leh-nerd skin-erd

raymondo---is your premise that brady is picking up the play of the pats offensive line? they are struggling, week in, week out, and he's picking them up, dusting them off and making it all happen? I agree with some of your thoughts on JP, but you go from he's struggling to Brady would be the answer. Brady's an exceptional quarterback--in fact, more than any team or fan really has a right to expect, given the play of the average nfl qb---but his great play is complemented by his line, not in spite of it. And one other thing---I've watched enough Pats games to notice that his receiver's generally have a fair degree of seperation when the pass gets there. maybe they run their routes more crisply than the bills do, but I'd bet you the time the line and backs give Brady to set up and throw the ball significantly impacts the quality of his game. great qb+very good line+receivers get seperation = success in the nfl. so, toss Losman under the bus if you will, and I can see why you would want to, but all I know for sure is that our line has been neglected for years and it continues to bite us. and of course, this 5 sack game and stunningly bad (at times) offensive performance comes not after one of his linemen was replaced due to injury, but after major realignment of the line in mid-season. Coincidence?

but he PLAYED without a shoe.

ray---you're into the eggnog early this year. if joe montana and brett favre got married, and then adopted a kid from troy aikman who had a fling with tom brady, and that kid was sent to a monestary to learn his skills from a monk who looked like steve young, and that kid ultimately was drafted by the bills and played behind this line, we'd still be struggling. we might not be struggling as much, whatever that gives us, but for God's sake acknowledge the line has issues.

absolutely correct. no dispute. it's a team game. you need a good team to play consistently to beat anything other than a bad team consistently. do we have that on offense yet?

i've mentioned that same graphic a couple times during my short tenure here. i recall it differently, however, with brady having 4 plus seconds to set up and throw, and bledsoe having 2 or pats jersey's in his face at about 3.5 or 3.6. we both share similar memories of how the comparison was supposed to shine light on brady's brilliance, but made the very point about protection we're talking about here. 4 seconds with seymour/vrabel/bruschi two feet away and closing fast is different than 4 seconds with outstanding protection. i think the real issue is consistency of play. there were a few jail breaks on manning last night, and he handled them excpetionally in most cases. however, the regular theme for him is that of good protection, and exceptional decision-making. same with brady---. they're great qb's who make the most of their situation, but more often than not their situation has been better than any the last couple of qb's in Buffalo have had.

and we need to recognize those guys are the exception to the rule. and still, you could put joe montana under center of a bad offensive team and get what--- a hall of famer on a sh*tty team. are they alone going to propel you to the playoffs? not likely. unfortunately, i don't feel like we're getting closer to figuring out if jp's the guy. i think you're accurate on his areas of weakness from last year to this year, and he still has a tendency to toss the ball high, but we need a line in front of him to figure this deal out.

according to the logic of this post, you shall now be renamed "kelly the f*&^ing liar pants dog". it's just an expression, though, don't take it personally.

Robert F. Kennedy once said "Some men see things that are and ask "why?", I see things that never were and ask "Why not?". He was speaking about world peace, or civil rights, or whatever. Had he been asked about our Bills beating the Colts in Indy, most computer simlulater models have his reply as: "There's no f****** way..." An upset would be great. And Manning may have had the sniffles last night, I thought I saw signs of weakness in his passing game.

easy, francis.

so i'll discount drg's initial response for not answering in jeopardy format (and you lose credibility points for including rj and flutie in the same sentence). bluv, this is kind of what i thought the answer would be. one potential qb that might be a difference maker because of mobility, and then we're out. and even with a mcnabb, we blow a third and one opportunity, and the pressure is still there throughout the game, and week after week. how the *&% can you gauge consistency when the one consistent element is that we struggle to pass and throw. i feel like we're running in quicksand at this point. there are really no offensive bright spots. everything is in a state of flux, and we still don't know what our current qb could do with decent line help. for the non-believers, he's regressed and can't get it done but he's behind a crappy line. for the people who want to see it through (I'm in this camp), he's struggling and he's behind a crappy line. on the bright side, we're not playing indy at home next week.

i was unable to watch the game yesterday and so throw out a question. given the performance of the offensive line yesterday, what would a good, established quarterback in today's nfl have been able to do yesterday? forget your individual thoughts on jp for a sec---but what would have happened with a good qb? on the radio, it sounded as if the pressure was fairly intense and consistent, the other members of the offense were not particularly effective, and of the 5 sacks, maybe 2 were directly attributable to jp. i also know that he underthrew evans on a deep ball (but pressure may have prevented him from stepping into it), that one relatively deep pass bounced off robert royal's hands, and that he tossed at least one at the feet of his receiver. additionally, a couple important false starts hurt us, and wm went out on a third and one after getting hit a yard or two deep and busting up his ribs. so, thoughts? name your qb and let me know how many more yards we get.

espn has just reported that al gore has in fact won the 2000 Presidential Campaign. they have also reported that ricky williams is learning french and likes to smoke marijuana, and that martians have taken over a small town in new jersey. how did they screw up this report? the acl is nowhere near your ribcage.

that was a pretty funny response, but you missed my sarcasm. exactly my point. i'd like the team to consistently put a team together that has replays we actually want to see.

that's fine. we get something, they get something. i never advocated we do nothing, just that we get something in return. Paychex Field. I could live with that.

