Two Bills Drive

‘The Patriots absolutely made the right choice to stick with Brady — they won a Super Bowl with him. That team caught a spark with Brady and Belichick wisely rode the hot hand. What was he supposed to do for 2002, cut the Super Bowl MVP and go back to Bledsoe, a player who was stagnating in his system and eating up $5 million in cap space?’

‘No longer is this going to be a ”Win One for the Drewster” kind of game. The Bills are in the playoff hunt and they need to beat division opponents because it seems that their best route to a postseason berth will be to win the AFC East.’

‘The Bills quarterback is too classy a guy to get into it publicly. But privately he could care less for the Pats coach. He believes Belichick lied to him about giving him a chance to regain his starting job last season after the quarterback returned from a life-threatening chest injury.’

‘To think, this love affair with Ralph Wilson and football might never have happened had Ronnie Harmon not dropped that ball in the 1989 playoff game in Cleveland.’

‘So how will Brady handle going to a stadium filled with frenzied fans playing against a team aching to win one for the guy — Bledsoe — who has given the city and its players a football rebirth? The relentless Boston media will be hounding, too. Some were already in Buffalo on Sunday and one paper is sending seven reporters to chronicle Bledsoe Bowl I.’

‘Maybe the Patriots aren’t as good as a Super Bowl trophy says they are, but the Bills aren’t as good as everybody thinks they are, either. This might be a good time to remember that, before the door of that bandwagon smucks somebody in the butt.’

‘It would appear the guy he lumped in along with the running backs, the fullback, and the wide receivers has had more than a little to do with it. It would appear The Quarterback, who calls Belichick The Head Coach, has had an effect on things, an effect the skilled receivers and skilled running back who wore the Bills’ colors a year ago willingly have acknowledged.’

‘”We have to focus on beating the Buffalo Bills. It doesn’t matter who their quarterback is,” Pats receiver Troy Brown said.’

‘It is most likely already over for the Patriots. They’ll probably need to win at least seven and maybe eight of their remaining nine games just to sneak into the playoffs.’

‘This could be a rallying point, but it seems the last thing Belichick would do at this point is invoke Bledsoe as a means of motivating his team. That might not work anyway, given the strong ties many of his players have to their former teammate.’

‘”You’ve got to get pressure on him,” said Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel, who pledges to help make his friend Bledsoe’s answering machine overflow with messages this week. “Every play I’ve seen on the highlight films, he’s able to step up in the pocket and throw the ball downfield.”‘

‘That hasn’t stopped local radio stations from referring to this as ”Bledsoe Week,” or a number of Boston media outlets from sending reporters to Buffalo for the game against Detroit. Bills fans have had this game circled on their calendars since Buffalo acquired Bledsoe in a trade last April, a move that prompted immediate lineups at the ticket windows. And it’s a game that has even more meaning now that Bledsoe has rejuvenated the Bills, erasing the memories of last year’s dreadful 3-13 finish.’

”’We had some chances to make some big plays in the game that we were close on but we just didn’t make them.”’

‘”We’re a solid team, but we have to continue to improve. By no means are we one of the best teams in the National Football League right now.”‘

‘”They played better than us,” Harrington said. “I can’t give you an exact answer, I only know what I feel, and I feel like we couldn’t move the ball. I feel like we were on the verge of clicking. But it didn’t happen. It just didn’t click.”‘