Archives for November 2012

‘”This is familiar territory to me,” Spiller said Monday. “I’m not worried about how many times I touch (the ball). Like I said I’m just from here on out just worried about wins. Everybody is concerned about whether I can touch it 25 times, but at the end of the day if I do that and we lose that means nothing. I’m just trying to help my team win so we can experience what it’s like to play in the playoffs.”‘

‘”It looks like Fred will be out this week,” said Gailey. “The tests this morning were not as good as we had hoped and he had hoped so he won’t play this week.”‘

‘Howell re-joins the Bills after being released from the 53-man roster on Friday, Nov. 9th. The 5-11, 201-pound Stanford product signed with Buffalo as an undrafted free agent in May. He saw action vs. Cleveland (9/23) and posted one special teams tackle. He was inactive for six games.’

‘You have to make certain adjustments in a short week. The good thing is we have not depended on having them both in the game for the majority of our game plan at any one time. We have enough that we can go into a game with without Fred and have enough to be able to keep people off-balance.’

‘The Buffalo Bills today announced that tickets for the Thursday, November 15th home primetime game vs. the Miami Dolphins are sold out. The game will be shown locally on WBBZ-TV, Nationally on NFL Network and Internationally in Toronto on Sportsnet.’

‘But it’s games like this where the case against Dave Wannstedt grows. The Bills did sack Brady once, but they need to put more pressure on opposing quarterbacks. They might not have the players to do it, but they also don’t have the coaching staff willing to take a more aggressive approach.’

‘I’m glad Chan Gailey went for it on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal. I don’t get his decision to limit Spiller’s touches so much. He should be getting more work than Jackson. Other than the unbalanced run/pass ratio, Gailey called a good offensive game and Wannstedt’s defense made good adjustments at halftime. The number of penalties was incredible and that falls on coaching. Grade: C+’

‘”We knew that, every time we’ve played these guys, we’ve been successful moving the ball against them,” Spiller said. “That’s a great defense that we went up against and I’m proud of our guys, but at the same time, I’m very disappointed because we’re 3-6 and its pretty much a must win from here on out.”‘

‘Then, just like that, an errant pass after a great day from Fitzpatrick and hope is gone. It takes a lot out of you.’

‘”Penalties killed us and you can’t have that,” he maintained. “You get that many penalties against this team and Tom (Brady, Pats’ QB) and they’re going to beat you … point blank. We have to play smarter."’

‘”That was a rookie mistake,” Graham said. “I’m supposed to cross his face in the front, and it was a good pass. If I had crossed his face I probably would have made that play. So I take blame for that one.”‘

‘But they had 34 touches for 246 yards Sunday. They were the driving forces behind a club-record 35 first downs, surpassing the 34 gained against the Oakland Raiders last year.’

‘The Bills outgained the Pats, 229-153, the first 30 minutes. But the Bills made one turnover and the Pats made none. And the Bills had 10 penalties for 119 yards in the first half, while the Pats made two for 30.’

‘The Bills went to Foxborough with a sufficient offensive game plan to beat the Patriots. But they gave the Patriots one and a half football fields of penalty yards and committed three turnovers. You can’t beat the Patriots that way.’