Archives for November 4, 2002

‘The point is, all this money flowing in to the restaurants, bars and hotels, can be traced directly to the Bills success this season and that can be traced to Bledsoe. The Bills public relations department has no hard numbers on the financial impact Bledsoe’s had, but they termed it as “significant.” No wonder they’re so enamored with him.’

‘The Pats ran the ball more often than they threw it (35 rushes, 27 pass attempts), rolled up more than 400 yards total offense, and didn’t commit a turnover. That’s a recipe for success.’

‘The Patriots defense stopped the Bills on 7 of 11 third-down conversion attempts yesterday…’.

‘On Saturday night, Drew Bledsoe took Patriots linebackers Mike Vrabel and Ted Johnson to dinner. On Sunday, they ate him for lunch.’

‘He wanted to do well against his former teammates, but it wasn’t a crusade or a national story. His was the grudge match that few people talked about. The spotlight was on Drew Bledsoe coming into Sunday’s Patriots-Bills game. But that was fine with Antowain Smith.’

‘The Bills’ tissue-soft play Sunday was interrupted only by occasional bursts of stupidity. They had defenders failing to make plays they should have, and their franchise quarterback playing when he shouldn’t have.’

‘The funny thing is that after all the buildup, Drew Bledsoe went out and played pretty well – and it didn’t really matter.’

‘”He said something to me after the game,” Belichick said. “I appreciate it. I feel the same way about him. He’s a hell of a football player.”‘

‘Brady threw for 310 yards and four touchdowns on 23-of-27 passing and outdueled Bledsoe, who had a solid afternoon, but was forced to play from behind thanks to his defense’s inability to tackle. Bledsoe finished with 302 yards on 28-of-45 passing and threw one touchdown along with an interception.’

‘”I didn’t think about (Bledsoe) a lot,” Brady said. “I think I’m more focused on their defense. In a sense, either consciously or subconsciously, maybe it made it easier. I don’t know. I know that when I make my reads and I make the throws on time, hood things happen.”‘

‘On the field yesterday, the Bills were lousy.’

‘Perhaps by coincidence — or perhaps not — Smith had his best day running behind the same offensive line he had last season during the Patriots’ Super Bowl run. Joe Andruzzi, Mike Compton, Damien Woody and Matt Light were all healthy and Greg Robinson-Randall earned his first start of the season. They consistently opened up holes and made key blocks on plays that ate up a ton of yardage.’

‘”I’m really proud of the way our football team played today. I felt that offensively, defensively, special teams, each unit complemented the other ones,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “We’ve got a lot of tough guys in that locker room. They worked hard to straighten some things out.”‘

‘In their first game with Bledsoe on the other side, the Patriots stormed to a 17-0 lead. The Patriots never led by fewer than 10 points the rest of the way.’

‘Somebody went after his old team with a vengeance, all right.’