Pyrite Gal

Actually its not ALL about the money, its actually mostly about the money. This relatively small distinction can be very important when the amount of money offered is relatively the same (which they often are in NFL contracts as eveyone ia operating under the same slary cap). There often can be real differences in the amount of money offered as different teams assess players differently, may be more risk averse particularly given injury history and concerns, or simply have different team building strategies/ However these gross differences usually cut 90% or more of teams out of the race for a particular player and of the few teams that are left they are really offering about the same amount of money for a player. It is in the consideration between these few viable options (and it only takes one offer for a player to make more money than he thought was possible( where most things are equal financially and it comes down to decisions like whether a city seems to be a good place to live, the seeming quality of the organization and simply whether the player gets a good vibe or not. It is because of this equation that the Bills have been able to fairly recently sign sought after FAs like TKO or a player like Triplett who has several teams publicly interested in him can visit Buffalo first and then simply decide not to do anymore visits. People often theorize that Buffalo is at some great disadvantage in the FA pool because players do not want to come to our small town. However, it is the fact that Ralph's money is as green as anyone else's that in fact we can get into the game to bid for just about any FA we can afford. Once it gets to that point, there are variations on which teams and their owners are liquid enough to make a cpmtractual bid for a player though it is the same amount of money in total they are comfortable upfronting the money and the layer likes that advantage. Hpwever, with the new CBA giving teams much more latitude in how they use their money and the revenues behind the new CBA giving the economic machines more cash to play with, even this advantage is now diminished in the new economics of the NFL. Particularly since the Bills are looking for players they deem to be of a reasonable or high moral character, playing the game as straight-shooters is of real value to this team in getting good FAs.

As folks pointed out, if Ralph and the Bills simply took the step like many other teams do (Pitts was mentioned below) of tarping off some of the seats to lower the attendance possibilities then a lift of the blackout can be achieved, Many teams do this because in the multi-use stadiums they occupy the sight lines which various seats provide for football makes these marginal seats anyway or total attendance at the stadium in the winter is a different level than the total attendance which can be handled in the summer or at different events depending upon how much staff is needed for crowd control, refreshments, etc. As Ralph and the Bills could create a situation where sellouts are more easily achieved if they chose to the question is why not. Who knows for sure outside of Ralph and the Bills but my since is that the reason(s) are likely some combo of: 1. The current huge potential total attendance levels allows the Bills to maximize every nickel they can get from ticket sales and if the cost of making a few exra nickels is that a few games are blacked out after numerous sellouts then so be it. 2. Having a few games blacked out actually plays well into the Bills development strategy. The blackouts are a useful tool unfortunately if you want to leave town (one ignores the reality this was the 3rd largest crowd in the NFL last weekend and simply pretends the area does not care enought to support a pro football team or that as a small market it cannot compete. Or what I hope is the case is that this is a useful tool for building a case that the poor unwealthy Bills (yeah right) need and deserve a massive corporate welfare subsidy from NYS to build a new stadium for the sole control of the Bills. I for one think that such a subsidy would be wrong, but since I am not in charge and my team and my area would benefit greatly from NYS shipping a bunch of money upstate I am happy to deal with it.

Nope. We apparently agreed not to tag him (in fact what he and the Bills agreed to do is all supposition and no one outside of the two sides that agreed no exactly what they agreed to, neither side can be absolutely trusted in what they tell outsiders as the game here (like the draft) is to lie to others particular the media like PFW to create leverage to reach your goals). If we agreed not to tag him (either franchise or transistion) we agreed not to tag him. Either tag would eliminate or severely limit the bidding war for him. The transition tag would actually be worse for both the Bills and NC as under the rules other teams could negotiate a deal with him which would be severely limited in value for NC as teams would have to give up draft choices to get him, but it would virtually guarantee he is gone for the Bills as some team would likely be willing to make a deal for him. The Bills could try to play that game and benefit over simply losing him for nothing as the rules stipulate under FA, but to do so would lower the value Nate gets and leave a sour taste in multiple mouths which could impact the Bills rep for dealing with players in solid manner. if in fact the Bills agreed not to put the tag on him and did, they would get and deserve a rep as a lying partner to work with an it would likely hinder our ability to get FAs.

