Lenny from Indy

Stop bitching.  The first string Colts played for 2 quarters and change, and only put up 15 points.  It’s not like they never saw the field.  They had time to play.

Would you rather change places with the fans of these teams?

1. St. Louis Rams – 60 more minutes and they have the first drat pick.

2. Washington Redskins – All the money spend on all of those players and  they sit at the bottom of the NFC East.

3. Chicago Bears – The interception riddled QB with no one to throw the ball to?

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – The sharp decline this team has felt since 2002 is comical.

5. Buffalo Bills – Been a joke since the music  city miracle.

6. New York Giants – Just played themselves out of the playoffs.

7. Seattle  Seahawks – Mora Jr is the coach.  We’ve seen that movie here with Mora Senior.

8. Cleveland Browns – Nothing good comes from or out of Cleveland.

9. Oakland Raiders – Commitment to Excellence.  Just Win Baby. Buzz phrases + bad drafting = failure.

10. Detroit Lions – Fail. Abort. Restart. Repeating that cycle since 1997.

The Colts are first place in the AFC South, number 1 seed in the AFC, and the road to the Super Bowl comes through Indy.  Take a breath you spoiled brats.

It’s a sight that we are not used to seeing.  Tim Tebow’s and Florida taking a lost last night to Alabama.  Tebow cried on the sidelines and was teary eyed in his post game interview.

There was more passion, heart, and fire in that 47 second clip than has been displayed by the following teams in the NFL this season.

1.  Cleveland Browns

2. St Louis Rams

3. Buffalo Bills

4. Oakland Raiders

5. Kansas City Chiefs

6. Washington Redskins

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Between Tim, Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and the wild card quarterback I’ll throw in to next years NFL draft, is that kid out of Central Michigan Dan LeFevour.  The next decades quarterbacks stand upon the doorway of greatness.

There is no reason why this picture of the Florida Gators cheerleaders needed to be here.  But, you don’t care.

Let the draft madness begin…

I reckon the “firing the coach thing” didn’t rally the troops to circle the wagons and get the win?

Hmmm.  This leaves me perplexed.

Now what Mr. Wilson?

In my own tiny opinion I believe that Ralph Wilson not only fired the wrong guy, he missed a few people.  This misfire exposes some other major glaring flaws within the team’s infrastructure.

Basic statement #1:  You are only as good as the players that you acquire through the draft and free agency.

Basic statement #2:  Proper coaching and a solid organized game plan is essential to at the very least being competitive in the NFL.

The Bills are so far behind the curve they make the Cleveland Browns look like Super Bowl Champions.  In case you didn’t know, Cleveland beat Buffalo in week 5 by the score of 6 to 3.  I’m not kidding with the score.  9 points all game.  This wasn’t a defensive battle type of game.  This has been referred to by some as, “The Game No One Wanted To Win”.  I think of that game as the game that set the NFL back 20 years.  Regardless of how it is remembered, it might be time for the Buffalo Bills to get back to basics.

It’s always odd when you look at the inner workings of a football team and see how they become accustomed to not only doing business, but how they are structured.

For instance… let’s take the current general manager Russ Brandon.  Russ, while involved in sports isn’t what you would call a “football general manager”.    Let’s look over Russ’ resume shall we…

Russ Brandon’s Resume

Class of 1989, St. John Fisher College

- Four-year letter winner as a wide receiver.

- .367 batting average on the baseball team.

- Inducted into the Fisher Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.

Work Experience

Rochester Red Wings, Triple-A team – Started as a intern and by the time he left in 1993 he was the co-general manager along with Dan Mason, who is currently is still the Red Wings’ GM.

New York Yankees – Was apart of the Sports Advertising Network division.

Florida Marlins – Start at the spring training facility, then the Director of Corporate Sales in Miami two years later.

Buffalo Bills – Nov. 1, 1997 – Executive Director of Business Development and Marketing.

