Archives for October 2017

'This is now the third time in Hauschka's career where he has been named as the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.'

'Then, the head coach was asked, flat out, if it’s fair to call Cedric Thornton the starter, or that if Dareus can take the job back this week. His response: “Right. There’s great competition on our roster right now and I love that and the players want that. That’s why they work during the week. They understand what’s at stake. We’re only going to continue. Competition takes everyone’s game up a notch. That’s good for us.”'

'Safety Micah Hyde is day-to-day with his knee, but McDermott says he is headed in the right direction.'

'“He’s ready,” said McDermott of Milano. “He’ll only get more and more ready as he puts the time in this week. I thought he came on a big stage last week and handled himself well for his first real live game action (on defense). What’s important is where we go from here. I think Matt clearly understands that, and then it’s important that we do things around Matt to help him as he continues to grow.”'

'“It feels great,” said Hauschka of his start this season. “This is what I prepared for all offseason. All training camp this is where the work pays off. Just to have that mental focus, that endurance, those great leg swings. That’s what it’s all about.”'

'“We’re certainly facing adversity, we’ve faced adversity before, and this is only going to make us stronger,” he said.'

'“Atlanta, there were times they allowed our ends to rush, and we were able to get some really good rushes… I’m not sure what the team that we’re going to be playing this week, how they’re going to approach our pass rush,” Frazier said. “Most of the time, you give Jerry a chance to rush one-on-one, we feel pretty good about those situations.”'

'By design, the Bills' offense includes quite a few play-action passes as part of the basic philosophy of offensive coordinator Rick Dennison. Both of the big throws to Clay followed play fakes and half-rollouts by Taylor.'

'There is a big difference between the 3-1 start the Bills have gotten off to when compared to a 2-2 record. Since 1990, when the NFL went to a 12-team playoff system, teams that went .500 over their first four games advanced to the playoffs 36.2 percent of the time. Teams that start 3-1 made it 64.1 percent of the time.'

'The Bills had waived Elston, whom they claimed off waivers from the Cleveland Browns, on Sept. 19. Thomas was with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2013 to 2016, and was with the New York Jets during the past offseason and preseason.'

'The women say that they were wrongly classified as “independent contractors” instead of team employees, and that they were not paid for performing at Bills games, or for hundreds of hours of practice time and charity work.'

'So in a real sense, Buffalo is the most distressed sports city in America. And while the Bills' drought began well before Terry and Kim Pegula came to town, the teams have traveled along parallel tracks of woe and dysfunction since they bought the Sabres six years ago.'

'Teammates Lorenzo Alexander, Colton Schmidt, Joe Webb, Robert Blanton, Reid Ferguson, Joe Banyard, Conor McDermott, Andre Holmes, Khari Lee, Orion Stewart and mascot Billy Buffalo joined Brown in running the clinic.'

'Tom McCarthy will handle the play-by-play and Bills Wall of Famer Steve Tasker and Steve Beuerlein.

'The Bills' feature back ran 15 pass routes and accumulated 32 yards, good for a 2.13 yards per route run number. Heading into Week Five, McCoy is averaging 1.96 yards per route run, which is the sixth-highest among 26 running backs who've run at least 60 routes so far this season. Remember, a season ago, McCoy averaged 1.39 yards per route run.'