Bills Ease Up in Scoring Runaway Victory, 38-0 : AFC: Smith leads defense against Colts with 2 1/2 sacks and seven unassisted tackles.

Imagine the bruises on Jack Trudeau’s body if Bruce Smith hadn’t let up.

The Bills’ defensive end, the dominant player in Buffalo’s 38-0 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night, seemed to be on top of the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback all night.

Yet Smith said he took it easy on Trudeau, who only last week suffered a seriously bruised back.

“I definitely have a tremendous amount of respect for that team,” Smith said of the Colts. “I just didn’t feel that it was necessary to put a damaging blow on Trudeau or Jeff George, if he was in there. I have friends on that team and that’s just the way I felt about it.”

Still, Trudeau took a pounding and left the game in the third quarter.

Smith ended up with 2 1/2 sacks, seven unassisted tackles--five of which came behind the line--and four assisted tackles.

Moving all over the line, Smith hounded Trudeau and the offensive linemen assigned to stop him. Frequently, he was through the line at the instant Jeff Donaldson snapped the ball.

“I truly believe defensively we did an outstanding job to get back there,” he said. “It was something that just happened. I didn’t pre-plan it or anything. It’s just my quickness off the ball.”

Smith and the rest of the Bills’ defense wrecked the return of Ted Marchibroda, who was Buffalo’s offensive coordinator before leaving to take over the coaching job of the Colts this February.

While Smith was Buffalo’s defensive anchor, strong safety Henry Jones was the scorer. He returned interceptions of 23 and 82 yards for touchdowns.

Buffalo (3-0) also got a 52-yard field goal from Steve Christie, a one-yard touchdown plunge from Carwell Gardner, and one-yard touchdown passes to Pete Metzelaars and eligible tackle John Fina.

Buffalo’s offensive stars, Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas, finished with ho-hum numbers against the Colts (1-2). Kelly, the AFC’s top-rated passer, was 17 for 27 for 211 yards, while Thomas, the NFL’s leader in combined yards from scrimmage each of the past three seasons, had 71 receiving and rushing yards.