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BILLSTUFF: LOSMAN'S DEBUT GOOD ENOUGH FOR WIN

By David Staba

If you believe the ultimate success or failure of the Buffalo Bills' 2005 season hinges on J.P. Losman, then Saturday night's exhibition outing in Indianapolis had to leave you more than a bit concerned.

In his first start in a National Football League game of any sort, Losman lost a fumble due to carelessness near his own goal line, misfired on a number of passes and got lucky that a couple of others thrown into traffic weren't intercepted.

Buffalo's coaches came in watching for the second-year pro's command in bringing the team out of the huddle and ability to avoid big hits. They saw him take a delay-of-game penalty and get positively plastered by Colts linebacker Kendall Pope the first time he scrambled out of the pocket.

"Delay of game?" demanded a cynic at Player's Sports Bar in downtown Niagara Falls, the site selected to open this year's BillStuff coverage. "They've been practicing all summer and they can't snap the ball in time?"

All that, and yet the Bills still won, 17-10.

Plenty of that had to do with Peyton Manning taking a total of three snaps, which was three more than running mate Edgerrin James. An Indianapolis defense missing seven starters also gave Losman more room for error than he'll ever see in the regular season.

But the two plays most important to Buffalo's fate Saturday night and for the rest of 2005 -- and ideally, early 2006 -- came with Losman on the sideline.

The first was when defensive tackle Lavale Sape broke through Indy's line and swatted Hunter Smith's punt to the goal line, where he took possession for just long enough to score the game's first touchdown.

Then, just before halftime, Jabari Greer intercepted Jim Sorgi, who spent the first half inadequately attempting to play the part of Manning. Greer's pick in Colts territory set up Buffalo's only touchdown drive of the evening, which Losman capped with a nicely executed 5-yard flip to Lee Evans.

The Bills don't need Losman to be great to improve on last year's 9-7 finish, provided the special teams and defense keep coming up with the types of game-changing plays that marked their second-half surge in 2004 and Willis McGahee remains ambulatory.

The Bills didn't make their late-season run because of Drew Bledsoe, they nearly got into the playoffs despite him. It's easy to fret about a young quarterback making killer mistakes, but being one of the league's most veteran throwers didn't prevent Bledsoe from committing 43 turnovers in his last 32 games in Buffalo.

Certainly, fans whose main enjoyment stems from griping about whoever is playing quarterback will have plenty of fodder as Losman learns the game.

He looked overly amped on a number of throws, diminishing their accuracy and catchability. And he often ran in place in the pocket, failing to set his feet until a split-second before letting fly.

But more important than any single mistake was his reaction to each of them. Rather than crumble or come off the field staring at the new artificial turf in the RCA Dome, Losman seemed to grow in confidence through the first half.

On the touchdown drive, he directed the two-minute drill calmly, using his mobility to utmost advantage on an 11-yard scramble and when rolling out on the touchdown throw.

It's tough to draw many other observations from a game that was often excruciating to watch, even by the admittedly low standards of exhibition football.

Buffalo's defensive numbers were impressive enough. On the ground, Indy went 5 yards in reverse on 15 carries, while Manning, Sorgi and former Bills third-stringer Travis Brown were a combined 24-for-52 passing, while absorbing six sacks.

But you have to remember that such stingy figures were compiled primarily against some guys who will be looking for day jobs inside a month and others, like Sorgi, who will get on the field only if abject disaster strikes.

A more telling number was the 19 penalties by the Bills, including 13 in the first half. Incessant infractions were the hallmark of Buffalo's bumbling 0-4 start in Mike Mularkey's first season as head coach, and an area that needs to be addressed for Losman's learning curve to matter much.

All in all, the Bills and Colts combined for 40 incomplete passes, 26 penalties and 16 punts. This, folks, is why BillStuff usually strives to ignore the exhibition season as completely as possible.

But we made an exception due to Losman's debut. Only a handful of patrons at Player's were paying any attention to the Bills game, particularly once Losman called it a night.

Thankfully, the televisions over the bar not carrying the game showed first the Colorado-Washington baseball game, then the pay-per-view fight card from Chicago. Player's, like Jaco's on Buffalo Avenue, has become a haven for area fight fans who want to see the big bouts without shelling out $50 for the privilege. Unlike joints that specialize in hijacking the telecasts until they get caught, both places do so legitimately.

Saturday's main event, Hasim Rahman's stultifying decision over Monte Barrett for something called the WBC Interim Heavyweight title, made the Bills-Colts showdown riveting by comparison. Out on the patio, karaoke enthusiasts provided much-needed comic relief.

We can't be too tough on the home team this early in the season. That's the beauty of football in August. With the first real game nearly a month away, there's plenty of time for players to improve, fans to hope and media to speculate.

This much is sure -- we'll be in midseason form by Sept. 11, when the Houston Texans come to town.

Losman and the rest of the Bills? Well, we'll see.

BILLS MVP: Sape, who has been hanging around the fringe of Buffalo's roster since getting drafted in the sixth round in 2003, made an early claim to securing a spot, while doing justice to his new number, 93, formerly worn by departed free agent Pat Williams. Normally, more than one play, even if it is a blocked punt for a touchdown, is required to win this honor. But again, this is the exhibition season.

THE OTHER GUYS' MVP: Reserve defensive back Waine Bacon led the Colts with seven tackles, sacked Losman to force his third-quarter fumble and made a tackle on special teams. Plus, I really like bacon.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Losman, Kelly Holcombe and Shane Matthews did complete 19 of their 31 aggregate passes, but those connections only gained 122 yards, or 3.93 per attempt. You know going in that the Bills will be doing a lot of short passing to keep pressure off Losman, but geez.

BS STORY OF THE WEEK: In this recurring feature, brand-new for 2005, we'll look at the most irritating, misleading or otherwise goofy news item of the previous seven days -- usually, but not necessarily always, pertaining to the Bills.
On Wednesday, the team was scheduled for two practices, one in the morning and a public session in the evening. Mularkey surprised the players -- as well as the media assembled to cover the a.m. workout -- by sending them back to the locker room to change into street clothes for a morning trip to the movies.
OK, so they've been working hard in hot conditions at St. John Fisher in Pittsford, and Mularkey wanted to foster team camaraderie or something. Fair enough.
Treating it as news, particularly in the cutesy way it was presented in the print and electronic media, was something else again. Awwww -- professional athletes choosing which movie to watch. Aren't they adorable?
Meanwhile, the Bills refused to release any details on the wrist injury suffered that night by the team's first draft pick, wide receiver Roscoe Parrish -- even after he underwent surgery on Friday.
Forget information that might actually matter to the upcoming season. Who doesn't love it when highly paid young men get a treat?

WING REVIEW: The smoked pork and beef tenderloin consumed at a party earlier Saturday evening left us unable to fulfill this duty, though it was succulent. We promise to do better next time.

BS FAN OF THE WEEK: You couldn't find a soul actually rooting one way or the other during the game, but one man questioned the large shift in the point spread in the last days before the game, saying that it opened with Indy as a seven-point favorite, but that it had fallen to 2 1Ú2 points by kickoff.
I didn't have the heart to ask whether he had actually wagered money on an exhibition game, but anybody who not only knew that there was a point spread, but what that spread was, deserves some sort of recognition.


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

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Aug. 16 2005