Inside The Bills

Bills 10 longest pass plays this season

Buffalo’s passing game hasn’t delivered quite as many big pass plays as they did at this point last season. In 2011 Buffalo was tied for 13th in the league with 13 pass plays of 25 or more  after six games. This year they stand 23rd with nine. Below are the Bills’ 10 longest pass plays so far this season along with how far the pass traveled through the air on the play.

10 - Tie – 24 yards – Scott Chandler TD from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 24 yards) vs. New England – Week 4
24 yards – Dorin Dickerson from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 0 yards) vs. New England – Week 4

9 - 27 yards – C.J. Spiller from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 0 yards) vs. Kansas City – Week 2

8 – 29 yards – Stevie Johnson TD from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 14 yards) vs. NY Jets – Week 1

7 – 30 yards – C.J. Spiller from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 25 yards) vs. NY Jets – Week 1

6 – 32 yards – C.J. Spiller TD from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 6 yards) at Cleveland – Week 3

5 – 34 yards – Fred Jackson from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 31 yards) vs. New England – Week 4

4 – 35 yards – Brad Smith from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 25 yards) vs. New England – Week 4

3 – 43 yards – Scott Chandler from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 11 yards) vs. Kansas City – Week 2

2 – 49 yards – Stevie Johnson from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 7 yards) vs. Kansas City – Week 2

1 – 68 yards – Donald Jones from Fitzpatrick (distance of pass – 7 yards) vs. New England – Week 4

Pats LB Spikes fined for Chandler hit

New England Patriots LB Brandon Spikes, who forced a pair of fumbles in the Pats’ Week 4 win over Buffalo, also cold-cocked Scott Chandler after a second half interception play. The NFL caught up with him Friday as he was slapped with a sizable fine.

According to ESPNBoston.com Spikes confirmed he was hit with a $21 thousand fine for an illegal blindside block. Spikes made helmet to helmet contact on the play and forced Chandler from the game with a head injury. He did not return to the game, but did pass concussion tests conducted by the team’s medical staff. He’s listed as probable for Sunday’s game against San Francisco.

Bills GM Buddy Nix didn’t appreciate the hit. When asked in his weekly radio appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 if Chandler said anything to coach Gailey or him about the hit Nix said there was a reason Chandler didn’t.

“Chandler didn’t say anything because he was out of the game. He went to the dressing room after that lick. We turn something into the league every week and we get a response every week. That was done and normally publicly nothing ever comes of it, but it was a flagrant late hit.”

Byrd, Chandler, Jones also injured

Jairus Byrd, Scott Chandler and Donald Jones all left the game with injuries and did not return Sunday. Head coach Chan Gailey provided an update after the loss the New England.

“Byrd has got a hip pointer,” said Gailey, who did not provide a prognosis for the starting safety.

“(Scott) and Donald both got dinged a little bit, but it seems to be minor,” said Gailey. ”It seems like they’ll be okay.”

Chandler was cold-cocked by Brandon Spikes, who is likely to receive a fine from the league, while Jones was legally tackled by Vince Wilfork coming over the middle.

All three players made big plays in the game. Chandler had a pair of touchdown catches, Jones had a long touchdown reception (68 yards) and Jairus Byrd had a pair of forced fumbles that led to takeaways by the Bills.

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.

Friday night John Murphy Show

We’re looking forward to previewing the Bills-Steelers game tonight on The John Murphy Show.  In particular, we want to hear what the fans think about this game, what do they need to see from the Bills in preseason game #3, and which players are they looking at in particular.

At 7:20pm, TE Scott Chandler joins us to talk about his role in the Buffalo offense, and his on-field chemistry with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.

At 8pm, columnist Joe Starkey of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review will be our guest.  He’s a Western New York native who covers the Steelers for the paper in Pittsburgh.

And at 820pm, Bills RB C.J. Spiller joins us in studio to talk about how he and Fred Jackson can co-exist in the Buffalo offensive backfield.

The John Murphy Show runs from 7pm-9pm tonight on the flagship station of the Bills–WGR Sports Radio 550.

No huddle just element of offense

Before anyone begins to make a big deal out of Buffalo’s use of the no huddle with their first team offense Thursday night, realize that the Bills have made use of it before under Chan Gailey.

