Inside The Bills

Brad Smith ready to go

Bills QB/WR Brad Smith completed another day of practice coming off his groin injury and according to head coach Chan Gailey will be playing Sunday.

“No question he’s ready to go,” said Gailey. “We were able to time up our Wildcat so he’s ready to go.”

Smith is listed as probable for Sunday.

Jets add rookie WR Hill to injury report

The Jets just named second-round pick WR Stephen Hill as the starter opposite Santonio Holmes in their offense on Wednesday. One day later he landed on the team’s injury report.

Hill is listed as a full participant for Thursday’s practice, but apparently sustained an undisclosed leg injury. Whether he practices Friday remains to be seen. We’ll monitor Friday’s developments on that front and if it affects his likelihood for playing on Sunday.

Jets injury updates

Jets beat reporter Manish Mehta had a few updates on the injured Jets prior to practice including NT Sione Pouha, TE Dustin Keller, S Eric Smith as well as an update on their second-round pick WR Stephen Hill and his role this week against the Bills.

‏@MMehtaNYDN Rex thinks Pouha will be limited layer in practice today. He doesn’t think Keller is ready yet. “I’m still hopeful he’ll play” #nyj 

@MMehtaNYDN Rookie Stephen Hill will start at WR opposite Santonio Holmes on Sunday vs Bills, Rex says #nyj

So S Eric Smith is out with a hip/knee injury for Sunday, Keller is still not ready to practice and sounds very questionable for Sunday and rookie Stephen Hill will start Sunday.

Jets injury report

The Jets injury list is considerably longer than the Bills heading into Sunday’s game. New York’s defensive line had a couple of starters limited in practice Wednesday. Here’s the full list.

Did not practice
OL Dennis Landholt – right knee – OUT
TE Dustin Keller – hamstring
S Eric Smith – hip/knee

Limited in practice
RB Joe McKnight – hamstring
OL Brandon Moore – hip
LB Bryan Thomas – ankle
NT Sione Pouha – low back
DL Mike Devito – calf
LB Nick Bellore – shoulder

Full participation (coming off injury)
WR Chaz Schilens – ankle
WR Santonio Holmes – ribs
DB Ellis Lankster – quad
DB Laron Landry – heel
LB David Harris – ankle
DB Josh Bush – concussion

Stevie limited in practice

Stevie Johnson was a limited participant in practice as his groin had the Bills playing it safe Wednesday.

Johnson has not missed any time in the past three weeks, but still doesn’t call his groin 100 percent.

“Yeah, the groin is good, 90 something percent,” said Johnson. ”I only say 90 because no one is really 100 percent unless you haven’t been playing at all, you feel me, but I’m good.”

Johnson didn’t appear to be restricted in any way as he ran routes during the media viewing portion of practice. It sounds like the Bills are just going to be smart and not over tax their top receiver to ensure that his body holds up better throughout this season than last season.

Rex unsure Wildcat will slow Bills pass rush

Jets head coach Rex Ryan has insisted that they will use their version of the Wildcat package with Tim Tebow this Sunday against the Jets, despite not revealing any of it in the preseason. While Ryan is confident in the package with Tebow, he’s not sure it’s going to neutralize Buffalo’s pass rush.

“I don’t know about that,” Ryan said on a Wednesday conference call. ”With Super Mario over there, that’s gonna be tough. There’s no question. Clearly this team can really rush the passer. They added Mark Anderson as well, and the other guy too that I always think is underrated is Kyle Williams. We voted him to the Pro Bowl when he was healthy. I’m happy for him to see him back out there, but I wish he could have waited a week because he is a tremendous player. So that pass rush is definitely going to be tough.

“How the wildcat comes in? David Lee, I have so much respect for David Lee, I think he’s a tremendous quarterback coach and a football coach in general. He was with Tony (Sparano) and they put in the wildcat and brought the wildcat to the league. Clearly we know that Buffalo is going to see it and practice against it with Brad (Smith) there. But of course we’re gonna run some. We like Tim running that Wildcat, so we’ll see.”

Smith very limited

Bills QB/WR Brad Smith was a participant in practice Wednesday, but didn’t do a whole lot.

Dressed in his white receiver jersey, Smith caught passes in the warmup lines where receivers move at half speed. He then joined the quarterbacks for individual position drills, but did not attempt a pass. Suffice to say Smith was very limited in his return from a groin injury last week.

Head coach Chan Gailey said the plan is to work him in a little bit more each day this week to hopefully have him ready for Sunday.

Pears fully expected to play Sunday

Bills starting RT Erik Pears has missed most of the preseason with nagging groin problems, but he practiced Monday and is slated to practice in pads today. It’s left head coach Chan Gailey very confident that he’ll have him for Sunday’s season opener.

“I fully expect him to play Sunday,” said Gailey of Pears. ”I think that he’s progressed well. Today we’ll be in pads and we’ll find out even more today. I think as the week goes on he’ll either get stronger or weaker and that will tell us how much he’s going to play.”

