FAN ZONE

Bills November 7 Interviews: Chan Gailey, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Fred Jackson

Head Coach Chan Gailey – Monday, November 7, 2011

On NT Kyle Williams injury update:

It looks like Kyle will be headed down to see the doctor one more time in North Carolina, Dr. Anderson. He’ll be going down there tomorrow or the next day and I think something definitive will happen then one way or the other.

On if that news is encouraging or not:

I don’t know either.

On K Rian Lindell’s shoulder injury:

It had a little, I don’t know if they said break or it tried to come out or what it was but it’s not good. So we’re going to bring some guys in and have them kick this week just in case we have to find another kicker.

On if he anticipates having to find another kicker for this week’s game:

That’s why we’re doing it is in case he can’t kick this week. We’ll make that judgment, see how he feels tomorrow and see what they say what we need to do. If I had to guess I’d say we probably would have to have one at least for one week.

On if more tests will be required for Lindell:

I don’t know. I think just rest, let it calm down and see how it feels.

On if he’ll put a kicker on the roster to have that guy ready:

I think we’ll have to go on and make the decision so he can get some reps in practice. We’ll have to make that decision by tomorrow or Wednesday for sure.

On LB Chris Kelsay’s injury update:

It looks like he could possibly miss this game as well. He re-aggravated that same calf injury. They said he should come back a lot faster than the last time. It looks like we may or may not have him, I would doubt it for this week. Probably have him for the next one.

On TE Mike Caussin being promoted from the practice squad to the active roster:

Yes, he was. We like what he’s been able to do for us and with getting CB Aaron Williams back to practice we released DB Terrence Wheatly and made room for him.

On where LT Demetrius Bell stands, injury-wise:

Probably still another week away.

On if LT Chris Hairston is in a position to start this week:

That’s still up in the air right now. Let us watch practice Wednesday and we’ll be able to better determine that Wednesday.

On if P Brian Moorman could perform kickoff duties:

I would rather not go that direction because what I have found and what other people have found is that when you ask a guy to do two things it sort of messes up the one he does best, at least he doesn’t get to spend time. I would rather not but he certainly did a good job when he was asked to step in and I think he would have no problem doing it. If we do have to sign a kicker, hopefully we can find one that does a good job kicking off as well.

On there not being a lot of good news coming out of this game:

It’s a game where you get injuries and you have to deal with it. Everybody has to deal with it. It’s just part of it. The good thing is we get Aaron Williams and Chris Hairston back a little bit healthier. Guys go down, guys come up, that’s the way it is.

On if the decision on Hairston is based on his health or LG Andy Levitre’s performance at LT:

That’s a good question. I don’t know that I can answer that one. I think it’s some of both. Andy hasn’t done a bad job. It’s just whether or not we think Chris can play LT and that makes us a stronger team to play Andy at LG or does it make us a stronger team with Chris being a little bit limited to keep Andy at tackle and keep Rinehart at guard? We just have to make that decision. Andy hasn’t done a bad job to be honest with you.

On how much does DE DeMarcus Ware factor into the decision at who plays where on the O-line:

It doesn’t. It doesn’t factor into it. Whoever plays at LT is going to have to have somebody over around him helping him chip and all that kind of stuff. It doesn’t matter which one it is.

On G Chad Rinehart stepping in and playing well:

The good thing is we’ve got a bunch of those guys with some work in preseason so it wasn’t new to them. And really Chad played pretty well this week, maybe as good as any offensive lineman we had this week.

On how much momentum the team lost after this loss and now going on a three game road trip:

I don’t think you talk in terms of going into a three game road deal. I think you talk of it in terms of going into the Dallas game. That’s all you talk about. And we’ve had to deal with losses two other times this season. They’ve handled it ok. They don’t like it. Neither do I, neither do the fans. Nobody does. You have to respond and that’s where I think our team will go.

On if he’s ever gone through three straight road games before as a coach:

I can’t remember ever having done that, no I can’t remember that.

On three straight on the road being traditionally tough on teams:

You deal with it. What are you going to do? Sit around, gripe, moan and complain? You can’t do that. It doesn’t do any good, it’s still going to be there.  You take them as they come and don’t worry about it.

On after watching the film if he still thought his team could be more physical:

Yes, we can be more physical but it was much more execution oriented than it was in my opinion getting whipped physically in the ball game.

On that it wasn’t an intensity issue but rather execution:

It was much more of an execution issue than it was a physical issue. Physicality and intensity are two different things. Being physical is being able to push the lines. Intensity, our guys play with intensity. They play hard every time they walk on the field but we’ve got to make sure we’re able to push the line on offense and not get pushed defensively.

On what was it about the offense not executing as it has in games past:

They did put some people in some different spots but it was not something that was drastically different. It was a little different. We have to be able to handle those things. Good teams handle those. I think the fact that they did put some guys, the people in the same spots but it was different kinds of people. They had a DB in the spot where a LB normally plays and you’ve got to count it the same. And I did a bad job of preparing the guys to understand that and make sure we execute properly.

On if DE Marcell Dareus took a step back in yesterday’s game:

No. I don’t think so. He played hard and played well. Just wasn’t in on as many tackles and didn’t make as many things happen. You’ve got to give them credit. They had two weeks and were making sure he wasn’t going to be a big part of it.

On WR David Nelson getting more and more attention from defenses:

There are not a lot of answers for double teams. If somebody respects you that much, they can take away a guy. If they want to take away a guy they can take away a guy. You’ve got to be good everywhere else to be able to execute and move the ball down the field. I think that he’s got to make sure when he gets the opportunity to win the one-on-ones that he wins the one-on-ones. If they jam him and put an extra guy on him that’s a great deal of respect but at the same time you’re not going to get away from that a lot.

