Bills at Jaguars Preview: Time For Buffalo To Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

This Sunday the Buffalo Bills (3-6) will travel to Jacksonville to play against the Jaguars (5-4) in a game that features franchises going in different directions. The irony of this game is that Bills fans are showing up regularly in hopes of seeing a winning team again, whereas Jaguars fans have a winning team and couldn't care less that they do. 

The local faithful in Jacksonville have been showing up at around 40,000 strong per game, which means that once again the game will be blacked out locally. At least the young Bills lineman won't have to worry about crowd noise drowning out Ryan Fitzpatrick's audibles or getting illegal motion penalties due to the noise.  

This year the Bills are 0-2 versus the AFC South as they have already lost to Tennessee and Houston. The Jaguars have gone 1-0 against the AFC East as they beat the Jets in a close game 24-22. In fact they have won two close games in a row, having also bested KC by a narrow margin of 24-21.

This week has been a noteworthy week of change and turmoil for the Bills players and coaches. To illustrate what I mean, here is the list of events that have happened since last Sunday: 

1) Bills fire head coach Dick Jauron and promote defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to take over as interim coach.

2) In his first practice Fewell announces that the Bills are going to be wearing pads throughout the week in an attempt to get more physical and to help fix issues with the running game. This is sending a message loud and clear to the entire team that things are going to be different and that Dick Jauron has left the building, once and for all.

3) For the first time in his career, (not due to an injury), the Bills bench starting quarterback Trent Edwards, and promote back up Ryan Fitzpatrick, because he gives the team the best chance to win against Jacksonville, according to Fewell.

Trent Edwards may be a forgotten man for the rest of the year. Translation - nobody's job is safe anymore.

4) The Bills decide to upgrade their roster by swiping QB Brian Brohm off of the Green Bay Packers practice squad and sign him to a two year contract. The former number two round draft pick of the Packers from 2008 was a standout QB at Louisville, but had trouble making a positive impression in Green Bay.

Would be pretty funny if Brohm turns out to be lactose intolerant. What you can also conclude is that no other practice squad player on the Packers is safe from the scrutiny of the Bills.

Jamon Meredith was the first player stolen this season, and now Brohm is the second. The Packers are trying to figure out what they ever did to the Bills to justify this behavior.

5) To make room the Bills waived like-able third team QB Gibran Hamdan, who never was given a legitimate chance to show what he could do. Brohm has more upside so Hamdan was shown the door.

And with the Bills all but eliminated from the playoffs, it is not at all out of the question to think that Brohm will see some playing time this season. If he shows well, it may result in the Bills feeling less pressure to draft a franchise QB with their first pick in the draft.

It's not like Brohm has to beat out any All-Stars or Pro-Bowlers that are ahead of him on the depth chart. Both Fitzpatrick and Edwards threw an interception that were returned for touchdowns by the Titans in the fourth quarter last week.

Both qb's have thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, and have meager passer ratings. The Bills had graded Brohm at a high level, but then again, they had also graded out Mike Williams in the same strata. That didn't turn out too well.

6) The Bills placed starting tight end Derek Fine on IR, which makes the 11th player so far this year that the Bills have had to put on the season ending injury reserve list. They signed free agent Joe Klopfenstein to replace him. 

Klopfenstein was a second round pick of the Rams in 2006 and gives the Bills a little more depth at tight end. It also means the Bills made a run on former second round draft picks that flopped elsewhere, hoping a change of scenery will work wonders for these once-highly-thought-of-prospects.

What you can read in to from all of this activity is that the Bills are no longer content with sitting still and losing. They expect to see results.

It is a rather dramatic wake up call for the team. For Perry Fewell, who has been waiting for an opportunity to become a head coach, that chance is now at hand, and you just know that he is going to try and make the most of it.

Fewell's mantra is short and sweet. He said his team will: "Play like hell" and "Win." I like the approach. He will not be afraid to get in to players faces and read them the riot act when it is warranted.

If you see the Bills playing with more fire, emotion, and passion on Sunday, it is okay, you don't have to adjust your TV set. Well you would, if you lived in Jacksonville, since you won't be able to watch the game locally anyway.

