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Inside Slant
Las Vegas bookies feel the Bills are probably giving away a three-point home-field advantage by playing the Miami Dolphins in Toronto on Sunday. The game presently has no line. But how about giving away 45 degrees?
That's the approximate temperature difference between playing at 27-degree Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., and Toronto's climate-controlled 72-degree Rogers Centre, not to mention the snow in Sunday's long-range forecast.
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 again Thursday. 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.
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...
Las Vegas bookies feel the Bills are probably giving away a three-point home-field advantage by playing the Miami Dolphins in Toronto on Sunday. The game presently has no line. But how about giving away 45 degrees?
That's the approximate temperature difference between playing at 27-degree Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., and Toronto's climate-controlled 72-degree Rogers Centre, not to mention the snow in Sunday's long-range forecast.
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 again Thursday. 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.
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...
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