to take the risk, the reward should be calculated to have a very high probability of reality. ralph is pretty old, so we have a short term isue to contend with, the ramifications of the gamble not paying off would be disastrous to the taxpayers of Erie county. My concern is that when you fund something major based on the emotional involvement of the communtiy, you have to be sure the financial side makes sense as well. It's like comitting to a marriage with a good looking woman, pledging undying love and honor, but she'll only give you a 24 month window on her side. In fact, it's a lot like that. because if the calculated gamble is taken, and then the Bills move to Boise, you're left holding the bag with a stadium with a really cool scoreboard that will only be used when the eagles decide to take their next reunion tour. we shall see. i do respect your perspective.

with or without a committment from the team to stay, and for how long?

there was a building up along military for years near kenmore that desperately needed to be demolished. along the way, countless kids got into it, and two died in there when they fell through grain shoots, etc. the problem was, there was no money to get it done. that's desperation in my opinion. maybe i'm on the wrong track here. is the $5m investment in the infrastructure offset by the money the Bills bring into the community? there's got to be some hard data as to what type of infusion of capital the bills bring in. if we spend $20 million to generate $25 million in revenue, then i bow out gracefully. however, on pen and paper, we're stil spending money we don't have. unfortunately, in ny politics, we talk about desperation and needs and what's good for whomever and we don't have the money to spend. so, we spend money we don't have and are surprised when our taxes go up or services disappear. next post for the man taking the handicapped spots: as for naming rights to the stadium, it's a way to generate revenue. it's done everyday, and while i agree it would be nice if it wasn't it is. and, i don't know which company might be interested, but submit it should be explored. if we were flush with cash, fine, but when one of your overriding concerns is revenue, the options should be explored.

I appreciate what you're saying, but moving money from stadium maintenance doesn't create the money needed for the changes proposed. it has just been reallocated from another budget item. and, so, the next logical question is "what about stadium maintenance previously identified as a $5million item?". was it not needed? if so, why is it in the budget to begin with? can we put it the original maintenance items off for a year, and if so, at what cost? this quote from a Buffalo News Article sums it up for me: Ignoring warnings, the County Legislature routinely approved County Executive Joel Giambra's budgets despite their lack of recurring revenues to pay recurring costs. we're moving money from different piles, but we still don't have the money to cover the needs. anyway, it's politics as usual, and they're not the first to spend money they don't have. the bills leaving would break my heart, so whata re you going to do. i think we need more creative thinking into the way we finance stadium and issues related to the Buffalo Bills, but honestly don't have any answers. then again, it's not my job to figure it out.

I love the Bills and would hate to see them go. But, on the other hand, $5+ million from Erie County's budget when the budget is a cluster*&^% to begin with has me asking "what's in it for the people of Erie County?". not just Bills fans, but everyone who lives there. what committment can we get from the Bills to staying in the market? how about a committment to stay at least the 12 plus years the new scoreboard is expected to last? and then, how about increasing the number of replays that we actually want to see over the course of 8 home games, or God forbid, 9 or 10? and, as they plan the premium customer interaction site to be the benchmark of incerased revenue, who's overseeing the plan to make sure this proposal works, where the last one didn't? And how about this----how about they sell the naming rights to the stadium and generate a little coinage there as well? how long does this current deal last?

but then again, objectively speaking, you're not a disinterested party given the fact that you have that old boston patriot avatar. and, in fairness, i've lost objectivity on the patriots recently as well. as you consider "domination", you really have to consider it juxtopposed to the calls and non-calls alike, and the impact on the game. i think if a few calls go the way of the vikes, maybe you have a different outcome. whether that's 17-14 or 28-10, or the same score is anybodies guess. for sure, the pats were the best team on the field monday night. i think the officiating was crappy, but whatever. and dillon should have been flagged for his unsportsman like conduct. you'd agree, yes?

good teams with good reputations get called for less penalties. it happens to be the pats in the hopper right now, but that's life. one glaring instance came when corey dillon chucked the ball 20 yards or so after a play. flag thrown? no, instead, the ref waddles over like some lowly submissive in a bad s&m porn movie, humbly picks up the ball and dutifully walks it back to the line. factor in there a couple bad calls, and a couple non-calls, mostly falling the way of the pats, and conspiracy theories abound. if i could summarize---the deal we probably all agree on is that you culd find a holding and/or interference call on every play. it gets ugly when they call the nitpicky stuff one way, and let it go the other. it happened again last night. it'll happen again. maybe in my lifetime the calls will go the bills way again, although i'm 45 and my biological clock is a'tickin.

of course it makes sense. brady quinn plays for notre dame, notre dame has charlie weiss, charlie weiss worked with bill belicheck, and bill bellicheck works with tom brady, who we all despise but secretly admire. ergo, you draft brady quinn, you get tom brady. wait a sec, they have the same name in common, too. and ho'd on a second...jim kelly is from east brady, pa. and my kids watch reruns of the brady bunch and i always wanted to have relations with marsha brady when i was a young man in kenmore back in the day. this has been eye-opening. this kid is going to be the real deal.

he definitely deserves it just for the past 12 games or so against the bills, but i think the rest of it is just splitting hairs. he shouldn't have been hit, it was a stupid penalty to take at a very inopportune time.

i was trying to be all chivalrous. the ladies like that, i'm told. all that said, i feel somehow....unclean. where's the love for a bills fan, i ask, where's the love?