Archives for December 14, 2015

'There were so many sour moments in this game it would take too long to list them all, but 15 penalties for 101 yards, a fumbled punt by Marcus Thigpen, two horrible plays in the secondary by Corey Graham (beat for the Nelson Agholor TD) and Leodis McKelvin (missed tackle on the field goal winning drive), and LeSean McCoy's second-half disappearance covers much of it.'

'I'm sure Kelly was happy after the game, but not because he beat McCoy. He was surely thrilled that his team won a huge game that it badly needed to stay tied for first place in the NFC East and I doubt he cared whether McCoy was on the other sideline.'

'This grade is not the sum of its parts, I grade this separately, and there is no other grade possible. The Bills knew this game was pretty much do-or-die, and to commit 15 penalties, play lousy on special teams, not do enough on offense, and be slack on defense is deplorable. It was a total team failure.'

'Tyrod Taylor finished the game with 268 yards passing, one touchdown and one interception. The numbers themselves aren't a huge indictment on Taylor, but his inability to lead a field goal drive late in the fourth quarter was the team's undoing. He had a chance to take a step in his development but came up short.'

'"I didn't play well," Incognito said. "He dominated. He dominated the game. He dominated me in one-on-one pass blocking. It's a tough pill to swallow in such a big game, but he's a great player and he played his absolute best today."'

'"I don't know," Ryan said. "It was a disgrace that we had too many penalties. That's on us. There's always things that you're going to have disagreements with, with the officials. There's always going to be that. That's Ed Hochuli, and that's about as good a crew as you're going to get. Did I think it went perfect? Probably not."'

'"No, there is a lot of emotion there," Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson said. "I know that he cares about a lot of the guys in the locker room, but I think there is a lot of animosity with how things went down. I'm sure he's pretty pissed. He's a guy that wanted to win and throw it back in our face here. I'm glad he didn't get it."'

'Ten months after Chip Kelly traded him without warning, LeSean McCoy walked to midfield as a captain of the Buffalo Bills to greet his former teammates. Before doing so, he kissed the Eagles' logo at midfield of Lincoln Financial Field, where he spent the first six seasons of his career.'

'According to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kelly called McCoy on Tuesday. McCoy answered because he didn't recognize the phone number. Once he realized who was on the other end of the call, McCoy hung up.'

'"Nickell can handle his own, but Nickell is going to have a lot of help," McDonald said. "He's got backers inside, he's got safeties over the top. He's got some help in there. There will be times where he's by himself, and I think Nickell can handle his own, but we're not going to be stupid and leave him out there all day with a guy that's got six inches on him. Well, everybody's got six inches on him."'

'At this point, the Bills must win the rest of their games. They then need a lot of help. They need two of the following scenarios to come true: Kansas City needs to lose the rest of its games, the Steelers need to lose two of their last three games, the Jets need to lose two of their last three games including the finale against Buffalo.'

'It got me. Again. After all these years.'

'You have to wonder what offensive coordinator Greg Roman was thinking when he dialed up so many deep passing plays, especially in third and short situations. It doesn't hurt to go for the few yards you need to get a first down. Instead, the Bills aired it out. The Eagles were on top of most of these plays. They did give up the long touchdown to Sammy Watkins, but that was it. After that, the Bills couldn't convert.'

'You’d think one year out of these 16 the Bills woulda been up to the challenge and put together a December to remember. But no.'

'It was McCoy's final display of immaturity during his Philadelphia homecoming. The others had come before and during the game.'