Two Bills Drive

‘The Vikings have won the past three meetings with the Bills, but six of the last seven matchups have been decided by seven points or less.’

‘Sportservice, the foodservice arm of Delaware North Cos., said it sold a season’s worth of bottled water during the Sept. 8 Buffalo Bills home opener at Ralph Wilson Stadium.’

The Bills and Vikings have met just nine times since their series began back in 1971. The Vikings hold a 7-2 edge in the match-up, including a 31-27 victory in the most recent meeting in 2000.

The Bills look to rebound from a tough season-opening loss in which they fell to the Jets 37-31 in OT last Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium. They'll get the chance to record win #1 this Sunday in Minnesota when they take on the Vikings at the Metodome. Kickoff is at 4:15 PM (ET).

‘Williams is well aware that his performance, while satisfactory, was not good enough. The Bills need him to improve every week.’

‘The 5-9, 220-pounder has a low center of gravity; Vikings cornerback Corey Chavous described his running style as having a bowling ball coming at you. And he clearly gets the ball rolling for the Bills’ offense.’

‘"There’s a lot of running quarterbacks in the league and people have their plans on how they believe they have to combat that," Bills coach Gregg Williams said. "It certainly is another dimension that’s harder to defend, especially when you get down in that red zone area where they can put points on the board with their feet. We’ll have to be very disciplined with our rush lanes. We’ll have to do a good job and pick and choose the times we allow him to have any kind of room to run the football because he’s almost like covering another receiver. You have to play coverage on him also with your defensive linemen."’

‘To the Vikings and their fans, Williams is a tease. As the fourth player selected overall in the NFL draft, Williams has done everything Vikings first-round pick Bryant McKinnie hasn’t: He has reported to training camp on time, improved steadily, bonded with veterans and upgraded the quality of the entire offense.’

‘”He said his goodbyes and wrote his letter in the newspapers, so this is something he could easily be doing for some high school in Buffalo. But there must be something still tugging at him in little ol’ Medfield. It’s a good feeling, not only for us, but for the entire community.”‘

‘"With me, the more times I touch it, the more I get into the groove," said Henry, who last season enjoyed as many as 27 carries in a game and as few as six. "I might make a cut, and there might not seem like anything’s there, but I’ll make something out of it because I’m in a rhythm, in a zone."’

After practice on Thursday, the second-year back answered some emails from fans. "My goal is to rush for 1,500 yards and score 12 touchdowns for the year."

‘"Those of us who are involved in football and in sports, a lot of times get put up on a pedestal," Donahoe pointed out. "People think that we’re different…that we’re not human beings. But we are and we were all affected one way or another. I remember talking to the players (on Sept. 11, 2001) and telling them things would never be the same because of the events of (that day). Emotionally, that date and the events of that date are something that’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives."’

"As we have a partial game plan in place for the upcoming game I will meet with the running backs and wide receivers to go over that together. This way we can work out some of the nuances and become familiar with the plan together. I foresee it to be a weekly thing."

Thirty-one years ago, wide receiver J.D. Hill led Arizona State to an undefeated season. He was named to the All-America team and was MVP of the Senior Bowl. Yet surprisingly, he didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the NFL and certainly wasn’t sitting next to the telephone during that year’s draft.

‘Just how the Bills go about defending the National Football League’s most dangerous big-play receiver will go a long way toward deciding Sunday’s meeting of 0-1 teams.’