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This. People want to complicate the issue, but the kid just can't throw. I know money and egos and reputations and jobs are on the line, but somebody -- somebody influential -- at One Bills Drive has to call this what it is -- a mistake -- and move on.

All season long, I've tried and tried not to admit that EJ Manuel is woefully inaccurate. For the longest time, I blamed my lying eyes. But then last week, on the John Murphy Show, a nationally respected analyst whose publication (Pro Football Focus) breaks down every play of every NFL player every week, told us that EJ Manuel is the least accurate passer in the NFL. Let me say it another way: EJ Manuel, according to dispassionate statistical analytics, is the most inaccurate passer in the NFL. So according to expert testimony -- not just two guys like you and me blabbing on a message board -- your statements in defense of EJ's passing ability are patently incorrect. (Love that phrase! Thanks for giving me another opportunity to use it.) Should you wish to argue further, please take it up with Pro Football Focus. Impress them with your sophisticated understanding of slants and crossing routes. Their expert appears each week on the John Murphy Show. Perhaps you could contact John and offer to debate the PFF expert over this very issue!

Please note (see above) the word "regularly" in the phrase "regularly hit the 8-yard slant." That you found it necessary to direct our attention back to the Jets game (skipping over 8 quarters of football since then) proves that maybe I'm not "patently incorrect." Your "evidence" proves me right, but I'm glad you attempted to refute me, because "patently incorrect" is a cool phrase that I intend to use every time I sense the opportunity.

Conventional wisdom about rookie QB's, when applied to EJ Manuel, is invalidated by the fact that EJ can't throw. He might be able to launch it 50 yards in the air (and maybe even keep it inbounds!) but until he can regularly hit the 8-yard slant on 3rd and 7, it doesn't matter. Conventional wisdom assumes the kid QB can throw. EJ can't.

Now, we're getting somewhere. I don't watch television "shows" and movies because actors don't move me. In the same way, the NFL is making it increasingly difficult to suspend my disbelief.

Agreed. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how it seems like this is nothing more than skit night to some of these guys.

Neither. But if he'd registered a millionth of the dismay that we fans felt at that moment, it might seem like this is something more than a charade.

Yes. It made me want to puke real puke.

...mere seconds after the loss, was seen in close-up with a benevolent smile and body language that looked like he wanted to french-kiss the Atlanta kicker, if only their face masks weren't in the way. I mean, get a room. Do these guys even give a damn? I know Carpenter has bounced around, but there was no indication that the loss registered with him in any way whatsoever.

The heat of the moment has passed, and I like both Chandler and Stevie. I even think they are decent players. But they need to be gone. They are losers. Most NFL games are close, and the error that is sure to lose almost every time is a turnover. Somehow our #1 wide receiver and our #1 tight end don't understand that the absolute priority is hanging on to the ball. There are no excuses, there are no extenuating circumstances. There is nothing to be done but to rid the roster of serial losers.

Aerobic or anaerobic?

...notwithstanding the misspelling of "apologize":

What's wrong with calling them week by week as you see them? The onus is on EJ to perform, not on fans to apologize. It is a slippery slope to apologize this week for having told the truth last week

When EJ sh*ts the bed (like he did in Pittsburgh) and you say so, why should you apologize when he has a good game and you say so?

Prior to Pittsburgh, EJ's body of work looked OK for a rookie. Then at Pittsburgh he looked like an unmitigated disaster. Today he looked very good for a rookie. When he is able to put two good performances back-to-back, my lying eyes will sense progress.

First of all, I hope you are not reading Two Bills Drive today. But if you are, I hope you understand that when you read less-than-flattering thoughts about "EJ", you should not take those remarks personally. Those remarks are not directed at a person named EJ, but at the current placeholder of a position -- QB of our Buffalo Bills. It's a position of importance around here. Not one of EJ's detractors wishes EJ anything less than the best in football and in life at large. Our abrupt judgments are born of long-festering frustrations that leave us irritable and impatient. Many of these frustrations were born before you were. We are, every one of us, pulling for you. We are cheering for you. We are praying you prove us wrong. May the good Lord shine His light on you.

The topic of this thread is not the short supply of patience on this board, but whether or not the other 52 players have the patience to watch their careers dwindle away while we ascertain whether the 53rd sucks a lot or just a little.

Sad but true.

Agreed. It would have been better for everyone involved if EJ had been pulled at halftime yesterday. If his delicate psyche would have been forever damaged, then so be it. He looks like he'd make one hell of a school teacher or stock broker. I wrote in another post that I am at this point more concerned for the other 52 players, many of them in the peak years of their careers, who are watching another year swirl down the drain while we prop up a QB because he was taken in the first round. I'm sick of massaging QB psyches and GM egos while the careers of Stevie Johnson, Kyle Williams, Fred Jackson, Eric Wood, Manny Lawson, etc. are put on hold for yet another year.

Bingo!

Without a doubt.

But that's the problem, Campy. Nothing's been fixed.

Half of me was kidding, but the other half wasn't; I do recall a few drafts where we failed to land a Rookie of the Year with our first round pick.