Bills notebook
Reed back at practice
The Buffalo Bills’ offense looks like it will get a reinforcement but the defensive secondary will be banged up for Sunday’s game at Kansas City.
Bills receiver Josh Reed returned to practice Wednesday, raising hopes that he will return to the lineup after a three-week absence due to a sprained ankle.
Reed took part fully in individual drills at the start of practice and was somewhat limited, coach Dick Jauron said, during the rest of the practice. Quarterback Trent Edwards was optimistic about Reed returning to the lineup for the Chiefs game.
Meanwhile, safeties Donte Whitner and Bryan Scott and cornerback Jabari Greer sat out.
Greer suffered a sprained knee against Cleveland on Monday. Early indications are the injury is not especially serious. But he was not even watching practice Wednesday, so he may give way to rookie Leodis McKelvin in the starting lineup this week.
Whitner watched from the sidelines. He suffered a separated shoulder on Nov. 2. After sitting out one game, he played the first half Monday against the Browns but he was in too much pain to play the second half.
Jauron indicated Whitner did not seriously reinjure the shoulder.
“My understanding is that he did not,” Jauron said. “As we said going into the game, medically, our people felt that he couldn’t really do it significant more damage. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have let him on the field, so it was mostly pain management. It just turned out to be significantly more painful than either he or they thought it was going to be.”
Scott watched practice due to a sore knee. Defensive end Aaron Schobel (foot) and linebacker Marcus Buggs (ankle) also did not practice.
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Seven Kansas City starters did not practice fully. Not working at all were receiver Mark Bradley (calf), tight end Tony Gonzalez (knee), linebacker Donnie Edwards (hamstring) and guard Adrian Jones (ankle). Working limited were defensive end Tamba Hali (ankle), safety Jarrad Page (groin) and linebacker Pat Thomas (thigh).
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Here was the explanation of offensive coordinator Turk Schonert on why the Bills ran three straight times instead of trying a pass before Rian Lindell’s missed 47-yard field goal try.
“We had just ran for 180 yards on them,” Schonert said. “They were tired. We thought we could pop one. The very first one had a chance on a cutback to go a long way. We bounced it outside. That one could have hit the end zone if we cut it back. We were running the ball well.
“We wanted them to use their timeouts. They had a lot of time left and all three timeouts. The guy just made a 56-yard field goal, so it’s not that they have to go a long ways to kick a field goal. We got in field goal range to win the game. Unfortunately we didn’t get the kick.”