13 months later – promoted to the Vice President of Business Development and Marketing.  In 1999, as part of a way to expand the Bills’ market area, Brandon helped bring the Bills training camp from SUNY Fredonia to his Alma mater St. John Fisher College.

Jan. 12, 2007, after spending two years as the Executive Vice President of Business Operations, Brandon was named the new Bills COO (Chief Operating Officer) and took control over both business and football operations.  That’s quite a jump for anyone in any business.

Here is what you are telling me when I see this resume.  A marketing/sales guy is now involved in the draft, free agency, and everything in-between???

This is a catastrophic error on the part of Ralph Wilson.  This team has been in disarray for a decade.  There hasn’t been any improvement on this team, no team chemistry and poor decisions made at every level.

Firing the coach wasn’t the issue.  It might have been one of the issues.  A very minor issue compared to the inner workings of the Buffalo Bills front office.  Your structure of management and choice of people might be the issue.  This goes beyond “time to clean the house”.  You need to set off a nuke and start again.

Don’t waste your time finding the “big name coach”.  The “big name coach” in the current management structure is doomed to fail.

What was it? – Inconsequential game.  They didn’t even need to play this game.  We could of just said this score out loud and everyone would have believed it to be true.

How did it go? – Ever see that scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke has his hand cut off and the rest of the rebel alliance looked beaten down?  Yeah, that’s what the Buffalo Bills looked like today.

Kudos – For the Bills?  Jairus Byrd.  2 Interceptions today.  7 interceptions this season.  For the Texans, Matt Schaub threw for 268 yards and Ryan Moats ran for 126 yards.

Jeers -  The Buffalo Bills.  Ownership, front office staff, coaching staff, players, and the cheerleaders.  This is a bad football team from top to bottom.

Moving forward – Texans will get an ass kicking by the Colts whilst mercifully the football overlords look down on the city of Buffalo and gave the Bills a bye week.  This works best as Bills fans can recover, heal wounds and figure out which team to root for next season.

What’s the difference between skeletor and dick Jauron?

At least skeletor has a new plan every week.

Tee hee hee!

So I predicted some games yesterday.  Let’s see how I did…. yesterday’s predictions are in the red text.

Upset of the week… Oklahoma beats Texas. – WRONG!  I BOTCHED THIS ONE BIG TIME.  MY BAD!

The obvious… Ohio State kills Purdue and I die a little on the inside. - WRONG!  I’M HAPPY I GOT THIS ONE WRONG.  IT HURT ME TO PREDICT THIS GAME THE WAY I DID.  F U OHIO STATE!  MY APOLOGIES TO THE GREAT PURDUE TEAM!

Expected… USC beats up on Notre Dame and the Catholic in me gets angry. – CORRECT!  SURE THE CATHOLIC IN ME WAS A TAD ANGRY BUT USC WON!  EPIC WIN!

More Expected… Florida rolls over Arkansas.  Tim Tebow after the game proclaims, “I don’t want to get drafted by Buffalo in the 2010 NFL Draft!  Can someone suck more than them this season please?” – CORRECT!  WELL I WOULDN’T SAY THEY ROLLED OVER ARKANSAS BUT THE TEBOW MACHINE KEEPS ON ROLLING.

2-2 for the day.  Meh.

Let’s start with a few quick facts on the Buffalo Bills in no order…

1. 9 seasons since the teams last playoff appearance.

2. Owner Ralph Wilson is a bit tight with the funds. Some would call him cheap.

3. A front office of novices.

4. The drafting skills of a you pick’em league at a elementary school yard football game.

5. The flashback uniform and logo is so much better than what is currently in place now.

6. New stadium deal not done in Buffalo.

7. No one in town is a big fan of head coach Dick Jauron.

8. A choice was made to play 8 games in Toronto, Canada over the next 5 years.

9. Fans deface players property when they make a bonehead play.

10. A failed Terrell Owens experiment can’t even be salvaged because why would another team want to waste money and picks on a guy that can walk to a new team in January.

