Inside The Bills

Pettine’s ‘D’ fared well against Bills

While Mike Pettine will certainly be an asset for Buffalo’s defense, his subtraction from the coaching staff of a division rival in the Jets, will make an opponent they have to play twice weaker. Just looking at what Pettine’s defense against the Bills over the past four seasons is hopefully an indication of what’s to come in Buffalo.

Between 2009 and 2012 Pettine’s defense faced the Bills eight times helping the Jets compile a 6-2 record. What’s more important are the average figures for Buffalo’s offense over those eight games.

The Bills averaged just 17.6 points per game over that span, converted just 32 percent of their third downs had 20 turnovers (9 fumbles, 11 INTs) and an average time of possession of just over 27 minutes (27:07).

Pettine’s defense totaled 13 sacks in those eight meetings as well as a pair of touchdowns.

Points a struggle for Jets

New York’s offense has struggled mightily to put up points of late. The Jets haven’t scored 20 points or more in a game since before Thanksgiving.

Naturally the quarterback carousel hasn’t helped, but Chan Gailey sees their issues on offense centered around their inability to protect the football.

“Their biggest struggle is they have turned it over,” said Gailey. ”When you turn it over you struggle to score. They haven’t been able to be consistent running the football like they want to be. With a few special teams breakdowns they’ve gotten behind and had to throw it and that’s created more of a problem. They’re not set up to throw and come from behind. Not many teams are but they certainly aren’t.”

The last time New York scored more than 20 points in a game was Nov. 18th against St. Louis when they won 27-13.

Jairus to see punt return duty again?

For the first time in his Bills career, Jairus Byrd fielded a pair of punt returns in the loss to Miami last Sunday. Head coach Chan Gailey explained to Buffalobills.com why Byrd was added to the punt return mix and if it will continue.

“If you look at Jairus we trust him a great deal to catch the football and it looks like it’s going to be inside the 20 or the 10 we’ll put Jairus back there because he’s a great catcher of the ball,” said Gailey. ”He’s a sure-handed guy. Justin (Rogers) is a sure-handed guy, but if we’re looking to get a return, make something happen with the ball, he’s got more explosiveness and can make more things happen in a true return situation.”

Both of Byrd’s punt returns were fair catches. Rogers has just three returns on the season for 14 yards.

Jets TE Keller doubtful for Sunday

While the Jets are likely to have DL Muhammad Wilkerson (concussion/knee) on Sunday against the Bills they’re unlikely to have Mark Sanchez’s security blanket in the passing game.

TE Dustin Keller is listed as doubtful with an ankle injury after he failed to practice at all this week. Keller is the Jets second-leading receiver behind Jeremy Kerley. Here’s a full list of the Jets injury report for Sunday’s game.

OUT
DB Aaron Berry – hamstring

DOUBTFUL
WR Chaz Schilens – knee
LB Bryan Thomas – chest
QB Greg McElroy – concussion
TE Dustin Keller – ankle

QUESTIONABLE
WR Braylon Edwards – hamstring/knee
CB Ellis Lankster – concussion

PROBABLE
TE Jeff Cumberland – ankle/wrist
DT Kenrick Ellis – knee
K Nick Folk – back
S LaRon Landry – heel/hamstring
P Robert Malone – illness
C Nick Mangold – shoulder
LB Garrett McIntyre – elbow
RB Joe McKnight – ankle/illness
G Brandon Moore – foot/hip
LB Calvin Pace – shoulder
RB Bilal Powell – shoulder/toe
QB Mark Sanchez – back
LB Ricky Sapp – ankle
LB Bart Scott – toe
G Matt Slauson – knee
QB Tim Tebow – ribs
DL Muhammad Wilkerson – concussion/knee

Wilkerson planning to play for Jets

Jets DL Muhammad Wilkerson was considered iffy for New York’s season finale against the Bills in Buffalo. He was dealing with what Rex Ryan said was a concussion and knee injury from last week’s game, but he’s listed as probable.

Wilkerson told ESPNNew York.com that he did not suffer a concussion.

“I plan on playing Sunday,” Wilkerson told ESPN New York. He insisted that he didn’t have a concussion and was cleared to play after passing the required tests. Wilkerson said he feels “good” heading into the team’s regular season finale against Buffalo. “They were making sure I didn’t have a concussion. But I didn’t have one. I just showed symptoms but I was fine.”

Wilkerson has been New York’s best defensive lineman the past few weeks posting four of his five sacks this season in his last six games.

Anderson, Searcy out for Sunday

DE Mark Anderson was trying to get back from a torn lateral meniscus suffered in Week 5, but after a pair of knee surgeries it just wasn’t responding. He’ll miss the season finale against the Jets as he’s been declared out for Sunday’s game.

S Da’Norris Searcy is also out for Sunday’s game with a groin after he failed to practice all week. Here’s the rest of Buffalo’s injury status report for the Jets game.

