Bills play it safe in preseason finale
Avoiding injuries key in loss to Lions
Visions of Osi Umenyiora danced in the heads of the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Thursday night.
Neither team was going to let what happened to Umenyiora, the New York Giants' Pro Bowl defensive end, happen to any of their starters. So they turned their preseason finale into a glorified scrimmage.
Umenyiora was lost for the season with a knee injury in the Giants' preseason game last week, putting a major crimp into the title defense of the Super Bowl champions.
The Bills fielded just one regular starter — free safety Ko Simpson. The Lions opened the game with just five starters in the lineup.
A crowd of perhaps 45,000 on Kids Day at The Ralph watched the Lions' backups score a 14-6 victory over the Bills' reserves. (The game was a sellout, and the announced crowd was 70,138.)
Third-stringer Gibran Hamdan started at quarterback for the Bills and fared pretty well, completing 18 of 26 passes for 158 yards. He left the game late in the fourth quarter after getting shaken up on a hard sack. J.P. Losman played the Bills' final series, but did not throw a pass.
Players who looked good for the Bills included rookie receiver James Hardy, held out the previous two games. He started and caught three passes (one was wiped out by penalty).
Cornerback Ashton Youboty had another strong game in pass coverage and added a sack. Rookie receiver Stevie Johnson caught eight passes for 74 yards.
First-round draft pick Leodis McKelvin again showed explosiveness on returns. He had a make-something-out-of-nothing, 45-yard kickoff return in the first quarter. However, McKelvin fielded punts at the 5 twice in the first half, and Detroit turned the field-position gains into safeties both times.
On the downside was running back Dwayne Wright, who started but again had a fumble, his third of the preseason.
"It was a game where we needed to look at an awful lot of young people," said Bills coach Dick Jauron, who must cut the roster from 75 to 53 by 4 p.m. Saturday. "There are an awful lot of decisions that need to be made ... We got to see a lot of those guys for a lot of plays."
Ready or not, the Bills set their sights today on the season opener Sept. 7 against Seattle.
Starting quarterback Trent Edwards directed four series and took 31 snaps in two preseason games. Edwards suited up and worked in pregame warm-ups but never saw the field. For the preseason, the Bills' first-team offense, with either Edwards or Losman under center, scored on five of seven possessions, with three touchdowns and two field goals.
The Bills closed the preseason 2-2. The Lions finished 4-0.
Recent history had given the Lions good reason to play it safe. Detroit lost key starters to injury the last two times they came to Buffalo for the preseason finale (running back James Stewart in 2003, and quarterback Jeff Garcia in '05).
The Lions started fourth-year man Dan Orlovsky at quarterback in place of starter Jon Kitna. Orlovsky, a Connecticut product, was 12 of 21 for 114 yards.
It was the first NFL preseason start for Hamdan, a sixth-year pro and World League veteran who joined the Bills last season.
"I thought he played well," Jauron said. "We really needed to get him as much work as we could get him as our third. He hadn't seen much action, and he needed to ... We knew it would be difficult. I thought he threw it fairly accurately and put it in spots he needed to, away from people."
The Bills struck first, marching 66 yards in 11 plays after the opening kickoff. Hamdan hit 3 of 4 passes on the drive and also scrambled 28 yards to the Lions' 16. A 14-yard completion to Hardy was the other key gain on the march. Rian Lindell kicked a 32-yard field goal with 8:16 left in the first quarter.
"I just wanted to come out and show them consistency, and give everybody a little preview of what they are going to get this year," said Hardy.
Detroit pulled within 3-2 about four minutes later when Wright was tackled in the end zone. Detroit had pinned the Bills back on their 5 on a punt. Defensive tackle Cory Redding, Detroit's lone front-seven starter on the field, broke into the backfield, and Shaun Cody brought Wright down in the end zone.
The Lions returned the ensuing free kick 46 yards to the Bills' 25 and Jason Hanson converted from 39 yards to put Detroit ahead, 5-3.
Detroit built its lead to 12-3 early in the second quarter and another safety made it 14-3 with 2:24 left in the half.
