Two Bills Drive

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.”‘

‘Bledsoe utilizes an offense which basically is an evolved form of the same run-and-shoot Bills offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride ran while dodging Buddy Ryan’s punches along the Houston Oilers’ sidelines in the early 1990s. The difference is a few formations designed to get running back Travis Henry more running room and to use tight ends in red zone situations.’

‘”There’s only been one technique error, changing it in traffic (against the Jets). The one in the Vikings game was not all his fault. Then last week, he got a big hit that occasionally will happen. I’m sure he’ll get it fixed, but we have good backs and if he doesn’t get it fixed, we’ll give those backs a chance to play.”‘

‘Boone started in Washington’s place against New Orleans and held his own, and Traylor was his usual dominant self as he clogged up the middle of the line and tied up two blockers at a time, allowing star linebacker Brian Urlacher to do his thing which is make lots of tackles.’

‘”I’m certainly delighted with some of the players we have, but I think more importantly the football players we have are buying into what we are doing,” Gilbride said.’

‘Here’s the problem for the Bills. The numbers – 14 run plays, 41 pass plays – were suspiciously like the 14-49 mix of the week previous, and their smoke-and-mirror overtime heist of the Vikings. That’s two weeks in a row of pass-first and you wonder whether it’s Henry, the offensive line, the coach’s lack of confidence in them, or Bledsoe calling the real shots that is behind something so out of whack.’