It was a less than stellar day for the offense again and a couple of linemen gave the Bills a scare and subsequently had their days end early on the practice field Tuesday.
Buffalo's offense, which had its share of execution problems Monday night again struggled to string plays together particularly in the 9-on-7 segment and one of the 11-on-11 segments.
In 9-on-7 the defense really clamped down on the running plays. On the first play from scrimmage Buffalo's defenders really swarmed to the ball to stop the offense for no gain. Marshawn Lynch did rip off a big gainer on the next snap thanks mainly to a nice seal block by Jason Whittle as he got to the second level and picked up Angelo Crowell.
The offense then had a couple of decent rushes, but then a poorly thrown ball over the middle intended for Robert Royal floated short of the target and Paul Posluszny came up with the interception.
That was followed by a pair of rushes that were stopped for no gain by the defense.
By the time practice was over Losman had thrown four interceptions as Keith Ellison had one and Jabari Greer had two.
"I just tried to baby two of them in there and that's usually never the case with me," said Losman of the picks that went to Posluszny and Greer. "But overall I thought we did some good things and hit on some things that we weren't hitting before. We hit some checkdowns, which is something we were striving for and getting quicker with recognizing that and making that happen was positive."
Losman and his fellow quarterbacks were successful in checking the ball down to the backs particularly during the 7-on-7 period. The three quarterbacks completed all but one of the 14 plays they ran from scrimmage and six of those receptions were made by backs coming out of the backfield.
But during red zone 7-on-7 Ellison stretched to make a one-handed grab on a Losman pass over the middle. Losman however, explained why Ellison was able to make a play on the ball.
"It's 7-on-7 that's where the ball has to go," said Losman. "In a real game (Ellison) has to check the run first and in 7-on-7 there's no run to check. That's where the read takes him, but because he has to check the run first he would have had to step forward and never would've come close to that pass."
Ellison has held the title for most interceptions in camp as he now has five, but it was taken from him by the time practice ended. Jabari Greer picked off Losman on a deep sideline throw and took it the other way. And not five plays later he jumped in front of a short pass intended for Lee Evans and would've returned it for a touchdown.
Losman maintains at this point in training camp the defenders know the offense inside and out and have a tendency to cheat on plays having seen them so many times run by the same players day after day.
"They are using their familiarity with certain guys' splits and they see guys day in and day out," said Losman. "So if a guy is leaning a little bit they know what he likes to do. Jabari Greer is probably the best at it. He had two picks in the game so good for him and hopefully it continues to transfer over."
Greer now has a team leading six interceptions in training camp not counting the two he had in last Friday's preseason opener. At this point however, Greer is not making a move up the depth chart according to head coach Dick Jauron.
"He probably hasn't moved on the charts, but his play is very positive. There's no doubt about it. We're happy with everybody else, but any time a guy makes that many plays you always take notice of him. We'll see where it goes. We've been happy with him. We know he's very productive on teams for us and a very fast and quick athlete. If he keeps making plays… you don't keep playmakers off the field."
Some scary sights
Midway through practice starting center Melvin Fowler limped off the field to the locker room. He returned to the field, but did not re-enter practice. Not long after John McCargo went down on a running play during 11-on-11 and hobbled off to the sideline.
What made McCargo's injury scary was he was holding his surgically repaired left foot.
"My foot got rolled up on that play and it turned my whole ankle over," said McCargo. "It's sore, but I'll be alright."
Fowler also told Buffalobills.com he would be fine.
Head coach Dick Jauron described the injuries.
"Both ankles and hopefully they're both fine," said Jauron of Fowler and McCargo. "As you saw they both limped off the field. We'll check them out further but as of right now we're very optimistic about both of them."
Another scary moment happened when Jason Peters went down hard on a run play and he slowly picked himself up off the turf. Not long after that play Jauron had his players remove their pads for the rest of practice.
Walker out
Bills right tackle Langston Walker was held out of practice Tuesday and had a wrap on his right arm.
"Langston has a little elbow tendonitis," Jauron said. "We decided it was better to give him this afternoon off and then move forward. We're worried, but not overly worried about all of them. Hopefully they'll heal fast."
Also not participating were Brad Butler, Trevor Hooper and Josh Scobey.
Status quo at right guard
Despite the stark change in playing time at the starting right guard position, where Jason Whittle is seeing virtually all of the snaps with the first team, Jauron claims no one has moved ahead in the race to earn the starting job.
"No I wouldn't say anything like that. We're just rotating guys to give them reps at the positions they play. They're both guards and centers so they really play both guard positions and center."
Prior to Melvin Fowler's injury, Whittle was taking almost all the snaps at right guard, while Duke Preston stepped in for Fowler to get center reps with the first unit. After Fowler went out with an ankle injury, Preston played exclusively center with the first team and Whittle manned right guard.
Noteworthy plays
Jason Webster and Ko Simpson both had pass breakups Tuesday.
Offensively Donovan Morgan made a great looking catch high over his head along the sideline on a throw from Trent Edwards.
The play of the day goes to Roscoe Parrish who beat Eric Bassey for a 50-yard touchdown on a well-thrown pass from Edwards.
