Whites Bay

This being the NFL, I just don't see ANY easy wins. Remember Detroit (what was it....) 2 years ago? Zero wins until Buffalo...and they hammered the Bills. Denver last year? Dallas last year? I don't start to relax until there are about 5 minutes left to go until the end of the game and the Bills are up by about three scores. This having been said, yeah......the thought of actually taking the Division crown is starting to creep into my thoughts. Shades of a long time ago.

As for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, my recommendations burst forthwith as regards anything by Daniel Schuster. If we ever get together face-to-face, I'd love to relate a tale involving an Aussie friend of mine and a wine tour in the South Island. Schuster's "Mt. Nelson" Sauvignon Blanc is beyond "memorable". It's truly a signature wine for that grape. I know it's probably out of vogue to get hot and bothered about Sauvignon Blanc, but let's face it - there's always a "Best". Schuster's is the "Best". Went with the GamePass HD for $24.99. Screw it. If I can find a way that I can get "off-line" streaming with little difficulty, I'd do it. I just ran out of time. If the Bills had lost, I'd be REALLY pissed at forking over the cash. (That's a note to the NFL trolls who are checking these threads - don't think you've won yet.). What a win. Time for bed here in Berlin. Next week is back at the lake, under normal circumstances.

I think I'm going to fwow up.

Dating myself here, but - as my Dad used to say (a long time ago) - "That and ten cents will get you uptown". Ruminate on it. Any information provided by James over 3 months will be overwhelmed by information provided by Stroud over 6 months.

I feel so inadequate.

Columnist, I served with Lori Chase: I knew Lori Chase; Lori Chase was a friend of mine. Columnist, you're no Lori Chase.

Cool. Thanks, Peter. So, that's all it takes? Just plugging the Visa card into the box and it works? I'd love HD, and might spend the extra bucks, but I'm just watching it on a laptop, and the extra resolution would likely be lost on this piece-of-crap screen. So....that's it? Just let 'er rip?

Hey Kiwi. For the Philistines on this board, let me be the first to say that there is some AMAZING Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir coming out of the South Island. It isn't all restricted to the Marlborough Sound. Serious stuff. Of course, that doesn't get us any closer to the Bills game in 18 hours and 42 minutes, but it DOES numb the pain of missing it.

Hey all. Thanks to those who tried to set me up with a sports bar in Berlin. If anyone's interested, the "Playoff" sports bar in the Arkade on Alte Potsdammerstrasse in the Potsdammerplatz carries NASN. That's the good news. The bad news is that NASN's only games tomorrow are (1) Colts/Vikes and (2) Favres/ACLs. Neither of which do ME a lot of good. Justintv is showing an apologetic blurb something to the effect that "The NFL is going to put me in a hot, bamboo-lined box if I don't stop infringing on their trademarks." Stoogetv seems to be focused on the NBA, on which I gave up once I left Salt Lake City. To that end, it looks like I'm going to be purchasing "Game Pass" from NFL.com. As best I can understand the website, it's going to cost me $20 (okay, $19.99, but I'm in marketing and understand the $0.01) to watch the game. I can handle that. What I want to know is whether any of you have used Game Pass, and what do you think? It seems like it's as easy as "Plug in my Visa Card and give you all my credit information and rights to my next-born and you get to watch a grainy game on your laptop in a hotel room in Germany like any other loser who has no life while in Berlin". Or something like that. Who's used this service, and what has been your experience?

Oh, most definitely nervous. Or perhaps I'm merely projecting. I just can't fuggin' wait until Sunday 1300h EDT. I still don't know how I'm going to watch this game over here in Berlin, but GODDAMN IT, I'm going to find a way.

Good points, Big Mac, and further to the point of the topic - "On to Jax". The pressure up the middle by the D-line was most gratifying, but that was last week. The coaches have already picked apart every weakness they can find in Jacksonville's potential game plan, and the game we see this week will have significant differences from the game in Buffalo last Sunday. Different venue, different weather, different strengths to be exercised, different weaknesses to be exploited. Count on it. I'm guessing the coaching staff had this sort of eventuality laid out back in August..."If we do well here, let's roll in Play X, Y, and Z". Del Rio will see some different looks this week, trust me. The mark of a great team is putting "last week" into "last week", win or lose, and playing this week like it's a new season opener. Let's see what the Bills bring to the table. Bills 24-10. Bills pull away from Jacksonville in the fourth quarter, and it's Lynch, Lynch, Lynch. Have a bad day.