Let's move on to some keys to this weekend's game:

When Jacksonville Has The Ball:

The Jaguars feature the NFL's touchdown leader this year, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, who has already tallied 12 times this year, which is one more than the entire Bills offense has scored. Jones-Drew has rushed for 860 yards on the season, and could be cracking the 1000-yard-barrier by the time this game is over.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fewell has laid down a challenge to his defense unit to prevent Jones-Drew from reaching that plateau. Chris Johnson did it against the Bills last week, so they are probably smarting over that already.

Quarterback David Girard is 13th in passing in the league and has seven touchdowns compared to five interceptions. He has a passer rating of 83.5 and historically he has given the Bills problems with his scrambling ability.

Probably not to the extent that the Bills experienced last Sunday versus Vince Young, but they will have to account for his ability to run with the ball never the less.

At wide receiver, the Jaguars are led by Mike Sims-Walker who is ranked at 19th in the league in receiving yards with 603 yards and five touchdowns. He very well may be going up against some replacements, as Terrance McGee's knee injury has not healed yet, Leodis McKelvin is already on the IR and the interceptions leader in the NFL, Jairus Byrd, has been out of practice this week due to issues from his groin injury.

It would be a shame if Byrd's streak of five straight games with an interception came to an end due to the injury, or if he is limited and only plays in a handful of snaps. You know he was hurting last week as it appeared to me that he was shying away from physical play.

Against the Titans, Jairus was the Bills starting safety and should have had plenty of chances to make tackles. Chris Johnson and Vince Young were running up and down the field on the Bills. 

Yet Byrd only registered one tackle last week. That to me says that something wasn't quite right, even though he did find a way to come up with another pick. It was revealed after the game that the prior groin injury was still bothering him, and that may account for why it seemed that he shied away from some contact.

The Bills defense will still have head coach Fewell calling their plays this week. He has not yet named anyone to succeed him as defensive coordinator.

If Fewell determines that he has too many other responsibilities in running the team, that prevent him from focusing on calling the defensive alignments, look him for him to pass the torch over to ex-Packers Defensive Coordinator Bob Sanders, who coaches the Bills defensive line.

There are the Packers popping up again. It just seems like we have this crazy connection with the Packers going on this year, so thought I would mention it.

The Bills defense is coming in to another game with a long list of injuries, as the question marks for this week include:

Defensive Line : Kyle Williams and Marcus Stroud have both been missing practice due to injuries. Won't know their status until closer to kickoff. That could mean both Spencer Johnson and John McCargo get the start.

Linebacker : Keith Ellison, Bills leading tackler is still out. It appears that Bryan Scott is going to remain at linebacker as he continues to make the transition over from safety. Nic Harris was also out at practice this week due to illness.

Defensive Secondary : Terrance McGee looks like he is out. Jairus Byrd is a question mark due to the groin. So, you could have Drayton Florence and Reggie Corner starting at corner, with some combination of George Wilson, Donte Whitner and Byrd rotating at safeties.

By the time this game is over, George Wilson may have taken over the team lead in tackles. Since Wilson is a safety, that is usually a bad thing when you have a safety leading the team in tackles. It means the front seven are letting the ball carrier get through to the last wave of defense far too often.

When The Bills Have The Ball

After the Titans loss it was discussed in interviews (in what proved to be Dick Jauron's final press conferences as Bills' coach), that the team would probably be signing a free agent tackle to come on board due to the recent injuries that sidelined Demetrius Bell and Jamon Meredith.

Well, here we are coming in to Friday, and no new tackles have been signed. Perhaps we can forgive the Bills this week, as they had some other pressing issues to tend to.

The Bills did add Christian Gaddis, a center/guard reserve to their practice squad but that just isn't the same as bringing on board a player like Jon Runyan.

Due to the ongoing health issues of Meredith and Bell, it means that more patchwork offensive line play will be exhibited for at least one more week. Andy Levitre is now expected to get his first career start at left tackle since he held his own when forced in to the position last Sunday.

You always hear talk about how important it is for an offensive line to gel and to gain experience by playing next to each other, and knowing how the guy next to you is going to react in the heat of battle to certain situations. This experience and knowledge is vital to how an offense performs and to developing confidence in each other.

