Published: August 28, 2008 11:07 pm      

BILLS/LIONS NOTEBOOK: Starters take the night off

Lockport and North Tonawanda youth football players take the stage at halftime.

ORCHARD PARK — “It was obviously a game we would have liked to have won.”

That’s how Dick Jauron started his post-game press conference Thursday, though evidence would suggest otherwise. Even Marv Levy would be hard-pressed to approach a preseason game more cautiously than the Bills did against the Detroit Lions.

Levy, the Bills’ legendary coach during the team’s Super Bowl years, was famous for his disdain of preseason games. But it’s tough to recall a time in which he held out 21 of 22 expected starters, which is what Jauron did Thursday in a 14-6 loss to the Lions at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Free safety Ko Simpson, who missed nearly all of last season with an ankle injury, was the lone player to start Thursday who’s also expected to be in the starting lineup Sept. 7 for the home opener against Seattle.

It should be noted season-ticket holders pay full price for preseason games.

Jauron said it was a need to evaluate young players, and not a fear of injury, that was the primary reason for having the starters take a seat.

“(We) just look at our own situation, what we need to get done and what we need to see, then go from there,” the coach said. “Tonight had an impact on a lot of spots (on the roster.) We’re going to sit down and talk about the roster after we take a long look at the tape.”

As expected, starting quarterback Trent Edwards and left tackle Langston Walker skipped the contest. Third-string quarterback Gibran Hamdan took nearly all the snaps before leaving in the fourth quarter with a concussion.

Backup J.P. Losman finished the game, but didn’t attempt a pass.

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With most of the starters out, plenty of reserves got a final chance to show they belong on the 53-man roster. Orchard Park native Jon Corto started at weak-side linebacker. Corto, who moved to linebacker from safety earlier in training camp, suffered a concussion during the game.

Cornerback Ashton Youboty, thought to be on the bubble heading into training camp, completed a solid preseason and will make it difficult for the coaches to let him go.

Running back Dwayne Wright, however, struggled again, losing his third fumble in four preseason games.

“You just can’t keep laying it on the ground. It’s a tough thing,” Jauron said. “Sometimes with a young back, or any back, you just have to show patience, because the more they think about it, sometimes the worse it gets.”

Teams are required to get their rosters to the league maximum of 53 players by Sunday. In five of the past six seasons, at least one undrafted rookie free agent has made the Bills’ roster. John DiGiorgio was the last to do it in 2006.

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The Bills hosted more than 2,500 youth football players at the Ralph on Thursday for the kick off of USA Football’s “Play Football … it’s more than a game” campaign.

Players from the Western New York Amateur Football Alliance, Pop Warner of Western New York and the Buffalo Bills/NFL Junior Player Development Program were in attendance.

Prior to the game, youth players and coaches from the Hunter James Kelly Youth Football Organization lined the sidelines during the singing of the national anthem.

At halftime, a scrimmage between the Lockport Pirates and North Tonawanda Timberwolves youth football teams from the Niagara Youth Football League was held.

Throughout the NFL, more than 100,000 youth players are expected to attend preseason games as part of the game through team-donated tickets.

In addition to promoting the game’s values, the campaign also celebrates the sport’s rising participation figures. According to the independent sports marketing firm The Bonham Group, 3.2 million children ages 6 to 14 played football in 2007, up from 3.0 million in 2006.

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The Bills announced during Thursday’s game that 56,011 season tickets have been sold for the 2008 campaign, the second-highest total in team history.

In 1992, the team sold 57,132 season tickets.

“To surpass 56,000 season tickets certainly is a tremendous accomplishment and it’s one that’s shared by both the team and the community,” Chief Operating Officer Russ Brandon said in a release.

The team’s eighth annual Kids Day game sold out for the fifth straight year, though one couldn’t tell by looking in the stands. The announced attendance on a dreary evening was 70,138.