Two Bills Drive

‘”It’s a great thing just to be around the kids,” Mario Haggan said. “It’s much easier than going to practice because the kids and the people in the community love you. Continuing to play and being able to give back to the community is just one of the blessings that I receive from playing football.”‘

‘”It’s exciting, but it’s kind of nerve-racking, too, because you don’t want to let your team down,” said McGee, who was drafted in the fourth round last April. “With them putting me in the nickel it just gets me a little more comfortable with the defense. I’m actually getting my feet wet out there playing.”‘

‘Loyalty: We can still win one. Maybe.

Common Sense: Would you keep going to a restaurant that served lousy food? After a while, why punish yourself?’

‘The Bills, like the Patriots before them, are having trouble protecting the immobile Bledsoe, who often likes to hold onto the ball for an extra second or two to try to make a big play downfield. By the time the second half of the season rolls around, Bledsoe is probably too shellshocked to produce a decent quarterback rating and his team’s hopes for a championship slip away.’

‘"We are just not making things happen when we have opportunities," Fassel said Tuesday.’

”’At times I’ll be on the sideline and say, ‘Why don’t they run?”’ Winfield wrote in this week’s edition of Bills Digest, a weekly publication that’s partly controlled by the Bills. ”I don’t know how effective the bye-week self-scouting was for the offense. We’re still doing the same things that we did before that point. Perhaps, they’re too predictable.”’

‘We’ve gone from extremely high expectations, fostered, no less, by the players themselves, to almost feeling sorry for them.’

‘If you watched the game Sunday you cannot say that the Bills lost because of a lack of effort. Travis Henry played with a fractured leg. Eric Moulds should be resting that painful groin injury. Sam Gash already has his Super Bowl ring but he’s still busting linebackers in the mouth. Lack of effort did not cause the loss. What’s missing is that spark and that excitement and most importantly that confidence that the winning teams and the teams on the rise have that the Bills do not.’

‘At some point over the next few weeks, the Bills will consider whether it’s time for certain players, mainly Henry and Moulds, to end the season and avoid further damage. There also comes a time when players, no matter how tough, hurt their team. When is enough, enough?’

‘Easterbrook has been a consistent critic this season of teams such as the Buffalo Bills who have a fondness for passing in third-and-short-yardage situations. What separates him from other NFL columnists, however, is he might express his feelings about Bills coach Gregg Williams in haiku, or trot out a theory about why the Bills are cursed since they changed the color scheme of their uniforms a few years ago.’

‘Last year, the Bills were 4-3 in games decided by 7 points or less, meaning they played in more competitive games and were better at winning them. Whatever confidence quarterback Drew Bledsoe and his offensive teammates had playing in the clutch has slipped away with many other facets of their game.’

‘The 2003 Bills have an NFL-low six TD passes through 11 games. If they tie the team single-game record with six TD passes in each of the remaining five games, they’d still fall three short of tying the single-season record set 12 years ago (33 by Jim Kelly and six by Frank Reich).’

‘And Tom Donahoe can be thankful for an owner who didn’t fire him two months ago.’

‘WHO is Ryan Denney? Allegedly he’s a defensive end who wears No. 92 for the Bills. When you see him, call Gregg Williams. As a second-round draft choice and someone the Bills traded up to get, Denney is a bust.’

‘The Bills are giving it their all, but two things are holding them back and have been key reasons for their four-game slide: First and foremost, they aren’t as good as many prognosticators thought they were, but second, they have endured some debilitating injuries to key personnel.’