Bills 31, Saints 19

The largest point spread of the 2025 NFL season through four weeks opened early in the week at 16.5, floated down to 14.5 on Thursday and settled in at 15.5 early yesterday morning as I was packing my sauerkraut, Dijon mustard, vegetable tray, beer and Italian sausages into my cooler. The Buffalo Bills were playing the league doormat New Orleans Saints and some of the pundits on the radio early yesterday were saying take the points and the Saints. If I was to have wagered against the spread on this game, I probably would have too. And it would have been the winning call as the Saints lost by 12 and covered the spread. I had a feeling that it would be a closer game than was expected. A spread of more than two converted touchdowns is almost unheard of in the parity-driven NFL and proved to be too high yesterday at a sun-baked Highmark Stadium. And the brutalist slab of concrete bult in 1973 now features (from my seats 23 rows behind the visitor bench) a clear view of the top of the new, much taller Highmark Stadium just across Abbot Road which will open ten months from now. I’m looking forward to it for football and for traffic reasons.  

For Toronto sports fans, the Blue Jays 162^nd game of the season was top of mind, even for those of us attending the game in Orchard Park. Would they blow the division lead they had held for most of the summer? Would the Yankees finally stumble after seven straight wins? Would they both win or both lose? I like the MLB’s scheduling plan starting every game on the season’s final day at 3pm or shortly after as every team with something to play for would have to field their best line-ups. We dialed up the game on the car radio with the Jays leading 5-4 and listened as they pounded out eight more runs and sealed the deal on their first division title in ten years, earning the top seed in the American League playoff draw and a valuable first-round bye. Quite an accomplishment.           

My first experience entering the United States after the President’s re-election came a couple of weeks ago (At Toronto Pearson) and was quite smooth as was yesterday’s encounter at the Queenston-Lewiston crossing. It almost felt as if a memo had been circulated by the Department of Homeland Security to the border agents suggesting that they might be a bit more welcoming of low-risk Canadians as they pass through border checkpoints. Travel by Canadians to the US is down 30% since the winter and businesses in American border communities have suffered accordingly. With all the tough talk from the White House in the administration’s first few months, local and state Chambers of Commerce have carefully and quietly expressed their concerns and, after all, business is business. Rather than asking questions requiring detailed answers, the pleasant mid-thirties border agent woman asked – pleasantly - if we were going to the Bills game and if we would be returning to Canada later the same day. “Yes” to both of those I answered as she ran our passports through the scanner and we were on our way. Easily the friendliest, fastest and most relaxed border agent experience I’ve had at least since 9/11. After early reports last winter of phones being scanned and occasionally even an uncomfortable question or two about the President being asked of Canadian travellers, despite the admittedly small sample size of two, for what it’s worth, both of my recent experiences have been good.

As for the Bills who, along with the Eagles, now sit atop the NFL at 4-0, have plenty to work on in preparation for the Patriots next Sunday night as they close-out their three-game homestand. Starting with tackling. The Saints running game racked up almost 200 yards by breaking easily through to the second and third levels of Buffalo’s defence far too many times. The ageless Alvin Kamara, now in his ninth season with the Saints, gained 70 yards on 15 carries while Kendre Miller ran for 65 and quarterback Spencer Rattler added 49 yards, making some impressive open-field moves along the way. Getting DT Ed Oliver back will help to shore up the line play but even with him, the Bills defensive front is soft and seems to operate, like it did last year, in “bend but don’t break” mode which often just looks too easy for opposing offenses to move the ball at will. Josh Allen through an interception – the Bills first turnover since before Christmas - but James Cook continues to justify his new contract by running for over 100 yards once again and reaching the endzone for the eighth straight game.   

Another key division game is up next for the Bills as the New England Patriots, fresh off a routing of the Carolina Panthers and now sitting at 2-2, come to Orchard Park Sunday night. My game tickets remain available but here’s something which explains the scarcity of parking at Highmark Stadium in 2025: My Lot 7 parking pass, for which I paid $40, sold for $175 (all USD) online the other day. I mean Lot 7 is certainly well-located if you’re sitting on the visitor side of Highmark and is right in the thick one of the best tailgating experiences in the NFL but I just can’t see paying $175 for the privilege. You have to park somewhere I guess as there is no public transit option that I’ve ever seen. For over 50 years now, eight Sundays every fall and winter, 70,000 people drive to Orchard Park, consume alcohol (some more than others of course) then, a few hours later, drive home.  

