Chilly

We've had that here in Texas for a while. http://www.slashfood.com/2009/09/03/deep-fried-butter-to-hit-texas-state-fair/

As I posted in another tread, both Bell and Pears were bad against the speedy edge rushers of the Broncos last night. Bell especially, but Pears got beat several times which led to pressure/issues.

I actually thought Spiller was pretty decent last night. He was one of my surprise positives, along with Kelsay. Spiller was able to catch some passes in space and get some decent gaines from them, and he also followed his blocks well when the OL did open up a hole. He did miss a blitz pickup and was part of that goofy play where Bell got beat, to which Spiller saw Dumervile coming straight at him past Bell, and tried to adjust running directly into Fitz's handoff. But, overall, I thought he did a solid job and should continue to get some looks.

I went through the same exercise, and Bell was by far the worst out of all of them. However, I thought Pears was pretty bad versus speed rushers off the edge. Just like Bell, Pears struggled vs Linebackers. DJ Williams specifically took advantage of this on a couple plays. I graded out Pears pretty negatively. He, like Bell, had major issues with speed rushers off the edge. It's by far the biggest OL weakness right now. The other thing I noticed really hurting the OL was the confusion on who to block. There were multiple plays with someone looking for their block, while a rusher got through the line without getting hit. On the pass to Jackson that resulted in a roughing the passer penalty, but Pears and Bell got beat by speed rushers on the edge. It was ugly. The rest of the line was pretty average - below average. All of them did some good and some bad. Urbick I thought made some nice blocks, but we can't rely on him to do any type of consistent running. He's outmatched on screen plays. Rinehart I thought did a nice job pulling on a couple plays, but he also needs to get better. Wood made a couple nice blocks but also got beat/failed to block anyone a couple times.

You missing the first part of his two part tweet.

That you missed the first part of his two-part tweet?

Anythings suspendable under the league conduct policy if Lord Roger wants to.

Can you have them do some investigative work and search the facilities for steroids?

Stage 3 - barganing?

His name does kinda sound like Shawne Merriman.

Tim Graham says: @JaySkurski and I will hold Buffalo News video chat at 3:30 pm. Expect Michael Vick talk plus Bills contract extensions.

Which doesn't necessarily mean the Bills value offensive line less than other teams. A true analysis of this would need to look at how each team graded each draft pick, the success rate of the grades by position, decisions they made relative to what was available vs what they had graded, what the perception was for that team of where players would fall vs the choice they decided to make, etc. Any/All of the following could be true: 1.) The Bills value offensive line less than other teams. 2.) The Bills have a systemic problem in their grading system, causing offensive line grades to be lower than they should be. 3.) The Bills have issues judging the value of offensive linemen to other teams, and believe they will fall far below where they actually do. 4.) The Bills have a systemic issue in their grading system, causing the difference between multiple offensive line prospects to be much less than the difference between multiple prospects of other positions, thus leading them to value other positions more early in the draft. 5.) The Bills value different things in players than other teams do (right/wrong), causing offensive linemen other teams like to drop below players the Bills like. However, because the Bills are successful at judging how other teams value players, they make a judgement to wait on OL until they can get good value for a player they want, rather than reaching for them in round 1. There's probably a lot more, but that's all I came up with off the top of my head. My point is that just using more 1st rounders on OL isn't going to fix the root cause unless you understand what the root cause actually is. Using significantly less picks on the O-Line compared to other teams is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. I also agree with Kelly's point that just because a team drafts a lot of OL, doesn't mean that's what made them a successful OL. However, I think these are important details to really make a judgement on it: - What are the injury rates for OL, and how correlated is depth on OL to overall success of OL unit on average? - What are the success rates on acquiring offensive linemen? Are the success rates low enough that the teams who scout & sign more OL more often going to have a better chance at success?

STL, can you administer your own web server? If so, consider a VPS like Rackspace Cloud servers. You won't need a huge box and it'll be reliable. I've heard good things about hostgator too if you don't want to go the administration route.

