Fast forward to this week, and all that sentiment is gone. It’s amazing how much can change in one week, isn’t it? Going from enduring an embarrassing thrashing one week to coming out top (even in the first half!) against the Indianapolis Colts sure makes a difference in the fan base.

Now no one is saying that this is a Super Bowl (or even playoff) bound team at this point and meaning it seriously. At least no one sober. However, the improvements from the first game to the second game were definitely there.

Quarterback Trent Edwards looked in command the entire time he was out there, felt pressure well, and made good throws for the most part. His touchdown pass to Lee Evans was perfectly thrown.

He even rebounded from a nasty hit that left him woozy. Most people thought he was done for the night if not longer, but he proved everyone wrong. He’s showing mental and physical toughness that he hasn’t really displayed so far in his career.

The aforementioned Spiller showed a flash of just how special he is on a 31-yard touchdown run that made a couple of Pro Bowlers in defensive end Robert Mathis and free safety Antoine Bethea and starting cornerback Jacob Lacey look like they were rookies and Spiller was the Pro Bowl veteran. He does have a long way to go and is definitely trying too hard at points out on the field, but he definitely is going to be something special.

The defense was a mixed bag against both first and second string offenses. They gave up both a passing and rushing touchdown to the first team offense, but cornerback Terrence McGee made a great play to snag a tipped pass then got up and returned it 70-plus yards for a touchdown.

Do the Bills have a long way to go? Definitely. Are they as bad as a lot of people think they’re going to be and as bad as they looked in the Redskins game? No. Head coach Chan Gailey just showed how much hard work and teaching can improve a team in a week. This is a team that will get better ever week, every play they are out there.

And they’re already starting to make some big plays on both sides of the ball. Keep your eyes on this team, they could very well surprise you.

“Practice #1 full pads.”

Unexpected, but definitely not unwelcome. The Dick Jauron era in Buffalo was officially over. The Chan Gailey era was off to a surprising and tone-setting start. Old-school football and physicality is the order of the day, it appears. You can’t really practice old-school smash mouth football without pads.

Practice didn’t disappoint in the physicality and toughness department. I kept an eye on the one-on-one linemen drills and those were certainly battles. I was really impressed by second-round rookie nose tackle Torell Troup. All those things said about how powerful he is? All true and then some. The man knows how to get low and once he does, it doesn’t look pretty for the offensive lineman in his way.

Also catching my eye on one occasion surprisingly enough was defensive tackle-turned defensive end John McCargo. On the simulated snap, he looked like a wrecking ball, going into the lineman and coming out the other side and in the face of the assistant masquerading as a hapless quarterback quicker than I’ve ever seen the big man move. If he can keep that up throughout camp, he could carve out a spot on the roster.

All in all, the linemen drills were fascinating displays of footwork and ferocity on both sides. Every time an offensive lineman got beat, he came right back and fought harder than the previous snap. Even if these guys might not be the most skilled pass protectors, and that will come with time, they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the run game.

Speaking of the run game, the running backs at camp today came to ball, as Marshawn Lynch put it in an earlier interview this offseason. To say he looked like Beast Mode didn’t do him justice. He looked faster and tougher than he ever has at the NFL level today. If he keeps this up into the season, anyone who wants him to be traded will quickly stop that line of thinking.

Also impressing today in the run game were two free agents. One of them, veteran Chad Simpson, can really fly. There were a couple of times today when he hit the hole and simply outran the defense. The other free agent, undrafted rookie Joquie Bell, looks like a bowling ball out there. He keeps his legs churning on impact and bounces off tacklers well.

I expect that the team will keep Fred Jackson, Lynch and rookie CJ Spiller. However, it looks like they have a good problem on their hands: a lot of good running backs. Don’t be surprised to see the Bills try and land Bell on the practice squad barring injuries.

Also of note was right guard Eric Wood. Coming off a horrific leg injury last season that some people wondered if he would even be able to walk again, he was one of the fiercest offensive linemen in one-on-one drills.

Hearing Coach Gailey talk on a buffalobills.com press conference about why the team in pads continues to reinforce exactly how he feels about this team. “We’re in training camp, aren’t we? Training camp is time to go to work. We only have a certain number of opportunities to get out here and get better and be a physical football team.”

That’s why I feel the way I do about this team. No more “You did the best you can, so even though we lost, that’s good enough.” No, Coach Gailey is more determined than ex-head coach Dick Jauron ever was to make this team better and more physical. That mentality will amount to more wins, no question. To hear him and the players talk, this team is more mentally and physically tough than it’s been in a very long time. Yes, they have a long way to go. There are a lot of questions to be answered before this team will be a contender.

Can’t say that they aren’t off on the right foot at the beginning of the 2010 training camp, though.

Might as well start with the first overall pick in the draft with the St Louis Rams. I will say this right up front. I do not like Sam Bradford to the Rams. He has little experience under center and doesn’t take hits well. The Rams don’t have someone to protect his blindside. Sounds like a really dicey situation to me. They could draft Bradford with their first pick and grab a left tackle in the second round, but a rookie tackle protecting a rookie quarterback could be bad.