Bills 31, Dolphins 21

Call it JP Losman disease or maybe Ryan Fitzpatrick disease. The symptoms are easy to recognize:  play a good game through 55 minutes, make good passes, inspire the confidence of your teammates, drive your team to a position to tie or take the lead late in the game – then throw a crucial and baffling interception to seal the game in your opponent’s favour. Tua Tagovailoa presented with a textbook case of this ailment last Thursday night in Orchard Park which left his team at 0-3 and cruising for a high pick in the 2026 NFL draft.

The close-up replay showed Tua’s eyes looking only to his right and Bills linebacker Terrell Bernard locked in on where the pass was going and he made what looked like the easiest interception he’s ever made. Tua couldn’t have telegraphed the play better if he had arranged to have it shown on the video screen at Highmark Stadium. It wasn’t a deflected pass (although one angle did show that a Bills defender's hand grazed the ball without changing its trajectory); wind didn’t effect it; it wasn’t overthrown or underthrown. Bernard knew where it was going and he effortlessly stepped in and grabbed it. One more first down by Elijah Moore and the Bills were 3-0 with the early inside track on the AFC’s number one seed four months from now.

The Miami Dolphins impressed me with their effort and execution on Thursday and, without a key special teams penalty and the aforementioned crushing interception, they played more than well enough to have won the game, salvaged their season, lowered the temperature on their coach’s seat and given their fan base some hope. But now they will have 11 days to regroup and prepare for the Jets at home on next week’s early game on Monday Night Football. Even at 1-3, it will be a tough but not impossible road to regain respectability. The problem will probably continue to be their quarterback and his propensity to hand games away. One analyst commented that the Dolphins probably played their best game on Thursday but it still wasn’t good enough. If they lose to the Jets a week from tonight, look for Mike McDaniel to be the first coaching casualty of 2025 with a key player or two like Tyreek Hill being traded for draft picks.

As for the Bills, they won the game the way that good teams do – without playing their best game but still finding a way. Their defence has been sporadic through three games although its seemingly solid performance against the New York Jets in week two may prove to have been an aberration because of the utter ineptitude of the opponent. Still, at 3-0, the Bills are well-positioned to achieve their regular season objective – the number one seed in the AFC and the bye through the first playoff round which it carries.

Through week three, only six NFL teams are sporting perfect 3-0 records – three in each conference. Along with the Bills, the Colts and Chargers lead the AFC with undefeated records while the Eagles, Bucs and 49ers sit atop the NFC. The Chargers appear to be the most likely to challenge Buffalo for the top seed in the AFC but with 14 games to go, it’s obviously too early to really say. The Bills and Chargers do not face each other this season. In the NFC, it would be foolish to bet against the defending champion Eagles.

When the Jets blocked a field goal and returned it for a touchdown late in yesterday’s game in Tampa to take a one-point lead, I was pulling for them not to give up the game-losing drive but in typical Jets fashion, that’s exactly what they did and they remain winless along with the Dolphins, Texans and Titans. In the NFC, only the Giants and Saints are still winless. The Patriots found a way to lose again, this time to the Steelers at home, to slip to 1-2. The Bills do have a clear advantage in the AFC with six division games against three weak teams, something that they share with the Colts but not with the Chargers.

Up next, the New Orleans Saints, widely considered to be “on the clock” for the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, make their once-every-eight-years trip to Orchard Park. The Saints lead the all-time series 7-5 with the Bills winning the most recent match-up in the Big Easy four years ago. But, their last trip to western New York, in a game I attended in Sean McDermott’s first year as Buffalo’s head coach in 2017, is a game he would like to forget as Drew Brees and the Saints delivered the Bills a 47-10 drubbing. This will be the sixth time that the Saints have ever played in Buffalo and by strange happenstance, I will have personally attended three of them with the first being a December 1989 loss to the Bobby Hebert led Saints – a game and a time I remember for being just a few days after the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal massacre.

With the new stadium construction in full-swing, parking is scarce and egress from the parking lots is reportedly the worst it has ever been. After each of the two games I attended last season, we were pinned for over an hour either in the parking lot or on a stadium exit road overrun by pedestrians streaming out with what looked like no effort on the part of Erie County Sheriffs to manage traffic flow – like they had just given up and were using the Lord of the Flies approach and were just hoping no one was hurt or killed. Promises have been made about greatly improved traffic flow with an emphasis on the latest in traffic engineering when the new stadium opens. So, for this week, we’re hoping for a comfortable Bills lead early in the fourth quarter, an early exit and a smooth trip home.   

