Monday, October 14, 2013

Dolphins' Coyle: Bills not holding back with Lewis

BY NICK ST. DENIS

The Buffalo Bills called up practice squad quarterback Thad Lewis to start against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday, and Lewis will be the Bills' guy moving forward until rookie E.J. Manuel is healthy enough to return.

You'd expect Buffalo to scale back their gameplan a bit with the inexperienced Lewis getting dropped into action midseason, but Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle doesn't see it.

"His first third down pass of the game was a deep throw," Coyle said Monday, via Dolphins.com. "He put it right on the money for about a 40-yard gain. They weren’t exactly being conservative with him early on."

Lewis went on to throw a pair of touchdowns passes and also scored on the ground. Despite being sacked five times, he hung in to complete 19 of 32 passes, with his two scoring strikes coming in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime.

"He ran a quarterback draw for a touchdown down in the redzone," Coyle, whose team hosts the division rival Bills next Sunday, said. "They did some things with him that they had been doing right along. I don’t think their style changed a lot."

Quarterbacking aside, Coyle noted that the Bills are still very much fueled by their stout one-two punch at running back in Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller.

"That’s where there bread and butter is," Coyle said. ". . . The reason they’ve been in every ballgame they’ve played is because they can run the football very effectively.”

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