E.J. Returns For Bills' Turning Point

This could be really good.

The Buffalo Bills visit Pittsburgh today with their first pick from each of the past two drafts, their most explosive offensive weapon and their highest-paid defensive player ever all operating at full strength -- or as close to it as possible in Week 10 -- for the first time in 2013.

Now the Bills get a shot at the staggering Steelers, whose resemblance to the team that won two Super Bowls in The Aughts extends only as far as the presence of Ben Roethlisberger, their historically scary uniforms and the hair sticking out from under Troy Polamalu's helmet (at least until Monday).

This could be terrible.

Buffalo has not won a game in Pittsburgh since the week after The Comeback -- 20 years and 10 months ago -- and the 2-6 Steelers figure to be desperate to salvage their season and atone for the worst statistical defensive performance in the franchises 81-season history.

It's Sunday morning, so let's look at the bright side first.

After a month of hoping for anything but complete disaster every time one of the quarterbacks nobody else wanted takes a snap, the development of E.J. Manuel resumes just as C.J. Spiller seems to finally be finding his stride. That's especially helpful with Pittsburgh's run defense ranking as the league's second-most-permissive and showing an uncharacteristic knack for yielding big plays.

The Steelers haven't been able to run much themselves, averaging just 73.6 yards per game on the ground. So they are left to rely completely on Roethlisberger, a strategy that has produced just two wins against six losses. In the last two weeks, he has thrown four interceptions and been sacked 10 times in losses to Oakland and New England.

And they haven't been particularly valiant in defeat. It's one thing to get torched by New England. That happens to everyone. Giving up a 93-yard run to Terrelle Pryor and getting smacked around by the likes of Chicago (at home, no less) and Minnesota (anywhere with a yellow sun) really could not be less Steeler-like.

Meanwhile, Buffalo beat division rival Miami with Thaddeus Lewis at quarterback and dominated the NFL's last unbeaten team everywhere but on the scoreboard despite Jeff Tuel. So Manuel's return -- along with the Buffalo secondary gelling around a healthy Stephon Gilmore and behind a pass rush led by a full-value Mario Williams -- means the Bills start converting all those widely loathed moral victories into real ones.

Right?

Let's check ourselves here for a moment.

As promising as Manuel looked at times, his two regular-season road games as a professional resulted in a performance that bordered on the Losmanesque against the Jets and a sprained knee in Cleveland. Manuel has yet to show that he's capable of going into an environment as hostile as Pittsburgh and remain ambulatory, much less win. It can't help that Robert Woods' ankle injury not only means Manuel's emerging favorite target will probably not be on the field, but also that emerging bust T.J. Graham probably will.

And as good as Buffalo's healthy defense looked against Kansas City's no-risk offense, Roethlisberger will give the Bills more opportunities to make big plays -- and to give them up.

Losing today negates much of the good, and good will, created through the first nine games of Doug Marrone's tenure, when each of the three wins were cause for mini-celebration and the six losses could be explained away one way or another, if you try hard enough.

A win in Pittsburgh, though, puts Buffalo at 4-6. Then it's the Jets (1-3 on the road) at Orchard Park, the bye week, the flailing Falcons in Toronto, a swing through Florida to face the equally winless Jaguars and Buccaneers, and back home for a rematch with the Dolphins -- who, you might have heard, have some issues of their own -- before traveling to New England for the season finale.

The first five remaining games look highly winnable, and given the state of the AFC East, there's a good chance the Patriots won't have much, if anything, to play for in the sixth.

Yes, expecting a team that hasn't reached the postseason since 1999, or even had a whiff in nine years, to go on a run like that is an exercise in nearly delusional optimism.

A loss to the Steelers, though, means it is time to start talking about next year, nearly three weeks before Thanksgiving.

And that can't be good.

Kiko For Everything

In case you can't read the fine print in the write-in spaces, a Buffalo man looked at the candidates offered up for election by the local political bosses yesterday and said, "No. I can do better."

