Archives for November 11, 2015

'Buffalo ranks 15th in yards surrendered per game (353) and 16th in points given up (23.8, 22 taking away a pair of TDs on returns). In short, the Bills’ defense has been decidedly ordinary and the statistics say as much.'

Click here

'“I wouldn’t have cared if I got zero touches,” said Watkins. “I just wanted to be in that game and have an impact in just finishing the game and gaining my confidence back and staying on the field.”'

'Fifteen called penalties? Thirteen accepted? Eighty-five accepted for the season? These numbers are simply incomprehensible.'

'“You want to have success in the classroom as well as the playing field, take your kid to Clemson,” Ryan said. “They have a Heisman candidate at quarterback who’s a true sophomore. They have a lot of great freshmen playing. They have the No. 1 team in the country. You have arguably the best holder in the country.'

'"Any time you play against a team that told you you're not good enough, that carries some extra weight," Fitzpatrick said. "So this one will definitely carry extra weight for me. But that being said, the farther we're removed from that, the more the faces have changed. I don't know as many guys on the team anymore. There's a lot of different things that have changed even in the last year."'

'"Last year, it was an emotional win for me," said Fitzpatrick, who now with the Jets is starting for his fourth different team in the last four years. "Anytime you play against a team that tells you you're not good enough, that carries some extra weight and so this one will carry extra weight for me. But that being said, the farther removed we are from that, the more the faces have changed. I don't know as many guys on the team anymore."'

'"There's so much made about the captain thing, you guys know how I do the captains," Ryan said to reporters Tuesday morning. "I'm a little shocked, to be honest, that so much is being made of I.K. being the guy. But I'm not going to change how we do things, it's something that we've always done and that will never change."'

'"Ah, really?" Fitzpatrick said. "Well, that's all right. I have five kids, so something's working for me."'

'"I don't know why you guys are acting surprised," Smith told reporters. "I don't think you are surprised. No one should be surprised by this. That's that. He's always done that. He's always done that. I was with him for two years. He's always done that whenever we go up against another team. I fully expected that. It wasn't something where I thought he was going to take a shot at me or anything like that."'

'"He's right," Ryan said. "Because what else am I going to do, just stand up here? I got attention, but I got it at the right spot. He's mad because Clemson put it on Louisville again this year. I don't know what to tell you."'

'"It's the truth," Ryan said when asked how he can downplay the significance of returning to New York. "We're just trying to prepare for a game in a short week. Would it have been different if it was longer? Maybe. But at no point was I like, 'I had this one circled.' Everybody knows me. I circle the Patriots. That's what I do."'

'Among players surveyed since Sunday, when this week of Rexmania began, Pryor’s opinion of Ryan qualified as by far the most critical. Seeing him again will be strange, they said. A little disorienting, but nice. That reaction applied to Smith, who said he was hardly surprised that Ryan opted to name his attacker as a captain.'

'“Yeah I mean he’s always done that. I was with him for two years,” Smith said. “He’s always done that. I fully expected that. It wasn’t something where I thought he was going to take a shot at me or anything like that.”'

'“It was definitely kind of disrespectful,” Pryor said. “You have a guy who was once here who hit a teammate. To make him a captain going into this game, if you’re going to make him a captain just make him a captain. You don’t have to announce it on Monday, for the whole world to know.”'