FAN ZONE

Bills October 30 Interviews: Chan Gailey, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Fred Jackson, Marcell Dareus

BUFFALO BILLS HEAD COACH CHAN GAILEY

On working on the pass rush during the bye week and wanting to get to the quarter back:

That would be the biggest understatement of the year. That was amazing to go get nine sacks against that team. They really worked hard at it during the bye week. I don’t think anybody expected that. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t expect that. They gave such a great effort, did a good job working technique and getting back to fundamentals. In the bye week you get out of the routine. You get out of everything and you’ve got to depend on the fundamentals when you come back off a bye week. They did a great job of that.

On the back end guys getting sacks as well:

That was a big part of it. He didn’t have anywhere to throw the football. He had to hold it an extra second. And when you hold it an extra second guys get there. I thought our coaching staff and our players executed some great blitzes. I thought we had some great blitzes for their protections.

On how hard it is to play with so many injuries:

It’s tough. You have to have different guys step up like LG Andy Levitre stepping up at left tackle today is amazing.  We’ve had to have receivers do it. It’s not easy. It’s very difficult. But that’s what this game’s about. Can you keep persevering through the bad times and can you continue to find a way to win or make a way to win during tough times?

On switching DE Marcell Dareus to NT:

I’ll have to go look at the film to see the problems it does bring. But I know it’s a problem. He is a force in there inside. You have to put two on him just about. The nose position creates that because if both guards turn out then that poor center is sitting there. That was the good thing about it.

On TE Scott Chandler’s performance:

Fitz (Ryan Fitzpatrick) did a great job. We had two good patterns. Fitz read both of them perfectly. They doubled Stevie (Johnson) on the second one, so I knew he was going to the front side. I just didn’t know which of those other guys he was going to get it to in that situation. And Scott’s the one that came open and he did a great job of getting it to him.

On how he felt coming out of the bye week:

Scared to death. It’s not something that is normal; you’re not in your routine. You don’t know if your guys are back into it or not. We had a couple of guys late for meetings because they were not back into the routine so it makes you nervous as a coach. Can they all get it back together and get working the way we’re supposed to work? They worked hard in practice, don’t get me wrong. Just getting back into the speed of the game in a hurry because they’d been away from it for so long.

On the crowd getting involved in the game:

Today was a lot better. I have to teach them when it’s third-and-one not to do the wave (jokingly). If we can learn that, that would help us but they were great. The crowd was really into it. It helped us. It helped us when they had the ball. They had to call a couple time outs because of the noise. It was good.

On RB Fred Jackson’s performance:

I’m not surprised. The pass he caught there late in the game where he slipped out the backfield was something that we had talked about doing if we got to it because they had blitzed from one side to the other. And we could turn the line that way and slip him out and they didn’t count for him. It was a great play by he and Fitz.

BUFFALO BILLS QB RYAN FITZPATRICK AND RB FRED JACKSON

On the team’s play coming out of their bye week:

Fitzpatrick: We did and there was a lot of talk, too, with the way the bye week was going and that people weren’t coming out and playing well after their bye. And we didn’t believe in that. We really stressed that we start fast, play well and the effort our defense had today, all we needed was three points to win that one. But I thought the guys up front did great job and when you got 22 (RB Fred Jackson) on your team, you always have a chance.

On the Redskins’ defense:
Fitzpatrick: They do a lot of stuff where they stack the box and blitz, so I don’t know. They came at us a little, not much. I think that was the plan during the day. But every team plays us different and we just have to react to it.

On whether he saw an opening on the first scoring drive of the game:

Fitzpatrick: Let me think about this for a minute. No, it was a different coverage and there were guys over there. I had to throw it over (Redskins’ middle linebacker) London’s (Fletcher) head on that one but that was something that we had planned on running all week, not necessarily because of what they gave us earlier in the game.

On why TE Scott Chandler was able to have two touchdowns this game as opposed to other Bills games in the past:
Fitzpatrick: It just depends on the game. Today, I don’t know with the game plan if we went in saying, “We’re throwing Scott (Chandler) two touchdowns.” When we went in, if you had told me he would’ve caught two, I would’ve said, “Yeah, he can catch two every week.” Stevie Johnson can catch two, David (Nelson) can catch two. Whoever it is, so that’s just the way it went today.

