Buffalo Bills HC Rex Ryan
Monday, September 12, 2016
Opening Statement: One thing that wasn’t good was obviously our performance yesterday, especially offensively. As we mentioned, you know, tape doesn’t lie and we really struggled. And we clearly have to get better in a hurry, which is hard to do because you’re not really, you’re not going to practice really, it’s walkthroughs. And oh by the way we’re playing against even a better defense. So that’s tough but we’ve got to find a way to get better clearly. And then defensively, it was working on trying to be razor sharp and I think if we can get that way we’ll be pretty darn good. Injury front—we’re not practicing but if we were practicing I mean—(Colt) Anderson with a foot, (Sammy) Watkins foot. Sammy came up after the game, talked to our trainers and he complained of his foot being sore. So that’s going to be a thing. We’ll see how he progresses through the week with that. Cordy Glenn (with an) ankle, Jim Dray with an ankle also. (Jerel) Worthy came out with a knee, did not come back with a knee. So all three of those guys did not return in the game. And then (Charles) Clay with a knee, but he’s—you know, things look fine there. I think we’ll get (Kevon) Seymour back. It looks like we’ll get him back at some point. And then Cardale Jones will be—you know, we’re not practicing but, he’d probably be limited if we were. So with that, I’ll open it up for questions.
Q: What is your worry or concern level about Sammy Watkins?
A: Well I think you—I mean he’s sore and I think that’s what it is and like I said I guess, you know and I’m saying we’ll see how he progresses because, you know, that’s it. So you’re concerned with every injury but you know hopefully he’ll progress through the week and he’ll be ready to roll.
Q: Have you guys given any thought to maybe shutting him down for a couple of weeks to rest that foot?
A: That’s not what we’re thinking right now.
Q: Is it an issue of pain tolerance and really it’s up to Sammy as to how much he feels he can deal with?
A: Really not sure what the issue is. You know, I’m sure that’ll be part of it but I don’t know. It’s like I said, I know he was sore after the game.
Q: Is there any plan as far as practicing tomorrow? Do you anticipate him at least being on the field to a certain extent tomorrow?
A: Well, it’s walkthrough guys. So yeah, I’m sure he’ll be out there. But we’re not going to run our legs off our players. We’re going to walk through and then—not just with Sammy, with all of our guys. We did some mental preparation deal, getting ready for a Thursday night game. It’s such a quick turnaround.
Q: You just said it, it’s such a quick turnaround. So with Sammy, if he’s feeling sore, would it almost be, there be a school of thought to shut him down for this week and then give him a full two weeks?
A: I’ll lean on the, you know, experts. Right now, all I know, my conversation with our trainers are that Sammy came in after the game, you know, was sore after the game. And like I said, for me we’re just going to see how he progresses. So that’s really all I can say about it because I don’t—it’s not that I’m trying to avoid your question or whatever. I haven’t seen even Sammy today.
Q: There were reports that you were thinking of shutting him down for the season, worried about losing him for the season. Does that seem like it would be way overboard from what you’re saying here?
A: Well it seems like, doesn’t it? I’m hoping he plays immediately and we’ll see. But again it’s how he progresses through the week will be the important thing.
Q: Rex, was he sore going into the game? There was a report that he maybe wasn’t 100 percent. So did he get hurt last week in practice?
A: No, not that I’m aware of. I thought he went into the game 100 percent healthy. It’s just when he came out of the game, he was sore.
Q: If surgery is not an option, what can be done to improve his condition of decrease the pain?
A: Definitely the wrong guy to ask. Give him shot, give him—I’m not the right guy to ask that.
Q: What about Cordy Glenn and how severe is that injury to his ankle?
A: Not real sure, you know, about it. But he did not return after that ankle and it is the same ankle as the previous one. But we’re not real sure. Guys, I haven’t got an official report yet but I know that it was the same ankle and he did not return. And I believe it was the same ankle with Jim Dray too.
Q: Considering Sammy Watkins’ foot history and other athletes who have gone through similar injuries, such as Dez Bryant and Kevin Durant, what’s your concern that it could be a lingering issue?
A: Well I wasn’t really concerned until you brought that up. So I think he’s—I’m confident that he’ll be ok.
