granitestatebillsbackers
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Posts posted by granitestatebillsbackers
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Here are the highlights (liberally paraphrased--and anyone else who listened is welcome to correct or add any details). The only opinion here is in brackets--evertything else is Mike Mularkey:
Adam Shein asked MM if he would go on the record and name his starter. He said that he would not talk about that; that he had made a commitment to the local media and he was honoring that.
He said that not naming a starter gives them a competitive edge because of the Phins inability to specifically game plan for a particular QB.
MM also said there were no restrictions on media this week, in a response to John Riggins about any more confidentiality around their practices. Media were admitted to individual position drills as usual, and they would not glean anything that would tip MM's hand.
When asked if he was upset with Moulds and Evans, he replied "No." He said that he'd talked to the two of them after the fact, but he didn't feel that they'd said anything to damage the team, so he was fine. He also said that what matters is what the coaching staff decides on Sunday.
[My comment: he was eerily calm when he answered--very matter of fact. Gave no indication that he was annoyed.]
He felt that Ronnie Brown was someone they would have to contend with on Sunday.
Re: Losman--he said that he watches a QBs reaction to being benched, to see if he withdraws or sits at the end of the bench or stops talking to his teammates. He saw none of that in JP, which gives him a good feeling about his future development.
Asked about the decision to use Holcomb as a "spark" last week, MM said that after the first drive that resulted in the score, they just couldn't get their rhythm, and that he thought that Kelly would be able to change things up. Shein asked if he game planned for that, and MM said you don't. He also said they couldn't get into a play-calling rhythm, either.
[My comment: this concerned me a little, because that's kind of their job. But I can see that if you are expecting A to happen in an NFL game, and B happens, you don't have a lot of time to react. Some teams seem to manage, though.]
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If you listen carefully on Sunday, you will hear a group of us screaming "RUN THE *&^$ BALL!" from 450 miles to the east in the heart of Patriots country.
GO BILLS!
SQUISH THE FISH!
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Excellent post!
I started paying attention to the Bills at age 5, when Dad would have Van Miller on the radio (WBEN). I learned to do addition and subtraction--in part--when I learned how the whole downs and yardage thing worked. ("If it's second and 6, how many yards have the Bills gained?")
When I was in second grade, Butch Byrd and Al Bemiller visited my school for a Father/Son Sports Night. I remember being amazed at how huge they looked.
Like a lot of other fans, I was there in the late Sixties (my first NFL game at the Rockpile was vs. the newly-minted Bengals). I was there when the Bills picked up O.J. and suffered through the 70s.
When I was in high school, I took a job with the company that had the contract to clean up Rich Stadium after the games because part of the deal was that you got into games for free. The highlight was getting tagged to shovel off yard markers during a December game vs. the Vikings.
I moved away from the area to the heart of Patriots country in the mid-Eighties, but always went to Foxboro for the Bills-Pats games (back then, you could hardly find a Pats fan, and could walk up to the ticket window gameday and buy a great seat).
This season, I started driving an hour on Sundays to spend time with a small group of Bills fans at a sports bar that's usually packed with Pats fans, but also a respectable number of Steelers backers and a sprinkling of other teams' fans. It's just good to see the Bills colors once in a while. When I can't make it, I listen to the hometown call on Sirius.
You are right. Once a Bills fan, always a Bills fan. I wouldn't trade being a Bills fan for any other team in professional sports.
The glory days will come again.
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Wonderful year = game experience, some highlight reel passes (ok, a few), good momentum into 2006, good rhythm with O-line, such that it is; respect from league opponents because of flashes of potential; demonstration of team leadership, etc.
He can have a great year irrespective of number of TDs, INTs (which will be a larger number, to be sure) and won/loss. If you think long-term, that's what you want for a first-year QB.
All that said, the move to Holcombe might give JP's supporting cast a little more confidence. When he does come back in, he'll be playing with an offensive unit with a whole different attitude.
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"This is about more than entertainment. A winning team is a drug, a fix, a communal high. Sports sociologists have a name for it: BIRG. It is an acronym for Bask In the Reflected Glow. When the team does well, its fans feel good about themselves. That is why people invest in sports teams emotionally (and financially, with jerseys, caps, tickets and, yes, better TV sets). "
Maybe that's why I am feeling so crappy about shelling out $80 + shipping for a McGahee away jersey and a throwback pennant for over my son's crib. I was thinking it was all the depressing posts on TBD!
