Two Bills Drive

‘With the bar raised, there is already some early panic in western New York off Sunday’s comprehensive defeat. String a couple of efforts like that together, and he’ll go from the toast of the town to Flutie Flambe.’

‘Though the offensive line struggled in creating holes for the run and protecting the quarterback, Flutie stood by his big men. “Watching the film, it is assignments more than talent,” Flutie said of changes to the offensive line. “We are probably a couple steps back from the end of last year … but from a talent standpoint, we may be stronger.”‘

“Terry Miller, a two-time All-American running back at Oklahoma State who replaced O.J. Simpson in the Buffalo Bills’ backfield, was sentenced in Muskogee, Okla., to two years in prison on Tuesday for defrauding a McAlester bank out of $179,000.”

‘The Bills were left with only three running backs after Thomas went down on the first play against Indianapolis in the season opener. Thomas will be out for at least six weeks, the team said Monday.’

‘Phillips said his team was “shocked” at seeing Thomas lying on the RCADome turf after being levelled by Colts defensive back Tyrone Poole. He’d better hope the incident wasn’t an ominous harbinger of the remainder of the season.’

‘Forget about the Super Bowl, forget about winning the AFC East, and forget about achieving a wild-card spot in the playoffs. At this point, the Bills need to focus on one thing: Winning one game.’

‘Thomas suffered liver and kidney contusions on the jarring hit he took on the opening play of Sunday’s 31-14 season-opening loss at Indianapolis and will be out six weeks, coach Wade Phillips said.’

‘I noticed during the Bills-Colts game that Buffalo played without an offensive line. Is this a new game plan? I sure hope they’ll use a line against the Jets this Sunday.’

“Not only did the Bills get trounced yesterday in Indianapolis, but today it was learned that Thurman Thomas suffered more than a rib injury in that ferocious hit he took from Tyrone Poole on the opening play from scrimmage. The Bills revealed that Thomas suffered contusions of the liver and the kidney. Wade Phillips in a press conference today, said that the future Hall-of-Famer could be lost to the Bills by as much as 6 weeks. Right now, Thomas is recovering in a hospital.”

The Bills played a clunker in the season opener against the Colts Sunday. Here’s the unit by unit analysis.