Two Bills Drive

‘It was the sort of play the Buffalo Bills made far too infrequently through their first 11 games. And it launched them to their second win of the season. With Carolina ahead by 11 points with 5:50 left in the third quarter and facing a second-and-2 at their own 38-yard line, Bills cornerback Nate Clements deflected Panther quarterback Chris Weinke’s pass away from intended receiver Donald Hayes and into the arms of rookie middle linebacker Brandon Spoon. “It was just a normal zone coverage,” Spoon said. “Nate (Clements) did a great job and tipped the ball. I just caught it and took off. My teammates did a great job of clearing it out for me.” Spoon finished his 44-yard jaunt to the end zone by cartwheeling past the final Carolina tackler. Travis Henry dove in from a yard out midway through the fourth quarter to complete Buffalo’s rally from an 18-point first-half deficit. When Alex Van Pelt’s third-down completion to Jay Riemersma with two minutes left sealed Buffalo’s 25-24 win, the Bills were able to leave the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium to cheers, rather than boos or indifference.’

‘”It was a good win,” Williams said. “Any win is a good win.”‘

‘”Those same mistakes that we’ve been trying to correct for weeks, we’ll see some of those again when we watch the film, but everything seems a lot smoother when you win one,” tight end Jay Riemersma said as a smile crept across his face.’

‘Still, a team works hard at being as lousy as the Bills and to throw away five months of mistake-making just to be 2-10 seems like such a waste.’

‘Buffalo shut out the Panthers in the second half and held them to 231 total yards. Without that effort — accomplished by the way without the help of Pat Williams. who was hurt on the third play of the day — the Bills would not have won.’

‘”Two things happen when you get older,” said Levy, setting up one of his trademark jokes. “You forget things, and I can’t remember what the other thing was.”‘

‘Rob Johnson even braved it by watching from the sideline.’

‘”The problem here is that we haven’t solved the problem,” coach George Seifert said. “And it’s been an ongoing problem.”‘

‘”I’m so tired,” Evans said. “You can’t get used to losing. Each and every week it gets tougher and tougher to come in this locker room after the game and smile.”‘

‘Carolina is so good at being bad.’

‘Worst hospitality: Bills fans – One unidentified Panthers’ fan got a faceful of milk from a Bills fan, and then the move was replayed on the scoreboard.’

‘He [Marv Levy] said it was only the second time he’d seen a game in Ralph Wilson Stadium since he retired following the 1997 season.’

‘”We gave them life when we should have just finished them off,” Buckner said. “So now they’re over in their locker room all happy, and we’re here left here in our locker room to try and explain the same thing that we’ve been trying to explain for the last 12 weeks in a row.”‘

‘That was ridiculous to let a team go 70 yards in 30-something seconds. That’s uncalled for. We are too good for that. I don’t care what anybody says. An NFL team is too good to let another team do that. He should have been mad. He should have slapped all of us to get us right.”‘

‘Brandon Spoon, the rookie linebacker with the Bills who played in college at North Carolina and is a native of Burlington, made one of the key plays of the game yesterday when he intercepted a Weinke pass in the third quarter and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. It was the first interception of Spoon’s young NFL career and he made sort of a nifty move to dive into the end zone for the touchdown, avoiding a would-be Carolina tackler.’