Archives for September 20, 2020

‘“During a dark time, during the drought, he was one of the bright spots for fans,” said Del Reid, the #BillsMafia co-founder and owner of 26 Shirts, explaining the enduring love for Fitzpatrick. “He had that gunslinger mentality. He was following Trent Edwards, who a lot of people used to call ‘Captain Checkdown’ and used to get frustrated with his conservative play. And maybe that wasn’t Edwards’ fault. Maybe that was the game planning. But when you remove Edwards and you put in place this guy who is not afraid to throw the ball, fans were excited to have any kind of vertical passing action going on with the offense.”’

‘At least in Week 1, the addition of Diggs did exactly what the Bills hoped it would for the offense – opened things up for those around him.’

‘They’ll bring him home and give him another chance. It’s been interesting to watch coach Sean McDermott’s reaction to Bass’ struggles against the Jets. You can really tell he’s doing all he can to keep the rookie’s confidence up. The Bills made a big decision to go with Bass over veteran Stephen Hauschka, and they desperately don’t want that to blow up on them. Perhaps converting a pair of chip-shot field goals in the fourth quarter against the Jets got Bass on the right track. Until he comes through in the clutch, though, there are going to be serious questions about what the Bills really have at kicker.’

‘“What (the pandemic) did is it forced every coach to be creative,” Johnson said. “That’s where I started making some (video) cutups and I’d say, ‘Hey, you’ve heard me reference this type of block. Here’s a little three-play cutup of three perfect examples of that block.’”’

‘And so today I’ll watch the Bills again. When they score, I’ll play the “Shout” song in my mind. And, for three blessed hours, I’ll do my best not to think about the bells tolling all across the continent, and around the world.’