(On the key to containing Roscoe Parrish in the return game) - “This sounds easy, but we’ve got to get down the field, we’ve got to disrupt them early. Kind of try to make him move his feet a little bit that way, but tackle. This guy makes a lot of yards after the initial contact. He can make you miss. He does a tremendous job that way, I think. So, getting him on the ground would be important.”
(On if Michael Lehan tweaked his hamstring in practice a little bit this morning) - “He actually did, he tweaked it just a little bit. So, we’ll see where it is.”
(On Jason Ferguson looking a little better working out on the side) - “Yeah, he looked better today, so he did a lot of things out there. We’ll just have to see how he feels tomorrow. He did an awful lot today, yesterday, so we’ll have to see how he feels.”
(On if Jason Allen is ready to play in a game at cornerback) - “I think so, yeah. I think so. He’s been getting better and better. I see really a bunch of improvement out of him, as I said yesterday. I think he’s ready to go into a game, yeah.”
(On if he has assessed the balance of personnel the Buffalo Bills have on offense and defense) - “It’s interesting. I heard their quarterback (Trent Edwards) make a comment about that yesterday. Somebody asked that question to him and he said he felt like they were complimenting each other very well. I would agree with that. I think they do a pretty nice job of, offensively; they stay on the field for long periods of time. They can make the big play and certainly they can run down the field and do that. But the ball is out of his hand really fast and there are some ‘dink and dunks’ in there. He’ll throw the five-yard pass. He’ll throw the eight-yard pass. They give it to the runner a bunch and they make some yards that way. So, they stay on the field a bunch. They move the chains an awful lot. They’re a team that has a large number of first downs during the course of the game. Then I think on the defensive side of the ball, they get you off the field on third downs. So, they work pretty well that way. Their third down pass rush, I think is outstanding. They really can cause you some problems that way. If you’re not sharp with what you’re doing on third down, this team can really confuse you out there with what they try to do on third down a lot; kind of like the Ravens would.”
(On how the Bills balance on offense will affect what the linebackers do) - “I think always from our end, you have to think about stopping the run first. So, that way there, they do a nice job with some of their play action stuff, those type of things. Of course their runner running the ball, I think is outstanding. He does a tremendous job. [He’s] another guy you have to tackle and get to the ground because he can bounce on you and make big plays when it looks like seemingly nothing is there. But, I think that these guys right now, what we have to do is we have to be able to play the run first. If not, we could be out there for long periods of time ourselves and that’s not the kind of game we want to get into here.”
(On what Dante Whitner moving from strong safety to free safety means to him) - “Really not a whole lot different back there. He’s an aggressive, physical player. You would think they’re taking him from strong safety and moving him over to free safety, so they’re taking him out of that mix. But I think they think that he’s a guy that can make some plays back there and get his hands on more footballs maybe at that position. But I don’t think it’s going to stop him from being around the ball a bunch.”
(On how important it is not to get behind the eight ball when it comes to the AFC East) - “Important. Again, from our end here, we feel like we’re still in this thing just like everyone else is still in this thing and it’s up for grabs there. So, we need to go out there and we need to play well. It’s a division game. It’s an important game for us. There is history with this game. It’s something that we think an awful lot about and I think we want to make sure that we put ourselves right in the middle of this divisional race. I think if we go out here and we play well at home, we win this ballgame that helps us and goes a long way in doing that.”
(On if Ricky Williams needs more touches to be effective in the run game) - “Well, I don’t know if he needs more touches to be effective, but he needs more touches, period. I think that Ricky, obviously, when you’re in the wildcat stuff, Ronnie’s (Brown) handling the ball and Ronnie gets a few more touches then Ricky does in that kind of situation. So, I think that it’s slightly been skewed towards Ronnie right now that way. But, whenever Ricky comes in the game, for whatever reason, we’ve had some three-and-outs when he’s been out there. It’s been kind of his turn up, those type of things. So, we need to get him involved a little bit more. He needs to get more touches that way. It’s something that we’re very aware of.”
(On if you need to hold back when playing a team you will see later in the year) - “Nah, can’t afford. There’s a lot of time between now and the next time we play this team. So, and I think when you’re playing a team within your division this way and you know you’re going to play them again, to me, there’s no holding back anything. You’ve got to go out and try to win the first one that you play then worry about the next one when you get to the next one and see where you are at that point. There are a million things that can happen between now and then. Injuries, any of those kind of things can change the approach to the next ballgame. But right now, what we know is right in front of you right now, so you’ve got to prepare for what you know now and go get the win that presents itself in front of you right now.”
(On what his perfect run to pass ratio would be on offense) - “For me, the perfect situation is that we would run it 40 times and throw it 25 times. So, that would be perfect for me. It really doesn’t matter divvied up, but you might have a guy if you’re running it 40 times, maybe somebody’s carrying it 24 times and somebody’s carrying it 16 times, somewhere in that range. That might be about it. But 40 carries, 37, 40 carries in the course of the game, that’s ideal for me.”
