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Things are already grim in Buffalo

By Rob Longley

It took some observers by surprise when the New Year’s Day NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Bills sold out in mere minutes earlier this week.

But for the hard-suffering sports fans of Western New York the concept was one of opportunity: The chance to see a home team with a winning record play at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

It’s just two weeks into the NFL season and yes, things in Buffalo are already grim. Again.

Talk shows and newspaper columnists want Bills quarterback J.P. Losman’s head. Or at least for him to throw the ball downfield once or twice.

A gut (and heart)-wrenching loss at home against Denver to open the season was the worst possible beginning. The Bills lost three starters due to injury then had to live with the wrenching fallout of tight end Kevin Everett’s spinal injury.

Then last Sunday they went into Pittsburgh and were blown out 26-3 by the Steelers. A season that began with hope, is quickly turning to one of frustration, as early as it is.

How bad has it been? The Bills offence, ranked 31st in the league, has scored just one touchdown and are last in the NFL in time of possession.

Losman, who has struggled, opted for a questionable approach to assessing his team’s woes. It began by calling out his coaches and their conservative strategy then moved to the media, who were accused of trying to stir up stuff, before finally acknowledging where it all starts.

“We have to go out there with an attitude,” Losman said on Wednesday as the team prepared to travel to New England to face the Patriots.

“We have to attack on both sides of the ball.”

Right idea, but perhaps the wrong time. The Patriots have defeated the Bills in seven consecutive games and are 11-1 over the past six seasons. In his three career starts against the Pats, Losman is 0-3, has been picked off five times and has through just one touchdown.

Even second-year Bills coach Dick Jauron seems to have downgraded the usual public stance of optimism heading into any game.

“There is no doubt that we need to play a lot more consistently in every area to have a chance to play with the Patriots,” Jauron said.

“We’ve got a ways to go.”

Note that Jauron didn’t mention anything about winning.

It’s rare that an NFL coach is so honest, but have you seen those Patriots yet?

The Sunday night thrashing of the San Diego Chargers showed that if anything, the “Spy-gate” scandal swirling around the team has done nothing to alter the Patriots’ focus. More likely, it has done the opposite.

Quarterback Tom Brady and linebacker Tedy Bruschi looked particularly fired up on sideline shots in that prime-time game against the Chargers.

Still, Losman believes if the Bills play scared, they will get more than just their third consecutive loss handed to them.

“We have to go out there expecting to win,” Losman said. “We can’t sit back and let them do their thing and hope that they don’t have a good game.

“Nobody is going to give us a shot and we understand that. This is a better time then ever to show what kind of team we are and how much fight we have.”

FEELING RANDY: With three touchdown receptions in his first two games as a Patriot, Randy Moss hasn’t lost a step from his prime years as a Minnesota Vikings.

It’s a scene Bills coach Jauron is all too familiar with from his days leading the Vikes’ NFC North rival Chicago Bears and trying to keep Moss in check.

“Same guy, different number unfortunately,” Jauron said when asked of his impressions of the latest vintage of Moss.

Though Brady is thrilled to have a game-breaking receiver as a target, he says the key to Moss’s early success is that he worked at fitting in from the day he arrived.

“He’s just like every other player around here,” Brady said. “He comes in, he does his job. I don’t know what he was like before, but he’s the only Randy I know.

“But that’s what we all try to do. I think that’s the nice thing about being here - worry about what you do and the rest takes care of itself.

BORDERCROSSINGS: After a couple of days of fuming over the game his team essentially gave away to Arizona, Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren says he has moved on from the 23-20 loss. “New week, new game,” Holmgren said of Sunday’s home date against the Cincinnati Bengals. “We licked our wounds and are ready to go ahead.” ... The Detroit Lions will hope to be the latest to take advantage of an under-achieving Eagles team when they travel to Philadelphia Sunday. At 2-0, the Lions are unlikely co-leaders of the NFC North and will attempt to open their season 3-0 for the first time since 1980! “Nobody expected Detroit to be 2-0 even though (quarterback) Jon Kitna made the guarantee they would win 10 or more games,” Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said. “Everybody thought he was crazy. Now everybody is starting to see why he felt so confident about that.”