BECK wrote it? Didn't even catch that. Enough said. Move it somewhere else please.

I'd just as soon have them not even TALKING about the Bills! If the team gets past Jacksonville, the path is relatively clear towards a 4-1 record (with a possible upset in Arizona). Buffalo gets out to 4-1/5-0, don't worry. The chatter will never stop. It'll be like the annual Cinderella in March Madness. I agree - let's just see them get the job done. It's been a LONG time since the playoffs.

Glanced at it real quick and thought it read "Unsmeaing Putin". In fairness, it belongs elsewhere.

Knew I screwed it up when I typed it. Thanks. But it was a great speech, and a spectacular pastry.

This guy sounds scared to death. Talk about whistling past the graveyard. Yell a little louder, sonny Jim. The ghosts and demons might run away.

Ich bien ein Berliner! One of the most stirring speeches in the history of the Republic. Bummer he was a pastry. But all Americans should watch that tape. Truly.

Yes. Without a doubt. And isn't free speech a wonderful thing? Unless, of course, you approve of having only one opinion being allowed (and crammed down your throat), in which case you could watch Buffalo Bills football in.....well, some pretty nasty places. I saw the replay of the blessed knee-crunch, and then the cutaway to the fans filing down the walkway. That editor and producer should be crowned kings-for-a-day. That was funnier than hell. Quick, subtle and incisive.

Sounds more melodramatic than it needs to - "I'm heading for Berlin". Apologies. But I'm heading there for business, and will be at the Westin over the weekend. If there are any Bills fans out there that have experience picking up the Bills in Germany - particularly Berlin - please post a note. The schedule is flexible enough that I could head to a particular sports bar if you know of one. And don't send me to some goddamn gay S/M bar, okay? I just want to watch the game.

Dean! Great to see you back! How are you doing? Oh, wait. Better make this football-related. Um.....Merriman lost a couple of chromosomes from living downwind of the acetone factory for too many years. Good. The Wall seems oddly normal again.

Apologies for being too lazy to look this up, but who's the Jags' backup QB? This could seriously be a game in which the big injury happens to Garrard. Don't worry, I'm not calling for "head hunting", but Stroud's going to be a man possessed, and the pocket's going to be a-collapsing. Quarterbacks who are scrambling around for their lives tend to scramble into bad situations.

I'm the last person to really get out there and crow at the top of my lungs, but you might be right at 4-1. The switch I'd make, however, might indeed be Arizona for Jacksonville. 1) Jacksonville - Tuten Reyes is starting. Let THAT roll off your tongue. Tuten Reyes. There's a reason he's no longer with the Bills, and was last seen as a bank teller. And HE'S a NAME in that line. I don't want to know what the other guys were doing last year. That O-Line is going to get crushed this weekend, and the Bills' secondary is going to feast. If the Bills' offense plays like it did in the second half of Sunday's game, there's no way Jacksonville's going to keep up. 2) Arizona - Played SF pretty well this weekend. More to the point, however, is that this is the Bills' longest (geographically) road trip of the season. The schedule gods put all the Pacific teams in Orchard Park. The farthest West the Bills have to play is Phoenix. It's not as bad as coming East three time zones, but it's still a heckuva trip. This all having been said, I'd take 4-1 with an NFC loss over 4-1 with an AFC loss any day of the week.

Keep yer head down and yer mouth shut. Life below the radar is a good thing.

I just think it's absolutely wonderful. Words have not been invented that can describe my lack of sympathy, or even empathy. The only thing that could have been better would have been the cart. It's hard to imagine any icing on the cake, but watching all the Pats* bandwagoneers spilling helplessly into the nearest gutter as the team goes 5-6 would come close. Watch what happens when MORE people get injured, and when MORE teams start exacting revenge for last season.

The Bills are suddenly NOT a team against which you want to be 3 men short on the O-Line. Not a good situation at all. I keep harping on the interplay between the pressure on the D-Line and the Bills' secondary. Stroud's going to be pumped, that's for sure. McGee, Greer, Simpson and Whitner (let's not forget Yobouty) are simply licking their chops. These guys are all reviewing their contracts and looking at the "Number of Interceptions" clauses, and are mentally already buying retirement properties in Barbados.