2008 Bills Training Camp: Day Eight Breakdown

by Brian Galliford on Aug 2, 2008 10:50 AM EDT in News

DiGiorgio getting looks at WLB (Photo Source)

Day eight of 2008 Buffalo Bills training camp is in the books, and with it came the team's first major injury of the season. Rookie linebacker Alvin Bowen, a fifth-round pick out of Iowa State this past April, suffered a severe knee injury in Friday's practice and is likely lost for the season. As a result of Bowen's injury, the Bills were forced to sign veteran free agent Donnie Spragan, who is expected to be a reserve outside linebacker and special teams player this season.

With Angelo Crowell sitting out of practice and Kawika Mitchell limited as part of a rest regimen for select veterans, backup middle linebacker John DiGiorgio worked with the first team at Mitchell's weak side spot. Keith Ellison continued to take first team reps at Crowell's strong side spot.

DiGiorgio's case is interesting. He played weak side in one game last season - a 26-3 loss at Pittsburgh in Week 2 - and held his own in an underrated effort by Buffalo's defense that day. It's becoming clear that he's a much more valuable reserve in Buffalo's linebacking corps than originally anticipated; it will be interesting to see if he gets any reps on the outside during pre-season action.

Losman Lighting Up Second Team Defense
Trent Edwards' play with the first unit offense has been streaky at best, but veteran backup J.P. Losman has been making plays against Buffalo's second-unit defense. He continued that trend yesterday with a few more touchdown tosses.

Early in 7-on-7 Roscoe Parrish pulled in a long ball down the near sideline from J.P. Losman for a 50-yard gain.

Robert Royal scored for the second straight day pulling in a touchdown pass from J.P. Losman on a post pattern.

Question for y'all to ponder: if Edwards struggles early (not a huge stretch) and Losman has a killer pre-season, how long before the QB controversy resurfaces in the media?

An Opening for Youboty?
If one thing was proven last season, there's never a lack of opportunities for young players to make an impression - especially when veterans are dropping like flies. Jabari Greer was the main beneficiary last season at cornerback. And with Will James going down with a groin injury during yesterday's practice, Ashton Youboty's reps increased.

It's still unclear whether or not James will be able to practice Saturday, but the longer he's out, the better the opportunity for Youboty to state his case for remaining in Buffalo for a third season. The third-year veteran is on the roster bubble just two years after being the team's third-round draft pick.

Youngsters Getting Reps
With veterans like Mitchell, Marcus Stroud, Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay getting a reduced work load Friday, several young players saw increased reps with the first team. At defensive end, Copeland Bryan and Chris Ellis both played end with the first team. John McCargo filled in for Stroud next to Kyle Williams with the first team, and Spencer Johnson saw some time there as well.

Rookie tight end Derek Fine has also seen some reps with the first team offense of late as the second tight end. It appears that the Bills are experimenting with Fine in a blocking and short-area receiving role with the ones, and the rookie has held his own to this point. That is very likely bad news for veteran tight ends Courtney Anderson and Tim Massaquoi.

The Bills are in the midst of their Saturday practice at the time of this posting, practicing today from 10:10AM to 12:20PM. They players get Sunday off to recuperate.

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Yikes

He played weak side in one game last season – a 26-3 loss at Pittsburgh in Week 2 – and held his own in an underrated effort by Buffalo’s defense that day.

We allowed well over 400 yards that day, 236 passing and 184 rushing, and over 35 minutes in time of possession. The D was downright terrible that day and I remember Pittsburgh having their way with us.

Oh God. If a QB controversy arises, I will be sick. We KNOW Losman can’t cut it. He can play well in the preseason camp all he wants, but we know that once the games count for real, he can’t read a D or make good decisions well at all.

by Kurupt on Aug 2, 2008 11:06 AM EDT 0 recs

Spot on with Losman.

