The Buffalo Bills went deep into the playbook on their opening drive tonight, running LeSean McCoy and Chris Ivory on direct snaps in full house backfield setups. Might as well break out some trickery to try to beat the New England Patriots.


But the main highlight of the Bills’ first drive was this: They ran a reverse flea flicker, a play that’s more often seen in Tecmo Super Bowl than on NFL fields.

The play was D own+B for the Minnesota Vikings in the classic Nintendo football game. In Tecmo, Wade Wilson took the ball from center, pitched it to Herschel Walker, who pitched it to Hassan Jones, who pitched it back to Wilson. Tonight, Derek Anderson took the ball, handed it to LeSean McCoy, who handed it to Zay Jones, who pitched it back to Anderson. The only major difference was Anderson took the ball in a shotgun snap.


Veteran Tecmo gamers might understand why the play isn’t often seen in the NFL: It sucked. The play was usually broken up in the b ackfield by the defense before the complicated series of pitches could be completed. Tonight, Anderson almost found Charles Clay deep down the right sideline but the pass fell incomplete. Eh, better than it works in Tecmo most of the time.