Ennjay

"Ditka: No one has played better than the Bills over the past 5 games. It doesn't matter who has the tie breaker, the Bills are the best team and will find a way into the playoffs. " If only. Sorry, but I think the Jets, Jags and Ravens can make it in before Buffalo no matter what the Bills do. On math, not merit or quality, but that's the way it goes.

It's really very simple. Piit beat NE, so Pitt wins the tiebreaker. That means if they have the same record Pitt really has the equivalent of a one-game lead. Going into the last weekend, if Pitt and NE have the same record Pitt has to win to keep the one-game lead. If Pitt is one game behind they'll be playing to catch NE and get back the tie-breaker advantage. If Pitt has a better record, the Steelers will have nothing to play for because they'll have the equivalent of at least a 2-game lead with one game left. So all the combinations come down to whether NE can have one more loss than Pittsburgh going into the last game. And they both play at 1 p.m. on Jan. 2. Since NE has San Fran at home, I expect the Patriots will have a big lead early so the pressure to win will stay on Pitt if they start the day with the same record. Possibly the best chance for the Bills (with Pittsburgh losing to the Giants at this very moment) is: Pitt loses today, goes into the Bills game one game behind, sees NE piling it on vs. SF on the Ralph scoreboard, and relaxes.

Yeah -- she said it started as a secret hello to her grandmother and she just kept doing it.

SD probably doesn't have the cap room to sign four first-rounders, what with the Rivers contract (or, if they trade Rivers and keep Brees, a new Brees contract) and whatever else Butler left behind. (Tim Dwight? Does Flutie have anything left of his contract?) If they keep the Giants' first pick they could be in the top 5 again, which means serious rookie money.

On his board it gets hard to tell.

Correction from buffalobills.com: they were #12 and #14, not consecutive: 1983 Pick Name Pos. School 1a. Tony Hunter TE Notre Dame (12) 1b. Jim Kelly QB Miami (14) Reuben Gant was the 18th pick in 1974, when the Bills also picked up Doug Allen, Gary Marangi, and the immortal Carlester Crumpler (father of Alge).

Tight ends who were Number 1 draft picks of the Bills. And you can look this up: in1983 the Bills had two consecutive picks in the first round (I think they were #12 and #13). They took Hunter from Note Dame with the FIRST one, and with the SECOND they took some guy named Kelly from Miami.

I thought Corey Moore would be the second coming of Steve Tasker. Then I thought the same thing about Coy Wire. (It's not too late!) And reaching way back: I thought Tony Hunter would make us all forget Reuben Gant.

That's "bought tickets," not pickets. Although if they're fed up enough . . .

Two observations from a distance (NJ) where we didn't see the game today: 1. I agree there will be a howling rabid pro-Bills crowd at the Ralph on Sunday, but I thought I heard last summer that ths game was an early sellout because of all the Browns fans who bought pickets planning to drive up for what looked like an easy game (then) on the Cleveland schedule. Anybody know how many Cleveland tix were sold? (We'll be seeing the same thing, but more seriously, for the Steelers game.) I wonder if we'll have a lot of empty seats from Cleveland ticketholders who won't want to bother anymore. 2. Did you ever think the biggest problem in week 14 would be the risk the Bills were looking past Cleveland because they had Cincinatti the next week?