I think that Schoop and the Bulldog are actually doing their jobs quite well. The thing to remember though is that their job is to produce $ for their employer and if accomplishing this goal happens to coincide with doing good journalism or even good reporting that's great. However, if entertaining the relatively narrow audience a media station needs to make a bunch of bucks (even the most popular station be it Fox for cable news or books on the NY Times list are actually surprisingly small in terms of absolute numbers or compared to the whole of the TV watching or book buying market) happens to diverge from reporting the facts or having anything more than some half-cocked fact free opion then so be it. WGR makes its bucks by elevating the Sabres whom they carry and if badmouthing or ignoring good things done by the Bills fits into their limited sense of promoting their product this is what they do. WGR has also figured out that they can sell tons of commercials by appealing to a substantial but actually quite narrow market segment which gets off on fact-free opinions and badmouthing athletes who some folks envy for being paid a hige salary for playing a boys game then also so be it. I for one (and I suspect many folks since in their big $ picture individuals matter little so they really do not care what I or any other individual thinks as long as they get a market share which allows them to sell commercials at the rate they want) long ago tuned out and turned off WGR as simply not being good reporting or journalism about the Bills or sports generally. The Coach was overbearing, stupid and difficult to listen to after his shtick got old and he was further removed from actually being involved in the game. However, he really did know alot of football as a former coach and a number of the players personally until their careers ended. It was often worth sorting through his rambling and often silly and driven by Marv hatred opinions to get to his occaisonal good nuggets of thoughts and info. However, GR basically put him out to pasture as time went on and his shows were not worth a listen. Inevitably Schoop and Bulldog are headed the same way. I suspect Bulldog will remake himself if GR gets a contract to carry some aspect of the Bills though i suspect Schoop will find greener pastures in some other town as he portrays himself as intellectually thoughtful and simply shifting to a new opinion when the dollars call for it will not be as easy for him to pull off.

But seriously folks, while this thread is amusing and I would completely oppose the re-signing of Bledsoe, because like all other QBs (such as our fave Jimbo when he was carted off the field against Jax with a concussed addled look on his face) he got old and his time has passed. Even more to the point for our Bills, they should never resign Bledsoe to be anything other than a QB coach because we already appear to have the real deal at QB in a young, learning, and better performing as he gets more PT JP Losman. However, the arguments that seem to imply that Bledsoe was never a very good QB in his history of NFL play are simply wrong. Under Parcells as a youngster, Bledsoe played QB and actually led NE to an SB berth. His team lost the big game, but as we saw with Dan Marino, winning the SB cannot be the sole disqualifying factor for whether one declares a QB very good or not. Bledsoe never led a team to an SB victory. However, neither did Kelly or Marino and all three were undeniably (at least rationally) very good and even in some arguable measures great QBs. In fact, this thread does trot out the NE SB winning season of 2001 and attempts to claim that based on the results of that year with NE going 0 for everything until Bledsoe got his lung collapsed and the NE team became a TEAM picking up for the young Tom Brady. However, the facts of this case simply are that Bledsoe QB'ed this team successfully (behind the same OL as Brady) in the majority of a must-win in the AFC championship and even threw the winning TD in that game. The fact simply is that it is very quite very doubtful that NE would have won the SB that year without Bledsoe filling in at a key moment for the injured Brady. It clearly IMHO is the case that NE did the right thing by cutting Bledsoe and sticking with the young Brady as the QB who led them to at least two more SB wins (though NE payed a big price for this as they did not even make the playoffs in the 2002 season as they were unable to reload with FAs as they did in 2001 due to the accelerated cap hit from cutting Bledsoe). However, it also clearly seems to be the case to me that Bledsoe deserved his SB ring in 2001 as the QB for most of a must-win game. As far as the Bills decisions regarding Bledsoe, I agree with TDs decision to trade a first to acquire Bledsoe for the 2002 season. He inherited a team which had made some horrendous QB decisions going back to their failure to draft a replacement for Kelly a year earlier than they did as they made the now clearly incorrect judgment that Kelly would last longer than he did (a decision where Ralph had to pay Kelly a million bucks walking away money because of a handshake promise). The debacle of the Butler throwing a big bonus to RJ who it turned out was too injury prone to deserve it and then it linked to the cap hit from Flutie hitting all his incentives and the total being rolled into his base contract left the Bills coming offa 3-13 season with Chris Chandler and Rodney Peete as our two best options for FA QBs as AJP was clearly a great back-up QB but not starter quality. It is truly ironic that ultimately the handling of Bledsoe was so disappointing, but his emergence here as seen in the uptick in season ticket sales around the welcome Drew day really indicates he for a season or so saved the team economically (again clearly through his rep since he did not produce a playoff on the field). I think the bottomline is the question should the Bills resign Bledsoe? NO. NADA, FUGGABOUTIT he strikes me as too old. However, this is different from the question as to whether in total and in the future in retrospect whether he is a bad, average, or very good QB. I think based on the record of his having a number of outstanding statistical seasons, his pulling off the trick of being good enough to hang around for a long time he has amassed some glossy accomplishments, that he has resurrected his career which was thrown on the ashheap several times to QB winning teams, AND his record of leading the Pats early on to an unsuccessful trip to the SB and playing an essential role in a must-win game in an SB winning year. Bledsoe almost certainly makes and deserves a HOF berth. In fact since HOF membership is really a popularity contest within the committee, as long as he does not retire the same year as an even more accomplished QB like Brett Favre, he probably makes (and deserves IMHO) an HOF berth on his first ballot. It will be interesting to see if there are any evidence based opposing viewpoints or all folks can muster if they choose to waste their time trying are simple braying fact-free opinions that he is stinker. My guess is that he makes it to and deserves an HOF nod.

