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He used to talk and play a great game, used to explain in an instant about what it meant to slip into what he called "Beast Mode," when all the hard-core street stuff he learned at Oakland Technical High School melded together with his explosive physical power.

Street cred and on-field cred come together, and now to truly comprehend it, you have to go to YouTube.com, keywords "Marshawn Lynch and Beast Mode."

But Marshawn Lynch cut off the media here soon after details of a June hit-and-run incident became public. So at a time of crisis for the 6-6 Buffalo Bills, who, according to quarterback J.P. Losman, must play Sunday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto "like there are four [games] on the line," it is left to others to question why the Bills coaching staff can't seem to get the ball into the hands of their best player near the other team's goal line.

It's been wide receiver Lee Evans and offensive lineman Jason Peters who have suggested publicly that the play calling has been poor. It was left to Losman, whose best toss in last Sunday's 10-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers came in a postgame interview when he essentially threw offensive co-ordinator Turk Schonert with his suggestions there are "issues" — more particularly in-house issues — with communication when the team gets near the opponent's goal line.

The Bills are a mess heading into Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins, but Lynch is in the process of putting together some kind of season personally. With four games left, the 22-year-old running back is 156 yards from 1,000 and just 41 yards from becoming the 13th player in Bills history with 2,000 career yards on the ground. If he overcomes the back spasms suffered during practice this week and reaches the latter milestone Sunday, he will tie Willis McGahee's club record for doing so in the fewest number of games (26).

Former teammate Takeo Spikes of the 49ers said after Lynch had rushed for 134 yards last Sunday that the product of the University of California-Berkeley reminded him of — deep breath, here — NFL legend Barry Sanders.

"I'm not saying he has as much skill as Barry Sanders, but damn he's elusive," Spikes said. "You've got to gang tackle him. It's a must. For defensive backs … don't even think about going in there high. It's a waste of time."

Which makes what has happened in the Bills' losses to two mediocre teams in the past three weeks — the Cleveland Browns and 49ers — so disturbing. It's not so much Schonert forgets entirely about the run when his team gets in the red zone — the Bills called a run on the first play of each red-zone possession last Sunday — but that they won't stick with it.

Perhaps the most damning statistic of the day was that in the second half, just two of 10 plays inside the 49ers' 20 yard line put the ball in Lynch's hands.

Even for a sport dominated by coaches with a disturbing tendency to be too clever by half, it was a striking example of oversight.

They've taken Beast Mode and turned it into Least Mode.

Bills centre Duke Preston smiled when asked if there were times where he felt like grabbing somebody by the throat and saying "just give Marshawn the ball and let us hit somebody."

"The hierarchy of football is that the coaches coach, and the players play," Preston said. "We can't be out there second-guessing, wondering, 'Why did he call that route?' Shoot, we honestly don't know about routes, anyway."

The Bills' stud running backs of recent vintage — Thurman Thomas, Travis Henry and McGahee — had better sophomore seasons than rookie years and Lynch appears ready to follow in their steps. There was no jinx, not until later for Henry and McGahee. And watching the way the Bills are crumbling, it's hard to shake the nagging feeling Lynch's tenure here is going to end miserably.

It just seems that way with the Sons of Wide Right. Always.