Professor

Democrat & Chronicle: Bills

excerpt:

(August 7, 2007) — PITTSFORD — Donte Whitner and Ko Simpson should've known there was karma brewing.

After all, how often do college football players randomly picked as roommates for the Indianapolis Scouting Combine wind up being drafted by the same NFL team?

How often do they wind up starting in the same defensive backfield as rookies? These guys should be buying Lotto tickets together.

"We're tight on the field and off the field," Simpson said after walking off the practice field at St. John Fisher College, where the Buffalo Bills are getting ready for the season. "Off the field we chill together, and on the field we're just trying to get the job done."

Now well into their second training camp together, Whitner and Simpson still talk plenty. But they are also getting to the point where a nod of the head or shuffle of the hands is all they need to communicate what they're thinking when the offense comes to the line of scrimmage.

"Basically, we have to read each other's minds," Whitner said. "We're friends off the field, so it's easier for us to communicate, make the calls back there."

If a call needs to be made off the field, this duo can do it by opening up a window and yelling. Simpson is about to move into Whitner's condominium complex, which will make it easier when they go out to eat or hit a movie.

"Ko eats a lot of McDonald's," Whitner said. "I don't eat McDonald's much anymore. We've got to watch Ko."

While Whitner watches after his friend, Bills fans will watch with great interest the process of molding the team's last line of defense.

In one semi-quick swoop in 2006, the Bills went from fielding one of the NFL's most experienced and accomplished tandems in Lawyer Milloy and Troy Vincent to fielding its youngest; Whitner and Simpson were the league's only starting rookie safety pair.

Coach Dick Jauron often felt like the father who winces while watching his 5-year-old ride his bicycle without training wheels for the first time. But to his great satisfaction, there were few truly bad wipeouts. He never found himself reaching for the Band-Aids and ice cream.

When it was over, Whitner and Simpson's body of work was better than anyone anticipated.

This All-Big Ten, All-SEC combination — two guys who understand that a missed a tackle by them means six points for the other guys — combined for 143 solo tackles, 199 tackles overall, three interceptions, 10 pass breakups and 29 total starts.

The Bills wound up ranked fifth in the NFL in passing yardage allowed, and they were one of only five teams not to allow a 300-yard passer.

While Whitner's and Simpson's tackling talents are indisputable, overanalyzing their coverage skills occupied a lot of barstool talk in the offseason.

I'm the first to admit skepticism over the Bills' not allowing a 300-yard passer. They were such an easy team to run the ball on — giving up 141 yards per game and 4.7 yards per carry — that passing was a risk opponents didn't need to take.

The run-to-pass ratio against Buffalo (29.75 vs. 32.1) is evidence of that. In 13 games, opponents ran the ball on 25 or more plays.

But there are other factors that can't be ignored. Opponents had leads entering the fourth quarter half the time and were looking to protect those leads with the run. And let's face it: The NFL is all about eating the weak.

If Whitner and Simpson truly were hot fudge sundaes, opposing quarterbacks would've gained five pounds every Sunday instead of sweating bullets in winning five games by a mere three points or less. And that included the great Peyton Manning.

"They did well last year, and they improved on a game-by-game basis," said Jauron when asked what the film showed of his two first-year safety nets. "There's no way to tell what teams would or wouldn't have done had things been different on the field, if we were playing with the lead more. There's no reason for speculation, because it's all gone.

"The only thing that matters to us is now. And I do believe they'll just get better and better. And let's face it: We all have to get better if we're going to consistently win."

With star cornerback Nate Clements now blanketing the opponent's best receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, teams may test Whitner and Simpson more this year. If Buffalo stops the run better with rookie linebacker Paul Posluszny manning the middle, the same could be true.

But while Simpson said that's a reasonable thought process, the fourth-round pick out of South Carolina, who played with a chip on his shoulder for his lower-round selection, is also more prepared.

"Last year, man, I got thrown into the fire. I was learning on the run," he said. "This year, I know what to expect, how to approach it. It's about working now and getting better."

For Whitner, it's no longer about proving that the Bills were smart for using the eighth overall pick on him. Though it's just his second year, the Ohio State product has graduated to a leadership role now that the page has turned on Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher-Baker and Clements.

And if you want his eyes to shoot daggers through your chest, bring up the idea of a "sophomore jinx."

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