Two Bills Drive

“Getting rest and making sure I am getting enough sleep is something Drew (Bledsoe) had told me seven weeks ago,” Brady said. “He said, ‘Hey, Tom, make sure you really get your rest and eat well and take care of your body because you can wear down pretty easily.’ I’ve noticed that.”

Both starting QBs for New England and Buffalo have been injury-injured. For New England, virtually unknown Tom Brady’s 8-3 mark as a starter has him in the starting role likely for the rest of New England’s season. Van Pelt recorded his first win as a starter since 1997 Sunday, he has performed very well and kept Buffalo’s offense moving well in three of their last four games.

Bills tackle Jonas Jennings and safety Keion Carpenter will host the winners of the 2001 Rush for Reading Challenge at the Paul Maguire Club at Ralph Wilson Stadium from 6:00 – 7:00 PM on Wednesday, December 12th.

Ven Pelt has joined Frank Reich and Todd Collins in the record book. The 18-point deficit overcome marked the fourth largest regular season comeback in team history and the largest since coming back from a 26-0 deficit vs. Indy on 9/21/97 by Todd Collins.

With the help of Galyan’s and the Buffalo Bills, local children affiliated with the Salvation Army were given the opportunity to ‘Shop with a Jock’ Tuesday evening. The event benefited 42 children and ran early Tuesday evening at the Walden Galleria Galyan’s sporting goods store.

‘"I do have confidence in my line, knowing they’re going to come off hard and hit their blocks, which allows me just to think about running in there hard."’

‘The Pats are plus-2 in turnover ratio. The Bills are minus-16.’

‘Since 1986, the starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl have been first-round picks 20 times. Nine other times they were drafted in the second and third round. With only a couple of exceptions, most prominently Brett Favre, the starting quarterback was still playing with the team that originally drafted him.’

RJ and Cowart in free agency, TD on trading down, plus McKinnie, Butler & Cottrell rumors.

Buffalo-Carolina meeting Sunday will impact draft

Buchsbaum: The Buffalo Bills’ first pick in the draft next year will either be an offensive left tackle or a quarterback. The only quarterback Buffalo would consider with that first-round pick is Fresno State’s David Carr.

The draft pecking order could be affected by next week’s Buffalo-Carolina game. Both teams have one win going in, and the loser could actually end up being the winner.

‘After losing the AFC Championship game to Cincinnati in 1989 and an AFC Divisional playoff game to Cleveland in 1990, head coach Marv Levy made it clear that he wanted to rebuild his team around younger players. Joe Devlin and Art Still had been already told there was no longer a place for them on the team. Fred Smerlas was put on the list of unprotected free agents, meaning any team could now bid for his contract.’

‘Of the 22 players who were jettisoned from the 53-man roster of Wade Phillips and John Butler’s final Buffalo team, only six have gone on to play regularly for new teams. Seven are contributing little to their new teams, and nine are out of football.’

‘"He’s probably got another couple of weeks of the bone healing, but we hope that he’ll be able to get back into the practice situation within a couple of weeks and start to work on the field and be able to do some non-contact things," Williams said.’

‘Tom Brady, All-Pro. Tom Brady … MVP?’

”’Sometimes you are ahead, you get further ahead, sometimes you are behind, and you catch up. That is what it is about. It is about where we finish, not where we are in the middle of December. Right now it is Buffalo, that is it. 9-5, that is all we can do anything about, that’s where we want to be.”’