Despite another slow start, QB Drew Bledsoe remains confident in his ability to lead the Buffalo Bills.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – His expectations dashed too many times, Eric Moulds has grown tired talking about how good the Buffalo Bills are supposed to be.

It’s time they started proving it.

“Talk is cheap,” the Bills’ star receiver said. “You can talk about it until you’re blue in the face. But you’ve got to take it to the field.”

Moulds raised his concerns after the Bills limped into their bye week following an 0-2 start.

It’s gotten so bad that questions have been raised whether Mularkey should consider benching quarterback Drew Bledsoe and going with journeyman backup Shane Matthews, whose last NFL appearance came with Washington in November 2002.

Mularkey backed Bledsoe as his starter. And Bledsoe responded defiantly to the criticism, by saying: “I’m the quarterback here and I’m going to be the quarterback here. And that’s what it is.”

It was an important and potentially rousing speech from Bledsoe, a 12-year veteran, who, going back to last year, has looked tentative and frazzled, the effects of being sacked 57 times in his last 18 games.

Bledsoe remains confident the mistakes the Bills are making are correctable and the team will get itself turned around.

Things don’t get any easier. Next up for the Bills is hosting New England today, facing a Patriots team that’s won 17 straight, one short of an NFL record.

This isn’t what Moulds expected from his supposedly improved team, featuring a new head coach in Mularkey, who brought in a new sense of hope and refreshed offensive philosophy. And it’s a start that’s discouraging to a player who, three years ago, placed his trust in the Bills by re-signing with the team, and turning down more lucrative offers.

It’s not to say Moulds has given up hope on this season already. But it’s no fun being part of a franchise that was among the NFL’s most dominant in the 1990s and, for the last three years, has been among the league’s worst.

Including their two losses this year, the Bills have gone 17-33 since the start of the 2001 season.

Not counting Houston, which entered the league in 2002, only two teams have won fewer games over that stretch: Arizona (16) and Detroit (12).

Even the once sad-sack Cincinnati Bengals have caught Buffalo, earning their 17th victory by beating Miami last weekend.

“That stings bad,” said Moulds, whose nine seasons with Buffalo rank him as this team’s longest-serving player. “You look at an organization like this that went to four straight Super Bowls, that’s used to being in the playoffs, used to the fans getting excited about it. And right now we don’t have that type of fanfare.”

They’ve instead got fanfuss, the result of a team that’s failed to make the playoffs since 1999, the last year the Bills enjoyed a winning season.

Much has changed since the “Music City Miracle,” in which the Bills lost the 1999 AFC wild-card playoff game to Tennessee on a last-second kickoff return.

Buffalo is now on its second general manager, Tom Donahoe, third head coach and third quarterback Drew Bledsoe. And yet, the common thread has been losing and frustration.

Donahoe, who took over in 2001, is taking heat for having so far failed in his bid to rebuild the Bills.

Former coach Gregg Williams lost his job after last year’s disappointing 6-10 finish, criticized by Donahoe for a team that lacked mental toughness.

Bledsoe, now in his third season with Buffalo, is being blamed for an offense that’s sputtered through consecutive 13-10 losses to Oakland and Jacksonville, showing little sign of improvement over last year’s troubles.

The only strength the Bills have is their defense, which returned 10 starters and appears to have picked up from last year’s strong season. Yet it’s not been enough to produce victories.

“It’s frustrating that you can’t win,” linebacker Takeo Spikes said. “We’re disappointed with where we are. But it’s still early. And that’s the biggest thing that we realize. Nobody is in panic mode.”

Backing the offense, Spikes is confident the Bills will improve.

“We’re real close. … But close don’t count,” Spikes said. “So we’ve got to find a way to win. And we will win.”