Ray

Merriman hurt was actually much better than any other player on the roster at generating a pash rush. If you analyze things once he left was when the Bills lost any ability to generate any pass rush.....notice I am not saying sacks but pash rush. He was at least providing a push in the pocket and was genrating some type of pressure on the opposing QBs. It is no coincidence that once he went to IR everyone started complaining about the Bills not even getting a sniff of the QB.

You won't so don't try. All planets revolve around the earth and not the sun. I am sure anyone can objectively say that Ruval Martin, Donal Jones and D Hagan are much better than Lee Evans.

Just because there are sooo many holes to fill and realistically when you take the whole season into consideration Fitx can be a good QB if he plays ona good team. Meaning when he does not have to put up 30 points a game because the defense is so bad and when he actually has some NFL quality receivers to throw to you cannot deny he would be better. Obviously if Luck or RGIII are there you take them but I do not see them being around ten where the Bills pick as they should go in the top 5.

It certainly is at least in part lack of investment.....letting Evans go at 3M per year and Handgartner as good center backup.....I dont buy the he can't play guard argument they gave.

If RGIII is there they probably take him as he is a special talent, if not then go defense as there are sooooo many needs on this team. They need two more impact players on the front seven. They need a quality WR and then let's see where we are with a full complement of players returning from injury.

Seriously? Andy Dalton has AJ Green and knows how to throw a jump ball to a great WR. He would be dreadful with our offense. You really think he would be good with Hagan, Martin and Nelson as his WRs? Yeah, keep believing that.

Face it we are all mad right now with this game fresh in our minds. It is Groundhog Day yet again. But in the end we are all here because we love the Bills. The excitement at the beginning of the year was awesome. Can they capture that next year with many players back from injury, a group that works together in the offseason? In terms of Fitz I think the next two games will say a lot. He has had a couple of terrible games back to back. In terms of his contract, that is the going rate for the mid tier QBs. Face it people he is in the Kolb, Flacco, Hasselback, Cassell, etc.... That is what those guys make. I think the team does him and the entire team a favor by going with a more balanced attack and quit trying to think you are going to win with constant 4 and 5 WR formations and win with his arm. He has many intangibles that you will not find with alot of other guys and the Bills players love the guy and love playing for him. Get a defense, re-sign Stevie and Fred Jackson and get the injured guys healthy. I am not delusional enough to think they will sign any big free agents. Hopefully when healthy, with a better D they will be competitive again next year. One major positive from today was that they continued to fight and play and somehow when Miami knew they were passing and Ruval Martin was the number one WR they made plays and were mounting a comeback. Fitz played a great 4th quarter so hopefully he can use that for some confidence in the last two games.

Agreed. Say what you want about him but the guy really identifies with the fans and feels a part of the community and you can tell the guy is hurting. One refreshing thing in his interviews is at least he calls out himself. With Trent and Losman it was always "we" threw the interception. He has had two bad games in a row. His accuracy is concerning but he is our QB for the next year or two. One encouraging thing is that he did not quit and put up three scores with Ruval Martng and Hagan as his number one and two receivers. Despite his poor play lately he is the best QB we have had since 2002 when Bledsoe threw for over 4300 yards. By the way Baltimore is playing tonight the Bills gave the Chargers a much better game for those looking for the brighter side of things.

Or that your math is completely wrong and his numbers thru 13 games are exactly where you want him to be for a QB per your post. He will end the year probably around 3600 or so yards. Let's first give him consistent WRs to work with and an even average defense. Then we can make a fair judgment on him. It must be nice to be Tim Tebow and be terrible and still be in the game in the second half. We have. Ever had that luxury. The Bills have given up 1st possession scores in what every game since the Redskins game? Fitz was horrible last game. It played well the prior two games and the first half of the season so let's get a defense and some steady offensive weapons and then we can all make a legit decision.

Rogers (even tohugh a company can not buy an NFL team), has been the "rumored" potential buyer of the Bills. But if they are laying down 1.5B for the Leafs, they are not going to have the close to 3B it would take them to buy the Bills (1+B for a stadium, 1B for the team, 700M for the relocation fee) unless they are leveraged to the max. So actually "good" news for the Bills staying in Buffalo. I never thought they would go to Toronto as there are WAY too many hurdles. But you know how people love conspiracies. The Bills will be staying in Buffalo people.

We all got swept up in the positive play winning in the beginning of the season and now we have likely been too negative with their fall from grace. Likely three lost pro bowlers this season to injury (KW, EW, FJ) and a host of other injuries certainly did not help things. We probably will have better perspective after the season and realize the Bills are a few players away from being a very good team. In the end 5-7 prior to the season starting would be where most of us probably thought they would be. Maybe it would have been easier to take if they won/lost every other game rather than the euphoria of the beginning of the season and getting sucked into the hype

The Jets must be in terrible shape as well as Tennessee as they both barely squeaked by our horrendous team. And then the Pats, Raiders, Phila, KC and Washington must be in even worse shape since they lost to us and we are so bad. It's the NFL and there really is not that much that separates about 28 teams. The Bills are a pass rush and a very good 2nd WR from being a much much improved team. They've shown that. They have played poorly of late but are not that far off....if they are so bad what is the excuse for the Jets and the Titans, Giants and Cinci that could barely beat the Bills?

They both could easily be in Indy next year. Peyton could start IF healthy which is an enormous IF. And if his career is over then you start Luck. The way the rookie salary cap is now makes it affordable. Really not a big deal for Indy to have both on the roster for a couple years.

