MDH

Easy? Man, 10 years of church sounds as bad as the death penalty to me.

I'm not an "apologist" who makes him sound like a QB to build the team around for a decade. I readily admit his flaws (and he has quite a few.) However, I also defend him against people who try to make him sound like the bottom of the barrel of NFL QBs or call him "historically bad." I guess this is where we differ. I don't speak in hyperbole to make a point. The people who trash Fitz seem to think that those defending him are taking the total opposite perspective. As if there are only two sides to this coin and you either think Fitz is horrible or he's elite. The problem is that nobody is arguing the latter. People just point out that he's average. The Bills don't need him to make the playoffs to prove my point, Fitz proves it every single game and every single season. He can't put a team on his back and win consistently - that's what elite guys do. But when the D shows up to play the team can, and does, win. Fitz is capable of doing his part in the collective. Lots don't like that and want to search for a new QB. I'm all for it, just don't throw away the average one we've already got in the process and don't be over-the-top and make it sound like he's the end-all-be-it of bad QBing. And no, I don't think you have a low football IQ because we don't see eye-to-eye on this thing. I've seen some of your other posts and you make solid points on other issues. And as I said above, I'd take Newton over Fitz for the long term as well. I just don't think Cam is a very good QB right now.

Now this is an interesting point you've made here. "1/8th as good." Fascinating. You are not a stat guy but Fitz is 1/8th "as good" as Cam. So, if not by stats then what measurable is he "1/8th as good?" How did you come up with 1/8th? Can one measure 1/8th of arbitrary? Let's take this a bit farther. I don't have your actual rankings of QBs so I'm sure I'll misplace a QB but I think everybody will get the idea. We'll call this the CAM NEWTON RATING SYSTEM. It's like QBR and passer ratings, only better! In this system, everything is relative to Cam Newton. Now, I've taken some liberties but I think your system would look something like this. CNRS 1/8th as good as Cam Newton - Ryan Fitzpatrick 1/4th as good as Cam Newton - Tony Romo 1/2 as good as Cam Newton - Matt Schaub 1 - Cam Newton (the bar by which all other QBs are rated) 2 times as good as Cam Newton - Matt Ryan 4 times as good as Cam Newton - Peyton Manning 5 times as good as Cam Newton - Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers Obviously, these rankings aren't complete but you get the idea. You should like this system, there are numbers there but there aren't really any stats to confuse the brain. And since you're not a stat guy this is right up your alley! I think if we worked with this a bit it could really catch on. Am I still being condescending? How about 1/8th of condescending?

While it might take you 2 hours to find these stats it took me all of 5 minutes. I know, it's a crazy idea, getting facts to back up an argument I knew it would be lost on you but I took the 5 minutes and did it anyway. But of course anybody who doesn't agree with you isn't bright and any facts brought into the discussion don't matter because you know your fooseball. Got it.

Like a blindman uses his eyeballs to cross the street. The fact that you want to claim Cam is better at every single facet of the game just demonstrates your inability to rationally break this down. Peyton Manning isn't better at every facet of the game than Fitz, neither is Brady (I'll let you figure out what Fitz is better at.) Yet Cam is? Stats aren't everything but your total disregard for them illustrates that you can't make a valid argument so you simply resort to "I KNOW WHAT I SEE AND YOU DUMB IF YOU NO AGREE WITH ME!" If that's the case what's the point of a discussion? As for Cam's accuracy it might be on par with Fitz's - which is to say, it's not good - but it's not "light year's better." I've seen the guy repeatedly miss open guys in the short to intermediate range. Cam's accuracy this year: behind Los: 71.7% 1-10yds in air: 61.9% 10-20yds in air: 48.1% That's sh*t accuracy no matter what your eyeballs tell you. Fitz's accuracy this year: Behind LoS: 85.9% 1-10 yds in air: 67.2% 10-20 yds in air: 47.4% Not great either but better than Cam's. As I said, I'll give you Cam's deep ball is much better than Fitz but his short to intermediate throws aren't better than Fitz's and these are the bulk of a QB's throws. But don't let facts get in the way of your eyeballs. Btw, for comparison for both look at a guy like Peyton who is at 77% for short throws (1-10 yds) and over 50% for intermediate (10- 20yds).

It's funny you make excuses for Cam because of his D but not for Fitz. The only thing Cam has going for him right now is his youth and potential. If you're going strictly based on current performance Cam is not better than Fitz. Will he be better? Maybe. I'd pick Cam on the Bills over Fitz based purely on the chance that he'll improve whereas I know exactly what I'll get from Fitz. But if you asked who I'd rather have at QB this week I'd probably lean towards Fitz. The only things Cam does better than Fitz right now are throw the deep ball and running. His accuracy isn't better, his leadership isn't better, his command of his offense isn't better, his pre-snap and post-snap reads aren't better. Granted, I wouldn't expect them to be better right now given that this is his 2nd year in the league. Hopefully he'll learn. As others have pointed out though there are plenty of guys who looked good for a season and then fell on their faces. You are incredibly irrational when it comes to Fitz as proved by your statement that he's "historically bad" in a different thread. People might want to question your football IQ given that statement.

