Fan in Chicago

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.

Not to say I am a huge TD fan, but when he was fired, he exited the Bills with a 31-49 record (a 39% win percentage) and no playoffs. After him, we are 20-24 (45% win percentage) and strong signals of three non-playoff years. Are we better off ? On record we are but as far as hope and playoffs are concerned, we are still empty. I am not sure I am happier today than during the TD regime.

If we did beat those teams, we would be 8-4 and likely well on our way to the playoffs. In any case, I used those specific games only as examples. I stick by my point that we are underacheiving as a team.

I disagree. Somehow, seeing the games makes me believe there is enough talent to sport a better record than what we have now. We may be missing a couple of pieces to being a dominant team but certainly had enough to beat at least the Browns and 49ers.

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. Just got a note saying my aunts and uncles are fine over there. Note that the Taj is next to the sea and the terrorists reportedly came on small power boats and immediately entered/attacked that hotel. Mumbai is a big big city with a LOT of people (19 million). Security at all places and to all people is virtually impossible. having said that, I hope this incident wakes the government up to serious action. Looking back the last few years, the frequency of attacks has gone up. A major serial bombing in 1993 was the first (major) terrorist act there but recently there has been the attach on the Parliament building in New Delhi, bombings in Mumbai trains etc. It may be time to re-think what the government is (or is not) doing to head off and combat the terrorist organizations.

Point noted. However, I still think that Stroud's partner ain't too great. Sounds like an excuse but a good DL should have mostly above average players and perhaps a couple of play makers. An upgrade to the other DE spot should make a big difference. Our secondary is a good example with McKelvin showing promise as a game changer.

Done. Thanx.

Another article supporting bankruptcy instead of a bail-out. All concerns are addressed here (note the author is a professor of finance):

Earlier you proposed sending Schobel off in a 'package deal'. So let me get this straight - you are proposing we get rid of 3 of our current DEs ? Who do we fill those spots with ? I think we should keep Schobel as starter, Denney for depth and draft/acquire a premier DE.

The title of your thread was 'some interesting numbers' which implied you are pointing to stats and drawing comparisons. Hence, I called you out on that. I did not contest your points on running style etc.

Why trade Schobel ? He performs well but he is the only good DE on our team. We absolutely need a top-flight DE to complement him which will make AS much better.

So if I project Lynch's numbers for this year (which is the point you are making), we get Receptions 61 for 420 yards and 1033 yards rushing. The only thing I see similar is the number of receptions.

Perhaps I am naive, but I thought teams would be constantly tweaking defensive plans every week to counter-act any offensive planning of their opponent. If our coaches and/or Trent cannot succeed without first knowing what the opponents will be doing defensively, it points to their weakness. Even if this was not true, it didn't look like we were prepared to face 6-7 DBs in the back field which we have seen a few previous games. So either way these statements sound like BS excuses.

I guess a side point that the article is making is that a 7th round rookie appears to be ahead of the 2nd round rookie on the depth chart.

What I read into your statement is that he is playing better teams and hence not performing well compared to early in the season when his (late-game) successes came against mainly mediocre teams. Hence, what I wanted to say is that if he can play well against bad teams, he should have a great performance against a pass defense-challenged team. Ergo - as of now, he can't even play well against bad teams. (Whew !)

Didn't people fly United when it was in bankruptcy proceedings ? Agreed they are different businesses but I don't see why people will be scared of buying a vehicle from a company which is in Chapter 11 re-organization (and not Chapter 7 liquidation)