Archives for November 2004

‘In the loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday night, Moorman punted five times for an average of 48.0 yards. His first punt pinned the Patriots inside the 20-yard line and his final three punts went for 57, 58, and 56 yards, respectively.’

‘Thrust into the rare situation of having to cover the opponent’s best receiver, Brown admitted that he may have been just a lit tle more lucky than he was good. “ I kind of got lost behind the linemen, and don’t think (Moulds) ever saw me, because I didn’t see him, really. I just saw the ball come out, and it was right there.”’

‘Reinventing oneself had been the theme of the week leading up to this game as the Bills, winners of three of their last four, were supposed to unveil their new, mistake-free offense. That was the one in which Willis McGahee pounded out the yards and Drew Bledsoe not only threw to the correct colored jerseys but avoided the deer-in-the-headlight sacks that have come to define him. Nope.’

‘So much for that scary Bills defense. Apparently something happens when that top-rated band of marauders crosses state lines. They can’t operate on the road and proved that last night. They have not won a game on the road this year and in the last 21 games have only two road wins.’

‘Buffalo Bills rookie Jonathan Smith had some heartwarming plans for the football he returned 70 yards for the first touchdown of his NFL career. "I’ll keep the ball," Smith told reporters Sunday night, "and send it home to my mom." As for the rest of the night? Put it this way: If you’re from Buffalo, hide the women and children.’

‘"They’re a good team, a very good team obviously,” said Bledsoe. "You look at what they’ve done over the past few years. When you come in here, the No. 1 thing you have to do is protect the ball. You can’t turn it over and expect to win. The first-half turnovers, you can’t give them those plays. We didn’t really challenge their corners very much. They were playing cover-2 mostly. They protected those guys and did a good job in their zone drops.”’

‘The Bills did manage to hold Adam Vinatieri without a touchdown pass, but Vinatieri still kicked five field goals, hitting from 27, 24, 20, 45 and 37 yards while going over 1,000 points for his nine-year career.’

The Cold, Hard Football Facts tossed dirt on the coffin of Drew Bledsoe’s career earlier this season. After a dreadful performance in Sunday’s 29-6 loss to New England the “pundits” are dancing on the grave.

‘It was so bad for Bledsoe he was intercepted by wide receiver Troy Brown, substituting as a cornerback.’

‘A sack, one lost fumble and an interception wasn’t the debut rookie quarterback J.P. Losman had in mind. He can only hope it gets better from here.’

‘The Bills received a drubbing at the hands of the New England Patriots that can be summed up in one word: embarrassing.’

‘Here’s a little statistic to enliven an otherwise dreary, depressing Monday: The Bills have played four nationally televised, Sunday night ESPN games in the Tom Donahoe era, and they’ve lost all four by a combined score of 119-18.’

‘Before I try and describe to just how far the former Patriot star has dropped off, let me just say that he does not deserve this fate. He is a decent man, a class act and a good quarterback at times. He could have easily divided the team during the 2001 season but he put his personal feelings aside for the good of the team and it brought the Patriots their first championship. But yeesh, has he become predictable or what?’

‘This baby wasn’t close at any time. Three of the first four offensive drives by the Patriots went for 81, 91, 75 and 70 yards. Three of those drives ended in very short Adam Vinatieri field goals. Normally, this practice of settling for field goals can hurt a team, and the only thing the Bills did consistently well was to stop the Patriots inside the Buffalo 10. Instead, the Patriots merely did what they do against Bledsoe, and took McGahee out of his game completely.’

‘”Just basically we wanted to stop the run, play physically and not give up any cheap balls down the field,” said safety Rodney Harrison. “And just do our job, play hard-nosed football. We knew they wanted to get McGahee going, and we were stuck on not letting him get going. And he didn’t.”‘