Bills Are Getting Better, and Smarter, Mostly.....

By Ch2 Sports Director Ed Kilgore

The local and national media and probably 95 per cent of all Bills fans were stunned to watch the Bills slug it out with mighty New England -- on Foxboro turf no less -- before the unspeakable dream of an upset evaporated with a Leodis McKelvin fumble.

I'll tell you this though, and I'm sure it's no secret; Bills players were not the least surprised at the way this game unfolded, and to a man, they expected to WIN this game. Not make it close, or respectable, but they expected to win the game.

How can that be, you ask, after an uninspired 1-4 pre season, where Trent Edwards and the #1 offense failed to score even ONE touchdown?

For one thing, despite the fact Dick Jauron has already been fired by many members of the media and probably half of all Bills fans everywhere, and despite the fact Jauron fired his offensive coordinator just over a week before the season opener, Jauron had his team prepared to play and play well. Jauron and new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt were equal to the great Bill Belichick and his staff for 59 of the 60 minutes.

But there are some things coaches can't coach, which is why you hope your players are not only athletic but smart, and its one huge factor in New England's success over the past several years. The Bills, under the Yale-educated Jauron and COO Russ Brandon, are trying to draft players who are not only great athletes, but athletes who make smart decisions on and off the field. They're not perfect obviously, but they're getting there.

Trent Edwards is a SMART football player, and even though he made a couple mistakes on the final drive by not getting rid of the football to stop the clock, he handled the no huddle offense with calm and precision, and did not turn the ball over while throwing two td passes. That's what winning quarterbacks do.

Freddy Jackson is another SMART football player, and for my money, Marshawn Lynch may become the change-of-pace back when he returns, because I can't see benching Jackson if he continues to play at a high level. He has a feel for the passing game Lynch doesn't have, and right now, is a better fit for the no huddle offense.

Leodis McKelvin will still be a star in the NFL in my opinion, but he hopefully learned a very valuable lesson after coughing up the Bills upset hopes with a fumbled kickoff return with victory staring the Bills right in the eye. It's about the TEAM. McKelvin believes in himself, and no doubt he truly believed he could break that kickoff on Monday Night Football and show the world how truly great he is. But it was exactly the WRONG time to think this way, and it won't take Jauron or special teams coach Bobby April to tell him. It was not a smart play to fight for extra yardage when security of the football was THE most important thing.

Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokely gave an outstanding example of how making a smart play in the heat of battle can make the difference on Sunday, by taking several seconds off the clock before taking the ball into the end zone for the winning td on a tipped pass in Cincinnati. I seriously doubt if any coach taught him to do that, because that situation might arise ONCE in an entire career.

Young tackle Demetrius Bell had a tough night as well, negating two nice first down plays by simply lining up too far off the line of scrimmage -- are you kidding me? -- and was caught holding another time to help stall a Bills drive. But he'll learn, and he also gave the Bills hope for the future by showing that physically he CAN play the toughest position on the o-line at a high level. We also learned rookie guards Eric Wood and Andy Levitre and veteran center Geoff Hangartner make the Bills, for one game anyway, a whole lot tougher up the middle. Oh, and did I mention it, but all three of these guys are smart football players.

While nobody should make the mistake of thinking one game shows the Bills are now ready to contend for a division title with the Pats, there is now reason to believe the Bills ARE making progress, and you don't even have to be that SMART to see that.