11. You have the honor of playing the worst NFL game of the decade last week as you grappled with the Cleveland Browns, only to lose in the final seconds 6 to 3. You can’t even say that it was a defensive battle as the offenses on both teams generated so little heat that this was the most passive football has ever been.

12. It seems like when a player spends time in Buffalo and then moves to a new team, either through trade or free agency they seem to become better players.

13. A culture of losing is firmly in place.

14. An unemployed 18-year old has been collecting money through an internet campaign to buy a billboard that contains the message, “It’s time to clean house, Ralph.”

Make no mistake Buffalo, this is really sad.  I’d love to make a wise ass comment but these are facts.  This team is cooked.  The organization is rotten from top to bottom.

Many Bills fans talk of the past, the late 80′s and early 90′s had high flying teams and great players.  The end result was sadness.  It was sadness then and it is sadness now.

However, now you have a generation of fans that either do not remember or were too young to remember that you had a competitive team in Buffalo.

It doesn’t look like it’s lack of participation on the fans part would be a reason for moving the team away.  55,000 people have season tickets to Buffalo Bills games.  Kudos to the people for believing in the Bills.  Jeers on the ownership and management structure for engineering a monumental amount of sadness for paying fans to swallow.

Yeah I said moving.  It’s no secret that there is a group aggressively looking to bring one NFL team to California and Buffalo is on a short list of teams to try and woo with the dreams of a new stadium, new land, new fans, new outlook, and sunshine all year round.  But, I have to think that the Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and even the Jacksonville Jaguars are higher on the list of teams to steal away than the hapless Bills.

Jacksonville?  An expansion team quite possibly is desired more than the Buffalo Bills.

Do you feel the sting?

The sting of shame as it hits you in your mouth.

Feel the shame Buffalo.

I see you already do.  Courage.

In Buffalo T.O. was walking off the field last Sunday after the Bills lost to the Saints.

A fan dumped a bag of popcorn on his head.

Pathetic.  Buffalo’s fans as of late have been showing a very “no class” demeanor towards its players.  Leodis McKelvin’s lawn was defiled by two bottom feeder Buffalo Bills fans and now this “popcorn” incident.

I reckon it wasn’t only his streak of at least one reception a game that started in 1996 and ended last Sunday that put him in a poo mood when he faced the Buffalo press.

He seems angry.

This picture was taken on Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium.  Are the fans of Buffalo this crass that a message has to be spray painted on the wall?  Here is a good rule of thumb for NFL franchises.  If you have to paint this message on the walls of the bathroom, graffitti style, move your franchise.  The people of that city no longer deserve the team.

You know full well that when a drunk guy see that on the wall, he must achieve the unachievable.

Shame on you Buffalo.

We observed week 2 of the NFL season.  Here’s the valuable lessons learned.

The Jets beat the Patriots.  I’m not making that up.  It’s the first time in 8 years that the Jets beat the Patriots at home (well the Jets play in Giants Stadium… I guess its home… I dunno).  The city of New York celebrated the epic win by bathing the top of the Empire State building with a green colored light.  We knew that Rex Ryan had a plan.  We talked about this earlier in the week.  Check out what I said about Rex Ryan.

The Patriots are no longer one of the Elite teams in the NFL.  America is happy, very happy.

Bears beat the Steelers in Soldier Field.  Parts of Chicago feel happiness.  The rest of the city wishes the Cubs were still in the playoff hunt.  Steelers kicker Jeff Reed looked sick on the sidelines as he watched Bear kicker Robbie Gould kick the winning field goal.  Jeff missed two kicks today.  The good people of Pittsburgh would like a shot at kicking him today.

Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons will reign supreme in Atlanta for a long time.  “Matty Ice” as he has been nicknamed by teammates, has a unique skill set that will be able to take Atlanta far into the playoffs this year and for many years to come.  Can they bring back the “Dirty Bird” when they score touchdowns?  That ruled back in the day.

