The Inaugural Game at Highmark Stadium. As we prepare for the Buffalo's home opener, Bills insider Chris Brown breaks down three storylines to know for Bills vs. Lions on Thursday Night Football.

1 – Best practices for a short week

Buffalo has a pair of short weeks on their schedule this season. The first comes this Thursday as they begin Week 2 with their home opener against the Detroit Lions. The second will be on Thanksgiving when they host Kansas City.

When facing a short week coming off a road trip there are challenges for both the coaching staff and the players. Not enough hours to properly prepare your players on the field, and not enough recovery time for the bodies to fully recuperate.

"It's a short week in terms of the preparation. And both teams played a lot of plays (Sunday)," said Bills head coach Joe Brady of his team and the Lions who went to overtime in Week 1. "So, there are going to be a lot of getting the bodies right and making sure that you're mentally sharp."

Offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, who has been part of too many short weeks of game plan preparation to count, said there are two clear aims on a short prep week.

"The plan obviously at the beginning is to get as much rest and recovery as they can, and then just doubling up the next two days," he said. "So, it's just putting extra time in on all those days."

Coaching staffs typically reduce the volume of the game plan as well knowing that installs can't be done at game speed on the practice field. There might be just a couple of walk throughs with not a lot of time for multiple repetitions. That puts more of an onus on a player's mental preparation. The brain has to carry the responsibility of knowing the assignments without physically repping them on the field.

"I think that as coaches, you can make sure that the volume of what they're getting (is not as large) and plays that they get are ones they're going to be comfortable with," said Carmichael.

2 – More explosives incoming?

The Bills had 10 plays of more than 15 yards in their Week 1 win at Houston. Twenty percent of their offensive plays were explosive ones that shortened scoring drives and resulted in points as Buffalo punted just twice against the Texans. And that was against the number one defense in the league last year, which also ranked tops in the league in first downs allowed.

Now Buffalo is facing a Detroit defense that will be without three quarters of the starting secondary they thought they'd have at the start of the season.

CB Terrion Arnold, a first-round pick just two years ago, ran into off the field trouble and Detroit released him this summer. Couple that with the fact that both of the Lions' starting safeties are on injured reserve in Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch, and you understand why Detroit is still trying to piece things together.

Since 2023, Joseph leads the league in interceptions with 16, and Branch is a physical presence in the middle of the field. Filling in for them are veterans Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox.

The Saints hung 30 points on the Lions in Detroit, as New Orleans QB Tyler Shough threw for 410 yards and three touchdowns, though he did toss a pair of interceptions. One of those was picked off by Clark.

Buffalo's offensive staff is assuming nothing as head coach Joe Brady believes any opportunity in the passing game begins with a protection plan.

"If you can keep Josh clean, it affords him opportunities across the field," Brady said. "Josh did a great job of taking what the defense gave him (Sunday), and when the opportunities were down the field to take a shot. And if they were playing deep, and he had some intermediate throws across the middle of the field he took it.

"I thought he played the style of game that I wanted him to play, and I thought he went out there and he was aggressive, and when shots were there, and opportunities to go take it, he came out ready to rock. I thought just overall, from a pass game standpoint, Josh was understanding what we were trying to get done and executed at a high level."

As far as offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael is concerned, those explosive capabilities have been in place for a while.

"I feel like this offense has always had explosive opportunities to push the ball downfield, and the nice thing (Sunday) was there was a lot of execution," he said. "Players making plays for us, and some of the calls are like, well, it was covered, but a guy made a great play for us, so I think that's important when you have those opportunities to take advantage of them."

3 – Correctables for the defense

The defense had its moments in Week 1 both early in the game and at the very end with a couple of takeaways. But defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard had a word for the level of play in between those two bookends of the win over the Texans.

"There was a lot of ugly in between there," Leonhard said. "I mean, excited for the play style. The energy was there. The effort was there. The detail must get better. Not up to the standards, right? It's always great to get the win, but in a lot of ways, it did feel like Week 1. When things started to unravel a little bit at times, or just feel a little bit off, I thought guys looked around like they weren't sure what the answer should be."

Drilling down on those details will be more challenging in a short week, especially with home crowd noise challenging pre-snap communication. But Leonhard and his defensive staff plan to have the players focused on their play, their calls, and their assignments first. That's because earlier in the season coaches can get ahead on early season opponents.

"We know it's going to be loud. Communication is going to be an issue. And so, we know that going in," Leonhard said. "The beauty of this Thursday game being Week 2 is there's only one game of new information that you had to scout, so you're able to get ahead a little bit. So, we've got to focus on us as a new defense."

At the same time Leonhard knows the Lions high-octane offense provides some big issues.

"They're extremely talented. They're an explosive offense. They've been for years," he said. "Goff's been playing at an extremely high level now for a long time. So, it's not fun to watch them on tape, but you do know what the issues are, and we're going to need to solve those problems."