Buffalo News

‘The pick: Oakland over Buffalo by 3.’

‘Tailgate forecast: Damp and chilly, with a chance of light showers or occasional drizzle, especially early. 8 a.m. temperature: 41 rising to 46 by midday. Light northwest winds.’

‘“He was prepared and he took advantage of the opportunity,” coach Sean McDermott said. “That’s what we expect from all our players, that they prepare, they respect the process, and when their number is called, they perform no different than Taiwan.”’

‘“We have those conversations all the time,” Incognito said. “Me and him are constantly talking about winning and playoffs and legacy and leadership and how we want this thing to look and how we want it to feel.’

‘ESPN’s Adam Schefter obtained a letter sent Thursday from Bills General Brandon Beane to Boldin’s agent, Tom Condon, granting him permission to seek out a trade partner.’

‘Carr was the least-sacked quarterback in the NFL last season, even though the Raiders attempted the ninth most passes in the league. Carr’s career sack rate is sixth lowest in NFL history. He gets taken down just 3.99 percent of his pass attempts.’

‘CBS sent out a release today noting that its Sunday pregame show, “The NFL Today,” plans to preview Oakland’s game with the Bills “with a feature on the Raiders All-Pro linebacker “as he returns to Buffalo to take on the Bills.”‘

‘The 29-year-old Bowman may not be the outstanding coverage linebacker he was during his prime with the 49ers, yet he does have value diagnosing and stopping run plays.’

‘“Very, very well coached. They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they’re very opportunistic. I think they’re plus-10 in the turnover ratio this year so far. It’s because they are where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. We know that we need to protect the football. We need to be on point with our field landmarks that we were talking about earlier and timing in the passing game. They’re a good team up front. A couple of those guys are still there from when I was there. I know they’re hard workers and they’re going to be rallying to the football and finishing plays. We need to protect the ball and we need to be assignment sound to be able to put on a good showing against them.”’

‘“I was real legit scared,” White said. “I don’t like the suddenness of it, how they just pop out and do it. … I don’t like the dark too much. I sleep with a lamp on.”’

‘”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.’