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September 23, 2007

Postgame quotes: Bills coach Dick Jauron

Well, it was a long day. A long day for us in a lot of ways. It didn’t go anywhere near the way we hoped it would have gone. The injuries certainly played a role in that. How big, we’ll never know, but they are a fine team. An outstanding team. JP [Losman] has a strain and it is pretty severe. I think that Bud [Carpenter] said it is grade one, so that is a couple weeks probably. When he came back, he said he could go if he was needed and Bud kind of said the same thing, but he said as the day moves on it is just going to get worse and worse and stiffer and stiffer. Jason Whittle, we think he might have torn his hamstring. We’ll know more about that tomorrow. Of course Paul Posluszny broke his forearm and he’ll have surgery tomorrow. That is kind of where we are. We said coming in that they are a team with no weaknesses. You can’t find any weakness on their football team. We knew it could turn into a long day, and it did for us. It did. Our guys fought, but that is never an issue with them. They are a group of good guys, tough guys. They’ll play, but we are getting worn out.

Can you recall a season in which you have had the number of injuries that you’ve had this year?
No. Not in so short of a span of time. It has kind of really set us back everywhere. Special teams, it definitely hurts us and on defense we have lost so many players. You would have to say obviously again, but it is obvious, how good they are anyway. They don’t need any advantages.

It looked like Jabari Greer had good coverage on those two Randy Moss touchdown receptions. What happened there?
I just saw it on the screen and live. It was a ball that is thrown—it is kind of how you practice it. You put the ball on the outside, the receiver stays on the line and he reaches out at the last minute. It was right there. Jabari maybe could have been right on top of him, could have been right on top of him on the body. But I am not sure even then, just because Randy is so big. He is big and he’s got that long reach and the ball was thrown right where it needed to be.

Do you anticipate keeping Paul Posluszny active? Is that the preference?
My sense is that this may be season-ending. That is my sense. But, I’m not a doctor, I’m just talking to our people. That is what I think at this point.

Do you think Vince Wilfork should be fined for his hit on J.P. Losman?
You know, I didn’t see the hit. I was kind of trailing the play and then I saw him on the ground. The official didn’t think that it was a legal hit. I’ll have to see it on tape. [It is] unfortunate.

Being a former defensive back yourself, what advice do you give to your defensive backs when you see Moss making those plays?
It is just hard. It is a hard day. We said going in that we would have to execute at a real high level and even then you can do everything right and they can still, when they are that talented—and they are—they can still beat you on stuff. That was probably an example of what we are talking about because Jabari [Greer]’s position was not bad. It wasn’t like he took the bait. He didn’t take the bait. He pumped him and he stayed on top of him, but the ball was thrown well and the receiver is arguably in the top ten, maybe in the top five, in terms of skill. And he has shown it over the course of his career. There’s not a whole lot can tell him except keep playing. You just have to keep playing through all of this.

What are your thoughts on how Trent Edwards played?
I thought Trent did a nice job for his first NFL game. I am not certain you could be thrown into a worse situation—so early in the contest, so early in the year against a team that is on a roll right now. They are real hot. Again, there are not any weaknesses on either side of the ball. So, I thought he did a good job. That being said, you could see some of the throws he missed and some of the things that went wrong. But, he doesn’t panic. I really do believe that he’s got a bright future in the league because he is a tough guy and he understands quarterback.

Did your game plan change at all when Trent Edwards entered the game?
Yes, it did. It changed significantly. And the way the game went kind of changed it, too. We end up on our one-yard line backed up and we had some field position issues. But, yeah, it did.

Is that the reason we saw fewer 3- and 4-wide receiver sets?
Probably, yeah. But, you have to give them all the credit. They dictated the pace of the game. We just couldn’t respond to them. We couldn’t respond enough.

After Posluszny got hurt were you forced to stay in a nickel package and do you think that is why the Patriots ran the ball?
No, we just kind of stayed with our game plan. When you look at them and look at the matchups, you’ve got to make some choices. We continued to make our choices to try to stay in the game and keep ourselves in the game. We just couldn’t respond. We couldn’t respond when they did something. Really I though with five minutes to go in the first half if we could have—if we could have, there were a lot of those—and we didn’t, but it doesn’t matter. To get a first down or to get off the field, certainly at 10-7 and then 17-7, the way things had gone, was not the worst thing in the world. We had to do more on offense and we were a little bit handicapped by ourselves and by them.

With all of the hardships the team has experienced, how hard will it be to keep this team moving forward?
I don’t think it will be hard with these guys. They are a real good group. Most of the groups are good. Most of the players in this league are really quality people. These guys, they just keep working and I believe that they will. We don’t lie to them. Clearly this is not the start we imagined. This is not where we want to be, but this is where we are. But I don’t believe it will be hard to keep them working.

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:09 PM | Permalink