RJ (not THAT RJ)

The interesting thing will be to see if the absence of Merriman causes any different approaches by opposing offenses, or if players of smaller reputation but better health (Coleman, Moats) will be able to avoid double teams...

Amen and amen.

I just woke up from my nap. What's this all about? --Buddy Nix

Thanks dwight. That is excellent news!

And yet, there are three more games at the Ralph, none of which is sold out right now. Oh, and the Green Bay Packers played as many as three games a year in Milwaukee for decades...

On that, my Bills brother, we can always agree.

Of course! :thumbsup:

Only the second time we have gotten the Bills on regular TV in Philly!

I have no problem with JP, but your history here, Dan, is flawed. In 2007, JP started with a couple of bad games (one particularly horrible game in PGH), then was injured against the Pats*. The combination of his poor development, and Edwards looking decent in relief (and doing the things that Jauron wanted, it must be added, when it came to managing the offense) is what cost him his job.

Any list without Gary Marangi on it is just wrong.

BPLoDR

15,000 per game would be closer to 20% than 2%......

Bill, with all due respect, one can criticize Polian without needing to defend Levy/Jauron, who were a catastrophe. Polian has done wonderful things, for sure. My thought on all this, which may or may not be shared by others, is that the collapse of the Colts shows how silly it is to christen anyone a "genius" without reference to how much unplanned dumb luck goes into sports success. Polian drafted Manning, and the Colts have been good as long as Manning has played well, but neither Polian nor any other GM or Coach has the magical power to make bad players good. GMs and Coaches help at the margin—making good players work together better, or filling the holes around excellent players. Polian was once very good at that, but what the Colts have become is an indication that the past few years have not been as good. In fact, none of the successful teams Polian built—not the Bills, not the Panthers, and apparently not the Colts as of this year—have carried on after the central core of great players faded. Heck, he barely lasted four years in Carolina at all, which everyone seems to forget. He caught lightning in a bottle, but then fled the scene. On a related point, this is why I do not like the term "dynasty," which is used much too loosely. There have been great teams, sure, but most of them are only great as long as the core of great players has been around. A "dynasty," which suggests to me continued success through several "generations," only exists when a team can stay on top consistently as the cast changes. By that more stringent criteria, good teams like the Steel Curtain Steelers are not a dynasty, since they floundered after Bradshaw and Co. left. The only real dynasties that I can think of are the Raiders from 1967 to 1983 or maybe the Dolphins between 1970 and 1994, or the Cowboys between 1966 and 1983. That may be an issue for another thread. But there it is.

No worries, SJ. I think you misread my posts. I do not think that Bradford is bad. My point is that even though he is pretty good, the Rams are still scraping the bottom of the league, which is an indication that putting all one's eggs in the Franchise QB basket can be problematic, Whoever drafts Andrew Luck will have to draft a lot of players around him as well....

Possibly so. Though the fact that the Colts won that championship five years ago, and the team has been crumbling around Peyton since then, suggests that excessive fixation on the QB to solve everything can blind a team's management to mounting problems.

If you can track down a replay of the run, it is really odd. First down on the 20 after intercepting Grogan in the end zone. TT busts through the line and hits the sideline, and it seems to take forever for him to score, even as Lofton jogs along with him to fend off tacklers. That 1990 game was one of those classic "Bills play down to the level of their competition" meetings they had with the Pats and Colts even in their best years (see their losses to the Pats in NE in 1991 and in Indy in 1992 , for the best examples).

I did. I was bored. And annoyed that the Luck-hypers are ignoring the Bradford example. But I got better.

True on both. The point here is just that alleged geniuses look that way when they have terrific players. Ask Jimmy Johnson how much of a genius he was without Aikman and Smith when he was down in MIA. The Polian-worshippers, however, refuse to see this.

...and it couldn't happen to a nicer team. The Raiders have a lot of trade steal karma to catch up on. I would love it if Carson Palmer became their Tom Flores.

That is one of Life's Big Questions, WEO. The Chargers totally choked. What bugs me is that the Bills have to go to SD to play them, and they will probably show up for a home game....

All hail me, the thread killer!

It is hard to disagree with any of this. The Chargers made enough actual mistakes to keep the game close, and a couple of questionable calls tilted it the rest of the way.

This.

Am I the only one who thinks that the fact the Rams are still awful after drafting a "Franchise QB" should give us all pause on assuming that drafting a franchise QB will solve all of a team's problems?

I wonder what they will get for Campbell if he never takes another snap for Oakland. His stock will drop pretty fast. Basically, the deal will be good if Palmer regains his old form. It is a gamble, because the Raiders have poisoned the well with Campbell.