Two Bills Drive

‘The Bills, 8-8 last season, spent lavishly on free agents to take that next step. The Giants returned 20 starters from a 10-6 team that made the playoffs.’

‘Bills Coach Gregg Williams pushed aside the question of whether his players would continue to play hard under the circumstances. “These are prideful men,” Williams said in a conference call this week. “I don’t think you would ask the doctor that when he is going into surgery on a tough surgery, either.”‘

‘Yet as bad as all that sounds, there’s not a feeling of chaos inside the Giants’ locker room – at least not yet. Publicly, the players remain mostly united. They don’t expect this season to deteriorate into a finger-pointing mess.’

‘”It shouldn’t be tough to get up,” Allen said of today’s game against the Bills, a meeting of two 4-7 teams that weren’t supposed to be in such dire straights. “I’m in desperate need of a win, no matter what may happen as far as [the] postseason. You still have pride, you still want teams to respect you. Going out there and fighting hard each week is fine and dandy, but at some point we’ve got to come up victorious at the end of the game.”‘

‘”Let’s hear the 50,000 other fans; let’s listen to that other voice, too,” Kitty told The Post in a telephone interview. “It would be wonderful if they would start a chant ‘Keep Fassel.’ How about that? ‘Keep Fassel.’ So I hear what is not being said.”‘

‘”It’s probably easier,” Tiki Barber said. “The way we’ve been playing, we have nothing to lose. We can go out with a little bit of reckless abandon and not feel any inhibition about making mistakes. We can just play football and hopefully get better as the weeks go on.”‘

‘The fans, too, are braced for the worst. Their team has not won a home game since the opener Sept. 7. They won’t be in a forgiving mood on a blustery day against a bad team on a holiday weekend.’

‘”We would use the words ‘extremely frustrated’ around here,” said Bills linebacker London Fletcher. “Especially these last three weeks.”‘

‘Giants 23, Bills 16.’

‘A win over a struggling Buffalo squad, which has running back Travis Henry playing with a cracked bone in his leg, and Bledsoe having missed two days of practice with lingering affects from a concussion, would help keep the boo-birds away.’

‘They’ll face a quarterback in Drew Bledsoe who hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in four games. The Bills’ top wide receiver, Eric Moulds, is playing through a groin injury and caught just three passes for 38 yards last week against the Colts. He has been unable to go deep, as indicated by his 14 catches for 123 yards in four of the past five games. Travis Henry is playing through a cracked bone in his right leg but still rushed 22 times for 77 yards last week. The fourth-quarter defense remains a sore spot, as the Giants have been outscored 71-56 in that quarter.’

‘Chances are the winner will be the team that brings the healthiest mind set. After all, these clubs have proven focus problems. Buffalo’s minus-11 turnover differential is the worst in the AFC; the Giants’ minus-eight is tied for the worst in the NFC.’

‘”Certainly we’ve struggled to score points lately, and that may have led to some things I tried to force.”‘

‘Don’t blame the media for this controversy.’

‘Buffalo is paying for two big mistakes: the hiring of Kevin Gilbride as offensive coordinator before last season and underestimating the value of receiver Peerless Price before this season. The blame should — and will — fall on head coach Gregg Williams, who is in the final year of his contract.’