Instead, he wrote in Bills linebacker Kiko Alonso for every office, from State Supreme Court to the Mayor of Buffalo. Seems like the rookie has been everywhere for the Bills this season, making a team-high 81 tackles and leading the NFL with four interceptions, so maybe he could handle some additional civic duties, as well.

Given the quality of candidates available in most races, he couldn't do much worse.

Stay Classy, Incognito

(Note: Monday's news that E.J. Manuel has been cleared to play next weekend in Pittsburgh invalidated much of We Want Marangi's planned post on Sunday's rather bizarre loss to Kansas City. So here's a little something to tide you over in the meantime.)

In these divisive times, when formerly mundane topics like the weather, health insurance and whether or not to run the ball on third-and-goal are fodder for unyielding debate and contrarian punditry, we thank the National Football League for giving us something we can all agree upon:

Richie Incognito is an asshole.

So's his old man, it seems.

Incognito's indefinite suspension by Miami after the revelation that he sent racist, threatening voice and text messages to teammate Jonathan Martin gave credence to the rumors of serial harassment swirling around the Dolphins since Martin left the team last week.

Dolphins officials released a statement tacitly defending Incognito early Sunday, but reversed themselves after learning of a voicemail that has been transcribed as follows in numerous reports:

“Hey, wassup, you half n—– piece of [expletive] . . . I saw you on Twitter, you been training ten weeks. [I want to] [expletive] in your [expletive] mouth. [I'm going to] slap your [expletive] mouth. [I'm going to] slap your real mother across the face (laughter). [Expletive] you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”

Kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it? We're not going to chronicle Incognito's previous crimes against sportsmanship and basic human decency, since that has been taken care of elsewhere.

Interestingly, the only stop in his professional and collegiate football career in which his behavior did not make the news was Buffalo. That could be due to the brevity of his time with the Bills, who signed him for the final three games of the 2009 season -- after he had been waived by St. Louis after he was penalized for head-butting twice in the same game.

Incognito started at guard in all three games with Buffalo, including Fred Jackson's 212-yard eruption against Indianapolis in the season finale. But when he became a restricted free agent a few months later, Buffalo did not even try to keep him by making a qualifying offer, allowing him to sign with Miami.

That's right. The 2009-10 Bills, at one of the lowest points of the franchises's post-postseason era and desperately in need of help on the offensive line (and everywhere else), decided Incognito was not worth the trouble.

It took three-and-a-half seasons, but his treament of Martin -- or, to be accurate, the fact his treatment of Martin became public knowledge -- forced the Dolphins to reach the same inescapable conclusion. It also forced the NFL to launch an investigation into the workplace environment fostered by coach Joe Philbin and general manager Jeff Ireland, for whom character is such an important issue in player evaluation that he infamously asked soon-to-be-first-round-draft-choice Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute a few years back.

Perhaps Ireland should include something like, "Is your father, in fact, an asshole?" in future player interviews.

The piece linked above builds a pretty convincing case that the elder Incognito spent at least part of the weekend defending his little boy on a Miami fan message board, rolling out the incredibly weak "BUT RAPPERS SAY THAT WORD!" defense to justify the use of racial slurs while accusing Martin of being a drug addict and wishing death by AIDS on Miami's coach and general manager.

And you thought your parents were embarrassing you on the Internet.

After landing in Miami, it seemed Incognito may have mellowed slightly, tweeting a school picture of himself in a pink turtleneck a few weeks back (which, as you can see for yourself below, is pretty sweet) and winning some award that the Dolphins media gives out in an apparent effort to kiss the behinds of the players it covers even more lovingly.

His messages to Martin suggest plenty of darkness remained, though. Incognito talked about his inner turmoil and attempts to quell it through medication -- prescribed and otherwise -- in an NFL.com feature story, and also discussed the value of therapy.

The piece offers a gauzy view of Incognito, which is contrasted by a video released yesterday by TMZ, recorded around the time the league's official online outlet was reporting on his maturation and attainment of inner peace.

Richie Incognito DROPS N-BOMB ON VIDEO … In Crazy Bar Rage - Watch More Celebrity Videos or Subscribe

I'm probably not qualified to dispense psychiatric advice, but it looks like Richie may want to give therapy another shot.

