Buffalo Bills Inside Slant
by Sports Xchange
Hosting rival Miami in December games in Buffalo has been one of the great pleasures and advantages for the Bills over the years but that weather advantage won't exist this time.
Buffalo (6-6) is hosting Miami (7-5) in the first regular-season NFL game ever in Canada, part of an eight-game, five-year marketing deal the Bills signed to help the club's bottom line.
And now it's looking like the Bills may not have starting quarterback Trent Edwards, either. Edwards, who injured his groin in last week's 10-3 loss to San Francisco that put Buffalo's playoff hopes on life support, did not practice Wednesday. His condition is day-to-day, coach Dick Jauron said, and a determination on his availability likely won't come until right before kickoff.
J.P. Losman, 0-2 in relief appearances this year, took all the snaps in practice and would start.
Even though the Rogers Centre has a retractable roof, it will remain closed, despite a petition drive by Bills fans to make the NFL open it.
Miami has lost seven of nine games played in Buffalo after Dec. 1, including two playoff games. When the NFL assigned the Dolphins game for Toronto, Bills fans sighed while the Dolphins celebrated. A "lucky draw" is how coach Tony Sparano put it.
Wednesday, he downplayed the impact playing this game indoors instead of out will have on Sunday's game.
"The game is a big enough game in which wherever it was, I would hope that the elements wouldn't have been a factor one way or the other," he said.
Coach Dick Jauron, whose team had a practice run in Toronto during the preseason, beating Pittsburgh 24-21, has been reluctant to elaborate on being part of a marketing emphasis when he's got a football team to coach. That his team has lost six of its last eight games after a 4-0 start to place his job in jeopardy isn't helping matters.
"It's not for me really to respond to," he said when asked his thoughts about playing in Toronto. "It's a game that's been scheduled all year; we knew we were playing there; we knew we were playing the Dolphins there. And we'll go up there and play. It's a big game for us and it's a big game for them."
Bills wide receiver Lee Evans wasn't afraid to say what everybody knows to be true.
"It's just like us going down there in September and playing in the heat, it's tough for us, and it's tough for them coming here and playing in December," Evans said. "So we'll lose a little edge."
That said, "I think it's going to be a tremendous atmosphere," said Evans. "A lot of people are excited about it and have been talking about it for a long time. Going up there and doing some promotional things up there, visiting with the media, a lot of people are excited, so it should be a lot of fun."
For cynics -- and there are many amongst even Bills players -- playing a "home" game in Toronto may be a good thing for Buffalo. The team has lost three consecutive home games at Ralph Wilson Stadium and it has a losing record under Jauron in December.
"It can't hurt us," defensive end Chris Kelsay said. "We're not winning here."
Defensive tackle Marcus Stroud, who played most of his NFL football in Jacksonville, Fla., is one Bill looking forward to one less game outdoors this time of year. Eliminating a weather factor should make for a cleaner football game.
"It's going to benefit everybody," Stroud said. "I guarantee you won't find any guys in our locker room that are complaining about going to play in a dome, so it'll work both ways. We're looking at it this way: Whether we would have played inside, outside, we're looking at this as a must-win game, and that's how we're going to approach it."
These are two teams headed in opposite directions, Miami on a 5-1 roll since beating the Bills 25-16 back on Oct. 16; the Bills 1-5 since.
Meanwhile, if Losman gets the start, it'll be a prime opportunity to showcase himself for free agency. He's a free agent and won't be returning to Buffalo unless something unforeseen occurs.
He hasn't started a game since late in the 2007 season and has a career 10-22 record. Taking over for Edwards in the second half against the 49ers last week, he was 11 of 17 for just 93 yards and failed to produce a touchdown on three trips into the red zone.
Losman's inability to make quick decisions and deliver the ball accurately -- the reasons he lost his starting job to Edwards -- was still evident as he was sacked three times.
"Personally, it's a great opportunity for me to get a chance to play and do well for numerous reasons, but I don't really think about it," Losman said. "Right now, we're very close. I want these guys to experience winning. I want to experience winning. We're a very, very good football team and we just have to keep putting it together and we have an opportunity right in front of our face to do so. I personally want to do well for them, for my teammates. Collectively, that's the closest thing to your family."
Added Losman: "Everyone knows we have four games left, we need all four. The playoffs basically start now for us."
SERIES HISTORY: 86th regular-season meeting. Dolphins lead series, 50-34-1, including a 25-16 win on Oct. 26 in Miami. The Dolphins can sweep the series for the first time since 2003. The Bills are 0-3 against AFC East Division opponents.
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