Archives for August 23, 2014

‘He’s used to it at this point. Every snap he’s taken in practice over the last few weeks has been charted and scribbled in a notebook. Every preseason game has been dissected, and the questions haven’t really changed. Will Manuel take a step forward? Is he good enough to take the Bills to the playoffs? Was he worth a first-round pick?’

‘”We know we can put up points. We had seven straight weeks where we put up 20 points a game. We understand we can score points. So we’re not walking on glass yet.”‘

‘”The red zone is the hardest place to score, it’s that simple,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. “I think that we just need to keep working at it, get all the guys in there that we want and keep finding those playmakers.”‘

‘”I get emotional believe it or not,” Marrone says. “If someone comes and they don’t respect the game and they don’t really care then I have no problem. ‘Hey, appreciate it. Take care.’ That’s not the case with the guys on this team right now.”‘

‘Wheatley Jr. has told his dad there is a bit of a generation gap when it comes to how they handle recruitment. For instance, Wheatley doesn’t want his son, a four-star recruit, to announce his pick with all of the different hats in front of him. He thinks it’s tacky. He didn’t want Wheatley Jr. to attend the five-star challenge, either.’

‘When the Toronto group comprising rocker Jon Bon Jovi, MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum and the Rogers family resubmitted their first-round bid on Aug. 5 (after their initial offer of July 29 was rejected, in part for being uncompetitively low) I reported even before the group sent it in that the new amount was “probably between $1 billion and $1.1 billion.”‘

‘”You’re suppressing potential future revenue. Any time you do that, it’s going to have a dragging effect on the sales price,” said David Carter, head of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.’

‘Of the Bills’ 20 drives that have reached an opponent’s 40, they’ve scored seven field goals and four touchdowns. The other nine ended with no points: four interceptions, three on downs and two missed field goals.’

‘Part of the progress lies within the performance of the first-team offense. Now three games and 10 drives in, EJ Manuel and his first-unit offensive brethren have failed to get the ball into the end zone.’

‘He’s a middle-aged man in repose, ravaged by cancer and tortured by the very pollutants designed to cure him. And yet he’s more alive now than he’s ever been. You met and admired Jim Kelly on TV. But he became Kelly Tough far away from the gridiron.’

‘Corey Graham – Head coach Doug Marrone insisted that Graham is still a cornerback first and foremost, but he’s likely to see time at safety as the coaching staff gauges just how versatile the veteran defensive back could be for them this season. He may also see time at corner Saturday night knowing Leodis McKelvin’s availability is in doubt due to a groin injury.’

‘This contest also marks the team’s annual Kids Day festivities and the fourth preseason meeting between the Bills and Buccaneers. It’s the first preseason tilt between the two teams since a 32-12 Buccaneers win over the Bills in 1993.’

‘”I was pretty much the only one to get out of my neighborhood. I just wanted to separate myself from all the crazy stuff that was going on and not look back and keep moving forward.”‘

‘”We’ve been working on it. We know that’s a point of emphasis, we weren’t ranked high in the red zone last year,” said Mike Williams. “We’ll see this week, we’ll see if all the work has been paying off. There are no excuses, but last week we didn’t even have red zone in the game plan, so that made it kind of difficult, but no excuses, we have to score down there and make the catches we’re supposed to. We’ll see this week.”‘