In a move that says much, much more about JaMarcus Russell than anything else, Pro Football Talk reports that the Raiders have signed quarterback J.P. Losman to a one-year contract. I'm guessing that this really means that Losman has signed a three-game contract. Instead of having to worry about Losman lead the Colts' scrubs against the Bills in Week 17, we can sit back and watch the battle royale between Russell and Losman... to lead the Raiders into the ground. Well, Al Davis got the sort of big-armed QB he already had. I wonder if Losman can throw 66 yards from his knees...

The New England Patriots are heading to Ralph Wilson Stadium this coming Sunday. This is a Pats team the Buffalo Bills haven't beaten since, well, a couple of New England cast-offs (Drew Bledsoe, Lawyer Milloy) were leading the charge. People have already been complaining about Buffalo hurting draft position by not losing (can you honestly call that a win?) in Kansas City.

Here are the teams currently ahead of Buffalo on draft day:

• 1-win teams: Tampa Bay, St Louis
• 2-win teams: Cleveland, Detroit
• 3-win teams: Kansas City
• 4-win teams: Oakland, Washington

Those are the likely top seven picks, in some order. Someone with more time on their hands can figure out whether Oakland or Washington would pick first but, really, who cares at this point? Here's where things get more interesting:

• 5-win teams: Buffalo, Chicago, Carolina, Seattle, San Francisco

It's a good bet that Buffalo would be picking near the end of that list, just because, well, its Buffalo. Didn't Buffalo wind up picking after San Fran two years in a row? Assuming the worst--always a safe bet with the Bills--Buffalo would currently be picking 12th. Sure, you can look it up and figure out where the Bills really fall in that 5 team glut of suckiness but, again, what's the point? Besides, Buffalo may add a win before all is said and done. Here are the current teams just behind Buffalo in the draft, which is another way of saying they're ahead of Buffalo in the win column:

• 6-win teams: Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Houston, Atlanta

Should Buffalo come by another non-loss before the end of the season the Bills could be picking as late as #16. Think about that for a second. The league is so lopsided this season that a 6 win team could wind up picking in the middle of the first round.

That brings us to the Patriots game. Winning that game could, in theory, drop Buffalo from around pick #8 to possibly all the way down to No. 16. That's a huge swing.

But it's the Patriots. Buffalo could put a stake in the heart of Bill Belichick's playoff dreams and remove Brady's best excuse for not changing loaded diapers in January.

I'm a fan of the Deadwood series on HBO and that line came to mind when I conntected a couple of dots from recent stories.

PFT has been reporting on how the Colts and Saints have radically different viewpoints when it comes to the quest for perfection. Basically, the Saints badly want to go 16-0 en route to winning the Super Bowl. The Colts, on the other hand, seemingly couldn't care less. Indy, according to Bill Polian, is only worried about locking up home field advantage through the playoffs--at which point starters will watch most of the remaining games from the sidelines.

Mike Florio then hurled this nugget into cyberspace:

J.P. Losman recently worked out for the Colts, and he'd be a good candidate to take the reins of the offense once Manning is given a couple of games off, at more than $820,000 per week.

I don't agree with Florio's analysis. With the Colts' offensive line and receivers Losman could be a halfway decent clipboard holder. However, Manning's greatest strength is his ability to read defenses--which also happens to be one of Losman's greatest weaknesses. From a system standpoint it doesn't look like an ideal fit....but then the Colts don't have a lot of QB options (for replacing Sorgi) who have been playing quasi-meaningful football the past several months. Manning is one of the most durable QBs in league history so Losman would only figure to see action in, what are for the Colts, meaningless games.  

One of those meaningless games will take place in Buffalo on January 3rd. Losman, if signed by the Colts, would get to lead the scrubs against the Bills. Not only would Losman have the prospect of a Super Bowl ring ahead of him (only as a clipboard holder, to be sure) but also--perhaps almost as satisfying--the opportunity to dismantle the team that he no doubt feels screwed him.

The defense had better be out for blood should this come to pass.

