NFL Preseason Preview: Buffalo Bills at Indianapolis Colts
The Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts will get their preseason campaign underway on Sunday. The Colts were a very pleasant surprise last season posting an 11-5 record behind rookie QB phenom Andrew Luck. They were especially good at home with a 7-1 record and they could be even better this season with Luck having a year of experience under his belt. The Buffalo Bills bumbled to a 6-10 record and another last place finish in the AFC East. They’ve hit the ‘reset button’ once again, hiring a new coach and looking for a new starting quarterback after Ryan Fitzpatrick was sent packing.
This is a rare opening preseason game that might be something of a ‘lookahead’ affair at least for Buffalo. They play their home opener next Thursday which will also be the hometown debut of new Bills’ head coach Doug Marrone. Marrone has already made enemies in the local media so it would appear that a strong effort in his first game at the helm might be in order to placate the faithful. That’s not the only bad luck that the Bills have experienced in the preseason-perennial NFL quarterbacking ‘also ran’ Kevin Kolb was brought in to contend for the job and has already injured his knee slipping on a wet mat at training camp. For that reason-along with Kolb’s legacy of uninspired play-the Bills’ rookie E.J. Manuel out of Florida State already holds the edge in winning the starting job. At the very least he’ll start on Sunday-and without much in the way of depth behind him will likely play a fair amount. After he leaves he’ll be replaced by undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel out of Washington State.
Indianapolis’ QB rotation looks much better-Luck won’t see much action but once he leaves he’ll be relieved by veteran Matt Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck should play most of the first half with Chandler Harnish out of Northern Illinois taking the reigns in the second half. The Colts do have a lot of competition for ‘skill position’ backup spots-especially at wide receiver-so the action could be spirited in that respect for most of the game. All in all, the Colts are the better team with better QB depth and that should get them the victory here.
BET INDIANAPOLIS COLTS -3′ OVER BUFFALO BILLS