SUPER BOWL XXVIII / Cowboys 30, Buffalo Bills 13 : Practice Doesn’t Help : The Bills Have Had to Explain Away Super Bowl Defeat Often, but It Never Gets Any Easier

Again the familiar pain.

Again the same old questions.

Again the anguished answers.

The Buffalo Bills know this routine all too well.

How does it feel to lose a Super Bowl?

How does this one compare to the others?

Who’s to blame for this defeat?

Will you be back?

First, the Bills tried to answer those questions for themselves after losing Super Bowl XXVIII to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-13. Then they tried to answer them for the media, which hung on every word, every expression.

But there were no definitive answers. There never are.

Each player tried to deal with the defeat on his own terms.

Thurman Thomas sat on the bench in the closing minutes of the game and stared off into space. He could see the numbers 0-4 in his mind. And his two fumbles that proved so crucial. Then he put his head in his hands and looked inward.

When the game was over, Thomas, who rushed for only 37 yards and averaged only 2.3 yards per carry, trudged across the field to offer his congratulations to his good friend Emmitt Smith, the Dallas running back who emerged as the game’s most valuable player.

Smith introduced Thomas to his young goddaughter as “the best running back in the National Football League.”

Thomas shook his head.

“Don’t you even try that,” he told Smith. “You know you are the best running back in the National Football League.”

In the Buffalo locker room, Coach Marv Levy, one of the league’s most articulate and most educated coaches, was at a loss for words, a rarity. No references to Winston Churchill, his favorite historical figure, this time.

The blood, sweat and tears in the Buffalo locker room said it all. Levy simply went around shaking hands with his players.

“I wanted them to know the regard I retained for them,” Levy said. “And I wanted them to know that, had they won, I would have had no greater regard for them as people.”

In another corner of the locker room, defensive lineman Bruce Smith quietly dressed.

His thoughts were mixed. The loss of a fourth consecutive Super Bowl certainly hurt. But the end of the game takes his mind to an even bigger hurt. His father, George, lies in a Virginia hospital in intensive care because of a heart problem.

Smith visited his father Monday on his way from Buffalo to Atlanta, but hasn’t spoken to him since.

There will be time to analyze what happened Sunday night in the Georgia Dome. But not today. Smith plans to fly back to his father’s bedside.

Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson paced at the entrance to the locker room. Outside, Levy was addressing the press.

Wilson planned to talk to the man who has been his coach for seven years upon Levy’s return to the locker room.

And what would Wilson say to him?

He had no idea.

“Everybody is down,” Wilson said, “but I’ll tell you, I’m very proud of what this team has done.”

Thomas has had his problems with the media, flaring over real or perceived criticism on more than one occasion.

But not Sunday. He talked as long as anyone wanted to talk, and he was willing, almost anxious, to accept the criticism for yet another Bills’ Super Bowl defeat. Thomas had hoped to carry the team to victory on his broad shoulders. Instead, “I want to tell the Buffalo fans,” he said, “that I take the blame for this loss. I’m sorry and I hope to do a better job next year.”

What frustrated Thomas most was the turnaround in his production from the week before. He had led the Bills to the AFC title by rushing for 186 yards and three touchdowns against the Kansas City Chiefs seven days earlier, then declared that game, “the best of my six-year career.”

Then came Super Sunday.

“Why did I have to pick this time,” he said, “to have one of my worst games?

“It wasn’t a matter of me being careless with the football. It was just that at certain times when I got the football, I had somebody around me and didn’t have time to tuck it away.”

Thomas’ first fumble came in the first quarter and resulted in a Cowboy field goal.

Teammates came up and told him not to worry about it.

But then, early in the third quarter, Thomas fumbled again, James Washington picking the ball up and going 46 yards for a touchdown.

“They did a great job of stripping the ball,” Thomas said. “Throughout my career, I’ve never been a fumbler. I can’t run with two hands around the football. That’s just not my style. I just did what I normally do, and they did a great job of knocking the ball.”

Thomas didn’t return for several series after his fumble because of leg cramps.

“I was frustrated that I couldn’t get back out there,” he said. “I tried warming up, stretching and drinking a lot of water. It finally went away, but, by then, it was too late.”

Someone asked Thomas if the real reason he didn’t return immediately was his fumbles.

“Our coaches are not like that,” Thomas said. “If Jim Kelly threw four interceptions, they would not take him out. That’s not the Buffalo Bills’ style.”

Some players talked of making yet another run at the Super Bowl.

“We’ll still keep fighting,” Kelly said, “until we get it right. We came back for four. Why can’t we come back for five?”

Said Smith: “I see no reason to break up this football team.”

Thomas knows it won’t be easy next season.

“We’ll have to take our lumps,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of jokes. Nobody wanted us here and they probably don’t want us next year, but we are going to try.”