Kaspers Korner

     The Buffalo Bills made a lot of peoples hard to turn, with the drafting of Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards  Edward played so well that many fans are calling him to start.   

      The whole thing is making me sick.  It is only the preseason, and many people do not realize that quarterbacks do not get blitzed a lot.  Nor, do teams game plan for the backup.  However, that does not matter to people.

      What mattered that the kid looked great out there, like he has been doing it for ever.  The cold hard fact is that it was against backups, and not faster better starters.

     Losman himself in his rookie preseason looked efficient, untill his injury.  Todd Collins aslo looked pretty good in his rookie preseason.

     The fact is that Losman is the man, and like it or not, Edwards will not even get  a snif of staring this year.  Unless, Losman gets injured it will not happen.

     Edwards may have looked good in the preseason finalle, but this was nothing more than a golrified practice.  The real bullets will  fly soon enough, and then we will get our answers.

     The Buffalo Bills have finally played the last game of the preseason.  While JP Losman looked efficient, however the rest of the team looked shaky again.

     The big concern that I have is the offensive line.  The Bills ran to the left four times for 12 yards, and that obviously averages three yards a carry.  Then they ran up the middle twice for negative three yards.   That folks is down right awful.  Your best two offensive linemen in Jason Peters and derrick Dockery averaged less than four yards a carry, and the middle of the line did not gain anything.

      The pasing game was the only bright spot for the offense.  Losman, and the offense, did what it did best last year.  That being a lot of short passes to get the ball into the hands of speedy wide receivers to allow them to utilize their speed an agility to gain more yards after the catch.

      The defense once again was awful.  They got off to a good start with a three and out on Detroit Lions first drive of the night.  However, that was the only positive. They allowed Detroit Lions running back TJ Duckett to run for 29 yards on nine carries. Also, they allowed the lions backup quarterback to go 60 percent in completing his passes. 

     So, as now we look back on the preseason it was pretty much how everyone expected for the most part.  The defense is going to go through growing pains, and be the weakest unit on the team with its inability to stop the run.

     The offense in regards to the passing game is where it is suppose as expected.  Losman looked pretty good, and th pass protection for the most part was solid. 

      However, the running game has been dismal, and that is unexpected.  With all the money pumped into the offensive line for the most part you think that the running game would be spectacular, but only has been average at best.

      It is now off to the regular season, and the opener against the Denver Broncos at home.  The defense will already be tested right off the bat, especially the defensive line.  With the Denver Broncos being the prolific running team in the  NFL the defense must growup right away to stop the Broncos running game if they are to win.  Also, they will have to do it without Keith Ellison who was hurt in the first half against the Lions.

     For some time now people many people have been guessing which National Football League franchise will move to Los Angeles, California.  However, the Buffalo Bills will not be one of the teams that will move there.

     The Bills is one of the teams that many people think will move to LA, because of their lease expiring in less than a decade.   The thing is that at anytime the Bills want a new stadium they could get one.   However, that is not the reason why they are not moving.

      First, off the Bills are in a much better position in their market, regarding their financial situation.  The Bills get money from the Erie County each year to maintain the stadium.   Also, with the water front project an ongoing project the Bills would easily get millions from the state an county levels to build the stadium downtown. 

     Secondly, the Bills is the life blood of Buffalo, and a major part of the history of the NFL.  Letting the Bills move would be a major public relations disaster.  The franchise is tied into not only the western New York community, but the southern Ontario Canada community as well.  Letting the Bills move to Canada would be horrible for relations between the two contries for many years to come. 

     Finally, there are two other teams in much dire straights than the Bills.  Minnesota Vikings owner Ziggy Wilf backed out of a deal to but land from the Minnesota Star Tribune, according to the Star Tribune.  Also, the Jacksonville Jaguars are endanger of not even selling out their home opener.

     The Vikings are in a really bad situation.  The team is in need of a new stadium, and are losing millions without a new stadium as time keeps passing.   With the bridge collapse in Minnesota it would be nearly impossible for the Vikings to get any state funding.  Afterall the state has a far bigger worry in the bridge accident that has taken peoples lives.  Asking for money now would be making them look like the devil.

      The Jaguars are a team that is in a horrible market.  Many people do not really care for the team down there.  One time before the team covered up ten thousand seats to make sure that a game was a sellout.  Now they are endanger of not even selling out their home opener. 

     How the hell do youn run the risk of not selling out your home openor  Every teams sells out their home opener.  If you cannot even do that then it is time to move.

    So, do not worry folks the Bills will be around a long time.

     The defense for the Buffalo Bills so far through the preseason has had a rough going.  Many fans and experts within the media have already determined in their mind that the Bills defense is going to be the worst in the league.

    Many people in the media see the Bills as a team that will explode offensively, but also see the defense as their achillies heal. That of course is understandable when you are relying on six players that are rookies, or in just in their second year of starting. 

    The defense being sucessful is the main key for any team to win a superbowl.  However, with the way the defense has been playing in the preseason you can pretty much write of the Bills making the playoffs.

