Year: 2006

One thing I did not get to mention on the show this week was how great the offensive line played! No sacks of JP, and not even much pressure on him. Sometimes he had TONS of time back there. And, there was a play in the second half where the offensive line as a unit pushed the #3 defense back FIVE YARDS on a running play. The whole line. It was amazing. So far from what we were seeing earlier this year.

I guess the shifting guys around worked?

Whatever it is, great job O-line!

I found this article tonight, and just thought I would pass it along. Shows just how many tickets are remaining for the final four home games of the season. Crazy. No way the Tennessee game is selling out. Not likely that WNY will get to see LT scorch the Bills D on their TV either. The really sad thing is that while there are 7000 tickets left for the game Sunday, that means that there are 66000 that ARE sold. That’s more than most stadiums hold total!!!!!!! Grrr. That makes me quite angry.

So, if you want to see the Bills…. time to plop down $40/ticket.

WGR 550 : Sunday’s Bills Game Blacked Out

Houston, we have a problem.

Sorry I didn’t get one out last week, I’ve had some difficulties (and been MIA). If you want I’ll still post my thoughts on the one point blowout, but on to this past week’s “grass truly is greener on the last minute comeback win side of the fence” game against the Texans.

What I meant by that last statement is what I’ve been saying all along, that Buffalo is truly a special team, perhaps a miracle team. A miracle team for whomever they are playing (Music city miracle, Super Bowl XXV, the last 5 years, the list goes on). Finally this week, we managed to inflict pain and suffering on somebody else for a change.

Whenever we talk about a win it is important to give credit where credit is due, and today’s “The John Review Game Ball” goes to me, for not giving up. Sure you could say JP Losman and his offense didn’t give up either and won the game in the last two minutes, but I’m not getting paid for it.

So I was the big highlight for today and then the runners up I guess are Nate “guys, I’m seriously worth the money, trust me” Clements. He was all over Houston’s receivers in the first quarter like the Dog on a sex offender, and Lee “who’s Eric Moulds?” Evans, who had a record-breaking day. My guess is Fairchild took him aside and said, “I’m going to level with you Lee, could you try to get open, JP’s obviously going to throw to you even if all 11 defensemen are covering you at once.”

I have to give JP some credit too. I have been one of the few that believes in the kid and think if you put him behind a line that was actually capable of stopping a blitzing NFL linebacker (our line couldn’t stop Steven Hawking), he might play closer to basic competence. Look how excited Bills fans get when he completes a pass.

Sadly, other than the beginning and end of the game, the rest of the defense really wasn’t that great, considering Carr set an NFL completion record, and our ability to stop the run is… haha sorry I can’t even talk about our run defense with a straight face. I know Levy said it was important to have a smaller line that was fast and able to get to the ball, but he seemed to forget that especially on the run they don’t have to get to the ball, the ball comes to them, they just have to stop it.

Lastly, I need to mention Rob Royal. Rob Royal is the tight end we picked up in free agency this year to replace Mark Campbell. Royal was supposed to have good hands so he could be used as more of a receiving tight end rather than just a blocking tight end. The problem is, Venus DeMillo has better hands (and she’s a girl). Oh well I met him; he’s still a nice guy.

This coming week we take on Jacksonville as we try to put together the longest winning streak of the season (two games). I don’t know much about them, but I hear it’ll be close. Go Bills!

-The John

Sent them packing.

Let me start off with my usual setting of the scene: I was there. Packers fans infiltrated Ralph Wilson stadium, sparking comments by passing Bills fans like, “I’ve never seen so many of the other team’s jerseys.” It was reminiscent of a Sabres/Leafs game in HSBC where so many Toronto fans have seemed to move right in and make themselves at home. I was worried there would be confusion as to who the home team really was.

My friend Dave and I had really kickin’ seats in the lower level just off the 35-yard line. The stadium filled up and it was time for kickoff.

First play of the game Terence Mcgee made quite an impression. However it was the Bills offensive line to save the day for Green Bay’s defense as they incurred a false start penalty and the first (of many) sacks on Man-tan Losman.

The Bills continued to embody the philosophy that it’s better to be lucky than good, as the offense played the first three quarters. During that time I found myself happy to see the defense take the field (despite the capabilities of the dangerous Brett Farve) because they were so much more fun to watch. Don’t get me wrong I still believe Losman could be the guy, but I was the one that started the stadium sweeping “Nall Ball” chant just because I was so bored with the current offensive setup. In hindsight I’m glad Dick didn’t listen to me, but man the O-line better start preparing their resumes.

I also have to mention I like the A-train. He has that old fashion, “tackle me and I’ll make you pay for it” run-through style that is quite the opposite of future “Dancing with the Stars” contestant Willis McGahee (as far as I know he won’t really be on the show, but he does do a lot of dancing). I know the BBR guys pointed out A-train has more TDs than McGahee, and that really shouldn’t be a surprise (actually, London Fletcher-Baker has more TDs than McGahee), since the plow-through style is more productive than the run-around style on the goal line.

