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Bills Today: Preparation for Tampa's QBs not hard for Hyde

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1 - Preparation for Tampa's QBs not hard for Hyde[internal-link-placeholder-0]
The Bills returned to practice Monday from their bye week. Buffalo's facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week Seven. On Sunday the Bucs quarterback, Jameis Winston, suffered an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder. A familiar foe, Ryan Fitzpatrick, came in as the backup QB. It's unclear who will be behind center at New Era Field this Sunday, although Winston insists he'll play.

Fitzpatrick and Winston present different challenges to opposing defenses. Safety, Micah Hyde, doesn't anticipate those differences will be a problem.

"It's not hard," he said. "We have a lot of game film on Jameis… we'll prepare like he's the starter. Come game time if they switch it up it shouldn't be a problem for us."

Fitzpatrick did flash some skills in Winston's relief. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 290 yards and threw three touchdowns. Fitzpatrick did have his characteristic two interceptions in the game.

Hyde, who after the bye still leads the NFL in interceptions (4), will be wandering the secondary this Sunday looking for takeaways. He's also hyped to be back playing in front of Bills fan. It has been 24 days since the last home game.

"I love playing here man. I love it," he said. "Obviously we want to defend our home turf. It's going to be exciting we're looking forward to getting out in front of our home crowd." 

Check out practice photos of the Bills as they get ready to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

2 - Dennison's diagnosis on erasing negative plays
Buffalo had a week to dive into their film and diagnosis any imperfections found through the first five games. Offensive coordinator, Rick Dennison, has noticed one trend that he's trying to get his unit to shake.

"The biggest theme is we're going backwards too much," he said. "Too many negative plays. We're trying to get that corrected through technique and self-awareness."

The Bills had at least 10 plays go for negative yards in the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a mix of LeSean McCoy being stuffed at the line of scrimmage and Tyrod Taylor being sacked.

Dennison is determined to correct those mistakes leading to negative yardage.

"Our situation is we've won games we just have to play a little bit better to help us win more games… we can correct them," he said.

This Sunday's game could serve as a good opportunity to step it up offensively. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rank 31st in points per game allowed. 

3 - Thomas thrown in immediately after signing
Bills safety, Shamarko Thomas, is the most recent player to be added to the 53-man roster. He signed with the team on Oct. 3, 2017. Thomas made his debut with Buffalo just five days later against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The five-year veteran noted on 'The John Murphy Show' the difficulties of quickly adapting to a new team.

"It's mind-boggling," Thomas said. "Have to get the playbook, have to get their technique down, change your whole fundamentals and schemes."

Despite being a member of the team less than a week he made an impact against the Bengals. Thomas played 62 percent of the special teams snaps and recorded one tackle.

The Syracuse alumnus has had stints with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets. Now he's a Buffalo Bill and enjoys the organizations atmosphere.

"Positive energy and having fun. That's the type of team we want," Thomas said. "You don't see that in other organizations."

SOCIAL MEDIA POST OF THE DAY

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