Esmonde's column is definitely food for thought. I wonder if we all were expecting to return to that amazing feeling of backing a winner and BOOM! we got a dose of reality.
In the end, even with all the back and forth about what's right and wrong with the team, we are all Bills fans. And the next win, regardless of who is at QB or how it comes about, is going to feel damned good!
GO BILLS!
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Forget Leinhart. Let's use the money to build a brick wall of an o-line. Good things will follow (like Willis!)
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I agree with you--that was about as far from a team leader as you can get.
Mularkey and Donahoe should sit him down and demand that he focus his energy on (a) making plays on the field and (b) working to be a positive force on that team, not a whiner.
With an ego the size of his, he might relish the role. Then we'll see more production on the field and he could actually end up being a help to J.P. down the line.
Enough with the Bills saying "oh, that's just Eric being Eric." Make the guy start earning his 2005 pay on and off the field.
Time to bring in the sports psychologists.
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I think Eric Moulds was speaking for himself and a core group of veterans yesterday--despite the fact that what he did was wrong.
Perhaps Mularkey will sit EM down and tell him it's time to put up (points) or shut up. Maybe this is Moulds' opportunity to actually stop thinking about Moulds and become a bona fide team leader.
TKO's injury took the heart out of that team. This is an opportunity for Moulds to step up, lead by example and have a big game.
It's a stretch, I know, but stranger things have happened.
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Did I just see someone quote Al "Check out the lei-sure suit, bay-bee" Davis!?
JUST WIN, BABY!! WOOOOO!
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Hey!
Who are you calling bi-polar?! 
SHUT UP! 
I lovvvvve you! 
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Olive branch, definitely.
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Gratutious sniping? Insulting others?
I must have a different definition of the terms "sniping" and "insulting" than you do, because after reviewing my posts and replies, I did neither.
In the same vein, using condescending terms such as "kiddo" doesn't exactly place you in the pantheon of great posters.
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Hmm...if I used to watch Jack Kemp at War Memorial Stadium and you are calling me "kiddo," you must be *really* old!
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Your terminology, not mine.
It's just too bad that this board has such a Chicken Little feel to it. It would be cool if there were a couple posts breaking down Miami's strengths and weaknesses. You know, discussions about BILLS FOOTBALL instead of whiny "fans" blaming everyone for the 1-3 start including the dude that sweeps up after the games.
Most of the discussions are pointing out the Bills many failings, anyway, so why is my post so bothersome to you?
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The nightmare scenario for Mularkey is if this KH move doesn't work. Then he looks like he abandoned a strategy, tried another, and ended up at the starting point.
But I will guarantee this: let's just say the Bills are able to string together 3 or 4 wins--all this will be forgotten, and all these so-called "fans" will be lauding MM for his insightful coaching. And instead of damning Losman to Hell, they'll be saying " you know, maybe he does need a little more time to develop."
Take it to the bank.
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The reason there is so much complaining, whining, and wah-wah-wah-wah on this damned bulletin board is because so many of you drank--no, GUZZLED-- the "we-were-on-a-roll-with-Bledsoe-and-JP-is-the-second-coming-and-is-going-to-continue-and-our-defense-rocks-and-we-are-going-to-the-playoffs-baby!" kool-aid during the pre-season.
If Losman came out like a house on fire and won a couple games, there would be none of this "Mularkey is trying to save his job!" and "Let's tar and feather Donahoe!" BS. And lets be honest--if Losman had phenomenal stats all season and the D and special teams couldn't do enough to keep us in games, those same fans would be bitching that Losman and the Bills weren't putting Ws on the board. They'd be calling for Donahoe's and Mularkey's heads anyway.
Ask yourself this: what would you prefer--a wonderful first year for Losman with a 4-12 record, or nine wins and a shot at the post season?
You can't have both, because most first-year quarterbacks are terrible. So make your pick.
Personally, I would rather see Losman take a season to get some experience, and then come out next year and have an Eli-Manning-type year. I am not convinced that Holcomb can deliver. But the Bills (apparently) have decided to try something different, so I am going to yell my head off at our Backers bar in the hope that they put up some points.
Bottom line: be a g-ddamned fan and SUPPORT THIS TEAM. Stop second-guessing what color tie Donahoe wears, and SUPPORT THIS TEAM.
And save the "Dude! I spend A LOT OF MONEY supporting this team and what do they do for me?!" comments. It's entertainment, people. If you don't feel like you are getting your money's worth, stop going. If you can't go to The Ralph and enjoy yourself for three hours, stop going.
