Archives for October 21, 2018

‘“And I think it’s because everybody understands the urgency of what’s happening, everybody being the players. Everybody needs to play to their abilities and play good football. And when everybody can do that, it makes the quarterback’s job a little bit easier. Not that I want to say it’s ever easy, but it definitely takes a little off the quarterback when everybody’s playing up to their potential.”’

‘Coach Sean McDermott said the Bills are still “working through” who will be back for punts. McDermott was not pleased with rookie Ray-Ray McCloud, who fumbled twice in Week 6, one on a kickoff, one on a punt, losing the latter. McCloud, who did not make the trip to Indianapolis for a personal matter, was benched after his fumbles for sure-handed safety Micah Hyde. That’s not an ideal situation for the team, though, as Hyde is much too valuable on defense to be subjected to the punishment that punt returners can take. Perhaps the Bills give Marcus Murphy another crack at the job. He figures to be active Sunday with Taiwan Jones out because of a neck injury.’

‘Colts 17, Bills 13.’

‘On this play, Colts defensive tackle Margus Hunt (92) and defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad (97) crashed inside and took out three Texans blockers. That left linebacker Anthony Walker (50) free to loop around and stop the zone run off right tackle. The Texans’ left tackle (74) wanted to move out and get a piece of Walker. But he was unable to disengage from Muhammad in time.’

‘You can’t say, “OK, we had a great week of prep last week, it’s going to carry us over this week.” That’s just not how it works. You can look around the league, you have six, seven, eight teams that won last week, then lost this week. Sustained success is a grind in this league.’

‘Even if he doesn’t return or struggles when he does, though, I still don’t believe the Bills would move on from Allen so soon. They’ll justify that by saying his injury didn’t give them time for a full evaluation – which is fair – or by rationalizing that Allen will look better with a stronger supporting cast. Again, that could be true.’

‘“To impact a kid like that, I don’t know who he is, but to see the enjoyment in his eyes, it feels good,” McCoy said. “As a ball player, we get so focused on our job … then you get back to reality when you come here. To see a kid’s reaction, throwing the ball to them – when they go home tonight, they’re going to tell older brothers or parents about the experience they had with us today. Don’t get me wrong. It’s for sure about winning championships, winning games, making money, having fun, taking care of family, but the bigger platform we have is stuff like this, to really impact the kids. That’s the next generation.”’