The Buffalo News: Lynch has Best Opening Day Ever for a Bills Rooking Running Back

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Rookies Lynch, Posluszny deliver as advertised

By Allen Wilson

Buffalo Bills fans have been waiting to see what rookie running back Marshawn Lynch and rookie middle linebacker Paul Posluszny could do in a game that mattered.  The faithful couldn’t have been disappointed.  Lynch and Posluszny were as good as advertised in their regular-season debuts.  Lynch, the Bills’ first-round draft pick, had the best opening day ever for a Bills rookie running back, gaining 90 yards on 19 carries and scoring the team’s only offensive touchdown.  Posluszny, who was selected in the second round, flashed first-round talent while registering nine tackles on defense and another on special teams.  Alas, their performances went for naught as the Bills dropped a heartbreaker to the Denver Broncos, 15-14.  “My mama always told me there would be days like this,” Lynch said. “It’s something I got to deal with. But next week’s a new week, a new game plan.”

Lynch’s debut was much anticipated primarily because the Bills kept him under wraps most of the preseason. But he didn’t take long to show what all the fuss was about.  Only the third rookie running back to start a season-opener for the Bills, Lynch flashed the speed, balance and power that made him an All-American at the University of California- Berkeley.  His most impressive series came in a third-quarter drive. On third down and 9, he plowed over the left side for 10 yards. A sweep to the left on second-and-7 netted 9 yards. Then on third-and-11, Lynch burst through a hole off right tackle and drove a Denver defender into the end zone to complete a 23-yard touchdown.  “It was a great call for that situation,” Lynch said. “It was a little misdirection. I got a great block from the right guard [Brad Butler] and basically just took it to daylight.”  Posluszny received the loudest cheers whenever the public address announcer called his name after he made a tackle.   “To have your first NFL game come down to the wire like, that was a great experience,” said Posluszny, the first rookie middle linebacker since Shane Conlan to start the opener for the Bills. “You can’t substitute practice or two-minute drills for live action like that. It was good for us to be in a situation like that. Obviously we would have liked the outcome to be different, but this will only help us later in the season.”