McDermott: All the confidence in the world in TyrodBy Tyrod Taylor's own admission he had a subpar performance in the team's second preseason game in Philadelphia. But there were a lot of contributing factors to the quarterback's play against the Eagles. That's why head coach Sean McDermott was resolute in his support of his starting signal caller.

"I have all the confidence in the world in Tyrod," he said. "Tyrod is going to start for us this week and I look forward to him getting back on track.  

"We've got to do some things to get the offense on track, there's no doubt about it. We've got to move the ball, move the chains, convert on third downs, which we didn't do a good job, and then when we get into the red zone we've got to score touchdowns.

When asked if he expects Taylor to be his starting quarterback in Week 1 of the regular season, McDermott answered in the affirmative.

"Yes," he said.

McDermott saw the problems on offense beyond just the scope of the quarterback play in Philadelphia.

"There are a lot of factors that really came into play in terms of the pressure on our quarterbacks," said McDermott of the Eagles heavy blitzing. "Technique is obviously one thing, beating the man in front of you and the timing of the offense has to work hand in hand with the protection and route development and the quarterback getting the ball out on time. So all those things work together in terms of protection and execution. We didn't do a good enough job of that."

Not turning to Glenn contingency plan yetThe Bills are still holding out hope that Cordy Glenn will be back participating in practice soon. He was most recently listed as week to week. With three weeks until the season opener, McDermott is not ready to put the contingency plan at left tackle into action just yet.

"We need to play this week out and monitor where we are as we moved forward," said McDermott. "If at some point we feel like we need to make a move with one of those two going over to the left side then we'll do that. But we're not going there right now."

With Jordan Mills and Cordy Glenn not practicing on Friday, offensive line coach Juan Castillo did line Dion Dawkins up at left tackle and put Seantrel Henderson at right tackle. But in terms of team work, Dawkins only got six snaps at left tackle.

"We had about six plays together so he did great," said Richie Incognito chuckling. "We've got to get him going. He's learning right now. He's been switching back and forth. So we're talking every single play and I'm telling him what to do. I'm trying to make his job easy where he can focus on technique and I can tell him what to do on every play."

McDermott doesn't have a specific drop dead date in mind to enact the contingency plan, but he assures the issue has his attention.

"We're on top of that," he said. "There will be a time when we say, 'Hey we've got to do something,' and go with that contingency plan. Right now we look forward to getting Cordy back. That's the prognosis we've gotten from the doctors and so we're going to take it one day at a time right now, but keep a very close eye on it right now."

If Glenn isn't on the practice field by early next week, the Bills will almost have to move Dion Dawkins or Jordan Mills to left tackle knowing the game in Baltimore will be the last big dress rehearsal for the starters.

Officials at practice?He wouldn't be the first Bills head coach to have officials at practice to throw flags and call penalties. McDermott admits he's strongly considering it as an option in the wake of the team's 15 penalty performance Thursday night.

"I am concerned about it," said McDermott. "We're going to look at bringing officials into practice to help us in that effort. We've got to get it corrected."

Receiver Philly Brown says officials at practice was something that Ron Rivera did in Carolina and it did serve the players well.

"We had officials there a lot," said Brown. "Officials would kind of explain stuff to us as we were going through practice in the team periods. They were real aggressive throwing the flags just trying to keep us on edge. It helped us in Carolina because we didn't have many penalties in the game and we erred on the safe side, but we still played aggressive. I think that'll be a good move for us."

The Bills were assessed 131 yards in penalties in Thursday's game virtually negating all their yardage gained on the ground. Buffalo had 136 rushing yards against the Eagles.