Archives for December 2003

‘”We owe it to each other (to play hard) and we owe it to Jim. He’s been a good coach to us,” Tiki Barber said. “If you don’t fight, you shouldn’t be here.”‘

‘The Bills (5-7), meanwhile, had their own problems, arriving with four straight losses and seven in the previous nine games. But they couldn’t help but look sharp vs. the Giants. Bledsoe fired for 247 yards and two touchdowns before leaving as a precaution late in the third quarter, not long after taking a helmet hit to the head from Keith Hamilton.’

‘Roehl was one of three rookies starting on the line, along with Wayne Lucier and David Diehl. Roehl, a Northwestern product, was playing in place of Luke Petitgout, the Giants most reliable lineman who was out because of a back injury. Buffalo exploited their inexperience, bringing several blitz packages on what seemed like every play. They sacked quarterback Kerry Collins six times and hurried him the entire game.’

‘”I’ve been coaching a long time,” Fassel said. “I’ve never been around a team that will work so hard during the week, pay attention to detail and then go out and play the way they did [Sunday]. We do not play football very well. We cannot block, we don’t tackle, we don’t cover, we don’t catch the ball in critical situations. Honestly, I am at a loss for words.”‘

‘”I knew the question was coming,” Mara said. “And I have a prepared answer. I’m not going to talk about it.”‘

‘”What can I say? I was getting him killed out there,”‘ Roehl said of quarterback Kerry Collins.’

‘Look at the eyes. See how blank they are? Remember the surging rush of pride you once saw there? Gone. Blank. Dead.’

‘Everything isn’t Fassel’s fault. The injury list is longer than the Dead Sea scrolls. Three players who started Sunday were knocked out of the game. A practice-squad center played guard; with two other rookies and second-year tackle Ian Allen on the offensive line, the results were predictable. The Bills blitzed unrelentingly, sacked Kerry Collins six times and hit him so often the Giants couldn’t call passes that required more than a three-step drop.’

‘But after being held to 21 first-half rushing yards, Henry finished the game with 113 yards, moving past Cookie Gilchrist and into fifth place on Buffalo’s all-time rushing list.’

”’It just felt good,” Williams said. ”Here we were trying to decide if (quarterback) Drew (Bledsoe) should come out of the game with a concussion and he just broke me up when he answered all of the questions … we needed this.”’

‘“I’m very dissatisfied. The message comes across loud and clear. All it tells me is that we need to improve the product. And how we go about that is something we will discuss.”’

‘I have to wonder if Bledsoe had more time to throw against the blitzing Giants because the veteran Tucker was in for Pucillo. Pucillo’s season had been below average at best.’

‘And so it goes. The Giants have mailed in the season. Playing with no emotion, life or energy, New York fell to the Bills, 24-7. Big Blue dropped its fourth straight game and all-but officially eliminated itself from playoff contention. Even Jim Fassel’s December magic isn’t going to be able to get the Giants out of this mess. Speaking of Fassel, it’s obvious that he has exactly four games left to coach in his Giants career.’

‘”When you make a big play you make teams suffer a little bit. They started to back off a little bit and you start top catch things underneath and make plays that way. We didn’t do that earlier in the season and it showed. We made plays today and kept drives alive today.”‘

‘”We had an awful lot of contributors today from every area of the team. Defensively we were one play away from being pretty good. We gave up that one play down the middle of the field on the play action. It was a nice play by them. We weren’t as sound as we needed to be. Special teams covered very well, did a very good job. We had some guys step up and play in some first start positions. Ross Tucker jumped in there and got his first start, played solid. We had a couple of ticky tack penalties that we need to clean up in the run game. It’s always frustrating when you get a holding call in the run game, but for the most part it was a good team win. Obviously we needed one at this time.”‘