Ramius

Yeah, with ponder, he's got all the physical tools, but i am most impressed with the intangibles. I'm not going to play the bogus "will to win" card, but he's got a great command of the huddle, has a very good knack to when to check into and out of certain plays. He's smart, and rarely makes the bonehead mistakes (except against NC St ) I think he'll make a very good QB in this league, and i feel that he's one of the few guys that can step in and run an NFL offense from the get go due to his work ethic and intelligence. I do wish he'd slide more when he scrambles. He's always trying to get that extra yard, which i love, but sometimes you need to know when to protect yourself as a QB.

Game 8, NC St. 28, FSU 24. Ponder 17/29 for 196. 1 TD, 0 INT. 11-21 rushing with 2 running TDs. Thankfully i waited until today to do the write-up. Had i done it last night (thursday), you'd have thought that Ponder was the worst QB in college football, because i was so unbelievably pissed at him and the team. That being said, on to the game. Ponder had an overall decent game, not a great one. The offense couldn't get untracked for large parts of the game, but most of it wasn't his fault. Penalties killed FSU in the first half, but Ponder still led the team on 3 second quarter TD drives. He was using his typical dink and dunk passing. Jimbo doesn't call many deep plays, and with some OL injuries, the pass protection isn't what it was in the past. On the positive side, his elbow seemed to have healed up and wasn't giving him any problems with putting zip on the ball. He overthrew his WRs once or twice. He made a gutsy run to score a TD with a dive for the pilon. He added another nice scramble for a TD. But, to me, his biggest mistake was just a bonehead play. Mid 4th quarter, FSU was driving. Ponder had a designed run on 3rd and 3. He hit the hole, and just had to go forward to pick up 1 more yard for the first. He would have easily had it, but instead he bounced outside to try to gain more, and was stopped short. That made settle us for 3 instead a probable 7. He did drive us downfield in the final seconds however, until we had a 2nd goal, when our RB smacked into him after the snap, causing a fumble.

I've got the "Ponder watch" thread going on in the college football forum, where i've been breaking down his play in each game for the year, and how his play/stats relate to FSUs gameplan for the given game.

Game 7, FSU 24, BC 19. Ponder 19/31, 170 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT. 8 for -5 rushing due to sacks. Ponder had an odd game against BC. The stat line doesn't say a lot for him, but his play was literally up and down all game long. He made some spectacular throws (for 1 of the TDs), and made an awesome throw on the run back across his body through a tiny window to convert a 3rd and long. The throw was amazing. He wasn't terribly effective running the ball, but did convert some key first downs with his feet. That ability can't be understated. As for his INTs, 2 of them came on deep outs to the wide side of the field. Both balls floated on him and the DB jumped the route. Ponder simply didn't look right in making the passes, and after the game, it was revealed that Ponder was playing with a ruptured bursa sac in his throwing elbow. So, to me, his poor passes had a lot to do with the injury. Again, not his best game as a QB, but it was more of the half a dozen fantastic plays from him and then a handful of boneheaded ones, as opposed to consistent good or bad play.

Good post. I'd be perfectly fine with the Bills taking ponder, but preferrably in the mid to late 20s or early round 2. (Depends on where he's graded) If we go QB at the top of round 1, i'd take Luck or Mallett.

Yeah, they shoulda tried to get some young up and coming personnell guys from other teams as the GM. its too bad they didn't get a guy like Doug Whaley from Pittsburgh to be GM.

Counting on finding the next Bruce Smith is only going to leave you disappointed. There was only 1 Bruce Smith. My point was that if you can spend the high pick on another position (QB, or perhaps OT) and still get a good pass rusher at OLB in rounds 2-3. If they change their minds and opt to go as a 4-3, then yes, DE becomes a much bigger priority. If we stay with the 3-4, finding 3 more NFL caliber LBs becomes a must.

A lot of you seem to be forgetting that if we continue with the shift to the 3-4, you really don't rely on DEs to pressure the QB. Grab a QB in round 1, and you can always get good pass rushing OLBs in rounds 2-3.

