Two Bills Drive

‘Greg Gumbel, Phil Simms and Armen Keteyian.’

‘The Buffalo Bills’ bye week offered their players, coaches, fans and analysts a free Sunday to either dwell on or forget last week’s humiliation at the hands of Drew Bledsoe’s former employer, the New England Patriots. Each of the above groups, save the guys who patched together Buffalo’s miserable offensive and defensive game plans, would do well to take the latter option. Getting undressed on national television couldn’t have boosted the self-esteem of the players or their faithful, especially after a three-game winning streak and 5-3 start launched premature playoff talk. But to put things in perspective, look back not one week, but 52. A year ago this bye week, the Bills staggered home after another loss to the Patriots, that one in New England. The 21-11 pounding dropped Buffalo to 1-7, with a blitz everyone in Foxboro Stadium could see coming, effectively ending the season for both Rob Johnson and the team he was supposed to save.’

‘Realistically, to win the division, or at very least earn a wild card berth, Buffalo must win 10 games. That means five more victories from games against the Chiefs, Jets, Dolphins, Patriots, Chargers, Packers and Bengals.’

Bid on several Buffalo Bills autographed items, including a Peerless Price autographed football and a 2002 Team Autographed Helmet.

Watch the plays of the week for Week 10.

A large part of NFL players and coach's day involves studying film- film of opposing teams and film of the home team.

Buffalo has been sort of hard to figure. It is still very much in the fight for the AFC East division title. It’s a tough place to go into; I’ve always felt this was the toughest place to go in and play. Buffalo will have the benefit of the bye week and see if it can rebound from that very disappointing loss to New England. The Bills are going against a weak defensive team; Kansas City was last in the league in pass defense. Buffalo will come in with Drew Bledsoe, Eric Moulds and Peerless Price. This could a game where there are a lot of points put up because Buffalo’s defense is suspect, too.

‘Through nine games the Bills have not only improved on the field with a 5-4 record, they’ve played to record TV audiences.’

‘When he spoke to the Georgia team, Kelly reminded them that athlete who gets the job done is not always the biggest or the fastest. "It is the one with the most heart," Kelly pointed out to them.’

With their third victory in the last four games, the Jets moved within a game of the other three division teams: Miami, New England and Buffalo all are 5-4 and are tied for first place in division.

(Nov. 7, 2002) — With nearly 18 million votes cast by fans on NFL.com, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre (317,986) leads all NFL All-Stars in balloting for the 2003 Pro Bowl, the NFL announced. Buffalo Bills quarterback Drew Bledsoe (294,091), the NFL’s leading passer with 2,802 yards, ranks second.

‘It seems Patriots fans driving in from New England for the game got some bum driving directions from the Internet mapping site Mapquest. The directions sent the travelers to Countryside Lane, just north of the University at Buffalo North Campus.’

‘”See what you hit,” Gray said. “If you see what you hit, I don’t think there can be any question that you dropped your helmet. You can say, ‘I squared up, I hit him right in the numbers, my facemask was on his body.’ If a guy gets hurt that way and you fine me, then there’s something wrong with the ruling.”‘

‘”That’s the thing a lot of young guys don’t do a lot — go up, form fit the guy, then get out of the way, and then finish that tackle in your mind,” Gray said. “That’s what the great ones do. If you don’t finish in your mind during the week, it’s hard to finish on Sunday.”‘

On Thursday, the team reported to the NFL that it held a mass tryout for 82 mostly obscure players, a figure that grew to 88 at the final count, said Scott Berchtold, Bills vice president of communications.