Archives for September 23, 2010

‘Neither is more than a barely passable NFL quarterback, but Fitzpatrick’s style seemed to ignite the Bills’ offense just enough to win a few games. “Just to the fact that against certain coverages, sometimes he feels like he can fit a ball in and he’ll try and it’s basically just that simple,” said Evans. “He just feels the game and reacts off instinct.”‘

‘”There’s some chemistry there because this isn’t my first time stepping in with them, which I’m excited about,” Fitzpatrick said. “The good part is the that there are pieces in place to get it done.”‘

‘Patriots 33, Bills 14.’

‘Patriots 23, Bills 16.’

‘Whitner expressed his displeasure this week by saying he witnessed Green Bay players laughing near the end of their 34-7 win over Buffalo last weekend. And the fifth-year player says he and his Bills teammates are all too familiar with being laughed at by the Patriots over the course of Buffalo’s drought against its AFC East rival.’

‘…to which all I can say is you can wait for divine intervention in Buffalo if you want, but you’d probably have better luck re-signing Billy Joe Hobert.’

‘”With Fitz or Trent, you know both of those quarterbacks are going to compete hard and do all they can to win,” Evans said. “Fitz just has that different demeanor about him than Trent does. I think we have a very good rapport. We know who each other are and it’s just about making plays and having the opportunity to make plays.”‘

‘"They all did a pretty good job when they played (in preseason games), so if it had been a huge difference in the two, it might have made a difference. But in our minds there wasn’t, so give (Fitzpatrick) a shot to do what he can do."’

‘”Obviously things weren’t moving the way we expected them to,” Evans said. “So they felt like they had to make a change. I think it’s one of those things where we know what we have offensively and we’re trying to get there. The coaches are doing whatever they can to help us get there. They felt like this move was the key to doing it. I guess better early than late. We still have a chance to do a lot of good things and we’ve got a big one this week.”‘

‘”We did have the vote, and we did vote in favor to give the players association the option to decertify our union in the event that no collective bargaining agreement is reached before the March deadline,” said Bills union representative George Wilson. “This is not to say that we’re going to decertify. This is just an opportunity to keep our options open. This is a move we could possibly use in order to challenge the league’s antitrust exemption in the court system.”‘

‘But it’s not as if Evans came to life with Fitz at QB last season. He had just eight catches in one five-game stretch with Fitzpatrick at quarterback. Oh, and in 12 career games against the Pats, Evans has 31 catches and one TD. He hasn’t had a 20-yard catch against them since 2005.’

‘It may not have a significant effect on the offense, since the Bills only used a “regular” formation (with two receivers, two backs and a tight end) on 10 plays against the Green Bay Packers. Nevertheless, Johnson said changes to the lineup, at quarterback in particular, should not come as a surprise given the way the Bills have played the first two games.’

‘”When he got to the regular season, that first game he was just going extremely fast,” Bills coach Chan Gailey said yesterday. “I was probably unfair to him to throw him in there. We backed him back a little bit this past week.”‘

‘”I got a General Studies degree from Michigan, barely,” Brady laughed. “He’s one of those Harvard guys . . . we’ve had a few of those around here. We’re not getting into a math contest, thank God.”’