In fact the Bills used the no huddle in last year’s season finale against New England.

“Yeah, we did it the last game of the season last year against New England with a lot of success,” said Scott Chandler. ”We went up 21-0 and we were really successful early on with that. So I think that is something we want to have in our arsenal. Obviously it is not going to be an all game, every game thing, but it is something that we can use as a weapon.”

“We may not do it at all against Minnesota or Pittsburgh,” said Gailey of the no huddle. ”It’s an element of our offense. Like last year against New England we did it. We didn’t do it the first series, but we did it the second and third series and we tried to come back and do it again and we didn’t get it. But there are some positives about doing it that we like that we want to keep exploring.”

We know we have to be better

The first team offense Thursday night had 46 total net yards on four possessions and three points despite having a pair of drive starts in Washington territory. The veterans on offense know things have to improve.

“We’ve got a lot of film to check out and we’ve got to get better at some things,” said Stevie Johnson. ”We know we can be better and we have to connect way more than we did in that first quarter.”

“We did not execute like we wanted to obviously,” said Scott Chandler. “We had too many penalties offensively with the first group. Obviously we need to work on it.”

What long term deals provided

Bills owner Ralph Wilson handed out some pretty hefty contracts this offseason. Mark Anderson, Stevie Johnson and Mario Williams were obviously the biggest beneficiaries, but the extensions for Scott Chandler and Fred Jackson also were significant. But more than the money, the long term deals eliminated any question about the direction of the teams future. Johnson believes that should enable the team to play loose.

“It just means that we’re here and we don’t have that extra voice in the back of our head saying ‘Will we ever get paid or will we get paid?’ Now it’s okay,” said Johnson. ”We know we’re going to be here. And with the defensive additions we’re going to have more opportunities on offense. We’ll have to be ready to play because they’re going to give us the opportunities.”

So even though contracts aren’t guaranteed in the NFL, the long term commitments the Bills have made to some of their more important core players has reinforced their belief that management is determined to make a run at the playoffs with this group.

Bills players test batting skills

Bills players Ryan Fitzpatrick, Scott Chandler, Kyle Williams and Donald Jones will all be at Rogers Centre in Toronto this afternoon testing their batting skills at batting practice, prior to the Blue Jays vs. Orioles  game.

Kyle Williams hit a homerun last time he attended batting practice in Toronto, and said on WGR 550 this morning that any homeruns after one is “extra.”

“I’m the current title holder, so I’m going to hold that belt until somebody knocks me off,” said Williams.

Who do you think will win?  Vote on twitter here.

Scott Chandler appearance

Bills TE Scott Chandler will be at the Connecticut Street Armory Sunday.

Chandler will be at the Armory on Sunday between 11am – Noon as part of the “Welcome Home” Party of 130 National Guard Soliders who just spent the last 9 months in Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn.

Bills earn top free agency grade

It’s probably not surprising in light of who they landed, but the Bills are earning some top grades in free agency.

The latest comes from FOXSports.com’s Alex Marvez, who gives the Bills the best grade in the AFC East and one of the best in the NFL. Here’s part of what he wrote.

Buffalo

Impact moves: The Bills stunned the NFL by winning the bidding for defensive end Mario Williams, who was considered the prize of the league’s free-agent class. Fellow end Mark Anderson also was signed, giving new defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt the bookend pass-rushers he wanted in Buffalo’s new 4-3 scheme. The Bills re-signed wide receiver Stevie Johnson, middle linebacker Kirk Morrison and tight end Scott Chandler before the start of free agency.

Washington, Philadelphia and Green Bay were the only other NFL clubs to get ‘A’ grades. Denver was tops with an ‘A+’ mark.

Bills working to get Chandler done

Bills Assistant GM Doug Whaley shed some light on the talks concerning free agent TE Scott Chandler during a live chat with Bills fans Friday morning.

“We’re in contact with his representatives and we’re trying very hard to get him back in the fold and get a deal done with him,” said Whaley.

Bills GM Buddy Nix said they’ll meet with Chandler’s reps in Indy over the next few days.

Big play Bills

With the new statistical measure ‘toxic differential’ gaining popularity in determining an NFL team’s success, we thought we’d take a closer look as to just what players were providing the big plays for the Bills this past season.

