Two Bills Drive

Buffalo Bills News and Discussion

Archives for December 25, 2017

What They Said: McDermott, Benjamin, Hughes, Taylor, McCoy on officiating, playoffs and more

‘Red zone. You get in the red zone, you’ve got to be able to score touchdowns against a good team. Jerry, you mentioned this, a good team and good quarterback. You have got to be able to score touchdowns in the red zone and we weren’t able to do that today. We had some good drives in the first three quarters of the game. In particular, going in before half and coming after half. We knew that would be important for us and almost a flip of the first game against New England where they had the ball going into the half and after the half, and then had the ball again. We knew those drives would be critical and then came away with, as opposed to two touchdowns, came away with two field goals.’

Five things to know about the Miami Dolphins, the Bills’ Week 17 opponent

‘How are the Bills in hot weather? The News reported earlier this month that playing in cold weather has surprisingly not seemed to help the Bills play better at home – they have virtually the same record all-time when the temperature is below 40 degrees than when it is above 40 in Western New York. How do the Bills do in hot weather? The Weather Channel’s long-range forecast is calling for a high temperature of 79 degrees next Sunday in Miami. The Bills are 27-34-1 all-time (.444) in games at 75 degrees or above, per Pro Football Reference data. Only eight of those games have come at home, with the Bills going 4-4. They’re 14-20-1 (.414) in those temperatures at Miami.’

Bills gave it quite a fight for a while, but as usual the Patriots prevail

‘This one was pretty simple: The Bills offense failed time and time again in the red zone, settling for field goals instead of touchdowns, and that’s never going to be a recipe for success against Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski and any other number of Patriots who routinely kill the Bills.’

The Patriots never need help from the officials to beat the Bills, but they got some

‘So was everyone else who isn’t a Patriots fan, including two former heads of NFL officiating, Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino, both of whom now do analysis on separate TV networks. Both tweeted that Kelvin Benjamin’s magnificent 4-yard catch in the back right corner of the end zone should not have been overturned by replay. It was clear to everyone but the guys making the actual call that Benjamin had both feet in bounds, with possession of the ball.’

Bills report card: Buffalo run defense was awful against the Patriots

‘In both games against the Patriots, the Bills were awful against the run. They yielded 191 in the game at Buffalo, and 193 Sunday as Dion Lewis piled up 129 yards. Lewis, the guy whose name Rex Ryan didn’t know in 2015, has become a new Bills killer, adding to a long list. He had one rushing TD and also caught a screen pass for a TD. Naturally, with Mike Gillislee active for the first time in six weeks, the ex-Bill got his chance to stick it to the Bills and he scored on a 1-yard run. LB Preston Brown played very well with 14 tackles, and CB Shareece Wright was next with nine. The Patriots achieved 13 first downs via the rush, an unusually high total for them.’