ORCHARD PARK — Donte Whitner realized what had just come out of his mouth and straightened up a smidge.

Whitner knows how long a single statement can stick with a guy. After his declaration prior to last season that the Bills would, without question, be in the playoffs, Whitner had to answer follow-ups until after locker cleanout.

So when he insisted on Sunday he was “gonna try to kill” Cadillac Williams on a first quarter pass play, he added a quick clarification.

“I just wanted to make a jump on that football and make a jump on him. If he got the football, I was gonna try to kill him,” Whitner said.

“Well, not kill him literally, but in a football sense.”

No need for bloodshed either way, Donte, literally or figuratively.

When Tampa quarterback Byron Leftwich threw errantly to Williams — and errant throws were the norm for Leftwich on Sunday — Whitner got both hands up and saw something he’d yet to see as a Bill.

The end zone.

Whitner’s 76-yard pick-six ended a nine-play drive that proved to be one of the Bucs’ best of the day, giving the Bills a cushion they kept throughout the late afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

For Whitner, the score was his first, the end of a drought that started when the Bills took him in the first round of the 2006 draft and inserted him into the lineup.

“It felt good. That’s just team defense. The guys get pressure up front and we make plays on the back end,” Whitner said. “As long as we continue to get that pressure, we’ll be able to go to guys’ first and second reads and make plays on the football.”

Not long ago, the Bills needed Whitner to speak for them. Collectively. He was one of the lone voices on a team that often seemed to meander without purpose. Whitner tried to keep the defensive unit cohesive, but it wasn’t necessarily easy.

But now, he insists this is a group that eats, breathes and sleeps together, for better or worse. It isn’t always pretty, Whitner admitted. But it’s family.

“We watch a lot of film as a unit. When I first got here, we didn’t watch too much together. We were a little silent out on the football field,” he said. “Now guys are really comfortable with each other. They hang out a lot throughout the week, then even on Thursdays and Fridays we stay in for an extra hour or two hours just to get our communication down. I’m not going to say it’s all a happy time, sometimes guys see things differently and you have to iron those things out.

“But it’s better to go back and forth in a debate session on Thursday and Friday than Sunday at a football game.”

Whitner has been a steadying force in the defensive backfield for the Bills, but he hasn’t many days to bask in the limelight. He’s certainly not a bust, but he’s never been considered for a Pro Bowl, despite being taken with the eighth pick overall. He recently made the switch from strong safety to free safety, and some have started to prematurely squeeze him out, insisting Jairus Byrd might soon steal the starting job. And this before Byrd ever played a National Football League down.

But Whitner has simply plodded on, and on Sunday, he showed the type of play-making capability we’ve long expected.

“If you do your job and get a read on a quarterback, if you’re in the right place at the right time and if you play physical back there, you’ll get tips and overthrows and you’ll make plays on the football,” he said.

On Sunday, Whitner did just that. In the process, he helped quiet those who’ve been worried about the team and his place on it.

All without speaking.

“We just wanted to prove to ourselves, and to the naysayers, that we have a good football team,” he said.

“It was a long time coming. But this is my first time playing free safety. Hopefully, we’ll see more of them this year.”

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.