Detroit still hasn’t won a game in over a season.  Matt Stafford looks a lot like Peyton Manning circa his first year in Indianapolis.  Flashes of brilliance with a bunch of interceptions and losses.  Can Detroit turn around the massive amounts of failure and damage that Matt Millen inflicted on the Lions?  Check out this guy, here is his “Post game” thoughts on his Lions after today’s big loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Meet Brett Favre, game manager.  I like this Favre better than the “gunslinger”.  With weapons like Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin he really has no excuses to make silly mistakes.  Plus Favre’s success kills Packers fans.  It’s fun to watch them squirm, whine and complain.

The Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills won!  Seriously.  The Bengals had the tougher road as they had to beat the Green Bay Packers.  Buffalo played Tampa Bay.  Tampa Bay needs to rebuild badly.  They have Kellen Winslow.  That’s about all you would want to keep on that team.

The Cardinals bounced back from last weeks loss to wallop the Jaguars, 37-17.  The Jaguars will draft Tim Tebow in the first round in next year’s NFL draft if the ownership would like to stay in Jacksonville.  Do I have to remind you that all of the Jaguars home games are blacked out because they haven’t sold out one of the teams eight home games?  Poor David Garrard isn’t going to know what hit him.  He is a great player among many underachieving players.  A change of scenery might do David good.  Tampa Bay anyone?

Jake Delhomme had a bounce back game.  25 completions for 308 yards, one touchdown and one interception.  However, the Panthers still lost to the Atlanta Falcons.  Maybe a change of scenery will do Jake good.  Tampa Bay anyone?

San Francisco’s offensive can be summed up in two words, Frank Gore.  16 rushes for 207 yards.  Two touchdowns.  It was like playing Madden on the beginner setting.

Matt Hasselback left the game with a rib injury before the half as the Seahawks went down pretty easy after that to the San Francisco 49′ers Gore’s.

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saint used the Philadelphia Eagles as a doormat today.  I think the Eagles liked it.  Check the highlights…

The Texans beat the Titans.  Lots of offense, whoo-hoo!  The Titans are 0-2.

Who would have thought that the Denver Broncos would be 2-0?  With all of the change and drama they have had in this past off season is pretty amazing.  However, the Broncos beat the Bengals and Browns.  We’re not talking about stellar teams here.  Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels hasn’t had a real test yet.  We took a few shots at Josh’s witty and abrasive style on the blog.  We’ll have to readdress Broncos head coach after he beats a strong team.

The Redskins/Rams game was so overwhelmingly bad that it’s not worth talking about except to tell you that the Redskins won.

In a similar story, The Raiders beat the Chiefs.  People who dress up as Star Wars characters are happy this week.

Phillip Rivers threw for 436 yards today!  Fantasy football WIN!  However, the Chargers lost to the Baltimore Ravens.  Reality FAIL!

The Baltimore Ravens are the team to beat in the AFC North.  Ray Lewis still has mad skills.

Have you heard what they call the new Dallas Cowboys stadium?  Giants Stadium South.  Big win for the G-Men.  A devastating, historical loss for Jerry Jones and his Cowboys team in the new 2 billion dollar stadium that opened its doors to 100,000+ people last night.

Bonus stupidity:  Totally unrealated to week 2 NFL action check out Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith in a commercial.

A commercial with Jake only…

and finally a commercial with Jake and Charlie Daniels.

I’m not sure what to say either…

Rex Ryan leaves a voicemail for Jets fans!  OH JOY!

I wonder what was on this message he left for the Jets season ticket holders?

Is Rex going to promise a great game plan?

Will Rex guarantee victory?

If I was a Jets fan, I would be slow moving, hunched over and beaten down through the years.  You see, the Jets have been a terrible, poorly run team with meddling ownership for years.  My only thoughts would be only to hope that new head coach Rex Ryan will promise death and destruction this Sunday against the hated New England Patriots.

Will the message be great??????  I need to get psyched for the game!  HIT ME REX WITH YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS WEEKS GAME!!!!

