Two Bills Drive

‘Predicting the outcome of Buffalo Bills games has gotten remarkably easy. It’s no longer a question of if they’ll lose, but how and by how much. Some optimists point to Sunday’s visit by the almost-equally dismal Carolina Panthers as Buffalo’s chance to avoid the third one-win season in franchise history, since Carolina hasn’t won since a Week 1 upset of Minnesota. But not all single-win records were created equal. Of Carolina’s 11 losses, seven were by eight points or fewer. Five came by the margin of a field goal or less, including a pair of overtime defeats. Buffalo has come within three points of victory just twice, with two other losses by a touchdown or less. More than half the Bills’ 10 losses, six, were by double-digit margins. Recent history also bodes well for the Panthers. They led New Orleans into the final moments last week, only to blow a lead in the final five minutes for the fifth time this year. That night, Buffalo turned in a thoroughly hapless performance in San Francisco, failing miserably in every phase of the game.’

‘Leif Larsen is expected to start for injured defensive tackle Shawn Price on Sunday, though rookie Tyrone Robertson will get plenty of snaps.’

‘To date, the sub-standard bearer is the 1971 club. That team should have been known as the Counterfeit Bills.’

‘Levy wasn’t merely an exceptional coach … he is a remarkable human being. Even as the Bills were in the midst of four straight trips to the Super Bowl, ‘The Coach’, whom Levy once employed, couldn’t rip him enough. Their knuckle-dragging listeners dutifully chimed in with their ‘me to’s.’

It was predictable … yet such a sad commentary on the human condition.

In the midst of Buffalo’s golden age of football, Levy was crucified by a loose cannon who once worked on his staff whose philosophy was any controversy, no matter how flimsily contrived, is good radio.’

‘Not that you were wondering, but the previous time two one-win teams met this late in the season was Dec. 13, 1993, when the 1-11 New England Patriots met the 1-11 Cincinnati Bengals. Surely nobody remembers the score of that one — a 7-2 thrilling win by the Pats.’

‘He believes the team has a good leader in first-year head coach Gregg Williams, but it just hasn’t come together yet.’

‘Tight end Wesley Walls, a four-time Pro Bowler, has 228,963 votes and is 22,000 ahead of Green Bay’s Bubba Franks. Doug Evans is the leader among cornerbacks with 89,925. Todd Sauerbrun is the leader among NFC punters with 142,697 votes and rookie Steve Smith is the leading return man with 70,516 votes.’

‘"We’re running a West Coast system here (on offense), but we’re not running it as efficiently as teams that have run it for years like a San Francisco or a Green Bay," Van Pelt said. "And we’re running a Tennessee-type defense here, but we’re not running it like the Titans ran it when they were in their prime defensively." Bingo. The Bills run all the right systems, but they run them like the Bad News Bears.’

‘"That’s the part I feel we lack right now. Jim Kelly would jump up and get in somebody’s face if they didn’t run the right route. He’d let them know it. Thurman would stare down the offensive linemen like he was getting ready to shoot them if they didn’t block the right guy or if they left a guy unblocked in practice. Those guys obviously had the right to do that because they were so successful. We have a lot of guys here that are young and haven’t made that move, that step into leadership yet."’

‘As bad as Carolina’s 1-11 season has been, it hasn’t been nearly as bad as Buffalo’s 1-10 campaign.’

‘Despite their 1-11 record, early returns indicate the Carolina Panthers stand a decent chance of placing four players in next February’s Pro Bowl.’

What a long, tumbling fall it’s been for a Bills franchise that has proudly earned its way to four Super Bowl games and has been one of the league’s true models for perennial success. Sure, the Bills faced a transition year in 2001 with an entirely-new front office and coaching staff and new systems on offense, defense and special teams. But 1-10? That’s a bit drastic.

Bills fullback Phil Crosby attended CJ’s press conference at the Wegmans on Niagara Falls Blvd. in Amherst while Kenyatta Wright represented the Bills at the Orchard Park Wegmans for the Potter Road Elementary class. Both winners asked the first question and were permitted to sit in the front row.

‘They have given the ball away 27 times (15 interceptions and 12 fumbles), resulting in 106 points by the opposition.’

‘Price partially tore the ACL late last season but didn’t have surgery.’