Rubes

A new stadium would be fantastic, and I agree that this might be what all the posturing is about. I'm sure the league, and some of the larger market owners, would love to see it as well. The main reason is that new stadiums bring greater revenue -- mostly due to the luxury suites, though. That's where the argument suffers, I think. Buffalo has never been able to sell it's luxury suites easily, whereas it's much easier in larger markets. I do think that a new stadium which seats more in the 60,000-70,000 range would benefit the Bills in terms of sellouts, but the problem is that ticket prices are bound to go up, and even at the current bargain prices (relatively speaking) we still can't guarantee sellouts. So I think there are a many good things that could come from a new stadium, but a lot of question marks remain.

Let's face it, JP's production this year has not been fantastic, but it's due to a number of factors that most of those gearheads either can't or won't take the time to appreciate. Certainly, in-game experience has a lot to do with it, but the problems along the offensive line have a ripple effect. Those two things together have an effect on protection schemes, which then affect playcalling, which then affect the number of receivers running certain routes, which then affect JP's options, and so on. Fairchild has said it himself: problems with JP's and the OL's inexperience have really restricted the offense, and that more than anything else is why we're not seeing great production out of people like Royal, Price, and Reed. As we are able to have TE's and RB's go out in pass patterns instead of staying in to block, and as we are able to go to more four and five receiver sets instead of keeping TE's and backs in for blocking, we'll start seeing greater production both from JP and from the different receivers. It will come. It already is, actually.

If it's true, then I'm glad to hear that the Phins really aren't 21-0 better than the Pats. It would also be good to have this come to light now, right before we play them, to help get rid of any possible advantage for them. The other thing to think about is that, when a team is on the road (vs at home), their signals for such things might be different owing to the effect of crowd noise. That shouldn't come into play next game.

Well, Green Bay and the Colts were the first two games after the switch, so I'm willing to give them at least a partial mulligan for those. They are definitely showing improvement over the last few weeks, and they have faced a couple of very good defensive fronts in San Diego and Jacksonville. Both were at home, however, where we have a small advantage, and even then they had their troubles. Against those teams on the road, they would not have done so well. That said, I think we need to look at the line in terms of steps: first, they need to demonstrate that they can handle an average defensive front. I expect they will still struggle against the good fronts, but that will come later, assuming they are coming along as we hope they will.

This place never ceases to amaze me.

Just curious what an analysis of Schobel in the first quarter would look like.

That has really been the achilles heel of this offense all season. Fairchild has even said it. We've had to keep backs and TEs in far too often to help out the linemen. Once that starts changing, we'll start seeing some great things...especially from guys like Price and Reed.

Great work, and great to hear. I saw a couple of times where he was one-on-one with the DE. Help was available from the FB, but the FB never ended up doing anything because he didn't need the help.

What in the world does Art Shell have to do with anything?

Here's something to research...how is it that ESPN has such creative commercials for SportsCenter, but the Magazine has the worst commercials ever made?

Don't really know much about him, to be honest...

Get your flu shots!

- How sweet was it to see the Bills actually control the ball in the 4th quarter? We started the quarter with a 15 point lead, and that's when you need an offense to stick it to the defense by running it up the gut and get a bunch of first downs. I could hardly believe it. When we kicked the field goal to make it a 3 score game, I actually thought it was a textbook performance by the coaches and the offense. And on the road? Against a team desperate for a win? - Kudos to April for negating the Jet's dangerous kickoff return team. They stung us on that 42-yard return early in the game, but after that April and the kickoff crew switched to short, high kickoffs near the sidelines, away from their return guy. It gave them decent field position, but it negated the big, game-changing play. Lindell is proving to be as masterful at kickoff placement as Moorman is with punts. - McNally's quote from the Buff News today says a lot: (Buff News was incorrect; it was the fourth quarter drive.) McNally likes Gandy at guard; he doesn't often throw around praise, even words like "good". And it pretty much shows how careful he is being with the right side. It would be great to pick his brain at the end of the season to see if he is high on either Preston or Pennington. If he is, then we might be in decent shape, needing only one solid offensive lineman for next season. My guess is we spring for a guard and keep Pennington, unless he screws the pooch in the last three games. - Fewell really seems to like Youboty. Granted, he has been reluctant to put him out there until now, but it sounds like he's doing a good job. If we can re-sign Nate, our defensive backfield is going to be solid for a long time. Even if we can't, we might be in good shape if Thomas continues to play as well as he has. I wouldn't want to count on that, though. - Price made a great sideline catch. Too bad we didn't review it, but I can understand why with it being so close. - Did we blitz at all in that game? We had great pressure on Pennington most of the time, but I don't recall seeing any linebackers or safeties gunning for him. That kind of pressure from the front four is critical to the success of this defense.

We have that much cap space because of all the contracts that are up this year. It will take a lot to re-sign those guys, and I definitely want us to re-sign most of them.

Seeing Pinto Kenny live at a Bills game is something every Bills fan should do at least once in his or her lifetime.

That's be my guess...I can't really explain otherwise how Pennington kept him so far away from JP!

You're probably right, although I'm hoping that would be tempered by a strong finish to this season and his eagerness to be a part of this team's resurgence over the next couple of years.

As far as DT goes, we may be relatively okay. Triplett is steady, and probably would be better with a more dominating guy next to him. McCargo, IIRC, plays the same spot and with those two we would have a pretty solid position there. The other DT spot is manned by Williams and Anderson. Williams is still raw, and may prove to be a good player, but right now he should be the backup in a rotation at that position. The problem, as I see it, is Anderson. We really need someone who can dominate at that spot, and if we can find someone to take Anderson's spot, I'd be happy with the Triplett-McCargo-Williams-[Other Guy] rotation. If the other guy is a true disrupter, we would then be in great shape. So all I'd be looking for this offseason, actually, is a guy to stick in front of Williams in the depth chart.

I remember watching the replay and thinking it was an awesome catch by Price, and that they should challenge it. I'm not surprised, though, because it was very close, and the chances of it being overturned would not have been great. That said, I find it hard to believe the NFL doesn't do two things: - make sure teams have at least one quick opportunity to view a play before the next one. It would be hard to fit that in with the time clock between plays, but it just seems so arbitrary when some plays are shown on the scoreboard and when some are not. It seems like a situation that is ripe for competitive imbalance, in that the home team might benefit from seeing replays more often. - have more freaking cameras at each game. That one might be more up to the networks, but the NFL should really put that into the contract with them. There is so much money in the NFL now I can't really understand why this isn't done.

I only focused on Pennington on one pass play; he was one-on-one with a DE and he completely stoned him.

Personally, I would lay this one on Mangini and the coaches more than Pennington. The Bills have some pretty big weaknesses on defense and the Jets did just about all they could to ignore them. And Pennington played like crap, too!

Whatever you need to do, get 'er done!

Maybe Robert Royal will be the next Gates!

Who dat at the top of the list this week?? Week 14 AFC East QB ratings: Losman: 140.8 Harrington: 89.6 Pennington: 61.8 Brady: 55.1 Now that's what I'm looking for this late in the season.

Good to see the old Joe back.