Archives for November 27, 2006

‘Due to NFL flexible scheduling, the Bills-Jets game scheduled for December 10th at the Meadowlands has been moved to 4:15 p.m. The game between Green Bay and San Francisco will also be a late game, and kick off at 4:05 p.m.’

‘How many times in the last several years have we seen the Bills get beaten up in the 2nd half by a team that made adjustments, and took over control of the game? It seems now that the Bills coaches can out-smart, and out-coach their opponent, something we haven’t seen in a long time.’

‘Can I get a hanky here? Losman nearly proposed to each of his five lineman during the press conference. And why not? Losman didn’t get sacked after averaging over three per game up until Sunday.’

‘Buffalo’s pass protection has taken some positive steps forward the past two weeks. While fewer five and seven step drops have helped, the men up front have tightened things up as well and proved it by posting their first no sacks allowed performance of the season. In fact Sunday’s win over the Jaguars marked their first game without allowing a sack since Nov. 7, 2004 against the Jets. That’s a span of 35 games.’

‘I’m still not sold on Losman as the guy for the indefinite future and he still produced a cringe-inducing play or two every week. The weekly fumbled snap, for instance, doesn’t do a lot to instill confidence. But to claim he hasn’t showed improvement over the past few weeks is just plain goofy. Especially when you look around the rest of the NFL and see what passes for starting quarterbacking these days.’

‘I’ll support Monk and Irvin — the most important locker-room guy and a constant offensive weapon on a three-time champion — in my voting. I remain unconvinced about Reed. I saw a lot of the Bills in their Super Bowl prime, and I’m squarely in the corner of Thurman Thomas as the Bill’s other offensive weapon who deserves entry. Does Reed belong when all the other mega-catchers — Carter, Brown, Rice and, down the line, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens and Randy Moss — come before the committee in the coming years?’

‘If this team can take a 2-5 start and turn it into a berth in the playoffs, then Losman might consider running for mayor of Buffalo. I’m not ready to buy into it just yet, but I’m getting close.’

‘"It feels great in any situation," Lindell said after providing the game winning points. "Just to get another chance to go out there and show yourself, if nothing else, what you’re capable of doing. But two weeks ago I didn’t. I thought I hit that ball pretty well. This week I had a couple so I go on from there."’

‘”That’s why you play the game,” said Bills tight end Robert Royal after the Bills’ 27-24 upset of the Jacksonville Jaguars. “To win in this league, you just have to execute, play hard and play smart. They’ve got a great defense, but that’s what we did – we played a smart, tough game.”‘

‘”Willis was hungry,” said fullback Daimon Shelton. “He couldn’t wait to get back on the field. A lot of guys would have shut it down for a while longer and try to heal up completely. But this just shows what kind of heart he has and what kind of commitment and dedication he has for the team. He came out and did his thing.’

‘”As I was running I was like catching up to him, and I was like “I should not be catching up to Roscoe,’ ” Thomas said. “He was stumbling. So I just tried to grab the back of his jersey, pull him up. And I was just saying, “You’re not going to fall. We need to score.’ He just looked at me and he rode out. It was big, big emotion too.”‘

‘They’re still a team with major problems, a team that can allow 188 and 207 yards rushing in consecutive games and win both. But the Bills are 5-6, still on the fringes of the AFC wild-card race, two games back of the sixth spot with five to play. Hey, they almost did it in 2004, remember?’

‘”They’re all big kicks,” said Lindell, who has seven career game-winning kicks. “Every time I go on the field it’s a big kick, to me anyway and to the team most likely. Once they scored, I put my shoe on, went to the net and started getting ready because I figured it was going to come down to that.”‘

‘Family members of Corporal Jason Dunham were on the field before the start of the game to honor his memory. The Scio native died when he threw himself onto a grenade to save his comrades.’

‘”Now I’ve done it at this level before, I know what it takes,” said Losman, who is luring more and more of his critics into his corner now that Buffalo has won three of four games since its bye week, the lone loss a close call against the mighty Colts. “I think last week was the start of it, giving us confidence. When the two-minute was coming down, it wasn’t like ‘we have two minutes, let’s get prepared.’ It was more like ‘we’ve done this before, let’s do it again.'”‘