Has anyone here watched Damages? It is, easily, the best show I've ever watched. Intricate storylines, perfect acting, it's amazing. The first two seasons are on netflix streaming, I highly recommend them. Season 3 is on DVD, and season 4 is currently airing on DirecTV"s exclusive audience network. To give you guys an idea of how addicted I am, I've watched two seasons in a week. Completely amazing.

Is that why the topic description says "Time to make him #2"?

Just got done watching the first half myself. I thought Fitz did decent. He definitely has an unnatural look to him when he throws the ball, like he forces it every play. He had a few nice plays, and I'll be happy when the season starts so we can see what he can really do, instead of these short passes/screens on every play. Speaking of our QBs, I'm hoping Thigpen's issue is he only had 6 practices, and not that he sucks. He sure looked decent in KC that one year. I agree with you on the Bears OL, they may suck, but the Bills got pressure and Merriman looked great. Here's to him staying healthy! Outside of Urbik, I didn't think the OL was bad. They opened up some holes in the run game and did a pretty decent job in pass protection. Urbik was horrible, though. And yeah, some of our backups are puke-inducing bad. God help us if Wrotto ever starts a game. I was a fan of the Brad Smith signing, but I'm not convinced on using him to throw yet. That being said, he's only had 6 practices with the team, so I'm willing to give him a pass for a while (same with Thigpen). I also thought Spiller looked pretty decent tonight. Would like to see them both be used as situational weapons and make some plays for us. And yeah, Dareus is great!

Haha, I thought the rest of my post would make it clear I was joking about that. Just giving the couple ags on this board a hard time while I can. Here's what Nebraska paid: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/09/21/nebraska-reaches-agreement-with-big-12-on-exit-penalties/ As far as aTm, what I was reading earlier (and if I get time I'll find the link) was the schools individually signed the TV contracts with ESPN and FOX, and they'd have to break those to move to the SEC. Probably not as big of a deal to ESPN, as they cover both, but FOX was where they were speculating it'd get tricky. Yeah, that article was written a couple days before the NCAA said no, but after the Big 12 said "not for this year". I doubt Texas would go independent in all sports, but I wouldn't bet against football. Although Texas' clout from a $$$ and brand is way higher than ND, it's definitely centered mostly around football.

I could actually see OU & Texas Tech joining the Pac-10 while Texas went Independent. Check out what the Dallas Morning News found out about Texas' contract with ESPN. They're setting themselves up to go independent. http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/texas-longhorns/20110808-longhorn-network-contract-shows-texas-still-has-big-plans.ece

Oh yeah? Says who? Not the SEC board today! Poooooor aggy. I disagree. I suspect it's probably more legal than anything. The SEC doesn't want to make the move until aTm divorces themselves from the Big 12, so they won't be liable in the damages aTm will have to pay the rest of the Big 12 when it happens. aTm has the next move, which is to divorce itself from the Big 12. Once that happens, they'll join the SEC almost immediately. I don't think aTm is using the Big 12 as leverage, mainly because there's not a lot of reason for aTm to try to get more out of the Big 12. Yeah, Texas gets a majority share, but what money aTm would end up getting wouldn't be near as much as they'd get from an expanded SEC, and they don't have the national star power to make their own TV network to augment it (like we do). Doesn't really make sense for them to stay either way if they have the opportunity.

Silly Aggy thinking they'd get an SEC invite.

What you're looking for is loopback audio recording. Follow these instructions to enable them: http://www.softdivshareware.com/dexster_recordinginvista.html Then, select "Stereo Mix" as the recording device, and record the audio in any audio recording program (audacity is free and open source). It will record all sounds coming out of your speakers as if it were audio in.

Brad Smith signing was to take advantage of the new QB rules.

It's on now.

Just a heads up for anyone who likes Sirius NFL Radio like I do. They're broadcasting live from Buffalo Bills Training Camp tomorrow morning. Not sure if it's at 6AM ET or 7AM ET though, Sirius' website lists both times in different places on the schedule.

We doing the keeper league again this year?