Two Bills Drive

‘”Overall, I like the food back home better,” Schobel was saying the other day from the Ralph in a drawl thicker than Texas tea. “But I gotta admit that the wings up here are damn good. That’s why I told my folks back at the restaurant to get the recipe. Plop a few buckets of those things down next to me, give me an extinguisher to put out the fire and I’m a contented man.”‘

The Broncos slowed down Drew Bledsoe to a small degree last week, but the Bears face a battle for their respect. Despite last year’s playoff run, the Bears head into Ralph Wilson Stadium as underdogs. They are down three key starters on defense. Pro Bowl defensive tackle Ted Washington’s absence leaves them vulnerable to the run.

”’We’ve been pumping it up the whole offseason,” Gray said. ”Well, let’s see us stop living on what we say, and do it on what we do.”’

‘At least for the span between March and May, Reebok, the exclusive manufacturer of NFL jerseys, says that Urlacher’s signature black No. 54 was the sales leader.’

5. Drew Bledsoe, Bills — Sure, they’re 1-2, but just ask Jets, Vikings and Broncos how this guy has made Buffalo a scary team.

After a draining and exhilarating fourth quarter, the Vikings and Bills are in overtime in Week 2. About two minutes into the extra period, Buffalo is operating near midfield when quarterback Drew Bledsoe fumbles a shotgun snap. A recovery could turn the game to Minnesota, but Mike Williams, the Bills’ rookie tackle, comes up with the ball.

Or does he?

Q: Outside linebackers Keith Newman and Eddie Robinson haven’t had a lot of tackles after three games. Is something wrong?

GW: The outside LBs in this defense are funnel players. If people are attacking the inside of this defense, most of the tackles will go to the middle LB and the strong safety and the free safety.

A unit with big potential hasn’t come close to reaching it. As expected, weakside linebacker Sam Cowart is off to a slow start and probably is rusty after missing nearly all of last season after Achilles’ tendon surgery. Cowart isn’t the explosive tackler he was with the Bills.

Wide receiver Eric Moulds has 25 catches for 294 yards and two TDs through the first three games of the season. He ranks second in the AFC/fifth in the NFL in receiving yards behind Peerless Price (352), Chicago's Marty Booker (343), NYG's Amani Toomer (326) and St. Louis' Tory Holt (318).

The Buffalo Bills will host the annual Fan Food Drive prior to the September 29 game against the Chicago Bears. All donations will benefit the Food Bank of WNY. Monetary donations and non-perishable food items will be collected at all gates by Food Bank volunteers and Bills' wives and girlfriends. Collection points will be outside every gate at the stadium.

‘OK, so Urlacher falls short of Butkus in the nasty department. But he has the potential to rank with Butkus and the other all-time great NFL middle linebackers in just about every other category.’

‘"Ted has been something special for us since we got him," Jauron said. "He’s been great for us in the locker room. He’s great for us on the practice field and he’s great for us on Sunday. It was a loss, no doubt about it. But Alfonso Boone stepped in and played a good game. Hopefully he’ll get better and we’ll go on."’

‘”[Rams coach] Mike Martz, if he’s asked the question, he’ll tell you. He definitely probably underestimated the loss of me, not only what I brought to that defense but also in terms of challenging guys who were not playing up to their abilities. You can’t just plug in certain guys with that personality. It’s just not there. I’ve talked to players on the Rams and they’re telling me it’s not there. So it’s not just me talking.”‘

‘It may seem incongruous now that he has thrown for a league-leading 1,017 yards in his first three games with Buffalo, but there were conflicting views on Bledsoe in the NFL scouting community after last season. He was only 7-19 in his final 26 starts for the Patriots and was generally considered to be on the downside of his career because of the terrible beating he’d taken the past few years.’

‘”He got sacked (four) times and probably got hit another 20. But he still had the ball up in the air, and they put up 23 points on the scoreboard. He stands in there. He doesn’t flinch. If you sack him on first down, he comes back and still converts the third down.”‘