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Democrat & Chronicle: Bills

(August 19, 2007) — ORCHARD PARK — There are two primary goals that every NFL team hopes to accomplish in a preseason game: Sharpen execution in preparation for the start of the regular season, and get out of the game without any major injuries.

The Buffalo Bills failed on both fronts Friday night.

The Bills played sloppily in their 13-10 loss to Atlanta, taking a step back from their performance in New Orleans a week earlier, and they suffered a serious injury when defensive end Ryan Denney broke a bone in his foot.

Denney went down on the first series of the night, and while coach Dick Jauron wouldn't put a timeframe on the recovery of the fifth-year player, it seemed apparent that Denney could be a candidate for the season-ending injured reserve list.

"I'll have to wait on that one, I'm not certain yet," Jauron said. "I'm not sure that Bud (Carpenter, the head trainer) and the doctors are certain yet. We know that at the very least he will miss a substantial amount of time."

Complicating matters for the Bills is that they may not be able to keep Denney on the active roster and hope he can get back sometime during the second half of the season because of the Anthony Hargrove situation.

Hargrove, who along with Denney was supposed to be part of a four-man defensive end rotation along with starters Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay, has to sit out the first four regular-season games because of a substance-abuse suspension.

That means the Bills may have to go find a veteran free agent defensive end because the only other ends currently on the roster — second-year men Eric Powell and Ryan Neill and rookie C.J. Ah You — have never played a regular-season NFL snap.

"There will be some decisions that we have to make there," Jauron said. "We definitely have to keep looking as we do all the time. (The injury) really hit us in a bad spot."

The only player feeling worse than Denney in the locker room Friday was Hargrove.

"Now I really feel like I'm letting the team down because I'm going to be missing those first four games and I'm sorry that it happened," said Hargrove, who had an interception that set up Buffalo's touchdown against Atlanta in the third quarter.

"It's a big blow (losing Denney). It hurts that I'm not going to be there the first four games, so now I have to really prove I can be a guy they can count on."

If the Bills don't think there's anyone worth bringing in — hey, isn't Michael Strahan available? — they could opt to increase the workload on Schobel and Kelsay at least until Hargrove can return for the Oct. 8 Monday night game against Dallas.

"That could definitely be a situation," Kelsay said. "If that's the case, we've done it before. There were years when we took the bulk of the workload during the season. We still have a couple weeks left in the preseason and a lot of things can happen.

"With our defensive end rotation, with Anthony's situation and now Ryan suffering this injury, it's going to make it tough on us. But that's what happens in this league. We'll just have to see what the coach's approach to it is."

Defensive line coach Bill Kollar is concerned, though, about giving Schobel and Kelsay too many snaps.

"The thing is, when you want guys to play hard on every play like we do, they can't run the way we want them to run to the ball if they're out there every snap," Kollar said. "Hopefully some of these other guys who are here end up coming through, or we go a different avenue. It's definitely a big hit on us."

Schobel and Kelsay started every game last season, but Denney was rotated in at both of those positions and had by far his best season as a pro with 72 tackles, 6 sacks, 5 deflected passes and 2 forced fumbles.

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