     The most scary thing to come out of the preseason so far is the lack of sound tackling.  Sound tackling can make or break a defense, which Bills fans have personally saw in the past.  However, that is not the only thing that Bills

      So, is everyone right, and will the defense be the ultimate undoing of the Bills season.  Simply to put it HELL NO.   First off it is only the preseason, and game planning is an important part of winning in the regular season.  Game planning allows coaches and players to understand the tendacies of their opponent.  Thus, allowing them to be in a better position to be successful.   Without a game plan it is like going on a road trip, and not knowing the route to get there.

      Also, we defensive players are a very pridefull bunch.  You better knock us out on the first shot or else we will come back for revenge. The thing is that revenge for a defensive players is to put you out of the game, and into a stretcher to go get checked out at the hospital.  Of course you hope that they will be okay in the end, only just hurt enough to not allow them to return to the game.

     Right now the defense is at the lowest point it is going to get.  Many people believe that they will be walked right over, and that they are the worst unit in the league.  If you still believe in that after this article then look at it this way.  The only place they have to go is up from here.

     The news front for the Buffalo Sabres has been quiet, since Nathan Paetch resigned with the Sabres.  However, there are several key Sabres with one year left on their contracts, and nothing has yet to be done with them.

     Several key Buffalo Sabres have only one year remaining on their contract.  The thing is that all the Sabres have been resigned for this upcoming season for about a month.  So, why haven’t the likes of Brain Campbell, Dimitri Kalinin, and Paul Gaustad haven’t been resigned.

     You think that the Sabres management woud have learned their lesson after the debacle that happened earlier this summer.  All in part from not negotiating during the season, and looking down the road.

     So, why haven’t the Sabres have the foresight to at least extend one of them.   Even extending PauL Gaustad, which would not cost you a lot, would be a sign of relief to Sabre fans.   Fortunately the upcoming football season, and the Ice Bowl has put that in the back of peoples minds.

    The Sabres are currently a little over four million dollars under the salary cap.  So, the Sabres would be able to extend one player with out putting the Sabres over the cap if they had a lot of call ups.

     So, who shall the Sabres extend.  Of the unrestricted free agents, who aare Jochen Hect, Campbell, and Kalinin, the obvious choice is Campbell.  Campbell by far needs to be done asap, because if he has a monster year he will command top money on the free agency market.

     The Sabres better get a hurring and extend one of them, because if they do not get one done by the beginning of the season there will be hell to pay.  That will be courtesy of the fans.

     The way that the Buffalo Bills have been playing has made many fans uneasy.  Eventhough, it is only the preseason many fans are upset at the way the Bills have been perfroming.

     The preseason is nothing more than a gloified practice to get down the execution of the play.  Even if the play that they selected may not work it does not matter.  What matters is that the coaching staff has to use it to see if the team will execute it well. 

     If the preseason was a precurser to what would happen in the regular season then the Bills would never have gone to the Superbowl.  The fact was that the Bills every preseason, when the Bills went to the Superbowl, had a preseason record of 1-3. 

     However, people should be worried about the fundamentals.  Bills quaterback JP Losman has been taking a lot of heat, along with the offense.   Their play is not attributed to fundamentas but actually to lack of game planning.

   The desense is another story.  The defense has been lacking good sound tackling.  Especially, against the Tennessee Titans  The Titans made the defense look worst. 

    So, when you watch that last preseason game remember it is only the preseason.

     After only three preseason games it is apparent that the Buffalo Bills Tampa Two scheme on defense on life support.  If there is going to be any success on defense they are going to have to change strategy quickly.

     With the Bills tackles not penetrating the offensive line at all the Tampa Two defense will not work in Buffalo.  The tackles up to this point have done nothing except when Kyle Williams on a defensive tackle twist stunt knifed through the offensive line to stop a run by the Titans.  When the defensive tackles have gone head to head with linemen they have performed miserable.

    So, how do the Bills remedy the situation on defense.  With my experience attempting to walk on to Buffalo State College football team two things come to mind. 

     First, would be out right switching the defensive front to the 3-4.  This would be the best solution for the Bills.  With Jerimiah Trotter available, and Coy Wire looking like an animal at linebacker, the linebacker position has become the strength of the defense.  Eventhough many people thought that it is a weakness for the Bills. 

    The other solution that I have is similar to the 3-4, but it is ran out of a 4-3 defense.  What it is called is a 50 front, which is the same scheme as a 3-4 but the personell is different.  In a 50 front the eagle tackle, the lighter and quicker defensive tackle, would take on the responsibilities of a defensive end in a 3-4 defense.  Then the defensive end would take on the 3-4s outside linebacker’s reponsibilites.

     Most Bills fans have actually saw a fifty front.  If you go back two seasons ago to JP Losman’s rookie season. The game against the Carolina Panthers at home to be specific. If you remeber this was the game that the Panthers ran a particular play several time in one series.  On that play the guard would pull, and that play killed the Bills. That would be the game the Bills played a fifty front. 

     Jeff Posey was lined up all game against on the line of scrimage.  However, with Posey being the loser that he is it did not matter.  The Carolina Panthers ran the ball with ease. 

