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dave mcbride

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Posts posted by dave mcbride

  1. Well part or most of the reason that they let Winfield go, or didnt think he was worth the money, was indeed because of what you said, he didn't create enough turnovers. I am not doubting that they franchise Nate for this year, and see what they can do. Maybe they think next year is their Super Bowl run and it will be worth the large dollar figure. A lot can happen.

     

    Frankly, McGee causes as many turnovers as Nate does. And as far as the Miami game goes, I was at that game and watching closely, and Nate got beat far more than Mcgee did. IMO, it wasn't even close.

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    i listened to that game on the radio. mcgee did get beat by chambers pretty badly for the second phish td, and clements did have both a pick and the game deciding forced fumble.

  2. Understood. I am finding it increasingly difficult to imagine that we will be able to re-sign both. They are too friggin' good. I never expected McGee to be this good. On the other point, I think Fast Freddie has become the #1 PR man and will remain so, until perhaps Parrish takes it over, and that Nate will just get one once in awhile. Smith is pretty good already, a huge threat every time he touches it and IMO as good as Clements is as a PR.

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    one thing to remember is that the bills don't really have many players with huge contracts except for spikes and mike williams. if the choice comes down to franchising clements and cutting mike williams or spikes or letting clements go, i'd definitely take the former. like most people here, i'm guessing that spikes will never be the same player again, and it might be best to cut his salary. otherwise we end up with a greg lloyd type situation -- a guy who has been rendered human by injury and is not performing to his contract level. mike williams is ok, but he's never performed to his contract level. milloy also makes a good chunk of change, but he's not breaking the bank. there's also the moulds situation. the point is that the bills can afford a franchise tag on clements and pay mcgee given that they're already paying large chunks of change to guys who are just ok or seriously injured. they aren't spending top money on topshelf talent at the marquee positions at all -- qb, running back, WR, LT, DE, and DT.

  3. I don't think that is the problem we will face. Look at the Winfield situation. TD decided, most people agreed, and it turned out to be true, that AW was a very good player but was going to ask for and receive more than he was worth. So we let him go. We simply went out and signed a Troy Vincent for (approximately) 20 mil instead of 35 mil, and we'd likely do it again if we don't resign Nate. We're not going to sign a Chris Watson or just rely on Eric King and Jabari Greer. We'd very, very likely go out and sign a Vincent kind of corner, in both talent and cash.

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    no. my sense is that the reason they let winfield go is because he didn't create enough turnovers. clements does, and if you look at what donohoe prizes, it's that. rod woodson is the obvious example, and donohoe is on record as stating that letting woodson go was one of the biggest mistakes of his career. i'll say it again -- i would bet the farm that they'll franchise clements. he's a much better cornerback than mcgee, although mcgee is ok (even if he has a tendency to occasionally get beat very badly -- see the miami game).

  4. I bet the guy on the Falcons whose career Jimbo ended wishes Kelly had run to the other side of the field after his interception.

     

    Then again, Bulger's no Jimbo.

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    anthony phillips, as i recall. given kelly's manifold arm problems after he ruptured his right bursur sac early in the second half of the 1992 season, he probably shouldn't have taken the chance even if he didn't get hurt. jimbo was never the same after that injury in 92. he played poorly the remainder of that season (he finished with only 23 tds and 19 ints), and was very mediocre in 93 (although he played great in the home playoff games that year. he was mediocre again in 94, had a nice rebound by playing extremely smart albeit physically limited football in 95, and finished with a poor season in 96.

  5. but marc bulger should have ran to the other side of the field after throwing that pick. he should have been nowhere in the vicinity of the INT returner (cato june). the result - a sprained shoulder that knocked him out of the game and took away the rams deep passing game. qbs should know better - on those sorts of plays, there are 10 guys desperate for a chance to kill him since the usual qb rules no longer apply. i hope losman watched that.

  6. As one who never liked John Madden much, I think he has been excellent on Monday Night Football.  I know most hear loathe him, but the guy still knows the game, and is much more sublimely humourous than I had ever really given him credit for.  He did a great job on tonights' game....

