Two Bills Drive

‘"I feel I’m right at 50-50. It felt a lot better than last week," Riemersma said Wednesday after practicing with Buffalo’s first unit for the first time since his injury. "But I think the true test will be tomorrow on how I feel. I worked it pretty good today, but I’m going to see how it jumps back tomorrow and take it day to day."’

"I’m going to take the blame," said Irvin, whose third-down holding penalty on Moss sustained Minnesota’s other touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. "I didn’t do the things I on that last play that I needed to.

"Too many mistakes," said linebacker Sam Rogers, whose third-quarter interception set up what looked like the clinching Buffalo touchdown. "I hate to say that week in and week out, (but) that’s what’s killing us. Mistakes always seem to wind up as touchdowns."

‘Buffalo Bills coach Wade Phillips isn’t quite ready to say it, but tight end Bobby Collins will: Jay Riemersma will return for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets in Ralph Wilson Stadium. "He’ll be back this week," Collins said.’

‘"I wouldn’t say the window’s starting to close," linebacker Keith Newman said. "There’s still a lot of things that gotta happen in the division. The Jets gotta come here this weekend. Miami’s gotta come here the beginning of December. And Indy hasn’t played either of them. "But you don’t want to count on the other teams."’

‘Doug turned 38 Monday. He’s too old for this team. It needs time to grow and he doesn’t have that sort of time left to watch them grow. Beyond that Rob Johnson needs to play in order to develop. He hasn’t had enough starts to constitute an entire season. He needs to be allowed to make mistakes, to see every situation a couple of times, gain the experience necessary to operate as Flutie did Sunday.’

‘The teams that Buffalo has lost to on the road — Jets, Dolphins and Vikings — are a combined 17-2 and the Bills were in every game. In fact, the Bills have outgained six of their seven opponents so far in total yardage and tied the other (Miami with 254). "Certainly, we gave a great effort," coach Wade Phillips said of the loss to the Vikings, in which the Bills rang up 406 yards and controlled the clock for 36 minutes but yielded two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. "We’ve played some tough teams on the road and we could’ve beaten all three. But, we’ve got to find a way to beat them.’

‘Flutie has it all over Johnson in terms of experience, coolness under pressure, and pocket awareness. There were times in this game when I’m sure Johnson would have taken an untimely sack, or would have needed to waste a timeout because he couldn’t communicate the play properly. This, of course is unacceptable. Johnson has to learn to deal with adversity, and he has to learn to cope with noise and to win on the road, something he’s done only once in five career road starts as a Bill. That said, Flutie did not win the game.’

‘Flutie is 17-9 as starting QB for Buffalo and Johnson is 7-7 over that span. The Flutie-Johnson debate seems pretty simple to me: Short-term gain vs. long-term potential. Flutie is the more experienced, charismatic and entertaining player. At this stage of their careers, he might win a game or two more per season than Johnson. It is understandable that the majority of fans would prefer to go with the proven commodity at QB. Johnson has the physical talent to win in the NFL but still has lots to learn. He’s not going to develop sitting on the bench. The Bills are a relatively young team and figure to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender in a year or two — assuming they don’t lose Eric Moulds to free agency and can shore up the offensive line. Quarterback is the most important position, and from an organizational standpoint it is logical to have him play now to grow with the rest of the team.’

‘"We just made some mental errors," second-year linebacker Keith Newman said on Monday. "We didn’t close things out in the fourth quarter. We didn’t put the stamp on the victory."’

‘Since the seemingly unsinkable Flutie Flakes were introduced in 1998, 1,945,500 boxes of the frosted cereal have been snapped up. The original red box remains the best seller, with 1,152,000 boxes sold. Fans have also snapped up 680,000 Flutie Flakes chocolate bars, which are made by Buffalo’s Fowlers candy company; 86,512 boxes of Flutie Fruitie Snacks; 9,811 Flutie T-shirts; 570 baseball caps; and 362 mini-footballs.’

‘All week, the Vikings talked about starting strong and playing 60 minutes of football. It didn’t happen for the Vikings, but they didn’t need it to win against the Bills.’

‘If anybody had told the Bills’ coaching staff that its offense would go into Minneapolis, score 27 points, roll up over 400 yards, commit only one turnover and enjoy an 11-minute-plus edge in time of possession, a victory would have been assumed. But, alas, the Bills didn’t win their second straight game. They didn’t steal back the victory they let slip away to Indianapolis three weeks ago. Instead, Buffalo saw its record slip to 3-4 and its playoff odds grow even longer with barely half a season to go. And the reason is, for the second straight week, the Bills were betrayed by their defense.’

‘The calls to talk-radio stations will be overwhelmingly in favor of keeping Flutie as the starter, even after Johnson returns in two or three weeks. They’ll rave about Flutie’s poise, his command of the offense and his ability to avoid a sack. And, to be honest, they’ll have a point. Flutie demonstrated all of those in a rather remarkable performance. But it says here that if Coach Wade Phillips, who isn’t afraid to make the tough decision (remember he benched Flutie last year before the Tennessee playoff game), will stick to his convictions and return Johnson to the starting position. He has to. Why? Because this team is not attempting to make one last run toward the Super Bowl, as it was two years ago.’

‘The Buffalo Bills had an opportunity to knock off the last of the National Football League’s undefeated teams Sunday, but failed.’