Dr. K

BillsVet is of course entitled to his opinion, but I think it is purblind. If you watch the games you cna see that there is much more life in the offense, with the potential for even more. But a couple of things should be taken into account when looking at the state. 1) as has been said, the Bills are scoring 21 points per game since Trent was benched. Maybe Gailey should have figured he couldn't play sooner, but I give him high marks for getting it by game two of the season, and for acting decisively. From 8.5 points per game they have gone to 21 points per game, 5 more that what BillsVet said they were scoring last year. 2) Last year the defense generated a large number of turnovers. Even when they did not score directly, they shortened the field many times. This year the defense is among the lowest getting turnovers in the league. If they start getting any more turnovers at all, the offense we have now will be scoring much more often.

Thanks for that update. Now go away.

You are absolutely right. "Bandwagon haters." I wish I had thought of that. It's made this place poisonous to read. I can understand being disappointed; I can even understand being disgusted and giving up on the team. But to come back day after day posting reflexively negative snarls, and dump on anyone who says anything even slightly positive about the team, is almost pathological. It's like a bad marriage where the husband perpetually says nasty and cynical things about his wife in public, but never gets the nerve to get a divorce. Maybe she's no prize and he has reason to be unhappy, but after a while you just want the guy to shut up or go away.

Bills & Sabres, natch. But for my sins since I lived there in the 1970s & early 80s I have been believe it or not a Kansas City Royals fan. They were a good team back then but they have been the worst team in baseball over the last 15 years, with no hope in sight.

I feel the same way. Despite the record, I have more hope for this team than I have had in years. I think the thing is going to turn around.

I was completely immune to the "big name" lust (I still am). I thought hiring Fewell would have been okay, though I am no expert on such things. Not true. I would have considered it a reasonable choice, though the board would have been inundated by screaming fanatics. But when in the last five years has it not been inundated by screaming fanatics?

I'm not saying that some QB's aren't better than others, or that there is no such thing as great quarterbacking. But please define "elite-level play" in real terms, not hand waving.

People throw around the term "franchise quarterback" as if it were self-evident what that means. Aside from pointing at Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, I get the feeling to a lot of people here it means "Superman in cleats." We're going out and drafting a FQ, and then we will never lose a game. A franchise quarterback never throws a crucial interception. If you get him the ball on the one yard line with thirty seconds left in the game and no time-outs, he will be guaranteed to drive for the winning TD. He will turn around the franchise all by himself, and win all the games we are now losing. This is one of the signs of how far the Bills have fallen, that there's all this magic thinking. The number of fans on this board who think Andrew Luck is God (a lot of whom thought Jake Locker was God before the season started)is scary.

This is idiotic. Stick to the running game? If the Bills had stuck to the running game they would have been three and out on most of their drives. The Bears were stuffing every run at or behind the line of scrimage. Those people who continually insist the team keep handing it off no matter what the circumstances of the game are beyond help.

Nine

This is what impressed me the most watching the replay of the game on Game Rewind--how quickly he made decisions, how he knew just where to throw the ball, and how often he beat the blitz. He did make the o-line look good (and I suspect Trent Edwards made them look worse than they are, even though I hoped he had improved at the season's start). He really RAN that offense, and got everybody on the same page. He's not the tallest or most physically talented QB, but in this last stretch of games he has shown a real head for the game, which counts for more than being 6'5" or having a big arm. I would think, as someone said above, this should begin to pay dividends as defenses discover they can't stack the box or blitz on every play and get away with it. Now if only the D could hold somebody under 20 points (though the Ravens did score 17 points after turnovers--the TDs before and after halftime, and the field goal in OT--so maybe even the D has some hope).

+1 I posted in some thread after the last game when somebody was saying Fitzpatrick was at best a backup that, if he kept playing like this, why not make him the permanent QB? I was not on that impressed with him last season, but I was wrong. The amount of faith some people put in the hypothetical first-round QB they want to draft amazes me--let's see how far Fitz can go in this direction before deciding we need to use a first round pick on a QB. I can't see how, if the offense keeps playing this way, the Bills will have the first pick anyway. I expect them to win some games in the second half of the season. And yes, that's a good thing.

Why not?

We've already got Trent Dilfer playing for us. His name is Ryan Fitzpatrick. Or maybe he's Rich Gannon. Or Brad Johnson. You get what I'm saying?

Yeah, you're a big, impressive guy. A real man's man. Really smart, too.

In what way is this a "trick"? It's simple civility.

Tomlinson is not Pennington. I think calling players derogatory names is imbecilic. I'd like to see you call Whitner "lil' Donte" to his face.

Your regard for Todd Collins is inexplicable. What has Collins ever done in his ENTIRE CAREER (aside for one four-game stretch with the Redskins) to justify your saying he is/was a Kelly-level talent? i saw all the games he played when he was with the Bills, and he was in no way shape or form a potential franchise quarterback. If he were, he would have shown it by now. I don't know about the Lynch trade--you may be right that he will star for years in the league. I don't agree with you that he's teh best player on the team. But that's a different story.

What first rate person would come to work for the Bills?

Yes. The worst team in the league. I have not seen such bad defense for three consecutive games in I don't know how long. There is no talent on this team. I don't know what Gailey is going to do for the next twelve games. Shuffle the players around, change the schemes, try freakish systems. Seems hopeless to me. It's like a science experiment with no expectation of a good result. A game of solitare with only 46 cards. No winning is possible.

In the Miami game last week, Sanchez, trying to get a screen to a running back, tried to loft the ball over a defensive lineman. It hit the Miami lineman in the helmet and chest. It was a pure pick-six, but the lineman was so surprised by the terrible decision that he dropped it. He also threw another ball that was almost intercepted, that would have likely been a TD. I just hope he keeps making those decisions. It would help if the Bills could generate something resembling a pass rush. Sanchez may have not turned the ball over so far this season, but I think that is a temporary situation and I expect him to produce a lot of turnovers before the year is out.

Been following them since the 1960s I'd say the teams of the late 60s were the absolute worst--they could not beat anybody. And the 0 for 20 stretch against the Dolphins in the 1970s was worse than the current miserable record against the Pats. Having said that, the last decade has been extremely painful. But what somebody said about the Bills earlier this week is true--they have never been a good team with stretches of badness, but a bad team with only two good teams: the team of 1963-66 and the team of 1988-1999.

Stop off at the Heavy Pass Rush store. (Not trying to bust you--I hope they can put it together for this game.)

Looks like Tennesseeboy is available to step in and right the team in a single season. He knows all the right moves and will get them done. But that idiot Wilson hired Nix when T-boy was available every day, right under his nose here on TBD. What a fatal mistake.

I was skeptical at the time about Mike Williams because he was a 380-pound right tackle. I thought he might be too big and slow for end rushers, that his success in college might be because he overwhelmed much smaller college players. And everyone was saying he'd easily transition to left tackle after a season or so. He was not even the number one OT on many people's boards. About Donohoe, I hated his essentially dumping Ted Washington and Pat Williams. Under Wade Phillips the Bills had one of the best rush defenses in the league. That went away and we've never come close since. Overall I thought Donohoe at least had a plan and I was willing to be patient. But it didn't work. I'm not sayng the front office since has been any better. I have hopes for Nix and Gailey and think we ought to see what they do with this and next season.