So let me get this straight.  Rex Ryan freely admits that the Patriots coach, Bill Belichick is better than him and Tom Brady, quarterback of the New York Patriots is better than his quarterback Mark Sanchez.  But, The Jets have the better team!  He wants to prove it on Sunday but he needs the season tickets holders in attendance to not only be the 12th man, the 13th, 14th and, 15th man!  This is a challenge!  Rex isn’t screwing around here Jets season ticket holders.  He’s not that good at what he does when compared to division rival, Bill Belichick.

What is he expecting you, the Jets ticket holders to do to Bill this Sunday?  Should you go to Bill’s house and paint a penis on his front lawn with a J-E-T-S in white paint?  Oh wait… that’s been done already this season by the bottom feeding Buffalo Bills fans.  Turns out that it was two dumb Buffalo 16 year old children.  They apologized.  Not good enough.  Both kids should be taken from their parents, flogged publicly and but in a labor camp for at least a year.  Do we still have labor camps?

I digress, maybe Jets season ticket holders can throw snowballs at Santa Claus?  Nope.  Looks like Philadelphia has that honor.

I’m just plum out of ideas.  The Jets season ticket holder has a lot of pondering to do before Sunday’s game.  They have to figure out how to stop the New England Patriots.  Did you hear that voice mail?  Go back and listen to it again.  Hear Rex Ryan’s words.  Read through Rex’s clever subtext, he is telling Jets season ticket holders that HE IS NOT GOOD AT HIS JOB!

How does this inspire confidence in the new head coach?  Will this sell more tickets?  Are Jets fans stupid?  Don’t answer that last question, it’s rhetorical.

In all seriousness, are we really buying this latest verbal missive from Rex?  This guy has been the defensive coach for one of the best defenses in recent memory, the Baltimore Ravens.  In the short time he has been the head coach for the Jets he has started to assemble the pieces for a great defense.  This is something that Jets fans are not going to be ready for when this defense is fully assembled.  The Jets fans are not used to seeing a complete team on the field.  Jets fans have been taking it in the shorts since 1970.  If upper management stays out of Rex Ryan’s way and lets him assemble the team in his vision and in his way, I believe that the Jets could be holding multiple Super Bowl trophies over the next decade.

Big maybe on that prediction.  The Jets upper management has done everything in its power to completely piss off superstar players, superior coaches and crush fans spirits through poor draft selections though the years.  Remember, this is the same team that had the Pittsburgh Steelers beaten in the playoffs a few years ago and they lost the game because the teams kicker out and out sucked.  That very next year at the draft the Jets select a kicker in round 1.  ROUND 1!

This story has yet to be told.  Hopefully the Jets season ticket holders figure out how to beat the New England Patriots this Sunday.

Courage.

The Buffalo Bills have not beat the New England Patriots since September 2003.  That’s quite a long time in football years.  The Patriots have won the last 11 games they have played against the Bills.  Tonight, with 5 minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock, the Bills were up 11 points.  In what only can be described as history repeating itself, the Bills let the Patriots score 12 points on them for a twelfth consecutive win.  The Buffalo Bills yet again let another win fall into the loss column.

Patriots 25 – Bills 24.

Here’s what we learned.

1.  The Patriots with all of the change that has happened to the team this off-season are not the same team we have come to hate since Feb 2002.

2. The Bills are a pretty good team but this now legendary loss has already killed the teams mojo for the season.  I predict a top 5 pick in next years draft.

3. Tom Brady still has some rust on him.  He is not Super Tom right now.  The Bills for 55 minutes rushed him and harassed him, leaving him little options down field.  A better team with with superior coaching will rush for 60 minutes and Tom might not be able to answer the call like what we will now refer to as, “the old days”.

4. The Bills need Lynch back ASAP.  If Lynch played, this game might not of been a loss for Buffalo.  The running game was alright but the Bills need the thug back in the lineup.  October cannot come fast enough for the Buffalo Bills.

5. The Patriots defense is average.  Plus they took an awful lot of silly penalties yesterday.

Did anyone see Suzy Kolber getting the stiff arm from Tom Brady when she was trying to snag a post game interview?  That was kind of odd.  Funny but odd.

