Archives for August 2006

‘"I was very anxious to get out there and very nervous," said Spikes. "I’ve been involved in a lot of contact drills in training camp, but just to be able to finish somebody that’s what I was looking forward to. It felt great to be out there with the first team unit. It was just so exciting and I felt like a little kid in a candy store who got his first taste of sugar."’

‘On how it felt for his play to be the 1st play of the game: “As a defensive player, not taken into account being hurt, you always want to get started early. When you get that first pop out of the way, get in on a tackle, then it’s like ‘I’m ready, I’m ready to go.’ So that’s how I felt.”‘

‘General Comments: “We did some good things, we did a lot of bad things. The penalties were obviously a huge issue. You can’t do that and win consistently so we need to get a lot better in that area.”‘

‘On the first team offense: It went pretty good. We had some mishaps in the red zone, we jumped offsides. Those are the little things that hurt us, but other than that, we can straighten that out. We drove the ball down the field and we were looking pretty good.’

‘On the competition amongst the wide receivers and how he feels about his spot: I feel great. It’s the competition, that’s what’s going to bring the best game out of the wide receivers, but it all comes down to the final decision of the coaches.’

‘On assessing his own performance: “I told you guys before, every game we’re just going to become more and more comfortable and that starts with everybody, all 11 guys on the field. We’re getting more comfortable with each other and trusting each other, especially on some timing routes with the quarterbacks and receivers. We’re starting to trust each other, starting to expect the ball out of the cut, out of the breaks, as long as we keep doing that consistently, on a regular basis. We have one more preseason game to tighten it up before we go for real. Everything’s looking good so far.”‘

‘On tonight’s performance being indicative of the offensive style we can expect to see for the regular season: I definitely think it’s certainly a possibility. Coming out of camp this week, we wanted to put on the field what we’ve done at camp and I think we did a good job of doing that today, especially in the passing game.’

‘On his play tonight: Hopefully (it was) big enough. I just have to do my part, I can’t worry about what everyone else is doing. I can’t worry about what the coaches are thinking. I have to do my part on the front end. That way, when the hand is dealt, I can look myself in the mirror and be content with my effort and my execution out there on the field.’

‘On how it felt to be out there: It felt real good. It felt great to be out there with the first team unit. It was just so exciting and I was very anxious, very nervous and I felt like a little kid in a candy store who got his first taste of sugar.’

‘On the offense’s performance in the first half: I think we played well, but we shot ourselves in the foot. A few times we left some plays out there and some points out there. I think we played well, but we just have to play mistake-free football.’

‘On being disappointed about the mistakes in the first half: It was disappointing. They did a nice job of getting it down there and then it kind of fell apart. I guess it’s youth, but I have to take the hit for that one. We have to give ourselves a chance to score. You don’t want to be reckless though because you don’t want to give away the three. It was disappointing at the end, but I thought they handled the field goal part excellently, to kick it with three seconds. There wasn’t a big rush, we knew we had plenty of time. It’s something we’ve worked on a good deal.’

‘”He does some really good things,” said head coach Dick Jauron. “We have to help him more and get rid of the dumb mistakes, for lack of a better word; I really don’t like using that word. He has to get away from those and he is young in the game. That doesn’t mean we can accept them, we just have to keep coaching him hard and let him throw, because he makes some terrific plays.”‘

‘Price’s performance was just as big for Buffalo and showed he is capable of earning the No. 2 receiver spot.’

‘J.P. Losman was 15-of-22 for 184 yard with one touchdown and an interception, as the Bills remain winless in exhibition action. Lee Evans hauled in five catches for 70 yards and George Wilson caught two balls for 71 yards, including a 56-yard reception.’

‘Expect: Five to seven victories. Playoffs are 2-3 years away.’