FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Buffalo quarterback J.P. Losman sat at
his locker after Sunday's game against the New England Patriots,
grunting in pain as he reached for his shower sandals.
Most of his Bills teammates had left after the 38-7 loss, but
Losman still had another trip to the trainer's room before he could
board the team bus. He emerged on crutches, keeping the weight off
the Grade 1 sprain in his left knee he sustained on the first play
of the game.
"It was just a simple swing pass to get an early completion.
The guy came in, hit me in the knee," said Losman, who stayed in
the game for two plays after the roughing the passer penalty
against Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork. "I knew something was
wrong from the get-go, but I figured I'd play a few plays and maybe
the pain would go away."
Losman's day ended 65 seconds into the game when Ellis Hobbs
strip-sacked him and defensive lineman Jarvis Green recovered the
fumble. Losman returned to the bench, threw some warmup passes and
offered to return, but Trent Edwards finished up.
"It was getting worse and worse by the seconds," Losman said.
"I could stand the pain, but I couldn't deal with the weakness in the knee."
Bills coach Dick Jauron said he expects Losman to miss a couple
of weeks.
Edwards, making his NFL debut, led the Bills downfield for a
touchdown on his first drive. But Buffalo mustered little offense
the rest of the way and Edwards finished 10-for-20 for 97 yards and
an interception.
"I thought Trent did a nice job for his first NFL game,"
Jauron said. "I'm not sure you could be thrown into a worse
situation."
The Bills lost another starter when linebacker Paul Posluszny
was injured early in the second quarter and remained on the field
for about 10 minutes. Players from both teams watched intently as a
golf cart was brought onto the field, but Posluszny climbed in on
his own.
Poslusnzy has a broken left forearm and is scheduled for surgery
on Monday, Jauron said.
"My sense is this may be season-ending," Jauron said.
Kick returner Josh Scobey also left the game with a knee injury
but returned later. The coach said backup offensive lineman Jason Whittle might have a torn hamstring.
That's on top of the emotional loss of lost tight end Kevin Everett to a life-threatening spinal cord injury in Week 1. After
initially fearing that Everett would never walk again, doctors have
since significantly upgraded their prognosis and plan to have
Everett try to stand on his own in the next few days.
"These are good men, and good teammates," cornerback Jabari Greer said. "These are friends of ours and it's their lives this
is affecting. We don't move on without them. We bring them along
with us, in our prayers."
But the Bills remain 0-3 and in last place in the AFC East.
"These guys, they just keep working and I believe that they
will," Jauron said. "Clearly, this is not the start we imagined.
This is not where we want to be, but this is where we are. But I
don't believe it will be hard to keep them working."