Orton's Arm

There are two things I don't like about this land deal. The first is that Reid purchased the land from Lessman, a man who owed Reid a favor. You really have to wonder if Lessman sold the property to Reid than he would have to someone else. The second thing I don't like is the LLC. It's quite possible--probable, in fact--that Reid and Brown entered into the LLC for legitimate business reasons. But there's also a chance the LLC was used as a vehicle to funnel contributions to Reid. If some guy wrote Reid a check for $200,000, federal officials would take notice. But that same guy could write Brown a check for that same $200,000, and nobody would care. Then the money would flow through the LLC to Reid. Do I think this actually happened? Probably not, but it would be worth investigating. My main concern at this point is that Lessman might have sold Reid the land at too low a price, as repayment for past favors.

I'm going to take the middle road in this debate, as I do in all debates. New England has taken a step backward from its Super Bowl days. Not as big a step backward as Mad Buffalo Disease may wish, but a bigger one than perhaps HD is willing to admit to. But the main pieces are still in place--Belichick, Brady, Matt Light, etc. Add in a few players to flesh out the current Patriots team, and you might see Belichick hoisting the Lombardi Trophy once again. I doubt it will happen this year, but it might well happen in the next few years.

I don't see this Congress using impeachment hearings, seeing as how such hearings backfired on Congress when Clinton was president. That said, I'm a fan neither of Pelosi or of W, and it's not fun to think about either being president.

This article supports my view that the Christian Right has done far more for Bush than Bush has done for the Christian Right.

I'll grant your point about Paup benefiting from the good play of those around him. But Paup wasn't the only Buffalo Bill to play on the same team as Bruce Smith. He was, however, the only Bill to get 17 1/2 sacks in a single season. He was named defensive MVP for the NFL in the process. If being on the same team as Bruce Smith made those accomplishments easy, why didn't the other outside linebackers who've played with Bruce Smith achieve the same things? The bottom line is that Paup had an absolutely monster season for the Bills.

There's too much truth to this. Elections are costly, so you almost have to sell your soul to have a chance at winnning. Maybe some politicians are able to hold onto a larger portion of their souls than others, but it's still an inherently corrupt system. It's a system which often fails to either follow the will of the American people, or to promote the long-term interests of the American nation.

What Travis Henry did was a crime. But to understand the magnitude of the crime, you have to look at its effect on the victim. I've known victims of actual rapes, and the sense of helplessness, pain, and degradation doesn't go away. It's a form of permanent emotional maiming, and the appropriate punishment for someone low enough to do this to a woman is death. I'd be more than willing to push the button on the electric chair myself. As that rapist looked into my eyes, he wouldn't see an ounce of hesitation or mercy. None. While Travis embarrassed himself and the team, what he's guilty of doesn't warrant that kind of treatment. The girl was 15 years old, she appeared to be older than she was, and she lied about her age. I get the impression that Travis wasn't the first, or perhaps even the tenth, person with whom she'd had sex. Nor have I heard anything which would lead me to believe Travis misled her with false promises, or used sophisticated seduction techniques. Instead, from what I can tell, she more or less threw herself at him during a one-time casual encounter. I doubt this instance of sex was much different for her on an emotional level than the other instances of legal, consensual sex she had with those closer to her own age. Grown men have no business having sex with underage girls. But as unacceptable as this behavior is, it shouldn't be lumped together with the act of forcing a girl or woman into sex. The latter is an act of predation and brutality, and should always be punished by death. Women shouldn't have to fear walking on the streets at night, or walking through parking lots, or other actions which men take for granted. The existence of rapists denies them the freedom that is their right, while leaving victims of rape improperly avenged. What Travis did was bad also, but not bad enough for me to see him as a hardened enemy of decent society.

