Olean Times Herald

‘Buffalo’s slate, ninth easiest when the season began based on 2018 records, now faces the NFL’s third-toughest schedule over the last five games.’

‘Short term, Buffalo finished the soft part of its schedule at 8-3, its victories over teams that are a collective 18-63. It has solidified its position as the AFC’s No. 1 wild card, two full games ahead of Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Oakland (all 6-5). The bad news is that in the Bills’ five closing games they will be underdogs in four of them, at Dallas (6-5) Thanksgiving afternoon, home with Baltimore (8-2 heading into tonight’s game against the Rams in L.A.), at Pittsburgh and at New England (10-1).’

‘“My running back coach (Kelly Skipper) came to me and said, “Hey, we’re gonna get it today,’” Gore noted. “I want to thank Skip for just keeping me up these last couple of weeks. He knew I wanted to be out there with my teammates and peers.’

‘In addition, his 65 yards of total offense put him in a tie with Marshall Faulk for fourth on the National Football League’s all-time scrimmage yards list with 19,154.’

‘What’s certain is that the Broncos’ defense is for real.’

‘Buffalo’s closing schedule is home games with Denver (3-7), Baltimore (8-2) and the Jets (3-7) and at Dallas (6-4), Pittsburgh (5-5) and New England (9-1).’

‘Undeniably, though, the Bills, circumstantially, are facing one of the weakest schedules in their history as 10 of their 16 foes this season are in third or fourth place in their respective divisions.’

‘The best news was Allen’s performance.’

‘Buffalo’s 7-3 start is its best since 1999. The Bills are now 4-1 on the road this season marking the first time they’ve won four of the first five away from home since the 1992 campaign.’

‘In other words, there’s more to this game than the two teams’ records, particularly for Buffalo.’

‘“(I’m) giving guys plenty of chances in the passing game getting us into the right play and doing all of those things that a quarterback needs to do; but first and foremost, the energy and the confidence that these guys need to play with, I’m trying to do as best I can in that regard. We’ve really done a nice job the last few weeks in playing off each other and playing with confidence.”’

‘In short, the Dolphins are on a two-game win streak and were highly competitive in the three games preceding it.’

‘To date, they’ve scored 20 touchdowns — 10 each rushing and receiving — or barely two a game.’

‘“We didn’t score enough points today,” coach Sean McDermott said. “There were some good things, but overall there were too many opportunities we didn’t capitalize on. We have to be a threat to score more points.’

‘We knew this game was coming … we just didn’t know when.’