On the team’s reaction when Fitzpatrick was hit preceding a Fred Jackson run:

Jackson: Well, he’s a huge part of what we do so I think everybody on offense and the whole team had a collective gasp when they saw him down there trying to suck air so to speak. He came back to the huddle and was still doing the same thing so everybody’s in the huddle wide-eyed and trying to make sure he’s okay because obviously he’s a huge part of what we do. Without him, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are. So that was the first thing, I tried to make sure he was alright after the play and it’s good for him to get back in there because…
Fitzpatrick: I just want to add to that, I thought, ‘Boy, Toronto really doesn’t like me,’ because I didn’t know he broke the tackle and ran down the sideline so I said, “That’s a lot of excitement for a quarterback getting hit.” But then I noticed Fred was running.

On how the aforementioned play came to be:
Jackson: We didn’t even practice it that much. He just called, “R hop” because of the way that they were playing so it was an option route for me. He read it the exact same way I did and I felt Rocky (McIntosh) running over the top of me so I felt I’d be able to get back inside of him. And Stevie (Johnson) made a great block downfield that allowed me to get another 20-25 yards and get us in field goal range right away.

On the positives that came from getting the score of the game:

Fitzpatrick: I think so. That was one of the things coming in to give them (the fans) something to cheer about. I thought we did that today and we played well enough to win. There was some excitement. I think there was more excitement out there today than there have been in years past.

On the first play of the 3^rd quarter:

Jackson: Offensive line did a great job. Anytime they got a hat on their head I got to the line untouched. So when I went one-on-one with the safety, I feel like I can make him miss. They did a great job with that and I was able to do something with it.

BUFFALO BILLS DEFENSIVE TACKLE, MARCELL DAREUS

On playing Nose Tackle:

(The coaches) sprung it up on me of course, but I was ready for it. I was ready for whatever they wanted me to do. I laid it on the line and went out there and did the best I could.

On getting nine sacks, the improving defense:

I kind of took it personally myself because I don’t think as a front we’ve been doing a good job getting to the quarterback, putting as much pressure on the quarterback as needed. The D-line and the front seven have been really kind of emphasizing that, get after the quarterback no matter what, just do all you can.

On working on improving the pass rush:

It was Giff (Smith) our D-line coach, he really put a lot of emphasis on “keep your motor running”, staying low, getting after the ball, don’t look in the backfield, work your man and make your move. It always kind of went from there. You get to the grind; we did a lot of drills bouncing up, running after the ball, running after the quarterback, anything that it took to get to the quarterback. Our D-line coach Giff put a lot of emphasis on it and we worked on it.

On if he thinks he is better suited for Nose Tackle:

Like I tell everybody, from the first time I got here it doesn’t matter where they want me, I’m going to do the best I can at wherever I’m at.

On if he felt comfortable at Nose Tackle:

I felt real comfortable but they play so flat across the line it took a little adjustment. It’s hard to imitate that in practice so we’re really getting out there and really working on something that they do every week. It took a little getting used to but I got in the swing of things and got control of the thing.

On getting after John Beck:

We already talked about that, how (John Beck) would like to scramble, if we build a pocket on him it makes it hard for him and frustrates him. (We wanted to) get in his bubble a little bit. You could tell in the game he got a little frustrated he was throwing balls all kinds of ways. We just kept at it, kept chopping wood and eventually it gave.

On where the defense can go from here:

I think the sky’s the limit; a lot of people questioned us stopping the run and playing flat. (Not) playing a whole game, that’s one thing I hear. I think it’s the first complete game our team has played, I think it’s only the beginning, the sky’s the limit. We still can continue to do the best we can just as well as anyone else.

On getting a shutout and being comfortable as a unit:

As a group it feels like we are finally getting to the point where we’re together, we’ve been trying to find that mold, to find the right fit at safety, corner, linebacker and D-line up front. It’s that good combination where we can really go out there and stop the run, get after the quarterback and chase the quarterback down in a scramble. Not getting knocked down and not getting back up, for us to really go out there and find that mold for us, that really helped a lot. We really know what we can do, if we really study and get after it.