Two Bills Drive

‘Seldom, however, does a coach face an opponent with a player who was with him last week. Would Belichick change the Pats’ signals and code words if Milloy was able to get ready enough to play? “You’d take that into consideration,” Belichick allowed, “considering how the circumstances are.”’

‘“I was conscious of the emotional aspect and I really felt like I did a pretty good job of coming into the games in the right frame of mind,” Bledsoe said yesterday. “The thing that happened to us in both games is that we were down by like 17 or 20 points and it put us in some difficult situations. I think that’s what caused us problems and what caused me problems.”’

‘Here we go again. Either Buffalo general manager Tom Donahoe is a better judge of talent than Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli, or he just overpaid (again) for a player who didn’t fit into the Patriots’ plans.’

‘”We’ll have to find that out as it comes,” said Johnson. “Could it be (a distraction)? It could be. But it’s up to us to not let it. Honestly, I think we have some very mentally strong football players on this team. Gritty guys. Lawyer was one, but he wasn’t the only one. I think we have power within us to block it out. When it’s time to go to work, we go to work. We may deliberate in the locker room or on our own about these things, but when it’s time to go to work, it doesn’t have a huge impact.”‘ (registration required)

‘”This is definitely a big game for me and it is a big game for our team,” Bledsoe readily admitted yesterday. “I would never tell you that is not the case. It is a division game. It is the first game of the year. You just look at those two things and it is a big game. We weren’t able to beat the Patriots last year. This is definitely a game that we are pointing at, that we need to try to do everything we can to win. That being said, if we go win this game, it doesn’t put us in the playoffs. It doesn’t put us anywhere, but it would be a good start to the season.”‘ (registration required)

‘”They are a well-coached team and I am sure that whatever they think our weaknesses are, they won’t hesitate to go after them,” Belichick said. “That is certainly what we would expect. Wherever they think they are, I am sure they will try to hit us. Talking defensively in general though, as we said at the end of the season, if you are trying to get younger on defense, then you are obviously going to be less experienced there. There is no way to meld those two together. To be younger is to be younger. To be more experience is to be older. You kind of have to make a choice there.”‘ (registration required)

‘”The way the Patriots tried to back me into a corner. It didn’t show a lot on their part,” Milloy said in an interview with Houston’s KRIV-TV. “New England tried to squeeze me with a last-minute deal, so we took a risk and went on the market.”‘ (registration required)

‘”We’re going to mix it up,” Bledsoe said. “We’d like to be balanced. I’m not going to hand off on every play, but in general, we’d love to be more consistent with our power running.” Yeah, right.’

‘Centers, who admits he has been looking forward to playing Buffalo since signing with New England, is concentrating on keeping his emotions in check. His role diminished last season as Bledsoe’s Bills begin throwing the ball more down the field. “I have to play within the scheme and not allow my emotions to become a factor, a negative factor,” he said. “If anything, if I can utilize it in a positive way to help that would be good, but I have to just go out and be a professional.”‘

‘The Redskins’ best offer was a little more than $20 million over five years, sources said, but the early part of the contract wasn’t as lucrative. Washington was set to pay a $3.5 million signing bonus and about $5 million total over the first two seasons.’

‘Terms weren’t disclosed, but the Redskins’ offer apparently was worth about half that of the Bills.’

‘”We were in the mix. It was our understanding that Lawyer’s agent would give us a chance to counter, but we never got a callback from him.”‘

‘It didn’t matter that Milloy is just what the Vikings’ defense needs. All that mattered was money and Vikings owner Red McCombs’ reluctance to part with any more of it.’

‘According to his peers, Levy was the first coach to draft players solely for punt and kick coverage teams.’

‘The four-year contract is worth $15 million, nearly two-thirds of that in the first two seasons of the deal. Milloy will receive a $5 million signing bonus and base salaries of $2 million for 2003 and $2.75 million for 2004. The Washington Redskins, who finished as the runner-up team in the Milloy sweepstakes, offered about $6 million in the first two years of their proposal.’