Get Well Really Soon, Thaddeus

Due to circumstances beyond our control, We Want Marangi officially retracts our rather mealy-mouthed prediction that the Kansas City Chiefs will cease to be the NFL's last unbeaten team Sunday in Orchard Park.

The news that Thad Lewis was unable to throw in practice Wednesday, due to having his ribs all but crushed last week in New Orleans, broke about an hour after we made that wildly optimistic call.

When Lewis still could not throw on Friday, that Bills downgraded Lewis' status to doubtful, which in NFL parlance means there is a 25 percent chance he plays Sunday.

Lewis returned to practice on Friday on a limited basis. He participated in drop backs with his fellow quarterbacks during the portion of practice open to the media but did not throw any passes. 

"It's a point of the soreness of the ribs, really just being able to turn and throw and that's the one thing that's holding him back," Bills coach Doug Marrone said. "If he can get by that, then he'll be able to play."

That leaves a 75 percent likelihood that rookie free agent Jeff Tuel, last seen in Cleveland, looking thoroughly lost, makes his first professional regular-season start against the Chiefs, who happen to lead the league in sacks, one of the main reasons they have allowed the fewest points through eight weeks.

A schedule that has included Jacksonville, Oakland, the New York Giants and Tennessee (Ryan Fitzpatrick Edition) has not hurt either, but it is tough to argue the Bills will be any more dangerous with Tuel or the frequently released Matt Flynn flinging the ball around.

To be fair, there are a couple of things working in Tuel's favor.

With Lewis out, Tuel took the majority of snaps in practice this week, meaning he should be much better prepared, or at least appear less terrified, than when he was forced into action against the Browns after E.J. Manuel went down with the knee injury that has kept him out since.

And, although the Weather.com forecast suggests the predicted early-morning snow and wind will subside by kickoff, the accuracy of meteorological prognostication ranks somewhere below Tuel's completion percentage. So there's an outside shot at an impromptu mini-blizzard disrupting all passing by anyone, leaving the outcome thoroughly to chance.

Then there's the slimming possibility that Lewis' rib muscles heal enough and/or he is legally provided with enough painkillers to keep Tuel and Flynn sidelined.

With a 3-5 record at the halfway point, that's what this Bills season has come to -- hoping a guy with his fourth NFL team who was on the practice squad a month ago can play if he takes the needle, or an unexpected snowstorm on Nov. 3.

IT'S AN OUTRAGE! (Marshawn Lynch Edition)

While discussing who is going to play quarterback on Sunday after learning that Thaddeus Lewis sat out Wednesday's practice while trying to recover from the pounding he suffered in New Orleans, the We Want Marangi editorial board came to a shocking realization (thanks to the keen eye of Mrs. WWM).

It has been a while since a national figure or media outlet said, published or broadcast anything less than effusively glowing about the wonders of the City of Buffalo and the surrounding area. As a result, the local citizenry has been denied a key source of manufactured outrage.

Fortunately, Deadspin, ESPN and former Bills running back Marshawn Lynch are here to help.

Yesterday, Deadspin published a pair of clips dealing with Lynch's time in Buffalo. The first was from an ESPN E:60 profile of Lynch that ran earlier this week in which he discovered that he might have been well-served by paying closer attention to his geography schooling.

I just knew I was going to New York. I thought I was going to be out there with Jay-Z ... and then when I finally landed in Buffalo, it was like slush on the ground, it just finished snowing. I didn't know nothing about no snow.

In the second, the dryly offbeat Kenny Mayne accompanies Lynch on a tour of his favorite nightspots in an effort to investigate his predecessor's disdainful analysis of Buffalo nightlife. So, of course, they go to Applebee's and Dave and Buster's. Right there is some selective reporting, since Lynch became uncomfortably familiar with the local bar districts during his stint with the Bills.

(NOTE: You could go watch them for yourself, or watch the entire E:60 profile below. But if you enjoy getting yourself all worked up about such things, don't bother -- context can really ruin a good harrumph.)

