Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘The job is not over. They need to beat the Falcons and Jets in the last two games, both at Highmark Stadium, to clinch the division because even if the Patriots win out against the Jaguars and Dolphins, they can’t overtake Buffalo.’

‘“A learning experience,” McKenzie said of that humbling two-game stretch. “That was my first time sitting down in awhile and I just had to take it even, think to myself, ‘What can I do better?’ And I’d just show up to practice every day and get my teammates better, and do whatever I’ve got to do to make myself better for my teammates.”’

‘I’m not here to compare Josh Allen to Tom Brady, who I have to grudgingly admit is the GOAT. I wouldn’t dare. But Sunday afternoon, Allen put on a performance that rivaled anything Brady ever did to the Bills in this former land of misery nestled in the suburbs of Boston.’

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

‘Even if the Bills get wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders back for the game that will likely decide the AFC East division title, they will now be without arguably their second- and third-best receivers in Davis and Cole Beasley, also out because of COVID. Sanders practiced in full Thursday and barring a setback, it appears he’ll be ready to play.’

‘That game came down to one thing: Buffalo scored only one touchdown on four trips inside the Patriots’ 20-yard-line, including coming up completely empty on its last two possessions when a touchdown would have rendered all that New England running meaningless.’

‘“Yeah our last game with them, we were talking about it earlier today, was our worst tackling performance,” Poyer said Wednesday. “And it’s just something that, there’s so much you can do throughout a week but really getting that live situation that, those are the situations you got to bring the guy down. It’s not easy to tackle, but at the same time, definitely something that we’ve been working on since the offseason really, we’ve always worked on tackling. At the end of the day you’ve got to want to bring somebody down if you’re tackling somebody so it’s also a mindset.”’

‘This, of course, has been a fear all season. Beasley is a key member of the offense, but he was always going to be in danger of missing playing time due to his refusal to take the shot.’

‘“We’re not hurrying or hitting the quarterback often with our four as we would like,” Frazier said. “There have been some games on occasion where we’re really good at disrupting a quarterback with our four rushers, our four primary rushers, but not on a consistent basis, not as consistent as we would like. We’re still trying to get it to where it’s more consistent. We like being able to rush four. It helps our coverage, it helps everything we’re trying to do on defense. We just need to get a little bit more on a consistent basis than what we’ve been getting.”’

‘And she said Orchard Park sounds like the place the team wants to stay after also considering the potential of a downtown Buffalo stadium.’

‘This was not easy, though. The Panthers defense was good, and they were also aided by the fact that Buffalo trotted out an offensive line minus Dion Dawkins and still minus Jon Feliciano. A line, mind you, that isn’t very good even with those two on the field.’

‘It was exactly the type of performance the Bills needed, particularly after having lost their last two games which plummeted them to the brink of the dreaded “in the hunt” playoff category.’

‘On offense, it was good to see Brian Daboll find some running calls that worked, and he stayed patient with it as the Bills finished with 27 rushing attempts. And credit has to go to offensive line coach Bobby Johnson who had to deal with the last-minute changes of Dawkins and Feliciano going on the COVID list in the last 48 hours.’

‘Sal’s prediction: Buffalo Bills 27, Carolina Panthers 13.’

‘“I’ll start with what the medical team has shared with me and that’s that they’re comfortable with where he’s at and he continues to trend in the right direction,” McDermott said. “And then what I’ve seen through my own eyes at practice, just (Thursday), he seems to be able to execute the job description that goes along with the quarterback position.”’