Bills, Jags turn up the heat
Dick Jauron and the Bills are aware of the task facing them, needing to play physical to pick up a road win
JJ ACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Buffalo Bills’ players found cases upon cases of Gatorade stacked outside the locker room when they showed up for work Monday to review their season-opening win over Seattle.
The team’s training staff had the players carting extra fluids home all week to get ready for today’s rugged test against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Forecasts call for a game-time temperature of 93 degrees with 64 percent humidity. That would make it the hottest game in Jaguars history. (The Bills have played two regular-season games at hotter temperatures –97 degrees at both San Diego in 1979 and Dallas in ’93.)
The heat is just one of the challenges the Bills face today.
The Jaguars have Super Bowl aspirations after winning 12 games last year. They are one of the biggest, most physical teams in the NFL. Their smash-mouth style ground the Bills in to submission in a 36-14 decision last year in Jacksonville.
The Bills know they are in for a mano-a-mano battle in the Jaguars’ home opener.
“When they went in the team meetings Wednesday morning, that’s what they were talking about –being physical,” Bills defensive tackle Marcus Stroud said of the Jaguars, for whom he played the previous seven years. “They were talking about trying to grind the ball and shove it down our throats.”
“This week we know they have some big guys, they’re a physical team and it’s going to be an ugly battle down in the trenches,” said Bills guard Brad Butler.
A win would heighten growing expectations for the Bills in the wake of their convincing win over Seattle last week. Today’s game could have playoff tiebreaker implications come December.
The Jaguars are looking to rebound from last week’s 17-10 loss to Tennessee.
Buffalo could be catching Jacksonville at the right time from a manpower standpoint. The Jaguars will play without the starting middle three of their offensive line. Their first-team guards and center are out with injuries, and the offensive line got whipped by the Titans, allowing seven sacks and paving the way for only 33 rushing yards.
However, September is not a great time for NFL teams to visit this northern Florida beach town.
The Jaguars are 16-6 at home in September the past 12 years, and they’re 5-1 in the first month the past four years under coach Jack Del Rio.
The Jaguars routinely wear down opponents in the second half in hot home games.
“It’s going to be hot and we love it,” Jags defensive end Paul Spicer said. “I hope it’s 1,000 degrees out there. I hope the ground’s on fire. It can be an advantage for us and we’ll take it.”
“It’s going to play a huge part in the game,” said Bills cornerback Terrence McGee. “They’ve got us drinking a lot of fluids trying to get ready. Being up in this cool weather and going down to 94-degree heat, it’s going to be different.”
“Our training staff has done a good job of getting us ready,” Butler said. “You try to eat and drink the right things — electrolytes and carbohydrates. Our weightlifting coach could explain it better but . . . it helps you retain more water. So they had a big setup out here with cases of Gatorade and Pedialyte that you could take home with you.”
Butler, the Bills’ right guard, has one of the toughest assignments of the day. He will line up against Jaguars’ 6-foot-7, 335-pound defensive tackle John Henderson, a two-time Pro Bowler.
The Jaguars’ defense has ranked among the top 12 in the NFL five straight years.
“They’ve got these two big tackles, they’ve got speed at end, they’ve got linebackers who can run, they’ve got cover guys,” said Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert.
“They’ve got a safety [Brian Williams], who used to be a cover guy,” Schonert said. “So when you go to three wide receivers, they don’t have to bring anybody in. He just goes out and matches up with the receiver, and they can keep the integrity of the seven-man box. It makes it harder to run the ball.”
Most teams must take a linebacker off the field when the offense puts a third receiver on the field, shrinking the front seven to a front six. The Jaguars don’t always have to do that.
The Jaguars’ defense has a different personality this year with the addition of new coordinator Gregg Williams, the former Bills head coach.
In last year’s win over Buffalo, the Jaguars focused on double-covering Bills receiver Lee Evans and blitzed little. Williams, however, used the highest percentage of six-and seven-man rushes in the league last year as coordinator of the Washington Redskins.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do, but based on the Tennessee game, they’re doing a lot of what Gregg Williams likes to do, not what the coordinator did last year,” Schonert said. “They have two good corners who can cover, so I’d imagine they’re going to play some man coverage.”
Williams’ presence is one of many different elements to this year’s meeting. The Jaguars were without their best cornerback, Rashean Mathis, last year. The Bills were without running back Marshawn Lynch. Of course, the Bills also did not have Stroud, who would love to beat his friends and former teammates.
•••
As expected, the Bills activated left tackle Jason Peters to the 53-man roster Saturday. To make room for him, the Bills released offensive tackle Matt Murphy.
