We SUCK!

There's a pretty illuminating article in today's Buffalo News about how bad the Bills have played on offense this year. Yuck. The team is on pace to have the franchise's worst offensive season since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule twenty-five years ago, and that includes such woeful Bills offenses as the 1985, 1997, and 2001 teams (which went 2-14, 6-10, and 3-13 respectively).

But even with the obvious fact that the Bills have been lousy on offense this year, columnist-extraordinaire Jerry Sullivan is not content to let the day slip by without saying something colossally stupid. Here's his take, from today's column, about Bills receiver Josh Reed:

So much for Josh Reed's emergence as an offensive threat. Reed has gone two consecutive games without a catch. Meanwhile, New England got two touchdown catches in Saturday's win from David Givens - who went 217 picks after Reed in the 2002 draft.

Gee, let's compare the career stats for these two players:

Receiver	Games Played	Receptions	Yards	TD's	Total Team Scoring, 2003
D.Givens (Pats)	24	36	522	6	317
J. Reed (Bills)	31	90	1057	4	243

So, Reed has had almost three times as many catches in his career as has Givens, and that's with Givens playing for a team that is 13-2 and has scored 70 more points than the Bills this year. But I guess the fact that Givens had one really good game while he's playing for a really good team makes him the better receiver, in Jerry's eyes. Please. Josh Reed clearly hasn't been stellar, but then, the problems with the Bills' offensive production this year go way deeper than a second-year receiver who has actually been pretty productive, as second-year receivers go. Jerry, stop being stupid. Please oh please.

Oh, and since I'm babbling about football today, let me note that someone arrived here via a Google search for wild-card teams that have won the Super Bowl. To my knowledge, only six wild-card teams have ever made it to the big game, with three of those winning it. Those six teams are as follows:

Year	Wild-Card Team	SB Opponent	Result
1980	Raiders	Eagles	W, 27-10
1985	Patriots	Bears	L, 10-46
1992	Bills	Cowboys	L, 17-52
1997	Broncos	Packers	W, 31-24
1999	Titans	Rams	L, 16-23
2000	Ravens	Giants	W, 34-7

Interestingly, all six wild-card Super Bowl teams came from the AFC. No NFC team has ever converted a wild-card playoff berth into a Super Bowl appearance.

(The title quote for this post is, of course, a reference to former Saints and Colts head coach Jim Mora, who once said exactly that in a post-game press conference.)