Archives for November 13, 2000

‘Having a great [quarterback] makes a coach’s life easy. But having two good ones has made Wade Phillips’ life hard.’

‘In fact, some of the 72,240 fans even left Ralph Wilson Stadium early to beat the traffic before the final gun of the 20-3 romp over the hapless Chicago Bears, who fell to 2-8. It was the most lopsided game the Bills have played all season.’

‘The Buffalo Bills may not be winning a lot of style points lately, but thanks to the pain and suffering being inflicted by their defense, they have clawed their way back into playoff contention.’

‘Chris Watson came to the Buffalo Bills to be their return specialist. It looks like he might be able to do more than that.’

‘The Buffalo Bills have a delicate situation at quarterback, with two potential starters at the position. The Chicago Bears should only be so lucky.’

‘They don’t complain. They don’t resent their teammates across the room. The don’t let down. They just keep on tickin’.’

‘But you had to wonder. If Johnson was healthy enough to come in the game for eight plays, why wasn’t he healthy enough to start? Why didn’t he play in the second half? He looked fine.’

‘"I’m so proud of Bob. He was a man of integrity. I miss him terribly, but it’s an honor to be here to celebrate not only his contributions to the Bills, but to America as well."’

‘Bills coach Wade Phillips used both Doug Flutie and Rob Johnson, setting the tone for a prolonged quarterback quandary this week.’

‘"Doug’s done a really good job and we won games, and that’s the important thing," Phillips said. "Both of them have won, we’ve played well with both of them, and we’ve got to keep doing that."’

‘The Bills had six players leave the game, including two defensive backs — Antoine Winfield and Donovan Greer — which left the team dangerously thin in the secondary for the second half.’

‘Things had become so bad for Daryl Porter that the Bills benched him following the Minnesota Vikings game, and scrapped their dime defensive alignment as a result.’

‘We haven’t seen the last of Flutie. And kudos to him for his classy attitude in turning the reins over, not an easy thing to do for one so competitive. That attitude is the very definition of leadership.’

‘In their last three games, all victories, the Bills are plus-8 in the takeaway/giveaway department.’

‘Doug Flutie played well enough to beat the Chicago Bears 20-3 yesterday, but not well enough to start next week.’