     

    And while I am baring it all, I will go one step further, and say that Dan Dierdorf is pretty damn good too.  I like him better on the afternoon games (he seems a little less conscious of trying to make everything bigger than it is), but always thought he was good on MNF!

    Flame away! :D

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    the worst thing that ever happened to dierdorf was going on mnf. the pressure to puff and exaggerate got the best of him. he was good before he got to mnf, and he's been good since he left.

  7. These numbers make it even more clear that our crying needs are QB and DT.  JP may or many not be the answer at QB; all I am saying is that we need better QB play.  Holcomb looks much better than JP but is not the long-term answer.  I think he has completed exactly one pass that went more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage (yesterday to Campbell).  Contributions from Roscoe and the TE from Miami would also help the passing game. 

     

    It would also be great if we could lock up McGee to an extension, since:

     

    1.  we are almost certainly going to lose clements

     

    2.  McGee, when he becomes a free agent (is it after next year?), will probably get an offer in the neighborhood of the one that clements gets this year.  He's a pretty good corner and a huge weapon in the return game.

     

    Moulds, btw, is playing great.  It helps to have someone who can actually deliver a pass.

     

    Holcomb will be the key to beating the Raiders.  If we don't win that game we have no shot at the playoffs.

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    i predict that the bills will keep clements by franchising him. there's a consensus around the league that he's an elite player, and that you should keep such players. moreoever the bills have *nothing* - nada - behind him. the more i think about it, the more obvious a choice it is. you simply don't let the best player on the defense walk.

  8. some team stats:

     

    kickoff returns - 1st in the nfl

     

    kickoff coverage - tied for 2nd in the nfl

     

    defense - 10th overall; 1st against the pass, 30th against the run

     

    points given up per game - 6th overall

     

    takeaway/giveaway ratio - 3rd overall

     

    offense - 29th overall; 31st for passing, 6th for rushing

     

    points per game - 26th overall

     

    punting - 5th overall

     

    kicking - 4th in points, 8th in accuracy (7 teams have kickers who haven't missed at all yet)

     

    basically, they're great on special teams, great against the pass, very strong running the ball, weak at passing, and weak at defending the run. given the team's personnel situation, it's entirely predictable.

  9. All of you wait - I don't care what Bledsoe or his line is doing now.  Let's see how he does outdoors in November and December (and January, if they make it).

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    um, he plays in dallas, texas, in a mostly enclosed stadium. that's hardly the permafrost region. they play 4 road games in november and december: at philly on nov 13 (monday night), at the giants on december 4, at washington on december 18, and at carolina on december 24. that's pretty easy, actually. only the giants game presents real weather problems.

     

    basically, you're barking up the wrong tree on this one.

  10. It's too bad because Carson had great dynamics- freeway access, surrounding neighborhood friendly to the concept and plenty of space to pull it off without transplanting anyone. It also had a great concept stadium (The Hacienda) drafted up by and being pushed by Mike Ovitz. The bed news was the property was formerly a commercial landfill and the toxic cleanup required would have extened the build-out time by about 6-8 more years than at other sites.

     

    Add this to the garbage politics of LA and Mark Ridley Thomas once again forces the Coliseum on a League that recognizes what a huge mistake it is to rest their LA hopes on that site. I hope the league stays out versus handing this hack a short-term victory.

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    ridley thomas has been in office how long now? i'm oppposed to term limits so i don't necessarily have a problem with a guy being in for a long time, just as long as he's good. i get the sense that the only step up for thomas, though, is the mayoralty, and a serious run is not in the cards for a long time, and probably not ever (too many people outside of his district don't like him). this only means that - like him or not - the nfl is going to continue to have to deal with him. he's not going anywhere, and he holds the cards. again, we'll see.

