DonInBuffalo

I doubt it ever happens again. Security issues are taken a lot more seriously these days than they were back then.

The first Bills opener I have a clear recollection of is 1986. Of course, that was Kelly's first game. It also included the "giving him the business" call. I'm pretty sure the referee was Fred Dreyfus, and he was calling the penalty on Joe Klecko. I didn't have season tickets yet, so I watched that one from home. 1987 was the first year I had season tickets. Some of the regulars couldn't make it, so I invited my friend Ed from work, who wanted to take his son to the game. This guy was notoriously unreliable, so I told him repeatedly that he had to be at my place by 10 sharp for us to beat the stadium traffic and get to the game on time. We were "noobs" so we didn't even have any tailgate plans. So Ed shows up about 11:20, and has never driven to the stadium before. Instead of following my directions, he tries to take a route one of his friends gave him. We essentially got stuck in traffic where we weren't moving at all, I'll guess about a mile from the stadium. So Ed suggests that me and Brian (his son, maybe 10 years old) walk and he'll meet us at the seats. The two of us start walking. We're trying to keep up a brisk pace, and of course there are lots of other people walking too, so I'm glancing over every few seconds to make sure Brian and I don't get separated. Since he was really short, I was essentially just looking down at the ground and noticing his feet. I glance over and he is GONE. I quickly look around and don't see him, and have this momentary massive panic attack - OMG! I LOST ED'S KID! Then I glanced up and discovered he decided to walk on top of the guard rail next to us. They were singing the national anthem when we got to the turnstiles. We ran to our seats and got there just in time for kickoff. Ed arrived around the middle of the 2nd quarter. Some games I went to I parked in a satellite lot across from the Big Tree Inn. There was a group of people that met there, at it's peak about 15-20 people total. They liked to do "something special" for the opener, and one year they cooked prime rib. There was plenty to eat before the game, with quite a bit left over. The cook cut the leftovers in small pieces, and let that soak in the juices, along with the mushrooms we had cooked along with the meat. After the game, we devoured those leftovers while waiting for the traffic to clear. That was probably the tastiest thing I've ever eaten, tailgate or otherwise.

Since Urbik was inactive every game, presumably he was 4th in the interior line depth chart, and there were no serious injuries. Obviously the Bills coaches don't expect him to step right into the lineup. However, it does seem reasonable to expect him to be the 3rd interior lineman on the depth chart this season. He does have a season of NFL practice experience under his belt; obviously the same can't be said of Howard.

Except his tweet said "not even a practice squad invite", which implies to me that he hasn't gotten one from the Bills or any other team. I would assume that when he was released his agent started contacting other teams to see if they were interested. Obviously nobody is going to sign him to their final 53. There are better QBs with actual NFL experience that were released on Saturday. His only chance is to land on somebody's practice squad, and he's probably going to have a tough time doing that. I'm guessing he's more "pissed" at the reality of his situation than anything else. Now he'll probably have to "scramble" (pardon the pun) just to have any sort of football career. If he can land a spot on a UFL roster and make a positive impression, then he has a (better) chance to get invited to an NFL camp next year. Probably his best chance is a scenario where the Bills run out of "need" positions on their practice squad, and wind up having a "leftover" spot for him.

Good luck. CBS only has early games that week due to the US Open, and NE/CIN is essentially the national game. Among casual fans, the NE/CIN would likely draw higher ratings. Albany is geographically quite a bit closer to Boston than it is to Buffalo.

You're a 7th round pick. Before camp, coach Gailey tells the media that there will be "open competition" for the QB spot. Within a few weeks, when he talks to the media about this "open competition", your name isn't included in the mix. So you knew, or should have known, that as far back as early July the coaches had already decided that you weren't in a position to compete with the other 3 for the starting job. Reading between the lines, you knew, or should have known, that they had already decided you weren't going to make the final 53. You were here because they needed a 4th QB in camp to run practices and participate in preseason games. IOW, you were camp fodder. And you "NEVER" would have guessed you would be in this position? Time for a reality pill, dude.

When asked about what players would be on the practice squad, and Brown in particular, Gailey was very noncommittal. He mentioned something about having players at the right mix of positions to be able to run the practices. Maybe he thinks that if you add a QB to the practice squad, there "won't be enough balls to go around".

I did some poking around at pro-football-reference. In 2008 with KC, the FB started something like 6 games and played in about twice that many. When he was in Miami, Rob Konrad was the FB, and started most games. When he was in Dallas, Darryl Johnston was the FB and started most games. Conclusion: If there's a FB on the roster that's productive, he's going to get onto the field. Not really surprising.

Your LT needs to be your most agile lineman, not the strongest. He also needs to have relatively long arms. That's not Eric Wood.

Gailey said today that Wood and Levitre have both taken reps at C in practice. An Eagles fan in another forum explained to me that MJG isn't subject to waivers, because he's going into his 5th year. Players who get cut during this part of the season with 4 or less years of experience are subject to waivers. Once you get to your 5th year, you become a UFA.

I remember during Hardy's rookie year, one of the coaches said that Hardy never had to adjust his route based on coverage in college. I was surprised to hear that, and even more surprised that apparently the coaches didn't know that until after he got here. Gailey's comments today were interesting. He said that the injuries in this year's camp weren't holding him back physically the last few weeks, but it may have been holding him back mentally. I think that was a polite way of saying that he never really "got it". He never really bought in to how much effort (physical and mental) was going to be involved in competing for playing time in the NFL.

