Archives for August 2012

‘There is no doubt that the Bills should be considered an up-and- coming team, and their offense will be good enough to win some games on its own. However, the defensive secondary is young at spots and could struggle against veteran quarterbacks on the schedule like Tom Brady, Mark Sanchez and Matt Schaub. Wannstedt is right in saying that it will be the front four that drives the defense, and Buffalo took the right steps through free agency to strengthen the group. Still, the pressure will be on Mario Williams and company.’

‘Predicted record: 10-6.’

‘Chan Gailey has talked about how cohesiveness in the offense line is the number one thing that they need or they won’t be successful. Gailey said, “They have to play together. We have to have guys go out there, play together and communicate. That’s probably, no it’s not probably, it’s the offensive line which is the biggest area that has to have continuity and communication. They have to have that. If they don’t have that, you do not give yourself very much of a chance to win.”‘

‘”We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, facing the Steelers they’re a smash mouth football team. It’s one of those things, we really don’t get to see it a lot in practice against our offense so we’ve got to prepare amongst ourselves to get the right looks, not just at practice, but whenever home studying film.”‘

‘As of right now, I give the edge to Tashard Choice over Johnny White mostly because the latter has been dealing with an ankle injury for much of camp. Should White come in and outplay Choice in the final two weeks, I could see the former Cowboys runner being the one that gets the pink slip. It’s a closer spot on the roster than most are giving credit.’

‘The reality is, we really won’t know how much better this 2012 team might be until we see them go through some adversity. Lose a game that should have been won, or get hit with some key injuries, and the heart of a team becomes open for all to see.’

‘”You want to be physical,” said Gailey. “You want to set the tone. You don’t want to have the tone set against you. You want to set it. They’re a physical football team. That’s what they do. They get ready to play. They have all their blitz packages, all their coverage packages. They do it all. And they’re good at it. They’re fast and explosive as well. It’ll be a challenge for our line and our protection to hold up.”‘

‘Troup battled a back injury suffered in the final preseason game last summer and struggled to be available each Sunday in 2011. He sustained a fractured vertebrae and also had a bulging disc in his lower back, which caused severe and chronic pain. He appeared in just six games last season before he was placed on injured reserve November 30th.’

‘It is really a mental challenge which is something we need. We need a mental challenge, but it will be a very physical challenge too because they are a physical football team. So yeah, this is a great challenge for our football team to go out, play a half and see what we can do.’

‘”In the off-season, I doubt we could have done much more. We kept everybody that we desperately had to keep, of our own people, and we were lucky enough to get two really good defensive guys.”‘

‘Perhaps bleakest for the Bills was how they played defense in the red zone. The Bills ranked last in the NFL, allowing touchdowns 64.4 percent of the time offenses breached their 20-yard line.’

‘”You always go by the motto, ‘Being inconsistent makes you non-existent,’ ” the second-year defender said after practice on Wednesday. “All you can do is give your best effort every day. You can’t relax in this league because somebody is always behind you.”‘

‘And Young said in an affidavit that he is unaware of who took out the loan in his name and that, to his knowledge, he never received any money from the loan.’

‘The moves leave Buffalo with an 86-player roster.’

‘”We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, facing the Steelers they’re a smash mouth football team. It’s one of those things, we really don’t get to see it a lot in practice against our offense so we’ve got to prepare amongst ourselves to get the right looks, not just at practice, but whenever home studying film.”‘