(On why that is an ideal number of carries for him a game) - “Because I think when you get into 37, 40 carries, you’re looking at probably about 34 minutes time of possession, somewhere around there. And that’s the type of game that I think, most of the time if you look, most of the time you’ll win those kind of ballgames. This is a minor statistic but it holds kind of a major impact in that in our league right now, the team that runs the most plays during the course of the game stands about an 82 percent chance to win the game; just running the most plays. Eighty two percent chance to win if you go out and you run more plays than the other guy. You have to figure that if you’re able to run the ball 37 times a game, 40 times a game, somewhere there, you’re making a lot of first downs and you’re on the field a lot longer than the other guy. I think if you have 37, 40 runs, the other team probably is on the field somewhere in the 50’s. You stand a pretty good chance to win that game.”
(On what Ernest Wilford has shown him in practice this week) - “Ernest is getting better and better out there. I think he’s been working really hard. The one thing I will say about Ernest, and I think should be said about Ernest, is I think the guy is a tremendous professional, I really do. I think this guy shows up no matter what the circumstances are. He’s got the right attitude out there. He works hard at his trade out there every single day. I think he does the best he can do out there every single day, I really do. I think the guy goes out, he tries to get better. He works on his hands. He works on his route running. He does all those things right now to the best of his ability.”
(On if Ernest Wilford has volunteered for any special teams duties) - “He didn’t have to volunteer. We’ve had him involved early on. It’s just one of those things where you’re to a point now where the number of jobs, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but Ernest is not going to be the kind of guy to run down the field on kickoff team. With his size, there are some different guys that we think can do that a little bit better. But Ernest has done some things on kickoff return and on punt rush and on those type of things when he has had a chance to be out there in some of the games. So, if Ernest were to go to the game, special teams is something we would get him involved in. He’d probably end up playing on two teams right now, somewhere around there. Then it’s just the matter of how many snaps you get in those two teams. I know one of the games he might have had about eight snaps with those two teams that he was active for. Then he caught a ball during the course of that game, I forget the game, maybe San Diego, I don’t remember, but it was like a 15 yard catch, so he probably played another 15 plays that day, somewhere around there.”
(On what’s lacking with Ernest Wilford and why he can’t seem to get on the field) - “I don’t think it’s something that’s lacking one way or the other. One of the things we’ve been fortunate with right now is that we have not had a lot of injuries. As of late, we’ve had a couple of injuries. Casey Cramer wasn’t able to play last week in the ballgame. David Martin got dinged up a couple weeks ago in practice, but you weren’t sure maybe what was going to happen at the game, so you had to take another tight end and do some of those things. It depends largely on the game plan what personnel you think you’re going to feature in the game plan. If you’re going to feature three wide receivers in the game plan, then you should take five of them. But if you’re going to feature what we call ‘Detroit’ personnel maybe, which is two tight ends or our ‘22′ personnel packages which is heavy two tight ends, sometimes three tight ends, then you’re not going to take five wide receivers. You’re going to try to take the extra tight end. So, where Ernest falls into that is hey, there’s (Greg) Camarillo, who’s been one of the most consistent guys that I’ve had out there right now. There’s (Ted) Ginn, who’s getting better and better. He returned some kicks for us last week. There’s (Davone) Bess, who does return the punts. He has a large role on special teams that way. [He] is the third down guy when we go out there and we play in half personnel, so you’re at three and then there’s (Brandon) London who’s giving me 20 plays a game. I know he’s giving me 20 plays a game when I go to the game. If he doesn’t play one play on offense, he’s playing 20 plays. So, that’s kind of how he, unfortunately, falls into that. No different than (Derek) Hagan. They’re both working hard. That’s just the way it falls.”
(On his philosophy on icing the kicker) - “I’ve obviously seen it in both situations. I’ve seen it work where the guy calls timeout and the kicker ends up making the kick in one of those type of things. That happened to us down in Dallas. Somebody called timeout against us in a ballgame, it might have been the Buffalo game, that’s right. So, they called timeout and Nick (Folk), I believe Nick made the kick and then when he called timeout, he had to come back and make the kick again and it was like a 51 yarder the second time and I think he made the kick again. It was one of those deals where it just worked in our favor at that point. But, as far as the way I would handle it, it’d be hard to say right now. It would largely depend maybe on the distance of the whole thing and some of those type of things. I kind of think I would be less likely to call a timeout the longer the kick was. Maybe the shorter the kick, make them think about it, some of those type of things. Make them hit it again. We get a chance to see the rush or to see any of those kind of things.”
(On what it’s going to take to fill the seats at Dolphin Stadium) - “I think more wins, no doubt about it, doing it consistently. I think our fans are starting to see our team is competitive and competes really hard every single time that they’re out there. These guys are working their tails off. They’re competing hard during the course of these games. They’re giving themselves a chance to win some of these games. I think the fans see that. I know that our guys would love to be walking out there in that stadium when it’s full and feeling that kind of support. But the people that have been out there have been cheering really loud and it’s been a good deal for us and there’s nothing like playing at home. Do you want to see it? Sure you do. We need to help the process out there by winning games, so if we help the process, people will come out.”