Inside The Bills

Chiefs inactives

Here are the Chiefs inactives.

QB Ricky Stanzi
WR Devon Wylie
S Kendrick Lewis
RB Cyrus Gray
TE Steve Maneri
DL Allen Bailey
NT Anthony Toribio

Searcy to rotate with Wilson

It happened in Week 1 and it will continue in Week 2. Defensive co-captain George Wilson will rotate at strong safety with second-year player Da’Norris Searcy.

That according to head coach Chan Gailey, who confirmed to Buffalobills.com, that Searcy has earned playing time on defense.

“We’re just trying to let both of them play,” said Gailey. ”Da’Norris has earned the right to play some with his play. So we’re trying to keep them both fresh and let them play.”

The rotation is just one of many for the Bills. Justin Rogers is expected to rotate at the nickel with Leodis McKelvin, Terrence McGee is expected to rotate at left cornerback with Aaron Williams and Erik Pears is expected to rotate at right tackle with Chris Hairston.

Rogers to return to slot

He’s been working his way back from a hamstring injury, but CB Justin Rogers will be rotated back in at nickel corner with veteran Leodis McKelvin against the Chiefs today.

“He practiced there this week for the first time on a regular basis and Justin will hopefully see some action this week at nickel,” Chan Gailey told Buffalobills.com. ”That is the plan unless something changes.”

“It’s just working back in,” Rogers told Buffalobills.com. ”The coaches were telling me to get more of those nickel reps. Last week I did some in there, but there was still some stuff lingering with the hamstring and making sure it was right. They also asked me to go outside a little bit to get some reps out there.”

Rogers said playing the whole way in the final preseason game at Detroit really helped him feel as though he was recovered from the hamstring injury that forced him to miss almost all of training camp and most of the preseason.

“It held up,” said Rogers of his hamstring. ”So now it’s just about staying on top of it and maintaining it so it won’t happen again.”

“He was in position before all this injury he was playing there and doing pretty well,” said Chan Gailey. ”We have to give him an opportunity to get back on the field somehow.”

In splitting time with Leodis McKelvin this week one could argue that they’re directly competing for more playing time in a game, something that’s usually reserved for the preseason. But Rogers’ injury made such an arrangement impossible. So now Rogers is trying to reclaim a job he held down late last season coming off the injury, and he’ll have to do it against a very elusive slot receiver in Dexter McCluster.

“He’s a small, compact guy,” said Rogers of McCluster. ”It’s kind of different in the slot. He’s real good at it even though he’s mainly been a hybrid player. So you have to match his qualities, stay low and match his quickness. I think it’ll be an advantage that we’re kind of the same size so I think some of my qualities match his, but it’s still going to be a challenge.”

Chan on Chiefs no huddle

The Chiefs employed a no huddle offense on about half of their possessions in their Week 1 loss to Atlanta and had some success posting a pair of touchdown drives and a field goal. But as Chan Gailey explains it’s not a lightning-paced no huddle by any means.

“The thing about it is, it is no huddle, but it’s not a hurry up,” Gailey said in his weekly interview with Buffalobills.com. 

Gailey said since the Chiefs don’t really pick up the tempo all that much from a huddling offense, they’re not overly concerned about getting their desired personnel groupings on the field before the next snap.

“They go to the line, they get their substitutions on the field and the good thing about the rules now is if they substitute they have to give the defense the right to match substitutions,” said Gailey. ”I think we’ll be ok there. They’re just trying to get a better look at the defense for Cassel so he can call a play appropriately.”

Offense not alone in prepping for crowd noise

In preparation for the season opener the Bills pumped crowd noise onto the practice field on Thursday and Friday to re-create a road atmosphere so their offense gets accustomed to communicating in such conditions. Buffalo’s coaching staff is now doing the same for Buffalo’s defense.

On Friday the Bills blared crowd noise onto the field for their starting defense to replicate the noise in Ralph Wilson Stadium for Sunday’s game.

“We’ve done it several times, but it’s for our defense,” head coach Chan Gailey told Buffalobills.com. ”It’s for when our defense is on the field because we hope our crowd is into it on third down especially and we’ve got communication issues because they’re so loud trying to disrupt Kansas City’s offense.”

Chiefs CB Flowers expected to play

It looks like Chiefs top cover corner Brandon Flowers will play Sunday against the Bills despite being listed as questionable. However, starting NT Anthony Toribio will miss Sunday’s game as well as starting FS Kendrick Lewis. Here’s the final Chiefs injury report with Friday’s practice participation.

