OH, It's that time again! Time for the Flutie Watch!!!

Once again my agreed upon one thread re: Flutie and my chance to say my piece for the week.

He continues to be a loser as the Chargers continue their ways.

Their STs success of being first in the league of setting up Flutie's Chargers w/ the best starting Field Position in the NFL w/ an average drive start at their own 35 continued today w/ average starting FP at their own 35. How's that for consistency!

Unfortunately the Chargers only saw the red zone three times under Flutie and again they proved that they can't seem to get down the field unless the STs or D gift-wraps decent FP for them. Their three trips into Seattle's red zone yielded 1 FG, 1 TD, and an INT by Flutie on a 1st and 10. Once again continuing their league ranked 27th status in terms of being able to score TDs once in the red zone. They certainly didn't move up to 26th after today!

The TD drive began at Seattle's 43 while the FG drive began at S.D.'s 46.

Flutie was unable to lead the team to more than 10 points vs. the "Hapless Hawks" that ranked 20th in the NFL in yardage D, 20th in pass yardage D, and 22nd in scoring D entering the game.

Flutie's stats for the game, another unimpressive 19 of 33 for 195 with 0 TDs to help the team and 2 INTs, one as they were about to score to hinder the team!

Once again, the STs steps up big in consistently providing the offense w/ OUTSTANDING LEAGUE LEADING Field Position, but the offense is unable to capitalize. The D did it's job as well holding Seattle to only 10 points through regulation and shutting Seattle down after a opening drive for a TD, doing all that was expected of them. Tomlinson ran for 87 yards on 24 carries while getting only 4 carries in the 4th Q due to S.D.'s needing to pass more. Yet certainly a game that was not responsible for the loss.

Rather again, it was Flutie's INTs on 1st and 10 and on 2nd and 4 that prevented S.D. from scoring the go ahead and what would have been the game winning TD and another one on their second drive of the game that once again was the "Weakest Link" in S.D.'s game that cost them yet another victory to make them 5-7 following a 3-0 start vs. an easy schedule and has now made Flutie the main reason for a 2-7 skid over their last 9 games and the overall "Weakest Link" in the poor performance of their team.

Frankly, here's how I see S.D. from last year to this:

Their STs are unquestionably in the top few in the league statistically scoring more points than any other and providing league leading Field Position for the Offense.

Their D is much stronger than it was a year ago and Wiley appears to be the real deal that we were not able to sign due to Butler's mismanagement. It continues on it's streak of not allowing a 100 yd. rusher in 59 of 63 outings. It also is ranked 12th in yardage D, 16th in scoring D, 8th in rush yardage D, and 18th in pass yardage D.

Their running game is solid w/ Tomlinson providing what wasn't anywhere near existent last year in an outstanding rushing game currently placing him at the 5th leading rusher in the NFL on pace for over 1,300 ypg and a per game average of 80 yards.

Which brings us to the QB position where S.D. weakness should be glaring by now. In 12 games Flutie has thrown only 10 TDs, had 14 TOs with absolutely no direct contribution to points on the board in 5 of their 12 games. He is averaging less than 200 passing yards per game and the Flutie-led O is averaging less than 18 offensive points per game! He's had 10 passing TDs in 12 games w/ 6 of those occurring in 3 games leaving 4 TDs for the remaining 9 games!

The verdict is in! Flutie's a loser who has benefitted from his circumstances and been the benefactor of the play of others around him! Now the cat is finally out of the bag and it's gonna be impossible to stuff it back in again to retrieve that perception that he's anything more than an average, at best, QB in this league and frankly, IMO not all that much better than the worst QBs in the league and only a marginal step above Leaf inasmuch as S.D. goes!

With their next three games being @ Philly, Oakland at home, @ K.C., and then Seattle to finish up the season in a meaningless game, it will be a wonder if they don't finish 6-10 or even 5-11 at this point.

Now THAT'S the Doug that I've been watching for 4 years now!

:D

[jeffblue19]

Wys, it's done. THe guy has gone beyond the call of duty in order to show his true colors. He's NOT a starter in this league. He isn't a full-season guy. Like AVP (to a lesser degree for VP however), he's too easily defensed and his inadequacies are too much to overcome (lack of arm strength, size etc). THe guy SUCKS! We've known it all along and now, with Riley keeping him in there...the whole country can see that there never was FLUTIE MAGIC! It's about time. I'm glad now that Riley is keeping him in there. He'll run DF right out of football if he keeps him in there playing like THIS. And people thought RJ's performances were bad. MAN!

[TacklingDummyRJ]

You 2 still debating over Flutie?

[MVDaBomb]

Shawn Springs wasn't even playing either - what a disgrace.
And Seattle has a lousy pass defense WITH him in the lineup?

Remember the '99 game vs. the Giants? An average defense that started a practice squad secondary, and the Flug was abused? One of the many brilliant performances that cost us a home playoff game.

13-10....man this is like the '99 Bills all over again...except Tony Banks, Adam Vinateri, and Rick Mirer aren't there to make the Flug a "winner".

[BigDoug]

Oy, vey...one post a week, but does it have to be so long, Wys? :)

I agree with you around the general point that DF is definately on the decline. You won't see him very much next year & bet on him to retire by the end of the 2002 season, if they don't run his ass out of town by then. I was flipping through the channels today & watched @ 10 mins of the charger game...he was definately having problems getting the ball on target.

Hey, I'm tryin' to be good here so therefore I'm tryin' to get my money's worth by professionally posting it as concisely and completely as I can! :D

Doug,

I won't even say on the decline. He's always played like that. The difference between him in S.D. and here in Buffalo is that here he had our D consistently holding our opponents under 13, 16, 17, or 20 while out there that isn't happening. I don't think they're OL is that bad. I listened to the game on the radio today and I heard the announcers saying "he has time" frequently. So time in the pocket clearly is not an issue. He has a better TE out there and the way Conway is playing he's gonna beat Moulds' best year. Tomlinson is better than any RB we've had while he was here.

Can't we just finally admit that Doug has been the prime beneficiary of favorable and very fortunate circumstances?

Now back to the main board to talk about draft picks! LOL

;)

[junglesouljah]

Where are all the flutie fans now? I thought flutie had intangables that made everyone else on the team better by just his presence. I don't see flutie retiring, his ego is too big for him to admit that it's past his time. I'm looking forward to a qb contraversy that will rip SD apart, cause this time he wont' destroy the bills. The media is still on his jock strap, because of a lucky pass he threw in boston college. He hasn't done anything in years.(the CFL is a joke, reject league)

He may very well have made those around him better b/c they are very good and in the case of the STs excellent. The problem is that he forgot to bring his "A-game" with him. Unfortunately he forgot his "B" and "C" games too!

It's like the "Portrait of Dorian Gray" where the rest of the team gets better and his play declines proportionally!

And Leo Roth of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports today

"Rob Johnson watched from the sidelines so maybe he picked up some pointers "

What does this mean?

I don't know! Maybe it meant that the pointer he was supposed to pick up was to keep trying to make things work and that the "lack of sacks" are more important that "not having any INTs" actually does make some sense, and thus giving RJ a shot in the arm!