    However, with some like Angelo Crowell, Keith Ellison, or even Coy Wire the Bills should be able to pull it off and make the defense better.  The are the strength of the team right now, and like the Coach Chuck Dickerson would say you have to formulate a defense or offense around the talent that you have, and not try to fit them into the scheme that you want to run. 

    No mater what the Bills choose to do they got one week to go, and they got a defense that right now is operating as good as a house that is owned by a slum lord.

     In about two months time Michael Vick will learn his punishment for his actions in relation to dog fighting.  The thing is though yesterdays public relation damage control will ultimately prove him costly in the end.

     Judge Hudson is the person that will be serving out Vick’s punishment.  The thing is with the judge that he has a reputation for being a tough sentencer, and he likes it.      

     Lester Muson in an interview on ESPN raido, stated that due to both Vick and the Feds will put Vick’s punishment in the hands of the judge.  Which, we already know.  The main thing that Munson also stated that both parties in the plea deal agreed to a legal term, which escapes me, that allows the Judge to depart from the recomended jail term from the federal prosecuters. Munso went on to state that he expects Vick to get the maximum five years.

     So, why would a judge do this.  Well Judge Hudson is a no bs type of guy.  He hates it when attorneys try to pull fast ones.  Both Parnell Peace and Quannis Phillips agreed in theur summary of facts that Vick participated in side deals. In the summary of facts Vick singed it contradicts the previous two testimony.  Plainly someone is lying, and the judge hates liars in his court.  This has been confirmed by Cossack, Lester Munson, both legal analysts for ESPN, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.com. 

    Also, Vick agreed to fully cooperate with the government.  Pro Football Talk.com reports that rapper DMX’s house was raided, and twelve pit bulls were seized.  even if this news is as the result of Vick cooperating. 

     The plain blunt truth is that the crap that Vick’s lawyers are pulling is not going to sit well with the judge.  This is not Judge Judy, or that wacko judge in florida that handle the Anna Nicole daughters custody fight.  This is a well repected federal judge, that does not like liars.  In the end the judge will throw the book at Vick, and will give him the max.

     Former New York Giant running back Tiki Barber did what he does best.  That being criticizing players, and that player actually being Eli Manning.  The statement that Barber made was so offensive amongst National Football League players that even Manning’s brother Peyton Manning came to his aid.

     When a player of Peyton Manning’s stature comes to the defense of a current National Football League player, even if it is his brother, only one thing comes to mind in this situation.  Tiki just SHUT THE HELL UP!  The guy reminds me of a nagging wife that always puts down the husband, becuase they are uneducated to the subject at hand. 

     Barber probably actually helped his team if anything.  What he did was teach Eli a valuable lesson in life.   Not to put up with crap from people that are constantly negative, and have nothing good to say.  Yeah it is best if you ignore them, but if they keep doing it then they deserve a good ass kicking.

     I myself is starting to wonder if national television outlets are just going to far to get ratings.  With the hiring of former players for inside analysis to attract viewers comes with it the negative.  Half of these guys are screwed up from hits to the head, or years of drug use.  Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Dieon Sanders, and Tiki Barber have at least two things in common that being they are former players, and complete morons.

     Yes, there are some great former players currently in the media Ron Jaworski, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Terry Bradshaw, Dan Fouts, and Howie Long.  They also have two things in common, and that being common sense and intelligence.

     Just because you were once a great player does not mean that you are smartest player out there.  Look at Vince Young he scored a seven on his wonderlic test, and he is considered one of the upcoming players in the league.  So, maybe in the end the national tv outlets should take a look at those tests also.

     Roscoe Parrish is not the biggest wide receiver on the team.  Parrish is on the other hand a very special talent.  That talent is starting to shine very brightly that the coaches are even feeling the heat.

     It is pretty evident that a player is making a profound impact when even Joey Sunshie, oops I mean Joe Theismann, states that Parrish is a young player to watch this year.  To be honest I am even shocked that anyone in the national media would even mention this.

     Parrish’s quest to be the number two receiver was something that only was making the rounds in debates over who looks good and who does not from training camp.  Frankly, I think Parrish would become the number two starter, but I did not think that anyone in the national media would mention anything of it until he starts for a while.

     The coaches have not mention anything of the fact that Parrish wants to be the number two.  However, you know that they thinking about and talking about it, since he lined up as the number two in preseason games already.

    Parrish emerging as a viable number two will  open things up emensly for the Bills.  Teams would now have three threats that they have to worry about.  Something they have not had since the glory days.

    So, what makes Parrish so special.  Theismann states his route running, and speed would lead to opening things deep by allowing Losman and Parrish to do double moves.  To me that is not what makes him  special.  All solid receivers are able to do that it is his shiftyness that allows hime to gain more yards after the catch.  Just like Andre Reed.

     In any which case friday’s game at home against the Tennessee Titans will be one to watch since it is on television.  Hopefully Parrish will get some reps as the number two wide out this week.  That will give fans a lot to be excited about, because if that happens the wild west is coming to Buffalo.