  11. The general boundaries of South Central are not the old South Central neighborhood that ran three or four blocks of Central Ave., instead from MLK Blvd. south to Imperial Highway and from Western to Long Beach Blvd. would be the footprint. The Coliseum property is on MLK. USC is adjacent on the north side, sparing it from being in "South Central", but really for cartographers only. Here's a little news from the SC campus yesterday-Campus Adventures

     

    South Pasadena is about 3.5 miles from the Rose Bowl, and it's far safer than the area surrounding the Coliseum. In fact the Coliseum is closer to Reginald Denny's favorite intersection at Florence and Normandy than SoPas is to the Rose Bowl.

     

    I've gone to plenty of games at the property, but I'm merely taking my own life in my hands going down there. I wouldn't do it with a kid or wife, and I've heard many, many Angelenos express exactly the same sentiments.

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    thanks for the info; it's been a while for me. that said, i do think that stuff gets exaggerated a bit. as for the site itself, i always thought that whatever its flaws it was always better than carson/irwindale etc. i'm sure the league would love a west LA or pasadena site, but they have to realize by now that it'll never happen. the nimbyism of angelenos and their general lack of interest is too powerful. as well, there's that pervasive mentality that LA is bigger than the nfl and therefore shouldn't pony up one dime to pay for a stadium. i wonder if the league will ever learn, though. they tried that garbage here (nyc) and got thoroughly burned. the population was pretty overwhelmingly opposed to the west side stadium proposal, and it went down ignominously in flames. the solution? a new stadium in in the jersey swamplands to be shared with the giants. when it's all said and done, i wouldn't be shocked if the same result happens in LA - a new stadium on the site that the league opposed because they couldn't put it anywhere else. we'll see. i can't see the league out of la for too much longer -- it doesn't make any business sense.

  12. :doh:.

     

    OK, well on the first subject, I think this is a bad idea of MM's to not publicly declare the starting QB. MM is already on the hot seat with the fans and media, and this only aggravates them more. The media affects the fans' perceptions to a degree, and the fans are the ones who buy the tickets and make the home field advantage an advantage. And speaking of "advantages," there isn't really any in terms of keeping opposing D's guessing on what our QB will do on offense. Take McGahee out of the game, and our O is finished no matter who is QB'ing them. Neither QB can hit the long ball, so the opposing game plan remains focused on beating our crappy OL with the front 4 DL while containing the first 10 yds with the back 7 LB's and DB's.

     

    On the second subject of injuries, I guess you could say that this Bills team may not be quite as bad as they're playing since they've had an unusual number of injuries after only Week 5. I'm certainly no TD apologist - and neither are you- but facts should not be ignored, and the facts are that the OL, our Day 1 2005 picks, and some key components of our run-stopping D crew have been hit somewhat hard and early by the injury bug.

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    this is actually pretty normal (well, slightly worse than normal). last year was abnormal. except for late season injuries to their mediocre tight ends and a five week stint for milloy, the bills didn't suffer any major injuries.

  13. Problem #1 is that no responsible parent would take their family to a South Central LA game in the Coliseum. A USC player during practice a few years back was shot there by a stray bullet flying around the neighborhood.

     

    One of the LA Councilman, Mark Ridley Thomas, has effectively blocked every other viable option to using the Coliseum since he insists any team end up in his district, and in LA politics each councilman is like his own little dictator- the mayor here is an ornament.

     

    Once again the Coliseum of late has become the "front-runner" for any NFL relocation/expansion. And I can tell you as a resident for 20 years there's no way they'll do any better considering how awful the surrounding neighborhoods to the Coliseum are, Fort USC offering no indication of what you're up against when you travel to South Central LA. It's like building a windowless restaurant on top of a  landfill and wondering why no one wants a window seat.

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    i lived in LA for 8 years (1990-98), and crime overall has declined since then. while i was there, i went to a couple of raiders games and a couple/few clippers games and never had a problem. if the coliseum is such an obstacle, then how come usc attracted 90,221 fans to an early midseason game against a middling opponent? also, usc is very close by, and its location hasn't stopped rich parents from sending their kids there in droves -- applications have gone way up in the past few years. i've been there a few times, and it's basically fine. yeah, there's more crime there than pasadena (although maybe not south pasadena), but the nfl will never get a new stadium in pasadena (and that's a good thing). basically, i think you're exaggerating how bad it is. as i recall, the coliseum is not even really in south central, which is a defined neighborhood. it's north of it by a little bit, i think.