Pears, who signed a three-year extension late last season, is a valuable veteran presence on Buffalo’s offensive line. Whether he’s fit enough to go 60-70 plays after missing the last two preseason games is an unknown at this point.

“He’s a really good player,” said Gailey. ”He was very good for us last year, did a lot good things. And you need your good players back. The more you can have experienced players on the field the better you are as a football team as long as they’re good enough and he is.”

L.T. not expected to play

Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson is listed as questionable, but it would be very surprising if he was active today against the Bills.

Tomlinson has been dealing with a sprained MCL and missed last week’s game against Denver.

Most Jets observers believe the team does not want to rush L.T. back this week, especially since he did not practice at all this week. They’d prefer to have him for the stretch run.

He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Joe McKnight as the complement to starter Shonn Greene.

RB Choice could see time today

Tashard Choice may have only practiced twice since being signed by the Bills on Wednesday, but his retention of Buffalo’s offensive system will give him a very good chance of getting on the field today against the Jets.

“He retained a lot,” said head coach Chan Gailey.

Gailey, who coached Choice for his last three seasons of college at Georgia Tech, has a lot of the same terminology for his offense with the Bills that he had at Georgia Tech.

“He’s a smart kid,” said Gailey. “He’s quick, strong and aggressive. He’s a very good pass protector, he can catch the ball out of the backfield. He plays bigger than you think. He’s not tall, but he’s 211 pounds and he’s very strong.”

Don’t be shocked if Choice serves as a third-down back in passing situations against the Jets.

Chan: we need smarter play

The Bills three-game losing streak has been less about effort and more about consistency in the eyes of Chan Gailey. That’s why he believes smarter play coupled with effort will get them back to a level of play that was getting Buffalo wins earlier this season.

“I believe we have guys that understand about fighting through tough times and fighting through adversity and I think we’ll go play as hard as we can play,” he said. ”The key is to play good, not just to play hard but to play good and that’s what we’ve got to do better, we’ve got to play good, not just play hard.”

The Bills will see if they can do that against a Jets team that forced them into a handful of mistakes in the first matchup.

Jets close down middle

The Jets defense did a very good job of closing down the middle of the field, where Ryan Fitzpatrick likes to go with the ball a good deal particularly to David Nelson and Scott Chandler. New York took that away in the first meeting and Buffalo’s offense struggled. The Bills feel they have answers for that the second time around.

“We have in the past had some things in the middle of the field there that we have gone to and been very successful with,” said head coach Chan Gailey. ”So when they do drop the extra guy and play the extra guys inside there it takes away one of the things that we’ve done well. So we have to make the adjustment in this ball game and we feel we have.”

The Jets put bracket coverage on David Nelson, with an underneath defender and another behind him. In fact both of Fitzpatrick’s interceptions in the first matchup with the Jets were on passes intended for Nelson.

Winning physical battles the key

The Bills have not been consistent enough winning the physical battles at the line of scrimmage since they first met up with the Jets. They know they have to win more of them than they lose if they’re going to beat the Jets in their building.

“They’ve got there guys that are hard to move in the middle there,” said Ryan Fitzpatrick. ”When they’re getting either pushed back or the stalemate at the line it makes it tough for us. It will be an emphasis for us, to get some movement on the line which will be a hard thing to do. They’ve got good corners and they’re physical up front.  They’re hard to run on because of how physical they are because sometimes they’ll have an extra guy in the box and they’re hard to throw on because their corners and DB’s are so good.

“It’s going to get real physical up front and we’ve got to do a better job with being physical, winning the one-on-ones and completing the throws. With the Jets it’s going to be a tough game for us, it always is. They’re a great defense and they’ve showed it all year long.”

“I think the last couple weeks I think physically at the point of attack we haven’t been as sharp as we were at the beginning of the season,” said C.J. Spiller.  ”There’s always that thought that we need to get back to being sharp and being physical at the point of attack and putting hats on guys and doing our assignments.  There will definitely be more attention to detail these next six weeks because it’s pretty much everything is on the line from here on out.”

Sunday an elimination game?

Mathematically Sunday’s game between the Bills and Jets is being viewed by outside observers as an elimination game in terms of playoff contention. What do those directly involved in the game think?

With both teams at 5-5 and neither likely to catch the Patriots for the division title, it’s about the Wild Card race for the Jets and Bills. Here’s what Jets head coach Rex Ryan thinks.

“I don’t know if its win or go home, but it’s about as close as you can get to that,” he said. ”Both teams know it, obviously Buffalo knows that and we know that. So no team is going to deny that fact.”

Bills vet Chris Kelsay also knows whichever team drops this one is going to make themselves a supreme long shot for the postseason.

