Can Bills handle prosperity?
Here's a problem nobody expected coach Chan Gailey to be dealing with: prosperity.Yes, the Buffalo Bills - who haven't been to the playoffs in 11 seasons - are the buzz of the NFL sitting atop the AFC East with a 3-0 record.Buffalo snapped a 15-game losing streak last Sunday against New England 2-1, rallying from 21 points behind to score a 34-31 victory on Rian Lindell's chip-shot field goal as time expired.Oakland followed suit with a win over the Jets 2-1, leaving the Bills alone in first place in the division.After his team lost three overtime games a year ago and finished 4-12 overall, his first in Buffalo, Gailey is pleased with the mental toughness displayed thus far.The previous week, Buffalo rallied from 18 points down against the Raiders to win 38-35.Yes, you've got to have mental toughness to play in those games, said Gailey, whose team travels to Cincinnati next. We're getting closer. Now how do we handle prosperity? That'll be the next step for us. How you do handle prosperity.According to STATS LLC, the Bills are the first team in NFL history to have consecutive comebacks from 18 points or more down.The Bills pulled off the trick against New England by doing something few teams do: forcing quarterback Tom Brady into mistakes. His four interceptions, offsetting four touchdown passes, tied a personal high and were his most in a game since 2006.Buffalo turned those four Brady interceptions into 24 points, including a 27-yard touchdown return of a tipped pass by cornerback Drayton Florence. That put Buffalo up 31-24 with 10:22 left, but Brady tied the game on a fourth-down pass to Wes Welker.That set the stage for Ryan Fitzpatrick's heroics. Three pass plays of 29 yards to Donald Jones and 12 and 39 yards to running back Fred Jackson moved the ball to the Patriots 1-yard line. The Bills milked the clock to three seconds left and set up Lindell's winning boot.We've proven each and every week that we're going to play until the end, Florence said. It's time for those past Buffalo Bills memories to fade away. This is a new era, a new day.A new era of prosperity.The Patriots' streak over Buffalo stood as the third longest in NFL history, behind only Miami's 20-gamer vs. Buffalo in the 1970s and San Francisco's 17-gamer over St. Louis in the 1990s.The 15-game hex over Buffalo was a laugher; most of the scores were not close as Brady played near perfect football in most of those contests. But while he was on fire against the Bills once again - he threw for 387 yards - the Bills forced rare mistakes.Florence, Leodis McKelvin, George Wilson and Bryan Scott all finished with interceptions.Copyright C 2011 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved. PrintEmail a FriendFacebookTwitterStumbleUponGoogle BuzzYahoo!DiggDeliciousShare


Lions coming together with 3-0 start
The last time the Lions were in this position, Jim Schwartz was a skinny freshman in high school. Only a handful of his players were even alive.When the Lions play at Dallas next Sunday, they will be sporting their first 3-0 record since 1980.I know Dallas is a tough place to play regardless of our record, defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch said after the Lions beat the Vikings at Mall of America Field in overtime, 26-23. They have a lot of talent on that team. Last year, when we started 0-3 we knew we were doing the right things in practice and we kept doing them. We believed it. Now that we are winning, we need to keep working. That's what this team is about; we know how to work. We need to realize what got us to 3-0 and stick with it.You will have to grant them a solid 24 hours to savor this one, though. They hadn't won in Minnesota since 1997 13 straight losses and had lost 11 straight road games in the NFC North. And, they were down 20-0 at halftime.I said it before, it's not hope anymore, center Dominic Raiola said. We believe. Nobody freaked out at halftime. Nobody yelled. There is enough talent in this room, enough grown-ups, nobody has to yell. The belief that we have is unreal.We've been through hell and back. We've been 0-16. Can you get worse than that? No. When we go three-and-out, it's like, all right, let's get back up and chop that tree down. By the end of the game we had chopped at it enough that it fell.Quarterback Matthew Stafford was bruised and battered five sacks, eight hits and befuddled for two quarters. The Lions had just four first downs and 50 total yards. But he was able to neutralize the Vikings' aggressiveness with short, quick passes and eventually was able to beat them downfield.Tight end Brandon Pettigrew 11 catches, 112 yards, rookie wide receiver Titus Young four for 51 and running back Jahvid Best five for 74, including a 60-yard screen all helped the offense get back on track until the big dog was able to eat.Wide receiver Calvin Johnson wound up with seven catches for 108 yards and, for the third straight week, two touchdowns 32 and five yards. He is the first player in NFL history to achieve that feat. His 40-yard reception in overtime set up Jason Hanson's game-winning 32-yard field goal.Calvin just does his thing, Stafford said. I don't even know what to tell you. He's an unbelievable player.Stafford wound up hitting 32 of 46 passes for 378 yards.That was as good as it gets as far as testing this team, said Hanson, the last player remaining from the 1997 team. When you get down 20, no matter how good you are, you've just about buried yourself. The guys fought back. It's pretty amazing. That would not have happened the last few years here.Copyright C 2011 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved. PrintEmail a FriendFacebookTwitterStumbleUponGoogle BuzzYahoo!DiggDeliciousShare
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