Two Bills Drive

‘"It’s the learning curve of the offense," Johnson said. "It’s just a matter of doing it over and over. We’ve been working hard and I think we’ll be all right."’

‘Both WHAM and WCMF will have extensive Bills programming before and after games, as well as during the week, when each station (and their affiliated stations) will trot out a series of experts to talk about the team. “We’re putting more time and effort and energy into coverage of the Bills this year than we did when we had the play-by-play,” says Jeff Howlett, station manager at WHAM. Howlett adds that WHAM decided not to buy the play-by-play rights because of the high cost, a cost it did not want to pass along to its longtime advertisers. WHAM has been running ads that declare that its coverage is not “the company line,” suggesting that WCMF will cave into pressure from the Bills to be positive.’

’20. Buffalo Bills…predicted record 6-10.’

“I’m just glad we got the preseason out of the way, and we can start working on the Saints,” said defensive tackle Pat Williams. “We just ran basic fronts, and we didn’t want to show anything. We’re saving everything for the Saints. For the grand opening, you will see our whole playbook.”

"I felt a few guys came out and played pretty decent tonight overall," Gregg Williams said after Thursday’s pre-season finale in Pittsburgh. "I thought some of our young guys didn’t step up to the plate and do some things that they could have done better.

[Audio only – recorded prior to Pittsburgh game]

Donahoe talks about old issues, preseason (Bills are a work in progress), officials (no concern, officials are competent), 3-4 defense (some players better suited for 3-4, Gregg was willing to go 4-3 but ultimately he was going to go to 3-4) and Buffalo on Superbowl losses (hope champiobnship in time).

‘When Travis Henry gets the football in his hands, he knows where he’s going. Any novice fan can see it.’

‘Hulsey, a 6-foot-5, 340-pounder, seemed to hold his own again at right guard in the Bills’ preseason finale. It appears he will win the job created when Jerry Ostroski suffered a broken leg.’

‘The Fox affiliate is carrying the Bills-Saints opener Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. because the road team determines which network gets to carry the game. The Saints are a NFC team so the game goes to Fox. Channel 29 also gets to carry a second game on a Fox doubleheader weekend, since the game won’t conflict with a Bills home game. WUTV has asked for Flutie’s opening game when San Diego hosts Bruce Smith and the Washington Redskins at 4 p.m. It won’t find out if its request is being granted until Tuesday, but it would be a major surprise if Fox said no because it has to realize the interest here.’

At $12,502,560, Eric Moulds is one of 54 players making $5 Million a year more in compensation including a player’s base salary for 2001 and all signing, reporting, roster and offseason workout bonuses.

The Bills are coming off an 8-8 season and have a new HC, who’s brought in a positive attitude.

The problems are that Buffalo chose the wrong QB in keeping Johnson over Flutie and there simply are too many questions on this team, such as who’s going to run the football?

Johnson, who’s being backed up by Van Pelt, a player who it seems hasn’t taken an NFL snap since Ronald Reagan was in office, has to stay healthy — something he’s never been able to do.

‘"When we came in, both Tom (Donahoe) and I, that was one of the first things we talked about is that there was some division in the locker room," Williams recalled. "So why not get down to brass tax and correct it immediately. That’s something a coach can correct, so we intermixed the team and that’s the way it will be as long as we’re here."’

‘The Buffalo Bills looked ready in their final preseason game Thursday night — ready to go about 3-13 this season. Bills fans can only hope that strangely confident coach Gregg Williams and upbeat quarterback Rob Johnson are saving their good stuff for the Sept. 9 season opener against the New Orleans Saints.’

Probably the most difficult one I’ve had thus far would be that of Jonathan Linton. Jonathan is really a nice person and a hard worker. In retrospect he probably didn’t get a chance, so I apologized to him for that. There’s nothing fair about the business often times. That was probably the hardest one because we moved him to fullback and he got some work. It’s hard to evaluate a player in his position, based on the amount of time he had.

‘Gregg Williams has to cut 12 players from his roster by Sunday afternoon. Problem is, the Buffalo Bills head coach would probably like to release a few more based on his team’s mediocre preseason performances, capped by Thursday’s 20-0 loss at Pittsburgh.’