The Bills took the ball to open their new stadium. Then they took over | Opinion

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – Right from the coin toss, the Buffalo Bills owned the night.

In opening the new Highmark Stadium on Thursday night, the Bills scored touchdowns on each of their first four possessions. Talk about setting a tone. The place was already raucous and loud before the action began.

Then it became like some rolling thunder.

One coin flip, like one play, is not supposed to make that much of a difference over the course of a football game. But try telling that to Joe Brady, the Bills’ rookie coach.

He’s adamant about this. Take the football first. Never mind what the analytics suggest and what we see play out so often in the NFL when teams win the toss and defer to take the football first in the second half.

No, Brady wants the ball in Josh Allen’s hands first. Then they’ll go from there.

Well, that philosophy sure worked to a T in this case. Poor Detroit. It seemed like Buffalo, in opening its new $2.2 billion palace, had dibs on the script because striking first was such an essential part to the plan.

“I said all along, I thought it was important,” Brady said after…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/