Lori

You're probably right about that. Seeya at the Bengals game Dec. 19th? We'll bring some Canadian beer.....

You, me, 'n a lot of other people, Rubes. I wasn't quite ready to predict this was a playoff team, but there's abso-friggin-lutely no way I would've said 1-5 and sinking like a rock...

Ah, fuggedaboutit guys - if I'd really taken offense, I'd have used the :I starred in Brokeback Mountain: instead of the "smiley". It does say something about Bills fans, though, doesn't it? 1-5 and practically unwatchable on offense, and people are still showing up at Booster Club meetings. And still flying/driving in from all over the country for a game against the Cardinals, fer cryin' out loud. What do we have this weekend - NYC, Florida, San Diego just for starters? I guess we really are nuts. I think that's why people are so down on Willis about pulling up on that INT return, and praising Moulds for making the play. We're passionate about "our" team, we buy the gear, we make plans around Sunday afternoons. Some of us put our money into seasons, others set up cross-country travel plans to get to RWS for a game or two, and most of the rest find a way to get the game on TV - Sunday Ticket, sports bar, whatever. All to watch this team. There's even a wedding at the Pinto this Sunday - these two people were planning their special day, one they'll remember the rest of their lives, and the place they wanted it to be was at a Bills game. How do you top that? Yeah, "our" Bills are 1-5. Yeah, they've got a snowball's chance in Hades of turning this season around. And yet, we're still here, still cheering when things go good and going nuts when they don't. Anyone here giving up on being a Bills fan? In return, I think asking the players not to give up either is a reasonable request. Moulds gets it. I'll echo Chuck Pollock's sentiment - hopefully EM's teammates got the message.

Pulled into One Bills Drive to find the stadium lights on and rock music blaring from the PA, courtesy of something called the Heineken Combine - kind of a Punt, Pass, and Kick contest for grown-ups. The winner gets a trip for two to Honolulu next February "to see his/her favorite Buffalo Bill(s) play in a post-season event currently scheduled for 2/13/05." Hmmm - sounds like somebody didn't want to pay the rights fees to use "Pro Bowl"...... Conservatively, I'd estimate at least 50 people inside the M+T Bank Club - so all the smartalecks making cracks about "gridlock on 20A" or "all 8 people who showed up" are hereby cordially invited to get stuffed. Speaker #1 was Howard Simon. He began his remarks by saying something along the lines of "You invited the wrong guy - I thought they'd be 10-6 this year, so I obviously know nothing about football." From the audience reaction, I'd wager most of us had predicted something similar - comments like "yeah, they fooled a lot of us" prevailed. Some of his thoughts, in response to questions from the peanut gallery: Defense is solid, special teams are improved, but the offense is dragging the rest of the team down with it. He still believes a conservative, run-first style of offense is the right plan for this team, if only because their execution in the passing game is so dreadful. Someone asked about the possibility of Mularkey taking over playcalling in the red zone; the way he sees it, the big problem isn't the plays being called, it's the team's inability to run those plays correctly. (Case in point: the red-zone running game. I just broke it down further, to running plays in goal-to-go situations - 13 carries, 15 yards. 1.15 yards/carry. That STINKS. Every single guy on the OL weighs more than 300 pounds; add in a TE or FB blocking and a 200+ pound RB getting a running head start behind them, and you hafta ask - how can this team NOT average more than 41.5 INCHES/carry inside the 10?) At that point, Howard handed the microphone to Erkie Kailbourne. Kailbourne talked about various stadium/marketing issues the team and Business Backs the Bills are trying to deal with. Someone asked him how close the lease deal came to falling through back in '98; he said, "To be candid, it came right down to midnight on November 30th". Yeah, that close. Considering Buffalo's small-market size and economic situation, he's proud of the job BBtB has done. (Justifiably so, IMO.) After Mr. Kailbourne left the meeting, Mr. Simon answered a few more questions. Talk turned to the chances of getting another Bill into the Hall of Fame next year - Howard thinks Ralph Wilson has a better chance than any of the Bills players on the list, but pointed out there's a sizable group of selectors who think the Hall should be solely for players. I asked if Larry Felser's retirement and Will McDonough's passing had made it more difficult for Ralph to get in; he agreed, and expanded that to include any potential AFL-era nominees.... The third speaker was Steve Tasker, fresh from mingling with the "Combine" participants on the field (and taking Billy Buffalo's chopper for a spin while he was down there. Factoid you won't hear anywhere else - "That thing doesn't have any BRAKES!" ) Our own #89 made a point of mentioning some Wallers' complaints about his being-impartial-to-the-point-of-being-anti-Bills. He said trying to call the game objectively is what he was hired to do, but admitted it was tough at times (and hoped his "Yeah!!!" scream wasn't picked up by the mic while Criqui was calling TKO's INT return against Miami...) He said he really doesn't miss playing, or at least he doesn't miss the stress of playing - the pressure of trying not to do anything to let his teammates down. He does miss the togetherness of that team, but still keeps in touch with a lot of the guys. (Something I didn't know - Pete Metzelaars is now the QC coach for the Colts, working for Bill Polian...) He thinks free agency makes it harder to build the kind of cameraderie those Bills teams had, because the rosters are turning over so much faster. Oh, one more thing - in regards to a certain Fin-head's recent remarks before the Bills-Dolphins game, somebody asked him to "set Dan Marino straight about Buffalo". He replied, "I'm not setting anybody straight about Buffalo. You know why? Because the worse they think it is, the less riff-raff we get here." In other words, Dannyboy, go right ahead and stay in Florida! OK, the Diet Coke that fueled the drive home is starting to wear off. Good thing I have tomorrow (today?) off. G'night.

