Archives for October 2008

‘”Something I definitely had to prove to my teammates is I’m not here just because I won a Super Bowl or anything like that,” Mitchell said this week. “I’m here because I can play, and I’m going to make sure y’all know it.”‘

‘The Bills, of late, have been confounding, sandwiching two losses around a bye week and their most complete performance, a 23-14 win over San Diego.’

‘And, seven games into this season, the 39-year-old Hall-of-Famer-to-be has had a season that’s hard to assess. New York is 4-3, a game behind the Bills and Patriots in the AFC East , and Favre’s contribution has been as uneven as the Jets’ performance.’

‘”The best thing you can do is get in a receiver’s face and knock down a ball or just get in their face and disrupt the route,” McGee said. “That’s the only way you’re going to stop it. If you’re playing off you’re basically just saying throw it and I’m going to tackle you.”‘

‘Jets 24, Bills 20.’

‘”It’s going to be very critical this week with Josh (Reed) down,” said Trent Edwards. “We’re going to need those guys to step up. Steve Johnson and Justin Jenkins are both going to be a part of our offense, and those guys haven’t had a ton of reps. They’ve had reps on the practice field, but not really on Sundays.”‘

‘The Buffalo Bills announced Thursday they have implemented a new web based text messaging system called GuestAssist, to provide fans the ability to text message the team’s Guest Services department for game related issues during home games at Ralph Wilson Stadium (RWS). GuestAssist will be operational beginning with the Bills vs. Jets game on Sunday, November 2, 2008.’

‘One can rightfully claim that this team is stable enough that the word “rebuilding” can be shelved regardless of this season’s results, and a huge part of that is that the Bills are focused from the top down. It’s nice for this squad to finally have a leader it wants to keep, and it’s little surprise that the last coach who fell in that category, Marv Levy, hired the current one. This contract lengthening yells in a very quiet way the Bills are convinced that the improvement Jauron has initiated is meaningful and will be sustained, even if those on the outside are only beginning to hear it.’

‘”When you have Lee on the outside and you have deep threats like James [Hardy] and Roscoe [Parrish], you always have the underneath route to Josh,” quarterback Trent Edwards said. “Even if he’s not past the first down marker, you can always hit him underneath the first-down marker and he can make a guy miss or break a tackle like he did [twice] on Sunday. That’s going to be tough to not have him in there.”‘

‘”My first two years here we won the [AFL] championship and I thought it was unfair for me to be paid for the game I was just having so much fun [playing],” Byrd said. “The people were great. They loved the Bills. They supported the Bills. . . . We had been through the good times and the bad times with Buffalo and I was here for both. We won the championship and then in 1969 we won one game. We just happened to beat the Jets who won the Super Bowl that year. We saw the highs and lows of pro football but the people still supported us.”‘

‘The pass rush is not OK. It’s a problem. As Aaron Schobel likes to tell us, sacks aren’t everything. It’s often a matter of pressuring the quarterback, forcing him to make hasty decisions that lead to turnovers.’

‘”It’s been a long time coming,” Preston said. “This is my fourth year and my sixth game [this year] was my first start at center. I came here to be a center.”‘

‘There was a sense during training camp at St. John Fisher College that Preston’s spot on the roster was tenuous as Christian Gaddis was considered a threat in the battle for the backup center and guard positions. But Preston survived, Gaddis was cut, and now Preston has taken advantage of Fowler’s injury to continue his ascent up the depth chart.’

‘Of course, there’s always been more good than bad through the years with Favre, whose records of 457 touchdowns and 299 interceptions may never be matched. "On the flip side of (the bad), he’s made a lot of tremendous plays and thrown a lot of TDs," Mangini said. "So, there’s elements of both with Brett. We came into it with our eyes wide open."

‘Our young quarterback, Trent Edwards, has come along very quickly. He’s playing at a level that has given us a chance to win on every weekend that we’ve played. You clearly need that, too. You really need that guy. He doesn’t do it alone. It’s such a struggle in our league, without that consistency [at QB]. That’s been critical to us. We have to keep clawing our way and fight on every day and hopefully get a chance. Hopefully at the end of this Sunday, we have a chance to win a game. That’s how we’ve worked since we’ve been here.’