Bills-Ravens

 Does anyone remember this SI Cover?

It's date Feb 1979 I think, so I must have been 12. Someone in my family, myself or my grandfather, had an SI subscription at the time, and I remember I saved all the issues and would read them cover to cover. This was one of my favorite covers, although I don't really remember anything about the boxer. But, he does look cool doesn't he?

As far as Bills-Ravens go, I saw somewhere the Lamar Jackson said he has never played in snow and doesn't particularly want to. This is the type of thing I will ignore, as it seems like it leads to false hope. This is gonna be a real knockdown, drag-them-out affair. We need ever edge we can get. Bills 17-14.

All-Time Bills Head Coaches Ranked - Part 1

Somebody asked me recently if I like Sean McDermott as a coach. Well, as a Bills fan for the past 45 years, I have to say, yes, he's certainly been been better than a lot of our coaches. Then, today I came across one of those links on ESPN for "The Worst Head Coaches in NFL History" and was expecting to find at least Harvey Johnson and possibly Jim Ringo represented, but, alas, neither appeared, likely forgotten in their 5-45-1 ineptitude - and the fact that it occurred in Buffalo. Yes, younger Bills fans, if you think your team is bad these days, fathom that winning percentage (it's .100 for the mathematically challenged). It was achieved in four seasons over 10 years - luckily only two were consecutive. Of course, Lou Saban, who is actually one of the most remarkable coaches in Bills history, appeared smack in the middle of all that.

Anyhow, this all inspired me to come with an all-time ranking of Bills head coaches over the years. I feel like I have some familiarity with all of them except the initial guy - Buster Ramsey - as I became a Bills fan in 1974 - during "The Second Age of Saban" (Lou, not Nick) and as Saban started with the Bills in their third year (1963) I feel connected to everything that came after him.

I grouped these in tiers, starting at the top:

Championship Winners
1. Marv Levy: Well, so, Levy didn't win a Super Bowl, so no NFL championship, but he did win four AFC titles, which I guess is technically the same as Saban's AFL championships, because in 1964-65 there was no Super Bowl, and who's to say that the Bills could have beat the Browns or Packers anyway, although the '64 team was pretty awesome. We'll also get to Saban's baggage, but Levy was simply great as a Bills coach with a 112-70 (.615) regular season record and a 19-11 playoff record - not to mention a place in the Hall of Fame. The only argument against Levy is that his teams were stacked, but it's important to note that he was the one who first discovered Bill Polian, the architect of the great '90s teams, when Levy hired Polian as a scout back in his days with the Kansas City Chiefs, so the two are inexorably linked.

2. Lou Saban:  Lou's record with Buffalo was 68-45-4 (.605) in the regular season and 2-2 in the playoffs (smaller tournament back then) but those two wins produced two titles for the Bills in 1964 and 1965. After leaving Buffalo following the second title, Saban returned seven years later and built the  Bills back up into a playoff team again. Saban is known as a coaching nomad, having made something like 20 stops in a long and winding career as a head coach at the high school, college and professional levels. But, his biggest successes came in Buffalo, where he turned a fledgling franchise into a champion, and after the team crumbled in the wake of his departure, returned and coached them up again. Of course, the Bills once again crumbled after he left the second time and Ralph Wilson wouldn't even put Saban on the Wall of Fame due to bad feelings over it.

Defensive Gurus:

3. Chuck Knox:  Chuck Knox was a very good football coach - especially in the regular season. In 22 years as an NFL head coach (with three different teams, including the Rams twice), Knox was 186-147-1 (.558) and this was somewhat tainted by his last four seasons, when he failed to record a winning record. Unfortunately, he was 7-11 in the playoffs, so he was kind of like an old school Andy Reid, but Knox's specialty was defense. He began his head coaching career in 1973 with the Rams and proceeded to go 54-15-1 in six seasons but couldn't make it past the NFC Championship game, falling to the Cowboys or Vikings every year. So, in 1978, he ended up in Buffalo, taking over a team that had gone a combined 5-23 the previous two seasons. By Knox's second season, the Bills were 7-9 and had the eighth ranked defense in the league. The 1980 and 1981 teams featured top six defenses and both made the playoffs, losing in the divisional round. In the strike-shortened 1982 season, the Bills struggled to a 4-5 record, dropping their last three games to miss the playoffs. Knox and Wilson then had a disagreement over salary and Knox ended up going to Seattle, where he turned around the Seahawks and took them to the playoffs in the four of the next six years.