Actually having the Buff-Tor (or even the Tor-Buff) Bills would not only be better than having the LA Bills alternative, but IMHO if elected officials were smart enough to use this shared activity as a bridgehead to lead the way to greater integration between Buffalo and Toronto within a bi-national regional development strategy it would certainly be much to the Buffalo area's economic advantage. Such an approach while having these economic advantages, would also have the clear disadvantage for those who place their allegiance and faith in a tradtional USA political model of this model taking a major hit. While I certainly love the US and all the advantages that have come with it, I also am not unaware as some seem to be that along with these advantages come a real crop of disadvantages produced under our system as well (or perhaps some want to claim our way is perfect). In addition, I have a full awareness that for those who simply swear by tradition, then always remember that theUSA was created by a revolutionary spirit which completely rejected the traditional system in which the sun never set on the Brish empire. It is far from inconveivable to me that a new system and quite frankly a new country could be created from what can easily be seen as a huge land and population acquisition by the USA which rivals and actually exceeds by many measures past USA acquisitions from the Louisiana Purchase to Seward's Folly getting Alaska. I doubt this will happen actually, because from the Canadian perspective I seriously doubt that they would want to "trade down" to take on American economic approaches which would come from any acquisition or hybrid deal.

The difficulty I had with this one is that my wife and I come from completely different ethnic and racial groups (I used the intensifier completely as a indicator of how different our backgrounds are as there are not only the superficial color and historic background differences which we had no control over but also cultural differences where we do have more choice). Particularly since I moved to Buffalo and joined her family (her Dad and brother live all of 5 minutes away max), I consider my family to be of different ethnic and racial background than me. Thus it is fairly impossible to answer this question accurately or without total contradiction.

One thing true of most of us humans, change is hard. We often will not do it until forced to do it. This is particularly true when things seem to be going well. My guess (and it is simply a guess) is that in the first half of the season when the Bills had lost several games in a row and even when one of the things not going well was McGee's play at CB, Youbouty was still lagging from missing camp and his late start, In the second half of the season things turned around, and the pass D was one thing generally going well as we racked up wins against GB and other teams and did well in the loss to Indy. The run D sucked as LT ran over us, but even though Youbouty began to show well in practice (he must have since the Bills utilized him alot this past game and even gave him a start) there was no reason to change at that point/ However, the Crowell fracture forced a change and that is when they went to Youbouty. There certainly is a history of players showing what they can do and suddenly (so it seems) they experience great on field success. McGahee is probably the most recent example of a player who looked OK at best in his first games subbing for Henry, but the word came out of practice that he had found an extra gear and certainly his first full season showed that.

My apologies for being inarticulate in the way I stated it but actually that was exactly what I said. I tended to focus on what the players were actually doing rather than basing it on a static notion of what the players were doing based on the traditional nickle play or the traditional 3/4 or 4/3 roles. The fascinating thing about the Jauron/Fewell scheme is that they used the "nickle" on non-traditional nickle down and distances. By employing the nickle on first and ten or second and whatever, they essentially invited NYJ to run on them and pick up the 4-6 yards the nickle is happy to give up on a 3ed and long yardage. They demanded of the extra nickle DB that he play the traditional role of an LB amd be there to stop the run. The fact they went with Youbouty rather than Wire who they brought in to replace Crowell in the last win was actually a tremendous endorsement of their faith in Youbouty to play the game correctly. Based on the results this is what seemed to happen.