“There are a handful of teams competing for the last Wild Cart spot and we’re two of them,” said Kelsay. ”So obviously if you get beat by these guys, one they’ve swept us and two it looks like our chances for the playoffs are pretty slim. So it’s a huge game for us.”

Broncos help Bills

Denver’s 17-13 win over the Jets last night could prove to be a big help for the Bills.

The win lifted Denver to 5-5 and dropped the Jets to 5-5. New York is now a half game back of the Bills.

Should the Jets and Bills be battling each other for a Wild Card spot (perhaps premature with teams ahead of them right now in the AFC for the Wild Cards) the tiebreakers go as follows to break a tie within a division.

Head-to-head
Division record
Record vs. common opponents
Conference record
Strength of victory
Strength of schedule
Etc.

Buffalo’s game next week at New York is going to be huge should there be a need for a tiebreaker between the two clubs because if the Bills can get a split then it would go to division record. Right now the Bills are 1-1 in the division and the Jets are 2-2. We’re dealing with a lot of ‘ifs’ here but if Buffalo wins Sunday in Miami and then gets a win in New York (a big if for some) the Bills would not only put more distance between themselves and the Jets in the playoff race, but in division record as well.

First things first in Miami. At this point if the season ended today both the Jets and Bills would be out of the playoffs. Here’s a look at the current AFC standings.

L.T. calls Buffalo ‘Same Bills’

Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson usually has a pre-game speech for his teammates and did so again Sunday. In that speech he referred to their division rival as the ‘Same Bills’ indicating that they would handle them as they did in five of the past six meetings.

Tomlinson explained what he meant to Newsday after the game.

“The team we are, we felt like our matchup against them has always been a problem (for them),” he said. “Our style of football versus their style of football has always been a problem. That’s why we say, ‘Same Bills.’ This is the same team we’ve beat over and over. So don’t get it twisted by their record. If we play our type of football, they won’t be able to beat us.”

Bills head coach Chan Gailey said his initial impression of the game was the Jets were the more physical team.

“We weren’t physical enough in the ball game,” said Gailey. ”We’ve got to be more physical. I’d say if there was one thing that’s what I’d say.”

Simms: The Bills are real

CBS football analyst Phil Simms is going to be commentating on the Bills-Jets game Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium. He sees a difficult game for the Jets knowing they have to go on the road where they’re 0-3 so far this season and do it at a place that’s once again become a big home field advantage.

“The Jets coming off of a bye week and going on the road is a big deal,” Simms said. ”The league has shown us this season that the bye week has been a detriment to a lot of teams. So can the Jets overcome that? Going to Buffalo is tough. The Buffalo Bills are real. I believe. They’re 5-2 and the way they are doing it is impressive. Ryan Fitzpatrick is for real. Fred Jackson is a star. I’ve gone up there in years past and even when they weren’t a good team, in that stadium and with that crowd, they’re always tough.  It’s going to be a tough test for the Jets.”

Among the matchups Simms is most intrigued by is Buffalo’s spread offense against the talented Jets corners. 

“They have a couple things that are going to be great to watch,” he said. “Darrelle Revis against Steve Johnson and Kyle Wilson, Antonio Cromartie against the spread offense. Buffalo’s offense is extremely varied. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to defend them because they do such much. How the Jets defense is going to attack against the Bills’ offense is going to be very interesting.”

Simms also provided perspective on the magnitude of Sunday’s game knowing it carries a lot of weight for both clubs.

“I never thought at the start of this season that I would be saying the Jets going to Buffalo was going to be a big game or an important game for the playoffs,” said Simms.  ”But we are in that stretch now. These games are important.  It’s a divisional game. This game is going to be quite exciting. This might be the game of the week.”

Players want ‘White-out’

Knowing the Bills are going to be wearing their white jerseys on Sunday against the Jets, they’re hoping the fans follow suit at the Ralph this weekend.

Drayton Florence is the latest Bill to put out the call to Bills Nation.

Bills donning whites Sunday

For the first time in a quarter century the Bills won’t be wearing their home blues on Sunday against the Jets.

That according to Bills CEO Russ Brandon, who said as much on his twitter account.

Already gearing up for Jets

It didn’t take long for the Bills to shift their attention to the New York Jets. Less than an hour after their shutout win over the Redskins, George Wilson was already talking about getting ready for their division rival.

“This week is huge,” he said. ”We go back into the division for what we call two-fers. By beating a division opponent you essentially go up on them two games.”

It’s clear that Wilson and his teammates are on a mission to reach the playoffs as they’re focused on winning each game as it comes to put themselves in the best position possible for a postseason berth.

“We have to continue to challenge ourselves and be able to win our division so we’re not having to depend on anybody,” he said. ”We know going into Ralph Wilson Stadium later in the season it becomes a bigger challenge for our opponents to deal with. We know the advantage that we could possibly have going down the stretch. So we just have to do our part to put ourselves in the right position as the season draws to an end.”