Rubes

No pun intended.

By replacing him with a lighter, slimmer version of himself? And thanks for doing that, Lori. It's hard to judge which is worse...yards per game or yards per carry. To think that there was a team that allowed over 200 yards rushing per game over an entire season just blows my mind, though I would have guessed it was the 84-85 team. But these days, with more of an emphasis on the passing game, I'd think yards per carry is more important, and it's interesting to see that yes, this is as bad as it has been.

Thank you.

This thread is really inspiring. Really.

I've been watching this team for a long time now. My earliest memory of watching the Bills was during the 1975 season when we lost to Miami (almost 31 years ago to the day...12/7/75), which eliminated us from the playoff chase. That was the game where, you guessed it, the refs screwed us badly with the Mercury Morris non-fumble call, followed by the 15-yarder against Toomay for brushing up against the ref. Sigh. My first Bills memory is of one of the most heinous screw jobs by the refs against us. Anyhoo, I haven't really paid much attention to stats until fairly recently, and I know we've had some seriously bad defenses over the years, like in the late '70s and mid-'80s, but come on now. The numbers being put up against this defense are just astounding. Overall, on the season, teams are averaging over 140 yards per game, and almost 5 yards per rush. Every rush. Those aren't historically bad numbers, but since the bye week it's been pretty freaking bad. Now, allowing 178 to a guy like Tomlinson doesn't exactly count as a serious embarrassment, since he does that to a lot of teams. But 207 yards to the Jags? 188 freaking yards to the Texans? Who's the running back for the Texans, anyway? 148 to the Colts? 147 to Green Bay, for crying out loud? Counting the 197 given up to San Diego as a team, that's over 177 yards per game allowed. 177 yards rushing. Per game. Those are freaky bad numbers. Real. Freaky. Bad. The fact that we went 3-2 in those five games just boggles the mind, really. And those two losses were by a total of 4 points? I have no idea what this all means, other than we have, right now, one of the worst defenses against the run I have seen in a long, long time. Perhaps it also means that if we can figure out how to stop the run just a wee little bit better, we might not actually be all that bad. That's what I'll be looking forward to for next season. If we can stop the run just a wee bitty better -- you know, average something a little more respectable like, I don't know, 120 yards per game or something -- I think it will pay some decent dividends. And if we can run the ball ourselves just a wee bitty better -- something, anything, just a little better than the anemic 93.5 yards per game we're currently getting -- I think we'll be considerably better off. But really. I can't remember the last time we allowed this much real estate over this period of time.

Now that is just freaking hilarious!

Also, for #2....if the offensive player is smart (a big if, I'm sure), he'd realize once he made the first down that the game is basically over. So if the defense opens the door for you, just take a knee.

I generally like TV announcers more than most people, but I have to agree...Gumbel is just awful.

Does anyone have any clue why DirecTV does not carry NFL Network HD? This puzzles me.

Some threads are just *so* worth it.

Cut him. Now.

Stats are stats....but I was definitely surprised to see Kelly's QB rating in 1988. Thought it would be a whole lot better than 78....

I'm willing to bet TMQ will have something positive to say about that this week. I agree...I really don't like Del Rio but I applaud the move, and he did look sharp.

I agree...I never like to hear about season-ending injuries, but DD has always been a nightmare for us whenever we play him.

That was a very Bobby Chandler-esque catch! One of the best TD catches I've seen in a long time.

As TMQ might say, our defense seems to make a habit out of making who-dats look like Pro Bowlers. As for already-Pro Bowlers....

No, no, let's just give him another week. I live having this discussion after every game. People just don't grasp the concept that it *can* take a long time to get back to form after this type of injury. Doesn't mean it *will* happen, but you have to wait and see. But waiting isn't really an option around these parts, I guess. Plus, he's playing a different side now. Isn't he?

Hmm...LT rushes for over 100 yards and scores 4 TDs against the #1 defense in the league, on the road, under the lights. He's had the Bills game game circled on his calendar for a long time now.

But he could barely get it to him when he was wide open against Green Bay!

I wanted so badly to see a replay of that pasting...but instead all we got was shots of Haggan and his mother in the stands. Sigh.

I agree with you, this was a tough game to figure out. Great win, but I'm just left scratching my head. The O-line did great in pass blocking but we couldn't open up a hole for the running game to save our lives. Huh? The defense gives up 180+ yards to a lousy rushing offense. Carr is picking us apart seemingly at will. But we don't allow them to score in the 2nd half? Huh? We punt on 4th down at the end of the game? And we get the ball back anyway and win? Huh? I'm done asking questions.

I was wondering this, too. I guess it was close enough to a horse collar, so they didn't call it. Amazing, since they will call it when a defender barely touches a finger to the QBs helmet. Bruschi had a nice helmet-to-helmet smack on Favre yesterday on the play he was injured, but no call. Imagine that? Criqui may be bad, but I have to admit it was a nice call on the final TD....

I liked it, except when we lined up in the shotgun on 3rd and 1 on the first drive. Ye gods.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showtopic=55399

Peters and Pennington did a really nice job out there. The interior is still a work in progress. I remember one play from our 5-yard line, Thomas was stuffed for a 2-yard loss. The DT made the tackle in the backfield. On the replay, he was actually DOUBLE-TEAMED on the play by Fowler and Gandy. Yikes. But the pass blocking was actually very nice.