There's an awful lot here to get bunched up about. Not once does Lynch say a word about architecture, or mention any of the following: Radial street layout. Super-hep pockets of gentrification. Low cost of living, particularly in the city's eastern, southern, and western areas. Taxpayer-subsidized development. Syracuse gets more snow! Grain elevators! FRANK LLOYD TACO TRUCK!

We will get back to that whole quarterback thing once it becomes more clear whether Lewis will really be able to play, and Doug Marrone is sandbagging the Kansas City Chiefs, or if there is any real possibility of Jeff Tuel or Matt Flynn starting against the NFL's last unbeaten team.

In the meantime, get your righteous indignation on.

A Blowout Bills Can Build On

The Buffalo Bills were exposed Sunday in New Orleans as a raw team whose inexperience is compounded by basic physical inadequacies.

So it stands to reason they should beat the NFL's lone unbeaten team later this week.

A double-digit underdog to the Saints, Buffalo confounded one of the league's most explosive aerial attacks for most of the first half, while scraping together enough offense to take a 10-7 lead on a Dan Carpenter field goal with less than five minutes remaining before intermission.

Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine's blend of coverages and blitzes had created enough pressure to discombobulate Drew Brees, limiting the Saints to 32 net passing yards in the game's first 25 minutes. Gum and string only hold up for just so long, though, and Brees inevitably found the weak spot.

Two snaps after Carpenter's field goal, Brees saw Jerry Hughes in coverage on wide receiver Kenny Stills. After freezing the Buffalo linebacker, who is far better on the blitz than in coverage, with a play-action fake, Brees hit an obscenely open Stills for a 69-yard touchdown and the pummeling commenced.

Brees spent the rest of the game resembling a video-game quarterback, zipping perfect throws all over the field. Brees exploited another coverage mismatch on Stills for the last of his five touchdown passes, when the rookie was able to box out Nickell Robey in the end zone midway through the fourth quarter.

Robey, generously listed at 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, made the 6-foot, 194-pound Stills look like an NBA power forward on the play that capped the 35-17 New Orleans win. He also got beat on the first New Orleans touchdown, when he mistimed a swipe on Brees' 15-yard throw to Lance Moore.

Robey is aggressive and smart, with a knack for being in the right place, having sparked the win over Miami a week earlier with a 19-yard interception return for the opening score. On Sunday, he blew up a Saints screen pass for a 6-yard loss to stop the Saints' first series.

His size strips him of any margin for error, though, as shown on both touchdowns he gave up.

Keeping up with the Saints required near-perfection from the Buffalo offense, too. With their most explosive player sidelined and Thaddeus Lewis making his third start four weeks after joining the active roster, the Bills' offensive flaws glared.

The Chiefs, unbeaten though they may be in their first year under longtime Eagles coach Andy Reid, are far from perfect.

San Francisco exile Alex Smith is the ideal quarterback for the low-risk offense Reid has installed, and has a couple of top-level weapons to work with in running back Jamaal Charles and receivers Dexter McCluster, Donnie Avery and Dwayne Bowe, but none have shown the touchdown-on-any-play capability displayed by just about every Saints receiver.

In compiling that 8-0 mark, the Chiefs have beaten seven lousy teams and one sporadically OK one, with that better-quality win against Dallas coming at home in Week 2 by a single point. Sunday will be Kansas City's first road game after three straight at home.

Buffalo, meanwhile, comes off its worst loss of the season, falling into We Want Marangi's thoroughly arbitrary blowout zone for the first time. The Bills may have been blown out, but they were not knocked out by the Saints.

Credit for that competitiveness has to be spread among the coaches and roster, but no players gets more than Thaddeus Lewis. As you may have noticed if you have been watching the last few weeks, that guy is pretty tough.

For someone who started the season as nobody's last-string quarterback, Lewis has absorbed blind-side hits, as well as shots he saw coming but lacked time to do much about.