4. Sean McDermott: Yes, I am going to place Sean McDermott here, even though he arguably took over a mediocre team from Rex Ryan and made it, well, mediocre - so far at least. Sure, McDermott has yet to win a playoff game, but either has anyone else on this list after Knox (and he won one Wild Card game). I am basing this ranking on what I see as McDermott's potential. He seems to have a plan and has certainly developed a top notch defense. Now, if we can just fix that offensive thing...

5. Wade Phillips: Speaking of defense, Wade is regarded as one of the all-time great defensive coordinators , his reputation cemented when the Broncos shut down the Panthers to win the Super Bowl a few years back. Last year, he helped the Rams make it to the Super Bowl. With Buffalo, Phillips also had a top 10 defense that peaked in 1999, when the Bills went 11-5 before falling in the Music City Miracle game. Overall, Phillips had a 29-19 regular season and 0-2 playoff record with the Bills, so he really didn't do a bad job, but you still felt he was riding the wave of those great Levy teams. And, of course, he oversaw the whole Flutie vs. Johnson fiasco. Phillips was fired after an 8-8 season when he showed loyalty by refusing to fire some of his assistants (as I remember it, or maybe it was refusing to wear a headset on the sidelines).

Coming next:  A Parade of Mediocrity.

10 Greatest Fiction Books

Currently reading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and re-realizing what an amazing piece of literature it is. Really sums up an interesting time in American history - from my perspective at least - that hasn't been covered very well in our traditional history books - at least from what I've seen with my kids. Or, I haven't even seen many TV specials or anything that really cut the the heart of the matter like the great Hunter S.

I grew up in 1970s - I was born in 1967 and really came of age during that time period. So, I remember the '60s hangover that the '70s was and the way that Thompson depicts what really went down. I think the '70s, which spilled in into the '80s, were a very selfish time - of course, I was a kid, so I was naturally selfish as well - in the aftermath of a very community-oriented period. The '60s kind of ushered the spirit of individualism in America, but I think it went too far in some ways in rebelling against authority. Authority is often designed to maintain a communal spirit and that spirit I think got lost.

Thompson does a great job chronically all this in the form of a very entertaining story about a few days in Las Vegas. I am reading the book now after reading his Hell's Angels portrait that kind of broke Thompson into the mainstream. While that may have been a revolutionary book at the time, it doesn't really hold up that well. Fear and Loathing on the other hand, I think I could continue reading for the next 100 years at least. It's Thompson's perfect book. After that, he manages to get through about three quarters of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and then apparently has a breakdown of some sort and last quarter is just dictated and not nearly as tight or strong. After, that he seems to show intermittent brilliance in his column writing but nothing as sustained as his first two Fear and Loathing efforts.

So that's sort of a long prelude (in honor of Hunter) to my current list of 10 greatest fiction books I've read. Off top of head, here's what I got

1. On the Road - holds up on every read through
2. Brother Karamazov - so much depth
3. Catch 22 - black comedy as its finest
4. The Ginger Man - also great black comedy - kinda of a favorite theme for me
5. Sun Also Rises - Hemingway's best
6. Fear and Loathing....
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest -gotta have some Kesey
8. Crime and Punishment - I am a sucker for Dostoevsky
9. One Hundred Year's of Solitude - this should probably be higher
10. The Shining - great American Horror Story. I am thinking I am missing something that should replace this...

10a. I knew I was forgetting something - the Odyssey by Homer clearly needs to be placed near the top of this list.

but I have read all these books multiple times and will likely read them again and that is why they make my list.

Please share some I am missing and I will hopefully get a chance to check out.

Why Trump Needs AI

There's a great Dilbert strip that ran today. In it, our favorite jaded engineer is discussing the "breakthrough" he had in developing AI technology. Basically, he realized he was trying to duplicate something that doesn't exist: "rational human thought."

