Two Bills Drive

‘Q: With 2:07 left in the Dallas game and the clock running, we did not take a timeout. So the clock stops at 2:00, Dallas runs a play, we take a timeout and they run their next play with 1:53 left. If you take the timeout at 2:07, the second play goes at 2:00. What am I missing? This obvious strategy is missed by 80 percent of coaches. Furthermore, if you have multiple timeouts remaining, use them all before the 2:00 warning. – Ray Orrange, Tonawanda A: Good point. . . . What are you doing between 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday?’

‘The 15 finalists will be announced in mid-January, with the new class elected Jan. 31, the day before the Super Bowl in Houston.’

‘Much of the offensive ineptitude has been due to Buffalo’s inability to cope with blitzes. The line is getting overpowered by the extra pass rushers, the receivers are not winning their one-on-one battles and giving Bledsoe someone to throw to, and Bledsoe has either held the ball too long or thrown it inaccurately.’

‘Shaw, who was signed as a free agent to help ease the loss of Peerless Price to Atlanta, has been even more disappointing with just four catches for 22 yards (5.5) with a long of seven. The Bills failed to score a touchdown against the Chiefs or Cowboys, and quarterback Drew Bledsoe perished against all-out blitz tactics with his receivers blanketed at the line.’

‘The immobile quarterback has had difficulty releasing the ball when under pressure – he’s been sacked a conference-leading 26 times – and is ranked 11th in the American conference with a 74.4 quarterback rating.’

‘The Texans have an AFC-low eight sacks, with only two coming from an outside linebacker.’

‘In addition to his four AFC Championship rings in his 10 years in Buffalo, Metzelaars was also part of the biggest playoff comeback in league history. The Bills trailed 35-3 in the third quarter before rallying to a 41-38 overtime win over Houston. It’s a day that ranks as his most memorable as a professional. “It was from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs,” Metzelaars said. “We were resilient, persistent and we just kept playing.”‘

“He was playing pretty strong earlier in the year,” said Williams. “The injury has been going on for a month. We just made the decision to go in and have (surgery) done.”

‘During that span, Bledsoe has been sacked 24 times once for every 10 dropbacks for 185 yards. And in four of those games, all losses, he’s failed to complete a pass longer than 21 yards.’

‘”We have to get something going,” tight end Mark Campbell explained. “At what point in time do you say enough is enough and say let’s go?”‘

‘”We’re back at home. We’re still in the mix. Every game is the most important game. This week becomes the most important game that we have. We have a lot of areas on our football team that are playing really strong. We just have to get a couple of the other (weaker) ones fixed and we’ll be right back in the mix again.”‘

‘”We actually had some stuff last week and got some plays called that could have been very effective for us against the blitz. If you get the ball out quick and split it then there’s nobody left out deep. We have to be able to continue to do that. We had one play set up throwing it deep down the field to Bobby Shaw. If I were able to put a little more air on that it might have turned into a big play. When you’re in a type of game like that, when they are going to come after you on every play, you have to hit one play. You have to get the ball out. Somebody has to break a tackle and they can go the distance, and that will discourage the defense from having that attitude and that type of game plan against you. We didn’t get those plays made so they kept coming after us.”‘

‘Also, running back Ken Simonton has been re-signed to the Bills practice squad while wide receiver Jerel Myers had been released from it.’

‘Here’s your chance to find out more about Bills free safety Pierson Prioleau.’

‘”We’re pretty close to desperation mode. We have got to start winning immediately. We’re 4-5 and offensively we haven’t played well for a little while. So offensively we’ve got to get something going. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we just have to produce more offensively than we have in the last few weeks. I’m sure the Texans will look at both what the Chiefs and the Cowboys did against our offense and what they had success with. I’m sure that they’ll use some of those same concepts and same types of schemes. It’s up to us to address the problems that we’ve had offensively and get those things fixed. Otherwise, we are going to continue to see the same things.”‘