No doubt. Are people forgetting Cinci is a team that lost 4 straight including losses to Cleveland and Miami? They are no juggernaut despite a good win vs. the Giants. Taking a look at their schedule that's the only quality win they have. The others have come against Cleveland, Washington, Jax and KC. Much like the Bills their schedule is favorable but they've proven they can lose to anybody.

I'm talking scoring offense, not yardage. Of course, Seattle is even worse in terms of yardage ranked 26th. And they rank that low because their passing attack is the worst in the league.

Luck has proven to be a turnover machine so far this year. 12 INTs, 8 fumbles (4 lost). In the Bills 4 wins this year they've caused 10 turnovers. In their 6 losses only 4. When the D takes the ball away the Bills win- let's hope they do the job on Sunday.

The good news is they get to play some bad offenses from this point on. Of the teams left on the schedule most of them rank in the bottom third of the league in scoring offense: Ind - 21st Jax - 29th StL - 28th Sea- 24th Mia - 26th NYJ - 23rd Indy is the most dangerous offense but they also cough up the ball a lot.

It's funny that you speak of rudeness and respect for others but what you said to the woman was pretty rude and uncalled for unless you had made a request before and she ignored it. I don't have an issue with you saying something to her but something like, "excuse me, would it be possible to quite your child, my kid's up there and I'm having trouble hearing" would have been in line with the manners, respect and politeness you believe is missing from society.

I'm sure there are more oddities like that as the photo is actually almost 2000 pics stitched together.

The Bills weren't winning that first NE game even with that TD. It would have just made the collapse that much more epic. The other two games are tough to swallow though. Just win one of those and they would be right in the thick of things and still have some room to lose a game or two and still get into the playoffs. As it is now they can lose a max of one more game and that pretty much needs to be against Seattle so it's a non-conference loss.

UCLA did ND a favor by taking out Barkley, I doubt he plays next week after separating his shoulder yesterday. Without him I don't see how USC has a chance.

Well said. At the base level people should be able to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't negatively effect others or trample on their rights. Sadly, it's always the idiots who spoil it for everybody else. It's why I love going to baseball games more than NFL these days even though I like the NFL way more than MLB. At an MLB game I can drink some beers and so does everybody else - and it's a rarity if people get out of hand. I see games regularly in Philly (which has the reputation as having the worst fans in sports) and I've never seen any incidents. The difference is the tailgating. At MLB games nobody is sitting in the parking lot 4 hours early drinking before the game.

It's not the QB rating you're thinking of, it's ESPNs new QBR stat which is pretty much crap if you ask me.

What's this have to do with what Darin said? He's talking about him walling off the CB using his body to shield him so Chandler can catch the ball. Instead he let a smallish DB get in front of him to break up the pass. It was an pretty weak effort.

It's amazing how much better the LBs do when the DEs are setting the edge and Dareus is actually clogging the middle instead of getting taken out. That being said the Bills still need to address LB in the offseason. As for your Wood comment, he's also the one who recovered Freddie's fumble at the end of the game last week when Jackson got KO'd. The guy hustles downfield and is always looking to take on another defender which has put him in position to recover 2 fumbles in back to back weeks. I'm not sure how wise it is of Fitz to be consistently taking on defenders but it gets me pumped up when I see our QB trying to lay wood on guys then getting in their face afterwards. You're right, but thankfully the Bills don't play any good QBs the rest of the way unless you count Luck.

Almost a third of the Dolphins first downs were via penalty. That's...not...good. Though it could be said that at least the D was playing with aggression and the cost of that is going to be a few offsides penalties (Bruce Smith anyone?) It would be nice to get the best of both worlds though.

I'll play devil's advocate here. You mention the not going for it on 4th downs that resulted in FGs. In retrospect those were the right calls. If the Bills go for it and don't make it the Phins are down by only 2 at the end of the game and don't feel the need to force the ball upfield which resulted in Ints. They could have played it much safer and gotten a FG to win the game. If your D is struggling to stop your opponent you take more chances on offense because you have to. But the Bills D was dominant last night (I never thought I'd say that.) When the D is playing lights out you take every point you can get and you don't take many chances. That being said I'm not the biggest fan of Gaily's offense though. as mentioned, empty backfield on 3rd and 1 (Gilbride anyone?), wildcat on 3rd and 1 (and not even Brad Smith running it), and the reliance on way too many screen passes when they are facing a D that struggles in the secondary. And good as our RBs are I have no clue why we don't use more play action to free up the middle of the field?

He looked good tonight. I only saw a few plays where he was dominated at the point of attack. Most of the time he was in good position and he definitely goes 100% more than anybody not named Kyle Williams in the front 7. Let's hope he stays healthy.

The O looks a lot better when they split FJ and CJ - not sure which game you were watching.

These types of games scare the hell out of me. Total domination but because the offense couldn't finish drives Miami is still in the game. I don't trust this D to keep this type of play up the entire game.

Bills 31 Phins 27

The real question is - what will Reggie Bush's stat line be? If the Bills can contain him they'll win. If they get run all over they'll likely lose.