Archives for December 2013

‘All in all, it was a miserable day way too reminiscent of recent Decembers, when out-of-contention Bills teams occasionally gave the appearance that they were thinking about their tee times with games still remaining on the schedule.’

‘The only question moving forward is whether the first Jets game, Steelers game and this one are going to do an offseason-long battle with Manuel’s strongest efforts-so far, the Panthers and second Jets game-or whether he’ll bury any positives with two or more like this.’

‘Same Old Bills. You can talk about a new culture in the Doug Marrone era but this game looked like so many other December games since the turn of the century. The Bills season is always over long before Santa comes to town and the team just looks disinterested on the road leading to many routs. This was just another in the long line of miserable late season games for our beloved Bills. I wonder at this point if they will have turn things around.’

‘EJ Manuel was just plain awful. He threw four interceptions and two were on terrible passes. Just when it looked like the Bills may make a mini run in the third quarter he threw a terrible pass and was picked off by Mason Foster ending any though of a comeback. He had no answers for the pressure he received and was inaccurate most of the game.’

‘Buffalo came out flat to start the game and never recovered from an early 14-3 deficit as their offense was unable to gain any traction on the ground and their passing game was hit and miss.’

‘”He just told us he wanted us to have a locker room talk amongst ourselves and see what we were feeling and kind of clear the air. He allowed everybody a chance to speak,” said co-captain Fred Jackson. “He gave not only myself, Kyle (Williams) and (Eric) Wood and a couple of other guys an opportunity to say what we thought after this game. That’s what the long period in the locker room was about-talking about the things we need to do to get situations like that fixed and keep them from coming up again.”‘

‘”I don’t think it’s necessarily playing on the road. That may seem like it’s a recurring thing being that I had a rough game here, had a rough game in Pittsburgh and we just have to come back from it. You know, I’m not going to say because we’re not at [Ralph Wilson Stadium], I played bad or because we were on the road, I played bad. Just didn’t do well today. It’s very frustrating for me but, it’s still a learning curve at everything and just got to move on.”‘

‘The Bills’ defense enters today’s game against the Buccaneers in Raymond James Stadium ranked 24th in rushing yards and 20th in yards per carry. Relative to previous seasons, that’s fantastic. “That wouldn’t be the F-word adjective I would use,” Pettine said after Friday’s practice in Orchard Park.’

‘Here’s some interesting history: The last time the Bills were over .500 at this point was in 2000. They were 7-5, but coming off a crushing, 31-17 loss here in Tampa where they outgained the Bucs by 253 yards and lost Sam Cowart to a season-ending injury. So in a way, you can trace the Bills’ 13-year playoff drought back to that fateful day here in Florida, which was the beginning of the end for Wade Phillips and the Bills as playoff contenders.’

‘The players don’t like it and never are going to like it, because they recognize it doesn’t help them win. After six years, not one bit of progress has been made in making Rogers Centre any kind of home-field advantage for Buffalo, despite the efforts of the Bills and their Canadian partner, Rogers Communications.’

‘”We are a team right now that has quite a bit of players coming back, so how we perform and how we move forward is extremely important to building a foundation of how we may start and be able to get going next year,” Marrone said. “I do believe in a foundation and a philosophy that needs to be in place which we will have after year one.”‘

‘The Bills are paying Porsche money to Johnson, about $7 million season, but getting production worthy of a mid-sized Chevy this season. With 46 catches for 526 yards and three touchdowns, Johnson is 60th among NFL receivers. His team record streak of 1,000-yard seasons will end at three.’

‘Bucs 20, Bills 19.’