Two Bills Drive

'So, what's the path to a Bills playoff appearance? Well, it starts with winning out, which would put the Bills at 9-7. According to the New York Times playoff simulator, that would give the Bills a 5% shot of making the playoffs.'

'ILB Preston Brown: Snaps on the Field: 75/75: Grade vs. Steelers: D-'minus

They say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes – as a Bills fan I’d like to dispute that. If there’s a topic on which Bills fans are versed its historical repetition – seeing the same thing over and over again. With a playoff drought that’s going to hit 17 years when the season finally ends, historical repetition has reached levels of certainty – we can be certain of more than just death and taxes. Here are the things of which I am also certain.

'Ola has already had one stint on the Bills active roster this season. He appeared in three straight games between Weeks 4 and 6 for Buffalo.'

'“We’ve got to keep fighting. We’ve got three more games,” he said. “I feel good. I’m trying to finish my season off to start next season on a good note.”'

'“Ryan is in his second year with the club, and the decision to hire his brother Rob as defensive (coach) has not been well received. Rex Ryan made significant changes to his staff after a 2015 season in which the Bills fell well short of the coach’s playoff talk, and that bled into this season, when offensive coordinator Greg Roman was fired mere weeks into the season. The Bills’ passing game remains limited, and the secondary — thought to be one of the team’s strengths — has struggled while top-paid defenders like Marcell Dareus and Jerry Hughes have slumped or been absent, injured or suspended.

'"I really don't know what to feel," Ryan said when asked if it felt like he was on the proverbial hot seat. "I’ve been in this game a long time. I know one thing — to do the very best job that I can do, I have to focus on what’s right in front of me, and that’s the Cleveland Browns. I promise you that’s exactly what I’m going to do. So I’m not going to think one minute about something that may or may not happen. I know one thing: We’re playing the Cleveland Browns on Sunday and we have to be ready and obviously have to play better than we did this past week."'

'"I have the final say on who's out there or whatever," Ryan said. "That doesn't mean I don't take input. But clearly that's my decision."'

'"We don’t really really care about what’s going on outside," inside linebacker Preston Brown said. "That’s our coach. We love our coach. We’re going to go out and give everything we have for him. Each and every game, we have to try and keep getting better, go out and perform for him, because we know what the situation is. If we all want to be in this league, we’ve got to go out there and keep playing."'

'Cardale Jones is far from ready to be the man next season. Despite Whaley's long obsession, EJ Manuel will be gone. They'll look for help in the draft. But if Whaley wants to prove that he built a playoff roster, he has to find a veteran free agent quarterback to put it over the top.'

'Hughes has 40 tackles and five sacks this season, about on par with his rates from a year ago, though four of his five sacks came in the first four games of the season.'

'Here's the full Craigslist ad, which has since been flagged for spam and removed. Obviously, Ryan was not the creator of this ad, and the original poster could not be tracked down due to the post's removal.'

'I think, you know, in sports and all that, you’ve got a lot of people with a lot of opinions and so I get all that. You know, I told you guys I never knew anything about it until I came out there to see. That wasn’t any distraction to me. I wasn’t aware of it. Moving forward, it can’t be a distraction to our team or anybody else. We’ve just got to do our job, find ways to win, and that’s where the focus is.'

'"While it was a bit unsightly, as a percentage of the rubber and sand infill in the system – almost 600,000 pounds, 300,000 pounds each of rubber and sand – what was brought on to the surface was a very small percentage," Jim Dobmeier, the president and founder of A-Turf, said in an email to The News.'

'The game had a 42.3 rating on WIVB-TV, the local CBS affiliate. It peaked with a 46.0 rating at 3:15 p.m.'