Who Helped Themselves: The case can be made that J.P. Losman helped himself. That may be because he totally outplayed Kelly Holcomb. Losman did some nice things but he did struggle against some of the first teamers of Carolina. He picked up with backups in there, of course by then the Bills were playing with back ups of their own. Which brings us to our next point, depth. The Bills depth helped themselves as their backups seemed to dominate the Panthers backup. Trying to add depth definitely showed itself in the peseason opener. Lionel Gates helped himself with a beautiful hard charging touchdown. He finished with 31 yards on 8 carries, just shy of a four yard average. Sam Aiken came up big with four catches for 73 yards. On defense, Ryan Denney was very active early finishing with three tackles. Rookie Donte Whitner got more playing time than anticipated because of the injury to Matt Bowen and led teh team with five tackles. He did get called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty though. Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell helped out his scheme by doing something that was rarely done last year... making adjustments. The defense was rolled over on the Panthers first possession for a touchdown, and they shut them down after that. Kyle Williams performed very well and appears to be challenging for a starting spot. The 5th round pick has leap frogged first rounder John McCargo.

Who Hurt Themselves: Obviously Kelly Holcomb did not help himself with his 2 for 4 performance and the interception. The team did not get a first down in his four series. The offensive line looked like the line of old allowing six sacks, five when J.P. Losman was under center. This is the one position where depth did not shine. The starters as a whole hurt themselves while the backups mostly helped themselves. The Carolina starters showed why they are light years better than the Bills as they dominated the early going. Shaud Williams didn't help his roster fight, he averaged only 18.3 yards on the Bills three kickoff returns. He carried the ball four times for 12 yards as well.

Bowen Hurt: Matt Bowen left last night's game early after injuring his leg. He was immediately taken into the locker room were x-rays were negative but he was having trouble putting weight on it. Donte Whitner got increased playing time in his absence. Injury Page.

Bills Lose: Kelly Holcomb had an interception returned for a touchdown while the defense stiffened after giving up a touchdown on the Panthers opening offensive series. It wasn't enough as the Bills lost 14-13. J.P. Losman played well with the second unit after struggling when he first came in the game. He finished 15 of 24 for 144 yards and an 18 yard run. Lionel Gates scored the Bills lone touchdown on a tough 3 yard run where he never gave up on his way to the end zone. Rian Lindell hit both field goal attempts from 50 and 45 yards out. Check back later today for our list on who helped and who hurt themselves.