I think that fairly explains the current situation in the White House. Very few people who thought about it rationally would vote for the Donald as our president. At least that's what us Dems like to tell ourselves. But, there is more to the human make-up than rational thought. Unlike Dilbert, I haven't despaired completely, but I do realize that rationality only makes up part of our "intelligence." There are definitely things like "gut" and instinct that also come into play when making decisions. Trump has always understood this and capitalized on it vs. Dems who want to intellectualize everything.

And until the people that make AI understand this...well, maybe they already do. Check out this article that recently ran in The Atlantic on Why Technology Favors Tyranny. I mean look at what Facebook is being accused of doing to the U.S. elections.

Perhaps the bottom line is that Trump doesn't need to be smart, he's got tools (computers) he can leverage for that.

Quarterbacks Going the Way of Running Backs.

Here's an interesting little tidbit I found on the Web when searching to see who the NFL's highest paid quarterbacks are: None of the top six paid quarterbacks in the league willmake the playoffs. That's right, Rodgers, Ryan, Cousins, Stafford, etc., not to mention Roethlisberger and Flacco, who both carry a cap hits of more than $20 million, led their teams to the playoffs this year.

On the other side of the ledger, you had Mahomes, Trubisky, Goff, Deshaun Watson, and Dak Prescott (I'm not sure how you want to count Wentz and Lamar Jackson) - playing on their rookie contracts - take their teams to the promised land.

Here is what I believe: Quarterbacks are coming out of college more ready than ever and getting better coaching when they reach the pros. I had the opportunity to go to the Bills game last Sunday and watch Josh Allen throw three TD passes and run for two more, for which he was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week. Allen has certainly struggled at times this year, as was to be expected as he was considered the most "raw" of the any of the top QBs in last year's draft, but by the end of the year, he certainly looked like he could compete on an NFL level. More improvements should be expected next year, as well as from Baker Mayfield, who was great this year, leading the Browns to practically more wins in 2018 than they've had in the last decade, Sam Darnold, who showed flashes of brilliance, Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson, who's team is already in the playoffs.

My point is, why pay a veteran quarterback $20 million per year, when you can draft a top rookie, pay him on his initial contract for 4-5 years and then, if you did it right, draft another, in the mean time paying people around him, like the Bears and Rams have done, to create a strong overall roster? This Bills, for example, apparently have $86 million cap space (not sure if this includes Shady's contract) available for next year, which potentially enables them to sign some serious free agents to build around Allen (assuming they can attract them to Buffalo). Could the Bills be a contender in 2019 and/or '20? Why not?

After that, you have to make a decision on Allen. How good will college QBs coming out be in three years? I know this year seems like a thin year for QBs in the draft, so maybe what I am proposing is a fallacy and the last two years were anomalies, but I am thinking it may be a trend.

Here's my theory: No more taking several years to develop quarterbacks and then paying them big money when they mature. Bring them out of college, let them run all they want to (ala Allen and Jackson), use them up, and move on to the next college phenom. In the mean time, use that $20 million (probably $30 million in a couple years) that you had earmarked for you QB and pay your defense, lineman, receivers, etc. Seems to have worked for the Seahawks for a few years and is working for multiple teams right now. Perhaps this is the next blueprint for success in the NFL.

Bills Win! Shock the Jets 41-10

I received a fortuitous Tweet from my buddy Red yesterday. Unprompted, he sends me the following message:"I may regret this, but Matt Barkley is not THAT bad." Barkley started six games from the Bears a couple years ago (Red is a Bears fan), won one of them and threw 8 TDs and 14 interceptions. He did complete almost 60% of his passes, and I think I remember watching him play one time and had about the same reaction Red did, but I also correctly recall him throwing a bunch picks during his time with Bears.

I don't think he threw any today but at least one ball went right into the hands of a Jets defender, who dropped it. No, it wasn't the Jets' day and if Todd Bowles doesn't get fired after that performance at home... well, if I could bet on it I would.

