At his introductory press conference back in January, new Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan made it known that he was “building a bully”.
Fast forward nine months later, and he got just that and more as his Bills (1-0) beat down the Indianapolis Colts (0-1) in their season opening 27-14 win this afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
The victory was one of the biggest opening day wins in recent memory for Buffalo, who passed a big first test in downing one of the AFC’s best teams from last season.
“It’s great to get a win. Our fans were awesome,” Ryan said after the victory. “It was unbelievable. You could barely hear yourself think or anything else. This game was all about our fans and all about the preparation of our players. I tip my hat to our players and our fans especially.”
Behind the play of their strong defensive line and opportunist secondary, the Bills made life for Andrew Luck and the Colts difficult all afternoon, forcing three turnovers and holding Indy to just 304 total yards.
“They forced us into those errors,” Luck said after the game. “They are a good team and they made it hard for us to do things that we wanted to do. That’s a heck of a front four and they beat us pretty badly.”
The cornerback duo of Stephon Gilmore and Ronald Darby came to play and were two of the better defenders on the field for Buffalo in a depleted secondary. Darby, the Bills’ second-round selection in this year’s drafted, snagged his first career interception late in the first quarter, and played well above his experience-level for the majority of the afternoon.
“They played well, kudos to them for playing well,” Luck said when asked about the aggressive play from the Bills’ corners. “I’m sure it’s a combination of a bunch of things. When T.Y. [Hilton] gets behind them and we throw the deep one and it gets picked, you know that doesn’t help with that style of play.”
The Bills unit as a whole, not just the secondary, played up to the level of their coach.
And you have to remember, this was a defense that was missing All Pro defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who will return next week from suspension to face the New England Patriots.
“Yes it felt that way,” Darby said when asked about the Bills becoming a bully. “Going out there and competing, it feels like we’re the bully each week.”
“It’s just a blessing to be here in the NFL and start my first NFL game ever and get an interception on a great quarterback like [Luck], but it’s time to move onto next week.”
The offense was no slouch either.
Tyrod Taylor, making his first career NFL start, showed everyone why he was the winner of the Bills quarterback competition this summer.
He showed poise in going 14 of 19 for 195 yards and a touchdown while adding 45 yards rushing on six attempts (not including the end of game kneel downs). Most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over a single time and showed he was much more than just a game-manager.
“At the end of the day, this guy has some magic to him,” Ryan said when asked about his young signal caller. “With his legs; he’s smart. He did a great job.”
Taylor looked the part of a seasoned NFL quarterback during the game and sounded like one afterwards.
“I’m excited,” Taylor said. “I’m excited for the team. I think we showed how special we could be.”
Even after the good game, Taylor wasn’t about to let the early success go to his head.
“No it’s not about me. It’s never about me,” Taylor added. “It’s about the team. This is a team sport and we went out there and played well as a team.”
The Bills opened the scoring on the last play of the first quarter, as Taylor dropped back and delivered a beautifully lofted ball down the sidelines to a streaking Percy Harvin (5 receptions, 79 yards) for a 51-yard score.
They would add a field goal mid-way through the second off the leg of Dan Carpenter (2 for 2 on field goal attempts), and got very fortunate at the end of the half to extent their lead even more.
Their final drive was stalling, and with limited timeouts it looks like the Bills were content with just running the ball once and kicking a field goal as time expired.
But rookie Karlos Williams had other ideas, and he took his first NFL career for 26 yards and a touchdown to give the Bills a commanding 17-0 lead going into the tunnel.
“Boobie” Dixon would join the fun in the third, as he helped cap the Bills opening drive of the half with a one-yard touchdown plunge to open it up to 24-0.
The Colts weren’t about to quit, but were never able to catch up to the Bills attack.
Luck found Donte Moncrief for a two yard score just before the end of the third.
The Bills countered with a field goal in the fourth, and Luck would find Dwayne Allen for a touchdown with 5:56 left in the game to cut the lead to 27-14.
On the ensuring Colts drive, Aaron Williams was able to haul in an interception to kill whatever small chance Indianapolis still had remaining. After a few kneel downs, the win was sealed.
“That’s our best instances, when we stop the run and they start passing,” Williams said. “That’s dangerous when quarterbacks start passing against us. You know, it’s an overall team effort, we did a great job; now we got to move on and get ready for the Patriots.”
Photo credit to the Buffalo Bills for the images used in this post.
