FAN ZONE

Bills November 6 Interviews: Chan Gailey, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Drayton Florence, Nick Barnett

BUFFALO BILLS Head Coach Chan Gailey

They played well. We played poorly. It’s my responsibility to get our team ready to play each week and I didn’t get these guys ready to play well enough to play this ball game. It’s a big ball game. I hadn’t had this happen at home this year and we’ve got to get better. That’s the bottom line. We weren’t physical enough in the ball game. We’ve got to be more physical. If I had to say there was one thing, that’s what I would say.

On the low offensive production:

Again I go back to myself on that. I needed to be cleaner on the things that I had designed for the offense, needed to run the ball better early. I probably didn’t stick with that enough. And we just sometimes in third down we couldn’t make third downs and that’s where we’ve got to get better if we expect to be a consistent football team. We’ve done that fairly well the last game. We had a little bit of lull, did it good early and that’s where we’ve got to get back. We’ve got to keep our defense on the sideline and make things happen offensively.

On if he’s disappointed that his team wasn’t the team to make a statement:

I don’t worry about statements, I worry about winning and not winning and we didn’t win today. If you win in three weeks then you would have liked to have won this one and beat them twice, but you didn’t. You didn’t win today and it’s a two game swing when you look at it. And that’s the good part about division games. It was good when we played New England, it was bad when we played the Jets, it’s a two game swing. Not only you win in your division but you give a division team a loss, that’s what they did today.

On what the defense was showing having more linebackers up front:

They were just playing their nickel stuff, that’s all they were doing. We had seen it; it wasn’t like it was something we hadn’t seen. They got in a couple alignments that we hadn’t seen but we still have to be better organized from my perspective to make sure we get hats on the right hats.

On if the Jets showed them what it’s like to play in a big game:

I don’t know if I’m ready to go there. I’ll be honest with you. I think we have the make up to be that, we were not that today. But I think we have the make up to be that. The one thing about it is you’ve got half a football season left, it starts this week and you get a chance to go do something about it. If you don’t like it, do something about it.

On what the Jets did to give the offense trouble:

If it was one thing, we could have solved that. You can always solve one thing in a game. They would bring pressure, they would play coverage. We’d throw one just outside the reach one time or we’d drop one or they would give us something we hadn’t seen or they would bring an extra guy. It was a combination. They kept us off balance and that’s what we can’t allow to happen. We can’t allow them to keep us off balance. We’ve got to keep them off balance.

On K Rian Lindell’s shoulder injury:

Yes, that’s what it was. It was his shoulder. We’re getting more information on that as we speak.

On if long field goals were out of the equation:

Yes.

On if anybody else got injured:

Not that I know of right off the bat.

On the play of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and not getting comfortable:

That’s exactly right. The term used earlier was rhythm. We did not have an offensive rhythm today. We get a couple things going and then it would fizzle out. And I can’t allow that to happen.

On if it’s disappointing that RB CJ Spiller can’t be a factor:

It’s not his fault. With Fred (Jackson) playing the way he’s playing and just the situation worked out that he’s not being on the field as much as I think he will be in the future for us. But it’s not his fault.

BUFFALO BILLS Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick

On his thoughts on the game

Yeah, couldn’t get much going today.  Especially in the first half when the defense kept us in the game and we felt coming out of half they were going to get the ball first but we still had a good shot, we were right there.  We just had to get some stuff going, just couldn’t do it, fell too far behind and then they did a good job today.  They kept us frustrated all day and didn’t allow us to do what we’ve been doing all year.

On the first interception

Yeah, they blitzed from the left, dropped some guys off to the right, I thought he was farther out then he was, and it was a good call by them.

On taking more shots early in the game

Yeah, they are an aggressive team.  We knew what they were going to do coming in.  They were going to come in and play man coverage and that’s what they did in the first half and unfortunately some of the stuff we had planned and prepared for that didn’t really pan out, we didn’t make the throw, didn’t make the play, whatever it was and I felt like we all around today was just not a good day for us.

On this game being an opportunity to make a statement

Yeah, absolutely we were really excited about this game and really to show our division we’re here and we’re a better team than we’ve been in the past and unfortunately today we didn’t show that.

