darian barnes cut

Peace out Barnes

The Buffalo Bills have swapped fullbacks.

Two NFL sources informed me the Bills have signed fullback Corey McIntyre and released Darian Barnes, who had been gaining local popularity for his big hits and entertaining interviews as a recurring guest on the Jim Rome Show.

Barnes injured his right foot in Week 3. He practiced last week but was inactive for Sunday's victory over the St. Louis Rams.

Barnes had zero carries and two receptions for 34 yards. He is a seven-year journeyman who previously played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets.

McIntyre has played one season each with the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, where he was special teams captain last year. The Falcons released him at the end of training camp.

The West Virginia grad is a pure blocking fullback. In 33 NFL games, including one start, McIntyre has no rushing attempts and one catch.

4-0 and here we go

by Steve

Damn, I was off by 3 points with my prediction but thats close enough. 31-14 and the Bills continue to roll with the best record in the AFC and 1.5 game lead in the AFC East, gotta love it. True the Bills didn't answer many if any questions that people had before the game but they are 2-0 on the road.

The d-ends still suck, the running game isn't there and they still didn't do anything in the first half and it STILL did not matter. This might be the best fourth quarter team since the 06 Patriots. Three straight 4th quarter comeback victories? God damn

Some positives : Kyle Williams is a beast he's a dog he's a mother fuckin problem. Stroud owns. Trent continues to mature, although he did have a bad int, but no one is perfect. Schouman is progressing as a pass catcher. We didn't miss Terrance McGee. Jauron knows how to make second half adjustments. Dante and Ko are a sick tandem.

Negatives (have to do it) Peters needs to start coming to training camp cause he blows. Hardy needs another year. The d-ends were no where to be found. Lotta penalties on the o-line. McKelvin is useless on defense (he was on the side Jackson ran to on his TD scamper)

4-0 who woulda thought

Bills (-8) @ rams a preview of a massacre

by Steve

The Bills are far from great, at this point they're above mediocre and below great, so we'll stick to good. Usually in the National Football League, a good team is not favored by 8 points on the road. Giving eight on the road means they would be 2 touchdown favorites at home. How could this possibly be? Trent Green and the 2008 St Louis Rams make this 'be'.

I had major reservations about the Raiders game. A team with little to lose, a coach on tilt, and a Bills team a bit too high on itself appeared to be a recipe for disaster. Turns out I was nearly correct, nearly, thank god. The Bills were giving 9 last week and it was the first time I had zero faith they would cover. This week is a completely different story.

The Rams suck, but not suck like the Raiders suck. At least the Raiders have talent, they just aren't put together correctly. The Rams really have no talent. They give their slightly above mediocre QB $60 mil and bench him less than a quarter into the season. They are in the worst division in football and are still a bounce or two away from going 0-16! That is a feat.

Steven Jackson has talent, but he is already talking shit about the coaching staff, the o-line blows, their defense is worse, and the fans have already given up on '08 considering the game isn't sold out yet. I actually don't know that their defense sucks cause I've only heard of one or two of their starters, and the one has killed people cause he can't afford a professional driver. But giving up 37 points+ in their first three games gives me a bit of perspective on their skill level.

The only negative heading into this game, besides the terrible D-end play, is the loss of Roscoe Parrish for 4 games. He's not the greatest receiver but he's quick and when he gets the ball he's dangerous. His major impact obviously was ST's but with McKelvin back there we don't even lose that much. If anything it forces the maturation of Hardy and hopefully Steve Johnson which could be a good thing. Maybe that's just spin but either way Lee Evans needs to a.) elevate his game, and b.) get a new contract. I think that might be weighing on his mind a bit. (hint hint boy genius Ross)

Prediction
Linehan sets up a monster.com account, Green is carted off for the upteenth time and the Bills roll 28-14

UB loses wide (gulp) right

by Steve

God damn it. UB almost stole one at Central Michigan today. After scoring a touchdown with less than two minutes to go to cut the CMU lead to 2 points (after UB earlier in the game missed a two point conversion that the announcers thought UB in fact did make [I haven't seen a replay it wasn't on tv]). They recovered the onside kick and began to drive. After a first down near mid field the clock inexplicably did not stop and the Bulls lost atleast 10 seconds.

Fast foward, UB got down to the 29 after 2 yard run by Starks and was ready to kick a potentially game winning field goal. Snap good, hold down, ball up, and it hit the right up right. They probably didn't deserve to win, they couldn't stop CMU in the second half after owning their offense in the first half with a 5-3 lead.

This is still a tough loss to swollow. A big win at a solid football team at or near the top of the MAC could have propelled the program to near superstardom. Instead they have to now settle for merely hanging in there with one of the conference's best.

The season is still farrrrrrr from over and if UB continues to play as solidily as they have been playing there is little doubt they'll be in the hunt for a conference championship game and maybe, maybe a bowl game. Its just too bad it is Willy's last year and they have only redshirt freshman as the back up, so who knows where the program goes next year.

Oh well, seven games left 6 in-conference and a prime time voting day spectacular 11/4 on ESPN2. See ya in Amherst in two weeks after the bye against Western Michigan.

St Louis dissension

In yet another sign that the Bills will crush the Rams Sunday Steve Jackson has started talking shit about his own coach. I guess cutting a starting CB and benching your $60 million quarterback wasn't enough to deflate the St Louis fans now their newly extended "star" RB is openly questioning his coach's decisions. I'll take -8.5 please

Rams coach Scott Linehan benched quarterback Marc Bulger this week in a desperate attempt to turn things around for the worst team in the league.