And amongst that large group of QBs which QB has done more with less than Fitz? Fitz's best WR is a 7th round draft pick and is playing with guys who were not even on an NFL roster to start the year. Give him some player sna d then we can make genuine comparisons!!! Also give him an even average defense. The 2nd half of the season the Bills defense is the worst in the NFL. Hard to win with that formula

Bingo!!! We got Fitz for a "cheap" rate amoung the top 10-20 QBs in the league. He is the 2nd best QB in the AFC East. He is good not great but has really done very well given the collection of guys on that offense! Look at the starting offense and tell me it is loaded with talent....it is not. He has done well and received the going rate for QBs in the league.

The Bills need him. The Bills DON'T need yet another hole to fill on the roster. Stevie is a young playful, jovial guy who sometimes goes too far. But he has fun, loves the Bills, loves the city, loves the guys he plays with and wants to make this team a winner and be a part of it. Pay him a good amount of money and he stays. If you lose him you have to fill his spot with someone who is not as good as him so why let him walk? That's stupid!

The Bills are actually MUCH better off today and better off in the Jauron years than they were with Donahoe. TD is a nice guy but his methods and way of business was a major turn-off to the fans and the teams were bad. They had one decent year in his tenure. The Jauron years were better and that was with starting with JP Losman as your starting QB instead of a decision of either Rob Johnson or Flutie. No thanks....TD as stated is a nice guy but he just did not do a good job running the Bills and he got 5 years to do it

Might be true and it is very believeable if you look at the hit he took. The reason we lost the last two games was not because of Fitz. He is far from perfect but this is by far the best QB play we have had since Flutie. He missed a couple deep throws yesterday but also had about 4 drops from his WRs that need to be caught. As far as his accuracy....that is much improved and for the season he is around 60%. That sucks according to some people....some people that do not know football.

It is not the obligation of the Bills to buy that amount of tickets. I think when it gets to around 5k tickets the local CBS affiliate would be wise to buy them for the ad revenue alone as it is the most watched channel in the area as opposed to playing some stupid infomercial. WGRZ ran a story last night how during the 90s (yes we were great in the 90s) only 55% of the Dec games sold out and only 60% from 2000-2010. And people B word about a Dec game going to Toronto. I think if they decide to let the Toronto series continue the Bills should do it only with the stipulation of giving them a Dec game and the fans should stop whining. That being said the fans in Buffalo in general are great despite not being on TV they will have more fans at the game than Miami will have at their game. The Bills Miami game in Miami looked about 1/3 full yet it was a "sell out" The national media will not mention the actual number of fans at games only that they are being blacked out!

No use crying over spilled milk but again a very stupid move by the Bills. There is no question they wish they had Evans. I am sure SJ wishes on Sunday Revis would be chasing Evans all around the field and not him. Donald Jones is not a legit number 2 WR in the NFL. No downfield threat for the Bills and even if you rarely throw to Evans he provides opening underneath b/c safeties HAVE to respect his speed. Bad, bad move by the Bills to save 3M a year this year and next.

He made a great tackle for a loss on a 3rd and short and has played very well this year. He is a good player that will play in this league for 10 years. I would rather have that than a lot of draft picks we have had. That being said, he waaaay overestimated his value and paid dearly in millions and millions of dollars less than the offer the Bills made to him. He could be making 3M a year more for the next 4 years than what he is making now. So he and his agent are idiots for turning the offer down form the Bills. The irony is that for all the criticism for 2 years of Levy/Jauron has taken on this board the players they brought in seem to be making a lot of plays in the NFL still (Kyle Williams, D Whitner, Poz, Fred Jackson, George Wilson, Fitzpatrick)-->all productive players in the NFL with FJ a legit NFL MVP candidate for the first half of the year.

Marv is a class act. I agree he got a bad rap as a pseudo-GM when everyone seems to forget things were 20 times worse than they were when Jauron left. The mood about the team/organization following Donahoe was horrendous. Do you find it ironic too that the best players on the team were players he brought in despite only being here two years....K Williams, Fitzpatrick, Fred Jackson. Class act, great guy and glad to see he is still very active. And BTW Kent Hull only spoke glowingly about Marv and credited him with so much of the success of those teams in the late 80s and early 90s. He loved Marv!

Very good point and a formation that takes away the overload teams like the Jets use on blitzing. You force them to reveal what they are doing/which side they are blitzing as they are not going to blitz from the bunched side. Hopefully Chan actually has taken notes or their scouts have anyways. It is odd they used it more in the beginning of the season and not the past few games.

Mike is 100% correct. Other defenses know they can play 11 players within the line of scrimmage. So if we give Freddy three and out you end up Fred and Spiller and having them both in the game and backfield at the same time does present mismatches with the other teams' LBs. You can fake screens one way and go to Spiller or vice versa.

I agree the defense has been soooo atrocious the offense in just in a situation they cannot win. They are essentially forced to score every position to keep pace and that is the problem. Yes, the offense has been bad a couple games but if that game is 17-7 yesterday in the 3rd quarter the Bills philosophy completely changes, they go for FGs in certain situations and put up likely 23-24 points in that game. When you are down 3-4 TDs in the 2nd quarter you are screwed as an offense. The defense seriosly should just rush 1-2 guys and drop 9-10 into coverage as you would generate the same amount of pressure that they did yesterday. I do not think Romo even got a finger (literally) placed on him