SoCal Pat

When you blow what is essentially a 27-point lead (it was about to be 30-3 before J.P.'s interception in the end zone), everyone in the entire organization is to blame. To try and make the coaches exempt from all of this is Pollyannish.

Dream on. The Bills' record under Donahoe stinks in spite of the many draft picks he's made. Donahoe will be fired because he has consistently failed to upgrade at positions where it has been painfully obvious, such as offensive line. He's also made two head coaching decisions -- the first one was a complete flop, and the second appears headed down the same path. And if TD even so much as says Merry Christmas to Nate Clements' agent, he should be fired on the spot. Let Nate play out his time and let him go elsewhere.

Good !@#$ing riddance to the 2005 Bills. Maybe you'll get your sh-- together to make me give a damn next fall.

There will only be one NFL team for me to root for. But the disconnect between myself and how the team does is being challenged week after week. It was like that last year, after the Sunday night game against the Pats when, for the first time I can ever recall, I went to bed not knowing exactly how the Bills did (I figured they lost, having turned the game off in the second quarter). They "brought me back" with the win streak and set me up for this season, but here I am again ... almost not caring simply because there's very little to care about. Depressing. I know exactly how you feel.

Somewhere in the fourth quarter, once NE pulled ahead, I thought I heard someone in the booth say the Bills have lost 19 straight games in which they trailed in the fourth quarter. Anyone have any idea the last time we came from behind in the fourth quarter to win? I'm guessing San Diego at home near the end of the 2002 season in Drew's first year.

The reasons should be obvious. But in case you're living under a rock, how do you allow your eye-candy sideline reporter, who didn't "report" on a goddamn thing all game long (injury reports, player moods/reactions, etc.) talk over two of the most important plays in the game? ESPN's coverage is a joke. So is Kobler. I couldn't stand her before because I simply found her irritating. Tonight, she just proved she's fully incompetent, as are the dipshits in the truck who should know to cut her off when something significant is happening ON THE FIELD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!

... as a Bills fan more than I am now. What a gutless, limp-wristed, gutless, cowardly, yellow throw. Running Moulds on that route was perfect, given everyone knew he was the primary option. It opens up the field for everyone else's patterns. I have no problem with that. But to actually throw it to him there? Bring back Losman. Holcomb's just good enough to get us to lose. It's too knee-jerk to say that based on one play, but it was so unbecoming of what you want out of your quarterback, it's the only decision you can make.

Marino must suck. He's never won a big game. Ditto for Elway ... or at least until Terrell Davis arrived. You're still trying to say Manning sucks after he set an NFL record for TD passes in a season? That doesn't make him the greatest QB of all-time, but I'd feel pretty safe in saying that if PM didn't win another playoff game in his life that he'd still be enshrined in Canton.

Or be a Heisman finalist. Or have a 21-1 record as a starter. Or to have the fastest 40 time of any QB in the draft. Didn't you say a few years ago that Peyton Manning sucked?

1. Normally, I'd say it sucks that we don't get Miami in Buffalo late in the season, but the Fish are so putrid, it might not make any difference. 2. Was really hoping that at 9-7, we'd get a Monday Night game. Another byproduct of our season-ending loss to Pittsburgh -- if we make the playoffs, we're on MNF for sure. 3. A Saturday night home game in December? That's gotta be a first. 4. Love the timing of the bye -- right in the middle of the season.

It wasn't a story about Bo. It was a story about steroid abuse. There was one graf/quote about Bo, and that's what the lawsuit is over. Now, I will give you this: Just because someone else said it, doesn't mean we have the right to print it. Libel is libel, regardless of where it comes from. But Bo's a public figure, and to think some haven't questioned whether or not he used steroids is silly. That said, Bo's going to have a pretty hard time proving defamation in this case. The location of the quote (in the 11th graf), the manner in which the quote was played in the story, combined with the fact that it's going to be pretty tough for Bo to prove malice (the source had validity to speak on the topic, given her background) or actual damages (his career is over and he's largely out of the spotlight as it pertains to sports -- the man is more known for cooking nowadays) leads me to believe that this lawsuit will either be settled out of court for a piddling sum, or it will never see the light of day in an actual courtroom. Not to mention the private figure vs. public figure battle he can't possibly win.

