Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘ “I thought it was the wrong move,’’ said Ryan about being asked to bench Taylor last season. “I thought it sent the wrong message to the locker room, that ‘It’s OK, we’re not going to play him, because we’re out of it, but it’s OK to play you.’ How’s that guy going to feel? Well they went out and got beat by the Jets’ JV team, that’s what happened to them last year. We’ll see how they (Giants) respond.’’’

‘When he came to Buffalo in the trade that sent cornerback Ronald Darby to Philadelphia during training camp, Matthews was looked upon as a player who would help offset the departure of Sammy Watkins who, that same day, was dealt to the Rams. Instead, he has been a vast disappointment as he has just 24 catches for 268 yards and a touchdown in nine games for Buffalo.’

‘ Simple math says a 4-1 finish and 10 wins puts Buffalo in a lot better shape than 3-2 and nine wins, a scenario that will leave them playing tie-breaker roulette.’

‘But let me, the guy lovingly referred to as Ebenezer, remind Bills fans of the dose of reality that will arrive at New Era Field Sunday afternoon in the person of Tom Brady and the rest of those dastardly, despicably evil New England Patriots.’

‘If anyone saw this coming, props to you. And props to the Bills who ended their losing streak on the strength of a superb effort from a defense that had been the laughingstock of the NFL in allowing 135 points the previous three games. They handcuffed a Kansas City offense filled with weapons that simply weren’t firing and gained just 236 yards in the game.’

‘Of course, it’s a bit premature to call the Bills all healed. Let’s wait to see what happens this week when the world champion Patriots come to Orchard Park for the first in a three-game homestand. But for now, this was a day to rejoice because, as the Bills made mention of in some of their postgame comments and tweets, not many people gave them a chance to win, and they enjoyed doling out some crow.’

‘An outstanding job by Sean McDermott to out-coach his mentor, Andy Reid. McDermott’s team was reeling, partly of his own doing thanks to the QB fiasco from last week, but he had them ready to play in a hostile environment. He and Leslie Frazier put together a winning defensive game plan and Reid never really had any answers. Good job by Danny Crossman with the special teams plan against a team that has some legit returners. Now, as for offensive coordinator Rick Dennison, that just wasn’t good enough. The second half was a nightmare, and the Bills need to start figuring out how to move the ball consistently, not to mention score.’

‘The Bills have gone from 5-2 darlings of the NFL, to 5-5 laughingstocks, and now they’re confronted with a tremendously talented — albeit scuffling — Chiefs team in a place that his historically difficult for road teams to win, particularly the Bills.’

‘Greg Gumbel, play-by-play; Trent Green analyst, Jamie Erdahl, sideline reporter.’

‘I can’t lambaste McDermott for starting Peterman in Los Angeles because, when you analyze it, you realize that he had come to the same conclusion I, and many Bills fans, had already arrived at: Taylor is at his ceiling as an NFL player, and it’s not good enough to get the Bills to the postseason, at least not with the sub-par talent he has around him.’

‘Against the Saints, the Bills gained only 65 yards on 20 first-down plays, an average of 3.25 per play. However, when Taylor was in the game for the first 55 minutes, the Bills had a net of zero yards on 13 plays. Peterman came in and rolled up 65 yards in garbage time which helped the numbers significantly, meaningless as it was.’

‘After watching Peterman’s historic implosion in the 54-24 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, McDermott could have stubbornly stuck to his guns and stayed with the fifth-round draft pick. Instead, he swallowed his pride, basically admitted his mistake, and is going back to Taylor.’

‘Poor tackling is not inherent to Buffalo, it’s a league-wide problem. New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said earlier this season missed tackles have become “a little bit of a disease.” Certainly, it’s more prevalent for teams with the lowest-ranked defenses, and it’s tough to get fans to believe that not practicing tackling isn’t one of the reasons for the shoddy displays we so often see.’

‘ It’s only by cruel fate that mentor and student meet under these conditions, with each in position to hand the other another loss that will send their teams into worse free fall. They each need a win, not a stroll down memory lane.’

‘“I own the decision and that’s on me,” he said. “Sometimes you make decisions in leadership roles that work out and sometimes they don’t work out. You try to make every decision with the right agenda, that leads you to the decision. Obviously, it didn’t work out, so you go back and learn from it as we continue to build. This is part of the growth process, you go through these pains, it burns, it burns hard, and you don’t want that result that we had yesterday.”’