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BILLSTUFF: BILLS FIND NEW WAY TO LOSE

By David Staba

So this is what it's come to.

With Sunday's come-from-ahead loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the Buffalo Bills have proven that they can fail in just about every way possible.

They've lost close games and blowouts on the road. At home, they've been thoroughly dominated by a struggling contender and nipped by an almost-equally inept expansion team.

On Sunday, they showed that even when things seem to be going relatively well -- and taking an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter certainly qualifies -- it doesn't take much to waste all the effort that came before it.

The Colts' 17-14 win, like the rest of Buffalo's lost season, boils down to one of those sporting truisms that sound overly simplistic but are, well, true.

Good teams find a way to win. And bad ones find a way to help them.

At 9-2, the Colts are indisputably good.

And in case anybody still had any lingering optimism about the Bills before Sunday, they aren't.

Oh, they may have looked good for more than three quarters, smothering the National Football League's second-highest-scoring offense, moving the ball efficiently and getting some enormous kicks and one very fluky run from their punter.

They even scored their first offensive touchdown in more than a month, adding a second for good measure.

So there are the Bills, playing in front of a sell-out crowd enthused by both the warm weather and a veritable offensive explosion, needing only for their unquestioned strength -- their defense -- to keep Indy from scoring two touchdowns in less than a quarter.

"They're screwed," muttered one fan peering at the television over the bar at the Arterial Lounge on Niagara Street as Peyton Manning and the rest of the Colts' offense took the field after Sammy Morris' 7-yard touchdown run gave Buffalo a 14-3 lead nine seconds into the final session.

Under other circumstances, you would have assumed he was talking about the Colts. But the fatalistic tone of his voice, one shared by most fans as the Bills play out the string, made it clear he was referring to the home team.

And he was right.

It wasn't as if Buffalo's defense -- the only reason five of the Bills' seven losses have been by respectable margins -- collapsed. Instead, it just sort of slowly crumbled.

Manning didn't produce any huge gains in leading the Colts all the way back. The longest gain on Indy's first touchdown drive was the 16 yards guard Rick DeMulling rumbled after picking up a fumble.

Had the game still mattered in the big picture for Buffalo, BillStuff would take time out here to question Gregg Williams' challenge of that play, since Colts receiver Aaron Moorehead had already picked up the first down before fumbling, anyway. But why waste a lot of space picking on a guy who's going to get fired a few days after Christmas?

It's worth noting here that Manning gave Edgerrin James the ball on the last four plays of the drive, his final attempt covering 14 yards and ending in Buffalo's end zone. This, of course, runs counter to Bills offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride's assertion that you can't, won't and shouldn't run the ball into a stacked defense. But again, the soon-to-be-unemployed have enough problems without my cynical carping.

To Gilbride's credit, the Bills did run four straight times on their next possession, picking up a first down. The drive stalled, but the field position was good enough for Brian Moorman to drop his fourth punt of the day inside the Colts' 20, forcing them to cover 83 yards to take the lead.

It might as well have been 183. It's not often that you see a fourth-quarter comeback drive take 16 plays and burn six minutes off the clock, but that's Buffalo's Bend-and-Eventually-Break defense for you.

Once again, the Colts didn't make any huge gains, but once again, they didn't need any.

Buffalo's defense, stocked with former Pro Bowlers in the offseason, allowed Manning to connect on 5-of-7 passes, with Colts receivers dropping the other two. Then Manning turned it over to James, giving him the ball on the last six plays of the march.

The only time Manning tried to throw in the final sequence, Sam Adams burst up the middle to sack him, causing fleeting jubilation throughout Ralph Wilson Stadium and the Arterial.

In keeping with a season in which just about everything that could go wrong has, Adams was offsides.

Still, the Bills forced Indy into a fourth-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line. Which, of course, the Colts converted.

We'd get into Buffalo's final possession and the measly four-man rush by the Colts that still managed to separate Drew Bledsoe from the ball, but did anyone really expect any better?

BILLS MVP: Brian Moorman averaged 49 yards on six punts, a particularly phenomenal figure considering that he pinned the Colts inside their own 20-yard line four times. Then there was his quick recovery of his own fumble and subsequent 21-yard scramble, which sparked Buffalo to its first offensive touchdown since Rush Limbaugh's first week in rehab.

Like all good things for this edition of the Bills, Moorman's big day had a dark side. He also botched the snap on a third-quarter field goal attempt, giving Rian Lindell no chance to succeed on the 48-yard try.

THE OTHER GUYS' MVP: Pulling off a double-digit comeback in the fourth quarter is tough enough at home, nearly impossible on the road. Manning has done it twice this year. Of course, that James guy (108 yards rushing, six catches, two touchdowns) is pretty good, too.

BLEDSOE WATCH: One of these games, Drew's going to make a play that just about any other quarterback in the NFL couldn't. With a long gain of 19 yards, it certainly wasn't on Sunday.

WING REPORT: Didn't think it was possible after BS's last trip to the Arterial, but the honey-and-garlic may be a wing derivative superior to the luscious butter-and-garlics. The grilled barbecues were up to their usual high standard, too. Grade: A.

BS FAN OF THE WEEK: The Bills are incapable of generating much more from their fans than the occasional groan or sarcastic ovation, such as the one that occurred when Bledsoe finally broke Buffalo's touchdown drought in the second quarter.

So this one goes to Mike, the first honest-to-God Cincinnati Bengals fan we've ever encountered in Western New York. Wearing a Chad Johnson No. 85 jersey, he faithfully rooted his Cats on to a closer-than-expected win over San Diego, and good-naturedly endured the incessant chatter of a nearby Flutiephile.

Little Dougie Touchdown did lead the pitiful Chargers to two fourth-quarter touchdowns, making the final deceivingly close at 34-27. While the game outcome was still in doubt, though, he completed six passes out of 20.


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David Staba is the sports editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter. He welcomes email at dstaba13@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com November 25 2003