Maybe Irvin had better receiving talent than Andre Reed, but better leadership? Uhh ... Peter? Wasn't this the same Michael Irvin whose off-field behavior was so deplorable that he had to sit out the first four games of the 1996 season? I'm sure his high-partying ways were a great sign of leadership. One can debate the merits of Reed's numbers in today's NFL as they pertain to Canton worthiness. But anyone who thinks such intangibles make Irvin a better HOF candidate than Andre Reed must've been irreversably brain-damaged from too many whiffs of The Playmaker's second-hand smoke. Bottom line is this: Reed was a better player than Michael Irvin in just about every way imaginable, and the numbers back it up. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writ...art2/index.html

Absolutely. Think of how often you see arguably two of the top teams in the NFL in the regular season, and what the line is for such a game. It's rarely, if ever, more than a FG either way. If the game is truly a matchup of the two best teams, the spread should never be more than 3-4 points. If it isn't, then one of the teams is perceived as lucky to be there, and will likely be blown out. As it stands, the Giants covering the 6.5 (don't think it was ever readily available at 7 at any point, but I could be wrong) and winning outright probably stands as one of the top 2-3 Super Bowl "upsets" of all time. In fact, I don't believe an NFC team has ever covered a bigger number and won outright in the Super Bowl than the 1990 Giants.

In the San Francisco game, Bledsoe was pulled once we were up 27-0 early in the fourth quarter. Shane Mathews entered and threw a TD pass to Lee Evans. Then Losman finished up. I was under the belief that the only way the No. 3 QB could enter the game was if both Nos. 1 and 2 got hurt. Can anyone clear this up for me, or if there are any rules designating how many QBs a team can use in a game, or when they can't re-enter the game?

Wright tipped the middle screen from Elway. CB caught it and ran it back the short distance for the TD.

Good grief ... and I thought I had the pre-SB teams covered by Simpson's inclusion. Good catch. What was I thinking?

And don't bring up any of the tragic sh--, either. 1. Carlton Bailey's INT return for a TD against Denver in the 1992 (1991 season) AFC title game. 2. Andre Reed's fourth-down catch for a TD to cap 28-point third quarter in The Comeback vs. Oilers. 3. Steve Tasker's late first-half runback to the 1 against the Raiders to set up a much-needed Bills TD 4. Bruce Smith KO'ing Joe Montana and knocking him from the AFC title game in the 1993 season (That was for all who wanted someone ... ANYONE ... besides the Bills from the AFC in the Super Bowl) 5. Kirby Jackson's strip and recovery of Steve Sewell from the same game as Bailey's TD. Outside of moment No. 4, I don't think the Bills go to the Super Bowl in any of those years without any of these plays happening. If you want, you can substitute Bill Simpson's end zone INT against the Jets in 1981, sealing the franchise's first NFL playoff victory.

My first Bills game was a preseason game in 1978 or 1979. Easy ticket. My grandfather took me and I remember Reuben Gant scoring a TD. We left around the third quarter -- about the time all the guys came in who would be cooking dogs at Ted's next week after they were cut. Until 2001, when we lost to Pittsburgh at home, I had never seen the Bills lose at Rich/RWS (I was 9-0), and there were some memorable ones -- beating the Jets to clinch the AFC East in 1993, beating Dallas in 1996 as a bit of revenge for the two SB losses, beating the Fish in 1995 to clinch the AFC East (has it really been nearly a decade since we won the division?), but the one that stands out most is the 1991 AFC title game against Denver. I was in the opposite end zone of the one Carlton Bailey scored off an Elway interception that was tipped by Jeff Wright ... and saw it all develop and realized what was going on about a split-second before everyone else in my part of the stadium. The world kinda slowed down there ... as it seemed like for that split-second, everyone was looking at me wondering what I was screaming about. Of course, all of that was short-lived, and soon everyone in Rich was going absolutely bonkers. I've been an avid fan for nearly 30 years, and outside of my immediate family, the Bills have been a part of my existence more than anything else out there. Trying to pick out specific memories ... there are simply too many. I hope this gives you a good taste of what things were like then.

