Archives for September 2015

'"We did some of the stupidest things I've ever seen in football," Bills coach Rex Ryan said. "It was awful. A football follies play, offside on a fourth down call on defense by a lineman."'

'Dan Carpenter connected on a 43-yard field goal late in the first half, tying the score 10-10, but a 40-yard attempt in the third bounced off the right upright. Carpenter, who may be on the bubble heading into final cuts, hit only 50 percent of his preseason field goal attempts (3 of 6). The Lions regained the lead in the final quarter on Zach Zenner's 3-yard run, capping a 37-yard drive that started after Simms' backward fumble.'

'"Certainly we’ve got some issues," he said. "Hell, we can’t make a field goal, so we better be looking for any guy who has ever kicked a football in his life. They will get an opportunity here. I'm tired of missing field goals. We have a kickoff guy and we miss field goals. I don't get it. So we'll certainly be looking out there. I don't know if there's any out there, but nobody gets this job by default. You have to earn your way out here. I'm very disappointed in that, and I don't care who knows it."'

'The Bills cut Jackson to keep Bryce Brown around — it’s that simple.'

'Matt Simms got the start at quarterback and went 22-38 passing for 223 yards, but was plagued by three turnovers all of which came on fumbles. Two came on loose center to quarterback exchanges. The third came when he was spun down by a defender as he tried to throw. The ball went backwards and was live and the Lions recovered.'

'Tarpley played the majority of the snaps against the Lions because of an injury to linebacker Tony Steward and he took advantage of his opportunity. He led the team with eight tackles, two of which resulted in a loss of yards. More notably, he called the plays throughout the night for the defense.'

'“In this league, every time you play you are always auditioning for someone, whether it is your own teammates, your own coaches, whoever else is watching,” said Simms, who has thrown only eight passes in the preseason. “But, of course, anytime that you play football people are always watching. No matter who it is, you just got to go out there play, play hard, execute the play and just have fun.”'

'The primary logic behind the potential move is, with a cap figure of nearly $5 million, Cassel is far too expensive to remain on the roster as a reserve and the Bills need all of the cap space they can get to extend the contract of Pro Bowl defensive tackle Marcell Dareus. The team is negotiating a deal with Dareus, and, as The News has reported, is offering him more than $90 million over six years.'

'"Quite a bit of it is decided," Ryan said of the 53-man roster that will open the season Sept. 13 against Indianapolis. "But I still think this game is important and there is generally three or four guys that will come into this game and have a chance to win a job or, quite honestly, lose a job. So you never say, ‘Hey this is the roster that is made’ because there are always some guys that will step up and will earn a roster spot in this last game."'

'"It's way too early to say whether (McCoy) will play or not," a source told Anderson. "He is doing a little bit more every day. But hell yes, I'm concerned about that. I can't say for sure he's going to be with us Week 1. I can't say that at all. It will take everything we got just to get him ready for game day, and then we get to game day (there's) no way he can be in great football shape. So I think he will be on a pitch count, I think at the very best."'

'But it must be said: the blame for the Bills being in this mess falls on Terry and Kim Pegula.'

'"Doug Whaley was behind it, to my knowledge," Jackson said. "He wasn't honest with me the entire time that I've known him. I have the utmost respect for the organization. There's only one person in that organization that I haven't gotten honesty from, and that was him."'

'Rex Ryan just can’t find himself a team with a normal general manager, can he?'

'"He wasn't honest with me the entire time that I've known him," Jackson told the Buffalo News. "I have the utmost respect for the organization. There's only one person in that organization that I haven't gotten honesty from, and that was him."'

'McCoy suffered a left hamstring injury in practice on Aug. 18. The source told Anderson that McCoy's MRI showed, what was described internally as, a "small tear," adding: "They say it tore in a spot where it couldn't have been any better for us. It tore in a spot that is kind of high up, surrounded by stronger muscles in the glutes and things like that."'