Against Miami, he even had his helmet knocked off, and still completed a key pass. In New Orleans, he appeared to get knocked out on the game's first snap, but somehow shook it off to make it all the way through, despite pulling himself off the turf after seemingly every pass he threw.

That resilience has been infectious, with Doug Marrone sounding almost giddy about facing the unbeaten Chiefs at his Monday press conference. Suggesting the Bills have a good shot at an upset is hardly a unique WWM insight, and if the predictions already dotting social media are any indication of the public level of optimism, the crowd at Ralph Wilson Stadium should be at full roar by kickoff.

No doubt, Kansas City has improved immensely from last year's 2-14 disaster. But the Chiefs, who have feasted on feeble opposition through a home-heavy first half of the schedule, while ranking in the middle of the pack or lower in just about every statistical category, are not a 9-0 team.

After Sunday, they won't be.

WWM Flashback: Garbage Time In New Orleans And Bud's Birds

The last time the Bills visited New Orleans, they were headed for the playoffs. And their hosts were trying to prove they were not a joke, despite years of evidence to the contrary.

Doug Flutie's first and best season in Buffalo had already yielded a postseason berth, so he sat out the 1998 finale in the Superdome in order to rest a sore knee for the following weekend's Wildcard Game. In his place, Rob Johnson threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth, adding fuel the quarterback controversy that would last through the rest of Wade Phillips' coaching tenure.

Mike Ditka's second season with the Saints had not gone any better than the first. So he had spent the previous couple months giving Kerry Collins, who had been released by Carolina less than two years after taking the Panthers to the NFC title game, an audition at quarterback.

It did not last much longer.

The Bills sacked Collins a couple times, one ending with a near-touchdown by Bruce Smith (the first highlight in the clip above) and threw an interception. So Ditka pulled him before the first quarter ended with Buffalo up 21-0, having scored the football equivalent of a first-round knockout.

It remains the quickest hook I have ever seen in an NFL game. From the press box, I kept an eye on Ditka and Collins, wondering if the volcanic coach might slug the already-battered quarterback, or at least make him turn in his uniform right on the sideline.

Collins had clearly bombed the audition, ending his time with the Saints and, I figured, the NFL. At the time, they had managed four winning seasons out of 32 since joining the league as an expansion team and New Orleans had never celebrated a playoff win. If you couldn't make it there, you couldn't make it anywhere.

Shows what I know. Two years later, Collins started for the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. By 2008, the guy with a reputation as a drunken racist quitter was the calm, grizzled veteran who took over for the talented-but-troubled Vince Young and led Tennessee to a 13-3 record.

As for the Bills-Saints game, Johnson's 1-yard flip to Sam Gash put Buffalo ahead 28-0 early in the second quarter, leading to almost three full quarters of garbage time. Collins' replacement, Billy Joe Tolliver, threw on just about every down and Buffalo's defense, primarily concerned with remaining healthy, let him, resulting in a wildly deceptive 45-33 final.

A week later, Flutie started in Miami and the Bills lost 24-17, a defeat sealed when Flutie was sacked and fumbled at the 5-yard line in the closing moments.

But that's another flashback entirely.

*****

A few days after former Houston and New Orleans coach Bum Phillips died last week, the man who fired him after guiding the Oilers to three straight playoff berths also left this world.

Adams' death leaves Ralph Wilson as the only remaining owner from "The Foolish Club," the group of eight wealthy men who founded the American Football League in 1960. Adams moved the Oilers to Tennessee in 1997, where they became the Titans a couple years later.

Adams' Oilers and Wilson's Bills combined to win four of the first six AFL titles. Neither franchise has celebrated a league championship since.

Like Wilson, Adams paid $25,000 for a franchise now valued at near $1 billion. Such financial success did not mellow the man, last seen by most Bills fans celebrating Tennessee's 41-17 win over Buffalo in 2009 thusly:

At the time, I figured he was still bitter about The Comeback. But judging from the Google results for "Bud Adams double bird," expressing himself with his middle fingers was something of a hobby.

At least that's how We Want Marangi, and more than a few people in Houston, will choose to remember him.