Am I being Pollyannish? Nah. Have I had too much of the "let's go Bills!" kool-aid? Maybe--but I have been drinking it since 1965--I was in kindergarten, and Jack Kemp was throwing the rock. Old habits are hard to break.
GO BILLS!!
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We're talkin' a 1979 yellow Chevrolet Chevette 3-door hatchback, bright yellow. Possibly a Lil' Tree air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror.
It'll let you putt along at 50 mph, but when you approach a hill you have to stop and think about whether you're going to make it.
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Check out Sirius satellite radio, too. That's only 12.99 a month, you get all the NFL games with their hometown calls, there's a kickass NFL channel, and tons of music and other stuff.
I get together with the Bills Backers in NH as often as I can, but satellite radio is awesome when I can't make the hour drive to Manchester.
And as someone who "watched" games on nfl.com last season, I can tell you that listening to the Bills is a whole lot better than that!
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I think you are on to something here. Are you going to contact us via PM or e-mail?
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This happens in baseball, football and soccer. Parents who were marginally talented when they were kids--or didn't play at all--are CONVINCED that little Joey is NFL material and that they are horrible parents if they don't do EVERYTHING they can to get him in the game.
The sad truth is, the vast majority of these kids may never make it onto a high school squad. Even if they do, the odds against the child making it into a Division 1 squad with a scholarship increase exponentially, and then exponentially again when it's time to make the jump from D1 to the NFL.
And how many "human interest" stories did you read at the end of the preseason when so-and-so with a dream to play in the NFL got cut?
In my humble opinion, the problem starts when they are young. In my son's baseball league, they were getting trophies (not for winning the division, just for showing up) at the T-BALL level. He was also selected for the all-star team. In t-ball. The kid didn't know how to tie his cleats at that point.
Some parents see the trophies and the equipment and the playoffs and all-star teams and get starry-eyed and start thinking that Junior is a prodigy.
It's very sad. Parents who act the way you described should be banned from the program. Nice example to set for the kids--HC tries to teach them structure and teamwork and discipline, and then Mommies and Daddies B word all the way home in the care about how that so-and-so isn't giving them enough playing time.
Not all parents do this, just a VERY vocal minority. I'm sick of them.
By the way, the reason LL football rules are so stringent about weight is for the precise reason you alluded to. A 135 pound object hitting another 135 pound object is pretty much a push. A 175 pound object hitting a 135 pound object is going to have a distict momentum and energy transference advantage. It's all about safety. Some parents are just too stupid to understand the basics.
Best of luck to your son this season and in his H.S. career!
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Let him throw. With a passer rating <40, he can't get much worse. So he tosses 5 interceptions like Boller did yesterday--in the process, he is going to figure out how to hit Moulds and Evans, it will spread the defense, and he'll get a chance to make some big plays.
There won't be many Ws on the board at first, but they'll come in due time.
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We certainly have to give JPL a little more time. The comparison to the start of Eli Manning's career is apt. The Giants are just starting to feel like he can contribute--you see his numbers inch up a bit with every passing week. Better days are coming.
I'm not buying the rap of the doomsayers that make it sound like the only two options are win now with Holcomb, or suffer horribly for the next two seasons and realize that JPL is not an NFL QB.
The kid has a good work ethic, a great QB coach, and management that believe in him. His overthrows and underthrows are a combination of (1) nervous energy, (2) lack of experience reading coverage, and (3) an O-line that's less than solid.
Once any two of these factors are alleviated, you are going to see a dramatic improvement. Even if he is not cut out to be an NFL QB, you wouldn't be able to tell after three games.
Dumb-ass statement by a Dolphin
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
From a Toronto Star/AP story, courtesy of Miami Dolphin defensive end Jason Taylor:
Taylor, a nine-year veteran, believes some of the team's younger players might have been distracted by their first trip to New York. He expects that to be different this weekend.
``We're out of the city now, so we won't see the bright lights, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty,'' Taylor said. ``There isn't a whole hell of a lot in Buffalo besides some (chicken) wings.
``And hopefully, that won't be a distraction.''
I'd suggest that those of you attending the game pelt him with wings, but that's against NFL rules. You might want to make Mr. Taylor sorry he dissed our city. It ain't perfect, but it's got a lot more than chicken wings.
(Man, do I sound like a native Buffalonian or what?)