LifetimeBillsFan
09-18-2006, 03:44 PM
While Peter King did not acknowledge his prior comments about being Shirley Temple if the Bills did not go 0-2 to start the season, all of the emails that he has been getting from Bills fans must be having an effect on him because he gave the Bills a lot of credit for their win in his article this week:
"NEW YORK -- Amani Toomer's IV bags. Tom Brady's voice. Buffalo's surprisingly Killer D. Rex Grossman playing superbly. Brett Favre's back-to-the-future day. Those are the Week 2 things that really stood out to me from my perch in the fifth-floor command center of NBC's Football Night in America and from a lot of phone calls afterward...."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/index.html
"....Buffalo might be a contender. The Bills have now beaten up the Patriots in one division road loss and embarrassed the Dolphins in a road win. The common element in both games: The Bills' defense is playoff-caliber. "The NFL didn't do us any favors with the schedule,'' linebacker London Fletcher told me. "But you just play what the schedule says. Now at least I think we've shown that when you play us, it's going to be a long day.''
In eight quarters, Buffalo has not allowed a rushing touchdown and has 10 sacks and at least 12 additional quarterback pressures. Fletcher credits new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell's system. "Nothing against coach [Jerry] Gray's scheme, but there was so much in it,'' Fletcher said. "This is simpler. Not as much to think about, more reacting than thinking. It lets us cut loose and get to the quarterback.''....
"....Daunte Culpepper is in trouble. I couldn't see it in the game against Pittsburgh, because he made some plays and got the offenses revved up two or three times during that one. When he stalled, I attributed it to first-game struggles. The Bills saw it differently. Troy Vincent, who got put on injured reserve last week (even though he has only a two-week hamstring injury), studied the Bills with his mates all week. "Daunte's nowhere near as mobile as he used to be,'' Vincent told me. "And he's staring down his receivers. He gets a quick read, then he locks onto his guy. We knew if we could get to him consistently, he wouldn't be able to make the plays he wanted to.'' ....
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/1.html
"13. Buffalo (1-1). Bills defensive end Ryan Denney, all 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds, will be a nightmare for Daunte Culpepper for a long time. Three sacks and several pressures do that...."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/2.html
"....Defensive Player of the Week
Aaron Kampman, DE, Green Bay. Sometimes great days get lost when teams get beat up on defense. But this one shouldn't. Kampman terrorized Drew Brees of the Saints, sacking him three times, and he added two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. I could have given this award to the Buffalo defense, or to Trent Cole of the Eagles (before he had the stupid kicking penalty late in the Eagles' disastrous loss), or to Ed Reed of the Ravens, or to the Chargers for stifling the Titans, or to about six guys on the Bears. But Kampman was a monster in defeat.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Coy Wire, S, Buffalo. You can't block a punt much better than Wire did in the third quarter of the Bills' 16-6 win over Miami. He slithered through the line, burst into the backfield and smothered the punt. Beautiful, textbook example of what a smart special-teamer does to wreck a punt play -- and he did it against a coach, Nick Saban, who prides himself on kicking teams...."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/3.html
b. Buffalo's defense might be the real thing. The Bills were all over Daunte Culpepper.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/5.html
While King didn't go so far as to admit that he was dead wrong about the Bills, at least he has written about them in a positive way throughout the article, which is more than can be said for some media outlets, like ESPN which has virtually ignored the Bills win over Miami as much as a sports television network can avoid mentioning an NFL game on a Monday morning.
It was also interesting to hear Chris Russo say to Mike Francesa, who had praised the Bills' defense, on their "Mike and the Mad Dog" radio show on WFAN in NYC this afternoon, "Maybe the Bills are better than we thought they were!"
Well, at least the Bills win over Miami has some people in the media around the country thinking about the team and starting to reassess the way that they had disparaged the Bills prior to the season. Another nice win or two might actually result in the team getting some more positive attention, which would be nice.
"NEW YORK -- Amani Toomer's IV bags. Tom Brady's voice. Buffalo's surprisingly Killer D. Rex Grossman playing superbly. Brett Favre's back-to-the-future day. Those are the Week 2 things that really stood out to me from my perch in the fifth-floor command center of NBC's Football Night in America and from a lot of phone calls afterward...."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/index.html
"....Buffalo might be a contender. The Bills have now beaten up the Patriots in one division road loss and embarrassed the Dolphins in a road win. The common element in both games: The Bills' defense is playoff-caliber. "The NFL didn't do us any favors with the schedule,'' linebacker London Fletcher told me. "But you just play what the schedule says. Now at least I think we've shown that when you play us, it's going to be a long day.''
In eight quarters, Buffalo has not allowed a rushing touchdown and has 10 sacks and at least 12 additional quarterback pressures. Fletcher credits new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell's system. "Nothing against coach [Jerry] Gray's scheme, but there was so much in it,'' Fletcher said. "This is simpler. Not as much to think about, more reacting than thinking. It lets us cut loose and get to the quarterback.''....
"....Daunte Culpepper is in trouble. I couldn't see it in the game against Pittsburgh, because he made some plays and got the offenses revved up two or three times during that one. When he stalled, I attributed it to first-game struggles. The Bills saw it differently. Troy Vincent, who got put on injured reserve last week (even though he has only a two-week hamstring injury), studied the Bills with his mates all week. "Daunte's nowhere near as mobile as he used to be,'' Vincent told me. "And he's staring down his receivers. He gets a quick read, then he locks onto his guy. We knew if we could get to him consistently, he wouldn't be able to make the plays he wanted to.'' ....
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/1.html
"13. Buffalo (1-1). Bills defensive end Ryan Denney, all 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds, will be a nightmare for Daunte Culpepper for a long time. Three sacks and several pressures do that...."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/2.html
"....Defensive Player of the Week
Aaron Kampman, DE, Green Bay. Sometimes great days get lost when teams get beat up on defense. But this one shouldn't. Kampman terrorized Drew Brees of the Saints, sacking him three times, and he added two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. I could have given this award to the Buffalo defense, or to Trent Cole of the Eagles (before he had the stupid kicking penalty late in the Eagles' disastrous loss), or to Ed Reed of the Ravens, or to the Chargers for stifling the Titans, or to about six guys on the Bears. But Kampman was a monster in defeat.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Coy Wire, S, Buffalo. You can't block a punt much better than Wire did in the third quarter of the Bills' 16-6 win over Miami. He slithered through the line, burst into the backfield and smothered the punt. Beautiful, textbook example of what a smart special-teamer does to wreck a punt play -- and he did it against a coach, Nick Saban, who prides himself on kicking teams...."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/3.html
b. Buffalo's defense might be the real thing. The Bills were all over Daunte Culpepper.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/09/18/mmqb.9.18/5.html
While King didn't go so far as to admit that he was dead wrong about the Bills, at least he has written about them in a positive way throughout the article, which is more than can be said for some media outlets, like ESPN which has virtually ignored the Bills win over Miami as much as a sports television network can avoid mentioning an NFL game on a Monday morning.
It was also interesting to hear Chris Russo say to Mike Francesa, who had praised the Bills' defense, on their "Mike and the Mad Dog" radio show on WFAN in NYC this afternoon, "Maybe the Bills are better than we thought they were!"
Well, at least the Bills win over Miami has some people in the media around the country thinking about the team and starting to reassess the way that they had disparaged the Bills prior to the season. Another nice win or two might actually result in the team getting some more positive attention, which would be nice.