Albany,n.y.

NE was in worse shape when Parcells went there in 1993. When he left NE for the Jets, the Jets were just as bad. Chuck Knox came here in 1978 under similar circumstances. All he had was Fereguson and an aging OJ, who he promptly traded.

Big difference. When you're an assistant you do what your boss says to do. When the job is your's you do what you think you should do. Just because Jones trained him, doesn't mean he's doing the things Jones would had done. He may have been a good assistant to Jones & can still be bad on his own. Just look at all the hot assistant coaches who can't hack it as head coaches. Same thing may be true here with Jones/Allaire.

Just a coincidence. The rustproofing company was around long before Jones was a Bills assistant. "Hello Rusty Jones, goodbye rusty cars."

Heard locally. That's why I have no idea how accurate this is.

File this in the rumor pile. All my family lives in the SF/Oakland Bay area. One of them told me Trent isn't playing because of a concussion and that he's being checked out by a specialist. I told him that he got the concussion weeks ago but he thought it was more recent than that. Now I don't know if this has any merit. The one thing I know is its more likely to come out of Northern California, since he's from Los Gatos & went to Stanford than Buffalo the way the Bills keep everything from the WNY media. If this is true, it might explain why he seemed to get worse as the game went on in Tennessee, especially if the latest concussion came in the Tennessee game. It was awfully odd to see him get pulled at the end last week.

No JP tonight he injured his left pinky last week & is being rested until next week's game. Tim Rattay is starting for Vegas.

In Albany there's no one accent. I would say it's close to none, but I've heard bits of different accents from some natives, but no common one among them . The one you heard was like a New York City one, but I hardly hear it here. When I go downstate I start to laugh because so many people tawk New Yawk down there. Me, I've got bits of everything from NYS. I was born in the Bronx, grew up in Nassau county Long Island, then went to Fredonia at 17 and at one time picked up a little WNY accent, then shuttled back & forth between Buffalo & LI, finally settling in Albany almost 22 years ago. I don't have any regional accent in my words, but my tone is more NYC than elsewhere.

When I was in high school in Long Island a girl in our class had just moved there from Chicago. The teacher put these three words on the blackboard & asked her to say them: Mary, merry, marry. When she said them, they all sounded the same. If you don't have that accent, they are three distinctively different sounding words. The class all laughed at her and then the teacher continued teaching the class in a New Yawk accent.

JP should have a good game against the worst team in the league. I saw the Sentinals live last week in Hartford and they're pretty bad. Too bad Cottrell has such a bad roster to coach.

Ok, then please explain why Chuck Knox came here in 1978 from Los Angeles. Not everyone has the attitude about outsiders coming to Buffalo as you do, otherwise no free agents would ever sign with the Bills.

Haslett has about the same resume as Jauron. One really good season and a bunch of bad ones. Then an interim gig where the team had virtually no interest in keeping him on as head coach. Just because he's got the best bunch of NFL rejects in a 4 team league, doesn't mean he should coach the Bills. 11 years ago, before Haslett proved his mediocrity as a head coach, I wanted him instead of Wade. Haslett isn't much as a head coach.

1) Assuming you're talking Bills picks, see Walt Patulski

It's 9:00 for those of us on the east coast. Anyone attending the game will get a free ticket to the championship game next Friday 12:00 Pacific, 3:00 eastern time. I figured out what's going on with this league. They're living off TV money. Incredibly, they have a two year deal worth $35 million a year. With a salary structure of $35,000 for players, except QBs who get $60,000 they can thrive on that $35 million. That's why the stands are always empty & even though attendance is less than half of what they're claiming, they can survive without any fans in the stands (it's pretty close to that now). The moment of truth comes after season 2 when they either have to sign a new tv deal or fold. Also everyone is free to go to the NFL after the championship game.

More than anyone else the biggest failure in this organization is John Guy. Just look at some of the bigger busts who has been signed as free agents during his reign of error: Matt Bowen Derrick Dockery Melvin Fowler Kelly Holcomb Craig Nall Tutan Reyes Robert Royal Trey Teague Larry Tripplett Langston Walker Jason Whittle Just look at all the bad offensive linemen we signed with Guy as the guy.

Until this year, when apathy set in early due to all the losing, you could easily sell a Bills ticket for 150% of face on ticket exchange. So if the Bills are winning, they could charge 50% more than what they're charging for most seats now & people would pay. When I went to Giants Stadium this year to see the Bills, my bus trip was $119 & the tickets in the nosebleed sections we were in were $75 each. They'll be more for the Jets next year in the new stadium. My typical day at the Ralph: Ticket $45, Tolls around $22, Parking $20, Gas $60. That's close to $150 per game, over if you count food. Since the ticket is less than 1/3rd the cost, I'd be willing to pay a lot more for a winner.