Actually the Youbouty play on Sunday is most notable in that he actually was one of our starters. The surprising thing to me was that he actually was named as our starter at weakside LB according to the NFL Notebook. My recollection was that the TV announcers said it was Ellison starting in Cowell's place, but given that the official gamenotes credit Toubouty with one of hid assisted tackles early in the game and Ellison is not listed as coming in to substitute until the game was well underway, I think this is likely once again a case of the media being wrong about a fairly fundamental point. Why would Jauron.Fewell start Youbouty seemingly out of position? Several reasons I would guess at: 1. This wrinkle provided Pennington, Schottenheimer and the Jets with something to think about off the bat. Should they simply go with their gameplan and attempt to beat the Bills straight up first? Should they look to pick on this rookie playing out of position that he was drafted for? If you do pick on him then how, with the TE by sending the back into the pass pattern or simply by running to the weakside? Whatever the Jets did, did not work the first couple of series and Pennington seemed to have difficulty getting a rythym. The queer set up may have been a part of this. It certainly was an approach that seemed to pinch down on the Jets tendency to use short passes alot. It makes sense that the Bills in fact would use what is in essence a 4/2/5 as the weak running Jets team was primarily stopped by the front four and clamping down on the short passing game makes some sense. 2, The Bills actually are showing a bias toward playing 5 DBs now that they have to go with Cowell. Not only was Youbouty apparently employed as an LB, but Coy Wire re-emerged as a contributing Bill not at the safety position where he historically kept getting burned, but as a lighterweight than normal LB. This move regarding Wire actually makes sense as he has a better rep as a tackler than as a coverage guy. Playing him as an LB (particularly on the weakside where he does not draw directly the TE coverage role means that his coverage skills which are substandard for a DB actually might prove to be an asset against the poorer route running and lesser hands of many RBs versus WRs. 3. The move really expresses a lot of confidence in Youbouty's brain to rely on him not getting confused playing a new position and also his tackling ability as he was being counted upon to lay the lumber on the NYJ RB by committee. Overall, I think it really comes off as whining to complain about Youbouty's play. He started on a D which stood up to and confused the NYJ O pretty well. Oennington, usually a very good decision-maker came off as tentative and ineffective to start, drove his team to a lead with the help of a solid return and a turnover, but was simply shut down for the Bills as our pass coverage scheme led to a TD on an UNT and several sacks and pressures as Pennington did not get the ball off quickly to his first choices. I think Youbouty did a good job and the fact the he was a starter and logged some good minutes playing against a team who could not score sufficiently to stay in the game indicates that his unit did well and certainly was not dragged down by any faults has with the particulars of his play.

Well, no one would mistake him for D'Brick or more accurately for Nate Clements but despite the fears he seemed to do okay today being pressed into service to play a back-up role. All kidding aside I think the bottomline is that all in all despite grief from the pundits for missing the boat on the draft in his first go round as GM it looks like Marv gets the preliminary laugh at the pundits in terms of judging this year's draft.

I think the simpler explanation rather than any grand judgments being made about Youbouty as being a mispick or a failure at this early date in his career (we have seen way too many examples of players who easily could have been judged failures at the early stages of their careers who later became Pro Bowlers like Moulds that it would simply be nuts to reach such a conclusion regarding Youbouty at this point) is that he was understood to be a player who was physically talented but needed some time off the Pro field before he was ready to play. This was true even if he had enjoyed a full camp and had no distractions even when he was in. The reality is that the Bills only judged Youbouty to be in their plans to see the field this year if he absorbed the D right away and played well enough during experiment time in pre-season that he demanded to be played. The reality was that he had zero absorption of the new D due to timing of a parental death and the extra familial responsibilities he had to carry. Further, when he finally came to the team, all prep and time was given to starting two rookies in the secondary due to the injury to TV. If there were any rational hopes of accelerating his learning when the season started, they were put on hold by the huge number of rookies who started and the team having far bigger fish to fry than devote time to training a rookie in the basics of the D (the level where he was regardless of any physical talent shown) much beyond TV playing coach til he went elsewhere. I do not think that even if he was fine with nothing abnormal in his life that one could reach any definite conclusions about him not playing much. The bad timing (as if there is a good time for a death of a parent) meant that Youboty was a non issue as a potential starter or even significant player from the start. In fact, given that the rap on him was a lack of maturity which impacted the mental side of the game for him, the real-life pressure which demands immediate adulthood and responsibility for him and the singular focus he has been forced to have on watching and learning the game may in fact coincidentally the best thing for him in terms of his developing as a player. Maybe not also and the real answer is we will see, However, the theory of him maturing as he clearlt needed to do is at least as valid a possibility if not more calid than the idea that KT is clearly the better player. The question about Youbouty was never his physcal ability. In fact, he is physically gifted enough that he was easily seen as a player capable of coming out early and even spirred some first rounder talk.

