Two Bills Drive

Few players know more about catching footballs, running patterns, staying in shape – just stuff about the game – than Lofton, who is beginning his second year as the Chargers’ receivers coach. And fewer still are articulate enough to explain it all at a level only a physicist could understand as well as at a level only a raw-boned rookie from an SEC school could grasp.

‘Fletcher said the crowd of 37,818 9,000 were walk-ups helped fire him up. So did Buffalo’s starting defense, which looks vastly improved from a year ago. ”When I went out there and saw my friends and family it really got the juices flowing,” he said. ”I just fed off the energy of the crowd.”’

Most eyes, from a Bills perspective, will be on all the newcomers and changes this off-season brought.

Bill Walsh was in his first weeks as coach at Stanford when he found Lofton, who was preparing for his senior year. “Bill was the first collegiate coach, in football, who had confidence in me,” Lofton says now.

‘It doesn’t matter whether it’s St. John Fisher or Berea, Ohio, every single practice session so far this summer, the best player on the field is Eric Moulds.’

‘Last year the Bills did not get a single interception from the safety position.’

‘"I can’t think of a guy who deserves it more because of what he stood for in the league," said former Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson, a member of the ’73 draft class. "Joe D. was that hard-nosed player who played every game. He never took a day or a play off, played when he was hurt and really exemplified what the NFL is supposed to be about."’

‘” Football is special here,” said Winfield, who grew up in nearby Akron. ” In Ohio, all kids want to go to Ohio State and play for the Cleveland Browns.”‘

‘The first-string and second-string units will each get 15-play segments with the following breakdown: Nine plays run like a normal game, so if you achieve a first down, you keep moving downfield, and if you don’t you return to the original drive starting point, probably the 25-yard line. Snaps 10, 11 and 12 will be red zone plays from the 20, and snaps 13, 14 and 15 will be goal-line plays from the 2.’

‘The Bills got the best of it on 11-on-11 drills during the morning practice.’

”’I remember driving down to Cleveland from Buffalo and thinking to myself, ‘Why did the Browns trade for me?’ ” DeLamielleure recalled Thursday as he visited Browns training camp. ”I mean, the Browns already had a line that had been together a long time and was pretty good.”‘

‘Buffalo’s defense mastered the Browns’ running game, which lost Jamel White in the morning session due to a hamstring problem. William Green and James Jackson often spun their wheels.’

‘More than 20,000 tickets were sold in advance, and the club expects a crowd in the 30,000 range.’

‘”He was kind of the missing piece we needed,” retired Bills head coach Marv Levy told The Associated Press. “We had a great quarterback and two good receivers, but we were a three-receiver offense.”‘

”’It can be unsettling,” he said, ”more so because it’s a media frenzy than what happens within the team. So that’s what falls on the two quarterbacks to squash that as fast as they can.”’