Inside The Bills

Bills to work out DT Lake?

According to Scout.com’s Adam Caplan the Bills will be working out DT Antwan Lake today.

Here’s his twitter post.

caplannfl: DT Antwan Lake to workout with the Bills Tuesday.

Per team policy the Bills do not confirm player workouts, but the team typically conducts player workouts on Tuesdays every week so it would not be surprising.

The Bills could be shorthanded at DT this week if starter Kyle Williams is unable to play Sunday due to a shoulder strain sustained in Sunday’s game against the Jets. So the report makes sense.

Lake (6’4″ 308) is a six-year NFL vet who last played for New Orleans. He’s also played for Atlanta and Detroit in his career. His best season was in 2005 when he had 3.5 sacks and a safety. Lake is 30-years old and went undrafted as a rookie in 2002.

Byrd up for NFL rookie of the week

Bills FS Jairus Byrd is up for NFL rookie of the week after his two interception performance against the Jets last week in a 16-13 overtime win.

His second pick led to Buffalo’s game-tying TD. So be sure to vote for Jairus. The winner will be announced on Friday.

Panthers add a DT

The Carolina Panthers have been struggling in defending the run ever since Ma’ake Kemoeatu went down with a season-ending injury in training camp. They also lost one of his replacements (Louis Leonard) in Week 2. So the Panthers made a trade with the Chiefs to acquire DT Tank Tyler before the deadline.

Tyler, a former college teammate of John McCargo’s at N.C. State will add some beef to the middle of Carolina’s defensive run front this week against the Bills. The Panthers also recently signed veteran Hollis Thomas to shore up their defensive interior. Carolina gave up a fifth-round pick for Tyler.

The Panthers have already parted with two other draft picks for next season including their first-rounder, which they shipped to San Fran during the draft last April. They also parted with their sixth-round pick to get Louis Leonard from the Browns, who is not out for the year.

Owens among most dangerous WRs

In this week’s Sports Illustrated poll NFL players were asked to vote for who they thought was the league’s most dangerous receiver.

296 NFL players were asked “Who is the Dangerous Wide Receiver in the NFL?”  Most players picked the Arizona Cardinals’ Larry Fitzgerald (37%), followed by the New England Patriots’ Randy Moss (15%), the Houston Texans’ Andre Johnson (14%), the Carolina Panthers’ Steve Smith (10%) and the Buffalo Bills’ Terrell Owens (6%).

Defensive backs as a group also had Fitzgerald at the top with over 29% of their vote. Andre Johnson was second.

Jerry Gray to take over Skins?

Redskins head coach Jim Zorn has been on the hot seat for the better part of a month now, and has had play calling duties stripped from him and handed to Sherm Lewis a consultant hired all of a week ago. Now there are reports that his interim replacement could be a member of his own staff that used to run Buffalo’s defense.

Former Bills defensive coordinator Jerry Gray is reportedly a candidate to replace Zorn if and when he’s fired. Gray is currently the Redskins defensive backs coach. Greg Blache, Washington’s defensive coordinator apparently isn’t interested in taking over for Zorn should he be offered the position.

Bills won’t see Jets NT Jenkins in Wk 13

The Bills likely won’t be seeing any more of Jets nose tackle Kris Jenkins this season if the reports are accurate..

Jenkins, who left Sunday’s game against the Bills in the second quarter with a knee injury, is reportedly lost for the season.

NFL Network Insider Michael Lombardi is reporting that Jenkins will miss the rest of the year with a left knee injury. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that a team source has told him it’s a torn ACL for Jenkins.

All that Jets head coach Rex Ryan would say after the game is that his injury looked to be “severe.”

Panthers WR Steve Smith unhappy

After recording just one catch for four yards in Carolina’s 28-21 win over Tampa on Sunday, Steve Smith is less than pleased.

Smith said he is no longer “an asset to the team” based on how he was not utilized. Keep in mind the Panthers did rush for 267 yards, so throwing the ball wasn’t really all that necessary. But it failed to take away from Smith’s frustration.

