Two Bills Drive

‘The Bills, expected to be one of the NFL’s most improved teams, were far from regular-season form. Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Bledsoe was just 5-of-11 for 47 yards and was forced to get rid of the ball early on several throws. The Titans had four sacks. ”They have a really good front,” Bills guard Ruben Brown said. ”They’re outstanding. If we can block them, we’ll be able to block anybody. As you see, we need a little more work.”’

‘Tennessee gave up one giant play, a 62-yard dash by running back Travis Henry, but it came after the Titans had started to insert backups. Take out that run and Tennessee yielded just 109 net yards before the half.’

‘McCareins made with three catches for 57 yards last night against the Bills. Two were touchdowns – a 2-yarder from Steve McNair and a 35-yarder from Billy Volek.’

‘Former Titans safety Marcus Robertson watched last night’s game from the safety of the press box. He admitted the game has changed since he came into the league 12 years ago. ”I was just sitting here looking at the Titans wide receivers,” he said. ”With the exception of Derrick Mason, all the wide receivers are 6-3, weigh 220 and run 4.3s. That’s scary.”’

‘Neither does Bills Coach Gregg Williams, a former Titans defensive coordinator and an unabashed McNair fan. ”Steve made some unbelievable plays for them to keep drives alive, but he’s done that to a lot of people,” Williams said. Yes, he has. And he’s not stopping yet.’

”’Being a preseason game, it was more relaxed,” Williams said. ”I could talk to the guys that I spent 11 years with. If it had been a regular season game, there wouldn’t have been much chit-chat. ”Since this is a team we will play again [Dec. 14] we didn’t have much to show them. We were vanilla, they were vanilla.”’

‘“We’ve got a lot of work to do when we get back to camp. Nobody should be resting easy with this ball game,” Williams said.’

‘Olandis Gary scored on an eight-yard run in the second quarter for the Bills. Travis Henry had a 62-yard run on the scoring drive.’

‘Volek went 10-for-16 for 127 yards and two touchdowns. His first strike went to WR Justin McCareins, another Titan veteran making a push for the starting lineup.’

‘”Our offensive line did a great job of keeping guys off me and not letting me get hit until I was five or six yards down field. Anytime that happens, it makes my job easier.”‘

‘One of the things is when you are getting ready to play a team later on we were as vanilla as you can get. They were vanilla, we were vanilla. Steve (McNair) made some unbelievable plays as far as continuing some drives for them. He kept some drives alive for them. He made some great physical plays. We couldn’t get off the field on third down. The physical battles, there weren’t any mismatch there, except for that quarterback position. He has done that to a lot of people. We basically stayed very vanilla. Not a lot of information transfer going on. We did not want a lot of that going on tonight.’

ESPN Game Day announced that Bills LB Takeo Spikes will not play against the Titans tonight. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

‘Phil and the Bills, a match made in sports hell. Both with enough talent to crush the competition … until the big one.’

‘No. 2 quarterback Alex Van Pelt probably will play just a series, like last week. Then No. 3 QB Travis Brown will enter and play probably for a full half.’

‘This summer, the depth situation is much improved. In fact, it looks like the team will have to cut two players it drafted in recent years by the time the roster is pared to 53 players.’