Bills 30, Jets 10

I’m not sure if my sense of smell has been heightened now that I’m in my early 60s but since I’ve been walking around Manhattan for the past three days, aside from the carnival-like atmosphere which permeates every square inch of real estate in this the smallest (geographically) of the five boroughs which make up New York City, a myriad of aromas, odours and fragrances is omnipresent on every street and around every corner. Everything from cheap perfume to sewer gas to deep fryer exhaust has met my nostrils head-on with every step I’ve taken – and I’ve averaged about 18,000 steps each day. The principle of creating scent-free spaces is yet to reach this densely crowded island or the throngs of tourists, hucksters and presumably those who try their best to live their lives here. Every scantily-clad woman seems to be wearing enough sweet fragrance to reach the Jersey shore and beyond. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and sometimes it’s downright seductive but it’s impossible to ignore and it adds another thick layer to the sensory overload which makes this place like no other I have ever experienced, except for Kathmandu.

When the NFL schedule was released in May, I circled this weekend as the one which would include my first trip to the Big Apple. A tour of the main branch of the New York Public Library, a Broadway show, a two-and-a-half-hour boat cruise around the entirety of Manhattan, a patio dinner in the East Village and many miles of walking were the opening acts for a trip to the Meadowlands of New Jersey yesterday to see the Bills v. Jets at Metlife Stadium. Getting there by public transit from mid-town Manhattan is easy and fast: a round trip ticket from Penn Station on New Jersey transit to the stadium costs about six bucks and even with a change of trains in Seacaucus takes just over 30 minutes. The stadium itself seats 82,000 and has fantastic sight-lines even from the upper level. After careful consideration, I decided to wear my Bills colours and was a bit surprised to see that about 30% of those in attendance made the same decision. Our section was at least three quarters Bills fans but featured an enthusiastic, entertaining and very loud Jets fan whose mood began with abounding optimism which quickly turned to bitter disappointment, anger which included colourful cursing of his team and its coaching staff then finally, brooding silence. It’s tough to be part of “Gang-Green” these days and has been for many years now. 

The Bills were in full control of the game from the opening drive. Even without their week-one star DT Ed Oliver, the Bills defence smothered the Jets who could muster only a paltry 154 total yards of offence on the day. Jets quarterback Justin Fields was knocked out of the game and into the league’s concussion protocol by Joey Bosa’s fourth quarter sack but managed only one impactful play before that – 27-yard scamper in the second quarter. As we exited the stadium with about ten minutes remaining in the game, we heard the Jets radio play-by-play broadcaster ask his colour-man if this was the kind of game where you just burn the tape and move on or if there was something to be learned for the team and its coaching staff. He replied that there was definitely something to be learned but seemed usure about exactly what that might be. 

Taking into account that the Jets are in rough shape and have been in the wilderness since Rex Ryan left, the level of support and enthusiasm (except for the aforementioned guy in our section) seemed surprisingly weak compared to what Buffalo fans offer their team. Even throughout the 17-year playoff drought which ended in 2017, Bills fans showed up on time and were always loud even when there wasn’t much to cheer for. Early on in the game, before it was out of reach, on defensive third downs, Jets fans cheered tepidly at best (despite encouragement from the four massive video screens) and generally seemed disconnected from the beginning. Joe Klecko’s pre-game leading of the signature cheer of “J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets” created little excitement and generated only passive participation. Bills scoring drives produced almost as much noise. Aaron Glenn may be the right coach for the Jets but this will be another long season for them and bumbling owner Woody Johnson may run out of patience with him too early – as he always does.

Today, we will see the 9/11 Memorial and take a look around Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange in Lower Manhattan before heading to LaGuardia. Older Jets fans will remember the days of defensive stalwarts Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau who became known as the New York Sack Exchange. That must seem like several lifetimes ago for them. 