Well ... I missed that one. I've been so concerned only about our competition in the WC race that I haven't bothered with the schedules of teams that have already clinched. I'm rooting for San Diego then, but I won't hold it against some of our Midwestern Bills fans if they want Indy to win. That's one of those scoreboard-watching games where we can disagree on what's best for the Bills, and take different sides.

... what's gotta happen for Buffalo to play San Diego in the first round? I'm going to Sunday's game against SF, and the idea of having the Bills pull of the West Coast road Superfecta sounds pretty good right now. It's almost 99 percent guaranteed that if we make the playoffs, that's who our first-round opponent will be, right? San Diego and Indy have the same record right now, and IIRC, didn't play each other this year. So who would be the No. 3 seed as things stand now, and how they'll likely end up?

Just read the post below breaking it all down. Very clear. I'm still pissed over GB not winning. Presuming Pittsburgh beats Baltimore, we could've been in a position against the Steelers of completely controlling our own destiny.

I'm reading below, or so I thought, about how we want NE to beat NYJ. Why? How does it matter. They have 10 wins, and the best any of the other teams can finish is 10-6. Is there a three-way scenario in which we get in and the Jets don't? Get me up to speed ... I figured they had to finish 9-7 for us to get in and them not to.

Jacksonville? NYJ? Oakland? The first NE game? From a pure practical standpoint, I'd say a Jets win on the road would narrow the gap significantly from where it stands now. That said, had we gotten a win in the opener against Jacksonville, perhaps this team would've had enough in it to have won subsequent close games that ended up losses. It's scary to think that if our red zone performance was just a tad better, we'd likely be sitting at 7-4, maybe 8-3. Oh, and for those of you with the nice things to say about Utah on the college football portion of the board, it's nice to see people in other parts of the country take notice. That's my school!

In fact, short of a few players (more on that later), I detest this team with all my Bills-tortured soul. I'll still root for 'em. I'll still fly my Bills flag on Sunday and wear my Bills watch daily. But I hated the 2003 Bills for what they did to me, themselves and the fanbase, and I hate the 2004 Bills for the very same thing, only I couldn't give a damn about how they feel in the lockerroom right now. I'm on a real thin line with TD right now. He really cleaned us up out of the cap mess we were in. He's been aggressive in signing FAs. I don't think he gets a pass on his drafts, but if Losman can become a top-flight NFL starter all will quickly be forgiven. But here's where TD's responsible, IMO, and it's already been mentioned in another post: This team is a bunch of losers. I'll go out on a limb and without the benefit of TIVO that the 84-85 Bills had better chemistry than this bunch of losers. At least we knew they sucked, and suffered dearly from a lack of talent. What's the excuse of the 03-04 Bills? If there was ever a team that needed a Phil Villapiano, this one's it. I never thought I'd say this about a new head coach, because it's so knee-jerk, and only the ignorant consistently make knee-jerk reactions to things, but I'm horribly dissapointed already in Mularkey. He's had nine months to come up with a plan to use both Henry and McGahee, two of our three most talented offensive weapons -- and he has McGahee contributing zilch to the offense. Good job coach. You suck. Oh, and the play calling on Drew's fumble-turned-TD was a real gem, too. I could go on and on about each player individually (and I said in Wire's rookie year that he had an incurable case of suckiness), but in honesty, there are very few Bills that played extensively on Sunday that I would keep or trade for: Pat Williams, Sam Adams, Takeo Spikes, Eric Moulds, Terrence McGee, Nate Clements, Brian Moorman and Lee Evans. I'm sure there's another name or two that's pretty obvious, so if you'd bring him to my attention, I'd appreciate it. And yes, I wouldn't keep Travis Henry. I'm sick of him falling down in key situations in the game and I'm sick of him whiffing on picking up the blitz in his fourth NFL season.

JAX W @OAK W NE L @NYJ W MIA W @BAL L ARZ W NYJ W @NE L StL W SEA L @MIA W CLE W @CIN L @SF W PIT W 11-5, probably lose a tiebreak to the Pats