Archives for October 26, 2017

‘”That’s definitely not what we want on our résumé,” defensive end Ryan Davis said Wednesday. “We take pride in our pass defense and our pass rush, and we feel like up front, we didn’t affect him enough, whether it be because of play-action or whatever. We just didn’t affect him enough, and we’ve got to give our guys back there some help. We take pride in that. We understand that we’ve got to buckle down and do our job and do it a little faster.’

‘Teams have been throwing on them, to be sure. The Bills have allowed an average of 350 passing yards the last two games, dropping them to 26th in pass defense. But they’re fourth in the most important stat — points allowed — and a stingy run defense has a lot to do with it.’

‘”We’re winning games, but we’re not playing our best ball,” he said. “That’s major. If we were playing our best ball, we might be winning games by bigger margins. So it feels a lot different than last year.”‘

‘“He had written me a letter just kind of voicing his opinion about the protest. Outside of that, he said he didn’t agree with me about everything, but just wanted to have a discussion and get a little perspective from my end and maybe offer something,” Alexander said Wednesday. “Obviously I’ve wanted to talk to somebody from the opposite side. A lot of people on Twitter yell at you, or I’ve got a couple angry letters as well, so I never want to meet with those people, because you’re not going to have a conversation. I liked his demeanor about it, the tone of his letter.”’

‘Again, don’t really know what [happened last year]. I know what we’re doing and that’s really just guys understanding their job. A phrase of gap integrity, being gap-sound, staying in your gap, however you want to say it. There [are] a lot of different ways to say it. It’s just doing your job, knowing what the man next to you is doing whatever his job is, and playing with proper leverage; after that, it really comes down to really just fundamentals.’

‘The Bills sent cornerback Kevon Seymour to the Panthers for Clay and a 2019 seventh-round pick. Given that Clay ended up being released for corner depth and made almost no impact, maybe the Bills would’ve been better off keeping Seymour.’

‘Regardless of what McDermott has seen on film of Dareus, there’s no doubting the veteran defensive tackle has not been as effective as a pass-rusher so far this season — and remember, his role may be different now than it had been in previous years.’

‘White owns the fourth-highest overall grade on the season among 113 qualifying cornerbacks. By PFF’s tracking, only Colts cornerback Rashaan Melvin has more pass breakups (nine) than White’s eight. The passer rating he’s given up has increased over the past two games but currently sits at 86.3, the 54th-lowest at his position.’

‘Playoff simulations from The New York Times and the betting site betlabsports.com give the Bills just under 50 percent chances to end the drought. Football Outsiders, meanwhile, is much higher on the Bills, giving them a 64.2 percent chance at the playoffs because its simulations think the Bills have a better chance at beating the Patriots to win the division than other sites.’

‘Hartman isn’t the only college basketball coach from the Western New York area who carries an eternal flame for the Bills. He’s friends with other coaches around the country who hail from the Buffalo area, including Desmond Oliver and Rob Lanier at the University of Tennessee, Pete Herrmann at Young Harris College, Aaron Marshall at Radford University and Adam Cohen at Stanford University. They use their mutual love of the city and the Bills to stay connected.’