Archives for November 10, 2003

‘Buffalo Bills running back Travis Henry came into Sunday’s game with the Dallas Cowboys trying to become the first Bills back since Thurman Thomas in 1994 to have three consecutive 100-yard rushing games. Henry wasn’t even close.’

‘”It’s pretty tough to win but we fought clear to the bitter end. We weren’t precise enough even at the end to be able to pull out some type of a thing in the last gasp. They were able to kneel on it and we couldn’t get it back.”‘

‘”They came out (and blitzed). Especially in the second half, they were just going to come after us and blitzed us. When they are going to blitz and play man coverage we must make one play for a big play against their man coverage and we weren’t able to get that done.”‘

‘”It was troubling because we didn’t make plays when they were there. We knew they were going to come in and blitz. We knew they were going to try to take advantage and get pressure on Drew Bledsoe. It’s troubling we don’t make plays when they come back to your quarterback. We can’t have that if we want to be a good football team especially on the road.”‘

‘”It’s tough. We’re all professionals. When (the offense) turns the ball over we should (hold) them to a field goal. We didn’t do that. It’s tough to go out there and lose like that.”‘

‘”It’s frustrating. You have to score on those opportunities and take advantage of them. When you get in the red zone you want to score touchdowns. Field goals are good but touchdowns are of course much better.”‘

‘The Cowboys suffocated Buffalo’s passing game, putting enormous pressure on quarterback Drew Bledsoe. And whenever he had time to throw, there was stifling pass coverage. Top receiver Eric Moulds was limited to five catches for only 32 yards by starting cornerbacks Mario Edwards and Terence Newman.’

‘In fact, the Bills managed a grand total of just two yards in the final 15 minutes of play.’

‘The Bills have not scored an offensive touchdown in their last four road games. They have scored just 21 total points in those four road games, all of which were losses.’

‘The Bills (4-5) failed to score a touchdown for the third straight road game.’

“When you don’t score touchdowns in this league, it’s pretty hard to win,” said Bills coach Gregg Williams. “We’ve got to get answers. We’ve got to get touchdowns.”‘

On the road and playing the No. 1 defense in the league isn’t exactly the ideal way to open the second half of the season, especially when your team has dropped its last two road games by a combined 68-8, and has failed to score an offensive touchdown in its last three contests away from Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The Bills have played a total of seven games on November 9th since 1960. Their record on this date stands at 3-4. Four of the seven games have been played at home, two of which resulted in Buffalo victories including Marv Levy’s first game as the Bills head coach. The recaps of these November 9th games are below.

Since bye weeks were introduced in 1990, the Bills are 10-4 in games following the open date. Only Minnesota (12-3), Philadelphia (11-3) and Dallas (11-3) have more post-bye week wins than the Bills. The Cowboys had their bye in week three of this season. Both the Bills and Cowboys rank among the league’s top 5 in terms of post bye week performances.