Archives for January 2005

‘Bills QB Drew Bledsoe: Same old story. Play the Browns, Bengals, Seahawks or 49ers and Drew’s your man. Play him against a team that can actually play defense, like New England, Baltimore or Pittsburgh, and forget it.’

‘Former Steelers coaches Mike Mularkey and Tom Clements were taken to school by their former boss, Bill Cowher, who beat them with his backups. Ouch.’

‘And on Sunday, those Bills – embraced again by a region and primed to give the poets some serious material – showed up at Ralph Wilson Stadium needing to win only once more … and splat.’

‘Though Buffalo held a 17-16 lead after three quarters, the end result shouldn’t have been that close. The Steelers may have played their ‘B’ team, but the Bills got a dismal ‘D’ for effort to finish the season at 9-7 and out of the post-season for the fifth year in a row.’

‘”What do you think?” Bills safety Lawyer Milloy said when asked if the powerful Steelers linemen controlled the game. “Even if we would have won the game, we would have to get some things corrected with the running game.”‘

‘There was a smell in the air yesterday, the smell of another season gone for naught. The smell of a potential playoff spot washed away by a team that had won six in a row but reverted to the stumbling, bumbling Bills that began the season with four losses.’

‘Until the moment the bubble burst, it had been a nostalgic afternoon.’

‘Parker, a fourth-string back whose career consisted of 13 carries and 84 yards before yesterday, permanently earned his spot in Buffalo football lore yesterday in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 29-24 victory before 73,414 fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The undrafted rookie became just the third back this season to crack 100 yards against the staunch Bills defense while helping end Buffalo’s six-game winning streak and improbable playoff run.’

‘New York Jets coach Herman Edwards got the word on the sideline, sometime during overtime, he thought. He didn’t really remember much except that his son told him the Buffalo Bills had lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, assuring the Jets of a playoff spot. Not that Edwards cared. "I wanted to win the game," he said. "I could care less about that."’

‘In a game that meant everything to the Buffalo Bills’ hopes for a mad dash to the postseason and absolutely nothing for improving the lot of a team that had already clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, it was striking that a couple of the Pittsburgh linebackers in particular, James Farrior and Joey Porter, did not want to take anybody’s seats on the bench.’

‘Sunday’s game turned on Parker’s 58-yard scamper on the first play following Lindell’s aforementioned miss. The play was "H 45 Base," a draw, and Parker found a hole off the left side and took it up the Steelers’ sideline before Clements caught him at the 22. "When he gets into the secondary, he has another gear," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "He’s the fastest back we have."’

‘"It’s going to take awhile [to forget about this game]," linebacker London Fletcher said. "To accomplish what we had…to have a game at our stadium, where you write a storybook ending, this wasn’t the ending that we had in mind."’

‘Pittsburgh played much of its season finale with its second, third and — in the case of Parker — fourth-stringers, yet it won. And it won decisively, trailing only once when Nate Clements returned an interception for a third-quarter touchdown.’

‘With the season on the line, Bledsoe crumbled.’

‘It wasn’t that they lost to the best team in the league that was the problem. It was that they lost to their backups, including their third string quarterback after having a 17-16 lead late in the third quarter.’