On going back to Dallas where he used to coach:

Obviously I’ve worked a lot of places unfortunately. But it’s one of those deals where you remember your time there. There were some good times and there were some bad times, but that’s not the focus. The focus is trying to win a game. We need to go win the game. We have everything in front of us. We hold our own destiny in our own hands. We have to go take care of business.

On RB C.J. Spiller’s role with the team:

He’ll probably be a hybrid. Probably play some wide, some in the back field, probably do a little bit of everything. I don’t think anybody foresaw how good Fred Jackson was going to be. When we drafted him (Spiller), we thought there would eventually be a need there that has not shown itself to be. It’s not his fault. Fred Jackson’s playing extremely well right now. How do you take him out of the ball game? He did a good job of going out at receiver the week before and did some good things but that’s not his natural position. But he can help us in different places. We’ll just have to see how it works as time goes on. It may be one of those things where this year he doesn’t get as involved as we all would maybe have thought he might. That’s the way it is.

On having a three way tie in the division:

I told the players today, “We don’t have to depend on anybody. Everything’s in front of us. It’s up to us to get it done.”

On if he has a fear that Kyle Williams will be shut down the rest of the season:

It is a possibility. I’m not going to say it’s not. That is a possibility.

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick – Monday, November 7, 2011

On how to approach the team’s three game road swing:

One game as a time for sure. Each game, the next three, they all present a different challenge. We’ve watched a little bit of the Cowboys. We’ve got some stuff we need to clean up and need to get better at. We made a lot of mistakes, stuff that we usually don’t do. There’s some stuff we need to clean up on our end and then we’ll get it going.

On how disappointed he is going into this game not 6-2:

It’s hard to play the what-if game because then you look at the Giants and Cincinnati games, some close losses. We had some close wins at the end with the Raiders and New England. You can’t play that game. You can’t look backward. It’s tough. We had a big-time game that we didn’t play well in and we’ve got to get over it, learn from it and move on.

On if getting over it is almost as important as watching film x and o wise:

Being in the NFL and playing in games you’re going to have a lot of games where there are great things that happen. You’re going to have a lot of games where there’s disappointment. You’ve got to learn to live and handle both of them. You’ve got to live with this disappointment, handle it, learn from it and move on. Just like we say with the 24-hour with the wins; don’t get too excited about it, just move on and get on to the next opponent.

On if this loss feels at all like last season:

It was a bad game. We certainly didn’t have our best effort out there and I think that’s where a lot of the disappointment and frustration comes in especially with the magnitude of the game. I think the disappointment stems from that.

On Head Coach Chan Gailey taking the blame for this loss:

That’s what Chan’s going to do. He’s going to do that and then when we win he’s going to give us all the credit. Obviously we appreciate that with him being the head coach and the guy that’s going to step up to the plate but the players are out there playing. We’ve got to go out there and execute better. We’ve got to play much better and there are always things you can learn from and work on. We’ll all use this as a learning experience and move forward.

On if it was the Jets players or teams taking notice at what the offense can do:

You’ve got to give them credit, they did a good job. I don’t know that there’s anything really unique that they did. I think it was more about what we didn’t do and that they beat us. They beat us physically. That’s something we can’t allow to happen again.

On if the plays are the same as last year or if they switch it up:

It’s the same offense so conceptually there’s similar stuff. I think you find that around the league.  I think that our confidence is a lot higher and you’ve seen that throughout the year. I think we’re playing at a higher level and a lot of that is just the comfort level that we have. We’ve talked a lot about that. Just comfort level and being in the system for another year. It wasn’t our best effort and we’ve got to move on.

On if the play call selection would have been different:

No, it’s all about us and the players that we had out there and me making better decision and throws, guys stepping up and making plays. It had nothing to do with play selection at all. It had to do with us not getting the job done.

On if he forced it away from WR Stevie Johnson because of CB Darrelle Revis:

I think at the beginning of the game I didn’t go to him as much as I should have. We went into the game knowing that would have been a good match-up, an interesting one to see. They are both very good players. Coming out of the game I think Steve did some really good stuff that we expected. I think that’s something that we’ll look at and carry over to the next game when we play them again.

RB Fred Jackson – Monday, November 7, 2011

On if he learned anything from the film about not being as effective:

Not to take anything away from them but there’s a lot of miscues that all of us were guilty of making. You have to clean that up. I think that’s what we’ll focus on this week is just taking care of what we do. We didn’t do that very well this week and it showed up. It was definitely evident on film.

On if what the Jets defense showed yesterday have the potential to become a problem for them down the road:

I think more than anything we just have to focus on what we need to do. They’re a good team. They’re going to make plays, especially with that defense. They’ve got a lot of good guys over there. With the corners that they have it allows them to play a lot of one-on-one coverage and bring extra guys in the box. But I think more than anything we’ve got to focus on what errors and what mental mistakes we made. I think we’ll be ok if we do that.

On how tough it is to now go on a three game road swing:

It’s one of those things we’ve got to take it one game at a time and we know that. It will be a difficult stretch, but we don’t have to play all three of them at the same time. We have to play one game at a time, go out and take care of our business and focus on the team that we have. If we go out and continue to make plays like we have been throughout the season we’ll feel like we’ll be ok.

On if the offensive production has been dropping and if it’s a concern:

Not at all. We still feel like we’re a high powered offense. Looking at film, there s a lot of things that we did as an offensive unit that prevented us from putting some points up. There are a lot of points that we saw on the film that we could have got. We just have to focus on that. Knowing that the play is there, we just have to execute.