More photos » by David Duprey - AP

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Well, it took a while coming, but the Buffalo Bills ran into a team that refused to sink into mediocrity for an entire game. The Houston Texans shot themselves in the foot for the entirety of the first half, but during halftime, someone in their locker room said something to the effect of, "Hey, we're better than this." Sadly, a corresponding comment in Buffalo's locker room went something more like, "Keep on keeping on."

While it is small consolation, the Bills' offensive line actually improved in one key area: killed plays. While the line has been averaging 7.8 killed plays per game, that number dropped to 5 against Houston. Every lineman but one killed a play. You'll no doubt be surprised to learn that the lone exception was one Kirk Chambers.

I knew that Mario Williams had a quiet day, but I was stunned to see that he didn't even show up on the stat sheet. Yeah, weird. I'm guessing that Williams was slipping in a pool of his own drool as he salivated at the thought of going up against Buffalo's below-average tackles. Super Mario did have an impact, even if it didn't make for a line on the stat sheet, it just wasn't as much as could have been foreseen.

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Like the announcers (Steve Tasker is one of my favorite color guys even if he does butcher names on occasion), I spent most of the game absolutely certain that the Carolina Panthers would run all over the Buffalo Bills in the fourth quarter. The time of possession at times favored the Panthers 3-1, and there were times in the games where the Panthers had four times the yardage of Buffalo.

It all spelled doom, but then a funny thing happened: Ryan Fitzpatrick made a pair of clutch throws, including an astounding rocket pass to Evans for a touchdown. Like many of you, I thought Fitzpatrick would lead the team to a 2-5 record, and, like many of you, I suspected the offensive line wouldn't exactly help matters. It turns out that I was only half right: Fitzpatrick was just barely good enough to win, while the line continued to kill plays with frightening regularity.

Before diving into the heavy stuff (which is all after the jump), here's a brief reminder: based purely on grades and ease of mind, Jonathan Scott is absolutely the best man for the right tackle job at this juncture.  A review of Jamon Meredith's second performance is after the jump, along with everything Week 7-related that you need to know about Demetrius Bell, Andy Levitre, Geoff Hangartner and Eric Wood.

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Here are Meredith's grades for the past two games with his overall grade as well:

...................Run...............................Pass

Jets............73.5.............................72.94871795

Panthers...73.33333333............72.03703704

Overall......73.4375.......................72.57575758

Here are Scott's grades for his four (more like 3 and 2/3 since he came in for Butler in the Bucs contest) games (MIami's was at LT) with his overall grade:

...................Run...............................Pass

Bucs...........77.35294118............74.13043478

Saints........73................................73.0952381

Dolphins....75...............................70.75757576

Browns......72.33333333............75

Total...........74.4285714..............72.93103448

As you can see, Meredith and Scott are each below average in the run game. Scott is a full percentage point closer to average than Meredith but they're both on the wrong side of 75. In the pass game they grade out fairly evenly. However, if you throw out the Dolphins game--in which Scott was simply terrible but also terribly miscast as a left tackle--Scott averages about 74ish while Meredith is in the mid 72 range.

Further, Scott killed 1 run play in his almost four games, including his misadventure at left tackle in Miami. He killed 6 pass plays and has given up 3.5 sacks. Take the Miami game out of the equation to keep it an apples-to-apples comparison and Scott has killed 2 pass plays and given up 1.5 sacks. Meredith has killed no run plays (though a few missed tackles saved his bacon), 1 pass play and given up no sacks.

While it shakes out in the overall grades it’s worth it to take a look at the number of good and bad plays each has had in limited action.

Meredith

Good run …6

Bad run ….11

Good pass ..0

Bad pass ….8

Scott (without Miami game)

Good run …7

Bad run ….10

Good pass ..1

Bad pass ….6

To break it down even further you can look at what you’d expect to see per game if the averages hold. (The averages, in theory, shouldn’t hold as players gain experience and benefit from more coaching. They should improve.)