Q: Given the uncertainty that Sammy and Cordy will play, and the fact that your offense struggled yesterday, how do you regroup in such a short amount of time know that these guys might be limited and knowing that you need some offense?
A: Yeah, I mean, obviously we have a lot of work to do and albeit we’ve got to look at what we’re doing asking our guys and we’ve got to come up with something. I mean this defense now, that we’re getting ready to play, is as talented as there is. Maybe in the league. So you’ve got, you know, Sheldon Richardson is coming back, you got Big Mo (Muhammad Wilkerson) coming back. And then obviously you’ve got (Darrelle) Revis and company in the back end. So yeah it’s a very talented team. There’s no doubt about that.
Q: Rex, Greg Salas and Marquise Goodwin combined for just one target yesterday. If Sammy does miss some time, those guys are going to be playing in elevated roles. What’s your level of confidence that you can get something from them in this offense?
A: Well we’d have to. I mean obviously you got to and—yeah we clearly got to target those guys a few more times than once. I mean that’s a given. You know, they’re different guys. I think you know, Salas has got some—he’s got decent size. He’s an instinctive guy, smart, can catch the ball. And then you’ve got Goodwin with that world-class speed. So I think those two guys, you know, I’m glad that we have them. I think they have, they both have some pretty good traits.
Q: Did yesterday’s performance on offense have any effect on the decision to bring Jerome Felton back?
A: No. This was just an opportunity. We had an opportunity to bring him back and that’s why we brought him back right now. We know he’s a good blocker and, you know, that’s not a swipe on Gronk (Glenn Gronkowski). He did a nice job. He had a great block on the goal line for a touchdown. So, but it’s just an opportunity to bring him (Felton) back.
Q: Your defense has had uncanny success against Fitzpatrick. I’m sure you’re aware of the numbers. Is that a coincidence or have you just had his number? How do you explain that?
A: I don’t know. Hey, I heard that—we went to play Tom Brady last year and they had all those numbers about 100 yards less a game and all that, and he threw for 600 yards. So I don’t want that to happen. But sometimes it, I don’t know if it is, probably just a coincidence.
Q: Rex, you guys only ran 48 plays yesterday. That was the fewest of the league. I know the obvious answer is to convert more third downs so your offense can stay on the field, but with that few number of plays, what can you do to get more out of your offense?
A: Well it’s just that we had way too many three-and-outs. I think we had five k’s, we call them. And so it’s hard to establish any sort of rhythm when you’re doing that. And then the first quarter, on defense, that team right there, they controlled the pace of the game I think. That’s what it felt like to me and part of that is when you make teams go three-and-out, it is hard to establish a rhythm then.
Q: (Darrelle) Revis struggled quite a bit on film yesterday against (AJ) Green. You know him as well as anybody. What have you seen? Was that an off-day? What was your reaction?
A: Well I mean you don’t see that out of—you can count on maybe, one hand for sure, how many times that’s happened to Revis. I remember Stevie Johnson had a big day on Revis once. That happens occasionally but that Green kid is—that’s a pretty darn talented receiver right there. So you put him in those kind of situations against any corner in the league, and then that kid can have a big day on you.
Q: Is it a little showing to see what unfolded on film, just because you know him so well?
A: Yeah, well I’ve been in the league a long time and I’ve seen some great ones have a bad day, and that was just probably what that was.
Q: Were you surprised about how your offense couldn’t get going given the fact that all preseason long we’ve been hearing about how comfortable these guys coming back should be in Greg’s (Roman) system?
A: Yeah. That’s part of it, that you would think that—we were excited about it. We thought, obviously, that we were going to play better. We had some practices leading up to it, so there was no indication that we were going to go out and play like we did, but you have to give your opponent credit. They did a nice job and coaches did a nice job of scheming and everything but man, we got to play better than that. And we all know that and it starts with us. We got to look at us at first, what we’re asking ourselves to do. Do we have too much in? Do we have too little in? We got to look at all those types of things and come out with a great plan that our guys feel confident in because I tell you what, we have to get a lot better or it can be ugly against this group.
