Two Bills Drive

‘” He’ll get enough attention when he produces on the field,” said defensive line coach Tim Krumrie. ” All my guys are going to have a big impact. They’re all going to play and they’re all going to roll.”‘

‘” I think everybody knows I can play,” Henry said. ” Ripping off that run, what people will say is, ‘ I knew he had the speed, I knew he could do it.’ There are people who will jump on the bandwagon. But I don’t feel (I was shutting people up).”‘

‘Thomas has spent most of his time with second- and third-teamers but has dressed for the Bills’ first two pre-season games where he has seen most of his time on special teams. There has been the odd bullet coming his way from Bledsoe in practice, though, for a real taste of the big leagues.’

”’Fred Graves is our wide receivers coach,” Steckel said. ”What happened is he came down with prostate cancer. Gregg came to me and said ‘I know you can coach wide receivers.’ So now I’m coaching the wide receivers and trying to look out the corner of my eye for the running backs and fullbacks. We’ve asked an intern coach to help oversee things until Fred comes back, but I’m busy with meetings. It’s been a challenge, but a good one. It speaks for the character guys Buffalo has.”’

‘”A huge offseason factor for us was, ‘How do we get better around Drew Bledsoe?’ ” coach Gregg Williams says. “He’s proven year after year he can play in this league. We had to get players around him to do their jobs so that we’re not just depending on him to win ballgames. Defense is a big part of that.”‘

‘Thurman Thomas will be at Eastview Mall Friday evening to introduce “Sports Legends Telecom.” Its top service provides home telephone service with unlimited local and long distance calls.’

”’If you went in the dictionary and looked under ‘Old-school football,’ you’d find Sam Gash’s picture,” said quarterback Drew Bledsoe. ”The guy just loves to hit. When he’s on the field, linebackers know he’s on the field. And a lot of times, if they’re smart, they’ll try to kind of duck and hide a little bit because he brings it when he comes to hit.”’

‘"(The Bills) definitely didn’t spend enough time on special teams even though they thought they were putting in enough time," Rogers said. "I was on special teams that were No. 1 in the league in Seattle, so I know what it takes. I was always going to the coaches for more special teams practice, and they didn’t use the best players they could on special teams. That kind of hurt."’

‘”I’m very glad to be a part this campaign,” said Reed. “All of us learned first-hand how common prostate cancer is when Coach (Fred) Graves was diagnosed last month. We’re all thankful that it was detected early and because of that he’s well on his way to a full recovery. Hopefully this program leads to more education, more screenings, and more successes in the battle against it.”‘

‘In order for the Bills to maintain a more balanced offensive attack this year they must avoid the yellow flag, something that Williams chalks up to inexperience in the preseason. "When you take a look at the guys that had them, especially in the second half, many of those guys that had them won’t be here," said Williams. "They won’t be here by the time we have to play a regular-season game."’

‘Although the odds are still stacked against him, he’s just happy to be in a program with a new-found emphasis on running the football. "These guys did a real good job tonight," he said. "Travis Henry did a good job with the long run he had, Olandis had two touchdowns and it was all nice. I’m just happy to be here with these guys. We’ll see how things work out."’

‘Also remaining up in the air, is its post-game coverage of home Buffalo Bills games.’

‘"We’ve got some good speed at the ends and we’re going to have some good battles overall with how many ends we keep on this team," said Bills coach Gregg Williams. "Keith does a very good job and he elevates his play on game day. He does a good job practicing, too, but he brings some speed to our end positions, and the fact that he can play both sides is helpful to him."’

‘”I really don’t look at the “gassers’ (wind sprints) as punishment for penalties. I think we needed the conditioning more so than anything else. I remember in Cincinnati we ran a streak without any penalties and we still ran gassers.” – Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes, who sat out Saturday’s game and still ran wind sprints following practice.’

‘” Gregg’s just trying to find a way to drive home the point,” said Pro Bowl guard Ruben Brown, who had a holding call against Tennessee. ” Is this how you fix it? We’ll see. But I’m behind whatever he decides to try.”‘