While no results do not bode well as an indication of his ability, there clearly are so many non-football play issues involved in the KT vs. Youbouty thang that it seems fairly rediculous to draw many conclusions about what this says about Youbputy's general abilities or any conclusion as to what this would mean for next year. Specifically, despite his up and down moments, one of the main things which he has going for him is that he is familiar with Jauron/Fewell and the Jauron/Fewell system and style from before. The importance of this factor is magnified this year as the coaches are getting into a totally new situation and the familiarity which comes with KT is a welcome aspect amidst so many variables. Yet, it is clear that it is not the case that KT is the perfect player it is simply the case that his limitations are a known commodity amidst many unknowns as to what players can/can't do and how the Bills system works/dpes not work. Next year, with a seasons experience under their belt, KT will likely be judged more on what he can/cannot do versus the same for Youbouty. Further, it is of import not only that Youbouty missed invalubable camp time, but why he missed it. Recovering from physical injury and its uncertainties is one thing, but Youbouty missed time because his mother died and he is the oldest son and to my understanding (and please correct me if I am wrong since I tend to not follow the soap operas inherent in the game but this one impacts play so i have noticed but not focused on it) is really the man of the house for his young siblings. At any rate while Youbouty does not have the usual physical uncertainties of missed time to recover from. He clearly has been knocked for a loop as most losing a parent would be and has had additional responsiblities forced on him at an age many young folks do not. Clearly losing the person who raised you can knock some for a loop (see our old tackle MW) but like it or not it is a measure of character whether it does and many folks recover from this horrendous trauma to be better people. We'll see. In addition to the parent loss trauma, Youbouty has the extra complication of being the man of the house, and fortunately, his new job gives him at least an advantage as a breadwinner. The scuttlebutt is that he needed some finishing anyway to gain some maturity and he has gotten it bigtime from a non football occurence. As a Bills fan and more as a person I hope he steps up to this challenge and it helps him be a better player and more important a better person, but all bets are off IMHO about figuring out which will be the outcome in this case.

My first reaction to the article was that this was good news for the Bills as this deal seems to cement the Jets and the Giants in as the two teams who play their home games in NJ leaving the Bills as the only team to play in a home stadium in New York State. I did worry about the precedent which would be set for NYS if it ever floats and backs a substantial bond to pay for building a new stadium in WNY if that deal leads to the state spending a bunch of corporate welfare on the NY teams after the sent dollars out way. This deal leaves the Bills as the only tea, in NYS and perhaps Ralph can extort this huge taxpayer subsidy for his business. It would be philosophically wrong but certainly WNY and Bills fans would make out like bandits if this gift from downstate residents who fork over the vast lionshare of NYS tax dollars to those of us who live in WNY. Ralph may truly be senile and voted against this, but being a good businessman I soubt he would turn down free money,

