Published: September 22, 2008 11:48 pm            

BILLS: 'Surprise, surprise' atop the AFC East

No, that’s not a misprint on the AFC East standings. The Buffalo Bills — remember them? — are alone on top with a 3-0 record.

Besides getting off to their best start since 1992, the Bills haven’t held sole possession of first place three weeks or later — in a division dominated mostly by the New England Patriots — since Week 13 of the 1996 season, according to STATS.

How long has that been? Well, not since former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly was completing the final season of his Hall of Fame career, or when current Bills safety Donte Whitner was 11.

“That was a long time ago,” Whitner said Monday, a day after the Bills rallied to score 17 points in the final 8 minutes of a 24-23 win over Oakland. “Surprise, surprise.”

The resurgent Bills have, indeed, been among the NFL’s most pleasant early surprises at a time when there appears to be a shift in the balance of power in the AFC, and with the Patriots (2-1), minus star Tom Brady, coming off a dreadful loss to Miami.

Buffalo opened with a 34-10 win over Seattle, and then won its past two games — including a 20-16 victory at Jacksonville — with dramatic fourth-quarter comebacks.

Not bad for a team notorious for its slow starts: the Bills didn’t win their third game last season until Nov. 4; and haven’t won three of their first five since 2003. And it’s a fine start for a team that entered this season having one winning season this decade (9-7 in 2004) and not made the playoffs since 1999 — the longest drought in franchise history.

“It’s certainly a strong start,” receiver Lee Evans said. “Never being in this position, you just enjoy it.”

Just don’t ask the Bills to make a big deal about it, yet.

“Our focus right now is the St. Louis Rams,” quarterback Trent Edwards said, referring to the Bills’ opponent this weekend. “I honestly don’t care about the standings right now.”

The Bills have every reason to be cautious because they’re aware of how close they came to losing to the Raiders in a game Buffalo entered as 9 1/2-point favorites.

Rather than playing up to expectations, the Bills bumbled through three quarters before producing a furious rally capped by Rian Lindell’s 38-yard field goal as time ran out.

Edwards went 10-of-20 for 96 yards with a lost fumble and interception on the Bills first 10 possessions. He bounced back to go 14-of-19 for 183 yards and a touchdown in engineering scoring drives on each of Buffalo’s final three possessions.

The Bills defense slipped, too, especially after allowing Johnnie Lee Higgins’ 84-yard touchdown catch that put the Raiders up 23-14 with 6:23 left.

“Definitely, we made some big mistakes,” said linebacker Paul Posluszny, who allowed Higgins to get past him. “But the good thing was, we were still able to get the big win even though we made mistakes here and there that we’ll correct.”

The Bills haven’t been perfect so far, but they are playing with much more consistency this season.

“We proved to ourselves that we can fight for four quarters and when it comes down to the last second, we won,” Posluszny said. “We feel like yesterday was an example of how this team is different.”

The difference is apparent in the team’s production.

The offense has scored seven touchdowns after managing just 20 (not including returns) last year. It has also produced at least 285 yards in each of its three games after doing it only six times last year.

And the defense, anchored by newly acquired free-agent defensive tackle Marcus Stroud, has been stingy. It’s a unit that’s yet to allow 100 yards rushing or more than 260 yards offense in one game. And it has been particularly effective in limiting opponents to converting just 7-of-39 third-down opportunities this season.

“We have the potential to be a good team,” Stroud said. “We have a long season, and a lot of things we can do better.”

        

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