MDH

They're called turnovers. If you lose the turnover battle 3-0 the game isn't going to be very close.

With the game on the line JP did drive the team all the way to the one yard line only to have the coaching staff pull a Mularkey. I understand not wanting to be too predictable and just running the ball up the middle but they could have mixed it up with a safer call (like a play action pass to the TE). JP had a few boneheaded plays but he also had some very good ones.

He looked both good and bad today which is to be expected. The team got away from the running game much too early. They should have relied on McGahee instead of Losman, even after they fell behind by 11 points.

Just take a look at the Tennessee/Miami score. That win last week isn't looking very impressive. This Bills team has a long way to go on both sides of the ball.

This is the same old, same old. Even with those so called "#2" Ds from a few years ago the Buffalo D always comes up small with the game on the line.

He might be the worst blocking RB I've ever seen. Just horrid.

You should try going to an SEC game sometime. I think it would rid you of the "quite southern mentality" idea you have.

Normally I'd agree, but Spikes hasn't exactly had a lot of playing time in training camp and pre-season. The guy could use all the reps he could get in this new system. I'm guessing, and hoping, he sits for another week. A hammy can bother a player the entire year if they attempt to come back from it too quickly.

There is a lot one can criticize the NYT for (read Manufacturing Consent for an in depth critique on newspapers and the Times specifically) but making one mistake in an article isn't one of them. Do you really expect them to go to print with zero mistakes? That is simply impossible. Of course, when there are agendas to be made any mistake is magnified 1000 times in an attempt to discredit what someone sees as an opposing point of view.

Then perhaps he should keep a journal instead.

This play could have been a textbook example of why I'm not in favor of the new rule that says down by contact can be reviewed and overturned. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the whistle the ref blew was because of down by contact, not in the grasp. Let's also say that at the very end of the play a Dolphin walked by and pick up the ball (which I think actually happened like 3 seconds after the play). According to the new rule the Dolphins could have been awarded the ball after a review. Of course, there were 2 Bills just standing over the ball (and no Dolphins) but they both stopped the moment they heard the whistle. The new reviewable down by contact rule has the potential to blow up in somebody's face this year. I still can't fathom how they can award the ball to a team when they gain possession after the whistle was blown. Of course, this is all just hypothetical but when I saw Saban try to challenge it I was screaming at the TV, “I knew when they changed this rule we’d be the first to get the shaft!” Thankfully it didn’t turn out that way.

To be fair he's right. Denny, Kelsey, McGahee, Fletcher, Spikes, Crowell, Clements, McGee, Evans, Losman...all these guys are "leftovers" from TD and are significant contributors to this year’s team. That being said Mort would have to be out of his mind to see that the coaching staff is putting these players in a better position to succeed than the previous coaching staff. TD did a pretty good job at stocking the team with some good players (with the exception of the OL). Of course, a big part of being a GM is making sure that you hire the right HC and TD failed at that twice. TD deserved to be fired but don't go thinking that every single move he made with the Bills was a horrible decision.

It goes beyond that. If Losman has a statistically bad game and the Bills lose they'll say the above. If he has a statistically bad game and the Bills win they'll repeat what they've said in this thread. If he has a statistically good game and the Bills lose they'll say, "yeah, but the Bills lost." If he has a statistically good game and the Bills win they'll say, "yeah, but it was only the Jets." There's nothing that can happen this week that they won't complain about.

Losman did what was asked of him in that game, nothing more, nothing less. The coaching staff managed the game well and I wouldn't want the Bills to have put the ball in the air anymore than they did considering how their D and ST were playing. I also wouldn't want Losman to take any chances with the ball considering how well the D and ST were playing. There are times to take some chances in order to move the chains or score more points, Sunday was not one of them. Who the hell cares how many yards passing he had? If the game was closer and the Bills needed the O to score more points I have no doubt that the coaching staff would have called a different game. But as it is they called a conservative one which Losman executed well enough to help win the game. I think we all know that Losman can make plays down the field and he finally showed us that he can also manage a game pretty well when that's what is called for. Imo, the bottom line is that you're not going to be happy with Losman no matter what and there's really nothing he could do, aside from putting up type Peyton numbers, that would please you. You’ve pretty much said it already, based on what you know from him in college you’re not even willing to give him a chance. I’m wondering how much Tulane football you’ve actually seen…

Why does it not surprise me that you can't spell moot?

Of course JP isn't just making one read and, as far as I know, never has been.

You do realize that in Ben's first year as a starter he had, essentially, ONE read to make. If that guy wasn't open he threw it to his check down guy. If this is your concern about Losman why are you comparing him to BR who wasn't making real reads until his second full season as a starter? Also, tell me this. Which QBs, in their first 10 starts, "showed the ability to make complex decisions quickly?" You've written the guy off before you've ever given him a chance. Not many here are "Losman lovers", all I see are a bunch of fans who are willing to give the guy a chance to prove himself before they throw him under the bus. If the coaching staff doesn't have much faith in him after his 30th start and call the same type of game they did on Sunday you may have a point. But until then they're doing the right thing in brining him along slowly.

I really think we have a shot at a BCS bowl this year.

If the Bills get rid of only one of their jerseys I hope to hell it's the god awful road unis that get the axe. Those things are just horrid.

Off topic, but that "washed up" Eric Moulds has caught 37 balls for 432 yards in his last 5 games (the games since his suspension). Let me do the math for you on that. That's 7.4 receptions and 86.4 yards per game. If you extrapolate that out over a 16 game season its 118 receptions for 1382 yards. That's with the likes of Holcomb and Carr throwing him the ball. Moulds was a malcontent and a cancer in the locker room last year but the guy is not yet "washed up".

But his limited vocabulary might land him a job on MNF.

You don't invest those picks in a player and then throw him under the bus by putting the onus of winning on his shoulders on the road, against two division opponents, in his 9th and 10th starts of his career. That's what Mularkey would do and it isn't a good way of handling a young QB. You're comparing what Losman has done with Dilfer but forgetting one key element to this. Losman has 10 career starts and Dilfer was a 10 year vet at the time. The Bills are bringing Losman along much like the Steelers brought Big Ben along, slowly. That's the right way to do it. I really can't fathom anybody that doesn't understand this.

It would be nice if Willis actually put some effort into pass blocking on occassion. That wiff he had today was embarrassing. It looked like he didn't really want to make contact.

I'd say that, thus far, the Raiders and the Titans are worse than Detroit. Detriot's D actually showed something last week. No unit on the Raiders or Titans has shown a thing yet.

I don't like our upcoming schedule at all except for the game vs. the Lions. The Jets aren't as bad as many here believe, the Vikes are playing solid football right now and the Bears are ripping teams apart. I liked this schedule much more before the season started as each of these teams is playing better than I foresaw.