Archives for September 11, 2006

‘”It doesn’t matter how many moral victories you have. At the end of the year they’re going to judge you on how many games you won and how many you lost.”‘

‘Stopping New England on fourth-down-and-two at its own 26-yard line with two minutes left would’ve been a nice statement. Instead, it gave up a 6-yard run to Dillon. Game over.’

‘What would Mularkey have done? After wasting a timeout, he would have run through about 20 different plays, then probably would have settled on a play-action fake bootleg swing pass into the flat to the ever elusive Daimon Shelton which New England would have sniffed out and blown up.’

‘Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this one, but Buffalo was called for seven penalties for 53 yards and New England just one for five yards. The Bills self-destructed in the fourth quarter with four penalties, all killers.’

‘Dick Jauron and his staff probably deserved better.’

‘And that’s a lesson this version of the Bills must learn quickly. If nothing else, Sunday’s game showed the team can compete with the class of the AFC East.’

‘Maybe it was the Bills’ reverence for their AFC East rivals that caused Buffalo to collapse under the weight of questionable coaching calls, untimely penalties, and a costly safety, blowing a 10-point halftime lead to lose, 19-17, yesterday at Gillette Stadium.’

‘”It’s not the first time they’ve done it,” said Bills wide receiver Lee Evans when asked about the latter scenario. “It’s the nature of the business, part of the game, I guess. There’s not a whole lot you can say about it. It’s just what they wanted to do.”‘

‘Tripplett, the “three-technique” tackle in the Bills’ Tampa-2 defense, seemed to line up over Mankins and Neal equally. On balance, the Pats did the job against him, as Tripplett finished with just one assisted tackle to go along with that one quarterback pressure and a deflected pass.’

‘J.P. Losman: “All of a sudden we got rushed a little bit. You would like to get rid of the ball in that situation if you can, but the game is on the line and you’re trying to make a play. I felt that there was only one rusher that I could get away from (Banta-Cain), which I did, and then I didn’t see the other guy (Warren).”‘

‘At times, the Bills were playing with five rookies on defense. Most of the game, they had two rookies at safety. And still, the Pats’ air attack looked woeful. Defending a cast of wide receivers that didn’t include Branch was much too easy.’

‘Davis and the Pats’ defensive line had a hunch the ball would be placed into McGahee’s hands in order for the back to attempt to plow through the line for the possible first down. “It’s their bigs against our bigs,” said Davis. “Those guys up front did a great job, so all the credit goes to them.”‘

‘(On what happened on the safety play): Well, all of a sudden we got rushed a little bit … You would like to get rid of the ball in that situation if you can. But the game is on the line and you are trying to make a play. I felt that there was only one rusher that I could get away from, which I did, and then I didn’t see the other guy. But looking back at it, hopefully, the next time that comes up I can get rid of it.’

‘The Patriots outgained (204-5) and outscored (12-0) the Bills from that point on as they seized momentum.’

‘You can’t fault Dick Jauron for trying.’