Archives for November 12, 2012

‘The 14 penalties were the most by the Bills since totaling 15 against Minnesota on Oct. 1, 2006, and the 148 penalty yards were the second-most in team history, trailing only the 159 accrued against the Boston Patriots in 1970.’

‘Kelsay has a neck injury, Williams hurt his right knee the previous Sunday and Anderson had a setback from left knee surgery and missed his fourth straight game.’

‘Following a 27-yard field goal by New England’s Stephen Gostkowski, the Bills took over with 2:06 remaining in the game. Fitzpatrick led a drive to the Patriots’ 15 before throwing the ball directly to McCourty.’

‘Defensive end Chris Kelsay (neck) and cornerback Aaron Williams (knee) are inactive. Kyle Moore will start in place of Kelsay, while Leodis McKelvin gets the call in place of Williams.’

‘So while Gailey makes a valid point about turnovers, he completely absolved the defense and sounded like a man who is trying to protect Dave Wannstedt and to keep from going 0-2 on his defensive coordinators.’

‘It surely is a tough pill to swallow, but one the Bills will have to get over quickly.’

‘The biggest thing is how undisciplined Chan Gailey’s team was today. That goes to coaching. He has to have this team thinking better than that! In the first half, 10 penalties for 119 yards.’

‘I felt for Fitzpatrick in the post game locker room. Inconsistency had plagued him through the first 8 games. He had rightly been criticized for his slow start to the season, but Sunday he played well enough

for the Bills to win. Fitzpatrick completed 27 of 40 passes for 337 yards two touchdowns and an interception. It was the 8th time in his career that he threw for over 300 yards, second time this season, both against the Patriots. But when he had an opportunity to answer his critics and earn a signature win on the road.. his fault or not.. he couldn’t finish.’

‘Next season I expect the Bills to have another legitimate quarterback on the roster. I hope it’s the franchise QB Bills fans want and deserve to see on the field. But because of front office mistakes throughout the last few years, Fitzpatrick is the best you have in a BIlls uniform right now. We know big picture that is not good enough. But Sunday the Bills did not lose because of the quarterback. Forget the first 2 months of the year and look at Sunday as 60 minutes of football and you’d say the quarterback gave you a great Sunday. If he played like this every week then quarterback would not be the problem it is for this franchise. But he hasn’t so it is.’

‘It most likely will take six wins in their final seven games. I definitely believe they will win Thursday night’s home game against a Miami Dolphins team that was pummeled, 37-3, by Tennessee. That will be followed by a difficult road game against precocious Andrew Luck and his surprising Indianapolis Colts. Then, it’s two winnable home games against Jacksonville and St. Louis. I’d feel much better about the Seattle Seahawks game if it were outdoors in Buffalo instead of indoors in Toronto. The last two games will be at Miami on Dec. 23 and home against the Jets on Dec. 30.’

‘First: Ryan Fitzpatrick. If you’re looking for me to barbecue the non-franchise quarterback after he nearly overcame the world of slop that was his defense and early offensive line play, look elsewhere. You have to hate the interception at the end of the game, but I cannot commit to blaming the quarterback on a throw to a project wide receiver who was seemingly blamed by the color analyst before taking the blame himself.’

‘They had three possession in the red zone in the final quarter scored one touchdown and turned the ball over twice.’

‘Chan Gailey did not give the ball to Spiller enough. He was open on the fateful interception play. Why go to Graham there if you don’t have confidence in going to him earlier in the game? Another coaching out thinking himself. Has to take the hit for the lack of discipline for all those penalties.’

‘On a 2nd-and-10 from the Patriots 15-yard line and a chance to win, Ryan Fitzpatrick committed his first and only turnover of the game as Devin McCourty intercepted the Bills quarterback in the end zone that was intended for T.J. Graham with 23 seconds remaining. New England kneeled out the remaining time on the clock to escape with a 37-31 victory dropping the Bills to 3-6 on the season.’

‘After all the talk that I gave about finishing, we couldn’t finish. Had the opportunity and could not finish. There were a lot of ups and downs, good and bad in that ballgame, but that’s the bottom line. We had the chance to finish and we didn’t.’