Archives for September 30, 2002

‘”It felt great because as a football player you want your coaches and teammates to believe in you and that’s basically what happened,” Henry said. “I had some problems early in the game and when I got my opportunity to get back in, I wanted to show I was ready to make up for my mistake.”‘

‘”As a team, even after the two games that we’ve lost this year, I think that we’re starting to develop a belief in ourselves that we’ve got the talent, the ability, to play with anybody in the league,” he said.’

”’We hope winning these close games is a big building block,” said Williams. ”Every week in this league, most games come down to the wire. Our guys made the plays they needed to make to win.”’

“Right now, our offense is playing very well. We’re putting up points and getting in the position to win games. Defensively we are giving up too much. We are giving up too many penalties, giving up touchdowns instead of field goals.”

“Yes. It was a great block downfield by (Peerless) Price. I just read it and I saw the end zone and I just knew I was going to get that…I was just so happy to get the win.”

“We felt that way. When we came in at halftime we knew that we had made too many mistakes. Penalties, giving up the touchdown off the fumble and just a lot of other stupid mistakes that shouldn’t have been made, were and we knew we needed to change things in the second-half.”

‘”I guess I just don’t do enough in regulation. I need to get more done in regulation so I don’t have to keep dealing with this.”‘

“We went in the ball game knowing we wanted to run the football. A lot of people talked about Chicago being a tough team to run the ball against and we wanted to achieve more balance in that area. With Larry away to a funeral earlier in the week, Phil got more reps and that’s how we packaged it up this week. Larry came in and made some huge catches in some critical situations that kept drives alive. There was total team contribution and that’s the fun party of the locker room. Especially a young team who felt they all contributed. Every play is important.”

Tight end Dave Moore: “Coach Gilbride does a great job feeling out how the game is going. If you look at all four of our games they are all very different offensively. In the first game we ran and used a lot of drop-back passing. The second game we pretty much did all drop-back passing. This game really did have a good mix of run and pass. The second half, we were moving the ball on the ground well and he (Coach Gilbride) threw a couple play action passes into our game plan. In that sort of scheme, we as tight ends have a much larger role.”

‘Chicago’s identity is forged by a bruising defense and an ability to win close games. Based on the last eight days, we can now say the Bears are in the throes of an identity crisis…Chicago’s kindness added another compelling moment to the resurgence of Drew Bledsoe’s career. The Bills quarterback completed 77.8 percent of his passes Sunday for 328 yards. He had four touchdowns, no interceptions, the fourth game-winning touchdown pass in overtime of his career – a league record – and a quarterback rating of 141.7.’

‘Details, details. When your defense allows 222 yards in total offense in the first half alone and your smash-mouth offense manages just 20 yards rushing in that same half, it would seem to be more than a case of details.’

‘Can’t figure out what’s best – kick off or receive? If the Bears kick off, then Drew Bledsoe gets first crack at our defense – and remembering what Aaron Brooks did last week does not inspire confidence. On the other hand, if the Bears receive, you can run Anthony Thomas down their throat. Or Bears fans thought.’

‘The Buffalo Bills, who can’t seem to win in regulation, certainly make up for it in overtime thanks to Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe set an NFL record with his fourth career overtime touchdown pass, a 26-yarder to Travis Henry 1:58 into the extra period, sparking the Bills to a 33-27 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.’

Buffalo is clearly the most fun team to watch in the NFL. They’ve solidified the status with their third high-scoring overtime contest of this young season – a 33-27 win against the Bears at Wilson Stadium. Now the team is 2-2 and trailing first-place Miami and New England – who both lost Sunday – by a game.

Gregg Williams: "We hope that this is a building block for next week but we've got to continue to do it week in and week out. The league is like this, every week in the league most of the teams are just down to the wire, down the last couple of possessions. Our guys made the plays they needed to make to win the ball game."