Buffalo Bills alter schedule to stay home on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! The Buffalo Bills normally would be at practice on Thursday but head coach Doug Marrone altered the schedule this week. Having the bye so late allowed for an extra practice on Monday and a tweak to the normal off-day Tuesday. Players aren't as focused, said the former NFL lineman.

"I think you can get better work done that way," Marrone said Tuesday. "They can be more focused. Thanksgiving, everyone is a little bit worried, ‘what time are you getting home? What time are we going to eat? What are we going to do? Pick this up before you go,’ all those kind of things that go on."

After giving the team the end of last week completely off, the Bills had three straight days of practice beginning Monday. With the bye, the "normal week" was thrown off anyway for the creatures of habit, something Marrone went on to note.

"We can get a lot of work done Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Give the players off Thursday and then let’s go to work. It’s a lot easier to do that coming off a bye than if you’re coming off a structured week to week before."

The Bills will resume practice on Friday before heading up to Toronto Saturday. Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving in October, for the record.