Bottom line: Bills finally got the job done, but they need an unholy amount of improvement if we’re even going to make it a game against the monster Colts next week. I know BBR_Greg called for an upset and I would love to have that kind of faith, but Payton Manning is in every commercial ever for a reason, and that reason is he’s amazing. If we keep the ball on the ground and out of Manning’s hands, we have a shot of making it a game. If Miami can do it to Chicago then we have a shot. Besides, I’d like to think anything Miami can do we can do better. Go Bills.

-The John

SIDE NOTE: as mentioned on the show this week (thanks Greg), I was at the game and recorded some audio highlights from myself, my friend Dave and the much intoxicated people around me. I made a short montage and will post that hopefully before Tuesday. Hope you enjoy it.

In case you have not stopped by the home page, please do! We just posted the BBR interview with Steve Tasker, and it was great! I wanted to post another link here to an article the Bills did on Steve a while back. It’s posted on the Buffalo Bills website.

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/AlumniSpotlightSteveTasker.jsp

Good stuff there that we were not able to capture in a short 15 minute interview.

But the podcast version is always fun, so check out the latest Bills Review, an inteview with Bills all-time great special teamer, Steve Tasker!

I know I’m waaaay late this week, but I’ll make it up to you I promise.

I can’t really think of anything to say that either my BBR colleagues, or the writers for the Buffalo News haven’t already said. This team is bad and they’re not getting any better. The sad thing is, not only are the Bills bad, they’re boring.

Jerry Sullivan said it best when he said, “This has come at a bad time, the Sabres [are] still unbeaten and putting on the best sports show this town has seen in years. The Bills are giving everyone a chance to turn away and pay their undivided attention to the sensation in the arena at the foot of Washington Street.”

Now I’m a huge Sabres fan as well as a huge Bills fan and I’ll be the first to advocate that when one team does well it shouldn’t mean bad news for the other, but this city needs something to rally behind and the Sabres are doing just that.

I know they are two different sports, two completely different franchises, but it’s the same city, so it’s not hard to justify abandoning our NFL team for our NHL team. Last weekend both Buffalo teams were in Detroit, Sabres came up with the win and the Bills didn’t. This past weekend both teams faced Boston (or New England respectively), Sabres got the job done (made Boston look like little kids), the Bills didn’t (other way around).

That said; rather than pit the two against each other, make them work together. I know the Bills are bad, incompetent, untalented, uninspiring, unintelligent, etc. but that’s our team, so knowing they’re not going to win, let’s get behind them as fans and try to do our part to (in the short term) bring them back up to at least “almost winning,” as opposed to their current state of, “not even showing up.”

The six fans that stayed cheering to the end of the game this past week made me proud (I watched on TV until the end, not quite as dedicated, but my uncle didn’t get me the tickets to the Pats game like he promised). That’s the kind of people we are in Western NY. As I said last week we’re losers, but we’re passionate losers (I don’t mean that as a knock). As fans we need to show up even if our team doesn’t, and we need to cheer, and we need to buy jerseys (go Brian Moorman!).

The importance of this is not just to turn this season around, forget this season if you will. If we let the team tank financially we’ll lose them. Part of what keeps the dream alive in Buffalo is the faint hope that we’ll be back to glory someday, and we can’t have a winning team if we don’t have a team at all. And you can bet once Buffalo loses a team, it’s population is not going to grow enough in the future to get one back.

I’m serious about this, as Bills fans we need to support them now more than ever. I know most of you are at your wits end, frustrated beyond belief and as nice as it sounds to still try to get excited, just can’t take the pain anymore. Well I’m with you and I’ve come up with a plan to play through the pain.

Hockey.

Like I said, make the two teams work together. This is becoming a glorious year to be a Buffalo Sabres fan. Granted, the season is long and a lot could happen between now and the end, but for right now there is no better team in the NHL than Buffalo. Lean on that, use the Sabres as your crutch as you cheer on the Bills. As much as you’ll feel like a loser when you watch football you can take solace in the fact that you’re not a total loser because you have another professional team in Buffalo that is amazing.

Next week we face Green Bay, and I’ll be at the game. I plan to bring you all a very special review from it (it’ll be funny I promise), but to the rest of you, get in front of your TV, cue up the Shout song, make some Buffalo wings and keep this team where it belongs: Buffalo.

-The John

When will the Lossman experiment be over in BUFFALO? JP is going backwards. Do we finish out the year with JP or do we switch to Kelly Holcomb and try and win some games. If we do Lossman is all but a cut next year, as he should be.

JP you are a nice guy but with talent but you do not have the head to be a QB in the NFL.