Rape is a terrible crime, and I support the death penalty for anyone who's clearly guilty of it. What Travis Henry did--consensual sex with some underage girl--is a crime, but clearly doesn't warrant the death penalty rape deserves.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...&q=Conspiracy+o

Let me get this straight: you're arguing that Losman's situation is worse than Rivers' because the former was thrust into a starting role before he was ready, while Rivers was allowed to sit on the bench and learn. If that's how you feel, fine, but just be aware that you're disagreeing with the majority of Losman supporters. These people feel Losman should have been getting as much playing time as possible, on the grounds that you learn more on the field than on the bench. These supporters also feel that because Losman hasn't started as many games as, say, Eli Manning, he shouldn't be expected to be as far along in the learning process as Eli. As for the quality of Buffalo's offensive coaching staff; that staff did a better job with Bledsoe in 2004 than Gilbride staff had done with the same QB in 2003. Moreover, quarterbacks like Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox looked better in the Mularkey scheme than they've looked elsewhere. Losman's QB coach was Sam Wyche; the same man who coached Joe Montana and Boomer Esiason. So going into 2005, hopes were high for the Bills offense. I'm not saying the coaching was great--it wasn't--but it was better than some people make it out to be. In any case, Losman had a full year on the bench with which to learn the Mularkey offense before being thrown to the wolves. You bring up a good point about this year's coaching change. All the QBs on the Bills' roster should be expected to need a little time to adjust to the new terminology and system. I have, however, seen Losman supporters in general, and you in particular, write off Craig Nall because of what may have been transitory mistakes based on adjusting to the new scheme. You can't expect me to believe you when you imply that a coaching change is a valid excuse for Losman, but an invalid one for Nall.

I'll agree with you up to a point. Elite teams win the games they should win, plus they beat the teams that are merely very good. Obviously, the long-term goal for the Bills should be to become elite enough to win the Super Bowl. So which is worse: losing to the Dolphins or to the Patriots? I'd say the Patriots loss is worse, and here's why. Back when the Bills were 8-8 or 9-7, it seemed like the only way the Bills could beat the Patriots is if they cut a star player a week before the season began. The standard-issue outcome for a Bills/Patriots game was Bledsoe on the sideline with a defeated look in his eye, and a jubuliant Patriots team getting lots of love from the media. So even a 10-6 season would be fruitless, because at some point we'd face the Patriots in the playoffs, and we'd surely lose. So until the Bills figured out how to beat the Patriots, the road to the Super Bowl was barred. But if you lose to a weak Dolphins team on an off day, you can still go to the Super Bowl.

Least ugliest? Least ugliest! Lori, I'm in a deep state of shock. I had such high hopes for you. With your knowledge and insight into football, I envisioned you becoming a professional sports writer. Perhaps someday you might even have followed in Vic Carucci's footsteps, and gone national. Then I'd get to say, "I knew Lori back when she wrote for free." But now those hopes are cruelly dashed by this sudden and unexpected departure from the normal rules of grammar. My faith in you has been shaken to the core, leaving me emotionally scarred. Surely you want to somehow make up for this emotional scarring, perhaps by sending a compliment or two my way. Surely you need to do something to atone for the most ugliest thing I've ever seen you write.

I had similar thoughts as your points a and b. Great minds, I suppose, think alike! Looking at your original list, I wondered to myself what on earth Brad Johnson was doing in tier 4. A guy like that seems like he should be higher. But there weren't very many QBs ahead of him whom I felt were clearly inferior. Granted there were a few; among them Michael Vick! Michael Vick is a very athletic QB, with a big-time arm, who can throw a beautiful deep ball, but has questionable accuracy and decision-making skills. I'm a little puzzled by why you like Vick more than most people do, yet seem to see Losman in a less positive light than most people on these boards. Not that I'm complaining about your Losman views, mind you, just wondering about how much weight you think should be placed on athleticism versus accuracy and decision making skills.

That was a very thorough post. Thanks for the effort that went into that.

Neither Scott Law nor anyone else on this thread is saying the Bills would have won had Losman played better. For you or other Losman supporters to pretend that this is what is being said is a classic case of a straw man argument. What Scott and others are saying is that Losman played poorly, even taking into account the mistakes of others on the team. Agree or disagree with that view as you like, but at least do us the favor of representing it fairly.

