OCinBuffalo

I tried to resist this but... Surely you can't be serious? I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. I guess I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing clue.

Thanks for reminding me of those fuggin tunnels. I just had fit of rage - "Count down slowly from 10, 9, 8..." That cope caused an accident in one and nothing came of it makes me laugh - see? all better.

Ah crap you beat me to it. Yeah most teams come out in "vanilla" d without stunts and blitzes. Carolina did nothing "vanilla" out there. And, McGahee's run was partially made possible by Cincy doing the same thing - at least this time we made em pay for it Great point about completion percentage - that's all we heard from the Holcombers for three months - so this must mean, according to their own logic - JP should start and is a great QB! GO BILLS!!!!

Yeah that was cool. Actually I am just getting home because of that - night started out about convincing my Giant's fan buddy to watch the game with me at Fox&Hound - ended up with a couple of girls, etc. Good job everybody! Thanks for letting me see the game finally and, well, thanks for the other stuff too.

HAHAHA I haven't heard the word "botard" in a long time. Combination of boce and retard. It's like retech... ah 8th grade was fun...you are right btw it is nice to see a guy tell the truth without the song and dance.

I think it's funny when people say no offense and then say someting offensive. Anyway, have you seen the number of posts that BF_In_Indiana guy had? How about Holcombs_Arm? (still trying to get him to quit lurking and post something - and not at 1:30 in the morning) How about me? The number of posts someone has is definitely no insurance against silly posts. Besides, condescension gains you nothing and certainly doesn't represent a point or a counter argument. I agree that is silly and irrelevant. What? All you have to do is watch the video on bb.com to see that we got Ko because he is a ball hawk - DJ said those exact words. In fact, they didn't realize just how much of a ball hawk Ko is. As far as Vincent is concerned - who knows? If he doesn't stop being invisible out there, we may see Ko a lot sooner than you think. And yeah, I watched the game today on NFL network and looked for Ko and Vincent. I saw Ko - didn't see Vincent. What you say about leadership is true, but that alone is not gonna keep Ko on the bench all year. Vincent, just like the rest of the veteran D, has got to improve over last year. Anyway, back on topic, I don't see any of these guys getting cut now. I did think that Holcomb might get the axe, but, from what I have seen and heard, it doesn't make much sense - unless we plan on stacking the team with FA next year and are trying to free up as much cap room as possible? Villarial is truly being rested. And no way do they cut Vincent because of leadership, depth, etc.

yes - that is an example of a good receiver catching a poorly thrown ball from deadslow. Glenn made Drew look good on that one. All McKenzie had to do was turn around and he would have had a pick. And... that last throw for a td was equally bad. If that was Nate or McGee that's going the other way for 6.

Sure we can beat them for all the reasons already stated. The only thing I would add is IF (not as big an if as it might seem) we run the ball well, we can wear down their D. None of those guys are spring chickens. The X factor is TKO: will he come in too hyped up? will he come in flat and/or careful? Or, will he come in calm and lethal? Brady is in for it if Crowell, TKO and Whitner/Bowen can get in there on blitzes because they have many more questions at WR than we do. That will only happen if we stop their run. I was a lot more worried about that last month than I am now. So, there is a lot of ifs but isn't that true of every game for every team now? As far as ESPN goes, I am with the 'who cares' crowd. The last thing JP needs is a spotlight right now - let him make noise with plays - not because of Michael Irvin.

I just voted and cleared my cache six times. We are still at 28%

Yeah kinda what Buftex said, Parcell's has no shortage of nutsack - he played an all-or-nothing game plan against us in '90 and won a superbowl - never mind his successes elsewhere. I think he is doing what he always does - playing media games - and backsliding media comments as a motivation tool for his team. I mean seriously, at this point in Deadslow's career, what else is gonna motivate him? Bledsoe sees the bench as soon as Tuna sees a cheese steak he won't eat. Meanwhile, half our fans still think TUNA is a straight shooter. Please spare me the bs. Parcells could take a crap in the parking lot and there would be some ESPN producer ready to tell the talking heads about the significance of the peices of that turd. He displaces media attention by making every story either a non-story, or a story about him and not the player in question. Moreover, this doesn't happen because he is a player's coach, rather he welcomes the attention - so that when the "problem" player starts to produce it gets to be all about Bill and not Keyshawn(or fill in player name here). Not sure if this is intentional, but when is the last time u cared about an interview from the QB on a Parcell's team?