Let's take a look at what happened here:

• The Bills came into the game having scored 46 points in their last six games combined.
• They were starting Barkley of the aforementioned  one win in six starts two years ago
• After kind of a strange career at USC, Barkley had been cut about five times in the last five years by multiple NFL teams
• He was signed by the Bills less than two weeks ago
• The Bills offense had been putting up historically bad numbers
• The Jets had won one more game (3) than the Bills coming in and their defense was ranked 13th in yards allowed.
• Today the Bills today outgained the Jets in yards, 451-199

So, what exactly happened? Barkley looked fairly good - like an NFL quarterback. I mean, all season, the Bills offense has been getting shit. People have been saying the receivers suck, they can't get separation, the O-line can't block anybody, Shady is washed up....but, what do you know, when you get competent quarterback play, the Bills offense is suddenly decent. And, BTW,. the defense looked great again: two picks, three sacks., 3.6 yards per play.

So, there are a few conclusions that can be drawn:

• The Jets stink: definitely a possibility.
• Matt Barkley is a legitimate NFL QB: Despite Red's recommendation, I'd have to say Barkley hadn't proven that to date. I'm going to say that after his junior year at USC, I remember people talking about him like he could be the number one overall pick in the draft. He instead chose to stay at USC and his stock dropped when he wasn't as good as a senior (Robert Woods was one of his receivers and he also had a down year) and injured his shoulder. Maybe Barkley is finally now regaining his confidence (he reportedly had a great pre-season this year with the Bengals before getting hurt and cut). I don't know, but he looked confident and smooth today, and although his arm certainly didn't look the strongest, it looked better than Peterman's and Barkley made most of his throws.
• Peterman and Derrick Anderson were/are abysmal: Who do we blame for having them start the games they did? I mean, it has to be McDermott, but how was it this guy was able to build what looked like a decent team (today at least), around his QBs while f-ing up the most important position in the NFL so badly? Can we trust him going forward?
• Of course, maybe there was just no way the team could lose today in the wake of Poncho Billa's inspiring speech. 

Okay, one final point: There is no way that Allen should start ahead of Barkley vs. the Jags in two weeks. I hope McDermott has at least figured this much out in regards to QBs. I had thought the plan was to let Allen sit and learn behind McCarron for at least half the year. Granted, that didn't work out, but Barkley appears like he might be able to deliver what we had counted on McCarron to do. Let's at least give him a chance to do it. Allen may be great in the future, but he could clearly use some time on the bench behind a competent quarterback to get used to the NFL. And if it turns out Barkley's for real, all the better. More good players is good, as compared to one bad one at a key position dragging everyone else down.

Go Bills.

Rating Worst Quarterbacks in Bills History

With the specter of Nathan Peterman possibly starting Sunday vs. the Colts (I am assuming it will be Derek Anderson, but still...) it got me thinking about some of the bad quarterbacks the Bills have trotted out over the years. I mean Joe Ferguson is probably the third most accomplished quarterback in our franchise history, and I don't remember him being considered as "good" except for a couple years when we made the playoffs under Chuck Knox. Of course, more recently we've had first-round busts like E.J Manuel and J.P. Losman, as well as journeymen like Kelly Holcomb and Tryod taking snaps. But that doesn't really even begin to scratch the surface if you look back through history.

Granted, there are some who feel that Peterman might be the worst quarterback in NFL history.  But,  based on my (somewhat limited) research, memories, and general knowledge of the Buffalo Bills, I rate him only the 4th worst quarterback in our history.

I apologize if I offend anyone with this list, as I am sure all these guys played hard, and some of them went on to success in other areas of life (and they were mostly on some pretty bad teams with passing in the league not nearly as advanced as today), but here goes (in reverse order):

10. Mike Tallaferro/M.C. Reynolds: I don't remember either of these guys, so this is based on numbers only. Tallaferro managed to throw 4 interceptions in 33 attempts (a 12% ratio), which is Peterman territory. A veteran of the Pats and Jets, '72 was his last year in league and only year with the Bills. The '61 Bills somehow managed to win two of the three games Reynolds started, while he threw 13 interceptions against 2 TDs. He threw five passes for Oakland in '63 and then was out of the league. (I cheated by listing two here, but I really felt that 11 players deserved to be on this list.)

