Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘If the Bills can hit the halfway mark 6-2, they merely need to play .500 football the second half to hit the 10-victory mark that is the standard for a safe postseason berth, eliminating the need for the anxiety medication associated with nine-win campaigns.’

‘“We’re still gathering information on Devin, so right now he’s day to day,’’ McDermott said during his Monday news conference. “It’s day to day more so for some question marks in terms of the evaluation. We still don’t know definitely at this point what’s going on there.’’’

‘All we can do is judge him week to week, and Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, he looked a whole lot more like Kelly than he did Manuel. At least in the first half, which ultimately determined the outcome of the game.’

‘“I thought he did a really good job,” Shurmur said following the game. “There were a couple times he broke contain and he made some really nice throws. A couple times we were in really tight coverage, I thought he did a nice job. I thought he played well.”’

‘The offensive line struggled in pass protection, allowing three sacks and numerous pressures to a Giants defense that had no sacks and two pressures a week ago. And the penalties were a big problem up front. Counting the tight ends, there were eight infractions called on Buffalo’s blockers. Not good at all.’

‘Bills 24, Giants 17.’

‘“I was mad as a kid, of course, but I learned to do things right the first time and not take those shortcuts,” Trent said. “And it’s not easy in Arizona; if you sleep in it’s 115 degrees before long in the summer. So little lessons like that.”’

‘“We thought he was a big, strong thrower,” Shurmur said when he was asked by New York area reporters what he thought about Allen prior to the 2018 draft. “A guy that had a chance to be a starter in the NFL, and he has been for them. I think he’s made steady improvements. He’s a very strong-armed guy. He’s helped them win some big games already. Just like any young player, you see where he’ll make mistakes and then correct them.”’

‘Knowing that in two weeks it won’t be so easy not to acknowledge a player who has managed to single-handedly embarrass their league, a player the Bills (gasp) explored trading for in the spring.’

‘Asked if there’s a difference between someone being listed No. 1 on the depth chart and someone being featured, McDermott declined to get into semantics. Against the Jets, Singletary started the game and played more snaps than Gore 48-19. But he also wound up with just four carries for 70 yards (17.5 average) to Gore’s 11 for 20 yards (1.8). One of Gore’s carries lost two yards and resulted in a Jets’ safety.’

‘It’s an hourlong flight, the routine is fresh in player’s minds, and they know where the visitor’s locker room is inside the massive edifice that is part of the sprawling Meadowlands Sports Complex, set down in a tangled mess of highways just across the Hudson and Hackensack rivers from Manhattan.’

‘McDermott loved what he heard about Smith from sources he consulted before the team signed him, and since then Smith has assumed a major role in the locker room, especially in a tight end room that includes rookies Dawson Knox, Tommy Sweeney and practice squader Nate Becker.’

‘Now, Daboll just needs to find a way to get Singletary a little more involved. The Bills ran 63 offensive plays — 38 passes, 25 runs — and Singletary was on the field for 48 of them as compared to Frank Gore (19) and T.J. Yeldon (2). But Singletary had only nine touches, totaling 98 yards.’

‘Four carries isn’t a big body of work, but rookie running back Devin Singletary made the most of it with four rushes for 70 yards. That’s the third-most yards by a Bill in his NFL debut.’

‘It was a minor miracle that the Bills were even in this game, let alone able to win it, after a first half of offensive football that could only be described as tragic.’