Lot of interesting stuff here... I guess the question about leaving JP in has finally been put to bed? Ayway, at what point does Jm Kelly's history, especially early, need to get brought up here? Those of us who were able to understand what was going on in 86, 87, 88, and 89, were not HUGE Kelly fans - because he threw TONS of picks. His TDs after the picks were what made it entertaining. As a matter of fact - in the last super bowl we were WINNING at half time and LOST because of Kelley coming out and throwing a pick for a TD. Sound familiar? But would anyone here, regardless of age, turn in Jim Kelly for Holcomb-like player? Please - the good is gonna come with the bad from JP. The difference is: Let him play the whole game and he can win as opposed to not lose.

Now that guy gets over much more than anyone realizes. He is a flat out stuttering prick but everyone in Pburg let's him off because he is myron. When he's doing Giant Eagle(pronounced iggle) ads - everybody loves him. (BTW, Wegman's or Topps could come down there and own) But even the most Southside hardcore guy married to a yinzer(if you don't know 'bout that - it takes too long to explain) will tell you that Cope is an idiot. Just don' t try to get them to admit it - they will only say that if they think you are one of them . Anyway, regarding tasker - I was in training with his first cousin(yes same goofiness and haircut). That guy, and I think it runs in the family based on the observations posted so far, is all about being super right. That group can't stand being wrong. Is it any wonder that Tasker has a hard time getting it right? Indiana - that's where u r gonna find ur most open minded people? No. These are people that will go to court about a fence being .5 feet off - my first roomate in the army loved that story - cause they ended up being right . Plus, think about it - is a pro-bowler guy from Indy gonna give props to any Bills team that doensn't at least make the playoffs? NO way. Moreover, the last thing the guy needs during his quest to be "right" is being perceived as a Bills homer. I think he is actively critical of our team precisely because he has a national job and doesn't want anybody to question his objectivity. Please, no one is questioning his heart - he just can't stand being perceived as a "Joe Namath"(remember that?) announcer - but underneath - he would love us to win, lots, so he could turn into Chris Berman. Or maybe I am ranting - not sure - been a weird night and work starts for me now. I just can't lay the Namath thing down. We were beating the Jets 21-0 by the first quarter in '90 and Joe says "the jets would be winning this game without Bruce Smith, Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas and those two turnovers" At least Tasker doesn't run that kinda nonsense.....so far!

This is pretty easy to explain. NFL Network is a national broadcast. The replay tonight is a local broadcast. Until the local broadcast happens, the national broadcast cannot, because the NFL network broadcasts nationally in the Buffalo TV market as well. Where the rest of us live has nothing to do with it, we have to wait until they show it in Buffalo. Btw, they are showing it on NFL network on Tuesday at noon

KH 3/5 28yds (one of those for 18) This means he had his famous 60% completion percentage again. The only stat Holcombers have had to cling to for the last three months. Guess what: JP's was 64% Do I hear the axe sharpening?

Right on, plenty to be happy about. Need to clean up the sloppiness though.

Yeah - I heard the press conference. This guy is 100% more mature than last year. One interception based on a miscommunication means little. It's not like he was fooled by the defense. He won the competition, not by default, but by hitting our #1 receiver in stride for six. He would not have bounced back like that last year. However, for fairness Nall should start next week. For rightness JP should start next week. What's that Winston Churchill said? "I'd rather be right than consistent"

....about how we are doomed becuase WM has a bad attitude, can't break a big one, too fat, still injured, etc. I mean the guy was obviously sick - he was puking - and he went out there and ran hard anyway. Seems like good attitude to me. He fumbled the ball, took the blame for it(in the press conference later), and then proceeded to break one for 61 yds. Seems like he can break one - even under pressure - and has the good attitude that allows him to come back. While doing it he made a great cut that I don't see how he could make if he was still injured. Seems like he is healed. Before you say he ran out of gas at the end, they asked him about that and he said he was screwing around - which I think he is more than entitled to do after a run like that. Seems like his playing weight being down is no joke - I think he would have gotten caught last year. Let the nonsense and flaming begin....

Right....and the main point of my post is that the talent gap was there because non-talent robots were getting the college starts, therefore the hype, and therefore being drafted, rather than guys with talent. Once in the NFL their general lack of talent was exposed. This is my answer to your "Why the major talent gap" question.