OUT
DE Mark Anderson – knee
S Da’Norris Searcy – groin

PROBABLE
FS Jairus Byrd – ankle
G Andy Levitre – knee
DT Kyle Williams – ankle
LB Nick Barnett – knee
FB Dorin Dickerson – ankle
WR Marcus Easley – hamstring
CB Justin Rogers – foot
LB Chris White – hamstring
C Eric Wood – knee
RB C.J. Spiller – shoulder
DE Mario Williams – wrist

WR Martin back

Bills WR Ruvell Martin was excused for personal reasons this week and missed practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but is back practicing here on Friday.

The only non-participant in practice is S Da’Norris Searcy, who has already been declared out for Sunday’s game against the Jets.

Jets switch to Sanchez as starter Sunday

After Rex Ryan announced on his conference call with the Buffalo media that he was going to start Greg McElroy at quarterback Sunday against the Bills, he had to reverse his course and announce he’s startin Mark Sanchez.

Ryan in his Thursday press conference said McElroy revealed to the medical staff that he was experiencing concussion-like symptoms after being sacked 11 times in last week’s loss to San Diego.

“Mark has had success earlier in the season against Buffalo,” Ryan said. “He’s very familiar with them. That’s the reason I’m going with Mark. I had the conversation with both Mark and Tim…. about what I was going to do. Obviously, Tim’s not happy with that. That’s what you expect.”

The New York Daily News is reporting that Ryan said the need to make a quick call on the change, prompted him to lean toward Sanchez, rather than Tebow with Ryan indicating with just Thursday and Friday practice before Sunday’s game that they might not be able to get Tebow up to speed in time rep-wise.

Jets to turn to read option?

The Bills have had their share of trouble with the read option game the past two weeks with Seattle working that part of their offense very effectively and Miami getting some positive plays out of it as well against Buffalo in their victories. The Bills last opponent of the season, the Jets, arguably have one of the better read option quarterbacks in Tim Tebow, but will they make use of him Sunday?

Head coach Rex Ryan didn’t use Tebow in their Wildcat package last Sunday because Tebow asked not to be a part of that package. That according to ESPN New York. Slot receiver Jeremy Kerley was used instead in the Jets’ 27-17 loss to San Diego.

That same report indicates that Tebow and Ryan have since smoothed things over. On his conference call with Buffalo media, Ryan was asked in light of the recent success of the read option against Buffalo if he would make use of it, be it Tebow or Kerley.

“Obviously you’ll look at things that maybe have worked against an opponent or whatever,” said Ryan. ”A lot of things go into it. We played that Seattle team and you can say the same thing: they had success running it against us running that so we’re certainly going to prepare for it as well. When you look at what Seattle has, they have a lot of things that are hard to defend. They’ve got the receivers, the quarterback — and he can do different things. Could we possibly do it? The answer is yes and we hope they spend the majority of their practice working on it.

“It helps obviously if you can mix something like that in to keep a team honest or whatever. I can assure you that Buffalo has those plays in and we have those plays in as well. I think preparation goes into it as well, how much time you actually prepare for it. I remember when we played Buffalo we were going to try and surprise them and they came out and smoked our Wildcat so apparently they did some preparing for it, that’s for sure.”

McElroy to start at QB for Jets

The Jets will have Greg McElroy start again this week at quarterback Sunday against the Bills.

Head coach Rex Ryan told the Buffalo media that this afternoon on his conference call.

“We’ll start Greg,” said Ryan. ”The type of beating he took last week, 11 sacks and things, he’s tougher than nails. We knew that about him. The previous year he’d be our clean-up guy in the preseason games and I’m not sure some of those guys could’ve blocked me. He definitely took a beating then and he took one unfortunately this past week. He is a tough guy. He’s smart.

“He is pretty good about knowing where to go with the football, but any time you have that kind of performance, unfortunately a lot of credit goes to your opponent, but there are also mistakes, clearly, that we made. Some of it was our guys getting beat, some were on protection, some were Greg’s fault for holding it too long or not being in the right spot. Others were depth of routes and things. There’s a lot of it to go around, that’s for sure.”

Brandon: Sunday’s game will be blacked out

Bills CEO Russ Brandon, in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 Wednesday morning, confirmed that the team’s season finale on Sunday against the Jets will not be on local television this weekend.

“Unfortunately the game will be blacked out,” Brandon said when asked if the game would sell out by 1 pm on Thursday.

Buffalo’s home game against Jacksonville was the only other blacked out game this season.

Sun could be issue for returners

The sun is shining brightly and directly overhead here at MetLife stadium. In warmups punt returners are having trouble with the sun.

In the stadium’s east end zone return men are shielding their eyes on warm up kicks and are having problems locating and fielding the ball.

It looks like it’ll be more of an issue on punts than kickoffs, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Jets inactives

Here are the Jets inactives which included starting NT Sione Pou’ha.

QB Greg McElroy
WR Clyde Gates
S Eric Smith
DL Damon Harrison
G Caleb Schlauderaff
OT Dennis Landholt
NT Sione Pou’ha

Pears to rotate with Hairston

Bills starting right tackle Erik Pears got all of 10 snaps in the preseason. Though he had a very good week of practice leading up to the opener against the Jets, it’s not expected to be enough to provide him with the endurance necessary to get through 60-70 plays today at MetLife Stadium.