On if they did anything to take away the screen play

No.

On the defensive pressure and coverage

There was a lot of stuff.  It was hard because they controlled the ball a little bit in the first half and we didn’t get on the field, and when we did it was three and out or whatever it was.  We just didn’t have a lot of plays and there were plays to be made whether it was a throw here, or a route there, or a run, or whatever it was.  They certainly made more of them today.

On having to now play three straight on the road

I don’t think with the guys in our locker room that that’s going to be an issue.  I know everybody’s upset, not happy with the way we played today, not happy that we lost the game, but it’s one of those things where just like a win you move on from it.  You throw yourself fully in to the next week’s opponent and go from there and that’s what we’ll do.

On the third down incompletion to Fred Jackson that led to a field goal

They played zone on that play, and just a route that we have run a lot coming in. I think we had five different guys out on that route, but he was the one I threw too. 

On facing the Jets defensive style

It was frustrating and even the times where we haven’t had it going on early in a game we seem to find a way to get it going and today for whatever reason we couldn’t get that start, couldn’t get going.  And that was the frustration I guess was not getting that spark, that big play, whatever it was out there today. 

BUFFALO BILLS, Cornerback Drayton Florence

Thoughts on the game:

They came out and played better than we did, we couldn’t get off the field on third down, we had a few turnovers. We didn’t get as many as we should have and (New York) played a good game.

On moving on and correcting mistakes:
Just like any other game, forget about this one as quickly as you can, move on to the next one. We’ve got Dallas coming up next so it’s going to be a good challenge for us. I think they won today. We’ve still got a lot of football left to play; I know we didn’t play as well as we should have today. We’ve got to go watch the film and get the things that we did wrong corrected.

On creating opportunity for the offense:

Any time you lose it’s frustrating, whatever that is. We just didn’t give the offense enough chances to make plays, we didn’t get as many turnovers as we should have to give them the opportunity to go down and score.

On how long it will take them to bounce back from the loss:

We play next Sunday so I’m thinking next Sunday.

BUFFALO BILLS Linebacker Nick Barnett

On the game not going smoothly for the Bills on either side of the ball:

It definitely wasn’t our game; the ball didn’t bounce our way if you want to say that. We’ve got to get off of the field a lot faster on defense, get our offense more opportunities, come up with some more turnovers, and stop the run even better. We’ve got to shut it down. I don’t really know what to say other than that, but we definitely have to improve.

On the defense being gassed by the fourth quarter:

We just needed to get off the field. I wouldn’t say gassed. We had a couple of plays there where we weren’t playing smart. We let a back get out on the flat on us on a third down that should’ve been a dead play; just some other little small things that we could’ve fixed in that fourth quarter that could’ve got our offense the ball more.

On if the effectiveness of the Jets run game compromised the Bills getting to Jets QB Mark Sanchez:

Definitely. We wanted to stop the run so we were definitely playing the run. He was getting rid of the ball pretty fast out of the pocket; he made some good decisions as a quarterback. Then again, we could’ve made some plays on a couple balls. We had some bad calls, or whatever you want to call them. We had some penalties that we shouldn’t have got that ate at their calls. We have to be able to correct that and not get those penalties, and just get off the field a lot faster than what we’re doing.

On if the Jets taught the Bills how to step up in a big game:

I don’t think we played our best game, for sure. They did play well, the Jets, I give it up to them, I give them the credit. They went out there and they played well. We didn’t play well and big games like this where we’ve got to have it, we’ve got to show up. We’ve got eight more games. We’re not going to throw it all away; not going to cash in right now. We’ve got eight games, we’ve got a lot of football left and I’ve got a lot of confidence that we can come out with those wins.

On how the Bills defense played against the Jets offensive line:

I thought we played well against their front. We had a couple of gap issues we could’ve cleaned out but we weren’t bullied around. I thought our guys stepped up on the line, just have to be a little bit more gap-sound and control the line a little bit more. We’ll watch the film. We’ll learn a lot from this I’m sure. We’ll be hungry, we’ll get mad at this film and we’ll come out and play hard next week.