As much as everyone in Buffalo wanted the guy the succeed it became obvious he just wasn’t getting it. Maybe the offensive weapons and coaching around him were poor. Still, there were too many memories of yelling at the TV(or at him in Rich Stadium) and wondering why the hell he didn’t make any progressions when targeting receivers. He took way too many sacks and forced way too many balls into areas that were not open. He has a good game 1 out of every 3 or 4 times out and that’s not good enough.

by jj24 on Aug 2, 2008 11:32 AM EDT up 0 recs

On the other hand...

The Steelers had five drives in the first half. One was picked off on the first play by Leonhard, but the other four were 10+ play, 50+ yard drives that ate up 22:22 of the first half. Horrible, right? Except for the fact that the defense only gave up four field goals. Now, if the offense had actually been able to do anything at all (they had one first down in the first half), the defense would have been stars for not giving up 28 points.

Sure, it would be better to not give up all of those yards, but stopping them at the 16, the 10, the 21, and the 13 is still a good thing. I’d say losing that game was the offense’s fault, not the defense. I’d agree that the defense was underrated in that game…

by Krenn on Aug 2, 2008 11:52 AM EDT up 0 recs

This is exactly the point I was attempting to make. Was it a good defensive performance? No. But underrated? Absolutely.

by Brian Galliford on Aug 2, 2008 12:12 PM EDT up 0 recs

That's not good at all

four 10+ play drives is downright horrible. Great, they held them to four FG’s, but they also were on the field the entire first half and points were still put up on the scoreboard.

In the end we allowed 26 points and 400+ yards. I don’t care how that’s broken down, that’s awful. I don’t give them credit for allowing the 4 FG’s because it was their own doing not being able to get off the field or stop the Steelers. That was a bad performance, and hardly underrated.

by Kurupt on Aug 2, 2008 12:34 PM EDT up 0 recs

The old “the offense didn’t help them at all” bit could be brought out and be a totally valid counterpoint to that argument, K. I don’t give a crap how many yards we gave up. We were incredibly undermanned and we held Roethlisberger/Parker/Ward/Holmes/Miller to 12 points in the first half despite being dominated. That’s an underrated performance.

by Brian Galliford on Aug 2, 2008 3:44 PM EDT up 0 recs

I guess we have vastly different definitions of underrated. I usually see some sort of positive when someone or something is called underrated. I don’t see how that performance had any positives in any way.

12 points in the first half is nothing special, especially considering we weren’t going to put that number up offensively. Heck, we gave up 22.1 ppg last year, or 11 per half, so we were even worse than our normal selves in that half.

OK, this is getting ridiculous. We shouldn’t even be discussing this! We got abused by the Steelers that game, enough said. If we play games like that again this year, we’ll see another 20+ point loss…

by Kurupt on Aug 2, 2008 4:44 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yes it's rediculous...but..let's face it.

The days when we played good football(almost every game) on both sides of the ball are left back in the early 90’s. Only against chumps like Miami(and average opponents like Cincy) can we put that kind of performance. The bare bones truth is that the Bills are a mediocre team. We’re awful occasionally, and occasionally we’re solid. There’s chemistry, experience, and talent issues sprinkled all over our team, and that’s just the way it is. It sucks, but that’s just the way it is my friend.

by jj24 on Aug 2, 2008 5:05 PM EDT up 0 recs

why so pessimistic

I think we can be solid more often than awful this season. If Stroud stays healthy I think we get our pass rush back which will help our mediocre secondary. If Stroud stays healthy it should free up our linebackers to make plays on the ball so our run defense should be excellent. If Hardy pans out and Edwards progresses we should score much more in the red zone and our running game will be in Beast Mode again this season with a little Freddie J making some plays in the passing game. Its a lot of ifs but hey its not bad. Especially if McKelvin becomes a starter by mid-season and plays to expectation I think we can be a tough, solid team for anyone to face in this league. On both sides of the ball.

McKelvin and Hardy - rookies of the year

by poz on Aug 2, 2008 5:16 PM EDT up 0 recs