‘The players’ union should take a stand against Thursday games when it’s time to bargain a new contract in 2020. The league should go to an 18-week schedule with each team getting two bye weeks. Every team would have a bye before a Thursday game. They could knock off a preseason game, too.’
Archives for November 2017
Bills’ Day After: 10 long days to think about stuff
‘The second half of 2017 will be grueling. The Bills’ eight remaining games also include the Los Angeles Chargers in the Pacific Time Zone, the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium and two with the Patriots.’
Alan Pergament: Unlike the Bills, Romo lived up to the hype
‘You could tell Romo isn’t a big fan of Taylor even if he didn’t say that. He often questioned the quarterback leaving the pocket early and occasionally praised him when he stood in it and made a typical NFL quarterback play.’
LeSean McCoy says Bills ‘just didn’t bring it’ in one-sided loss to Jets
‘This is going to be a test, but here goes. I’ll start with Zay Jones. He finally looked like the player the Bills thought they were drafting — a possession receiver with good hands. Nothing flashy about his game, but if you throw it to him, he’ll catch it. He built a fabulous college career around those traits, and with six catches for 53 yards and a TD, that started to show. Also, after what looked like a bad knee injury, Jones was back out there playing in the second half. That showed some real grit. Hopefully, the injury doesn’t force him to miss time.’
Buffalo Bills taken down by Jets: 2 reasons to be encouraged, 6 reasons to worry
‘Were the Bills paying homage to Rex Ryan defenses on Thursday Night Football? Much like the Ryan defenses of 2015-2016, Buffalo could not wrap up players and bring them to the ground. According to Pro Football Focus, the Bills had 22 missed tackles against the Jets.’
McDermott, Bills hope to grow from setback against Jets
‘”This is a building process and sometimes there’s pain, and we experienced a lot of that last night and that’s not fun,” McDermott said. “Sometimes you have to go through adversity to grow, and so that’s the most important thing that we can focus on and control right now.”‘
RB McCoy says Bills lacked intensity
‘”I think adversity hit us and we didn’t respond well, particularly myself,” said McCoy. “I didn’t play well at all. I took it as a challenge knowing guys were coming in here trying to stop me, stop the run, and I didn’t respond well at all. It’s something we have to work at. We’re not going to panic. This is good for us, I think – some humble pie. A lot of people kind of doubted us, then we started winning games and people pat us on the back and (told) us how good we are and then you see what happened tonight. So, in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s probably good for us.”‘
Richie Incognito Has More to Say About Thursday Night Football
‘“It’s money off the table on one end,” he said. “But that’s a double-edged sword. We’re experiencing a ratings decline, and it’s oversaturation of football. Take the Thursday slate away, put it all on Sunday. Yeah, they made a nice little TV package out of it, obviously they’re making a ton of money for it, and in reality it’s probably not going anywhere. So yeah, there’s probably no solution to this. I’m just saying that as a player, as a competitor, as someone that has to do this, it’s just a b—-.”’
Bills-Jets: Arrow Up/Arrow Down
‘I’m not going to single anyone out. The entire offensive line was bad pretty much all night long. It didn’t matter if it was in the run game or pass game. Both struggled to a level we hadn’t seen yet this season. The final totals – 63 yards on the ground and seven sacks allowed.’
McDermott: “There’s a lot we could have done better” in loss vs. Jets
‘“I’ve been through these types of situations before being around the league. These situations come. No one ever said it was going to be easy,” McDermott added. “I’m not backing down at all. I’m confident in this group of me, this football team and these coaches. They know what’s in front of us, and the opportunity in front of us and how far we’ve come. We’re building. We didn’t get the result we wanted last night, and I recognize that and that’s hard, that doesn’t make me feel good. That said, I’m extremely excited about the opportunity moving forward.’
Quick Hits: Taiwan Jones out for the year
‘“Taiwan is going to be out for the year,” said head coach Sean McDermott. “He broke his left arm in the game and as you saw was in a lot of pain. He’s going to be out for the season at this point.”’
Bills Today: Buffalo’s takeaway streak comes to a halt
‘“We had a couple of turnovers on offense and that’s not our style of play,” said Tyrod Taylor. “The games we’ve won and the games where we’ve had success we’ve protected the ball. Myself included. I had a fumble and that’s not something I do. Got to be able to protect the ball on the road. We can’t give those teams those opportunities, especially on short fields. We have to regroup as an offense, regroup as a team and be hitting on all cylinders when we come back.”’
Notebook: Benjamin inactive; Taylor sacked 7 times
‘Making Benjamin inactive was probably a good decision. Besides his brief time with the team, it would have been a bad optic, especially for the psyche of rookie second-round draft choice Zay Jones, who stands to lose his starting job when the former Panther is ready.’
Bills do the opposite of what got them to five wins
‘Thursday night’s Bills also had no semblance of a run game, allowed seven sacks and were penalized 11 times. That was not the efficient bunch that had people talking seriously about the end of a 17-year playoff drought.’
Jerry Sullivan: With a chance to shine, Bills come up small
‘”That wasn’t us,” guard Richie Incognito said after the O-line gave up seven sacks. “That wasn’t us from start to finish. That wasn’t us. That wasn’t what we’re building. That isn’t our vision. We just move on. We came down here on a short week and played hard and didn’t get the win. So we regroup and then go back home.”‘