finknottle

I feel far worse going into this off-season offensively than I did last year. With salary cap casualties looming, I think there are serious question marks at every position on the offense except JP (!), WM, and MV.

Exposed? Was it a big secret?

So, are the TD defenders saying that a GM who always goes with the consensus shouldn't be blamed when it doesn't work out? That's why TD has the job and not you or I. He is expected to outperform the by-the-book consensus. If it were just a matter of following the experts we could do his job for far less in salary and a subscription to Street & Smith.

You can saddle your enemies with the sick, or even the injured: The Byzantine emperor Basil II engaged in war from 1002 to 1014 with Samuil of the Bulgars whose domain stretched from the Danude to Athens. The larger Byzantine armies eventually cornered the main Bulgar army while Samuil was away from the force and defeated them in battle. Rather than killing or enslaving the prisoners as was the custom, Basil is said to have released 15,000 of them to their homelands. For every 100, 99 were blinded. For the 100th, only one eye was gouged, and he was to lead the other 99 back. For this Basil became known as 'Basil the Bulgar-slayer.' Caring for and supporting 15,000 blinded warriors is no small inconvenience. Samuil was enraged, and the war fought on for another four years before the Bulgars submitted and were pushed north of the Danube, settling into what is now Bulgaria.

Same reason our defense was ranked so high in recent years. Nobody ever needed those late 80 yard drives to come from behind. After the first half, a conservative 30 yards and a punt each drive was all they needed to run out the clock.

Right, I only meant to suggest that in one sense it is analogous: Physicians are a sector of people who by dint of their organization can exercise some control over accreditation and other regulations (I assume) and can therefore influence the supply of labor competing for their services. Many professional organizations work in this way with varying amounts of influence. So though not unions, in addition to other objectives they work for the advancement of their members (this point is probably not aknowledged by the AMA, so its just my personal opinion).

That's one interesting question. Another is why Baltimore has inexplicably never been able to build a competent passing game despite a merry-go-round of proven veteran qb's, promising FA qb's, and drafted qb's; drafted wr's; and annual upgrading of the coaching. Maybe the defense is so good in practice that the offense never gets the confidence it needs...

Ahh geez, are you telling me they'll both be out of football by the off season and playing catch in TO's driveway? I think you're selling JP a little short... even his most fervant detractors wouldn't give up on him that quickly.

Good work. I think the seat under Billick may be a bit hotter. The inexplicable inability to build a merely average passing game during his entire tenure, despite a parade of coordinators and qb's young and old, together with the decline of the defense and running game this year is creating a 'time for a change' sort of atmosphere in Baltimore.

He sounded like the next Rob Johnson to me. I think certain teams have figured out that if you are lucky with gametime appearances you can take a good backup and groom him as first-round tradebait. I wouldn't trade for anybody who wasn't a starter for at least a season.

Hmmm... I still put my money on Johnson this time around. They look unstoppable. Somebody will shut them down, but I don't see it being the Bills.

Interesting... Can anybody with Tivo shed some light on this?

Or a bus backing up over a cliff. It's all about having our guy in the drivers seat.

And if the market allows you to get unionized, that's just capitalism. Doesn't matter whether you call it a union or the AMA or the association of national realters, sometimes people working together can wrest a bigger piece of the economic pie. And if it strangles the body it is depending upon, that's the vagaries of capitalism too.

TD may be bad, but I agree - Millen strikes me as hands-down the worst. Might be a forest-for-the-trees thing, rather like our clamoring for Bledsoe's head while being cntent to cross our fingers on the offensive line last year.

I agree with your assessment of the group he had, but have the recollection that the reason he left was some kind of power situation. Not a struggle per se, but rather the power within the organization lay with the Bill Walsh clique of coaching alums-turned-consultants and that he was perceived as an outsider and not given enough credit for the teams success under his tenure. Sound right? I really don't remember...

Lol, it is kind of funny how easy it is to forget that he was a successfull coach in SF. I don't know if that says more about the current quagmire in Detroit or else confirms the whole overshadowing power stuff they said about the San Fran organization.

How about Martz as OC and Billick as DC, best performer gets MM's job after one year? A man can dream, can't he?

Calling somebody stupid is fine with me - that's an opinion. Calling somebody a chimp is infantile. As for your assumption that it might make a difference to me what party we are talking about, I think it says more about your outlook than mine. My post attempted to steer clear of any political judgement about Reich entirely. I have no axe to grind in this thread other than that the humor be a bit more than pointless partisan cheap-shots. With all there is out there to laugh at, it is truely sad when someones humor is limited to reflexively calling out the political opposition (whether dem or rep) as a gimp, or a dwarf, or a stutterer, or birth-mark face, or poo-poo head...

There's been a lot of RW-bashing going on, much of it fair. The one place where it's been totally off-base is the idea that he's in it for the money and doesn't care enough about winning. This is an excellent rebuttal. It his stage of life, I doubt that he gives a rats-#$@ about how much he's making on the team. He knows he won't be here in five years, and a championship is probably the only thing that still meaningfull to him. Good point about his lack of comments...

Interesting take, but I have to believe MM is on too thin ice for him to balk. For that matter, TD has to really be worried. IMO in a perfect word he should want both Clements and Grey replaced... but at this stage of his tenure, if he forces that then he really undermines his own argument that the Bills are progressing under his program. He may find himself forced to keep one or both if only so that he has a shot of convincing RW that we're very close, maybe a year away from the playoffs.

A big man makes fun of his own shortcomings (no pun intended). A small man laughs at him instead of with him. Lets face it - it's a pretty bleak world in which voluntarily making jokes at ones own expense instead of the expense of others is rewarded by giving every jack-ass out there license to hurl it back at you mean-spiritedly. But then, I suppose the anonymity of these forums appeal to those who think kindergarten name-calling (midget-, dwarf-, fat-, whatever) is clever repartee.

Because this administration is known for tolerating dissent without retribution? We know what happened to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Niell, who questioned the cost of the tax cuts too often. Or the guy who was appointed Faith-Based Initiative Czar. And as far as Iraq goes, I think they sent a very clear message when they cashiered General Shinseki for his unconviently high estimates of the force levels needed in Iraq. There are still a number of people who believe the war was the right thing to do, but are deeply offended and embarrassed at this administrations handling of it.

50% chance it is two years, if JP turns out to be an adequate starting qb. If not, I say 5 years.

Whether one liked Reich's policies or not (and I doubt that most people, myself included, know much about his philosophy other than the fact of his being in the Clinton administration), he had a BA from Dartmouth, was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, had a JD from Yale, and was on the faculty of Harvard and Brandeis. He's also written a dozen books and helped found some political magazines. Not exactly the same track as Michael Brown. But hey, call the guy a midget and score some easy partisan-points. Way to show credibility.