Mathison Gives Bills New Start

Although he was the leading rusher Sunday in the Buffalo Bills’ 20-0 shutout of the Houston Oilers, Bruce Mathison doesn’t think much of his future as a ball carrier.

“You have to remember that I played at Nebraska and they use that option all the time so I know how to run,” said Mathison, who was making his first NFL start at quarterback. He replaced Vince Ferragamo, who started the first eight games for Buffalo.

“I’m going to run if they give me the opportunity to, but I’d rather throw the ball or hand it off to someone,” said Mathison, who rushed for more yards (57) than any Buffalo quarterback since M.C. Reynolds gained 65 yards in 1961.

“One thing he did was take command of the club,” Bill Coach Hank Bullough said of Mathison, who completed 11 of 22 passes for 121 yards.

“We worry with a guy making his first start, but I think his command out there pleased me more than anything.”

Mathison, who came to Buffalo after being waived by the San Diego Chargers following the first game of the season, gave the Bills (2-8) the flexibility they lacked with the immobile Ferragamo.

“Mathison hurt us a couple of times when Ferragamo probably wouldn’t have,” said cornerback Patrick Allen of the Oilers, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

But the Oilers’ ineptitude accounted for that as much as anything the Bills did.

Houston (4-6) entered the game the second-ranked AFC team in the giveaway-takeaway ratio with plus 6, but that ranking plummeted in the steady rain as Houston committed six turnovers

Quarterback Warren Moon, who was replaced by Oliver Luck with three minutes to play in the third quarter, completed only 3 of 14 passes for 22 yards and had 3 passes intercepted. The Oilers also lost 3 fumbles.

The Buffalo scores came on field goals of 24 and 23 yards by Scott Norwood, Mathison’s five-yard run and a two-yard scramble by Greg Bell.

The shutout, more a tribute to Houston’s offensive ineffectiveness than the Buffalo defense, was the first for the Bills since they blanked Pittsburgh, 13-0, on Dec. 12, 1982.

The Oilers were last shut out in a 21-0 loss to Pittsburgh in the last game of the 1976 season.

As they had in their past three games, the Bills, who won only two games last season, jumped out to a 10-0 lead. But, unlike their last three games, Buffalo built on the lead and kept Houston out of the end zone.