But when the guys you are plugging in are Seth McKinney and Jake Chambers, the chemistry issue is thrown out the window and it becomes more of a "every-man-for-himself" mentality.

Hopefully, Meredith, Scott and D. Bell will all emerge to play some meaningful reps over the final month so that the Bills can have a fighting chance at developing a running game, along with some cohesion for the offensive line.

Levitre did play tackle in college so he does have some idea of what to do out there. Jonathan Scott has returned to the team from the recent passing of his father, and we wish Jonathan and his family our condolences.

He apparently is not ready to resume a starting role, so will be in a back-up mode this week.

Jamon Meredith will give it a go if he is deemed healthy enough, and if not, then it is going to be Jake Chambers job to protect Fitzpatrick. If you feel the need to turn on your own siren, or emergency sounds, you have my permission.

The Bills offense is only averaging 15 points a game but are facing a defense in Jacksonville that is ranked 26th against the pass by giving up 238 yards a game, and is 22nd against the run, giving up 118 yards a game.

If the Bills intend to show a new look in being more physical, then that means there have to be some holes opened up for Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch to run through. Those holes have not been there enough through nine games.

We will see if the extra work with pads this week in practice results in any new daylight. I don't believe that Fewell is overly concerned about burning out the lineman, since they have been on the field for so few plays this year as it is.

Ryan Fitzpatrick will probably be given the green light to stretch the field and use his wide receiver tandem of Terrell Owens and Lee Evans to throw the ball long.  Jacksonville is going to be missing their leading interceptions guy, as CB Rashean Mathis is going to be sitting this game out due to injury.

There are two other question marks on defense- MLB Justin Durant and strong safety Gerald Alexander. They have both been sitting out of practice this week, so if the Jaguars are missing half of their starting defensive secondary, then Fitzpatrick may have an easier go of it when it comes time to looking for open receivers. 

Intangibles

The Bills are going to need to keep an eye on two kick off return men the Jaguars have in Brian Witherspoon and Mike Thomas, as both of them have average returns of at least 24 yards. Fred Jackson leads the Bills with 26 yards in average returns.

The Bills lead the NFL in interceptions, so if they are able to mimic the fiery attitude demonstrated by Fewell, and exhibit some physical play in shutting down the running game, the secondary might be able to pad their interception totals this week.

Forcing Jacksonville in to third down and long scenarios will be the key, as much as stopping them when they get it to favorable down and distance. That did not happen last Sunday against the Titans, and I am sure that did not sit well with Fewell.

The Bills Are In The Headlines All Over The Internet  

The rumor mill has churned out a long list of names as people speculate as to who is the right guy to run the Bills next year. Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher, Mike Holmgren, Marty Schottenheimer, Bill Fassell, Jim Haslett, Brian Billick, Tony Dungy, and Jon Gruden are some of the names that have been offered up.

You could make a case for any of them to come in and have a degree of success.

That was just the ex-head coaches. Then there are the coordinator types, some college coaches that are thought to be up-and-comers, and then I saw some ideas from guys in the CFL like Mark Tresman.

As the rumors continue to swirl that the Bills will be sitting down with people like Mike Shanahan and Bill Cowher as soon as next week, it will be interesting to see how the players react to playing under Perry Fewell amid all of the distractions. 

The team had been growing accustomed to playing under the protective fatherly figure of Dick Jauron, who was quick to throw himself on top of all hand grenades that came up in post-game press conferences. Jauron was a players' coach, and never threw his players under a bus, even though his job was very much in jeopardy.

For me, the most memorable example of that was how he handled the Leodis McKelvin fumble against the Patriots on opening night. That was as masterful a job of shielding a player from criticism and negative press as you can possibly imagine.

I will be curious to see if Perry Fewell does the same thing, or if the "wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee" attitude of this week, results in more players packing up their locker or office for good at One Bills Drive.

Should be an interesting game Bills fans. Just make sure that if you are in the Jacksonville area that you are actually at the game, or else you need to know where are the outer limits of the blacked out area.