Bills get a Charge out of black out!

Buffalo overcomes power outage to short circuit the Chargers

Where were you when the lights went out? That's what Bills fans were asking each other after the Bills played San Diego on Sunday. The power went out in Ralph Wilson Stadium and the Bills shorted out the Chargers by beating them 23-14. The Bills found a way to shut down the powerful Charger offense, short-circuiting any hopes they had of coming out of Buffalo with a winning record.

There was a major power outage that affected all the power in and out of the stadium, shutting down the Jumbotron, all the side scoreboards, and the CBS network feed of the game. The power to the stadium was off right at game time, went on briefly and then was on and off throughout the game.

The blackout seemed to revolt the Chargers more than the Bills, who appeared to be more energized than their counterparts from San Diego. The Bills were more dominant, both offensively and defensively.

The Bills put on probably their best performance of the season in curtailing the high octane Chargers offense. Meanwhile, Trent Edwards came back from being knocked out in his last game and put on a Tom Brady-like showing. He completed 25 of 30 for 261 yards with one scoring strike. Edwards needed the bye week to get his head back together and he seemed even better because of it.

Kawika Mitchell was the defensive player of the game for the Bills. He picked off a Phillips Rivers pass in the endzone in the fourth quarter to kill a Charger drive and a little later forced Rivers to fumble, which the Bills recovered. That ended any chance that San Diego had to catch the Bills.

On the offensive side, Edwards is getting better by the game. He completed 83.3 percent

of his passes and his lone touchdown was a thing of beauty. Lee Evans one-handed it as he cradled it on the top of his helmet for the reception just before going out of bounds.

"Obviously he had a great day," lauded Bills Offensive Coordinator Turk Schoner about his second year quarterback. "He saw the field well. He was accurate. He made great check-downs. He delivered it to open guys."

When Edwards played his first game last year, coming off the bench to replace the injured J.P. Losman, he seemed to have the poise and command at the huddle akin to his counterpart that day, Tom Brady. Edwards quickly marched the Bills down the field for a touchdown, but Bill Belechick made adjustments to stop that from happening again. Since then, Edwards has matured beyond his years and the comparison to Brady is still a good one.

"Trent has a nice feel for finding soft spots in the middle of coverages and looking defenders off," Bills tight end Robert Royal said. "It shows how much he has matured over the past year."

The Bills now lead the AFC East with a 5-1 record. Those who said that Buffalo won most of its games against weak competition now have to reconsider their analysis of the team. Beating the Chargers was a great accomplishment. The Chargers are playoff proven. The only team that has beaten Buffalo, the Arizona Cardinals, have beaten the Cowboys and the lowly St. Louis Rams, who the Bills beat, also beat Dallas on Sunday. The Oakland Raiders, who some say should have been a pushover for the Bills but gave the Bills a scare, just beat the Jets. With the Bills now at 5-1, along with the fact that and some of their "weaker" opponents they beat now are winning big games, Buffalo may be getting a little more respect these days.

Lights out!

Power out! That's how it was in Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday. Helium balloons got tied up in the power lines outside of the stadium, thus shorting out the system and putting the Bills and Chargers in the dark. There was talk (jokingly of course) that Time Warner Cable was responsible for the power outage, that it was balloons with Time Warner Cable written on them that got tied up in the power lines close to the stadium. Time Warner and LIN TV, which owns Channel 4, still haven’t agreed on a new contract which would permit Channel 4, WIVB TV, back on the cable giant.

Both the Bills and Chargers had to suffer equally in their being thrown back into the Dark Ages. Their locker rooms were pitch black before the game and during their halftime break.

The scoreboard was out and the clocks were not working. Both teams got charged with delay of game penalties, even though the quarterbacks didn't have the clocks to rely on. The side judge was giving hand signals to count down the play clock.

Bills fans watching the game from home (the ones who had Direct TV or the Dish Network) suddenly were informed that the power had gone out in the stadium and they were switched to the Steelers-Bengals game. Lots of fans at home had to turn on their radios and tune in the game, only to find that the game had been suspended for a while. Then when league officials decided to go ahead with the game, without power, the fans had to listen to a poor quality broadcast of the game that was done on a telephone.

Finally, before the first half was over, power was restored. However, it took CBS 10 minutes to switch over to the Bills game again. In the second half, the power was once again out, and once again the fans had to listen to the game on radio. It wasn't until near the end of the third quarter when the game was put back on CBS (after the power had already been restored for 15 minutes).

While it was bad for the Bills fans at home who were lucky enough to have the Dish or Direct TV systems, those with Time Warner once again had to go to sports bars, to friends homes or hook up their rabbit ears to see the game...when there was power in the stadium to broadcast it.

The Chargers had it even worse than Bills fans. They had a difficult time not only getting their signals in without headsets, but the Bills were a tough cookie to crack and in the end, the Chargers were powerless.

 Copyright © 2008 Bills Thunder & Rick Anderson, all rights reserved.