Forget the haters.  Tim Tebow is a top NFL Prospect.  While I respect a guy like Mel Kiper, I must politely scream out to Mel, ‘NO MEL!  TIM TEBOW WILL BE A GREAT NFL QUARTERBACK!”

You talk about leaders in the game, Tim Tebow has been a leader since he played high school football.  The old Raiders saying is “Commitment to Excellence.”  Tim Tebow is excellence.

Every year a different NFL team hits the skids.  Every year owners, general managers and coaches are on the hot seat.  Some one is going to be in the top 5 of the draft next year.  Tim Tebow is perpetual combustible energy.  This is something you do not walk away from or left slip to the 5th round of the NFL draft like some of the haters are saying.

Here is this weeks not so scientific top 5 list of who should look at… nay, should be hoping that they are able to land the mighty Tim Tebow in the 2010 NFL draft.

1) Buffalo Bills – Let’s see… Owner really would like to see the team get back to the playoffs.  He’s 97.  Talk about a team that has been failing its owner this decade.  Let’s make Ralph Wilson happy one more time.  The last trip to the playoffs I believe was in January of 2000.  Does anyone remember The Music City Miracle? People in Buffalo call it, Homerun Throwback.  This team is a mess.  Former quarterback, JP Losman now will be playing for the Las Vegas team in the UFL.  Current quarterback Trent Edwards has had a terrible preseason.  He hasn’t looked the same since his week 5 or 6 of last season concussion.  The teams only upgrade was a one year contract for wide receiver Terrell Owens (whose VH-1 reality show is horribly underrated).  For the lovable Buffalo Bills, next year looks like a new coach will be on the horizon, which means a total cleaning out of the coaching staff and some of the horrible draft picks they have made since Jim Kelly retired.

2) Seattle Seahawks – Matt Hasselback is not going to live forever.  They have few options past him.

3) Minnesota Vikings – This might be the best team for Tim Tebow to go to next year.  if I’m right Brett Favre will collapse in the later half of the year and sadly at that point they probably will let go of Brad Childress.  That’s the real shame of the Favre acquisition.  Tebow would be an instant play maker for that team and would undo some of the damage Favre will inflict on this decent Vikings team.

4) Tampa Bay Buccaneers – They let Jeff Garcia go to the Raiders to replace him with Byron Leftwich.  Really?  Keep Tebow in Florida and let the love-fest continue.

5) Washington Redskins – Like they have better in the QB position.  Plus, the way they are headed it looks to be a bad season for the Skins.

Bonus Tebow!!!

Tebow puts Mel Kiper in his place last year.  I can’t wait for the rematch.

Tim Tebow Zone – Ground Zero for Tebow.

Florida Gators/Tim Tebow highlights.

Random thoughts after watching some NFL  preseason games the past few days…

Cleveland Browns:  It doesn’t matter who your quarterback is this year.  You still have the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens in your division and you still have to play games against them.  Mangenius, he is not.

New York Football Giants:  Eli has no one to catch his passes.  Eight men in the box should stop the running game.  Mario Manningham, drafted last year needs to put glue on his gloves.  Another Michigan bust.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:  Byron Leftwich?

Philadelphia Eagles:  McNabb is kind of a bitchy baby.  Mike Vick should have the QB gig after week 8.  McNabb isn’t a QB who stays injury free for long stretches of time.  He’s old now.  He’s due.

New England Patriots:  It’s was kind of eye opening how many times Brady was knocked around by the Redskins.  The O line isn’t that good.  And Brady is already injured.  He left the game with a shoulder injury that apparently was nothing by the time Belichick arrived at his press conference.  Hmmm…

Detroit Lions:  They are the toughest team… in preseason.

Seattle Seahawks/Kansas City Chiefs:  It looked like two teams trying not to win the game.

Oakland Raiders:  They like to be spanked.  This has been a reoccurring theme for this team since 2002.

Buffalo Bills:  Goodnight.