Week One: Fake field goal play is Bills’ crowning moment as April’s special teams units lead the way in rout of Seahawks
SPECIAL FORCES
Big plays set the table for mauling of Seattle
The Buffalo Bills’ special teams landed two haymakers Sunday to lead the team to a knockout victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
A spectacular, 63-yard punt return for a touchdown by the Bills’ Roscoe Parrish put the Seahawks on their heels in the second quarter. Then the Bills knocked Seattle flat on its back when punter/holder Brian Moorman threw a touchdown pass to defensive end Ryan Denney on a fake field goal in the third quarter.
“Our special teams took the air out of them today,” safety Donte Whitner said after the Bills’ 34-10 victory. “Whenever you block a punt, block a field goal or take a kick back, it takes the air out of the opposition. . . . It gave us the momentum.”
For the crowd of 71,194 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, it was a special season opener all around, the best since the Bills’ 31-0 win over New England five years ago.
The Bills’ rebuilt defense lived up to its billing, forcing 11 punts, recording five sacks and holding Seattle 15 points under its season average of a year ago.
The Bills’ offense got solid quarterbacking from Trent Edwards, hard running from Marshawn Lynch and fairly imaginative play-calling from new coordinator Turk Schonert.
The special teams, however, had one of its greatest games this decade, which is saying a lot because Buffalo has ranked among the top five in the NFL each of the past four years.
Besides the two touchdowns, the Bills’ kickoff coverage unit set up a third by forcing a fumble on a Seattle kickoff return. Moorman dominated his counterpart, Seattle’s Ryan Plackemeier, in the field position battle. And Rian Lindell kicked two field goals.
So much for the idea that coach Bobby April’s units might be rebuilding in 2007 due to the departure of five special teams stalwarts from last year.
“We lost a lot of core guys so it’s great to see new guys step up and keep the tradition going,” Moorman said.
Of course, the Bills did not lose the NFL’s defending punt-return king, Parrish, who looked like a cross between Gale Sayers and Deion Sanders on his breathtaking touchdown.
The 5-foot-9 Parrish fielded the ball on the Bills’ 37, took two steps to his left then blew down the right side of the field. John DiGiorgio, Bryan Scott and Whitner threw initial key blocks.
Parrish cut across the middle of the field at the Seattle 30, did a 360-degree
spin and another stop-on-a-dime cutback to the right to break into the end zone.
“He’s unbelievable,” marveled tight end Robert Royal. “It was like the stuff you see on the Madden video game. For a guy to be able to change directions, spin, keep his balance and make those moves, that’s a special talent.”
“You’ve just got to have that swagger back there,” Parrish said.
“I think it was more Roscoe than the blocking,” said Bills special teamer Justin Jenkins. “Roscoe made a lot of guys miss. I was watching going, ‘Wow, wow, wow.’ ”
“We’ll call the play but Roscoe rarely follows the play,” said Scott, who made a block at the start of the return and had time to make another near the end. “So it’s find your man, and wherever he goes you stay with him because you never know. Roscoe might be coming your way.”
The Bills were ahead, 20-10, when April’s trickery sealed the outcome.
The offense had driven down to the Seattle 19 thanks to a 41-yard pass from Edwards to Lee Evans. On fourth-and-7, Lindell came out for what appeared to be a field goal try.
But the 6-foot-7 Denney had lined up on the far left of the formation, and Seattle never saw him. The Seahawks, in fact, had to race a man from the sideline just before the snap to get 11 men on the field. Moorman, the holder, took the snap and fired a pass to the wide-open Denney, who waltzed across the goal line. The Bills were ahead, 27-10.
“I watched Ryan check in with the referee,” Moorman said. “He was probably the first one on the field, and as the rest of us were coming on, he was heading toward the sideline.
“I was just trying to mosey around like nothing was going on. I was shocked nobody was out there. Sometimes it’s hard to throw it when he’s that wide open. I just kind of aimed it over there. I’m hoping it looks like a spiral when we watch it on tape.”
“We’ve probably done it six or seven times in practice, and I’ve been 100 percent,” Denney said. “So far I haven’t dropped one.”
Denney said the Bills had called the play earlier, in the first quarter on third down.
“But we got the first down and decided to wait on it,” he said. “When we had the chance again . . . I was pretty excited about it.”
The Bills’ defense, meanwhile, was throttling the Seahawks. The Bills stopped the Seattle running game and were able to use a variety of four-, five-and six-man rushes on quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.
Seattle converted just 3 of 16 third-down plays, and all of which were third-and-6 situations or longer.
The Bills’ other touchdowns came on a 21-yard run by Lynch in the first quarter and a 30-yard pass from Edwards to Royal late in the third.
On Lynch’s score, the Bills caught Seattle crowding the line of scrimmage on a third-and-11 play. Lynch took a shotgun handoff off left tackle and ripped through the Seattle defense. Center Melvin Fowler got a key block on Seattle tackle Craig Terrill and guard Brad Butler walled off linebacker Leroy Hill.
“It was a great call by Melvin Fowler because they put a lot of people up on the line,” Butler said. “They had too many people to the left, on the play side, so we made a push call.”
The line shoved the Seahawks left and Lynch cut back behind them and ran up the left sideline.
The Royal TD was a go-for-the-jugular call by Schonert immediately after the Bills recovered the fumble on the Seattle kick return. The Bills caught Seattle in a single safety deep, and Royal got behind cornerback Kelly Jennings.
When the Bills got back into the locker room after the game, they were greeted by former tight end Kevin Everett, whose career-ending neck injury had occurred 363 days before, in last year’s season opener.
“Kevin is an inspiration for all of us, as far as what it means to persevere and never give up,” Fowler said. “He’s like a family member and to see him again was very emotional and an uplifting experience for us.”
After coach Dick Jauron said a few words, the team gathered together around Everett.
“It was short and sweet,” Fowler said. “He said ‘Buffalo on three.’ ”
It was the perfect end to a special Bills day.