Kyle talks bounce back

Kyle Williams said it himself. The Bills laid an egg in Week 1, but knowing the NFL is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ league he and his teammates are relishing the opportunity to rectify the wrongs of Week 1 in their home opener this Sunday against Kansas City.

“I think this game and the business of it is that you are only as good as your last performance,” said Williams. ”Good or bad, outside of locker room and as you view it from the outside in it is easy to say ‘Oh, okay they are bad. End of story.’ This week if we play well and we win, it is ‘Oh, maybe it is not as bad as we thought.’ Maybe it is one of those things. I think in here we view it as one of those things. We laid an egg. There is nothing we can do about it. We turned the ball over and we did not get any turnovers—all kinds of things happened in the game that just piled up on us.

“I think we did the same thing to Kansas City last year first game of the year. They turned the ball over and we scored off of their turnovers. They did not play well enough on defense and boom we blew them out. Then they come back and finish 7-9 last year. Obviously we want to do better than that, but one game does not end the world.”

Cassel says revenge not a factor for Sunday

Last year the Bills embarrassed the Chiefs in their home opener in Kansas City in a 41-7 drubbing. So will the Chiefs be using it at added incentive to return the favor in Buffalo in Week 2? Chiefs QB Matt Cassel says they won’t.

“Not at all,” said Cassel. ”Every year is different, and we have a completely different team than what we had last year. Last year was last year, and they did a great job coming in here, but their team is different and we’re different and now its about going out and competing this year.”

It’s hard to believe that the Chiefs won’t be recalling that game as they take the field on Sunday with an opportunity to ruin Buffalo’s home opener. Rest assured with a pair of 0-1 clubs facing each other at Ralph Wilson Stadium and neither wanting to go 0-2 the game will be a physical one.

Mayock on Fitz and Cassel as NFL QBs

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock appearing on a national conference call was asked specifically about Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chiefs QB Matt Cassel, who will square off against one another this Sunday in Buffalo. Knowing one of them is going to be 0-2 after this weekend’s game, he was asked what is realistic to expect from these two signal callers.

“We spend so much time talking about what a quarterback‑driven league this is,” said Mayock. ”When I look at this league, there are 32 teams and I see seven franchise quarterbacks today, and I see another four or five beyond that that I would take in a heartbeat that I think, either because of injury or not being with the right team or whatever, aren’t quite there yet but could be franchise quarterbacks.

“And then after that there’s a group of four or five quarterbacks of which I think Cassel and Fitzpatrick fit in, where I look at them and say, ‘If you can complement them with a run game and a defense and special teams, they’re capable of winning enough games to be a playoff quarterback.’  And I really believe that both those guys fit into that, but they’re not going to be Tom Brady or Peyton Manning and stand at the line of scrimmage in a no‑huddle and just will their team to victory because of their talent, ability and intelligence.

“I really believe that both the guys you’re talking about are good enough to win with, good enough to get in the playoffs with, but you’ve got to surround them with some pretty good people.”

Knowing both quarterbacks are facing a lot of fan criticism after their team’s lopsided losses in Week 1, Mayock was then asked about how much rope he thinks they’ll be given.

“Well, I think it’s way too early, and I tell people all the time, it’s a marathon and not a sprint,” said Mayock. ”We’ve got some tape on those two quarterbacks over the last few years, but I don’t think Matt Cassel in particular played with a full deck last year with all the injuries surrounding his key people, so I would say take a step back and let’s let both those teams get through four or five games and we’ll start to figure out what they really are going to be, what their identity is. It’s way too early to panic right now, and I know we’re a knee‑jerk reaction society, but we’ve got to have some patience.” 

Mayock will be part of the broadcast team that does Buffalo’s November 15th Thursday night game against Miami at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

100 plus yards of Old Glory

Here’s a look at the full field American flag prior to today’s Bills-Chiefs game.

Bills-Chiefs could face TV blackout

The Kansas City Chiefs have sold out 155 straight games at Arrowhead Stadium, but that streak could be in jeopardy this week.

According to the Kansas City Star, 3,500 tickets remain unsold for Sunday’s game against the Bills. If they’re not sold by Thursday at 1pm the game will be blacked out in the greater KC area.

There’s talk of seeking league permission to extend the deadline 24 hours, which has been granted to other NFL cities already this season.