Archives for October 24, 2000

‘"I wouldn’t say the window’s starting to close," linebacker Keith Newman said. "There’s still a lot of things that gotta happen in the division. The Jets gotta come here this weekend. Miami’s gotta come here the beginning of December. And Indy hasn’t played either of them. "But you don’t want to count on the other teams."’

‘Doug turned 38 Monday. He’s too old for this team. It needs time to grow and he doesn’t have that sort of time left to watch them grow. Beyond that Rob Johnson needs to play in order to develop. He hasn’t had enough starts to constitute an entire season. He needs to be allowed to make mistakes, to see every situation a couple of times, gain the experience necessary to operate as Flutie did Sunday.’

‘The teams that Buffalo has lost to on the road — Jets, Dolphins and Vikings — are a combined 17-2 and the Bills were in every game. In fact, the Bills have outgained six of their seven opponents so far in total yardage and tied the other (Miami with 254). "Certainly, we gave a great effort," coach Wade Phillips said of the loss to the Vikings, in which the Bills rang up 406 yards and controlled the clock for 36 minutes but yielded two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. "We’ve played some tough teams on the road and we could’ve beaten all three. But, we’ve got to find a way to beat them.’

‘Flutie has it all over Johnson in terms of experience, coolness under pressure, and pocket awareness. There were times in this game when I’m sure Johnson would have taken an untimely sack, or would have needed to waste a timeout because he couldn’t communicate the play properly. This, of course is unacceptable. Johnson has to learn to deal with adversity, and he has to learn to cope with noise and to win on the road, something he’s done only once in five career road starts as a Bill. That said, Flutie did not win the game.’

‘Flutie is 17-9 as starting QB for Buffalo and Johnson is 7-7 over that span. The Flutie-Johnson debate seems pretty simple to me: Short-term gain vs. long-term potential. Flutie is the more experienced, charismatic and entertaining player. At this stage of their careers, he might win a game or two more per season than Johnson. It is understandable that the majority of fans would prefer to go with the proven commodity at QB. Johnson has the physical talent to win in the NFL but still has lots to learn. He’s not going to develop sitting on the bench. The Bills are a relatively young team and figure to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender in a year or two — assuming they don’t lose Eric Moulds to free agency and can shore up the offensive line. Quarterback is the most important position, and from an organizational standpoint it is logical to have him play now to grow with the rest of the team.’

‘"We just made some mental errors," second-year linebacker Keith Newman said on Monday. "We didn’t close things out in the fourth quarter. We didn’t put the stamp on the victory."’