Archives for July 29, 2014

‘”This is bigger than me,” Reed said. “We all know what’s going on with the team and all that stuff. This is like a breath of fresh air. I’m glad I’m at the forefront of this, because there’s something to be happy about.”‘

‘However, since the new CBA rules came into play, teams with the extra week of preseason work are 3-1 in their regular season openers.’

‘While the Buffalo Bills were a team on paper, they were divided by offense and defense as two separate entities for a solid 30 minute stretch on Monday night. Tempers flared and it resulted in some activities that head coach Doug Marrone is not very fond of, but it also led to the most spirited practice to date.’

‘The Bills practiced just over two hours and things got testy, especially with the defensive line. Marrone seemed beside himself having two very long and animated talks with coach Pepper Johnson and another talk with Kyle and Mario Williams. This was the sixth straight practice with pads and Marrone said, “Really the thought process is that we play in pads, so I like to practice in pads. We’ve been going one period live. Tonight no, because of the change in the schedule. They get a day off and we’re not going live every period, so [we’re] just trying to get back and get used to it.”‘

‘”You go into year two, its not a new system anymore. You want him to be able to operate the system, feel comfortable with the system, to start making plays and not thinking about what that play is and how to get the guys lined up” Hackett said. “Now he doesn’t need to think about the stuff anymore. He gets to go out there and just react and play, start looking at the defense and thinking about when he can pull the trigger a little earlier.”‘

‘”I think any time you can blitz on your own terms, you’re at an advantage defensively,” he said. “By that I mean you don’t have to blitz to get a pass rush. If you can rely on your front four to get a pass rush, you can do so many more things with your coverage. And then when you want to blitz, you can blitz. It’s not, ‘Well we’ve got to get pressure on the quarterback so we have to blitz.’ And I think that’s one of the advantages of having a strong front four.”‘

‘Well, I can say for the defensive line at least, we’re pretty well into the playbook. We’ve got a pretty good grasp of what’s going on. I think the biggest change will probably be as far as the linebackers go, we’ve got a lot of new faces at the linebacker position, and then those guys have to learn the system. They have to learn a lot because our linebackers, they have to know everything. Up front I think we’re doing pretty good at grasping things. I don’t sit in the linebackers room during meetings, so I couldn’t speak to that, but up front we’re doing pretty good.’

‘As practice wore on, Manuel still had a hiccup here or there, but looked very comfortable throughout practice. During the next set of 11-on-11 drills, Manuel completed seven of his twelve attempted passes despite excellent coverage by linebackers and defensive backs as well as constant pressure from the defensive line.’