Spiller may miss just one game
By: John Kucko
Updated: September 24, 2012
The Bills returned to work Monday in Orchard Park following Sunday's win in Cleveland. Chan Gailey began his comments by addressing the shoulder injury to C.J. Spiller, below is a transcript of his comments, among others:
On the status of RB C.J.
Spiller:
Maybe not as bad as originally thought. Not going to
completely rule him out this week, but I think it is more of a chance that he
will not than he will.
On what the injury
is:
I do not know. Do not ask me all that
stuff.
On RB Fred Jackson saying he is 70-75 percent
confident he will play this week:
From the workout and rehab this morning, it went
extremely well. It looks like he is going to practice Wednesday and we will see
how he feels during the course of the week. I am very
optimistic.
On he feels they caught a break without losing
Spiller or Jackson for the long-term:
We lost Fred and C.J. You say we are catching a
break?
On that the injuries could be worse than they
are:
They do look like they could have been and if you look
at it that way, we probably are fortunate they are not
long-term.
On maybe getting Jackson back as Spiller goes
down:
It is big. Anytime you can get a good player back, it
helps your football team. I do not care who you are or what league you are in It
helps your football team when you can get a really good player
back.
On the likelihood Spiller can play in two
weeks:
I think there is a good possibility for the second week,
whoever we play after this week. We go to San Francisco. Yeah, he will be back
for that. He has a good chance to be back for that
one.
On WR Stevie Johnson
maturing:
I do not know. You would have to ask him. Maybe. He is
doing what we ask him to do and doing a great job of it right now. I see him
being the player that we all thought he could be. I think he is going to get
better and better every week to be honest with you--as long as he and (Ryan
Fitzpatrick) keep working together.
On Johnson calming down his
celebrations:
I do not worry about that. I did not worry about it or
we should not have signed him back, to be honest with you.
On calling QB Ryan Fitzpatrick 'underrated':
A lot of people give him a hard time. He is not your
prototypical guy. He does not have the big name. I think he is better than
people give him credit for. That is why I said that. I think he is better. I am
biased, I understand that. But I think he is better than people give him credit
for.
On the team showing resilience after Spiller went
down compared to what happened when Jackson got
hurt:
I cannot compare the two. I think it was different, but
I think that the way our team responded in the fourth quarter was different. It
was different. I think that I saw a better football team-a team that believes in
itself a lot more. Hopefully that bodes well for us in the
future.
On the play of the linebackers on
Sunday:
They did a lot of good things. They ran on a ton of
tackles, made a bunch of big plays and defended the pass extremely well during
the course of the day. The thing that stood out the most for me in the course of
the ball game was our tackling. I thought we did a great job of tackling in the
ball game. And when you play against a back like (Trent Richardson) you better
be good at tackling during the course of a game. I thought we made some open
field tackles. I know we missed a couple here and there, but for the most part
we tackled extremely well during the ball
game.
On not having to worry about point
production:
You do not worry about it. I worry about it every day.
It just does not happen. You have to have players who go make it happen. We have
been fortunate that we have had guys to make the plays that are needed to play.
The line has played extremely well to this point, which always helps you. When
you do not get sacks and you can run the football, it makes life a lot
easier.
On how the cornerbacks are
playing:
They have become a more aggressive group. To me that is
one of the things that has been bright spot--the way they have played more
aggressively in the last two weeks. I thought they were kind of on their heels
in the first game. Since that they have started to come on and play a lot more
aggressively. That has been something we needed.
On CB Leodis McKelvin's ability to return punts and
kicks:
He is probably another guy that is underrated in his
area. I think he is an extremely talented returner and he has a chance to take
every ball, whether it is a kickoff or a punt, he has a chance to take it all
the way as we saw two weeks ago. Our guys will keep working because when they
know he is back there, they are working extremely hard to block and to do their
assignments. It takes everybody. One guy cannot do it. You cannot have one guy
back there and him do it all. Everybody is working extremely hard to get that
done.
On if teams might start kicking the ball
out-of-bounds on punts:
They might. If they do then they might get one of those
32-yarders that really helps field position. That would be
good.
