Archives for October 7, 2003

‘Playing through the pain of a rib injury that caused him to miss the previous game vs. the Eagles, Henry scored both of Buffalo’s touchdowns, including the game-winning touchdown run in overtime, and finished with 85 rushing yards on 25 carries. The third-year back also had two catches for 14 yards and a 9-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.’

‘For now, the Bills have not lost faith or patience in Reed. "Josh Reed’s a good player and he’ll be fine," Bills coach Gregg Williams said Monday. "The big thing is he has to play with confidence. He has to see the confidence in me, see the confidence come from his teammates. I’m very confident in him. He’s just got to play with more confidence and everything will iron out. He’s been in enough plays in his career at all levels of ball that he’ll be fine at this level, too."’

‘Donahoe didn’t draft McGahee to sit around and watch. The Bills need to find out if he’s close to the player he was at Miami. If he is, they’ll have two solid, healthy running backs. Gilbride will really have his hands full then. He’ll have one more running back to satisfy, and one more angry person to answer to when he abandons the run.’

‘Given the seriousness of Henry’s injury, the Bills were amazed by his performance. "He was extremely physical," marveled coach Gregg Williams. "His performance energized the people around him in their performances. They got down in the trenches a little dirtier. As far as lower pad level, they came off the ball stronger and harder. It was good to see the inspiration he provided."’

‘It is likely that the Bills will list Moulds as questionable for Sunday’s game in New York against the Jets and then keep his progress a secret so the Jets have to prepare for him.’

‘The way the Jets have played on offense, it might not matter how many weeks they’ve had to prepare for the Bills. Curtis Martin is a shell of his former self, New York ranks dead last in rushing, second-to-last in scoring, and Vinny Testaverde has thrown just one touchdown pass.’

‘It would appear that needing a fifth quarter to beat the Bengals, without Corey Dillon, at home, is like a starving man struggling to eat a slice of pizza. But even good teams need to learn how to win. And overcoming adversity for the first time should toughen this Bills team up for more difficult times ahead.’

‘”I never got caught up in that Super Bowl stuff. I really didn’t,” Wilson said. “Before the season, yes, we signed all these players, good players, but you know, you’ve got to play the game and the other team has good players, too. And they hustle, and they get breaks, and this and that. So I never got caught up in that. I never told people, ‘Hey, we’re going to the Super Bowl.’ I said listen, ‘Let’s just play the games first, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.’ In this league, it’s Sunday to Sunday.”‘

‘”We had momentum in the fourth quarter. We had moved the ball,” he said. “I felt really comfortable that we were going to win the toss. I told the guys on the sideline that we were going to have to go into the wind, so get ready for that.”‘

‘No matter who quarterbacks the Jets, the Bills have to start generating more of a pass rush. Cincinnati’s Jon Kitna dropped back to pass 45 times and he was sacked just once. In the second half the Bills began to use more blitzing schemes and that forced Kitna to make quicker decisions.’

‘Once again the Bills won in spite of their suspect coaching.’

‘FB Sam Gash, who has had almost no role in the offense because the Bills have shunned the running game, was used as a pass receiver against the Bengals. He caught three passes for 32 yards and would have had a fourth if he hadn’t dropped it.’

‘But pleeeeeze. Ask his players how many of them think he should have lined up to kick the field goal on 2nd and goal at the 2. Rian Lindell’s hand would be the only one to go up, and I’m not so sure about that.’

‘With 23 seconds left on the clock, you called for quarterback Jon Kitna to kneel to run out the clock. Could you have tried to shoot downfield for a last-second field goal?

“I’m glad someone asked that. We had one time out left. (In the 20 games per year I’ve coached in), I have never seen anybody do that. (If) somebody (were to) move the ball over 40 yards for a field goal with one time out in that situation, I would want to commend them."’

‘"Eric Moulds is sore. It’s really still too early to tell. We’ve got a couple of days here before we’ve got to get a status on everything. Sam Adams is sore. Travis (Henry) came out of it pretty good, carrying the ball 25+ times in the ballgame running backs are usually a little bit sore. I didn’t notice any residual effect from the ballgame. Just listening and talking to him, no, (Travis) is no worse for the wear."’