Exactly! I think this is a spot on set of stats which demonstrates that Sportsguy's observation while generally substantively correct are merely a superficial read on the situation which does not go to enough detail and depth to provide a more valid explanation of reality, Whats even more interesting and shows one of the great limits of stats in termsw of trying to describe reality (basically it demonstrates how things may be accurate but still may not be true) is that what the individual stats do not give true justice in explaining is that this sport is a TEAM game and not an individual game. JP can make great passes which a player drops and his stats may end up lousy though he did most things right. Conversely he may make a lousy pass but if Evans pulls off a circus catch or aa poorly thrown deflected ball bounces the right way he gets credit for a reception or even a TD when he threw a lousy pass or to the wrong receiver. Stats are indicative but not conclusive. Stats can even be deceptive or flat out wrong with a superficial read or when a dumb conclusion is drawn from them. What actually is interesting here is that this team game is at its best when it proves to be a TEAM game. A good QB sometimes proves to be a GREAT QB when through force of his personal will (Kelly) and/or good judgment (Brady) or both (Montana) its not simply that his is a good individual player but he actually gets the players around him to perform better. Montana had the great skill to inspire even seemingly average players to do great things and also the great judgment to throw questionable passes where only his guy could get them (the high TD to Clark in a playoff game for a winning TD) or the great judgment to throw the ball up for grabs to a great player who often won battles with DBs (many TDs to Rice). Its not that his passes were so great, its simply that they worked and his stats are best understood in demonstrating that not so much that he was a Marino like passer. The place where the stats tend to really show little is when you look at true team or TEAM stats like wins where it actually is the performance of the D (and even ST) that is the factor among many which makes the difference. For example dis RJ fail as a finisher because the Bills lost to TN in a playoff game, The QB stats can be read to say yes, but do not really reflect the fact he drove the team to a FG which put them in the lead with a mere one play left and that they actually lost that game because the Bills salary cap ravaged roster had youngsters on ST who did not stay in their lanes leading to the Homerun Throwup. I like Bart's stats as they really show a deepe statistical analysis which shows the failing of Sportsguys superficial cut.

My first reaction to the article was that this was good news for the Bills as this deal seems to cement the Jets and the Giants in as the two teams who play their home games in NJ leaving the Bills as the only team to play in a home stadium in New York State. I did worry about the precedent which would be set for NYS if it ever floats and backs a substantial bond to pay for building a new stadium in WNY if that deal leads to the state spending a bunch of corporate welfare on the NY teams after the sent dollars out way. This deal leaves the Bills as the only tea, in NYS and perhaps Ralph can extort this huge taxpayer subsidy for his business. It would be philosophically wrong but certainly WNY and Bills fans would make out like bandits if this gift from downstate residents who fork over the vast lionshare of NYS tax dollars to those of us who live in WNY. Ralph may truly be senile and voted against this, but being a good businessman I soubt he would turn down free money,

Because for some gambling is a sickness rather than a form of entertainment. It is not a good investment strategy as there are simply less risky and easier ways to make a buck. However, money can be made if you are willing to either furnish the entertainment and take a good chunk off the top regardless of who wins (the casinos and professional bookies) or you are willing to prey upon those who do illogical things because they are not really addicted to winning, but addicted to the rush they feel from the chance they might lose. The person who bet $3400 to win $200 was likely addicted to the rush he felt for taking this illogical risk.

A little relieved or hopeful is probably a better way to describe my sense of his play than hopeful actually (its hard to describe anything good about the LB play yesterday on a day when the LT led running game simply shredded the Bills in the first half to take a big lead and when necessary at the end of the game when their goal was to burn clock and get out of Dodge). However, TKO's production was so hirrid last week when he put up but one solo tackle, that even the usual hyperventilating of some TSW whiners that it was time to cut him while generally ignorable because it was an over-reaction did raise some fears his injury last year might signal the end of his life as the footbsll demon most of us have grown to respect. TKO is still a long way from back to his Pro Bowl status he had formally. In fact, as he is just hitting the corner in terms of age, he may well never be the feared player he once was for us. The good news yesterday amidst another dismal loss was that TKO certainly showed signs that: 1. The football rational judgment is to realize that his injury last year was so severed that while it was an unreasonable dream to think he would recover to his feared status this year, it is possible that he may recover well enough to be a solid (though almost certainly not feared Pro Bowl level) LB again next year. 2. One wonders to what extent that the TKO production so far was lowered not only by him recocvering from injury but also having to play a new position as he switched LB sides seemingly to take it a little easier on his recovering body. To some extent he may have produced a little better yesterday as the injury to Crowell simply forced the scheme to adapt to whatever he brought to the table whether forcing him to adapt to the scheme. 3. One also wonders to what extent this season really is seing him recover from two injuries, not merely the tear last year, but the first game hammy injury which not only slowed him in play, but slowed him in ongoing recovery work which saw him produce a great sack on the first play this season. While he and the rest of the depleted LB corps struggled big time against the best rusher in the league (surprise as who has not stuggled against LT) yesterday's performance does provide some hope that TKO is not done by a longshot yet.

