Bills get 2 weeks to address anemic offense

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP)—Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick(notes) isn’t sure whether he’ll remain the Bills starter once Buffalo comes off its two-week break.

A bigger concern for the backup is for the Bills to use the bye week to start fixing their anemic offense.

“We’re glad that there’s a bye week, because we’ve got a lot of stuff to figure out,” Fitzpatrick said Monday, a day after the Bills stumbled through a 31-10 loss to Houston. “It was a tough one to sleep on.”

The sputtering output has been a seasonlong nightmare for the Bills no matter who’s started: Fitzpatrick or Trent Edwards(notes), who missed the past two starts after a concussion in a 16-13 overtime win against the New York Jets.

Edwards has been cleared to practice this week, but coach Dick Jauron has yet to indicate who’ll start when Buffalo (3-5) plays at Tennessee on Nov. 15.

What’s evident is that if the Bills intend to make a second-half push to climb back into playoff contention, the team must improve an offense that ranks among the NFL’s worst.

Against Houston the Bills generated 204 yards of offense, the fourth time they’ve been limited to under 250 this season. For the second straight game, Buffalo managed just nine first downs. On their first four series of the second half, the Bills failed to register a first down and wound up losing the time-of-possession battle by a little over 18 minutes.

“It’s not just one thing,” Jauron said, when asked to pinpoint what’s gone wrong. “It’s always something. And we’ve got to stop doing the somethings and make the plays.”

Buffalo’s offense has scored nine touchdowns this season, not including punter Brian Moorman’s(notes) pass to Ryan Denney(notes) on a fake field goal in a 27-7 loss to New Orleans in Week 3.

The passing attack has been mostly grounded, despite the presence of Terrell Owens(notes), who ranks 51st in the NFL with 281 yards receiving, with one touchdown receiving and another rushing. Lee Evans(notes) has 331 yards and three scores. And forget the running attack, which hasn’t broken 100 yards five times this year.

“I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is,” running back Fred Jackson(notes) said. “As a unit, we’re just not functioning the way we need to be.”

An inexperienced and injury-depleted offensive line is taking much of the blame. The Bills opened the season with three of five linemen who hadn’t previously appeared in an NFL game. That number increased to four the past two weeks after rookie Jamon Meredith(notes) started at right tackle in place of injured Jonathan Scott(notes).

The Bills’ no-huddle attack also proved ineffective and was scrapped two weeks ago. And the Bills opened the season with a rookie coordinator, Alex Van Pelt, after Turk Schonert was abruptly fired in September.

“Offensively, we’re not getting it done,” Owens said.

The offensive troubles also have affected Buffalo’s defense, an injury-depleted unit that’s wearing down. That was evident against the Texans, who scored 22 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. A similar breakdown happened in the loss to New Orleans, when the Saints scored 17 points in the final 10 minutes.