The Detroit Lions’ pick, second overall, could really wreak havoc upon the draft. Everyone has them going after Ndamukong Suh, the monster defensive tackle from Nebraska. Hard to fault them from that. However, they invested a lot of time and money in quarterback Matthew Stafford, the number one overall pick in last year’s draft. He showed a lot of promise at points last season but struggled to stay upright. They would be better served long-term to grab an offensive tackle like Russel Okung out of Oklahoma State to protect Stafford, but head coach Jim Schwartz is a defensive guru. He’ll probably go with Suh, who should really help that defense. Hopefully for Stafford’s sake, they’ll get a tackle in the draft to help him.

There are a lot of reports about teams wanting to move down in the draft and have been for days. There’s been a lack of reports about teams wanting to move up in the draft until today. The two biggest names rumored to want to move up are the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. Also keep an eye on the New York Giants who could try to move up in the first round to secure either running back CJ Spiller out of Clemson or linebacker Rolando McClain from Alabama.

I’m working on a couple of more posts hopefully up before the start of the draft tonight, including one about the Buffalo Bills and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Once again, welcome back to Man Meets Football and happy Draft Day!

With the announcement out of the way, I must say I am not pleased with this hire. He does have some experience as defensive coordinator for a year with the Cleveland Browns. In that year, the Browns defense ranked 15th in yards per game and 12th in points allowed per game.

That is his only experience running a defense. I would have personally preferred promoting defensive line coach Bob Sanders to full time defensive coordinator. He has experience as a defensive coordinator with the Green Bay Packers and he knows the roster.

Plus there is the matter of the scheme switch. With all the troubles on offense, I think it would have made sense to keep the base alignment and spend more of the time and effort on improving the offense.

Instead, the Bills have now made an emphasis on overhauling basically the entire roster. The Bills will need to get a true nose tackle (actually two, one to start and one for depth), a couple of 3-4 defensive ends (Spencer Johnson should have no trouble transitioning since he’s played both DE and DT), and bigger inside linebackers.

That’s a lot of change on the defense in one off-season. Plus the Bills need to figure out who the quarterback is and need offensive tackle help, especially at left tackle. There’s a lot to be done. It’s ambitious, but I think it’s too ambitious. I’ve made it known I would prefer to stay with the 4-3.

However, what’s done is done. We’ll just have to see what happens.

So what does that mean for Jay Cutler, the quarterback who will be the trigger man in Martz’s offense?

After the season Cutler had, I have a hard time seeing him succeed in a Martz offense. Cutler has all the physical tools to be a top quarterback in this league. However, his personality tends to rub his teammates and coaches the wrong way.

He also struggles mentally, making poor decisions and never recovering from them. The great quarterbacks are defined by the decisions they make and how they react to the bad decisions.

Also, it will be very interesting to see what the Bears do with their offensive line, which will be expected to hold up even longer in pass protection (and they were poor in that area last season). The Bears do not have a first round draft pick, which would most likely have gone towards an offensive lineman (left tackle if any would be available).

Martz is an offensive genius, but he’ll be working with a quarterback whose football IQ might not be high enough to run the Greatest Show on Sod. I do not know if this will work out, but I lean towards it not. Which further validates my thought that Denver got the much better end of the trade that sent Cutler to the Bears.

It listed none.

So I went over to the sports magazine section to see what was over there. ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, a bunch of fantasy baseball magazines, and Pro Football Weekly. Only one football magazine.

Why is that? Football is one of the most popular sports in the US, yet no specialized publications? Is there even a demand for a magazine about football?

So I submit a series of questions to all of you.

First question is the title of this post. Do you prefer getting your news, specifically football news, via the internet or newspapers and magazines?

Secondly, would you read a magazine covering nothing but football? This isn’t limited to the National Football League. That means college football, the UFL, even high school.

Thirdly, would any of you want to contribute to such a venture, be it by helping write, edit, or publish it?

If I can get enough people together, I would love to launch a football magazine. Even if it has to be local to Western New York, it’s got to start somewhere.

However, the 3-4 defensive scheme is designed more to blitz and disrupt the passing game than defend the run. The Bills pass defense has been more than adequate this season, posting one of the best totals of interceptions in franchise history. No opposing quarterback has dominated the Bills, not even Drew Brees.

The Bills struggled against the run this year, and in order for the 3-4 to be successful against the run, a big dominant nose tackle is needed. The Bills do not have one of those kinds of players on the roster, so that would be even another need added to the list that’s already long enough.

Also we have no idea how many of the current defensive linemen can make the switch to another position. Most likely the current defensive tackles would have to make the transition to defensive end. The current defensive ends would either have to put on weight to stay at end or move to a stand-up outside linebacker.

