Loss to the Colts a bitter pill to swallow

Drew Bledsoe finally cracks the goal line for the Bills after 3 straight games Buffalo were held out of the endzone. He plunges from a yard out to get the Bills first score against the Colts.

[AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli]

Now it is four straight losses. The Buffalo Bills lost another one at home, this time to the Indianapolis Colts 17-14 on an otherwise beautiful day in Western New York. The Bills finally did score a touchdown, their first in 13 quarters. In fact, they made the endzone twice, but it wasn't enough as the Colts took over the game halfway through the 4th quarter on two long drives to comeback from a 14-3 deficit.

This was a game where the defense played one of its best games of the year, shutting down the high octane Colts to just 3 points for over 3 quarters. But in the end, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James were too much for the defense to hold in check as they showed the Bills what a good offense can do.

The Bills offense, while finally being able to crack the goose egg that has been haunting it for weeks, reverted back to old habits which were costly in the end. Bills quarterback Drew Bledsoe continued his woeful ways, managing to pass for only 137 yards hitting 15 of 28 passes. He was sacked twice and late in the game, through an interception that wiped out the last chance the Bills had to come back.

Travis Henry, playing despite having a crack in his right leg, was gallant, ripping off 77 yards on 22 carries. He had some long gains that were wiped out by holding penalties that would have put him over 100 yards.

Manning was much more precise than Bledsoe, hitting on 26 of 42 passes for 229 yards. It was the 15th time in his career that he led the Colts to a fourth-quarter comeback.

James had both the Colts touchdowns, one from a yard out with 1:38 remaining and the first was a 14-yard beauty, carrying a score of Bills to the endzone with him.

Lost season

With the Bills record now at 4-7, they are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff race. It is a wonder that Henry even played, let alone calling the entire season a wash with his broken leg. The courage he displayed and the loyalty to the team have to be commended. Too bad others on the offense couldn't be as valiant as Henry.

"It was cuts that I think I could have made and didn't," Henry described the limitations he had running. "I just tried to stay north and south the whole game. For the most part I did feel pretty good today."

The loss hurt Henry more than the leg.

"It's a tough pill to swallow," he said. "We should have had the game but we let it slip away. As far as myself, I went out and felt great. There was pain in my leg, but it was bearable. I came out all right, a little sore, but for the most part I feel pretty good. We came out and played great, but didn't play good enough to win the football game."

Next week the Bills travel to New Jersey to play the Giants.

Bills Talk

Bledsoe talked about the quarterback sneak that finally broke the Bills long streak of no touchdowns.

"The touchdown we felt like that the quarterback sneak was a good play against their line up front," said Bledsoe. "They try to get off the ball and get up field. The other one my guy was covered so I just tried to tuck it and run for it a bit."

But then Bledsoe talked about the more depressing matter of yet another loss.

"We came into this one with the idea that this was a playoff game for us," Bledsoe said. "We have to win the rest of them to get in. Now we are kind of on the outside looking in. We are going to come back and fight and do everything we can to win."

Manning, meanwhile, gave praises to the Bills defense that shut down the Colts for most of the game.

"I can't say enough about this Buffalo defense, they are good," said Manning. "We were patient, we had one turnover in the red zone and they did a good job in the third quarter. They did a lot of little things, but again we were patient."

James talked about what it took to come back.

"After you have been through the games that we went through, you just keep fighting," said James. "We know first hand that it's possible to win and you have to do what it takes to make it possible."

Finally, Lawyer Milloy made a statement that represented the Bills season in a nutshell.

"This whole year I feel like I'm in a Stephen King horror movie," described Milloy. "Every game is ending horribly. We're fighting hard. We're playing hard. We're doing so many things the right way. But we're just missing something. Believe me, the effort is there. That's what makes this so hard to swallow right now."

Copyright © 2003 Bills Thunder, all rights reserved.