Van Pelt On Coach: In his media day press conference Alex Van Pelt gave credit to Coach Williams. He said the coach gets the credit for keeping the team positive during this tough season. He went on to say how Williams emphasizes the positives and corrects the negatives. He feels Williams appreciates how hard the team has played and believes in his players. Van Pelt also credited the veterans for not giving up which has been a good influence on the younger players.

Henry Out: Travis Henry will not play this week. His injury is just a sprain but the team will be cautious and hold him out. It will be a week to week thing. Pat Williams remains out while Rob Johnson will resume light tossing this week but he won't practice or return at this point. Peerless Price will be held out of practice today as a precaution but he should be ready to go this week despite having a twisted ankle. Travares Tillman returns to practice today and should play on Sunday. Kenyatta Wright is also progressing well from his shoulder injury but is again listed as questionable. The team has four players out and three listed as questionable. Injury Report.

Bryson Gets His Chance: The coach feels the Henry injury is a great opportunity for Shawn Bryson to step up and do some things for the team. He will start in Henry's place but Sammy Morris is expected to also see an increased role.

Williams On The Rookies: Coach Williams held his usual Wednesday media day press conference at the stadium today. He talked about how good the rookies have been this year saying they have ranked right up with the top rookies in the league especially Nate Clements 62 tackles, 3 forced fumbles, and two touchdowns. Aaron Schobel's sack total of 6 1/2 also ranks right up there with the rookie leaders, he's third right now. Williams said this is very impressive considering neither player started at the beginning of the year. The coach feels that closing the season with three road games will be an opportunity for the team to take the next step in their development.

Holiday Schedule: The player are going to be given Monday and Tuesday off next week for the Christmas holiday. They will reconvene on Wednesday at the stadium to practice for the Jets game.

Falcons Preview: The Bills go into Atlanta to battle the struggling Falcons who are barely keeping their playoff hopes alive. Coming off of three straight losses Atlanta desperately needs to be the slightly improved Bills to stay remotely alive in the playoff race. Complete Preview.

Attendance Figures Down: The Bills are now finished with their home portion of the 2001 schedule. Thanks to a franchise low 1-7 home record attendance figures are down just shy of 7,000 fans per game. They finished with an average attendance of 63,092 per game. There were four sellouts and to crowds in the mid 40,000 range bringing the average down. The drop is the second biggest drop in the NFL this year but the average is still higher than the NFL average and ranks 19th in the league.

Controversial Loss: It seems when the Bills play the Patriots whatever can go wrong does. The Bills played a solid game defensively but controversy struck and the game ended in a tough loss. Thunder Report.

Monday December 17, 2001

Henry Undergoes Tests: Travis Henry is getting tested today on his sprained knee. Williams is hoping to know more about his condition later today or tomorrow. He was in some pain in the locker room after the game. There were no other significant injuries yesterday. Peerless Price did leave the game for a bit after twisting an ankle but he should be fine. Injury Page.

Williams Talks About Loss: Coach Williams wouldn't use the controversial call as an excuse for the loss. He said the team had plenty of opportunities to win. He is awaiting a clarification from the league office however. He said the call was open to a lot of interpertation and he expects that type of situation to get looked at in the off season. He talked about the contact in the game being good throughout the game with the aggressiveness of the defensive backfield and the improved play of the defensive line as the game progressed. The coach feels the team may have made more errors in last week's win then in this week's loss but the errors that were made were at inopportune times. He praised the play of Chris Watson saying he has good top end speed and came very close to making more big plays besides his first career interception.

Controversial Call Right: Even though Bills fans feel another controversial call went against them, it was the right call despite being very unusual situation. The rule book states that a ball is out of bounds when "a loose ball touches a boundary line or anything on or outside such a line." Referee Mike Carey explained the call, "On the play there is a reception by the receiver. He fumbled. The ball was loose in the field of play and while (the ball was) in contact with the receiver's calf, his head hit out of bounds. By rule, that's a loose ball. If a loose ball touches anything that is out of bounds, it is itself out of bounds and it would be in possession of the receivers. He had possession through the catch so then that team had possession and when the ball's out of bounds, it goes back to the last team with possession."

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