Archives for October 2006

‘The Bills committed 16 penalties to New England’s four in this season’s two-game series.’

‘In sum, the amount of penalties Jauron’s Bills are taking may have declined from the era of Mularkey – but the number of nonsensical miscues is at an all-time high.’

‘The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills for the second time in 2006, but on this occasion the tone was all different. So what’s the difference between Week 1 and Week 7?’

‘Are the Bills really THIS bad? Yes and no is the right answer, as I see it. It is pretty obvious their confidence is all but shot, and the only fix for that is winning. But it’s tough to win when you don’t play with confidence.’

‘”We can’t beat ourselves by not playing smart football, not lining up right, not executing on defence like we’re supposed to, not holding onto the football and not making good decisions with the football. Until we start playing smarter, it’s going to continue to be the same results week after week after week.”‘

‘”I believe in this guy, but I believe we’re going to struggle,” he said. “And we’re struggling lately and so has he. But I think he’s going to be a good quarterback. We’re certainly going to push through and stay with him and he’s going to make plays and I believe our football team is going to come out on the other end.”‘

‘"You can’t wallow in your sorrow, wallow in your pity because there’s still football games left to be played," Fletcher said Monday. "And nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, so we have to get out of this funk."’

‘On whether he has hit bottom – Myself personally? No. I think as a team we have dug ourselves a deep hole, that’s what I’m talking about. There are stories where teams come back and catch fire. That’s what we’ve been trying to do that last couple weeks, but it hasn’t worked out for us. We have to get better. We have to believe there is a chance, a shot. There’s something about a team, a bunch of guys coming together. It’s easy to keep things rolling when you come out on fire, but now we have our backs up against the wall. We’re going get some W’s and make the fans happy if we can pull this together and make it work.’

‘We’re all really disappointed in the outcome and in some of the things we did that were just foolish. We have to give ourselves a better chance. They’re an awfully good football team and when we do some of the things we did it really takes our chances away of competing. We believe that if we play at a high level and play a smart football game that we can play teams into the fourth quarter and then find a way to win them and that’s what we have to do to be a good, consistent team. We have a ways to go and we all recognize it. I certainly recognize that I have to do a better job of getting them ready and that’s what we’re going to do.’

‘When your center forgets the snap count, somebody on the punt team forgets to take the field when you’re punting and your quarterback can’t elude a guy in black-and-white stripes, it’s time for a break.’

‘”They’re foolish things (disastrous penalties, wasted timeouts, bad decisions on both sides of the ball) and they’re on my shoulders. I’ve got to do a better job of getting to these guys and getting them ready so that we don’t end up in these holes against quality teams.”‘

‘What was bothersome – forget the physical mismatches – was the Bills’ propensity for dumb football.’

‘Bills defensive end Aaron Schobel had a pair of sacks and a forced fumble Sunday to become just the fourth player in franchise history with 50 or more career sacks joining Bruce Smith, Phil Hansen and Cornelius Bennett.’

‘"I was at the time trying to cover something I shouldn’t have been covering," said McGee bluntly. "By the time I realized what I was doing wrong, Brady had already seen the opening and took advantage of it. Every week it’s the same thing. It’s a mental breakdown or something. And something bad happens."’

‘The Bills did what bad football teams usually do – they made enough mistakes to hasten their own demise.’