Jake Delhomme insisted they tried to get him the ball, but that he was double teamed on every play. Either way it’s nice to know there are other teams that go through spells where they can’t get their top wideouts more involved in the offense.

But if on the day you failed to get your top receiver the ball you rushed for 267 yards on the ground and won, I’m inclined to think a coach wouldn’t care.

The Bills play the Panthers in Charlotte this Sunday.

Holding onto winning feeling

As far from perfect as Buffalo’s overtime win may have been Sunday in the Meadowlands, there was a jubilant locker room afterwards. The weight of a three-game losing streak had been lifted and Buffalo’s coaching staff made sure the players held onto one thing.

“After three weeks of consecutive losses, sometimes it’s hard to remember what that winning feeling feels like when you’ve been down so long,” said George Wilson. ”Guys were hugging each other, coaches were hugging players. It was a celebrated locker room, and what was said was, ‘Remember this winning feeling. It’s been a while since we felt it so remember the things we did to experience this feeling.’

“I know we made mistakes because I just watched the film so there were mistakes out there that were made and we have to correct those and minimize our mental errors and continue to make plays when opportunities come our way. It changes your mindset going into this week’s game coming off a win as opposed to four consecutive losses.

“To see our team stay together and play together and have as much fun as we did yesterday shows the resiliency and perseverance that this team has. Regardless of the circumstances we’re going to do our job the best that we can and not let the man next to us down. It feels great to be here on a victory Monday.”

And several players were at One Bills Drive. Injured players naturally have to get treatment, but there were a lot of healthy players coming in for film review on their own accord despite being given the day off by Coach Jauron.

Jauron on Roscoe being inactive

Bills head coach Dick Jauron was asked about Roscoe Parrish being inactive Sunday knowing there’s a perception out there that it was due to dissatisfaction in his performance. Jauron offered the following response to that question.

“Perception is in the eye of the perceiver,” said Jauron. “The switch was made there for a lot of reasons. Number one was the availability of Fred. Once Marshawn came back it gave us more room to use Fred in other ways where we really like him. And one of those ways is a return guy. When he’s our return guy it gives us more options for us across the board. We can get Stevie Johnson up as a receiver and we like Stevie and would like to keep developing him. He’s a special teams participant other than as a returner. He can play teams for us and it gives us a chance to get Justin Jenkins on the field for us who has been critical for us on special teams for us.

“It allowed us more leeway in terms of game decisions and personnel decisions. Both Roscoe and Freddy are terrific returners. We didn’t feel like we were losing much quite frankly.”

Injury update

Dick Jauron used the term concussion for Trent Edwards and Shawn Nelson after the game Sunday, but on Monday he described their injuries a bit differently.

“Trent and Shawn (Nelson) both had head injuries that are being further examined today and we’ll know more as we get on through the week,” said Jauron. 

Kyle Williams’ shoulder injury was called a “strain”. He will have an MRI to more accurately determine the extent of damage as Jauron confirmed he would be going for tests today. 

Donte Whitner (ankle) and Terrence McGee (chest contusion) were both listed as day to day. Jauron also said that Bryan Scott and Jonathan, who both missed Sunday’s game are day-to-day coming into this week.

Jauron presser moved up

Dick Jauron’s Monday press conference has been moved up to 11am today.

You can watch it live at Buffalobills.com.

Byrd tied for third

Bills FS Jairus Byrd is standing in good company on the NFL’s interception list.

Byrd is tied for third in the league in interceptions with three. He’s joined by six other defensive backs including Charles Woodson, DeAngelo Hall and Jonathan Joseph. And Byrd has only made four starts.

It’ll be interesting to see if his ballhawking ways continue and he can stay among the league leaders.

Rushing yards against a near record

The Bills defense came oh so close to setting a club record for most rushing yards allowed in a game in team history.

Buffalo surrendered 318 yards on the ground to the Jets, including 212 in the first half. The total was just two yards shy of the team record for most rushing yards allowed in franchise annals.

The Bills gave up 320 rushing yards to the Dallas Texans on Sept. 30, 1962 in a 41-21 loss.