If the QB is there, take him. No other options at that point in the draft (Top 5).

Given the 0-6 start, a 4-6 finish is pretty respectable.

And you're leading the charge. ICE is PMSing because OU got their asses spanked by Mizzou last night.

I'll jump to Whitner's defense. He blew it and got turned inside out on the first TD to heap. He also should have held on to the pick 6 (nevermind the fact that he made a great and jumped the route). BUT, on the second TD to Heap, Scott was standing around not covering Heap either. Who's assignment was it? I know that the default when anything bad happens in the secondary to to blame Whitner, but Scott was just as much at fault, if not more than Donte. Also, on the flea flicker, there were 10 others on defense that got fooled by the play, INCLUDING THE CB WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO COVER BOLDIN. That was a good play by the Ravens, but go ahead and blame it all on Whitner if that makes you feel better.

On the plus side, Maybin was as productive today as he is every other game.

While i'm not going top defend Whitner today because he didn't play well, i find it interesting how the flea flicker is all his fault and yet you absolve the CB from any and all blame on that play.

Word is that Navy is looking to keep ND on their schedule next season as a cupcake game.

So your argument against hiring a former director of college of scouting as a GM is to tout a guy who was promoted to GM from being director of college scouting? Also, why would Dimitroff leave the Falcons? GM to president isn't a true promotion. He'd have the same duties as president of Buffalo as he does in Atlanta.

a 1st and a 3rd (their only high picks, as in rounds 1-3, on the OL since 2000) over 10 years are "substantial" resources to build their lines? Also, why aren't you trashing the chiefs for drafting a safety at #5? But hey, way to sink to personal insults when you realize that your argument holds no water.

What do you expect from a league where they need to have the players walk through metal detectors before they enter the locker room?

Of course, taking a quick look back at the chiefs drafting history, you'll no doubt notice that in the past 3 drafts, in rounds 1-4, they have taken 2 guards (rounds 1,3), 2 RBs (rounds 2,3), and 5 DBs (rounds 1,2,2,3,4). They took 2 DBs in the top 50 this past year, including a safety at #5. Funny how that hasn't "destroyed" the franchise, isn't it? But lets continue to pretend that only the Bills draft DBs early in the draft.

The kind that makes you want to go out and buy lots of dinty moore and silver.

The article was crap. That's not a cheap shot, its the truth. The entire premise of the article is extreme hyperbole, that wreaks of nothing but a cheap shot at buffalo because we're currently an easy target. The quality/topic of article was something you'd talk about at a bar when you're 3-4 beers in, or perhaps a thread on a message board. Its slapping together some words for the sake of filling a blog. Its not doing any work, its tossing together a sound bite from a player, calling a vegas bookie, and hammering out some words on a keybpard. That's the best a paid writer can come us with? That's extremely weak. But you tell me. What standard should i hold graham to? Is he a journalist? If so, the article was garbage. Or is he simply a blogger? Because that article was on par with any of the unpaid bloggers (or message board posters) i can read all over the internet. As for my other comments, there were a few times (prior to his leaving) where graham's articles were criticized, and he responded by threatening to leave this place if we didn't praise his every word. That qualifies as whining in my book. At least Wawrow can take a shot. I'm convinced (on good authority from a high school friend who's a cop in SD) that he didn't actually leave TSW, but rather he's still locked up in a mexican jail in tijuana after an unfortunate incident during an attempted border crossing.

dont forget to tack on an extra few grand for the year's worth of posts and info lost in the crash of '08.

We need a front page story on how a 11th grader who writes for their school newspaper could write better and more interesting articles than tim graham. And we were sad to see him whine and take his ball and go home?

Thats fine. Idiots like Crowder then simply waive their right to any and all support from the NFL/pensions when he's 42 and drooling on himself not remembering where he currently is.

Knew it was only a matter of time before some patsy* filth crawled out of whatever bahston muck hole you live in and defended this scumbag. Merriweather is a piece of **** with a history of these type of cheap shots. Must have learned how to cheap shot from rodney harrison.