There are some obvious candidates, but here are the players that turned in all of the 20-plus yard plays in the run and pass game for Buffalo in 2011.

Players with plays of 20 yards or more in 2011
1 . Fred Jackson (18)
2. Stevie Johnson (13)
3. David Nelson (7)
4. Naaman Roosevelt (7)
5. C.J. Spiller (6)
6. Scott Chandler (4)
7. Brad Smith (3)
8. Donald Jones (2)
9. Derek Hagan (2)
10. Kevin Brock (1)
11. Ruvell Martin (1)

It’s not surprising that Jackson had the most 20-plus yard plays on the season. Even though he only appeared in 11 games in 2011 he still seemed to have at least one big play every time out. Perhaps the most impressive though is Naaman Roosevelt, who probably had significantly fewer snaps than Scott Chandler, David Nelson and C.J. Spiller. Yet Roosevelt was tied for third most plays of 20+ yards.

Chandler on Big Pete’s to-do list

Bills new tight ends coach Pete Metzelaars literally hit the ground running on Tuesday. Here’s a look at some of the first few things on his to-do list knowing he hasn’t been back on a day-to-day basis since 1994.

“The first thing is I’m trying to figure out where to go in the building and not get lost and how to get in the building (laughs),” he said. ”Next is to find out how (the coaching staff) calls stuff, what do they call it. Everybody runs the same kind of plays in the league it’s just what is your terminology, what is your verbiage for it.

“So just start learning that kind of stuff and then sit down and start watching film. Watch the guys play, how they play, what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, what do they do well, what don’t they do well, and let’s correct the things that they don’t do well and improve upon them and lets build upon what they do well.”

Metzelaars is also very interested to get in the ear of prospective free agent Scott Chandler in the hopes of convincing him that he can help him take another step in his career at the tight end position.

“I will try to talk to him or text him or however they communicate these days (laughs), but try to get in touch with all the tight ends that I’m going to be working with,” said Metzelaars. ”Hopefully we can get him back. I know the team would like to have him come back. He had a very good year last year, and try to build upon that. I would like to get some players to break any and all records that I may still be holding around here because we’ll find somebody better than me.”

Chandler next in Top 10 series

Bills TE Scott Chandler is the focus of the latest edition of the Top 10 Performances of 2011.

Join tight ends coach Bob Bicknell in the film room for some of Chandler’s better plays in his two touchdown performance against Kansas City in Week 1.

Chandler won’t need surgery

The MRI results on Scott Chandler’s knee from Monday offered good news for the tight end.

“It’s not going to require surgery,” said head coach Chan Gailey. ”I think he’ll be fine in a few weeks.”

Chandler’s prognosis is similar to that of Demetrius Bell and Kraig Urbik, who also have the same timetables before they’re back to being 100 percent healthy.

Chandler to have MRI

TE Scott Chandler sustained a knee injury and is scheduled to have an MRI today (Monday).

“I’m a little sore so we’ll find out what it is,” said Chandler. “We don’t think it will require surgery so that’s good.”

Chandler, who is a free agent said he’d like to be back next season.

Chandler update

Bills TE Scott Chandler left Sunday’s game in the first half with a knee injury and did not return. Head coach Chan Gailey couldn’t offer much right after the game.

“I don’t know, bad enough to keep him out for this game,” said Gailey. ”I don’t know if it’s an operation or not.”

Chandler will be re-evaluated Monday.

Chan still hopeful for Chandler

Bills TE Scott Chandler is still moving gingerly on his badly sprained ankle suffered two weeks ago in practice, but he got through a second straight day giving head coach Chan Gailey hope that he’ll be able to go come Saturday.

“Chandler was limited, but he looked good,” said Gailey. “I think we’ve got a decent chance to have Scott this week.”

Johnson has insisted he’ll be fine to play on Saturday as well though he too was limited again on Thursday.

Johnny White (concussion) and Ruvell Martin (hamstring) are not looking good for Saturday’s game after missing practice again on Thursday.

White, Martin sitting

Just two non-participants at practice Thursday for the Bills.

RB Johnny White (concussion) and WR Ruvell Martin (hamstring) were not participating.

TE Scott Chandler (ankle) was practicing, but still appears limited. We’ll have the status of all injured players this afternoon when Chan Gailey provides his update post practice.