I take a shot at this: First off I would say the sucess of the west coast offense. Coaches in college and everywhere else saw the ability of a system to become more important than the player running it(QB). (BTW, this was never Bill Walsh's intention. His ideas have been bastardized) Plus, they liked the idea of being in control of every step, read, and pass the QB makes -it's like playing Madden. They then set out to recruit guys who were very good at following the system and staying within it, as opposed to placing emphasis on pure talent. Of course there are exceptions(Brett Favre). However, once these college starters got to the NFL, a place where one must have talent, they dropped like flies. The only exceptions are guys that could work within the system but had a lot of pure talent as well(Bledsoe and McNair). Second, IMHO coaches in college saw Bill Parcells beat the Bills in a superbowl by using what I call "Frankenstein" football. You know, run into the line for 3 yds, eat clock, pass ocaisonally on second down for 8 yds, eat clock, bore us all to death(Remember the No Fun League label the NFC East got?), eat clock, spend all of your draft and money on sick defense and get them to play well, eat clock, oh - no more clock? -the game is over, we win. Notice I didn't say anything about the QB in that. A marginal QB can suceed in that gameplan - Jeff Hostetler. How did Trent Dilfer get a super bowl ring? He did a great job handing off. Now, if the general thinking out there was/is based on one or both of these philosophies, it's easy to see why minimally talented(in terms of physical gifts) guys with joysticks attached to their helmet in college simply cannot succeed when they get to the pros. I remember how everyone(Kiper, ESPN, SI, etc.) was saying that Tim Couch was a much better QB than McNabb becuase he was smarter and could fit into the Chris Palmer's(Browns HC at the time) system perfectly. How did that work out? It's also easy to see why some people on this website and the "experts" out there think KH is better than JP, becuase they say "he is better at the system" and is more "consistent". At what? Throwing for 4 yards? What happens when the other teams' d breaks the system? Easy - an intercpetion or a sack. Kinda like, no, exactly like, what happened last Saturday. The system worshipers simply don't know any better since the two above philosophies is all they know. This stuff would have continued until the Rams, and for a while the Titans, came along and left these folks scratching their heads. "Individual play and phyiscal ability beating the other team's system? How is that possible?" "Where did this Greatest Show on Turf come from?" I believe this is cyclical and we will see a shift away from the scheme/system mentality over the next few years. Especially on our team. "The scheme is not more important than the player"(or something like that) - Marv Levy

His pass "accuracy" system is awful, but it's nice to hear KC giving us something, however small, to look forward to....

Yes that guy is now pratically intolerable for me. No one has made more of a living off his dad's name than Joe Buck, other than maybe that dopey Budwieser guy they keep showing on theri commericals.

Right - so let's hope we can win ugly in the early going. If the D can keep it close in those three games, I think we can get out of this 1-2 or maybe even 2-1. I think that depends on getting WM the ball, getting at least 2 first downs on 80% of our drives(so that Moorman can do his thing), and keeping penalties to a minimum. I really believe we have the talent to allow us to slide by on the rest. If we are in those games into the forth quarter, JP may be able to pull off some victories. Oh yeah, and we need Lindell to be the man. If this can happen early on, I think a Sabres like rise is very possible.

Yeah if we do take another DB type in the first round next year Bill will lose his mind. But, so will I. All I have done is defend our draft this year, and so far it looks good. BUT, if we don't get solid draft picks to help out our lines, d and o, next year, then Bill will be right about Marv and we will be in trouble. I still say that we want to draft skill players high - just not DBs next year. With that said, why aren't we talking about drafting a RB again? We have no idea what will happen with McGahee in terms of play, or in terms of contract. We have no idea about Gates/Thomas/Williams. For that matter, what about WR?

It's only 80% of what we've talked about here for the last 3 months These points have been made about 1017 times. I am not downing you - you said you haven't been around so i am merely trying to catch u up. A point on this. (Not directed at you but the KHomers out there)I am tired of hearing about KH completion percentage. He only threw 230 times last year. In contrast, Brett Favre threw 602 times. The same reason we should not acknowledge KH comp. % is the same reason the NFL didn't acknowledge Roscoe Parrish as the league leader in punt return yards - you have to have enough attempts to qualify. Is is not a fair comparison when something is done 2.5 to 3 times more by one guy than the other guy. This whole thing comes from KC Joyner's dopey analysis - a post about that is somewhere on this board. If we believe KC - then Kyle Boller is the best QB in the league. The guy needs to take a statistics class. Anyway, statistics don't lie, but good liars use statistics. So far - it seems like most of us agree he should get a shot this year(Homers and haters) to start and not get pulled in an effort to cover the coaches behind - like last year. This way we know what we have - a gamer or a loser. Other than that there is a wide array of opinion. Most of the Holcombers have disappeared since last Saturday. And, while I think JP has gotten some to get off the fence and support him, most people are waiting to see what happens tomorrow. As for me, I think the guy has battled a ton of adversity so far with better than average results. I think we will all be pleasantly surprised with this guy. He has tons of upside - he just needs to get over the abuse from last year and on to winning, one snap at a time GO BILLS!!!

No need to thank the Fates. Thank Charles Martel