But not everyone in the Rams’ locker room thinks Linehan made the right move in going with Trent Green.

Rams running back Steven Jackson said in a radio appearance Thursday that benching Bulger was the “wrong decision.”

“He’s our general,” said Jackson, who added that he has nothing against Green — he just doesn’t think you give a quarterback like Bulger a $60 million contract, as the Rams did last year, to sit him on the bench.

And, in perhaps the worst news of all for Linehan, Jackson said he thinks Bulger is so mad that even if Linehan were to change his mind again, Bulger might simply be unwilling to play. Jackson added that he knows he has teammates who agree with him that Linehan has botched the quarterback situation.

“I’m not the only one who feels this way,” Jackson said.

Undefeated still

by Steve

Sooo who watched the Sabres game tonight? HAHA didn't think so but uh how 'bout them Bills? If you saw the WNYWatercooler crew after the game in drive 2 we were pounding Blue, yelling "I got a feeeeeeeelinnnn... Buffffffaalllllooooooo's goin to the Suppppper Bowwwwwwwl" on the mega phone and eating food. Hopefully you were doing something simliar. Now that the hangover is vanquished, the dust has settled, and the Bills are in first place the question with no answer needs to be answered or at least asked or questioned or something..

How good are the Buffalo Bills? First place in the division, the Pats got embarrassed, the Jets suck as anyone with a real brain saw, and the dolphins aren't as bad as last year. Trent and Co have two fourth quarter comeback wins and it is only week 4. The defense has looked borderline outstanding/dominant and the coaching staff has looked shockingly competant.

Buttt I kind of have to rain on the parade. Maybe it is being a Buffalo sports fan and the constant losing, embarrassments, shocking defeats and inability to understand what a great team is, but the Bills don't seem all that great.

We're getting teams at the right time deflated by injuries, our o-line has looked mediocre at best, Marshawn hasn't broken 100 yards in a game, Evans was awful Sunday, no one is making a big time play on defense, the d-ends blow STILL and we have no game changing tight end. Basically we are the '07 Bills but pulling out the close game.

"We play to win the game" - Some bum coach. the Bills are winning so none of that really matters does it? The reason we are winning is pretty freakin obvious. The major difference between the 07 Bills and the '08 Bills is not Jauron knowing what he is doing, or luck or injuries (sorta) it is THE QUARTERBACK PLAY!

Trent ffffffffffffffffffffffff'ing Edwards. Dude is in any (extremely early) conversation for Pro bowl consideration. He is the real deal. Not he might be, or maybe or could be, he is the real deal. He stands in the pocket takes the hit and delivers the ball. He makes the play he needs to, finds the open receiver, avoids the mistakes other QBs make, he wins football games.

Not completely sold yet? Still wondering how/why the Bills are 3-0 and drastically better than the 2007 squad? MARCUS STROUD. Dude brings the noise. He makes everyone else better. He is an animal. Anyone see 2nd down when he ate DMC late in the fourth quarter? Larry Tripplett would have never made that play in a million years. That dude is yesterdays McDolands shits and Stroud is todays porter house steak.

They are the reason the Bills are 3-0 right now instead of 1-2 well alright i'll give credit to Whitner, Parrish, Kyle Williams, Turk Schonert, and Fredd Jackson also.

PS
The Yankees were elimintated from the post season today (if anyone remembers baseball is still going on)
PPS
The Mets are the new Bisons affiliate and won a big game tonight
PPPS
Trent Green is starting for Bulger Sunday, BRING THE NOISE

I Got a Feeling...

-Coast

Well, it wasn't pretty. The Bills stole a win at home vs. the allegedly terrible Oakland Raiders 24-23. Say what you will about Oakland, but a win is a win.

The Bills had no business winning this football game. They were 10.5 point favorites at game time and it got in their head. The played stupid for three quarters. They had two crucial turnovers, one by Evans at the end of the first half and another on an interception that led to a Raider touchdown. The Bills started five drives inside their own 13 yard line. They had awful field position the entire game. Leodis McKelvin somehow gets knocked out of bounds by Janikowski at the end of the half too. These are the kinds of games we would never have been able to win in recent years.

This years Bills team seems different though. Coming off a 4th quarter comeback against Jacksonville, the Bills faced a 2nd straight gut check down 9 twice in the 4th quarter against the Raiders. The Bills trailed 16-7 in the 4th until a Lynch TD cut it to 16-14. Then, with 73,000 plus on their feet screaming, JaMarcus Russel somehow hit an 85 yard touchdown pass on a slant. This should have been deflating and the nail in the coffin. Not this year though, not with this quarterback. The Bills answered with a quick march that resulted in a Roscoe Parrish touchdown and then forced a 3 and out. When we got the ball back with two and a half minutes left at our own 35 yard line down by 2, it seemed like there was no doubt we were going to drive the ball down the field and win the game...and we did.

On the Bills last three drives, all resulting in scores, Trent Edwards was 14-19 for 189 yards and a touchdown. That is what it is all about. Performing in the clutch. Obviously, Trent can do that. Back to back 4th quarter comeback wins.

For the first time since 2005, week 4, a team other than New England holds first place in the AFC East by themselves...and it is the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo is 3-0 and hold this spot because Miami throttled the Pats in their own yard 38-13. When you take a look around the conference, the juggernauts of New England and Indianapolis seem human. Indy lost at home to Jacksonville. Are the Bills contenders? Well, they seem like they could be. I know we just beat Oakland by 1 but it was the way they won it, by playing terribly and stealing it at the end.

The line vs. the Rams opened at 8.5. Let's see how we can handle being huge favorites on the road.