JaMarcus Russell WAS the #1 pick overall and he's hardly OK.

I've seen JP having success this year when his receivers got wide open & he didn't throw it over their heads like he's done numerous times this year. What I haven't seen is too many passes that have been spot on in heavy coverage-something a successful NFL QB has to do every now & then.

This is the official sign that Trent Edwards days as a starter are over, although he could be back this year because of an injury or because Fitzpatrick isn't much. The only reason Hamdan was here was to give Trent an extra coach on the sidelines. Hamdan was Edwards' best friend on the team, once Edwards fell out of favor, Hamdan wasn't long for this team.

Based on a Rob Johnson type 1 game showcase, it looks like the only hope for success, after this week's benchings of Russell & Trent, is Kevin Kolb. Here is the QB draft class of 2007 *-already cut by the team that drafted him 1st rd: Russell, Quinn 2nd rd: Kolb, Beck*, Stanton 3rd rd: Edwards 4th rd: Stanback (WR)* 5th rd: Rowe*, Smith 6th rd: J. Palmer* 7th rd: Thigpen*

The Bills just cut a former NFLE MVP. Just goes to show all the JP lovers how meaningless some minor league stats are, and JP isn't even the best QB in a 4 team league. I've seen all his games except the game in NY after the Yankees game 6 came on. Same old JP, weaker competition. I'm sure JP also looks good when he plays sandlot ball with a bunch of kids from the block.

He's playing against minor league competition. That's not making strides, its called a drop in class in horse racing. He still makes too many mistakes, and holds onto the ball too long, which causes too many sacks. Last week after a play that JP got sacked, McGuire was practically yelling at him on the air for taking a stupid sack by not getting rid of the ball. Do you know what the UFL announcers have been commending JP for once in a while? -When he checks down-something Edwards has already mastered. The only reason that JP has the ability to get better is because he's so bad. That doesn't ever mean he actually will get better, just that there is so much room for improvement. I've seen him playing all year in the UFL & factoring in the drop in level of competition, I can say he's not one iota better than when he played with the Bills. As for Edwards, like JP, he's now a part of Bills' history and for all intents & purposes, totally irrelevant. The thing JP lovers who have blamed Bills coaches always fail to bring up is that JP had one of the most respected coaches for developing QBs in the business, Sam Wyche, and he couldn't learn squat from him and these idiots say the Bills coaching ruined JP.

Not really. Because of the Rooney rule they have to have open interviews, not zero in on a name like Detroit did when they hired Mariucci & the NFL slapped them for it. You can't do those interviews in season. The next team would likely get a much greater punishment than Detroit including possibly voiding of the contract like last year when the league voided the clause that Haslett had with St. Louis that if he won so many games he'd get the permanant job.

I play the guess which column is Jerry's game too. Wasn't very hard this week.

I tried to think back to the mid 80s teams & who was left from the bad squads when we got good. Using that as a guide, I could see these guys on a Super Bowl team down the road. Some guys, like Stroud, I don't expect to be around in the 2-3 years needed to rebuild. 31 Byrd, Jairus S 5-10 200 23 R Oregon 27 Corner, Reggie CB 5-9 175 25 2 University of Akron 83 Evans, Lee WR 5-10 197 28 6 Wisconsin 22 Jackson, Fred RB 6-1 215 28 3 Coe College 25 Lankster, Ellis CB 5-9 190 22 R West Virginia 67 Levitre, Andy OL 6-2 305 23 R Oregon State 9 Lindell, Rian K 6-3 233 32 10 Washington State 24 McGee, Terrence CB 5-9 198 29 7 Northwestern State 8 Moorman, Brian P 6-0 172 33 9 Pittsburgh State 89 Nelson, Shawn TE 6-5 240 24 R Southern Mississippi 51 Posluszny, Paul LB 6-1 238 25 3 Penn State 65 Sanborn, Garrison LS 6-0 240 24 R Florida State 20 Whitner, Donte S 5-10 208 24 4 Ohio State 95 Williams, Kyle DT 6-1 306 26 4 Louisiana State 70 Wood, Eric OL 6-4 315 23 R Louisville 60 Butler, Brad OL 6-7 315 26 4 Virginia 28 McKelvin , Leodis CB 5-10 184 24 2 Troy

In case anyone I know wants some. Plus by the end of the game, I knew they were just going to throw them out.