Bills clobber Bengals to close season

By Rick Anderson

Bills corner Antoine Winfield delivers a helmet jarring hit on Packers wideout Terry Glenn in Bills 10-0 loss in Green Bay.

[AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli]

Now it's time to reflect. The Bills topsy-turvy 2002 season ended with a victory Sunday as the Bills trounced the Cincinnati Bengals 27-9. The Bills coaching staff will have plenty of time to find out what went right and things they could have improved on.

It was a like two different seasons for the Bills. They came out with the top offense in the league as Drew Bledsoe was ripping off 300-yard games like he was the second coming of Jim Kelly. Unfortunately, the league caught up with Bledsoe and he went into a tail spin the rest of the season. However, against the Bengals, Bledsoe showed some of his early season form as he threw for 231 yards, completing 23 out of 31 passes and one touchdown. Bledsoe also ran for a 7-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

Bledsoe capped a roller coaster season himself when he broke all the Bills passing marks with 4,359 passing yards. That topped any season that Kelly and Joe Ferguson ever had. Bledsoe would like to have a more games like he did against the Bengals rather than the highs and lows he had most of the season.

The Bills took a 6-0 lead into the second quarter on two Mike Hollis field goals and then started to make things happen. Bledsoe had his 7-yard sneak for a score, and then he connected with Eric Moulds from 2 yards out to make it 20-0. The Bills took a 20-3 lead into the locker room at halftime and added their final score when Larry Centers plowed in from 4 yards out.

The Bills felt they had a chance to make the playoffs this year if they had a couple of breaks go their way this season. The opener against the Jets was there for the taking, but a couple of long kickoff returns for touchdowns, especially the one in overtime, did them in. As it was, the Bills finished 8-8, a vast improvement over the 3-13 season last year.

"We are disappointed, but at the same time very optimistic looking forward to what we have," projected Bledsoe.

Bills owner Ralph Wilson was pleased with the turnaround.

"I'm satisfied with 8-8 from where we were," Wilson said. "Coming from where we were, we were worse off than an expansion team. I think the improvement's been terrific."

Moulds reaches the century mark

Eric Moulds had the best season ever for a Bills receiver, as he finished the season with 100 receptions. Against the Bengals, he hauled in 9 of Bledsoe's passes for 75 yards and one touchdown.

"Milestones are good but if I would've had the 100-catch season with us going to the playoffs next week it would've been a lot better," admitted Moulds. "We have something else to shoot for."

Peerless Price, who is a free agent after this season, grabbed 6 short of Moulds for 94 receptions. Price and Moulds were the 1-2 combo that Bledsoe took full advantage of in the first half of the season and those two are also 1-2 in the Bills record book for single season receptions.

Travis Henry finished the season rushing for 1, 438 yards, #5 in the Bills all-time season mark. He gained 80 yards on 30 carries against the Bengals.

The Price will have to be right

For Peerless Price to return in a Bills uniform, the Bills will have to come close to matching any offer he may get from other teams. His 94 receptions has opened a lot of eyes and it couldn't have come at a better time for Peerless. He said he would like to stay with the Bills, but money will definitely play a factor.

"Like I said all along, I'll take less to stay here but I'm not going to take substantially less," insisted Price. "If it's comparable to what people are offering, then I'll stay here without a shadow of a doubt."

Jay Riemersma is also a free agent, but at the price he will demand, it is very doubtful that the Bills long-time tight end will be playing in Buffalo next year.

"Every team deals with players coming and going,"said Bledsoe. "Obviously Peerless and Jay are very important to this offense and have been, they're outstanding football players. We'd love to have them back. I know they both want to stay, I've talked to them personally."

Bills Talk

The Bills headed to the locker room for the last time this year. It will be a different club next season that takes the field next August. Bills Head Coach Gregg Williams knows his work has just started in gearing for the opening kickoff next September.

"I am very confident of the young nucleus we've developed," put in Williams. "We'd like to take the next step and get in the playoffs. We've got to get a couple more holes filled, and that will start tomorrow."

Bills GM Tom Donahoe talked about all the rhetoric going around this year about Williams being fired after this season.

"I think under the circumstances, some of the criticism that was thrown at Gregg was unfair," Donahoe said. "I think it was unwarranted. I think it has been unwarranted all year, to be very honest."

"I think he did an excellent job," Donahoe went on. "Our coaches in two years have not operated with a full roster. Next year we will. And I'm anxious to see them coach and perform with a full complement of players."

Travis Henry was one of the brightest spots for the Bills this season. While he did have his share of fumblitis, Henry turned out to be a workhorse that the Bills will have to employ a lot in future years in order to be successful.

"It was a good season," said Henry. "We have a lot of new faces on this season that had to come together, especially Drew and London. It has just been a great year. We wanted to finish the season on a strong note."

"As an offense, we have to be more consistent week in and week out," continued Henry. "We have the talent to turn this league out but we have to be more consistent and stay more focused. I think sometimes we got too comfortable because we know what we're capable of doing. When we got like that, we couldn't put up points."

The Bills defense was very porous for most of the year. But the Bills D improved as the season wore on and the last few weeks they almost carried the team.

"We know we're a better team than we played all year," Bills safety Pierson Prioleau admitted. "You can look back and second guess yourself and say, ‘We should have won this game and we could have won that game,' but we won't do that. You want to go to the show. Everyone wants to go to the show. We had to make the plays and we didn't. We had to find a way to win and we didn't. As long as you don't do that, you don't go to the show."

Copyright © 2002 Bills Thunder & Rick Anderson, all rights reserved.