Archives for October 9, 2003

‘”Every time there is an injury there’s an opportunity for somebody else to step up. There are some other good football players on that team, on this team, on our offense. We’ll have to adapt and change. The teams that adapt the best are the ones that continue to improve and are the most successful in the league. Injuries are a part of this game. We’ll just have to adapt and go on. Don’t count him out.”‘

‘”We lean on Eric fairly heavily with our offense. He’s one of the best players in the league and generally when we take the field we feel like he’s the best guy out there. If Eric is not able to go that does hurt us offensively but we have to have guys step up. That’s the name of the game in this league. No team goes through this season with all their guys healthy the entire season and when guys get hurt guys have to step in and make plays. It’s a great opportunity for some guys that don’t normally play as big a role to step in and take a larger role and the guys that capitalize on those opportunities are the guys that end up playing a long time in the league. They have to fill those shoes.”‘

‘”We feel every time we take the field with Eric, he is going to be the best player on the field,” Drew Bledsoe said. “We feel that he is a tremendous athlete, one of the best athletes I have ever seen. He does a great job running his routes. He has improved on that even in the time I have been here. And with that, he is very explosive after the catch. Eric is a great asset to our offense.”‘

‘”We’re going to have to kick, and scrap, and fight and do whatever it takes, because we got other guys who are going to have to step it up including myself,” Shaw explained.’

‘But pleeeeeze. Ask his players how many of them think he should have lined up to kick the field goal on 2nd and goal at the 2. Rian Lindell’s hand would be the only one to go up, and I’m not so sure about that.’

‘Certainly there are unanswered questions; Will Josh Reed get out of his funk? Has the offense returned to their early season form after a decent second half? Is the defense still capable of becoming championship caliber? Can the Bills figure out a way to start games like they did the first two weeks, and not need ra-ra halftime speeches in the locker-room to get them going? Can Gregg Williams get through a game without making a questionable decision, like this week’s full rush on the punt, where Coy Wire took a costly penalty?’

‘What gives with the Buffalo Bills? They looked like world-beaters early, clobbering New England and Jacksonville by a combined score of 69-17. Since then, the Bills have appeared rather pedestrian in losses to Miami (17-7) and Philadelphia (23-13) and most recently, needed an overtime squeaker to beat Cincinnati at home.’

‘However, the victory over Cincinnati produced two more upbeat stats for Bledsoe. First, it marked the 22nd time in his career that he had rallied a team to victory after it trailed in the fourth quarter. And, it was the 11th time he’s done it in the last two minute, three times as a Bill.’