Two Bills Drive

‘Ruben Brown, asked if the cold and 25-mph winds were an excuse for the Bills getting shut out: "What? You’ve been to Buffalo. No. There’s no excuses, and it would be a cop-out on my part to make an excuse. We play this game. They play it. They played it better than us today, and we got beat."’

‘For the first time in Green Bay coach Mike Sherman’s memory, Favre struggled in the cold and biting winds that raged through this football-mad outpost Sunday, but the Bills failed to take advantage of that rare occurrence and saw their slim playoff hopes disintegrate with a mistake-filled 10-0 loss.’

‘Bledsoe, the man who stood so tall in the pocket in September and October, has been shaky for two months, his throws off the mark, an easy target to hit, like the Drew whose career went splat! in New England. Worst, he’s still in denial, a team leader unable or unwilling to accept blame.’

‘He’s going to the Pro Bowl, and he became the first Buffalo quarterback in history to surpass 4,000 yards passing in a single season. But there’s no denying Bledsoe has been far below average the last three weeks, and you can make a strong argument that his slump at the end of the year, more than anything else, short-circuited Buffalo’s run to a playoff berth.’

‘QUARTERBACK: Drew Bledsoe found out just how good the Packers’ ball-hungry (league-high 45 takeaways) can be. Completed just half of his throws for 142 net yards, 0 TDs and 2 interceptions on cold, windy day. Also lost two fumbles after being sacked, one that set up Green Bay’s clinching touchdown, and wind had nothing to do with that. Zero points in 12 possessions is pretty hard to defend. D’

‘The Bills threw two interceptions and lost four fumbles…’

‘All of five of Holliday’s sacks came in the second half and four were in the game’s final 10 minutes.’

‘Against the Bills, he gained only 8 yards on three punt returns, including cleanly fielding another bouncing punt and getting hit immediately thereafter. His lone kickoff return yielded 9 yards.’

‘The fifth-year back has gained 1,561 yards from scrimmage this season, an average of almost 112 yards per game. He’s gone over the 100-yard mark nine times in his career.’

‘Mike Hollis missed on a 33-yard field-goal attempt early in the third to spoil a drive of nearly 10 minutes.’

‘”Our game plan basically was to stop the run first,” said Packers’ strong safety Marques Anderson. “We knew it was a windy day, so we knew they were going to try their ground attack first. Once we stopped their run we knew that they were going to try to open it up.”‘

‘”They were all over us,” said Henry, who finished with 46 yards on 20 carries. “I thought we could run the ball on them from watching film, but they did a great job of containing the running game.”‘

‘Holliday had back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ second possession of the fourth quarter – the latter resulting in a fumble that led to Green Bay’s only touchdown of the afternoon. He sacked Bledsoe and forced another fumble – recovered by Buffalo – on its next possession, then added his fifth takedown and third forced fumble with 1:19 remaining after the Bills drove deep into Packers territory.’

‘With Green rushing for all but 3 of the Packers’ 119 rushing yards, Green Bay exploited a woeful Bills’ run defense that ranks 31st of 32 teams in rushing yards allowed per game (135.9) and a per-carry average of 4.5.’

‘To illustrate just how badly the elements hampered the passing game on both sides, Favre, who was intercepted twice, finished with a shockingly low passer rating of 39.2 – just a tad behind the 41.3 rating compiled by Buffalo’s Drew Bledsoe.’