Bills make their way to Detroit
— -- The Buffalo Bills have made it to Detroit and planned to practice Friday evening in advance of their rescheduled game Monday night against the New York Jets.
A team official told ESPN that all of Buffalo's coaches and players were rounded up for the trip.
The Bills left earlier Friday for the Detroit area, where it's been cold and snowy this week, but nothing like Buffalo. Coach Doug Marrone said a few players had to be picked up by snowmobile before the team was able to leave.
A snowfall that brought huge drifts and closed roads in the Buffalo area finally ended Friday, the three-day total reaching an epic 7 feet or more. And that's not all for the forecast. The threat of rain, higher temperatures and feared flooding loom through the weekend, casting doubt as to whether the Bills will be able to hold their next home game, Nov. 30 against the Browns, at Ralph Wilson Stadium, too.
"This team has bonded more than any team I've seen," one team source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. "They've really worked together to do this."
The Bills-Jets game, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium, will be played Monday (7 p.m. ET) at Ford Field. The game will be shown on CBS in the Buffalo and New York markets and also will be available to NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers.
The Saints and Ravens are the "Monday Night Football" national game from New Orleans on ESPN (8:30 p.m. ET).
Bills season-ticket holders will have their accounts credited or can request refunds, while other ticket holders will receive refunds.
Fans are being offered free tickets to Monday's game in Detroit.
"We are pleased to be hosting the Bills and Jets for their game Monday night," Lions president Tom Lewand said. "While our thoughts are with the people of the Buffalo area during this difficult time, our team at Ford Field will do everything we can to be good hosts to their team this weekend."
Detroit was one of three possible alternate locations, along with Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., sources said. The Lions play at New England on Sunday.
Bills president Russ Brandon says the team is planning to return to Buffalo after Monday night's game.
"Our plan is to get right back to Buffalo after the game,'' Brandon said. "We'll have a short work week as we prepare for Cleveland, but we'll stay nimble and see how the situation evolves and we'll go from there.''
Buffalo (5-5) is still in the playoff hunt, and this is a game the Bills are favored to win, but the weather has disrupted their preparation.
"There's never a silver lining when you're not playing a game at home,'' Marrone said. "It is what it is. We're not going to sit here and we're not going to make any excuses. We're going to get ourselves the best prepared we can to play a game.''
The last time an NFL game was moved to Ford Field unexpectedly, the fans who did show up witnessed a bit of history. Brett Favre's streak of 297 regular-season starts came to an end that night -- on Dec. 13, 2010 -- when the Vikings lost to the Giants 21-3.
Favre was sidelined by shoulder and hand issues. That game was moved to Detroit because the Metrodome roof collapsed.
Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.
