After a steady rain forced the team to practice at half speed indoors in the St. John Fisher gymnasium for their closed practice Sunday morning, rain was intermittent for their final night practice of camp, but the team got a heavy dose of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work in.
Even though training camp is winding down with just two practices remaining at the St. John Fisher campus, head coach Chan Gailey has made it clear that there are still some instructional parts of the game that must be ironed out in the time they have left.
"We're in training camp," he said. "Our focus is on getting better at the fundamentals and all of the techniques that go with that. We're not game-planning, we're back to basics. That's what I told them Saturday when we got back in here. It's back to basics until Tuesday when we break camp. After that, it starts toward game-plan and getting ready for the season."
Last man standingThe tight end position has suffered rapid fire losses. In the last five days Shawn Nelson suffered a pulled muscle in practice just before the Indianapolis game and remains out of action. In the game Thursday night Derek Schouman suffered a knee injury and is out for 3-6 weeks. On Sunday night Michael Matthews pulled up during one-on-one pass rush drills.
The only healthy tight end left on the roster is starter Jonathan Stupar, which will undoubtedly prompt the Bills to make new additions to the position.
"We've got some adjustments to make obviously," said Gailey. "We've got one healthy tight end on the field right now and it makes it very difficult, but that's part of it. You deal with it and move on."
The coaching staff was working their two fullbacks with the tight end group to stem the tide until reinforcements arrive. Buffalo has two vacant roster spots to fill the void at tight end after placing rookies [Danny Batten and Marcus Easley on season ending injured reserve.
Offense trying to nail it all downWith the majority of play installation done at this point of training camp players are trying to polish and refine a lot of the plays that they'll be executing through the course of the season. Wide receiver Steve Johnson actually caught an earful from the staff for getting too creative on a couple of his routes.
"I kind of got chewed out a little bit for doing something wrong," said Johnson. "I made a minor mistake, and it shouldn't have been made. But it was good I got yelled at. It's just time to handle business. It's just that time, no more mistakes now.
"It's just work that needs to be done, be crisper on everything and (Coach Gailey) wants everything to look the same. So I'm going to try to do that work on my routes and make everything still look the same."
Gailey's offense is known to have plays that appear similar to defenses at the start, and he depends on receivers to run routes identically whether it's pass or run to more effectively disguise their intentions.
HighlightsSteve Johnson got the offensive unit off to a good start pulling in a touchdown pass in the left corner of the end zone from Trent Edwards in 7-on-7 red zone work.
Johnson also had the catch of the night on a crossing pattern when he leaped to pull in Edwards' strike over the middle for a touchdown.
Naaman Roosevelt made a difficult catch near the goal line from Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick also hit Roscoe Parrish at the goal line near the front right pylon as he fought Reggie Corner to cross the goal line.
C.J. Spiller had a couple of sharp looking runs, including one off right tackle thanks to a good seal block from Andy Levitre who set the edge for him.
Joique Bell ran a well-executed screen play with Fitzpatrick who drew the defense in before making the throw giving Bell tons of daylight on the far side of the field.
And Chad Jackson pulled in an over the shoulder pass from Brian Brohm down the near sideline for a 25-yard pickup.
Defensively, Keith Ellison had a pass breakup in the end zone to prevent a touchdown pass to Steve Johnson.
Ellis Lankster broke up a pass that had Donald Jones targeted in the end zone during red zone work.
Aaron Maybin got a quarterback pressure on Trent Edwards thanks in part to solid coverage on the back end.
Chris Kelsay caught a deflected pass for an interception and returned it the other way during 11-on-11.
And Chris Ellis had a quarterback pressure to force an incomplete pass.
ScheduleThe Bills have a single afternoon practice on Monday scheduled for 3:15 pm.