On the Jets losing CB Darrelle Revis to
injury:
People were probably asking the other coaches in the
division about losing Fred and about losing C.J. and how does that effect
things. You do not know. We will see how it plays out. They have good players.
They are all pro players.
On McKelvin always wanting to be aggressive in the
return game:
Oh yeah. He was mad at me right before the end of the
half because I called for the block instead of the return. Has he become a
better decision maker? Yeah, I think he has. I think he knows how to set up
things. He has a feel for setting up things better than when I got here. I know
that.
On McKelvin having a positive
outlook:
He has a great outlook. He wants to win. That is the
great thing about him is that he wants to win. He will do his role, whatever it
is and try to be the greatest he can be at it. Whatever that is. I am glad we
got him. I know that.
On what RB Tashard Choice showed
yesterday:
I am not shocked, as I said yesterday. Everybody else
seems to be but I am not. I know what kind of player he is and what kind of
competitor he is. He is great to have on our football team. I have a very high
comfort level when he is in the ball game.
On cleaning up WR Stevie Johnson's holding
penalties:
One of them was debatable. One of them probably was.
They can get you a lot of times. He just has to be a little bit more careful,
which is true for everybody.
On why Fitzpatrick has struggled to play well against
division opponents:
The team is not playing very well. It is not him only.
None of us are playing that great when it comes time to play. That is the
challenge, to win our division. That is our
division.
On the opportunity to put the Patriots in a
hole:
It is big. It is a great opportunity for us. They are
going to be at an all-time focus level for this ball game just because of who
they are. They are the defending (AFC) champs until somebody knocks them off.
You are going to get the best they have got and we have to go play. It is a
great opportunity.
On how the team came through the Browns' game injury
wise aside from Spiller:
I think fine.
QB Ryan
Fitzpatrick
Monday, September 24,
2012
On the chances of RB Fred Jackson playing
Sunday:
That would be great news for us. We know Fred and the
competitor he is. If they allow him to go, you know he is going to. I am not
sure what the trainers are saying or what anybody is saying. I am sure that is
between him, them and coach. It would be a big boost for us to get him out
here.
On how big of a boost it would be to have Jackson
back:
Everybody here knows how much he means to our team in
terms of the inspirational leader that he is, really the go-to-guy we look to in
key situations. To have him back would be great. I think everybody understands
that.
On the team bouncing back from RB C.J. Spiller
getting hurt:
It was a very good team win in the second half. Defense
gave us a chance after it was 17-14, we went three-and-out. They gave us another
chance and we went down there and scored the touchdown. Then they basically
closed the game out. It was a really good team win I thought. We feed off that
stuff. We feed off of each other.
On having momentum heading into a big division
game:
Just like the losses, I think we do gain some momentum.
Just like the losses when they happen, you learn from them and you move on.
There have been some good things that have happened the last few weeks for us,
but there have also been a lot of things I think we can learn from and get
better. That is what we do. We looked at the tape today. We take it as a win. We
think it is great but there is some stuff we have to learn from the tape. We
have already watched a little bit of New England. We move on and get ready.
On New York Jets CB Darrelle Revis being done for the
season:
That is terrible. You never want to see somebody get
hurt, especially somebody lost for the season and have a serious knee injury. He
is obviously somebody that has been a thorn in our side for a long time in terms
of the competitor he is and the great player he is. As a player, it is something
you never want to see happen, somebody getting hurt like
that.
On WR Stevie Johnson being more responsible this
season:
Yeah, I think so. I think he is also a guy that is very
hard on himself. He's so competitive and wants to get out there and score a
touchdown on every play. He is an emotional guy and he knows that he has to play
with those emotions. I think he has found a way to bring them in a little bit.
That comes with maturity and that comes with all that stuff. He is definitely a
guy that is a leader for us and a guy that we look to, especially the guys in
that room looking at him and what he brings to the field with his emotion. It
has been nice. The first three games he has been able to get in the end zone and
he is able to be happy, show his emotion and celebrate but no penalties.
On if he saw Johnson's touchdown
dance:
No, I did not. I saw T.J. Graham's touchdown dance.
(Laughs) I was making fun of him for it and then he said he did it for his
parents and it is like 'Oh, OK you cannot make fun of him for that.' He got some
grief for that one.
