but the vast majority of the country just hated them as a dirty team full of cast-off lunatics. They're a fun story to look back on but at the time they were not well-loved.

Yeah, at least three guys stopped f'ing around the second they saw coach and Allen got on his horse and never even turned around. I wonder if it was because they didn't want to get in trouble or because they thought McD had it covered and was about to start locking people into chicken wings.

Unless the weather conditions are genuinely extreme (i.e. below zero with significant winds, a really heavy rain in 32.5 degree weather) you don't even notice it when you're on the field. You're so caught up in the heat of combat that the external stuff all just kind of goes away. None of this dome talk is about player comfort, it's all about the fans. As far as it affecting the offense negatively? The other night the Bills opened the second half with 4 straight punts and fumble on 5 drives where they averaged about 3 plays per drive in clear weather with minimal wind. As soon as it started snowing and blowing they reeled off a pair of 80 yrd drives to win the game. This is not about the players, it's about the fans.

I wonder if Spencer Brown would have displayed the self-control to pull Dawkins out of there if he hadn't seen McDermott right there.

Yeah, I leave mine all the time; but usually leave it at the endcap and then walk up the aisle to grab what I need. I've never had it taken but I once absent-mindedly grabbed somebody else's and didn't realize it until the kid in it started screaming... Sorry if it was yours. Let me know if you want it back ; - )

I consider this a teachable moment and like to take two things out of the abandoned cart and replace them with something unique from a nearby shelf.

Hang in there, Willie. Hump Day can be rough!

I'm admittedly not a soccer guy so I'm coming from an outsider's perspective. But the last 15-20 minutes of that overtime (not sure if overtime is the right word for those two extra 15 minute periods?) was absolutely one of the most intense, dramatic and riveting sporting events I've ever seen. There were literally players on the sidelines shaking and crying while there was still 10-15 minutes of fighting left to go! I had zero rooting interest and I was on the edge of my couch with my eyes bugged out, involuntarily blurting creatively colorful language while my dog was staring at me on full alert trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Maybe it's because as an American I'm preconditioned toward overtimes, but I wanted to see more of that drama. When that time went off the clock and they moved on to penalty kicks, I pretty much totally lost interest. I kept it on long enough to find out who ended up winning but I was disengaged enough at that point that I didn't even watch half the penalty kicks. The goalies are just guessing and if you stuck me out there with a ball I'd have almost as much chance of scoring as the world class professionals; it's just random chance at that point. If they had kept playing until somebody scored like they had been in OT I'd have decided on the spot that I'd be watching more World Cup soccer in the future, but as it was I don't know if I'll watch it again because it struck me as so anti-climactic.

Yeah, he just filed his retirement papers.

Eliminate most of the rules for substitutions in sudden death, turn off the clock and let them play until somebody scores. If guys pass out on the field, so be it; you're a man down until you can sub somebody else in.

This is funny, but I don't think it's true The masks aren't the same

I think that teh one tool he he doesn't have is good feet and that's what's getting him beat on so many occasions. Hiding him inside where he can maul guys that don't have the option of taking him wide might be non-traditional for a 6'8" guy but I think at the very least it's worth a look.

He might have some issues in short yardage packages because he's never going to be the low man, but I think he'd mostly be fine when he's firing off the ball. I've thought from Day 1 that he just doesn't have the feet to play Tackle in this league and I've yet to see anything since which has changed my mind. Putting him at Guard allows him to fight guys in a phone booth, which I think minimizes his greatest weakness and accentuates his greatest strength. The only real potential problem I can see is that his height might occasionally be a problem interfering with passing lanes.

Draft a Tackle in Rnd 1, kick Spencer Brown inside (like they should have done last year), let Bates play Center and find a serviceable Guard on the FA market.

Have you ever seen any analysis in regards to "letdown" games? Like maybe something the week after an important primetime, playoff clinching win vs a bitter division rival?

My bad; one of those three 3rd/short passes actually happened in the 3rd qrtr, not the 4th. It was the only possession in the 3rd qrtr that the Phish didn't score a TD.

Maybe they wanted to knock him into the endzone?

If anybody's watching

3 times in the 4th qrtr when Miami had 3rd and short plays, they chose to throw the ball in every single instance despite the fact that they were averaging 7.5 yds a carry. I do not see that so much as the defense stepping up as I do the Phish perpetuating a year long propensity to repeatedly outsmart themselves in crunch time.

Chandler Jones, no less.

Every 2-3 years I turn off a Bills game because I'm not enjoying it and would rather find something else to do. Last night was that game. I shut it down when Morse went out because I was tired of watching them get their ass beat into the ground for 40 straight minutes and opted to go to work on a toilet replacement project I had earmarked for the weekend. To add insult to injury, when I couldn't find a red Solo cup to scoop the remaining water out of the tank, I found a sleeve of unopened Buffalo Bills cups and decided it would be perfectly appropriate to use one for that dirty-assed job. When I finally turned the game back on to see how badly they'd been beaten, it was the 2:00 warning and they were positioning themselves for a game-winning FG. I dare anybody to do worse than scooping out toilet water with a Buffalo Bills cup in the middle of a game.

We're going to lose to the Bears

He'll do whatever it takes to get back when it really starts counting and then he'll ride off into the sunset as a Bills legend.