Monday Thoughts

-Look, I’ve liked Perry Fewell for the most part during his tenure with the Bills. But all you had to do was watch him coach yesterday in two separate plays, to know that he’s nothing more than Dick Jauron’s cooler brother. Sure, he may be better, but their still from the same blood. First, you had the Bills facing a 4th and 4 at the Atlanta 37-yard line, down 10-0. Your play selection is a punt? Are you kidding me!? You have a kicker who hit a 56-yarder against Miami in Buffalo just 4 weeks earlier, and you’re in a dome!? Perry, I thought you were going to be this aggressive coach! Hell, I’d be happy if you decided to go for it on 4th down, but to punt it? That’s coaching scared, and if you’re scared, the NFL will eat you alive! But that wasn’t even the end of his passiveness. It’s the 4th quarter and you’re down 24-0 and you decide to try to kick a field goal? Um, hello! You have nothing to lose and you’re down by 24! I’m sorry, but does losing 31-3, instead of 31-0 make you feel better about yourself?-

-Thanks, T.O.! Thanks for all the memories you have given Bills fans this season. Sunday was just another bitter pill to swallow in this awful signing that has not yielded any sort of impact on the field. First, Owens, decides to file his nails on the sideline. Was he getting ready to go out on the town in Atlanta to check out a Hawks game? Did he want to be able to claw his eyes out better if the Cowboys won the division? Oh, lets not forget his amazing effort on trying to break up an interception in the back of the endzone. This isn’t the first time Owens didn’t give all of his best effort when a ball wasn’t exactly thrown in his hands. I don’t even think it’s about effort, it’s about being arrogant. “How dare you not throw me a ball directly over the top? You think I’m going to make an effort, if yours isn’t that good?” Don’t let the door hit you on the way out T.O.-

-Is it safe to say that this could be the worst Bills season ever? Think about about it. In a world of 24/7 sporting news and the Internet, everyone knows the problems the Bills have had this season, and I’m not talking about the fans. I’m talking about NFL players and coaches. Big named coaches don’t want to come here to put up with a team that is cheap. I’m sure when T.O. leaves Buffalo, he’s going to tell all his boys in the NFL that the Bills franchise is a complete joke. So you’ll have coaches and players not wanting to come to WNY. I wonder had the Bills decided to fire Jauron in January, like they should have, maybe a big named coach would have wanted to come here. Wishful thinking, I know. But lets be fair, the Bills are 20x worse now than they were in January to the general football public-

-Charlie Weis as your next Bills head coach? Eh, I’m not exactly thrilled with that prospect. First, I’m not buying the Bill Belichick family tree. Every coach that has left him has been nothing short of a disaster. Secondly, Weis was a complete failure at Notre Dame, which I’m sure will work for Bills fans, since there’s a large contingent of Irish fans here. Here’s what I don’t get, why aren’t the Bills looking for a GM first? I understood them going after Shanahan, Holmgren and Cowher first because they would have their say in who the GM would be. I doubt Weis would have the clout to request a GM, like Shanahan would. It’s as if the team is doing this completely backwards. It tells me that Russ Brandon is afraid to give control to a football guy in the organization and that’s why he’s finding the coach first. Whose to say Brandon won’t fire John Guy and just find another scout to find him players. There’s just something fishy about Russ.

-Good for Patrick Lalime to win three of his last four games. It was really all about a better team effort in front of him that has made him more of a doable back-up. I don’t want to say I called it, but I did. I’m very happy that Lalime is breaking the hearts of the Marty Biron fan club-

-I’m not as big of a fan of having an abundance of grit players for the Sabres like others, but I’m all for having Mike Grier on this team. He’s got grit, leadership, and whenever he has a scoring chance, which are all far in between, it always seems like he makes the most of it and buries it-

-Since everyone is all about judging the Bills for the decade. How would you judge the Sabres for this time period? I’m sure if you asked a bunch of hockey apologists they would term it a success story, but was it really? By the numbers, you would say that the 90’s were more successful. The Sabres missed the playoffs once in the 90’s and made the Stanley Cup Finals in ’99. As for this decade, the Sabres have only made the playoffs three times, two EC finals, and a President’s Trophy to show for. I wouldn’t call it a complete failure, but it wasn’t exactly successful if you ask me. There’s also some black eyes that have happened during the decade. The organ
ization decided to break the hearts of all Sabres fans by not resigning Briere and Drury. And lets not forget they had a owner who went to jail for stealing money. Hell, I haven’t even mentioned the lockout and the NHL owning the team for a year. I’ll say this about the decade, it was definitely a rebirth for hockey in area. However, if you had been here since the 90’s, like I have, I’m not exactly being blown away. Call me a cynic, but I term this decade as a C+

-So Mike Schopp thinks it’s really cool that he didn’t watch yesterday’s football game. Look, anyone can turn the channel if they’re sick of watching games, but when you’re making good money to cover sports, you owe it to the community to watch all the games. Hell, you work what? 4-5 hours a day and you’re too cool to watch. It’s your job! Hell, I’m some crappy blogger who feels that I should watch every single Sabres game so I can write about them. If I feel that way, then so should Schopp–