John Gianelli

Haven't read all the posts, but in the RADIO.COM NFL Power Rankings the Bills are 15th, which puts them behind even the Panthers.

Does anyone know if Elias Sports Bureau has stats on when was the last time a 2-6 team was favored over a 6-2 team? I could see it in college, but not in the NFL. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the first time in NFL history. Sorry if someone already posted this question.

Maybe this puts it in a different perspective. I'm not looking at it from Beane's perspective. I'm looking at it from a Bills fan perspective. The previous decade, you get three quality players in the second round, Jairus Byrd, Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay. The previous decade to that, Peerless Price, Phil Hansen, and Carwell Gardner. You have to go back to the 80s before you hit Thurman, Odomes and Talley. Even in your best decade of drafting, you have only a 30% chance of getting a stellar player in the 2nd round. Only in the 70s do you have four top-quality 2nd round picks, Smerlas, Haslett, Devlin and McKenzie. And going back that far, remember there were fewer teams in the league, so you had a better chance of getting a good player in the 2nd round. For every Thurman Thomas picked, you get Glen Lott and Mark Trynowicz. For every Phil Hansen, you get Lonnie Johnson and Travares Tillman. Even if Beane ends up being as good as Bill Polian or John Butler, you have many more misses than hits in the second round.

I recognize the regime change factor, but let's ignore that for the moment and just go on our track record over the past ten years. With our second round picks, you have a 20% chance of landing a decent offensive lineman. You have an 80% chance of getting someone who marginally contributes, or gets shipped out.

Looking at our 2nd round draft choices over the last 10 years, why not trade a 2nd round pick for an established player? Dion Dawkins and Cody Ford are the only 2nd round picks still on the team drafted between 2010-2019.

I agree that week 5 of 1975 is not necessarily relevant to week 6 (7) of 2019. But if you've been following just about anything for 56 years (sports, stock market, politics) you should gain enough experience that you get a little shiver that says, "Not so fast. I've seen something like this before." We also tend to remember negative experiences more than positive ones. I don't remember anything about the wins in weeks 1, 2, 3 or 4 of 1975, but I sure remember the loss in week 5.

Am I the only person worried about this game? I have flashbacks to other times a Buffalo team looked so good, and came crashing down to a lesser team. Maybe most of you aren't old enough to remember 1975. The Bills were 4-0, and lost to the 1-3 Giants at Rich Stadium on a Monday night. I have flash-forwards to the local talk shows next week: "We should have known Rosen would have his best game ever against us." "The refs completely screwed us." "We should have known our defense couldn't keep up that pace for a whole season." "How can you expect to beat anyone when you throw four interceptions?" "Do you still think we'll make the playoffs?" Sorry, this is from someone who became a Bills fan in 1963. I've seen too much to take any game for granted.

Here's a radical solution that would make every game much more watchable, and provide some justice in the long run. Eliminate all reviews during the game. So on any particular bad call the fans of Team A will be angry, while the fans of Team B will be relieved. But the game is sped up signficantly. No more interminable waiting to see if a call is overturned. Where does the justice come in? At the end of the season, give significant compensatory draft picks to the teams that were screwed the most by bad calls. The system is already in place for it, because the league rates officials at the end of the year. Those who miss the most calls are dismissed. The best officials are rewarded with the chance to officiate playoff games and the Super Bowl. So when the league does the rating, it can keep a tally of which teams had the most calls missed against them. You would weight the calls, giving more weight to calls that occurred: a) in the last two minutes of a game; b) on scoring plays; c) on go-ahead or game-winning calls; d) during the playoffs. If I remember correctly, the missed call against the Rams' Nickell Robey-Coleman was in the last two minutes, and was during a playoff game. So it would be weighted more than a missed out-of-bounds call on the opening drive in a Bengals-Dolphins regular season game. When all the games have been graded, tally up the points. The team that was the recipient of the most bad calls gets a compensatory first round draft pick, the team with the second-most gets a second round draft pick, etc. Once you get past the seventh team, tough luck. You might even find out that over the course of a season the bad calls tend to even out among the teams. In that case, give every team a compensatory first round pick except the Patriots.

"They're killing me, Whitey -- they're killing me!" and "You can get it done. You can get it done. What's more, ya GOTTA get it done!"

Jim Rome just gave a teaser to the Bills mafia. In the 2:40-3:00 slot he will be talking about the New Kings of New York. I think we know who they are...

1980. I was driving on a bridge in Chicago, listening for the scores on the radio, and when they announced that the Bills had beaten Miami I started crying and honking my horn. The drivers around me must have thought I was having a heart attack.