Interesting analysis of QBs. One of the more controversial names on that list is Ben Roethlisberger. Yes, he played badly in the Super Bowl, and he hasn't exactly been dynamite this year. But last year, he was playing like a tier 1 QB in the regular season and in the playoffs. I disagree with your decision to rate him several tiers lower than, for example, David Carr. You've been a little generous to McNabb. McNabb didn't achieve a whole lot before he got Terrell Owens, he had that one good Owens year, then he got hurt/played badly last year. Yes, he's gotten off to a very good start this year, but it's just a few games in the eighth year of his career. While I'm not exactly in awe of Bledsoe, I feel that putting him in the "cover your eyes awful tier" is a little harsh. This year, Bledsoe is averaging 6.86 yards per attempt; a somewhat higher figure than his career average of 6.64 yards per attempt. I guess some of my disagreement with your analysis would go away if I knew it was based on what QBs are doing this year as opposed to what they've done throughout their careers. For example, Ben Roethisberger's career yards per attempt is 8.38, which is significantly better than McNabb's career average of 6.74. But Roethlisberger is off to a much worse start in 2006 than is McNabb.

After the Jets game, I acknowledged that Losman looked solid in that game. The only Losman-related comment I've made about the Chicago game is that the offensive line sometimes did a good job with pass protection, and at other times didn't. That's it. I haven't described Losman's performance against Chicago as a harbinger of bad performances to come, and I certainly haven't suggested this game was proof that I was right while others were wrong. In other words, I've shown a lot more self-restraint than some of Losman's more, um, vocal supporters did after the Jets game. As I wrote after the Jets game, I intend to be relatively quiet about the QB position for the next few weeks. Once those weeks are over, we'll have a better idea as to what have or don't have in Jonathan Paul Losman.

Let's see . . . I point out that the Bills' offensive line did a significantly better job in pass protection against Chicago than it did in many games last year. Your response to this observation is to call me a troll! If you keep this up, you'll win the tard of the week award. Oh wait . . .

I agree that the run blocking wasn't there. You're also right in saying that there were times when the offensive line got beaten. I remember one play in particular when Gandy got beaten like an egg at a cooking competition; and I wouldn't mind seeing his position addressed early in the 2007 draft. But there were a number of pass plays where the line looked like a real, legitimate NFL offensive line. It was certainly better than some of the putrid displays we'd become used to seeing last year. I'm not arguing that the current makeup of our line is the answer, because it probably isn't. But it is a step forward from where we were last year.

When it came to pass protection, I thought our offensive line did a decent job. Not a top-10 job, but not a bottom-10 job either. Yes there were times when individual linemen got beaten too quickly, but there were other times when Losman had pretty good time to throw. It's a step forward from last year, when sometimes the line looked like it wasn't there.

Add to that the fact the question's being asked on a football board.

I take a different view of injuries in general. If a veteran player goes down for a few weeks, it usually hurts your team in the short term. But there are two long term benefits: you see what you have or don't have in your backups, and those backup players get valuable experience. In this case there's a third benefit: Villarrial needs to be replaced relatively soon anyway, and this game will help management get a feel for whether Preston is or isn't the answer.

That's true. Vincent seems to want to go into coaching, so right now he's doing things that might open some doors later on.

If Peerless keeps playing at this level, Marv will look smart for signing him to the contract he did. Peerless is locked up for a few years, and to do that you usually have to pay a player significantly more than the NFL minimum. The way Marv did things we don't have to worry about Peerless having a good year and then some team falling in love with/overpaying him once the year's done.

Hollywood does bring up a good point about the YPC stat, but that stat isn't necessarily a reflection on McGahee. Sometimes the team has done a pretty good job with run blocking, while other times there just hasn't been room to run. Whether it's defenses outplaying our offensive line, or defenses ganging up to stop the run, I can't quite tell. But McGahee's looked about average for a starting RB in the NFL, maybe a little above average.