While I found both the USC/UCLA games and the OSU/Mich games interesting and enjoyable to watch, my major thought regarding the BCS (on this NFL team bulletin board) was that they key here is that they were good GAMES appropriate to what I think college is for, and it is quite silly the debate over whether Florida or Michigan deserves the BUSIBESS opportunity to play in the BCS championship game. My interest in college football has decreased a lot (actually probably because I am fortunately getting the chance to get older and am almost officially a curmudgeon) because it has become clearer and clearer that college football Division I is little more than a taxpayer subsidized minor league development system for the NFL. College football used to be better when every league championship was the true goal of teams rather than currently the league series are simply pre-seasons to find a top team in the division is worthy of the subjective designation to play in the BCS championship series. I love both the professional game and the academic game, However, this hybrid is fairly stupid. The NCAA and college ball should make a decision and either have league championships be truly competitive big deals (right now it becomes fairly clear which two teams are gonna fight it out for a chance at the undefeated season which is necessary to have a shot at #1 pretty early and the league championships- particularly with the larger leagues having two divisions and uneven scheduling- are really diminished in import) or instead make it professional and end the illusion that these players are truly student/athletes. For me its a choice between watching competitive games or watching pre-season exhibition as the athlete/students really get themselves primed to play in the NFL, CFL or Europe. It really makes little difference whether Mich or FL plays against OSU.

The private sector through the purchase of bonds initially offered by a NYS authority which can get far better rates of return on the investment than private sector bonds because of the lower risk in government securities. In the long run NYS will pay back the bonds when they mature using tax revenues spread across all the taxpayers in the state and what ever largesse is negotiated for a cut of the revenues from the stadium. It results in a great deal for WNY if this is the method chosen for cash generation as the costs are spread across all taxpayers and thus the much larger population center downstate shares in the costs but WNY gets most of the revenue in the form of the job estra generated starting with construction and going through the heightened activity in ghe depressed urban core. The question is not whether the upfront cash can be generated (Ralph can do this himself if he chose to go into debt now for the likely greater returns in profit from theNFL cash cow, however, the question for him is why should he borrow when local taxpayers are willing to pay him the money for this product). The question is whether the political leadership of NYS is wiling to spread this debt cost over the entire state for WNY. My sense is the answer can be yes as: 1. When NYC and its suburbs split evenly between the Dems and GOP, then WNY wields disproportionate power as the major swing area in the state, If NYS flosts the bond for a WNY stadium authoroty and locks the Bills in here then Spitzer and the Dems will get the credit for holding this team in WNY for the forseeable future. 2, The Bills are actually the one team which plays in NYS and were they to move it would be an unacceptable embarassment for the state. 3. Floating a bond for WNY strngthens the hands of those who wish to see a similar authority to be created to build a stadium in NYC. 4. The $800 million cost is large to the normal person but really is chump change in the huge NYS market of finanical generation led by the Wall St. cash cow and the tax dollars it generates. 5. Stadiums are genarally not the best or even a good investment for cash generation by a state or municipality. However. Buffalo is so moribund in terms of downtown activity by like it or not the urban core of the region this investment will not have to move the dial very far in terms of increased activity to mark a substantial increase in urban core activity. If one builds a stadium as laid out by the article in Buffalo Rising that is design to look beyond the central failing of an NFL Stadium that it only provides 8 regular season and 2 preseason dates to build othersatellite draws which generate more regular traffic it can be a positive investment for the City and the surrounding suburbs who like it or not have their vitality determined in many ways by the vitality of urban core. It is going to be difficult to bring off but it is not complex at all.

I thought the debate was interesting and actually well worthy of The Stadium Wall

Actually the exact opposite may well be true. The best way to stop LT is by having SD do it by them choosing to go to the passing game as a major part of their offense because they feel a need to put up some points quickly. I do not think the Bills D can effectively control LT because even if they play well, teams that have played well have not really nullified LT this season. WM is good as seen by his yardage production before injury and as seen in his great work last week, but if this game turns into a shootout between LT and WM on the way to a 20-17 outcome I do not like our chances to be on the 20 side of the score. I doubt that SD puts 35 on the board in an away game against us after flying cross country, but I like our chances better in a shootout against SD which relies on both teams throwing the ball primarily than I do in a ball controll game where the RBs are the prime determinant of who wins. In either case it may well be Moorman and how well he handles the wind and flips the field versus SD which determines the outcome.