  14. He's still fast but I don't thik he's as fast as he was when he came in the league. For what it's worth, the year before Deion "retired" I saw him run down from behind by a punter who had no angle on him (Micah Knorr maybe?). So it's no surprise he couldn't run down Bryson.

    My favorite part of the run was the wicked move he put on Ed Reed who was left grabbing at air; it's not often you see somebody make that guy look bad.

    Cya

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    i really think that bryson would have been a great player if not for the injuries. as i recall, i don't think butler and wade were ever as crestfallen as when bryson went down in training camp in 98 (or was it 99?) his rookie year. they loved him and thought he was the steal of the draft. it's too bad what happened to him. he's got it all physically: size, power, and blazing speed.

  15. 1) First, I wish to thank each and every TBDer for being so nice to us. We met up with some old friends, and had a chance to make new ones. It was great, and thanks again to all! (Cindy, JR said to remind you that I gave him the money for the shirt.  :rolleyes: )

     

    2) Most of the WNY media seems to be talking about Moulds, but the primary reason (imo) that Kelly was more effective was that he was able to get the football to Evans.

     

    3) As pumped as I am, we need to beat the jests in order to contend.

     

    4) Kelsay looked good when it counted.

     

    5) To all those who think that Gandy is an adequate LT, I urge you to watch the tape of this game. He was (again, imo) dreadful. Let's grab one of the many LTs said to be available in the 06 draft. Please.

     

    6) Willis didn't have a great statistical game, but he kept the offense on the field.

     

    7) Big Sam looked a little better. Maybe he is coming around?

     

    8) Sorry to throw flames (NOT the intention) , but Bob DiCescare (sic) wrote a great article in the Buffalo News today about with a reference to Drew. Yes, I do wish that he was still our qb, but I AM moving on.  :)

     

    9) Once again, thanks to all at 1/5. You guys have no idea what this trip means to us. I even got Badolbilz to commit to finding us a LT in the off season. That is going to be great! 

     

    10) GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    fwiw, gandy apparently had a really banged up elbow and was essentially playing with one good arm. you can't block a guy like taylor with one good arm. the 2 best linemen were out, though, so my guess is that he felt he had to gut it out.

  16. Not cool and Drew should know better. Keyshawn is well aware he should have held on to the ball and didn't need to hear about it from somebody else, particularly on the sideline when he was already pissed off about it.

    Not excusing Meshawn's reaction as the guy is apparently a tool and should have swallowed his tongue and then told Bledsoe about it later in private. But if Drew felt the need to say something to a teammate who had just made a mistake in a game they were winning handily, the most that shold have come out of his mouth was "Shake it off Key. No worries man, we got these guys in the barn door".

     

    Additionaly, Keyshawn doesn't strike me as the forgive and forget type, and nobody should be surprised to see this resurface later in the season. At some point Drew is going to make a big mistake like all QB's do and I have no difficulty imagining Keyshawn giving it right back to him on the sidelines afterwards.

    This could become really entertaining.  ;)

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    keyshawn is a tool, and that explains 99% of it. don't ever forget the lies he wrote in his opus (which i saw on sale for $1.50 from a street vendor on 40th street on friday, by the way) about neil o'donnell faking an injury at the end of his rookie season. also, don't forget that gruden -- an excellent coach -- did something that i can't recall anyone else doing: kicking a moderately productive starter off of the team midway through the season. the league is filled with miscreants, and since gruden is a sharp guy, i figure he must have done it for a reason. johnson is bad, bad news.

     

    as for drew, has he been congratulated yet for getting pissed off when the team is way ahead? he wanted to stick the knife in deeper, which is representative of an attitude i always thought he lacked.

  17. Above average??  Take a look at the stats.  It actually looks a lot like the games he had last year.

     

    11 for 26, 212 yards passing, 1 TD, 1 INT, 4 Sacks & 13 points scored against one of the worst defenses in the league.

