MDH

Vick has been upgraded to probable. I don't think there's any doubt he's going to play. How effective he'll be is another matter...

This game is a toss-up for me. This is one of the rare occassions the Bills don't have an advantage on special teams. As sorry as our offense is, I don't have much respect for the Falcons offense either though it is better than ours. The Bills D should be able to neutralize the Falcons for most of the day, but then again, the Falcons will likely shut down our O too. I'll go with the Bills, simply because its at the Ralph. Bills 16 Falcons 14

Last week people bitching that most prognosticators were picking Tampa Bay. "How can they pick TB, they suck! We get no respect!" and yadda yadda yadda. I don't think this game will turn into another TB fiasco, but I'm not going to get riled up that nobody respects the Bills. Hell, I follow them closely and I'm not sure how they'll perform from week to week.

I'm not worried about the Falcons passing game. Vick is the most inaccurate QB in the league. I'm more concerned about the run and would rather see Wire get the majority of the snaps in this game (except in obvious passing situations).

This is absolutely incorrect. If you are forced to march down field with 10+ play drives every time you are, more than likely, going to make a mistake. A dropped ball, a sack, a turnover. Moving the chains isn't always enough. Quick strikes aren't just for the highlight reel. They turn games around by shifting momentum and elimating the probablity of game changing mistakes. Show me a team that consistantly puts up big points and I guarantee they consistantly have big plays. Moving the chains is important, but if your team is incapable of hitting the big play you're not going to win many games. Granted, you're also not going to win many games if you can't sustain drives...both are important, but saying that big plays are only for Sportscenter is just wrong. Anyway, if I had to make a list of the top 10 WRs in the league (I'm going on who I would take for this season, not who I would build a team around) it would look like this: 1) Harrison (for all those that argue its mostly Peyton, just check out how open the guy is when Manning hits him...thier is always separation) 2) C. Johnson 3) Owens 4) Randy Moss 5) J. Horn 6) C. Chambers (the guy would be a superstar in a decent offense) 7) Hines Ward 8) A. Johnson 9) Steve Smith 10) Torry Holt

You have to admit though, in previous years the Pats would have (generally) forced a FGA on one or both of those short fields. That being said, I won't judge the Pats on one or two bad games, particularly early in the year. I expect them to struggle a little bit to find themselves with all the turnover, we'll see where Belichick has his team come December. I'm guessing they'll still be considered one of the AFCs best, despite what the original poster's cousin thinks.

Please point me in the direction of where I said, "Fezmid, please point me in the direction of the threads I've started on the subject." I simply said, "please point me in the direction of the threads I've started on the subject." Why would you think I meant you Fezmid? What? Oh, I replied to your post specifically? Ahhh, so that's how that works.

Actually, I agree with him that Johnson is better than both. In fact, I'd rank Johnson just behind Harrison. The guy is a stud and people will come to realize that this year now that Palmer appears comfortable. I will say, however, that there is no way Hines Ward is a better WR than either (Muhammad isn't either). As much as I like and respect Ward, he just doesn't have the ability to stretch the field like either Moss or Owens. Also, if you read Z's reasoning, you'd see that it's their attitudes that are holding them back in the rankings, not their talent. Its nice to see someone recognize Moulds, though I’m not sure he’s really deserving of it at this point in his career. Like Z, I wonder what kind of career he could have had if he had a good/great QB throwing him the ball for most of it. GD its been a long time since we’ve had a good QB

Please point me in the direction of the threads I've started on the subject.

Making excuses? Please point to the sentences where I made an excuse. I'm simply judging players based on what they do for the Bills. JP and Drew are totally separate issues. I'll judge JP's value to the team based on what he does for the Bills, just as I judged Drew's value to the team based on what he did for the Bills. What players do after they leave the Bills doesn’t really concern me in terms of deciding if I think the Bills made the right decision in keeping or booting that player. What they did for the Bills is all that matters. If you can't point to what Drew did while IN Buffalo to make your argument that he should have stayed then your position is pretty flimsy.

This isn't a make or break game in the standings or for momentum. Lose this week and win the following week the Bills are sitting at 2-2 without a single loss in the conference. Hell, they could lose this week and next and the season still wouldn't be anywhere near over (though you wouldn't be able to tell that to people on this board if that happened.) Real momentum is gained in November and December. Get a winning streak going there and the team will have plenty of confidence even if they limped out of the gate 1-3. Granted, losing games (obviously) makes it harder, but its not “make or break” by any means.

He will have "acted" upon it if it carries through in the game. If not, that practice doesn't have any real value. I'm guessing he lights it up this weekend, but he's not getting a free pass because he practiced well. Sundays are what matter.

What you seem to be missing here is that Drew's performance this year doesn't mean squat. He could win the MVP with Dallas and it was still the right move to dump him. Even if he does poorly it doesn't vindicate the decision, the decision doesn't need vindication. In his three years with the Bills he didn't do enough to keep his job, period. That's the bottom line and that's all that matters. There's no need to second-guess, we saw the product on the field for 3 years.

