Archives for September 2006

‘Spikes described the injury as mild. “When I was making a break, running top speed it just kind of grabbed on me,” he said. While he doesn’t think he’ll miss any time, his status will be re-evaluated today.’

‘Good game plan. Fairchild’s offensive mix was great in first half. Defense hindered by rookies. Team looked organized.’

‘Pats’ blitzes out of 3-4 are murder, as always. Belichick took Evans out of game. Pressure was good in second half.’

‘Though he hesitated to second-guess himself, Jauron did offer that, in retrospect, if he’d known how things were going to turn out, "I would like to have the decision back and kick it through. And make them kick it in the end … you know, to make them have to kick it at the end of the game to beat us."’

‘A game that started out so strong — Takeo Spikes forcing a fumble that was taken to the end zone by London Fletcher on the opening play — ended with an all too familiar feeling.’

‘”It doesn’t matter how many moral victories you have. At the end of the year they’re going to judge you on how many games you won and how many you lost.”‘

‘Stopping New England on fourth-down-and-two at its own 26-yard line with two minutes left would’ve been a nice statement. Instead, it gave up a 6-yard run to Dillon. Game over.’

‘What would Mularkey have done? After wasting a timeout, he would have run through about 20 different plays, then probably would have settled on a play-action fake bootleg swing pass into the flat to the ever elusive Daimon Shelton which New England would have sniffed out and blown up.’

‘Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this one, but Buffalo was called for seven penalties for 53 yards and New England just one for five yards. The Bills self-destructed in the fourth quarter with four penalties, all killers.’

‘Dick Jauron and his staff probably deserved better.’

‘And that’s a lesson this version of the Bills must learn quickly. If nothing else, Sunday’s game showed the team can compete with the class of the AFC East.’

‘Maybe it was the Bills’ reverence for their AFC East rivals that caused Buffalo to collapse under the weight of questionable coaching calls, untimely penalties, and a costly safety, blowing a 10-point halftime lead to lose, 19-17, yesterday at Gillette Stadium.’

‘”It’s not the first time they’ve done it,” said Bills wide receiver Lee Evans when asked about the latter scenario. “It’s the nature of the business, part of the game, I guess. There’s not a whole lot you can say about it. It’s just what they wanted to do.”‘

‘Tripplett, the “three-technique” tackle in the Bills’ Tampa-2 defense, seemed to line up over Mankins and Neal equally. On balance, the Pats did the job against him, as Tripplett finished with just one assisted tackle to go along with that one quarterback pressure and a deflected pass.’

‘J.P. Losman: “All of a sudden we got rushed a little bit. You would like to get rid of the ball in that situation if you can, but the game is on the line and you’re trying to make a play. I felt that there was only one rusher that I could get away from (Banta-Cain), which I did, and then I didn’t see the other guy (Warren).”‘