Up next for the Bills is a short week and a Thursday night home game against the Miami Dolphins whose fortunes entering week three seem about as bleak as those of the Jets. Tyrek Hill is frustrated and Tua is regressing week by week and season by season. Head coach Mike McDaniel, known equally for his supposed offensive genius and his irreverent and unorthodox style of conducting press conferences, may not last the season in Miami either. The New England Patriots appear now to be the second-best team in the AFC East and with four winnable division games, could challenge for a wild-card playoff spot – something which seemed unthinkable a year ago. 

I’m hoping to make this New York weekend an annual one and I’m also hoping that the schedule makers can make it a little later in the fall when the weather is cooler. There are of course more Broadway shows to take in, more museums to see, many more Manhattan miles to walk and, hopefully, more easy Bills wins against the Jets in New Jersey.            

   

Bills 41, Ravens 40

When the NFL schedule was released in the spring, the Buffalo Bills week one match-up with the Ravens brought my memory of the January 19^th Divisional Round playoff game, and its one critical and decisive play, back to the surface of my consciousness. Having just scored a touchdown to narrow the margin to two points with a minute and a half remaining, the Ravens needed a two-point convert to tie and send the game to overtime on that wintry Orchard Park night. Along with the entirety of Bills Mafia, I was worried about this prospect as the Ravens had momentum in their favour and the Bills defence, having benefitted from three turnovers already, looked spent. Tension in the stadium was palpable as the Ravens lined up for their attempt and as the well-crafted play developed, leaving tight-end Mark Andrews open in the front right corner of the endzone, I had already begun to foresee how the overtime might play out. Lamar Jackson’s pass was perfect – not too high, not too low and placed squarely into Andrews’ breadbasket. As the pass reached him, I think I may have looked away for a split second in disappointment, perhaps to process the unfortunate turn of events and to contemplate the ensuing risk and stress of overtime. The next thing I remember seeing was the eruption of Bills fans on the goal-line behind Andrews as he had somehow let the ball slip out of his hands and onto the thin layer of snow beside him. An easy recovery of an onside kick, one more first down and it was time for victory formation for Buffalo.

For the Baltimore Ravens, for Mark Andrews and Lamar Jackson personally, for John Harbaugh and his coaching staff, the 232 days which have passed since that cold January night surely included reliving that particular play over and over. The schedule-maker’s gift of the earliest possible chance at redemption in the first game of the new season in the very same stadium provided the Ravens the ultimate motivation as last night approached. Add in the kick-off of the 20^th season of Sunday Night Football (the top-rated television show in the US), a huge national audience and arguably the best week-one match-up on the slate, and the Ravens could not have asked for a better-scripted opportunity to once again establish themselves as the team with the best chance at securing the AFC’s top seed. A week one match-up with playoff and potential tie-breaker implications made this a pretty compelling game all around.

A clear pattern has taken shape over the past five years when the Bills face the Kansas City Chiefs with Buffalo winning the regular season games and the Chiefs winning the playoff games regardless of which team plays at home. Last season, the Bills lost badly in Baltimore early on in the regular season but held on for a 27-25 home playoff win four months later. Will the same pattern emerge with the Ravens? With last night’s incredible and unlikely one-point win, Bills fan obviously hope not. I’d say that the Bills would prefer not to see the Ravens again at all but another home playoff game against them in January seems likely.

Josh Allen said after the game to NBC’s Melissa Stark that those fans who left in the fourth quarter with the team down by 15 points should “have some faith next time”. Well, as was pointed out on the broadcast, the last time that the Bills came from behind after being down by 15 points in the fourth quarter was in 1967 – some six years before Rich Stadium opened. Sixty years later, the Bills treated their fans (those who stayed) to a thrilling comeback in the stadium’s final home opener after being shredded by Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson for most of the game.

Speaking of Henry, the Ravens dominant and powerful running back racked up 169 yards on 18 carries (it seemed like more) with two touchdowns (also seemed like more) for an average of 9.4 yards per carry (seems about right) and was a terror for the Bills undersized front. For his part, Bills DT Ed Oliver did his own terrorizing (as Chris Collinsworth mentioned more than once on the broadcast) with a brilliant sack and another key tackle-for-loss of Henry. He also generated the game’s only turnover at a key time in the fourth quarter by knocking the ball from Henry’s hands and setting up what would have been the game’s tying touchdown drive had the Bills not failed on their third two-point conversion attempt of the night. Then and only then did the Bills defence find a way to get a key three-and-out which set up the game winning drive, culminating with 58-year-old Matt Prater hitting a short field goal as time expired.