K, I really, really hope you're right about that..... this is one record I'd rather NOT track.

Right now, I think we'd be ranked behind both Oklahoma and USC.

Yup, that would be the number of quarters it's been since the Bills last scored a rushing TD. Thanks again to Chuck Pollock of the Olean Times Herald for unearthing that gem of a stat a couple of weeks ago, and to Charlie the Intern for doing the research to confirm the 'team-record' status....

He's the only guy I voted for from the offense last year. That looks likely again this season.....

According to Woody Paige on "Cold Pizza" this morning, his "sources close to Spurrier" told him Stevie Superior IS interested, and a deal probably gets done. Paige, at least, can be mildly amusing at times. Skip Bayless is still terrible....

Thanks for the updates, Olivier. He sure is fun to watch, isn't he? Unlike a couple of other teams I could mention.......

VERY nice.

They are a lively bunch, aren't they?

One can only hope a few of the players and owners read that article, and come to their friggin' senses.

How about a Chad Johnson jersey covered in Pepto-Bismol?

Joey T. is a moron, but he's not always wrong. Here's what I don't like about his current theory, though. He's basing it on Bledsoe's comp %, INTs, and QB rating.... and before yesterday's game, Bledsoe's raw numbers weren't really that bad: 57.7 completion %, 6 TD passes to 3 INTs, and a QB rating of 86.24. Compare that to his career averages: 57.0 comp %, 76.7 QB rating. And the 3 INTs would have projected to 10 for the season, which would've tied a team record for the fewest INTs in a 16-game season. So in other words, up until yesterday, he was having a GOOD season...right? Now you know why even though I'm a stat geek, I'm not overly fond of the QB rating. The Rob Johnson Era should've taught us that much. **DISCLAIMER: Mind you, I'm not disagreeing with Theismann's conclusion about Bledsoe... just the formula he used to get there....

How about the "keep starting Frank Reich" arguments before the 1993 AFC Championship..... or crashing the board with "This team STINKS !!!!" posts at halftime of the Comeback game..... ooooh. I can just imagine some of the nasty nicknames people would've come up with for Harmon.....

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS ?!? (aside to Thurman's Helmet: go for it - I won't stop you this time....) Funny, I've got the show on now, and I'm not hearing "Playoffs". Mostly, I'm hearing the same stuff from the callers that I'm reading here - fire Donahoe, Drew stinks, the OL stinks, etc., etc. And Howard is figuring Losman's first start wouldn't be before the Rams game, because Morrison told him that MM sez 2-3 more weeks before JP is at or near 100%.

That explains a lot.

17 is also the number of points the Ravens had at halftime. And that's why I didn't worry about watching any of the second half before leaving for work at 3:15...... make up a two-touchdown deficit in the second half, on the road, against THAT defense? Bwhahahaaaaa......

Kelly didn't have Internet message boards to deal with in 1986, either...

I dunno, Rubes. Sounds pretty funny, but if there's a lot of drinking going on at this party, that costume might not be such a good idea.......

You're not kidding - he was in midair when Boller let go of the ball, and the only part of his body that hit Boller's helmet was the front of his jersey. What was he supposed to do, try not to LAND?

Nope, you can actually have a passer rating of 0.0. I think Rob had one of those once. And Drew had an 18.4 at Miami last year.

That's some good stuff, Mr. Carey. But I think if we're going to add in Pucillo, we'd need to get something else in addition to the #1, don't you?

On your Moulds authentic, the different colors that make up the numbers are stacked on top of each other, right? So you've actually got three layers of twill sewn together. With these, they take single-layer letters and numbers and then screenprint the outline colors onto them. (Kind of like the t-shirts with screened numbers that are designed to look like they're sewn on?) I think the jersey material is a little heavier than the replicas, too, although it doesn't look like they've got the spandex side panels. This way, they can say the jersey has sewn-on numbers and charge more for it than for the regular replicas. The NFLshop catalog has a big sales pitch for them - "So close to authentic you'll think you're in the huddle!" Hey, looks like the authentics are on sale too - $180, that's not bad. Looks like Spikes, Bledsoe and Moulds are the only ones available, though. And I see they've still got some AVP shirts left......