Meredith

Good run …2

Bad run ….5.5

Good pass ..0

Bad pass ….4

Scott (without Miami game)

Good run …2

Bad run ….2.9

Good pass ..0.3

Bad pass ….1.7

As you can see, there is a moderate advantage to having Scott in the lineup based on the good play/bad play averages. The wrench in the works is that Scott has tended to screw up more badly than Meredith when he has made mistakes. With the limited samples available it's tough to say that Buffalo should give Scott the nod over Meredith. I don't know that we can say that neither will work out in the long run. However, it would behoove the Bills to pick one of them and ride him through this season to see if he can develop into at least a backup caliber RT.

PFT is reporting that Shawn Nelson will miss the Panthers game with the flu. Damn. Fitzy was going to have enough trouble this week as it was. Losing Nelson hurts, not only in the pass game but on running plays, too. Stupar came in for a couple of plays to start overtime in New Jersey and did not impress. Now Stupar will be on the field for at least 1/3 of the offensive snaps, if not 1/2 of them.

More photos » by Kathy Willens - AP

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The Buffalo Bills' 16-13 overtime victory over the New York Jets seemed to take forever while it was being played. It ran just under 4 hours due in part to the overtime, but even then it just kind of dragged. If you felt the same, well, imagine the unadulterated joy of spending almost six hours going back through the game frame by frame. Ugh.

If I wasn't already ill, I think I would be now.

It took as long as it did to go through the game because there was more to watch for than usual. More importantly, there were several questions that the Bills tried to answer.  Would the Bills finally face a defense that stacked the box to stop the run and short passes? How would the new right tackle perform in his first start? Would the Bills employ max-protect schemes? Would the guards do a better job of sustaining their blocks? Was that Corey McIntyre I saw actually blocking people?

Answers, along with the usual analysis and play-by-play breakdowns, after the jump.

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I've been pressed for time the past couple of weeks - and having my computer die on me didn't help matters - and thus this is our first breakdown of the Buffalo Bills' offensive line in quite some time. I did break down the Bills' loss to Miami and half of the loss to Cleveland. No, it wasn't that I couldn't stomach reviewing the rest of the game (after years of eating my own cooking, I have a stomach of steel!), but rather I wasn't smart enough to hit the record button at the start of the second half. D'oh!

Rather than do my usual spiel, I'll review how the linemen have done through what is essentially 4.5 games' worth of film. Also, I'll spend some time talking about the loss to Cleveland in particular.

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Siimply put, why wait?

The Bills were abysmal on offense, committing one stupid penalty after another. I had the nfl.com site up as the game went on and it was amazing to see the drive charts. For every couple of lines in blue (offensive plays) there was a yellow line marching the team backwards. The penalties were systemic and that utter lack of discipline falls on the coaching staff.

The offensive line had 6 guys draw flags, never mind that there are only 5 offensive line positions. The line repeatedly allowed the Browns to generate immediate pressure on Edwards, even against 3 man rushes! What's the rationale for keeping Kugler around? The fault also lies with AVP, a man who has done nothing to dispell the notion that he is in way over his head.

The special teams unit has been nothing short of dreadful. The Bills started 2 possessions inside their own 1 and another possession on the 4 yard line. I'm not going to assume that Buffalo would have won the game if not for Parrish's fumble but the team absolutely did lose the game because of it. Well, that and the fact that the Bills had stupidly burned two timeouts early in the second half. One of those wasted time outs is directly the fault of Bobby April. Who else could be blamed for the special teams unit not getting on the field at the end of the 3rd quarter to cover a punt? Instead of assuming that the Browns were going to wait until the 4th quarter to punt it was April's job to get the punt coverage unit on the field. Throw in the constant stream of penalties and it's clear that April has lost his touch. Do you seriously think the unit will be any worse without April?

Dick Jauron has overseen this slow motion train wreck and taken no steps to turn things around. Yes, there have been plenty of injuries. Chambers is the 3rd RT and Buggs the 3rd MLB. Good coaches acquire and coach depth players who can do a halfway decent job filling in when starters are inevitably injured. Jauron hasn't done that. Jauron will also not be leading the team to a winning season, much less the playoffs, so what's the point in keeping him around?

It's time for Wilson to pick up the phone and line up one of the coaches who will be pounced on by large market teams at the end of the season.