That last transition did not work out well for the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Kampman. A former Pro Bowl defensive end in the 4-3, he was moved to outside linebacker and asked to drop into coverage. A very big change for a guy used to moving into the backfield on almost every snap. His production dropped dramatically and was a general disappointment.

Kampman and others like him are a reason not to switch to the 3-4 and not just because they didn’t make the transition well. Kampman and others who are successful in the 4-3 but can’t make the transition to the 3-4 will soon be released by their teams as they make the transition.

Teams that remain in a 4-3 scheme will get more talent that is suited to their style of defense. That alone is a good enough reason to stick with the 4-3.

One last argument that proponents of the 3-4 switch use is that a number of the top defenses in the league use the 3-4. However, three out of the four remaining teams in the playoffs are 4-3 defenses (Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, and Minnesota Vikings) and all three of those teams beat teams that used the 3- (Colts beat the Baltimore Ravens, Saints beat the Arizona Cardinals, and the Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys).

The defense was not the reason the Bills lost so many games last year. The biggest problem was that the offense stalled most of the time in the second half, leaving the defense on the field for so long. The team needs to concentrate on rebuilding the offense, which would help the defense.

Switching to the 3-4 would only set this team back further. The Bills have more than far enough to go, no need to dig a deeper hole.

I will say this. Chan Gailey wasn’t on my radar, wasn’t a consideration. When I heard the news, I was surprised and not happy. Then I spent some time reading up on him.

He’s what the Buffalo Bills need. They needed someone with head coaching experience (he has both NFL and college experience) and an offensive background (offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins, and Kansas City Chiefs).

Just because he isn’t the big splash or big name does not mean he’s a bad choice. Far from it.

The Bills have a lot of problems to address and one man is not going to solve all that. Bill Cowher would not solve all those issues.

So get someone who has experience and has a track record of making improvements to the offense everywhere he goes and start building the offense. All I am saying is give Coach Gailey a chance. It takes time, but I think he’s another piece in the puzzle at One Bills Drive.

While this move does not having me jumping up and down with glee, I am not jumping off the nearest bridge.

Neither should you.

Most of the candidates the Buffalo Bills have officially spoken to have been defensive-minded. However, the next candidate on the list is Arizona Cardinals’ assistant head coach, run-game coordinator, and offensive line coach, Russ Grimm.

Grimm is a winner. He was a member of the Washington Redskins offensive line nicknamed the “Hogs”, was a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ coaching staff when they won the Super Bowl in 2005, and then went to the Cardinals with Ken Whisenhunt and helped put an offensive line together to get the Cardinals to the 2008 Super Bowl.

He brings a toughness that truly only a lineman can bring to the game of football. He knows how to put together a running game to make a really good offense.

However, that’s primarily his focus. The offensive line and the run game. He has no experience calling plays or evaluating players outside of the offensive line and possibly running backs. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.

He’s a tough motivator who demands respect. He teaches his players well. That’s very important with a head coach. If the Bills could work with him to get experienced offensive and defensive coordinators, he won’t have to call plays. Instead, he would be able to concentrate on motivation and keeping the players in line.

The Buffalo Bills could certainly use that kind of mentality. They’ve been sorely lacking in the motivation and toughness department for a long time. Russ Grimm would go a long way towards reestablishing a tough mindset for the team.

Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings

The Cowboys have been on a tear as of late. They finally started winning in December and won their first playoff game since 1996. Quarterback Tony Romo is playing some of his best football ever. The Cowboys are running the ball well, and their defense is putting a lot of pressure on the quarterback.

The Vikings stumbled towards the end of the season and did not protect quarterback Brett Favre well. Their defense has been struggling as of late as well, especially after the injury to linebacker EJ Henderson.

However, with the time off, no doubt they have been focusing on protecting Favre. They also need to run the ball more with running backs Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor.

Also, with rest their defensive line should play good football. If anyone can slow down the Cowboys’ rushing attack, it’ll be the center of the Vikings’ defensive line, the Williams Wall (Pat and Kevin Williams, no relation). Plus at home in Minnesota, the home crowd will be loud and supportive. If the Vikings can get Peterson going early, they’ll win.

While momentum is going in the Cowboys’ side, I still think the Vikings will win.

New York Jets at San Diego Chargers

The Jets are riding the best defense and running game in the NFL. That’s a championship-winning combination.

The Chargers have one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL, along with one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

Defense trumps offense, generally. However, not many teams in the NFL have the offensive depth of the Chargers. Two very good wide receivers in Vincent Jackson and Malcolm Floyd, one of the best tight ends in Antonio Gates, and the running back tandem of LaDanian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles.

I don’t think there’s a defense in the league that can cover that many targets. If the Chargers can jump out to an early lead with those targets, the Jets will be forced to put the ball in rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez’s hands.

That’s been a very risky prospect this season. At times Sanchez looked very good and at other points, he looked like one of the worst rookies.

So I’m going with the more explosive offense and the home field advantage in the Chargers.

That means I took all four home teams this weekend. The one I feel least confident about is the Vikings, but I still think they’ll do it.