Two Bills Drive

‘“I’m very dissatisfied. The message comes across loud and clear. All it tells me is that we need to improve the product. And how we go about that is something we will discuss.”’

‘I have to wonder if Bledsoe had more time to throw against the blitzing Giants because the veteran Tucker was in for Pucillo. Pucillo’s season had been below average at best.’

‘And so it goes. The Giants have mailed in the season. Playing with no emotion, life or energy, New York fell to the Bills, 24-7. Big Blue dropped its fourth straight game and all-but officially eliminated itself from playoff contention. Even Jim Fassel’s December magic isn’t going to be able to get the Giants out of this mess. Speaking of Fassel, it’s obvious that he has exactly four games left to coach in his Giants career.’

‘”When you make a big play you make teams suffer a little bit. They started to back off a little bit and you start top catch things underneath and make plays that way. We didn’t do that earlier in the season and it showed. We made plays today and kept drives alive today.”‘

‘”We had an awful lot of contributors today from every area of the team. Defensively we were one play away from being pretty good. We gave up that one play down the middle of the field on the play action. It was a nice play by them. We weren’t as sound as we needed to be. Special teams covered very well, did a very good job. We had some guys step up and play in some first start positions. Ross Tucker jumped in there and got his first start, played solid. We had a couple of ticky tack penalties that we need to clean up in the run game. It’s always frustrating when you get a holding call in the run game, but for the most part it was a good team win. Obviously we needed one at this time.”‘

‘I just told them, I’ve been doing this a long time; I have been coaching a long time and I’ve never been around a team that will work so hard during the week, pay attention and then go out and play that way. We do not play the game of football very well, we cannot block people, we don’t tackle people, we don’t cover people, we don’t catch the ball in critical situations. I have never seen it and never in my seven years here have we ever played football the way we are playing right now. Honestly, I am at a loss for words.’

‘Hoping to salvage something from their disappointing season, the Giants fell hard at home and lost to the Buffalo Bills, 24-7, in chilly Giants Stadium, which was mostly empty by game’s end.’

‘Coming into this game, they had not scored a touchdown on the road since Sept. 14.’

‘Picked by many to make the Super Bowl, the Giants continued to get nothing going behind their inexperienced offensive line. They also missed a series of tackles and gave up a host of big plays.’

‘Buffalo quarterback Drew Bledsoe left the Bills’ game against the New York Giants in the third quarter Sunday after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit.’

‘With so many problems and shortcomings exposed, do the Giants need only a retooling effort before next year, or is management looking at a rebuilding project? Shockey doesn’t see wholesale changes.’

‘Give the ball to RB Travis Henry and dare the Giants’ linebackers to stop him. If Henry gets going, then QB Drew Bledsoe will have a much easier time finding his favorite target, receiver Eric Moulds. Moulds has been playing through a groin injury this season, but will still be a major test for the Giants’ injury-riddled secondary.’

‘Defenses continue to “squat” their coverage, overplay the shorter zones without fear of getting burned deep.’

‘Welcome to the Underachiever Bowl, featuring two 4-7 teams that have fallen well below expectations this season.’

‘But the Bills are encouraged by his development and have not backed off their belief that Williams will eventually become a great player. “He’s making progress,” said Bills coach Gregg Williams. “He’s made improvements from his first year to his second year. Only through experience of playing week in and week out will he be able to take his game to the next level.

“Once he gains a better understanding of his opponents in this league he has a chance to be physically dominating every time he steps out there. You can tell there are a few things that surprise him and that’s going to happen to a first or second-year player. When he gets through things, the different schemes and players he hasn’t faced before, he’ll be confident enough to dominate.”‘