Archives for October 2014

‘Smith had the home fans booing from the start, when he badly misfired on an early throw. He continued to draw their wrath with some unbelievably bad passes that ended up in the hands of three Buffalo defenders.’

‘The Bills broke the game open in the second quarter after Sammy Watkins caught an 84-yard pass from Kyle Orton that should have been an 89-yard touchdown. Watkins’ premature celebration allowed Saalim Hakim to catch him from behind at the 5.’

‘The Jets’ second-year quarterback gives new meaning to the phrase “turnover machine.”‘

‘The Buffalo Bills didn’t have Geno Smith to kick around for long Sunday. That’s because they forced the New York Jets’ quarterback to the bench with three straight interceptions in the first quarter at MetLife Stadium.’

‘Twitter was aflutter with criticisms of offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s unimaginative playcalling and Buffalo’s inability to move the chains on nine of the possessions in which it could have. But listen people: Buffalo beat a division opponent on the road by 20 points.’

‘One area of concern coming out of Sunday’s game is at running back. As expected, replacing the injured tandem of Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller proved difficult. Anthony Dixon and Bryce Brown combined for just 59 yards on 29 carries, and as a team the Bills rushed for a paltry 67 yards on 32 attempts, an average of 2.1 yards per rush. With Jackson likely not back for Week 10, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett will need to find a way to get more production from Dixon and Brown.’

‘In what can only be called a laughable performance by the 1-7 Jets, New York turned the ball over six times, helping the Bills to a 43-23 victory in front of a disgruntled crowd at MetLife Stadium, most of whom were on the New Jersey Turnpike heading home shortly after the fourth quarter commenced.’

‘Yet despite the problems, the offense did score 43 points. Of course, when the Bills play a good team (and they have a few in the second half of the season) the line is going to need to be much, much better. Is that possible? I have my doubts.’

‘And yet, they scored 43 points in spite of Hackett’s play-calling.’

‘”Really, this is a bailout issue in the public eye,” said pollster Larry Harris, whose Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. conducted the Voice of the Voter poll. “Why are we giving money to billionaires?”‘

‘Still, at the risk of offering some discouraging words after what – from a score standpoint – was a blowout, Buffalo is fortunate to have played teams as bad as the Vikings and Jets the past two weeks. Against stronger competition, the Bills might well have lost one, if not both of those games.’

‘Orton won for the third time in four games since replacing EJ Manuel as the starting quarterback for the Bills (5-3), tossing TD passes to Robert Woods, Lee Smith, Scott Chandler and Sammy Watkins.’

‘”We try not to pay too much attention to it, but coach brought it up, and that’s insulting,” Wood said. “They’ve got a good football, but based upon records and everything you would have assumed we would have been favored, but that’s not something we get overly worried about. Experts get it wrong all the time.”‘

‘How does a quarterback complete more passes to the other team than his own team? How does he throw for five yards on eight attempts? What has to go wrong for things to get as ugly as they did for Smith and the Jets on Sunday?’

‘”It’s not much different than my situation,” Manuel said. “You just have to learn from it. We’re still professional quarterbacks in this league.”‘