Leave it to Green to want to trade for a guy that is perpetually injured. Bennett is a talent, no doubt, but he's had trouble staying on the field the past few years.

yeah, I do something like that too. But I'm pretty much always right.

You're only as good as your last game and our boys got smacked around last game. After two games I wouldn't worry about these types of questions, they'll sort themselves out on the field by the end of the year.

Hell, it took Drew 4 years before he threw more TDs than INTs and his QB rating in those first 3 years capped out at 73.6

This game centers on a few things for me. Is Fletcher going to be healthy enough to go sideline to sideline to stop Dunn? If so, I like our chances of shutting down the run and putting the game in Vick's (or Shaub's) hands to beat us passing the ball. I don't fear either as passers and with Vick's hammy I don't think he'll be a threat to run the ball (and if he doesn't curtail his running we'll see Shaub at some point in this game as Vick will likely aggravate the injury). If Fletcher is healthy Atlanta won't put up more than 13 unless our offense turns the ball over and gives them a short field. If he's not, I'm worried about stopping the running game. On offense I expect to see the coaching staff help JP out more with more high percentage throws where they don't expect JP to have to read too much after the snap. Like all young QBs he panics quickly when the blitz comes and doesn't concentrate on his post snap reads as he's worried about the rush. Three-step drop, plant, fire the ball (and hope his pre-snap read is correct.) We need to see more of this. I also expect more misdirection plays and screens to take advantage of an overaggressive D. I’d also like to see more play action on first downs. Mix in some deep throws off play action with a quick 3-step drop passing game and I think we’d see Losman have some success. I may be in the minority here, but I hate seeing Losman back there running around. Perhaps I'm simplifying things too much here, but I see most of these games riding on JP's shoulders (despite all the "he doesn't have to win games for us" stuff). Teams are going to stack 8-9 in the box and blitz us early. If JP can connect with some throws (like he did in Houston) and back the D off, we won't lose often. If he can't it's another nightmare TB scenario.

I've rarely have a problem with reception on my DTV either though. I can count one time in 5 years where I didn't get to watch something when I wanted. In the years that I had cable TV it was down more than that. Cable commercials make a big deal of weather when it comes to satellite TV when in truth it has to be pretty severe (like, say, a hurricane) to disrupt service.

Perhaps if Willis would just own up about having a bad game and running tentatively he wouldn't have been called out. Even after being called Willis had this to say: For once, I'm in agreement with Jerry Sullivan. "Everybody's got their own opinion?" This is your head coach Willis, acting like he's a journalist that wrote a critical piece on you probably isn't the best way to handle it. "I'm going to continue what I'm doing?" I'd imagine you'd continue it on the bench if you ignore Mullarky's instructions. I'm guessing the reason Mullarky is calling WM out is because the guy thinks his sh-- doesn't stink and needs to be brought down a few notches. I like McGahee a lot. I'm not one to reap a lot of praise on the Bills players if they're not deserving of it, but last year I was blown away by how tough WM ran; how he kept his legs moving after contact and how he initiated contact lots of times with that nasty stiff arm of his (has anybody even seen it this year?). True, he bounced stuff outside last year as well, but not nearly as often as he has this year. Willis thinking he's got his speed back isn't a good thing, particularly considering that he doesn't have the same speed he had at Miami. He was a much more physical runner last year than he ever was at Miami, and it suited the Bills. He needs to get back to that.

Those QBs are a combined 4-13 in games they've started this year. Somehow I doubt mentioning those players makes anybody feel any better. JP (and the offense as a whole) need to step up their play, it doesn't matter how poorly anybody else in the league is playing, they need to play better.

The officials are in a lose/lose situation. If they don't let the kid play there are people who will get pissed off and if they let the kid play and he gets hurt they have people asking, "why did you let a kid with no legs on the field in the first place?" You lash into the officials, but I don't envy them having to make the call. It shouldn't have been up to them, if everybody knew this was coming the governing body of the sport should have made a ruling on it beforehand.

I agree, and I was surprised how good he was, as I hated him in the studio. He had more insightful stuff to say in one quarter than most color men have to say all game long. He wasn’t as polished as most, but that comes with experience. I’ll take content over form any day.

That's easy to fix, stop giving up 1st downs and get off the field. I don't get why posters on this board want to let the D off the hook when the players themselves are taking much of the blame. Time of possession isn’t an offensive only stat. It’s a team stat. The D has as much to do with it as the O. Tampa's offense is not even a top 15 offense in this league. If we can't expect this D (which wants to be considered one of the all time greats) to get them off the field without converting 50% of their 3rd down attempts then I guess we shouldn't expect much from this team at all this year. The offense was horrendous and didn't do its job yesterday. But the D didn't do its job either.

I would have preferred it if the Dolphins had won. The Phins aren't going anywhere this year. The Jets, on the other hand, could compete for a playoff spot. I think a Phins win would have been better for us in the long run.