Tuesday Afternoon Bills Practice Notes

by Brian Galliford on Aug 7, 2007 11:16 PM EDT in News

Time runs short before the Saints pre-season game, Bills fans. The Bills held a practice earlier this afternoon, and will practice tomorrow night at St. John Fisher college at 7 PM. A closed practice Thursday will be the final precursor to Friday's tilt in N'Awlins. Here's some of the interesting tidbits coming out of today's practice:

Kelsay: How To Get Tackles For Loss
Defensive end Chris Kelsay had an interesting quote on the team's run defense scheme:

"When you've got guys like Kyle Williams, Larry Tripplett and hopefully John McCargo will continue to come around and Tim Anderson, guys that are continually pushing the pocket and making running backs change their direction in the backfield, it allows us as defensive ends and linebackers to run to make TFLs in the backfield," said Kelsay. "Coach Bill Kollar has pointed it out throughout the camp and Perry Fewell has as well as far as our penetration in 9-on-7 and some of the team stations. We've done a very good job of that."

That's the name of the game in this defense - disruption. Creating chaos in the flow of the offense, and doing it as close to the line of scrimmage as possible. That simply didn't happen last year, for one reason or another, but it sounds like our younger, quicker personnel is having better luck with it this pre-season. I can't wait to see how our first-unit line looks against the Saints' high-powered rushing attack (even if it's without Deuce McAllister, Reggie Bush and Jammal Brown).

Derrick Dockery Pulls, Too
This is a funny little quote from Chris Brown on one particular run during practice:

The offense had a couple of very well executed run plays. On a play to the right side Lynch ran patiently behind a pulling Derrick Dockery and Langston Walker. He had to be patient since he likely couldn't see anything in front of his two linemen.

I love Brown, because he's humorous and correct. That's a lot of blocker in front of Marshawn. In terms of pure run blocking, Dockery and Walker are our two best, so having plays where those two are paving the way could be devastating. I'd love to see some of this in the pre-season.

Starters Not Playing Much Friday
10-15 plays. That's what you can expect from the first-unit guys on Friday, says Dick Jauron:

"We know our first group will play somewhere between 10 and 15 plays," said Jauron. "And then after that we're not certain how it will play itself out."

That's how it generally plays out - the starters get their heaviest action in the second and third pre-season games, while the youngsters get the first and last pre-season games to make a bigger impression. I think this will work out well for both our starting unit and some of the younger guys trying to crack the final roster. I'm especially keen to watch Ashton Youboty, Fred Jackson and Donovan Morgan perform.

Coming Tomorrow: We have an unprecedented feature coming our way tomorrow morning - an interview with a current Bills player. I won't spoil the surprise just now; suffice it to say you've definitely heard of him. Stay tuned - you won't want to miss this.

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