‘But make no mistake about it, Terrence McGee is turning into one of the great finds in Bills history.’
Archives for December 2004
Strategy and personnel
‘Mularkey and Co., can’t wait to take apart Cleveland. Playoffs? When a team’s on a 6-2 role, don’t laugh.’
Notes, quotes
‘At one point during Sunday’s game, the Bills had lost a half-dozen players to various injuries.’
December Cheers Instead of Jeers
‘Regardless of what happens the rest of the way the Bills have shown incredible improvement. Much has been made of Willis McGahee’s emergence, but rookie Lee Evans growth has been equally spectacular. His second touchdown catch on Sunday showed breakaway speed only a few receivers in football have. Evans could be a special player for a long time.’
At a glance: The Bills
‘The Bills have won two straight on the road and are suddenly back in the playoff hunt. With games at Cincinnati and at San Francisco on tap, they can’t afford a letdown this week as they need to finish 9-7 to have even an outside shot of making the playoffs. They close the regular season at home against Pittsburgh on Jan. 2.’
Drew delivers, Bills back in contention
‘Forget all that for a moment, though. Bledsoe still capitalized on all those circumstances, demonstrating that he can still make every throw required of a starting quarterback in the National Football League. And that, despite more than half a season’s worth of evidence to the contrary, he might just be able to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.’
Clements Interested In Notre Dame?
‘It’s believed Clements is a long shot because the Irish want an experienced coach.’
Surging Bills edge into playoff contention
”’We’re living day by day around here, week by week,” linebacker Takeo Spikes said. ”If we can just focus on going 1-0 instead of worrying about going 4-5 or 6-0, everything else will take care of itself.”’
Ask Him Yourself: Mike Mularkey
‘How do you keep your players focused on one game at a time, rather than scoreboard watching and looking at all the playoff scenarios?
MM: You’ve got to stress in meetings that we have no control over what happens outside of our environment and the only thing that we can control is our game on Sunday. We’ve got to do our part and let everybody else do theirs. Hopefully it works out.’
Ask Him Yourself: Tom Donahoe
‘With Drew Bledsoe finally starting to look like the Drew Bledsoe of two years ago and the team winning, is what the Jets did with Pennington/Testaverde…drafting a young QB and letting him watch and learn for a full two years while the veteran played…a direction the Bills could be considering come 2005? Would the organization consider letting a No. 1 pick not play until 2006 if Bledsoe continues to impress?
TD:…’.
RT Williams, TE Campbell among banged-up Bills
‘Without going into detail, coach Mike Mularkey said Monday that both were having further tests on right knee injuries sustained in Buffalo’s 42-32 win at Miami on Sunday. Mularkey added that backup tight end Tim Euhus was also to have tests after hurting his knee on Sunday.’
Game Notes: Bills vs. Dolphins
‘Terrence McGee: His 104-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the game was the longest in Bills history…became the first player (team and opponent) in Bills history to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and became only the tenth player in NFL history to return three-plus kickoffs in a season and the first since 2000.’
Bledsoe, Bills keep playoff hopes alive
‘"Turnovers are something we’ve put a big emphasis on," said Spikes. "If you look at the stats (Miami had a 403-362 edge in total yardage) you would have thought the outcome of the game would have been different. But the turnovers were the biggest deal."’
Bills keep playoff hopes alive
‘”It certainly didn’t go the way anybody would have envisioned it,” said Bledsoe of the 74-point explosion. “We were fortunate enough to put up enough points to win it."’
Bills keeping this season interesting
‘Funny what six wins in eight weeks – including the last three in a row – will do for your perception.’