The players feel the errors they had in the game can be corrected.

“We were upset with the amount of rushing yards they had, but the vast majority was on just two plays,” said Paul Posluszny. ”On both of those plays we knew we just made mistakes. We got out of our gaps and we knew it was something we could easily correct. When Perry came in at halftime he said all we had to do was not panic, stick with our game plan and stick with everything we know  and it worked out for us.”

Hey at least Buffalo won yesterday.

Injury update

The Bills did not get through Sunday’s game without a new list of injured players.

Trent Edwards sustained a concussion and did not return.

Kyle Williams suffered a shoulder injury and did not return to the game.

Donte Whitner suffered a left ankle injury and could not return.

Shawn Nelson sustained a concussion according to Dick Jauron and did not re-enter the game.

Terrence McGee was injured suffering a chest contusion.

All these players will be re-evaluated on Monday and if there are any new developments on their status for the coming week, we’ll provide updates on Buffalobills.com. Be sure to watch Dick Jauron’s live press conference on Monday for the latest details.

Jets inactives

The Jets will be without WR Jerricho Cotchery today as well as WR Brad Smith.

That means that David Clowney will start opposite Braylon Edwards at WR, with TE Dustin Keller lining up in the slot when the Jets go three wide.

Other inactives for the Jets are as follows.

CB Donald Strickland
CB Marquice Cole
LB Ryan Fowler
G Matt Slauson

Schefter: Parrish could still be moved

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Bills WR Roscoe Parrish could still be moved before Tuesday’s trade deadline.

On the ESPN NFL Countdown show, Schefter said the following about what players could still be moved before Tuesday.

“The player that’s most likely to be dealt by Tuesday – Roscoe Parrish. Not a big name but … if the Bills can get a fourth round pick, maybe a third round pick, Roscoe Parrish is gone.”

Parrish is inactive today, so that only lends further credence to possibly moving him as he’s guaranteed to remain healthy by not playing today. Personally I’d be surprised if the Bills can get a 3rd or 4th for him.

That being said with the news that James Hardy is expected to begin practicing with the team this week, they will eventually need a roster spot opened for him, and carrying seven receivers is unlikely.

Parrish return replacements

Fred Jackson is the player listed on the official lineup changes sheet as Roscoe Parrish’s replacement on both kickoff and punt returns, but he wasn’t the only guy practicing returns in pre-game warmups.

Josh Reed was practicing punt returns and Terrence McGee was practicing kick returns along with Jackson.

Jackson is one of the most sure-handed players on the team as is Reed, which makes sense considering the windy conditions here at Giants Stadium today. Both teams will need punt catchers more than punt returners today. And the situation won’t be much different concerning kickoff returns either.

McGee I think is a last resort option. He’s nursing a sore knee, so I don’t think they want to give him any extra  responsibilities if they can help it.

Rain has stopped at stadium

It looks like based on current radar that the nor’easter that had been blanketing the NY metro area is moving off to the east and out to sea. The rain has stopped here at Giants Stadium and doesn’t appear like it will be returning for the game. The wind however, is another story.

There is a wind advisory right now for northern New Jersey with gusts up to 45 mph. So it will impact the passing game and the kicking game.

Rian Lindell was topping out at 45 yards for kicks toward the east end zone. The teams will be going into the wind when they’re going left to right on your TV sets.

Bills Inactives

Roscoe Parrish is the headline inactive for today’s game. He had a minor thigh ailment this week, but was probable for the game. Hard to tell if it is performance or injury related.

The other inactives are CB Ellis Lankser, DB Todd Johnson, SS Bryan Scott, RB Xavier Omon, OT Jonathan Scott and DE Chris Ellis.

Bills line today short on starts

Buffalo’s offensive line with three rookies and a first-year starter on it today in Demetrius Bell is very light on experience.

Veteran center Geoff Hangartner has 32 starts under his belt, with the other four linemen bring a total of 14 more starts to the table counting the games played thus far this season.

Jamon Meredith, who will start at right tackle is making his first career NFL start. Demetrius Bell has four starts, Levitre and Wood have five each.