leh-nerd skin-erd

this is pretty simple in my opinion. if they didn't deflate the balls, it's much ado about nothing. i hate the pats but find this one a stretch. if they did, they are the dumbest smart people in football. the nfl is on the ropes, constantly being battered for things like ray rice/ap, drug use, spyagte, bountygate and many calls have come for Goodell's head on a stick. to do something as silly as deflate footballs in violation of a pretty simple rule is assinine in this environment. it lends to the conpsiracy theorists, the officiating issues, and the general feeling that the game is tilted one way or the other. if they did it, i'd look for a substantial penalty from the league. this happened on the national stage, one of two important games, and if the NFL isn't embarrassed by it all, they have lost all perspective.

39 years old, major neck surgery a couple years ago, limping around, dancing slowly just out of reach of Father Time...sure, go to the place that had 7 feet of snow in 45 minutes not long ago. I can see it happening.

I think the cool part is you can pay out the psl, and still get to walk by the drunk a*hole chucking hot dog bits and PBR onto the parking lot near some poor soul's drivers side door. It's Thunderdome.

hopefully you can put this anonymous web question issue behind you in the new year. Although...I think the apology really should go to CG.

i think the point was to allow readers to reflect upon the level of silliness of the author. KO drives a Prius...and played football in the NFL. The carbon footprint of the leviathan called the NFL must be massive. KO's personal carbon footprint must be massive as well. But...he gets 40 miles to the gallon so it's all good.

I think one of the reasons the 'board explodes' is because people look at simple comments about wanting to win a football game as him having a "puffed out chest". We all have thoughts about the coaching staff, and that's part of beign a fan, but how do you read something as bening as a guy wanting to win a football game as puffing out his chest? I'd think you'd want the guy to want to win. I can't ever recall hearing a coach say "We're shooting to lose by 10 or less.". I also don't see the potential for any more, or less embarrassment. Its seems that we've beaten them once since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor...how much more embarrassing can it be? They beat us by 50? 75? 100? I agree though--Pats win, proably in a big way, and likely snuff out any potential enjoyment that might be left after this season of dismal offense. I'm greatful to be otherwise occupied during the game so I can be spared some of the pain.

But you got the middle-aged Peter Pan guy....ahhh, nm.

Unfortunately it's the logical conclusion to playing a season without consistent offensive production. You die a bit week to week until eventually you cannot be resuscitated. After the field goal, you need 10 points to win and we're lucky to get 10 offensive points over 3 games.

Agreed. And, given the screen shot here, what's talked about as sure 94 yard td becomes a 40-50ish yard completion against a d playing very well for the other 59:50 of game time. A great play no doubt, but hardly a sure thing and hardly a nail in the coffin at that point.

Some things are really complicated, and running a successful offense in the NFL likely falls into that category. Some things are not that complicated, like consistently stuggling to score touchdowns in the NFL. When KO underthrew for the kick yesterday, and overthrew Sammy later in the game, it was not the first time those two events happened. I want the guy to succeed, but he seems to be a guy who earned the right to be on his 5th team in the league. I don't know that Hackett is the problem here--and I'll say this--Marrone should be held accountable for the teams w/l record and mistakes he makes. He should also get credit for both the Petine and Schwartz hires, and for sticking by Crossman because he thought his plan was a good one. Players have to execute at some point, and while I'm just a guy watching the Bills, I've seen a fair amount of poor exceution on the offense.

I have seen little evidence he can go downfield and consistently hit the mark. Absent that ability, why would a defense respect the deep pass? I struggle with blaming Hackett for much of this.

