BUFFALO -- The Bills made their bones by reaching four straight Super Bowls from 1990 through '93, but they haven't reached the AFC Championship since. After making the playoffs in four of five seasons, the last two years have been particularly gruesome.

Jim Kelly, the Hall of Fame quarterback, had retired, and in 2000 the team was traumatized by the Doug Flutie-Rob Johnson controversy. Last year, the Johnson-Alex Van Pelt tandem led Buffalo to a 3-13 record, an embarrassing fall from grace for the once-mighty Bills.

But now, with the addition of a single player, the cloud over Ralph Wilson Stadium has lifted. With Drew Bledsoe under center, the supremely energized 1-1 Bills, who visit Denver on Sunday, believe they are in every game.

	Drew Bledsoe has thrown for 734 yards in two games this season.

"The atmosphere," said wide receiver Peerless Price on Thursday, "is very different from the previous years. In previous years, we really didn't know if we were going or coming. Now, we have a sense of direction, a purpose."

Offensive guard Ruben Brown is so old -- he's all of 30 -- he says he remembers the young Bledsoe. It's helped him to forget the recent past in Buffalo.

"All the players are confident -- not cocky -- but confident that we now have a chance to win," Brown said. "As opposed to before, when we were hoping to win.

"(Bledsoe's) really rifling the ball in there and he seems poised. He gets hit, he gets up and delivers the ball again, he's got a smile on his face. He's not upset when his left guard gets him hit sometimes."

As he delivers this last line, Brown has a smile on his face. It is a long, long way from last season. The Bills have played two games and both have reached overtime. Both times, it was Bledsoe who got them there.

"I expect us to be in every game," Bledsoe said. "This league has changed so much with the advent of free agency. You can go from a losing record to being a contender in one year. And I expect us to do that. I'm part of that. I expect to be part of that."

Only two games into the Drew Bledsoe Era in Buffalo it is already clear that this is an extraordinary fit. Rarely has there been a team and a player that needed each other more. Bledsoe, relegated to the sidelines a year ago after an injury in Week 2, watched as Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl. When the floundering Bills were able to land Bledsoe for the low, low price of a 2003 first-round draft choice, they were ecstatic.

And why not? Bledsoe, 30, is in his prime. He looks like a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Just last week, Bledsoe cleared the 30,000-yard mark, tying Brett Favre as the third-fastest to do it. Bledsoe and Favre reached 30,000 yards in 126 career games; Dan Marino did it in 114 games, while Warren Moon needed 125.

From the beginning, Bledsoe has been treated like royalty. The Bills' brain trust flew a chartered jet to Montana to pick up Bledsoe and his wife Maura for his April 23 introduction to the Buffalo media. Local television stations broke into their programming for live coverage of his news conference at Ralph Wilson Stadium that was attended by nearly 3,000 fans. The cover of the Bills' media guide features Bledsoe, running out of a cloud of smoke, clutching the football and his helmet and wearing a tongue-out grimace.

	“	I think when all the hype and all the hoopla was about him coming, it was about him being the quarterback and all that stuff. But he's a team leader and he's a guy that you want on your side. He'll go to battle with you each and every week. ”
		— Peerless Price, Bills wide receiver

But in retrospect -- with the benefit of two games in which he has completed 61 of 88 passes for a league-high 734 yards -- is it possible that Bledsoe has exceeded the enormous hype?

"He's much better than the hype," conceded fullback Larry Centers.

"Yeah," said Price. "I think when all the hype and all the hoopla was about him coming, it was about him being the quarterback and all that stuff. But he's a team leader and he's a guy that you want on your side. He'll go to battle with you each and every week."

The Bills dominated the Jets in the season opener, outgaining them 384 yards to 266, but two kick returns for touchdowns by Chad Morton gave New York the win. Short of playing on special teams, Bledsoe has done his part.

A week ago in Minnesota, in his second game with the Bills, Bledsoe shattered a 43-year-old franchise record by throwing for 463 yards. There have been a few pretty fair signal-callers in Buffalo -- Jack Kemp, Joe Ferguson and Kelly -- but no one ever came close to that figure. Bledsoe's 35 completions were second on the Bills' all-time list, and his 49 attempts were sixth. Moreover, his 49 passes without an interception were another team record.

And it isn't just the quantity of his passes, it's the quality.

Two weeks ago, he found Eric Moulds in the end zone on fourth-and-nine to tie the game at 31 with 26 seconds left in regulation. In Minnesota, Bledsoe reached Price with an 8-yard pass with seven seconds left in regulation that set up Mike Hollis' game-tying 54-yard field goal. In overtime, he hit Price with a 48-yard touchdown that won it in overtime. Price (20 catches, 265 yards) and Moulds (16 catches, 198 yards) are ranked first and second in catches in the AFC. Price leads the entire league in yards.

The Bills offensive players report that Bledsoe has been the difference in their huddle. In the fourth quarter, with a staple holding together a gash in his neck, Bledsoe went about his business.

"He had blood all over his neck," Price said. "You see that and you (say) 'I gotta take my game up that extra level, that extra notch, because he's depending on me.'

"We were down seven to the Jets and we needed a touchdown to go ahead and tie the game and go into overtime. And he's sitting in the huddle like, 'Let's go win it.' When he called the last play he said, 'OK, this play right here, it's going to put us into overtime, guys.' Before the play -- and he threw the ball into the air -- touchdown."

Bledsoe acknowledges that he was not the leader then-Patriots head coach Bill Parcells wanted him to be when he came out of Washington State University in 1993.

"I'm certainly not going to come in there as a 21-year-old kid and tell some veterans how to do things," Bledsoe said. "But one thing if I could go back that I would possibly change is that I didn't make the transition as much as maybe I should have, from being the young guy to being more vocal.

"But here, I've made a little more conscious effort to be more vocal and to share some ideas. This team, they were looking for more than just a quarterback to come in and throw the ball when they traded for me. They wanted me to come in and say a little more and do a little more."

Based on the early returns, the Bills already have gotten their $15 million worth.

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.