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    8.15 ypa, though, which is excellent. that's the most important qb stat there is.

    that's actually a very good showing for a"bad game". he's not gonig to be great every game -- no one is. also, the raiders' defense isn't nearly as bad as you are claiming. their first 3 losses were against 3 of the 4 best offenses in the league - NE, KC, and Philly (and they would have beaten Philly on the road if not for missed FG attempts). they have good talent in the secondary and on the defensive line.

     

    in fact, they were picked by many to go the super bowl.

  18. I certainly posted on it in the past, but like I said a crusade will start if we don't address this issue. It's a damn travesty what we have invested in the line compared to what we invested in other positions.

     

    Drew's lack of mobility was the excuse last year, now you throw in a 4.6 guy in JP and nothing changes. When you have a huge line built for the ground game and you can't even do that well you know you have problems.

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    i've got news for you - there's not one damn team in the league that goes 2 deep in terms of quality reserve offensive linemen. start checking some other nfl rosters and you'll see what i mean.

  19. You are correct, I didn't see anything to get angry with Drewl about the pass. More than likely he made one of his classic, pass the buck, comments and that is why Meshawn almost clocked him. Now THAT would have been funny...

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    when did bledsoe ever "pass the buck"? you're attributing qualities to him that he simply doesn't possess.

  20. I've been criticizing their performance after a quick start,  but I did not realize it was THAT bad.  Ouch. 

     

    http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/drives/NFL_20051009_MIA@BUF

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    well, that's what happens when you're missing your 2 best offensive linemen and your left tackle is pretty much playing with one arm (elbow injury). what do you expect?? the bills went into that game pretty seriously injured (missing 2 starters on D too), but got an excellent performance from the qb and won a tough game against a physically more gifted unit coming off of a bye (i say they're more gifted because of the injuries; that'll change when the bills get their starting offensive line back). give them some credit -- that was a huge win.

  21. Every off-season we pass on quality offensive lineman and every draft we pass on any offensive lineman prior to round 4. We rationalize it by saying it was cost effective to not sign that big name player, or we just forget about ignoring the o-line each draft as we drool over our exciting new skilled position player.

     

    If TD does not make a serious effort to upgrade the depth and starting talent of this line in the off-season I will start an ICE like crusade against old whitey. Each and every year TD says he likes the talent we have, and thinks we can gel into a good unit, and each and every year we find out he's wrong when it's too late to do anything about it.

     

    Were supposed to be road graders, yet we can't on run the football on 3rd and 4th and short, or run when we need to protect the lead.  Since we have nothing but "road graders" we don't pass block well, a despite what was once popular opinion it has nothing to do with the quarterback.

     

    Drew Bledsoe, JP Losman, and Kelly Holcomb all running for their life. Now Drew in Dallas looks like his first 8 games he had with the Bills, and having watched most the games it's because he is being protected. I don't want him back, but my point is no quarterback would succeed when faced with the pressure the Bills allow, especially a green QB like JP.

     

    I'm thrilled we won today, and I know this issue gets plenty of attention on the wall already. But just like in years past this team will hit an improvement wall, and no matter how well the other areas do we simply won't be good enough overcome our lack of depth and talent across the line.

     

    We need to keep a few of the more talented starters to have some cohesiveness, downgrade the others to 2nd string to add depth, and bring in a couple quality FA’s and high draft choices.  Either that or continue to pretend like its a solid unit only to have it hold us back like a 90 pound weight is strapped to our collective johnson’s.

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    oh come now. the bills were really banged up today, missing their starting right side (and the two most talented players on the line). plus, gandy was obviously hurt (elbow) but gutted it out. any team that injured would have problems. they won, though, beating a good team.

  22. A win may be a win,  but they're not going to get too many more wins this year playing like they did today.  Football is a 60 minute game,  not a 20 minute game.  There's lots of room for criticism and improvement.

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    maybe some people may begin to recognize that miami is a really talented team that has a lot of studs on both sides of the ball. they aren't a pushover.

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