Agreed. I don't know if it's just that football boils down to success in a matter os 16 hours of play time or what, but it seems that people are often looking to create a back story for pretty much anything said or done. We know, since Orton will be starting, that Marrone thinks he offers the best chance for a victory. What more really needs to be said?

that's my point on the intricacies of the rule, actually. i get that the play evolves as it unfolds and it may have been the right call. my point was simply that one official saw a hold and threw a flag. a second official apparently saw both the ball and the hold, which seems odd given the call was away from the play. given the speed of the game and all those players flying around, it struck me as odd that they would pick up the flag.

well if we're talking unprofessional...a flag was tossed in the 4th and subsequently picked up. as i recall, the explanation was 'there was no defensive holding as the ball was already in the air'. stepping aside from the intricacies of the rule for just a second, i figure it this way. One official sees the penalty and tosses a flag. Another official sees the ball in the air. Who's the third official that see's both and counsels to pick up the flag, Marty Feldman? the officiating is inconsistent, and as a fan you have a right to complain about it. it cahnges nothing, but then again, how much changes when we complain about a fumble, bad clock management, poor coaching etc.

JC he threw a pick in the red zone! moves the ball down the field and choked badly on the throw. He also took the early dive on a critical 3rd down scramble. Finally, call me crazy, but had I not watched the game, looking at the bills drives in the 4th quarter, I'd have thought WE were milking the big lead. He played just well enough to have us lose by 7.

Someone has to tell Hackett and Orton that you don't have to wait until there are two minutes left to run a two minute offense. I think they were confused by the name.

I agree with your basic premise. Why is being canned if he's an elite coach? That is a reasonable question. Thereafter, my main issue is that you created parameters, assigned values and referred to it as both quantifiable and objective. I'd think it's rather easy to poke holes in your analysis, actually.

That really was fun to watch. He just blasted him.

The Edsel??? Best car I ever owned.

I'm not sure which games I'm watching while you're watching yours. By and large the most common complaint I hear from fans of all teams is poor quality of officiating. I don't see consistency at all.

Is it?

There's the real problem for the nfl. Inconsistency. They changed the rules to encourage more offensive production...and added a whole lot of subjectivity to it. The announcers drive me crazy with replays as you watch the penalty in high def for the second time. "Got his head around" and ---- like that drives me crazy. Gilmore play the other night...he was facing forward coming to the play so he doesn't get the benefit of a guy who "got his head around"? The funny part is that I'm not watching the game, but I've seen the play. Many times, in fact.

On that replay, I thought he blew out his knee. It looked bad. As for calling the guy out, weak. Just weak.

GET HIM!

i don't think it's rigged, but officials tilt games every weekend. bills-pats, two non-exstent offensive penalties on a critical drive late in the game with the Bills still in it (I long for the days when we were still in it). pats take over at the 10, facing 3rd and long, brady completes to edleman and the replay shows him pushing off the defender, offical in the screen shot. hughes unsportsmanlike conduct call for hitting his own player, 15 biggies. draws the flag last night for bumping the official while apparently jawing with the fins player--and that's fine, except when in context with tamba hali lifting lee smith out of his shorts, and hogan getting popped 3 yards out of bounds, you really have to wonder what the rule is looking to accomplish. the pass int call last night was huge--a game changing, momentum changing play that Simms correctly called the officials out on. The grounding call--I'd bet that call is made 50% of the time, against teams like Oakland, the Jags and the Bills, and not called the other 50% of the time, with teams like NE, Denver, Green Bay and NO. the entire world knew and understood that seattle was playing very aggressive football last year and pretty much daring the officials to flag them, yet more often than not, they were not flagged and it paid off. that's fine...but it's certainly does not refelct positively on the quality of officiating when other teams in other games were called closer to the letter of the law. when you're good enough to win, the sliding scale of quality officiating is irrelevant until it jabs you in the eye at a critical point in the game or season. it's why the nfl comes out on certain plays and acknowledges a mistake was made. it doesn't change the fact with all the money dumped into the g-d league, all the money changing hands day-in, day-out, that they can't get this critical part of the game fixed. i understand the game involves large guys running at high speed and crashing into one and other and it's not an easy job--but they are not getting paid minimum wage to flip burgers at the local Henry's Hamburgers. I think any discussion that starts with "the officiating is bad, but _______" is a waste of time. fix the problem. put consistency back in the mix. then again, i'm sure Walt Coleman was a great official back when Ike was in office.