Archives for October 2013

‘The Buffalo Bills ended their drought on the road with a fulfilling last-minute victory that helped keep the season in tact. Had the Bills lost the game, a 2-7 start would have been likely with New Orleans and Kansas City up next in back-to-back weeks. With the victory, the Bills took another step under head coach Doug Marrone and claimed their first division win under him. They’ll fly home happy, knowing the 2013 season isn’t written off just yet.’

‘2:37 left. 3rd and 4 for the Bills at the Miami 28. Fred Jackson gets the carry and nearly gets stopped short of the first down. Instead, he summons his inner Katy Perry and roars his way 10 yards to the Miami 18. First down Bills. With a fresh set of downs, Buffalo can milk the clock before kicking the go-ahead field goal.’

‘have a hard time knowing what I should expect from a guy that was just on the practice squad a couple week ago but his performance clearly took a step back. Lewis completed 21 of 32 passes on the day for 202 yards and was intercepted once. He was also sacked four times. He really struggled with his accuracy at times and showed less command of the offense then he did against the Bengals a week earlier. Still he deserves credit for sticking with it and earned his first fourth quarter comeback.’

‘Sacks can be an overrated stat, but in Super Mario’s case there is a direct correlation between them and the Bills’ fortunes. Buffalo is now 7-5 in games in which he registers at least one sack and 2-9 in games in which he is blanked.’

‘3-4 with a road win against a divisional opponent. It could most definitely be worse. Should be 2-1 since your projected franchise quarterback was injured and had to cede his job to a “nobody.” Life’s alright if you’re a long-term thinking Bills fan.’

‘This team is different, they tightened up and won a game with their practice squad quarterback and two gimpy running backs. The defense came up huge in big spots and made the plays that led directly or indirectly to 10 points. They did what they needed to do last week and came away with a hard fought road win against a division opponent to boot. The character of this team is growing everyday and it shows in their leader, Fred Jackson who is as great a football warrior this team has seen in a long time.’

‘Thad Lewis through the ball accurately early as they did several screen passes. He struggled at times and did throw an interception. He also fumbled once but recovered it saving a field goal attempt. Made some big throws on the first two field goal drives. Finished completing 21 of 32 passes for 202 yards. Grade B: He held serve with a solid effort.’

‘Trailing by one late (21-20) Williams delivered sacks on back-to-back drives, the second of which forced a fumble that was recovered by Kyle Williams at the Miami 34 with 2:48 remaining. Buffalo’s offense ran the football to kill most of the remaining time on the clock before Dan Carpenter put the winning field goal through the uprights from 31 yards away for a 23-21 victory over Miami.’

‘”They checked him out and next thing I know he’s out there and I told him, ‘What you couldn’t stay inside? You couldn’t miss all this fun.’ I think that’s the way Fred has been playing,” Marrone said. “People talk about age and years with Fred, but he’s as strong and tough as any rookie we have.”‘

‘We were able to make some plays. I thought that defensively we had a lot of good series. We turned the ball over and our defense stopped them. They missed a field goal; that was big. But really, the only two drives of the game for us defensively was the one right before the half and then their first drive coming out. And the second half, I thought defensively they played well.’

‘”That’s the toughness of this team, relentless effort, relentless pursuit of excellence. Our guys want to win, our guys want to play and you’ve got guys out there playing hurt. I got my helmet knocked off and it didn’t mean anything. Those are the things that you want to do to win. You have to leader like Fred and go out there and keep playing.”‘

‘You know, definitely was a team win. We all picked it up when we needed to. As far as getting after it, and facing some adversity here and there, and just playing hard and playing through.”‘

‘”It’s got extra meaning since it’s a division game; the importance is winning the division games. There was nothing special about it, and I have no hard feelings about what happened with the Dolphins; I’m glad to be in Buffalo right now and doing anything I can to help this team win.”‘

‘Manuel must learn how to protect his body if he wants to preserve himself as a dual-threat quarterback. And because of Manuel’s inability to stay on the field, the Bills may have too little to evaluate before properly determining whether they should use another high draft choice on a quarterback in six months.’

‘No offense to Lewis, who had a nice game against the Bengals and might be as capable as Manuel at this point of the game. But Manuel is the future, the franchise guy. He was the unquestioned story line of the Bills’ season. It wasn’t so much about the record, but his development.’