Not really a surprise. That's the way it's been all preseason. As long as everybody is healthy, McKelvin only gets on the field when they go nickel/dime. I found it interesting that an "offensive minded" coach kept 22 offensive players and 28 defensive players. Spiller is ahead of Lynch on the depth chart. Looks like the Special Teams depth chart hasn't been updated yet.

As I understand it, there is a 24 hour period. All 31 teams have the opportunity to make a claim. When the 24 hours is up, if more than one team has made a claim, then the team with the worst record last season is awarded the player/contract. If Roosevelt was already under contract, then by putting in the waiver claim the other team is implicitly agreeing to honor that contract. If he isn't under contract, then the team is implicitly agreeing to offer him at least the league minimum.

I agree with you that they'll keep Brohm and put Levi Brown on the practice squad. Brown demonstrated against Detroit that he has a long ways to go before he's ready to play in a regular season game. Foschi will be on the roster for 4 weeks, and then get cut when Shawn Nelson's suspension is up, assuming nobody get's injured in the interim. It would be ironic if what you suggest happens to Chambers, considering what happened last season. I'm sure the coaching staff would like to keep both Simpson and Hardy; I'm just don't see how they can do it without compromising too much in some other area. I don't think they're going to keep Cory Harris. He didn't get any work with the 1s or the 2s in any of the preseason games I watched. Byrd is supposedly going to be ready within the first few weeks. Whitner and Wilson both have experience playing FS. As long as Byrd is inactive, Youboty becomes the "odd man in" in the Sunday 45, and would be taking reps at FS during the week too, I suspect. I think they keep Ellison over Coleman, and put him on the practice squad instead. So cutting Harris frees up one roster spot, which I think they give to Hardy. He's too "unique" of a prospect to give up on just yet, IMO. At least give him a chance to compete for playing time when he's actually healthy. With Jackson and Lynch relatively healthy, they already have one "extra" RB who will contribute almost exclusively on special teams unless two RBs get hurt at the same time during the season, so while Chad arguably played well enough to earn a spot on the roster, Bell played that much better and took that spot from him.

If you buy off of somebody on the street, you're taking the chance that the tickets could be counterfeit.

For the limited amount of time the starters were in the game yesterday, it was exclusively 4-3. Williams and Stroud lined up at DT. Edwards was the strong side DE with Kelsay on the weak side. Davis was the MLB, Poz on the weak side and Mitchell on the strong side.

http://www.covers.com/sports/nfl/nfl_lines.aspx?t=0 Odds makers aren't giving the Bills much respect. Guess they'll have to win some games in the regular season to start getting more of that.

They move Florence to the slot in the nickel so McKelvin only has to learn one position

Tasker is a CBS announcer, albeit on the relatively low end of the totem pole. Preseason games are more difficult for announcers, because there are so many more players to correctly name "on the fly". When you factor in that the Bills are probably paying him a pretty modest salary compared to what he gets from CBS, it's not like he's expected to spend hours trying to memorize the roster before the game. IMO he does a decent job given the circumstances. IIRC Bentley used to do college play-by-play for some network, can't remember which one.

When I tried to search like you describe it worked fine, no problems.

Arizona's week 2 game against Tennessee was nationally televised. I watched most of the 1st half. Leinhart STUNK. Didn't even get a 1st down. I went back and looked at the Gamebook for week 1. Not much better. Only one sustained drive, and that stalled the same way most of the other possessions ended, with a completed pass on 3rd down short of the 1st down. Leinhart is telling the media that he thinks he outperformed Anderson in the preseason simply because he completed a higher % of his passes, even though in general he did a terrible job of actually moving the team up and down the field. That isn't "moxie", it's acting like a spoiled brat. No thanks.

lol Shefter would rather be known as a shoddy journalist than a liar.

I DVR'd Time Warner's replay of the game Sunday night, so I could watch the live game that was on then. I just finished watching that replay a few minutes ago. It wasn't broadcast in HD. That's probably why NFLN used the Cincinnati feed. A few things I noticed: McKelvin needs to demonstrate early in the season that he's not a liability in coverage, otherwise teams will go three-wide just to get him on the field so they can pick on him. Defensive alignments: I was having trouble keeping track of exactly who was on the field, in part because it wasn't HD. When they went nickel, it looked like the Troup, Davis, and Ellis came out, and McKelvin, Scott, and Maybin came in. It was basically 4-2-5, with Stroud and Edwards at DT, Maybin and Kelsay at DE, and Poz and Scott at LB. When they went dime, Corner came in and I think Kelsay came out. Stroud lined up at NT and Maybin and Edwards at DE. Kickoff coverage worries me. Hopefully it's mostly due to them evaluating players who won't be in that role when the regular season starts.

He was drafted in the 7th round. He wasn't in the "top 10" on the OL depth chart, because the 2nd unit for the preseason games has been Meredith-Watkins-Allen-Howard-Chambers. The only time he got on the field in preseason was in the 4th quarter, when some 3rd string OL get sprinkled in. By cutting him now, it insures that he won't play in Thursday's game, so there's that much less tape for other teams to evaluate him. It's a virtual certainty that no other team is going to sign him to their final 53.

the atdhe.net link has been working for me, once I installed the plug-in and turned up the volume.