Orton's Arm

C'mon Tom. I know you have McGahee's post-injury 40 time. You're holding out on us! Maybe another 20 or 30 threads on the subject will get you to open up.

He's gotten the most playing time.

Yes, the Sabres earned their victories by outplaying a more talented team. There's nothing "cowardly lion" about saying that, if you're up 3-1 against the Senators, you need to put them away quickly. On the contrary, letting go of the killer instinct that got you those three wins in the first place would have been a disaster.

On the one hand, you seem to be saying it doesn't matter what the fans think, because we're not the ones playing the games. On the other, you're saying it does matter, because the players will notice the "stench" of the fans' mood. If the fans start celebrating a victorious series based on being up 3-0, that false confidence could rub off on the players. Jumping off a bridge is going too far in the other direction. But the fact some here pointed out that teams have come back from 0-3 deficits is a good thing. Hopefully, some of that humility and lack of premature celebration found its way into the Sabres' locker room. Watch Bill Belichick's facial expressions. As long as there's time on the clock, you'll only see one expression: the scowl. Once the game is over, he'll smile at the win. Not before. If fans here are becoming Belichick-like in our refusal to prematurely celebrate, I don't think it's such a bad thing.

The Sabres needed to end the series quickly, and that's what they did. I'm glad. The worst thing that could have happened would have been to get complacent after going up 3-0. Especially when the Sabres were matched against a better overall team. It's a mistake to castigate Sabres fans for seeing the inherent danger in letting the Senators linger around. Maybe a few fans took this to an extreme. But it's better to err on the side of being too paranoid about the other team, as opposed to not being paranoid enough.

Glad to see you finally get it!

Big Mike Williams is with the Jacksonville Jaguars professional football team .

I think there's very little validity to the view the Wonderlic tests for quick thinking--or indeed any kind of thinking. Dan Marino was a quick thinker, but his Wonderlic score was quite low. Had Marino taken an intelligence test, my guess is he would have looked a lot smarter than he did after taking that Wonderlic. The intelligence test on Tickle is a pretty good example of what an aptitude test should be like. You can compare sample Wonderlic questions with those of an actual aptitude test. You can see for yourself very few of the Wonderlic questions are A) hard enough to be challenging to a person of reasonable intelligence, B) intelligence-based, not knowledge-based, and C) not intended to be time pits.

Tone down the arrogance a little, okay? London Fletcher plays the game for a living. He practiced against the Mularkey offense a lot. Maybe--just maybe--he has some right to an opinion on which quarterback was running that offense better.

I mostly disagree with this. - You don't need as much intelligence to play RB as you do to play FS. If your FS isn't bright, and if you're running a complicated defense, it's going to be a problem. - The Wonderlic is a very poor tool for measuring intelligence. Many of the questions are knowledge-based, which means a) you can study for them, and b) they don't measure intelligence anyway. Many questions are very easy. Many others are designed to be very time-consuming. Because you're given very little time to complete the test, it's unwise to pay attention to the time dump questions. Very seldom do you see questions that are mentally challenging, yet such that a smart person could solve them quickly. To maximize their scores, players are told to scan the test, looking for easy questions. "What's the tenth month of the year?" would be a good example. After answering all the easy questions on the test, they may have time to do a few of the more difficult questions. Shortly before the test ends, it's time to stop working on any more problems, and to guess randomly for each question not yet answered. One's total score is the sum of all correct answers given. Some of the questions on the Wonderlic are designed to burn time, so you can get a low score by making the mistake of trying to answer these questions correctly. Conversely, even a dim bulb can get a respectable score by following the instructions in the above paragraph. That said, if a player gets a low score when he first takes the test--as Losman did--it would send up a red flag. At that point, you'd want to take a closer look at the player's intelligence.

Are you still talking about the hockey player, or has the discussion drifted back to Losman?

I may as well add to this by pointing out Kurt Warner had 2101 passing yards and 15 TDs in his NFL Europe season. Craig Nall had 2050 passing yards and 18 TDs in his NFL Europe season. This doesn't mean Nall is the next Kurt Warner, but let's give him a chance!

I agree it was a gruesome cheap shot. But before you write him off completely, I suggest you read this article.

We need at least four more pages of this to catch up to the Willis/Tampa thread.

I agree Nall hasn't thrown enough passes to know for sure if he's the answer. But when given a chance--be it in the preseason, the regular season, or NFL Europe--he's shown well. The counterargument is that Green Bay wasn't all that impressed with him, and that success in NFL Europe doesn't mean much. Well, maybe you should tell that to another guy Green Bay didn't want, who also succeeded in NFL Europe. People compare Losman's situation to Eli Manning's. But the rookie Eli Manning gave Kurt Warner a run for his money in preseason. In contrast, Losman had an extra year to learn Mularkey's offense before going toe-to-toe with Holcomb. Despite this extra year, and despite the fact Holcomb isn't as good as Warner, Losman clearly, hands-down, got outplayed. If Losman can't handle the vanilla offense and vanilla defenses of preseason, how is he supposed to succeed during the regular season? Nall, at least, has done well during the preseason. For this and other reasons, Nall has given the coaching staff more of a reason to take a closer look than has Losman.

At least we're not making comments about each other's shorts!

As is often the case, you're right. If Palmer's throwing for 250 or 300 yards but a few interceptions, you can see he's a few plays away from being a very good quarterback. Over time those interceptions went away, and Palmer became the kind of quarterback the Bengals were hoping for. Brett Favre is another example of another guy who produced as a young QB, but who threw too many interceptions early in his career.

An edge that could instantly disappear should Hasek return. The Sabres need to end this quickly.

Why are you giving up on JP after only zero hockey games? Don't you know it takes time to develop as a hockey player? Enjoy your hot pockets.

I do think Ottawa has the better team overall. The sooner the Sabres put this series away, the happier I'll be.

I think it was JDG who showed Losman's first nine games were worse than Palmer's first nine. But more importantly, Palmer did a lot more to prove himself as a pocket passer back in college than Losman did. That's a good question. I know it's unlikely the Bills management is influenced by what's written on these boards. Perhaps the most recurring theme on this board is the importance of the offensive line--and rightly so. Yet TD typically found offensive linemen by signing low-priced free agents or by low draft picks; while using first-day picks on offensive skill players. No matter how persuasive I manage to be, it's extremely unlikely to do any good. But even if it did, what would it matter? Suppose everything went as well as I could possibly imagine, and the Bills won the next ten Super Bowls? Would it really improve the world in any fundamental way? Would those victories help build a better future for the next generation? I guess the real reason I'm doing this is to get practice at the generic skill of persuading others of something I happen to believe in.

Yeah, I was displeased about what Willis did. I hope he doesn't father any more kids out of wedlock.

Yeah, I did miss that thread. And I guess if a cow did become my enemy, I wouldn't suspect a thing until the first attack.

On the one hand, I'm glad it's not us. On the other hand, I'm starting to feel bad for Texans fans.

I noticed you call yourself "the unforseen enemy." And yet . . . your pro-Losman posts are so easy to see coming.