On if Johnson thinks the Patriots can take him
away:
I do not think so. You can try to take one guy away and
all that, but if you put a couple guys on him then all of a sudden you should be
able to run the ball. There should be less guys down in the box. Stevie is a guy
that a lot of times no matter how many players you put on him he is going to
find a way to get open. We will see what they do. I do not know if they will do
anything special for him or not. We will go from there.
WR Stevie
Johnson
Monday, September 24,
2012
On having scored a touchdown in four straight games
dating back to last season:
I thought about it the year before and I ended up not
continuing the streak, so now it is just trying to get wins. Not really thinking
about a record or a streak. Just being able to continue to get points so we can
win.
On how the team overcame RB C.J. Spiller's
injury:
There was a game to win. Just because somebody goes down
does not mean we all need to stop playing. We still have to go out there, win
the game and keep on pushing. We know we are going to have some people go down.
We know things are not going to be right all the time. As a professional, you
just have to keep on working.
On if being able to rebound like that is a maturation
of the team:
The way I saw it was we were on the road and everybody
was saying our intensity level was low when we were on the road. That was all we
were thinking about was trying to step it up on the road and get a win. We
weren't thinking about what if this happens or what if that happens or how will
we react to it. It was just basically an away game, let's go out there and play
like it is a home game-which it actually felt like a home game. We had a lot of
fans out there. That was all on our mind, just make it so we handle business on
the road.
On having momentum before facing the Patriots on
Sunday:
Even if we were have to lost that game, we still go into
this week saying we have the Patriots. We lost Week One but we bounced back and
won these games. I guess it sets it up well for the Patriots to come in to our
house and have a battle.
RB Fred Jackson
Monday, September 24,
2012
On where he is at
health-wise:
I did some more work today. I will come back tomorrow
and do some more work. We will go out Wednesday and see what it feels
like.
On if he is going to practice
Wednesday:
Yeah. If all goes well, hopefully I can be out there
Sunday.
On if he feels good about playing
Sunday:
I do. I think that with the work that our training staff
is doing, with the preparation trying to get me out there, and then you just
focus in on trying to get back out there. I think I have a really good shot, I
like my chances. Hopefully all goes well on Wednesday, Thursday and things are
good for me.
On how to balance wanting to be out there and whether
he should be out there:
It is just knowing that I can get out there and help or
if I am getting out there and not helping. We have guys like Tashard (Choice)
who stepped up and made plays and Johnny (White) behind him. If I think I can
get out there and make plays to help my team and I am not hindering them, so to
speak, then I will get after it. That is what this next week is for. See what I
am able to do when I am out there and if we like what we see then I will give it
a shot on Sunday.
On the percentage that he plays
Sunday:
From my point of view, I am giving myself a 70-to-75
percent chance. I just feel it is a game we need to go out and play well. I need
to be out there I think to play. I think that I will have that opportunity to
get out there if I keep working and those guys keep doing the tremendous job
they are doing, I will get out there.
DT Kyle
Williams
Monday, September 24,
2012
On what LB Bryan Scott has meant to the
defense:
He can come down and cover guys, tight ends and do some
different things in coverage for us because of his secondary experience. He can
also come down and play in the box because he plays physical and makes plays for
us. He has always made plays since he has been here. He has always showed up and
made plays. He has made big plays for us every
game.
On needing to get pressure on Patriots QB Tom Brady
with the front four:
If you are not on top of your game he can make you pay
whether you blitz or whether you rush four. If you are not doing the things you
need to do up front and in coverage he can do some things to hurt you. We are
going to have to have a good week of preparation to get ready for him and go out
there on Sunday and give it all. Lay it on the line and hopefully come out with
a win.
On the chemistry of the defensive
line:
We look around when we are out on the field and at any
time if any of us gets on opportunity in a one-on-one we could win. A lot of
times, the first guy in on the quarterback is not getting the sack. He is the
guy moving the guy off his spot and somebody that is following up is getting the
sack. I think we have guys that can beat one-on-ones, get guys off the spot and
create things for other guys. It all works together. I think you saw that
Sunday. We all got in on it a little bit. It is fun when things like that are
happening.
