Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘Sal’s prediction: New England Patriots 20, Buffalo Bills 17.’

‘His worst game came in that unconscionable loss at Jacksonville when he threw two picks in the third quarter and lost a fumble in the fourth and they were all on him.’

‘“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Dane,” McDermott said. “He’s been out there before and he just needs to be Dane Jackson and not Tre’Davious White and we’ll support him with the pieces we have around him.”’

‘Against two of the best running teams in the league – who undoubtedly have two of the best backs in the league in Tennessee’s Derrick Henry and Indianapolis’ Jonathan Taylor – the Bills got steamrolled. Henry gained 143 yards and scored three touchdowns and Taylor ran for 185 yards and had five touchdowns, four of them on the ground. Buffalo lost both games.’

‘He smiled like any quarterback would and said, “Beautiful. But you got to play in the elements when you play in Buffalo, too, and I said this a few weeks back, my college coach said, ‘If you want to win in the North Atlantic you better train in the North Atlantic.’ So it’s good that we get to have it here and whatever the weather has in store for us, we’ll have to adjust and find out, but so does the other team.”’

‘Levi Wallace will have to assume the No. 1 corner responsibilities, and Jackson – a seventh-round pick in 2020 who has had occasional flashes in his brief playing time coupled with plenty of inconsistency – has to make a quantum leap into an every-down player.’

‘“Yeah, a little bit,” Breida said. “I told him don’t worry about it, your time is gonna come again. We’ll come back to you. Especially with the NFL, there’s so many injuries that happen, you never wish for them, but they happen. Isaiah is a great player, so we’ll come back to him. And like I said, you just have to be ready and know your role on the team.”’

‘Jackson was embroiled in a battle to start at the cornerback spot opposite White during training camp, but Levi Wallace won that battle rather easily.’

‘“I’ve got a lot of family in Louisiana and a lot of my family is in Texas so I basically played for free,” Oliver said with a big smile. “My mom was in the (luxury) box so I played for free. But I know they appreciate it.”’

‘What transpired in the second quarter was borderline ridiculous. The offensive line was so bad that Josh Allen could not function. It’s amazing that the Bills were able to get a field goal from Tyler Bass early in that quarter. Of course, they only had to drive 38 yards because Mario Addison came up with a huge fourth-down stop near midfield.’

‘McDermott has had to do this a couple times now, getting his team back on track after an egregious loss, and he’s 2-for-2 following the Jacksonville and Indianapolis games. And this time he had to do it on a short holiday week on the road. That’s impressive. One thing I didn’t like was his wasted timeout in the fourth quarter when all he was doing was trying to draw the Saints offside before punting.’

‘Sal’s prediction: Buffalo Bills 23, New Orleans Saints 21.’

‘If ever there was a good week for a Thursday night game, this is it for the Bills who desperately want to take their focus away from the way they were manhandled last Sunday by the Colts.’

‘The league wasn’t interested in playing a national game at Buffalo’s decrepit War Memorial Stadium, especially in late November, but it was fine with scheduling the Bills as the road team against New York in 1961, San Diego in 1964 and 1965, and Oakland in 1966 and 1968.’

‘That said, this 2021 season is on the fast track to becoming one of the most disappointing in Bills history because at this point, the one-time national media darlings are a shell of the team most of us thought they would be.’