Archives for November 2, 2010

‘”He’s doing a very good job,” said head coach Chan Gailey. “He’s hard to handle in one-on-one situations and he has some subtle moves that allow him to get away from people from time to time and he’s got excellent hands. He’s starting to develop.”‘

‘Monday, www.billsintoronto.com was hawking tickets in all price ranges, starting at $65 in the Upper Bowl, $125 in the Club Level and $155 in the Lower Bowl. D’Addario pointed out, though, that very few tickets are left in the Lower Bowl.’

‘I’m not ready to give the Bills a vote of confidence here. Sure, the Bears are coming off back-to-back losses after a 4-1 start. But they are also coming off a bye and Buffalo once again gives away home-field advantage in the name of marketing their product north of the border.’

‘At this point, the defensive tackle receiving the most hype for the 2011 draft is Alabama’s Marcell Dareus. He’ll be a fine NFL player, but I wouldn’t take him instead of at least two quarterbacks: Andrew Luck (Stanford) and Cam Newton (Auburn).’

‘Many of the Kansas City Chiefs’ biggest plays Sunday came on outside runs. Running backs Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones combined for 254 of the Chiefs’ 278 rushing yards against a Bills defense that couldn’t get off blocks or didn’t stay in assigned gaps.’

‘ "But it shows how desperate we are, wanting to see Fitz as a franchise quarterback. How many times have we made that mistake? He’s just not a star."’

‘"The last eight games we were 4-3-1. That’s something that I draw on, that experience. Just staying positive, staying upbeat," Fitzpatrick said. "You get that first win and then all of a sudden things start changing a little bit. That’s a good season to look at, only because 4-3-1 to finish it, and then next year, which was [2009], the Bengals went to the playoffs."’

‘”The replica artifacts are what made it for me,” Pitoniak said. “People who were never at those games would get the feel of being there. I thought doing it this way was kind of a scrapbook, photo album and history book.”‘

‘”Just when you think you can’t get any closer than last week,” linebacker Reggie Torbor said. “And then we fight the whole game and we lose another one. We just do things at crucial times in the game where we make bad mistakes. We give up a big run or take a penalty that sets us back, and in the end, that stuff gets you.”‘

‘The defense did a lot of bending, but it didn’t break much in allowing only 13 points. However, in crunch time, George Edwards’ defense didn’t get the job done, allowing the Chiefs to drive 53 yards for the winning score in less than 90 seconds, with no timeouts. The run defense was awful. On offense, Chan Gailey relied too much on short passes and screens, and it hurt the Bills in overtime when the Bills got a little too pass-happy. Still, the Bills’ coaches were a whole lot better than Kansas City’s.’

‘Chan Gailey remains winless as the Bills’ coach, 0-7 now. And while he refused to bite on the theory that beating Kansas City for that first win would have been particularly rewarding, there’s no doubt it would have been. Gailey was fired last year as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator by head coach Todd Haley just before the season began, and he was out of football in 2009. “Ah, that’s overblown,” Gailey said of the redemption factor. “It really is. It’s overblown. I would love for it to have been here because it was this game. That’s part of it. You hurt. You hurt, and in my gut, I don’t believe we’re a bad football team, but the record says differently.”‘