Two Bills Drive

‘"I feel good," said Smith, who played four seasons with Buffalo before signing with New England in the off-season. "We got the win, that’s the main thing. It also helped that I had a pretty good performance out there."’

‘They aren’t the Marv Levy-Jim Kelly Buffalo Bills. They aren’t even the Wade Phillips-Doug Flutie Buffalo Bills. Even so, the team that squared off against the New England Patriots yesterday at Foxboro Stadium proved just as blue-collar tough as those more successful Buffalo teams of recent times.’

‘Should have, could have, would have. That has been the ongoing story of this dreadful season for the Bills.’

‘If Rob Johnson’s right clavicle is indeed broken, he will not be playing football for the Buffalo Bills the rest of the season. Now the question is, will he ever play for the Bills again? If it were my call, the answer would be no.’

‘"The defense played well enough to keep us in this ballgame, but we need to play better as a TEAM," coach Gregg Williams said. "We find new ways each week to (lose)."’

‘Another uninspiring effort by Rob Johnson, who converted just 2 of 12 third downs against Bill Belichick’s defense and was sacked five times (most his fault). Left the game with a serious shoulder injury with 4:17 left so you win the office pool if you picked eight starts as the number of games he would last. D+’

”’We got lucky today,” said Patriots receiver Troy Brown. ”That’s a pretty good football team.” Brown’s comments may be a stretch, because the Bills are far from good. And the Patriots weren’t ”lucky” all the time, at times they were good.”

”’He was very excited. You could tell this morning when he walked in,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who handed the ball to Smith 20 times and watched as he gained 100 yards, the final 42 of which locked up a 21-11 victory at Foxboro Stadium. ”He really wanted to make an impression. He came out and ran hard – he always runs hard – even there at the end, he was real excited to break that one off.”’

‘He lost the ball, he lost great gulps of yardage, he lost a bushel of points from his quarterback rating yesterday at Foxboro Stadium. But he didn’t lose the game.’

‘The Bills finished a borderline morose 2 for 12 (17 percent) on third-down attempts. They totaled only 68 yards rushing and a barely respectable 173 net yards in the air. On an afternoon when neither side showed the ability or inclination to control play, it was the New England defense that did the better job of surviving along the breakdown line on the south side of Route 1.’

‘To prevent that condition from continuing, the Bills installed the West Coast offense in Buffalo this summer, hoping to help Johnson get rid of the ball quicker and hence reduce his sacks and his injuries. Unfortunately for the Bills, by then Buffalo’s offense already had left for the West Coast.’

‘The Patriots are expected to announce within two days that quarterback Drew Bledsoe has been cleared by the medical staff to play Sunday night against the Rams.’

”’If we don’t control the ball on offense and hold on to it, you don’t want to put our defense in position to be on the field that long against that team. We’re on a roll right now. It feels great to be over .500 finally, but we have to play better than we did [today]."’

‘"We lacked the consistency we’d really like to have, but you have to recognize Buffalo (1-7) has a much better team than their record indicates," said the coach. "We’ve had games like this where we’ve had lapses and mistakes and lost. It’s good to get one."’

‘Battling an All-Pro wide receiver mano-a-mano has always been a welcome challenge for Patriots cornerback Ty Law. Buffalo Bills wide receiver Eric Moulds, a two-time All-Pro, has resided in the top strata of the NFL’s pass catchers since breaking into the league in 1996. Decision: Law.’