Fan in Chicago

Ha. Just to clarify, i lean towards your way of thinking on Cowher because he did have a lot of talent, especially on the D and with the Bus which he essentially rode to the ring. I can never ever forget his attempt to make Kordell Stewart more than what he really was- a competent WR at best. He tried playing up the 'Slash' role, annointed him a QB and destroyed his career while setting the Steelers back a couple of years.

I have read and respect your thoughts about Cowher. But, how do you feel a Bills team led by Jauron will match against a Cowher led Jets ?

Time to resurrect that bio ? Perhaps Soprano was just ahead of his time by 3 years.

Very nice. And to those that asked - that is most certainly Amitabh (in his prime no less)

Agreed. Why can't we just say a thankful good bye to a guy who gave it his best ? Thanx, JP and good luck in your future life - in the NFL or out.

Objectively evaluating a players or team's performance does not equate to being un-supportive of said players/team.

Didn't read through all the posts, but first of all just hope he gets well soon. He is our player and we shouldn't express glee or indifference to his injury. On a different note, we were clamoring for a RZ threat in the past offseason and did not acquire anyone in free agency. The thought was we would draft someone, which we did. Now he contributed next to nothing this season, even before his injury. So, we are left to dig up reasons about how WRs do not necessarily blossom till their second or third year. Which essentially implies the front office blew it in the offseason. They did not fill an area of glaring need - thats the bottom line. This is not necessarily a knock on Hardy as an indictment of the FO to sell us on the false hopes of how somehow this season would be different for the offense due to a change of coordinators and addition of Hardy & Fine. We are no different personnel-wise than we were the last season - shame on the FO.

Do you realize you just made your argument in favor of DJ a lot weaker ?

Lets not get too carried away now. We did have success in the first few games and this last game so it is not entirely unreasonable to think that his replacements aren't too shabby or that he doesn't add too much to the line as a whole. Besides, this year he has allowed quite a few sacks and it is obvious last year was a far better year for him. While I do not advocate we getting rid of him, I don't really think the high accolades deserve merit due to his play this year.

Completely, totally agree. Even if we beat the Pats*, I still would be un-happy with this season in particular and DJ in general. If we lose to them, we will have to suffer the ignominy of being swept by the AFCE, which by itself is quite quite disgusting.

Sorry my comments are many days after the incident. But I am amazed at how people can laugh at the occurence. Like him or not, agree with him or not, he is our President and I do not feel the least bit amused if anyone, citizen or foreigner, throws a shoe at our leader. ** I am originally from India where a kick, or even accidentally touching with their feet is insulting (so even if my foot hits someone by mistake, my natural instinct is to apologize).

Well, at least we know there won't be any more rate cuts: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081216/bs_nm/...a_fed_preview_6

First of all - congratulations. I had been a lazy bum for a majority of my 38 yr existence when I took the step you did - join a gym. Almost 3 years later, I am addicted and get depressed if I don't get my 4 days/ week in. So keep it up and don't go back. Do what works best for you and with what your main intent is. My primary drivers were (in decreasing order of importance): lower cholesterol, slimmer body and muscular shape. As with beerball, I am not a professional trainer of any sort but here is what I do: - 2 days of each: 55-60 minute cardio + 1 ab crunch machine + 1 medicine ball for abs. - 2 days of each: 20-30 minute cardio + 40 minutes machines. I do a total of 8 upper body machines. 10-12 reps x 2 sets at one time before moving to the next machine. I have been happy with the results. What I got was a reduction in trouser size from 38 to 34, more upper body strength and decidedly lower frequency of illnesses. What I did not get yet is a flat tummy. I am not aiming for rippling muscles but rather a muscular upper body. Hope that helps.

If McNabb leaves the Eagles, he would want a starting job which I don't think we should offer him. Favre aside, McNabb is getting up there in age and we are a team built on young talent. I would rather continue down the path we are on and bring in a veteran to back-up Trent who does not come in with expectations of being a starter. I still remember McNabb's choke job in the last quarter of the superbowl and feel he cannot put a team over the hump. Color me stupid, but I would rather stick with Trent for at least one more season. I am done with this unending carousel at the QB position.

He would be a hero second to Lynch cos then he would have led the winning TD drive, which was quite efficient by the way. Too bad that last fumble mucked it all up (in so many ways).

Not real news but my thoughts are that given the state of affairs, RW will have a tough time selling a DJ extension to the fan base.

Okay I will bite. First of all, I find it weird that this is the second consecutive year there are these lingering injury related excuses for the underwhelming performance of the team. I can understand a freak year, but two in a row ? It either points to a poor strength and conditioning staff or a lack of depth at key positions. Secondly, coaching does make a difference. I hate to point out Sparano's performance (being a Fin coach and all that) but with a few key additions he has turned around that franchise to a point where they may take the AFCE crown. Thirdly, most expected a steep drop-off in the Pats* performance when Brady went down. However, a no name like Cassel still managed to keep that team winning and they may yet be in the playoffs. So this excuse of doing badly because TE was injured is yet another sorry excuse. In any case, TE was doing too well before his groin injury. So, the overall point is that some coaches inspire their teams to winning records. Others are left to offer endless excuses for losing.

If four guys are pulling a cart with great enthusiasm in four different directions, would you give their supervisor a bonus for inspiring them to work hard ?

RW's hand may be forced here already. Does he continue with DJ given the general disappointment and anger among fans ? The MO of this organization is to create enough excitement in the offseason to sell the season & general tickets. Getting a new coach takes the pressure off of him to produce a playoff contender for the next two years as we are all prone to giving a new coach a pass in the first couple of years. For this reason alone, I feel we will have a new coaching staff. Side note for those of us on the Turk-watch: Not all the OCs, deemed incompetent by us, are idiots. Note we used to hate Kevin Gilbride and Dan Henning who are doing just fine with the Giants and Dolphins. So instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, make judicious changes.

Frankly, i think this 'like to play for a coach' is way over rated. I couldn't care less if the players like their HC or not as long as we are winning. I think winning games will make a lot of players happy more so than a having the comfort of a 'teacher' coach will. Tom Coughlin was supposed to be a disciplinarian who was tough on his players - he did make a winner and is not afraid to punish a key player such as Burress. Thats the kind of coach I want.

And what are your thoughts on Trent's sudden regression towards the end of last season and after the first five games of this one ? Please don't say it is the concussion because he played fine in the San Diego game.

So I take it that you disagree with the OP and actually want the Bills to try and win ?

I am leaning towards this thought process as well. If you recall, Fairchild's play calling and the offense in general was quite successful in the second half of his first year here and then tanked in the beginning of his second. We see the same pattern with Schonert - good first few games and sudden regression thereafter. During the offseason, I did not see enough reason to expect a better offense than the putrid one we had last year as we did not have any proven additions on the O side. The first few games made me think there is hope but then we got back to (or worse than) where we were at this time last year. It has to point back to the HC. Despite not having a cadre of top-notch WRs, I think we have adequate talent on the O-side to do better on that side of the ball than we have been seeing.

For all Obama's associations in IL, he was not too close to Blago. There were other cases which the feds were investigating Blago for and this one tipped the scale. Not only unethical, but quite stupid on his part to try and sell the Senate seat - a high profile appointment with intense public scrutiny and he couldn't hold back his greed ! He thought this is a golden, once in a blue moon opportunity to cash in. Oops... I forgot innocent until proven guilty.

When a team has a good passing game, a couple of drops over the course of the game can be made up. For the Bills, whose passing game is pathetic, every catchable ball needs to be caught.