Archives for August 24, 2012

‘Bills starters will get 30 snaps according to Coach Gailey. “They’ll go a half for sure and maybe a little bit more,” he said. “Maybe the start of the second half. That’s kind of the plan. Maybe the first series of the second half. We’ll see where it falls.”‘

‘The Arizona Cardinals are often called “Pittsburgh West” because they employ so many former Steelers coaches and players. But there’s another NFL team with multiple ties to Pittsburgh. That would be the Buffalo Bills.’

‘"I don’t see that sense of urgency that we had last year, where we were just getting after people game after game, week after week," left guard Andy Levitre said after Thursday’s practice at One Bills Drive.’

‘”I told him when we visited I was proud of him for the way he fought to get back, but he just couldn’t make it,” Bills coach Chan Gailey said. “We saw he wasn’t going to make it this year. So we wanted to not let him worry about it anymore and go get well, and we’ll give him a run next year.’

‘Number me among the many, many Buffalonians counting the days until our area’s National Football League team takes the field for what is the most anticipated Bills season in years, if not a full decade back to Drew Bledsoe’s arrival in Orchard Park.’

”’We need to get better. We want to see improvement,” said Gailey, who traditionally rests his starters in the fourth preseason game. ”I don’t know what that will show. It should show more production, but we have to get better.”’

‘It had become increasingly evident as training camp progressed that Troup was going to have difficulty not only getting healthy, but making the active roster. In the latest depth chart released by the team this week, Troup was listed fourth and last behind starter Kyle Williams.’

‘There is no doubt that the Bills should be considered an up-and- coming team, and their offense will be good enough to win some games on its own. However, the defensive secondary is young at spots and could struggle against veteran quarterbacks on the schedule like Tom Brady, Mark Sanchez and Matt Schaub. Wannstedt is right in saying that it will be the front four that drives the defense, and Buffalo took the right steps through free agency to strengthen the group. Still, the pressure will be on Mario Williams and company.’

‘Predicted record: 10-6.’

‘Chan Gailey has talked about how cohesiveness in the offense line is the number one thing that they need or they won’t be successful. Gailey said, “They have to play together. We have to have guys go out there, play together and communicate. That’s probably, no it’s not probably, it’s the offensive line which is the biggest area that has to have continuity and communication. They have to have that. If they don’t have that, you do not give yourself very much of a chance to win.”‘

‘”We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, facing the Steelers they’re a smash mouth football team. It’s one of those things, we really don’t get to see it a lot in practice against our offense so we’ve got to prepare amongst ourselves to get the right looks, not just at practice, but whenever home studying film.”‘

‘As of right now, I give the edge to Tashard Choice over Johnny White mostly because the latter has been dealing with an ankle injury for much of camp. Should White come in and outplay Choice in the final two weeks, I could see the former Cowboys runner being the one that gets the pink slip. It’s a closer spot on the roster than most are giving credit.’

‘The reality is, we really won’t know how much better this 2012 team might be until we see them go through some adversity. Lose a game that should have been won, or get hit with some key injuries, and the heart of a team becomes open for all to see.’

‘”You want to be physical,” said Gailey. “You want to set the tone. You don’t want to have the tone set against you. You want to set it. They’re a physical football team. That’s what they do. They get ready to play. They have all their blitz packages, all their coverage packages. They do it all. And they’re good at it. They’re fast and explosive as well. It’ll be a challenge for our line and our protection to hold up.”‘

‘Troup battled a back injury suffered in the final preseason game last summer and struggled to be available each Sunday in 2011. He sustained a fractured vertebrae and also had a bulging disc in his lower back, which caused severe and chronic pain. He appeared in just six games last season before he was placed on injured reserve November 30th.’