OC Greg Roman
Monday, September 12, 2016
Q: I know they got into the backfield a lot and didn’t give Tyrod (Taylor) much time. The perception was, and we’re just observers, we don’t know the game plan, but, do you think you could have softened them up a little bit by throwing deep a few more times?
A: We never really got to get into our deep game. That’s something we do pretty well. We looked at it today, evaluated it. I told the players, the way I look at it, it all starts with me. If we all look at it like that, we’re going to be able to get done what we need to get done.
Q: How much was the plan compromised losing Cordy (Glenn) and Jim Dray on back-to-back plays? I mean, you had Ryan Groy out there acting as your blocking tight end.
A: That was a bit of a firestorm. We had a nice package in for them. You’ve got to adjust, that’s how it goes sometimes. Groy came in and did a nice job.
Q: How do you improve the communication so that Tyrod maybe has a little bit more time to observe what he’s looking at? I know that there were some issues there. Does that get back to the personnel injuries?
A: It did. Yeah. I’ve got to do a better job there, it’s that simple. Collectively, we’ll do a better job there. One time it was a malfunction of the communications system, but we have ways to signal.
Q: What concerns do you have about Sammy (Watkins) and Cordy (Glenn)? Rex (Ryan) told us we’ll see how they progress throughout the week. They are two key starters. How do you prepare knowing those guys might not be in there or at least 100% Thursday?
A: We have full confidence in whoever has to get in there. Whoever gets out there, we’re going to prepare and we’re going to do what we do. We just have to get them prepared better this week.
Q: Cyrus obviously had a chance to get his feet wet in a regular season setting for about half of that game. So in the event he does need to play again on Thursday, just the benefit of those live bullet and reps and what you think he’s done with his game coming through the preseason.
A: I think he’s really improved coming through the preseason. That was just an opportunity for him to get real game action in a real league game. That’s beneficial.
OLB Jerry Hughes
Monday, September 12th, 2016
Q: Jerry, you had a terrific game yesterday. Just overall the defense, difference from last year, communication. It seemed like everythingwas much better. Can you just speak about that a little bit?
A: Year two in the system. We’re able to put things together a lot better. We understand where we’re supposed to be and everything as far as how the defense is working out. So I think it’s great for us. It’s helping us out tremendously. The guys showed up. Attendance was perfect this past spring. So it’s showing out on the field. We just have to keep working. We’ve still got a lot of areas to improve from. We gave up a touchdown. Things I am happy to see guys get upset about. They want to fix it and correct it. We want to throw shutouts. It’s great that everyone on the defense has that mind set.
Q: Jerry you had a lot of success against (Ryan) Fitzpatrick with the Jets. Rex in general, his defenses in general have had success. What do you think made you click against him, what do you see against him?
A: Our secondary doing a great job of disguising converges, making him really hold onto the ball, and then us up front really doing our job of creating havoc. I think that’s a great recipe we have of our back seven doing a tremendous job playing coverage.
Q: Do you feel like you might be in his head that he hasn’t had any success against you guys?
A: Maybe in past in years. But this is a brand new year, a brand new fit, a new offensive coordinator. We’ve got to understand that things are going to be a lot different for us. He’s looking very good on film so we have to understand that we’ve got to go in there with a great game plan.
WR Sammy Watkins
Monday, September 12, 2016
Q: Do you expect to play on Thursday?
A: They’ve got their plan. I’m just trying to get prepared for this week and go up against a good defense.
Q: You told us two weeks ago that the foot, after you tested it at full speed, was 100%. Is it still 100% or does this leave you concerned about how sound the foot is?
A: It’s like I’ve been saying, it’s all mental. I’ve going through growing pains, ups-and-downs. Like I said I finished the whole game. I felt like I played ok. I could have been better. I think everyone’s rested the first game. I can be better. I’ll be honest, I’ll be fine.
Q: Is this some sort of Rex game plan to try to psyche out the Jets saying that you might be hurt and you might not play and then you are out there Thursday?
A: No. We’re not trying to play tricks or trickery. We love to compete and the competition. I look forward to competing against (Darrelle) Revis and the defense. We’re not trying to trick anyone.
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Tagged with: Buffalo Bills, Greg Roman, Rex Ryan
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