Bills Getting Over Loss Quick And Preparing for Miami

Doug Marrone said today he was working at the Bills facility until 5am, and the staff “just slept” there in preparing for Thursday night’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

“In order to get the work done, get the film in from the Detroit game, get all the reports and everything run, get the game plan set,” said Marrone of staying at the facility overnight. “Not to talk about it, but you’re meeting with the doctors about injuries and you’re seeing who’s available and who’s not. It’s pretty much standard around the league, for us as coaches. It’s no different from what I’ve done when I was in New Orleans.”

Though he admitted that getting over lingering frustrations from yesterday’s 17-13 lost to the Chiefs is “easier said than done”, Marrone said that is a point he’ll make to the team. The message was echoed by players.

“If it’s still lingering, you’ve got to get over it,” said safety Aaron Williams. “There’s nothing we can do. The game’s over with. We can’t change anything. It’s time to get ready for Miami. That’s one of the big games that we have to get ready for; another AFC game and another division game, which is even more important. If we really want to get back to the playoffs then this is going to be a really important game.”

I”t’s hard, but it’s something that you have to do,” defensive tackle Kyle Williams said of moving on from the defeat. “You can’t let one loss turn into two, especially with a quick turnaround. The tough thing and the great thing about this league is that there’s the next week. You have to get prepared for it, especially a Thursday night game.”

With only three days until the game in Miami, Marrone said the pace will be “accelerated” this week.

“It’s much more challenging for what we have to do, because you come in after the game and you literally walk across the street and come back in,” said Marrone. “You’re waiting for things to come in and you’re prepping or you’re watching the game that you just played, which is what most of us did as we were waiting for the film to come in. How you prepare and how you practice is difficult and a challenge. Obviously, today is just a walkthrough. We just played a game yesterday.

“Tomorrow is more like a Saturday or Friday type of practice. You’re trying to get it to where you can make sure that they’re prepared and ready to go and seeing things at a speed that they’re going to see in four short days. I think those are all the challenges. We all have them. Obviously, the team we play has it. At least it’s equal from that sense.”

There were some good things shown in the loss, such as the running game producing 111 yards on 22 carries, and an offensive line that had allowed 17 sacks in the last four games limiting a dominant Kansas City front to only one sack and a quarterback hit, both by Dontari Poe, and shutting out the league’ sack leader Justin Houston (12 sacks on the season, 9 in the previous five games). But the three second-half turnovers, crucial for a team that is 4-1 when it is positive in the turnover ratio and 1-3 when they are either even or negative, were too much to overcome on Sunday.

“We went into the game and the phases and things that we concentrated on, for the most part, we owned,” said Marrone. “The two glaring ones obviously are turnovers and red zone touchdowns. That’s really the elephant in the room.”

In terms of playing the Dolphins on Thursday night, safety Aaron Williams believes facing Miami in Week 2, a 29-10 win for the Bills, helps “a lot” because of getting  a “glimpse” of what the offense does, but is also aware things have changed in the past nine weeks.

“It definitely helps that we have a little bit of game film that we can look back on,” said Williams. “That was a long, long time ago so I’m pretty sure they’ve changed up their offensive scheme.”

One huge difference will be a vastly improved Ryan Tannehill who after he had a subpar opening three games with a QBR of 34.9, 27.3 (against Buffal0), and 21.2, respectively, has had three games of over 90 (94 vs Oakland in Week 4, 93.9 at Chicago in Week 7, and 94.5 in Week 9 vs. San Diego) and one over 70 (71.1 versus Green Bay), according to ESPN, though Detroit limited him to a 27.1 on Sunday.

“He’s been on fire the last few weeks,” Williams said of Tannehill. “They’ve come up with a lot of big games, especially against San Diego. Again, tough lost for them in Detroit. Just like we are, they’re moving on and getting ready for this game on Thursday.”

Making Tannehill have another bad game against the Bills defense, as his first three starts against Marrone’s teams in Buffalo, all losses, were very bad performances QBR wise (15.0, 3.2, 27.3) would go a long way to getting a crucial road victory against an AFC East rival, as there will be ten days between then and a matchup against an upset minded New York Jets team coming off a bye week.