Two Bills Drive

‘Buffalo’s season of football futility reached historic depths Sunday during the New York Jets’ deceptively close 42-36 win over the Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Jets tied the the 26-year-old record for points scored by a Buffalo opponent in a non-strike game played in Orchard Park. Mo Lewis’ 15-yard fumble return, New York’s second defensive touchdown, with 1:46 left in the third quarter equalled a standard set by the Baltimore Colts during a 42-35 win in 1975. The Indianapolis version of the Colts, filled with picket-line crossers, ran up a 47-6 win during the 1987 player’s strike.’

‘Bryce Fisher heard it first while driving to the stadium. When he arrived at the Buffalo Bills’ training complex around 1:30 Sunday afternoon, he talked to a few other teammates who had heard the same thing on their radios: Two days shy of four weeks after the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings, the United States had fired back. Cruise missiles were soaring toward Afghanistan. An act of war had been reciprocated, with the promise of more to come.’

All photos by Dave Podwika.

‘Offensively, Buffalo turned in its best performance of the season with 36 points, as Alex Van Pelt came in for an injured Rob Johnson and completed 21 of 37 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns. Johnson suffered a back strain and a pinched nerve as he was hit in the back of the head by Lewis late in the first quarter and did not return.’

‘They lost big for a fourth straight week but found a new way to do it against the New York Jets. They inflicted most of the damage to themselves.’

‘Overall, the Bills passing game had 325 yards through the air. Although much of the yardage came late in a 42-36 loss to the New York Jets, it was what the Bills had in mind when they installed the West Coast offense.’

‘Lewis was ready for the Bills. They weren’t ready for Lewis.’

‘That’s the sort of year it’s become. Dark. Dank. Depressing. Seasoned Buffalo Bills fans can feel it in their bones – a troubling chill, beckoning from back in the ’80s. You wanted to believe in this team, but there is no mistaking it now. The Bills are very bad, as bad as they’ve been in a generation.’

‘Whether Johnson belongs here is no longer a relevant topic; here he is, like it or not. More worrisome is whether he will leave here intact. How many times can his head be scrambled before the damage becomes enduring? Will every morning of his later years begin with the joints of his battered body screaming in defiance? And, while we’re at it, let’s also consider whether there has been a Bill more prone, no, not to injury, but to widespread misfortune.’

‘Even though the Buffalo Bills were playing catch-up throughout their 42-36 loss to the New York Jets Sunday, Henry was able to do some damage with 113 yards on 19 carries.’

‘It’s been a long time since Western New York has watched a team this poor…’.

‘Few in the sellout crowd said they feared for their safety at the game, and that included some who have seen firsthand the toll of terror in New York.’

‘The Jumbotron showed that the Bills produced 36 points. That was one more point than they had scored in their previous three games combined. However, the Jumbotron also revealed that the New York Jets had scored 42 points. News flash: Thirty-six beats 42 in golf, not in football.’

‘Gregg Williams said it all when he commented after the game that his team isn’t good enough to win when it spots an opponent 14 points before he’s had time to strap on his headset. Come to think of it, his team, as currently constituted, isn’t good enough to win when the game starts 0-0.’

‘While the game showcased Buffalo’s perseverance — and some promising signs out of rookie coach Gregg Williams and his staff — the game wasn’t as close as the final score or the statistics said it was.’