sullim4

Bills games are generally a really good use of hotel points. I tend to stay at the Hampton in East Aurora - their points rate in prior years has been 40k Hilton points and it is fully refundable until the night before. The cash rates are $400+. 1 cent per Hilton point is amazing value. They are usually about a half cent.

MNF is a way to get Houston and Stroud on primetime with a legitimate opponent. AFC South divisional games aren't good for ratings and so the Texans' primetime options are already limited. I think it has a very good chance for primetime. TNF is definitely a possibility though. I think the Chiefs game ends up in the 4:25 CBS slot in late Oct/early Nov unless the NFL strong-arms CBS into passing on that game. NBC hasn't had that match up for a while and I don't think ESPN has ever had it since it became Mahomes vs. Allen. I would personally love to have the Seattle game in the late window early in the season, living about a 30 minute drive away from Lumen Field. Knowing my luck, this ends up as Thursday Night Football in early December, in the middle of a pineapple express downpour at 45 degrees.

I haven't followed the Sabres closely in years - since the original Ruff era. My general take on the team is that it very much resembles the drought-era Bills - bad culture, meddling ownership, and an uncertain future. They are a long way from building a contender and need a fixer-type coach or hockey operations guy that knows how to win and will purge the organization of its cruft. Lindy doesn't strike me as the guy that will do this. I think he will toughen up the team but I don't think he has what it takes to get them to a division title or a deep playoff run. I do, however, think there's a good chance he gets the team back in the playoffs as a lower seed. If that is the goal - and perhaps that's an appropriate one given the drought - then I think this will be a successful hire. Otherwise, if there are delusions of Ruff bringing Buffalo a Stanley Cup... prepare to be disappointed.

My hope would be that these are non-divisional games between opponents that are located close to one another. Think PIT/CLE@BUF or BAL@NYJ.

Certainly seems like a trade with the unhappy face. Dead cap is $11M so a cut seems unlikely. A puzzling move if true.

New York State is a big reason. Everything - literally everything is more expensive. Labor, taxes, materials, insurance, stricter codes, more regulation, the weather - all of these things increase the cost of major construction projects in New York compared to elsewhere. Nevada is very much the polar opposite of much of that. The labor pool is much larger, the construction season doesn't have to deal with 3 foot snowstorms, and the laws there make it cheaper to build. My wife and I live outside of Seattle, not exactly a cheap place to live. I just had dinner with my parents this last weekend - they've lived out here now for a couple years after living in NYS for over 35 years. The biggest shock to them, which they still can't stop talking about - is how much cheaper it is to live out here. And like I said - Western Washington isn't particularly cheap. I will also wager to guess that yes - public funding drove up the price. You can bet that things like eco-friendly building materials, sustainable energy sources, and whatnot were part of the deal.

Tomlin doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would put up with Russ' baggage. During the drought, this is the kind of move the Bills front office would make. I expect a similar move out of a team like Washington.

I don't think this is correct. BUF's longest runway is 8800 feet and IAG (Niagara International) has a 9,800 foot runway. Either of these could accommodate something like a 787. In fact, they flew one an A350 (Airbus' composite widebody) to London from BUF. Not to mention other team's charters have to land in Buffalo, and they typically fly widebodies. I suspect the travel rating is low because the team forces rookies and other players with less tenure to share hotel rooms.

Terry is cheap. I guess they're staying at the Red Roof Inn and flying Spirit Airlines to get a 'D+' in the travel category? That one feels like a really easy one to fix.

This I think is the right solution. Play 15 minute quarters, each team gets 2 timeouts, include a 2 minute warning, and whoever is winning at the end of the quarter is the winner. If it's still tied, add on another quarter and 2 timeouts. Every 2 quarters of overtime gets a halftime break. This amount of time almost guarantees one possession each and also forces teams to employ strategies around eating the clock. The current system is overly complex for no good reason. I wish they'd do the same thing with the 10 minute overtime periods in the regular season.

The one reason - if it goes to a third possession, it's sudden death and if you score you win. That's the only reason why I can think you'd do it.

I don't disagree with you, but having seen this story many times before as a Bills fan, I go for it on fourth down rather than kick the FG. You know Mahomes and Kelce have a greater than 50 percent chance of marching down the field and scoring the TD. A FG is as good as a punt.

As bad as the 52-17 Super Bowl was... we have worse. A lot worse. Candidates in my mind: - That 6-3 Cleveland game when Ralph decided not to accept his Hall of Fame ring in front of the fans, because he was so embarrassed about how the team performed in the first half. Think about that - the owner was so scared of facing the home fans that he refused to accept one of the highest honors in football in front of them. Even The Athletic called it the worst game in the NFL in the last 20 years: https://theathletic.com/3682851/2022/10/13/browns-bills-nfl-worst-game/ - Peterman's 5 INT in the first half against the Chargers. As bad as 13 seconds was, I think this might be McDermott's most embarrassing moment as a head coach. Peterman had no business being anywhere near the field. Tyrod was no prized calf but at least he could play the quarterback position. - The 56-10 shellacking by NE* in 2007. I was at this game. I get it, the Bills were the vastly inferior team. But this was the Bills' first appearance on NBC since they purchased the Sunday Night Football package. They were playing the train horn late in the 4th quarter on their third downs up by over 40 points... at that point, why? - Romo's 5 INT game that we managed to lose. - The 2009 opener against the Patriots, where we were wearing the AFL uniforms and McKelvin fumbled that kick return.

This is actually one of the reasons why I thought they might try Chile over Brazil. The medical care is better, it's wealthier, and the country is frankly safer than many parts of the USA. Brazil is a much bigger crapshoot on all three counts.

I will say that it is interesting that the longest dynasties have occurred post-2002, when the NFL realigned into the 4-team division setup. With smaller divisions, it is harder to overcome a single, dominant team in a division. It's harder to attract free agents, for instance, if you're playing Brady or Mahomes twice a year versus seeing them once every three or four years. I do think there is a competitive issue when the first place team in the division and the last place team in the division play identical schedules aside from three games (the two cross-division in-conference games, and the 17th cross-conference game). I wouldn't mind seeing them juggle things a bit here.