I would disagree in that he has shown mental ability that is easily the norm in terms of textbook knowledge of the offensive scheme and the plays. What he seems to lack which can be called mental ability is the ability to put this book knowledge and his physical skills together at the same time. He has shown a lack of something which could be called "mental ability" but we would all benefit from folks explaining what they mean when using this buzz phrase. IMHO JP has shown throughout his career and also some this year that he runs into trouble when he tries to do a bumch of things at the same time and one of them is a new way of operating instead of the instinctive improvisation he did well with running for his life behind the Tulane sieve OL. He has a problem and screws up, but responds well to training and fixes it. The coaches add something, and then he screws up again. However, rather than screwing up the new thing, he can become so focused on doing it, what he screws up is some elemental part of the game. For example, he got thrown in doing mop-up for Bledsoe and got his clocked cleaned by NE as he simply had not mastered calling and running the plays. His next game he did get the calls right handing off to McGahee several times in a row for a TD, but not before getting called for a delay of game penalty as he focused so much on calling the plays that initially he failed to control the huddle and transfer info smoothly. The next game, he avoided the penaltym but still had to take a stupid TO to acoid the flag when his job was to run the clock. He did lead the team to a TD though, Finally in his next appearance he showed the talent Mort was referring to when he pulled off a nice scramble on 3rd down to get the first down and keep the clock moving. However, he did give us all pause because he had picked up the 1st but instead of sliding in bounds he delivered a hit on the tackler to get a meaningless two yards and went OB to stop the clock. This is JP. Quite talented as he used his legs and threw a nice pass to score each time after the first debacle, but even though he improved from being killed, to merely taking a needless penalty, to merely taking a needless TO, to subjecting himself to a needless hit in his quest for a score, it clearly is a slow process. In 2006 we saw a new version of his slow learning as his game once again improved greatly as he was clearly in over his head as a starter last year to the point some accused him of having happy feet. However, this year he hangs in the pocket and sometimes takes a hit with the best of 'em, but the new sideeffect which emerged was a bad habit of focusing too much on the player he is throwing to. He seems to have tamed this beast to the extent he has led the team to wins in 3 of the last 4 games and managed the O pretty well in a game where they were clearly outclassed by Indy. Perhaps he has finally learned how to multi-task. We'll see. However, I have no problem with his ability to grasp the plays, the scheme and even to make good judgments about where to throw. However. he has not shown us yet the ability to multi-task and do it all at the same time though the results the last two weeks are promising.

There are simply too many examples of individual players defying the conventional wisdom and rehabbing from injuries which seemed certain to end their careers (WM for example) and also older players who the conventional wisdom says they should have been done years ago, but they just keep seeming to hang around and the professional evaluators deem them to be contributors (I for one thought Seau was a done wheb Miami signed him way back when but clearly the pro evaluators see something I do not which is not surprising as I like the rest of is are rank amateurs as far as this goes). Ae any rate it is still too early to right TKO off as someone to be cut or even someone who must be forced to take a pay cut. We have too much cap room not to wait to see what reality is in this case.

There are several other offensive differences from early in the season which came about aroung the bye week I also think are differences (and possible reasons for the changes) 1. More one back sets- I think that this may be the route we are going toward more because of some general boners and undistinguished play by Shelton. 2. Better TE production- I think that Cieslak moving ahead of Everett on the depth charts are indicators of better production from Cieslak as this is in essence Everett's rookie year. Its not that Cieslak is all that experienced either, but Everett looks like a rookie out there having lost his entire first season to injury. 3. Better play calling by Fairchild- As a first time OC he really needed half of a season to develop more of a feel for the game. I am also curious to see how the team plays with Reed back. I actually prefer our O without him because having 2 or 3 speed freaks on the field at the same time has simply forced us to go a bit deeper because Fairchild no longer had a true possesion receiver to rely on (they forced PP into this roll relatively ineffectively actually). The OL is much improved with the new line-up as both new guys are getting the chance they were hungry for and the OL knows that if they do not play well that like Reyes they will be made inactive or like CV the team is not reluctant to IR a player whose work drops off due to injury. I think the irony for us outside observers is that despite the overfocus of many on TSW om the high profile RB and QB positions, the shift from WM to Thomas and back has made little discernable difference in production either way and its the same JP early and late he is just employed differently so the conclusions drawn by some of him either not having it or having it has less to do with his output than how he is used.