9. Ed Rutkowski: This is probably not fair to Rutkowski, because he wasn't really a quarterback. He was a pretty good return specialist who also played some receiver and running back. He doesn't even seem to have played QB in college at Notre Dame. But, in 1968 he was pressed into quarterback duties for a very bad Bills team and managed to go 0-3 as a starter and throw 6 INTs vs. 0 TDs. The closest modern comparison I can think of is if Roscoe Parrish (who reportedly was a great high school QB) had started some games for the Bills when he was on the team a few years back.

8. Jeff Tuel: In 2013, Tuel was considered a hot young prospect by the Bills. So hot, in fact, that the Bills kept him as the primary back-up to unproven rookie starter E.J. Manuel. When Manuel went down to an injury against the Browns in week five, the Bills quickly realized Tuel wasn't the answer and elevated Thad Lewis to starter for the next week. For some reason (maybe Lewis got hurt), Tuel started a few weeks later against the Chiefs, was wholly ineffective, and never attempted another NFL pass.

7. Brian Brohm: A hot prospect coming out of Louisville, Brohm was a second-round pick of the Packers in 2008. I remember being excited when the Bills picked him up the next season. In two years, he started two games with the Bills, went 0-2 and threw no touchdowns vs. 5 picks and then was out of the league.

6. Kay Stephenson: Maybe Kay wasn't that bad of a player in his lone year with the Bills, the awful 1968 season, but for some reason, I feel this stint may have helped him get the head coaching job a few years later, when he took a pretty good playoff team built by Chuck Knox, and in two years turned it into a 2-14 squad. As a quarterback, he was 0-3 as a starter and completed 37% of his passes -well, so, he was pretty bad.

5. Al Dorrow: I have no memory of Al Dorrow. All I know is that he went 0-4 as a starter on a 7-6-1 1962 team coached by Lou Saban, completed 40% of his passes and had 2 TD vs. 7 INTs. It was the end of a journeyman career that included him leading the AFL in TDs in its inaugural year, but also throwing a combined 56 picks in 1960-61 as a member of the Titans (later the Jets).

4. Nathan Peterman: I am assuming you've seen him play.

3. Gary Marangi: Marangi took over for Ferguson midway through the 1976 season when Joe went down with an injury. I was only 10 years old, but I remember being hopeful. Ferguson was having a pretty good year and was coming off a great year in 1975, but maybe we didn't give him the credit he deserved because we felt has was riding O.J.'s coattails. The Bills were 2-4 when Ferguson went down, and Marangi was a third-round pick out of Boston College, so we thought maybe he could revive us., Boy, were we wrong. He went 0-7 as a starter and completed 35% of his passes (an incredibly low number even for then), even with O.J. rushing for 1,500 yards and Bob Chandler grabbing 61 receptions, including 10 TDs. Granted, Saban did quit that year shortly before Ferguson got hurt and was replaced by Jim Ringo, of the career 3-20 coaching record, but still. Marangi never played in an other NFL game.

2. Dan Darragh: Darragh started 11 games for the Bills from 1968-70. His record as a starter was 1-11. He completed 43% of this passes and threw 4 TDs vs. 22 INTs. He never played in the NFL again. That's all I know. Maybe the stats lie, but I'm going with the idea that he was pretty bad. He wasn't a good runner either.

1. Tom Flores: Flores gets special treatment due to extenuating circumstances. Yes, he was bad as a Bills quarterback, completing less than 40% of his passes and throwing 9 picks vs. 0 TDs over three years. But, he came to the Bills after a pretty solid season in Oakland, in which he threw 24 TDs. And we got Flores, along with a Pro Bowl receiver named Art Powell, for our back-up QB Daryle Lamonica. How did that trade happen? Well, Al Davis was a smart guy apparently. Because, while Flores and Powell were washed up and the formerly championship contending Bills went into the tank, Lamonica made All-Pro two of the next three years and the Raiders transformed into an AFL/AFC powerhouse - an era that culminated with Flores winning two Super Bows in the early '80s as their coach!


Well, that's it. Quite a litany of incompetence. And people wonder why we think Jim Kelly walks on water.