Off the field, they’re polar opposites. One trained dogs to kill, then slaughtered them. The other took a redeye plane to an Arizona high school to participate in a campaign that raises money for American troops.

Michael Vick taints the Philadelphia Eagles' organization. Ryan Fitzpatrick enhances Buffalo’s.

Any fans still reeling from last week’s bogus Vick-at-the-airport rumors need to wise up.

The Bills are set with Fitzpatrick as the No. 2 quarterback. A knockout performance Saturday night affirmed that Buffalo’s no-huddle offense will keep humming if anything happens to Trent Edwards this season.

Fitzpatrick is bred for the grip-it-and-rip-it offense. He ran it his entire collegiate career at Harvard. And at Cincinnati - while running more no-huddle - Fitzpatrick faced possibly the two stingiest 3-4 defenses ever assembled in Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

Fitzpatrick is all Buffalo needs behind Edwards.

“I did complete no-huddle throughout college,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s what we did. It’s a style of play that I really like.”

No kidding.

Albeit against Chicago’s vanilla defensive looks, Fitzpatrick was a surgeon. With quick decision-making and a quicker release, he completed 13-of-16 passes for 143 yards, leading Buffalo to 10 points. That number would have been higher if not for a Roscoe Parrish fumble inside the Bears’ 20.

Fitzpatrick’s moxie in the no-huddle and Ivy-league smarts - he scored 49 of a possible 50 on the Wonderlic intelligence test - is what sold him to Buffalo back in March.

Chief operating officer Russ Brandon aggressively recruited Fitzpatrick in free agency, handing the quarterback one of the richest contracts to a backup quarterback.

Now we see why.

It was matching a player with a scheme.

“We’re very happy Ryan’s here,” Buffalo coach Dick Jauron said after the Bears game. “He’s embraced it. He’s really thrown himself into it. He’s contributed and he’ll continue to contribute.”

Coaches don’t toss the keys to a no-huddle offense to just anybody. Entrusting J.P. Losman with the hurry-up in the two-minute drill was helter-skelter chaos in his short-lived Bills career.

In Fitzpatrick, the Bills have a trusted backup. And considering Edwards has been banged up the past two seasons, it’s a comforting luxury.

There are no transition-period remarks from Fitzpatrick, who maintains he’s “absolutely” certain the team wouldn’t miss a beat with him at quarterback if Edwards missed time.

“I’ve had months in the system,” Fitzpatrick said. “I feel completely confident that I could come in and do the job.”

Against Chicago, Fitzpatrick completed a string of on-a-rope, Madden-precision passes to backup receivers. While it’s easy to dismiss the inferior competition he faced, Fitzpatrick was working with reserves himself. Jonathan Stupar, Felton Huggins and Justin Jenkins aren’t quite Terrell Owens, Lee Evans and Derek Fine.

Yet Fitzpatrick got Kobe hot, locating and hitting C-rate receivers on each limb of the passing tree - deep drags, slants, curls, flags.

None of the throws in the giddy-up hurry-up are overly taxing in the physical sense. Rather, it’s all mental. Plans A, B and C must be processed well ahead of time.

“You have to know the offense inside and out,” Fitzpatrick said of the no-huddle. “There are a lot of checks throughout the game. The coach isn’t telling you what to do. You have to do it over the ball while looking at the defense. It takes a lot of communication between the quarterback, the center and the wide receivers.”

Even with all that upper-level calculus cluttering his mind, Fitzpatrick stealthily pioneered the football team’s 24/7 no-huddle offense. He finished his career with the Crimson second in school history in completions (384), touchdown passes (39), passing yards (5,234) and completion percentage (59.9).

When injuries vaulted him into action as a rookie in St. Louis, Fitzpatrick burned Houston for 310 yards and three scores. He spent the last two seasons in Cincinnati, filling in for an injured Carson Palmer.

After a tumultuous start last year, he went 4-3-1 in his final eight games

The preparation process changes when you’re starting, Fitzpatrick said.

Last season’s baptism in the AFC North was beneficial in that regard. Fitzpatrick has always lived in the film room, but last year demanded he create “little hand signals and signs” for different coverages.

Subtle nuances of the position were magnified.

“You can learn only so much sitting on the sidelines and watching,” said Fitzpatrick, who has started 15 games in four seasons. “To be able to get in there and apply some of the stuff I learned helped a lot.”

Specifically, how to combat 3-4 defenses.

Every team Buffalo faces in the AFC East runs this defense. And every team in that division beat Buffalo last season.

The blocking schemes, how the line protects, how receivers run their routes, everything changes against the odd-man front Fitzpatrick lost the three games he played against Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

But the extensive lab work paid off.

“Those defenses are hard to face twice a year,” Fitzpatrick said. “The Bengals unfortunately have to do it every year. The 3-4 stuff is what they do and it’s something I became comfortable with.”

Edwards is healthy right now.

Like Fitzpatrick, he’s clicking within this new offense. After all, he did go 10-for-10 against Chicago. But with the offensive line still meshing, blindside blitzes are bound to leak through the cracks.

Corey Graham’s whiplash sack of Edwards was a nasty reminder. Buffalo needed peace of mind. When Edwards suffered a concussion last year, 4-0 eroded to 7-9. Turns out, the Bills had a UFL talent as a backup.

With Fitzpatrick, there’s no paranoia. He’s ready to call the shots before every play.

“The biggest thing is that a lot of decisions fall on the quarterback,” he said. “I feel that’s one of the strong suits as a player - getting the team in the right play.”

After two years in the slammer, it’s doubtful Mike Vick could do that for any team - let alone in the no-huddle offense.

(Tyler Dunne, a Times Herald sports writer, can be reached at sports@oleantimesherald.com)

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Mark Flamini wrote on Aug 25, 2009 11:51 AM:

" It sounds like Fitz should be our starting QB. If he can still play like that against number 1 defenses imagine what he could do with Evans and Owens at his dispossal. We still can't get Trent to attempt a pass longer than 15 yards or do anything against a 3-4 defense. I love Trent but he hasn't shown me anything spectacular yet. Yes he has smarts and awareness but does he have anything? "

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