Two Bills Drive

‘But credit to Troy Brown and the Pats return blockers and to Johnson and the rest of the Pats defense for keeping Our Doug in check for most of the game. Most of it! That was again the problem. There were good until they had to be.’

‘The Doug Flutie versus Rob Johnson quarterback controversy took another strange twist yesterday with both players agreeing Johnson should start if healthy while Buffalo Bills coach Wade Phillips said he would wait and see.’

‘"I was pretty ticked off, oh yeah," Johnson said on Monday, making his first statements to Buffalo-area reporters since the controversial Sports Illustrated article came out last week.’

‘Nails also was accused of driving to the left of the center line, failing to stop when police tried to pull him over and driving with a suspended license. Police said tests showed his blood alcohol limit at 0.14. The state’s legal limit is 0.10.’

‘”I don’t know if we’re a real good team that’s lost some close games,” Phillips said, “or a real bad team that has won some in the last second.” The 60,292 in attendance would be inclined to vote for the latter.’

‘…why is it the quarterback, normally the self-confident chance-taker, is the one showing restraint and common sense wanting to kick the tying field goal and take a shot at victory in overtime, while the head coach opts for taking a big risk with the game on the line?’

‘Of Buffalo’s five wins this season, four have been via Christie kicks: Tennessee (16-13), San Diego (27-24), the Jets (23-20) and Sunday. And three of those – Chargers, Jets and Patriots – came on the last play, two in overtime.’

‘Go ahead, laugh, roll your eyes, throw this newspaper in the recycling bin, but after you’ve calmed down, I challenge you to come up with anyone else more worthy than the gangly, round-shouldered place kicker from Oakville, Ont. No. 2 is No. 1 this season.’

‘Foxboro Stadium had that early ’90s feel to it yesterday — no Drew Bledsoe, offensive ineptitude of epic proportions, an obligatory comeback that gets trumped in the end.’

‘"He made the plays," said Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi. "He had a great drive."’

‘When you kick a 48-yard yard field goal with eight seconds left to send the game into overtime and a 32-yarder to win it, and basically all you do is shrug your shoulders after, it must because you’ve been in this line of work forever.’

‘"John did some things that gave us the opportunity to win but we didn’t follow through on them," said the coach. But there’s a reason Friesz, a 33-year-old veteran in his 11th year in the league, hasn’t been a full-time starter since 1991 when he was with the Chargers and it was brought home yesterday.’

‘"You have to give them credit," New England center Damien Woody said. "They just hung in there and hung in there, and it paid off for them in the end."’

‘Yet, for all his trouble and all that good defense by New England, Flutie still found the right touch in the clutch.’

‘The way they defensed the Buffalo Bills and Doug Flutie, they should have won going away. It didn’t happen, simply because Bledsoe missed most of the game, and Friesz just wasn’t up to the challenge of replacing him.’