KurtGodel77

You're aware that the Jets are on that list too, right? Are you saying your team beats themselves?

Dr. Z wrote that our game against New England "was Buffalo's Super Bowl." He should have written that the game was "Buffalo's AFC Championship Game," because we are 4-0 in AFC Championship Games.

It was a bad no-call. First, it's usually called, so giving the Patriots a different set of rules than everyone else makes no sense. Second, two very poor calls went against the Bills; so the officiating should at least keep that in mind when deciding whether to give someone the benefit of the doubt. If you take away the Fletcher penalty and give us the Dillon fumble, then chances are we win.

Good point: I forgot that some of our points came from that kick return.

I thought Bledsoe played well against Jacksonville, badly against Oakland, and kind of well against New England. That one INT hurt us, but maybe Moulds ran the wrong route. Without knowing what play was called on 4th and 3, it's hard to assign blame. Bledsoe's throws to Evans and Moulds were things of beauty, and really made a difference.

In a lot of ways, this game went like I said it would. I said we could run on NE, and Travis averaged 4 yards a carry. I also said that we'd score more than our usual 10 points, and that our defense would give up more than its usual 13. Finally, I said that the biggest problem we had was our defense not coming through for us because their offensive coordinator is better than our defensive coordinator. Our defense gave up 24 points. A lot was due to coaching: http://www.billsdaily.com/gameday/2004/ne/gradesgm1.shtml asked "Why did Jerry Gray stick with the constant blitzing when it was getting picked apart by Tom Brady?" That is a very good question.

I really think this team is close to being good. We have an offensive coordinator who actually calls running plays, even on third down. We have some young talent in Evans and McGahee (who at least knows how to block). MM has the players' respect. Drew looks better this year than he did last year; and anyway Losman is waiting in the wings. Give things time, and they will get better.

Well, if the officiating had been balanced, we'd be 2-1. Maybe even 3-0 if you want to include that Jacksonville last-second touchdown. It's hard enough for a rookie head coach to win in the NFL without having to work against the officials.

Now is not the time to panic. Edgerrin James had a similar knee injury, and he needed two years before he was back to his old self. Hopefully, McGahee is only a shadow of the player he will be next year.

At least we ran the ball well. Also, we completed some big passes. So our offense looks like it's getting better. Sooner or later, we should be able to get some wins out of these improvements.

This was a fun game to watch; up until the 4th quarter. For most of the game, we looked like we belonged on the same field as the world champions. That is nothing to sneeze at. What makes this loss frustrating is how easily it could have been avoided. If only the officiating had been fair. If only Travis hadn't stumbled on 3rd and 2 with that big hole in front of him. If only our players had made fewer stupid mistakes. Even just balanced officiating would probably have won us this game. That penalty on London Fletcher kept alive a Patriots drive that resulted in ten points. Take away the penalty, and the Patriots would have had to punt. Then you have that Dillon fumble that should have been ruled a fumble. Give us that ball too, and I really think we would have won it. I really do. This is the second game in a row where the deciding factor has been bad officiating.

I read the article, but I don't know a lot about Lori Hacking other than that she was murdered. Is she someone who is known for anything in particular other than being killed?

I live out of state, so it's a rare treat to see a Bills game.

The Patriots' defense really misses Ted Washington. I watched a lot of their game against the Colts. There was this one Colts drive that really stood out: every play they called was a running play; and they drove the ball down the field in 8 - 10 plays or something for a touchdown. It was every offensive coordinator's dream. Well, almost every offensive coordinator's dream. I can think of one offensive coordinator turned quarterback coach who would rather go three and out with pass plays than have a drive like that. But Mike Mularkey is not cut from the same cloth. Expect to see a heavy dose of Travis and Willis; and expect to see more success than we have against the likes of Jacksonville and Oakland. McGahee should be improved, because it's been three weeks since he's seen any real action. (He's had three weeks to heal.) Our offense will score more than ten points. Period. What scares me is their offense going against our defense. 2003 doesn't really count because the games were ruled by emotion. But thinking back to 2002, it was absolutely clear that Charlie Weis totally dominated the chess match against Jerry Gray. Hopefully the coaching will be a little more even this time around. I don't know who will win this game, but I assure you it won't be our usual 13-10 loss.

Stuff like this is why people are losing trust in the media. In fact, television is losing young people in general: the average television viewer is over the age of 50.

Also, running the no huddle every so often will be one more thing for the other team to worry about.

If I was the offensive coordinator, I would have called four straight running plays. But just because Clements did it differently doesn't make his calls worse than mine. Nor does he deserve to be compared to Gilbride. Had Gilbride been given first and goal at the 3, he would have called three straight passes. And yet all the sportswriters complain about not running enough because Clements called 2 runs and a pass.

The Bills could open 2005 with Losman under center. If they do, they should really think about getting younger at other positions on offense. Our two starting WRs could be either Reed/Evans or Aiken/Evans. Trading Travis would get us a nice first round pick for a player who--after this season--will only have a few good years left.

If MM had called a lot of deep passes, you'd be complaining about Drew taking too many sacks. Until McNally gets our offensive line working together as a unit, MM has two choices: either do what he did, or else have the sackfest we've seen ever since Kelly retired.

I'm getting a little sick of hearing all this praise of Leftwich's "defining moment" against our team. Enough already. What I need to hear is "defining moments" for Bills players. Leftwich completed only 50% of his passes, with 1 TD and 2 INTs. His 40 yard pass wasn't thrown well, but Clements messed up and the receiver made a great catch. I hope we play Jacksonville again in the postseason so we can put them in their place.

The main problem with going deep is that our offensive line won't be functional for a few more weeks. If you go deep without an offensive line, the result is league-leading sack totals like what we've seen from Bledsoe last year and Johnson in years past.

At least Manning played better than he did the last time he faced NE

Wide right. nuf said

Now it's time for Indy to drive for a touchdown.

Dillon has played well tonight. I don't like it.