That according to head coach Chan Gailey, who told Buffalobills.com that Pears’ endurance is just not there yet.

“Not there,” he said. ”Plain and simple they need to play more and more and more. But adrenaline will take them pretty good into this ball game. But the guy in particular that we’re not going to ask play the whole ball game is Erik Pears. We’ll try to be smart and limit his reps some.”

When asked if they’ll monitor him and decide when to pull him for a spell, Gailey indicated that they’ll instead have planned times to sit him a series or two here and there.

“I think we’re going to have a plan to shuffle,” said Gailey. ”I think we’ll go ahead and have two series (on), two series (off), two series (on) or something like that for this game.”

Fitz last outing vs. Jets promising

Ryan Fitzpatrick in his last five outings against the Jets might have a completion percentage of less than 50% (72-145, 49.7%), but his last outing is what counts most and his numbers in that game are encouraging.

Fitz in the Week 12 game at MetLife stadium last season were as follows.

26-39 passing (66.7%) for 264 yards and 3 TDs with a 111.5 passer rating.

New York’s pass defense has only changed in the middle of the field with the additions of safeties LaRon Landry and Yeremiah Bell and with top pick DE Quinton Coples.

Fitz thrived with a short passing game and worked the middle of the field well with Scott Chandler and David Nelson, who combined for 11 catches for 97 yards and a touchdown.

The Bills were a respectable 40% on 3rd down conversions (6-15) against one of the more formidable third down defenses in the Jets, especially in their own building and they did it without Fred Jackson and Eric Wood.

Dareus wants to deliver

Bills DT Marcell Dareus knows all the expectations are higher for his team, so going into the season he wants to deliver what Bills fans are expecting. And he wants to do it right away in Week 1.

“We have to win this game,” said Dareus of Buffalo’s opener with New York. ”It is a division game and I look at it as one of the most important games of the year for us. To start this thing out right, go out there and give everybody what they want and came to see.”

“I pride myself on stopping the run,” he said. ”Stopping the run first, and making them a one-dimensional team. As a team I think we all gravitate to that, stopping the run and defending the pass. And I think that is where we are going with that. We are going to be ready to go.”

C.J.: Composure will be key

The one thing that head coach Chan Gailey mentioned in the preseason loss to Pittsburgh that bothered him concerning his starting units was the defense’s loss of composure on the two-minute drive by Ben Roethlisberger that went 98 yards. He used the term “rattled.” That’s why Bills RB C.J. Spiller knows keeping their composure even if something goes wrong early will be key in today’s opener against the Jets.

“It is going to be a hostile environment. It is going to be a lot of excitement, it is the first game,” said Spiller. ”They are going to be playing so it is going to be a lot of emotions for us. We just have to play smart and keep our composure and whatever happens early don’t let that derail what we are trying to do.”

Why Jets ‘D’ so hard to figure

You’ve heard Ryan Fitzpatrick talk about why the Jets defense is hard to diagnose sometimes with their exotic blitz packages. So we asked coach Chan Gailey for a more specific reason why it’s so tough to get a lock on just who is coming and from where.

“They do a lot of different things with a lot of different personnel groups,” Gailey told Buffalobills.com. ”If it was just four down linemen and two linebackers or four down linemen and one backer and the rest DBs then you could get a bead on them. But it might be two down linemen, three linebackers and six DBs, there are so many different groupings they do have some blitzes that look similar, but you don’t know which grouping and which blitz is coming out of which grouping  so that’s what makes it unusual.”

You can see our entire Weekly Conversation with Chan Gailey in Media Center at Buffalobills.com.

What Jets & Bills have up their sleeve

Week 1 is a rare opportunity for coaches in the NFL. With nothing on tape from previous games it’s the chance to make use of a new wrinkle or two on offense, defense or special teams that even a familiar division opponent might not expect. In our weekly conversation with Bills head coach Chan Gailey on Buffalobills.com, we asked him just how many surprises really exist for teams to pull over on their opponent in Week 1.

“There’s probably two or three things,” said Gailey. ”You’re not going to stray too far from what you do best. But there are two or three things that we’ve added that we really like that we feel will help our offense as a whole, not just in this game, but in games down the line. There are some things that we haven’t shown. Our Wildcat, their Wildcat, they haven’t shown it either. So there will be some things that show up.”

Jets TE, DL both questionable

The Jets have three starters that are questionable for Sunday’s game against the Bills.

TE Dustin Keller (hamstring) insists he’ll play on Sunday, but was limited in practice again on Friday. He has not practiced fully all week.

DL Mike DeVito (calf) also has only been able to practice on a limited basis all week. He too is listed as questionable. If he can’t go, rookie and Jets top draft pick Quinton Coples would see a lot more work.

Rex Ryan already confirmed that starting NT Sione Pou’ha (low back) and S Eric Smith (hip/knee) are out for Sunday.  If DeVito can’t go two-thirds of the Jets starting defensive line would be sidelined for the game.

S LaRon Landry, who did not practice Thursday, returned to practice Friday and is listed as probable.