Ok, Prater is 41 years old and Buffalo is his seventh NFL team. Before Thursday, he was not on any team’s roster or practice squad but continued to hone his craft at a high school somewhere in Arizona. After a red-eye flight to Buffalo Thursday night, he now finds himself the toast of the town after a perfect night, hitting three field goals and two extra points.

After their thrilling opening week win, the Bills now travel to the Meadowlands of New Jersey to face the New York Jets who came up short in their own home opener yesterday against the Steelers. It’s been 35 years since I took in a Bills road game which was a 34-30 playoff loss to the Browns at Cleveland’s ancient Municipal Stadium in January of 1990. Ronnie Harmon dropped the winning touchdown pass from Jim Kelly on the game’s second-last play. I’m hoping for a better result next week against the Jets and I’m looking forward to visiting NYC. In addition to Sunday’s game, we’re seeing Wicked on Broadway, touring the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, taking a boat cruise around Manhattan Island, museums etc. Fireman Ed, I’m coming!

Happy Tommy Douglas Day Weekend

Happy Victoria Day! A friend of mine is an emergency room nurse in a small but busy hospital which serves a large hinterland of cottage country in eastern Ontario. He tells me that the Victoria Day long weekend is always the busiest three-day period of the year as his hospital is inundated with injured patrons who have been in car or boat accidents, chopped or cut themselves with axes or chainsaws, fallen off ladders or roofs or otherwise maimed themselves often with alcohol-fueled carelessness. 

We stopped marking Queen Victoria's birthday on the 24^th of May in 1952 (although we still do every seven years) in favour of observing it on the Monday closest to but not after the 24^th. Victoria ruled the British Empire for 64 years, ending with her death in 1901. At the risk of offending Monarchists or United Empire Loyalists, Queen Victoria’s relevance to most Canadians has pretty much disappeared. Sure, she was an important figure in British history but maybe it’s time to change the name of our spring holiday long weekend, which marks the unofficial start to the summer season, to something more Canadian. I suggest that we call it Tommy Douglas Day. Douglas clearly deserves recognition as the driving force behind Canada's publicly funded healthcare system. It seems entirely appropriate to name this long weekend after him so that when dangerous drivers, drunken boaters and over-zealous weekend-warriors end up in the hospital over the next few days as a result of their letting loose on this long weekend, they can thank Tommy Douglas for bringing us the universal, single-payer healthcare insurance system we value so much. Have a great (and hopefully safe) Tommy Douglas Day long weekend!

Easter Greetings

Easter certainly has a lot of moving parts: the rabbits (which do not lay eggs), the eggs, the chocolate, the egg-shaped chocolates, the rabbit-shaped chocolates, the crucifixion of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus two days later, the traffic and shopping mayhem on Bad Thursday because everything imaginable is closed for the next four days…..and when we mix all of these unrelated elements together and then, as a final wildcard, throw in the fact that it can take place any time between the Superbowl and Victoria Day, based on the whims of  the lunar cycle in strange combination with with the randomness of the Gregorian calendar, Easter truly is the most incomprehensible annual event we still observe. That's why everything is closed for four days - to give us a chance to try to make some sense of it. One question I do often hear leading up to Easter is about what traditional festive meal is most appropriate to mark this unique occasion. The answer, for obvious reasons, is rabbit with eggs. Happy Easter!  

A New Take on Changing Our Clocks

 

Standard Time or DST: Must it be an “Either/Or” Choice?

Some of us will be a bit bleary-eyed this coming Monday morning from the hour of sleep snatched away from us on the weekend on account of our switch to Daylight Saving Time. We’ll hear plenty of griping about it too. Questions about why exactly it is that we change our clocks twice yearly, as most of us in North America have been doing since the early 20^th century, have grown over the past decade or two.  

A construct of the World War 1 period, Daylight Saving Time (DST) was initially created to save energy. Proponents also point to certain safety benefits and to some economic advantages related to tourism and recreation. Before the advent of DST, we remained on Standard Time year-round.

A Private Member’s bill called the “Time Amendment Act” was passed in the Ontario Legislature five years ago. The bill proposed that Ontario abolish Standard Time and remain on DST year-round. This has not yet been implemented because the bill also requires (quite appropriately) that Ontario’s bordering jurisdictions of Quebec, Manitoba, Minnesota, Michigan and New York State also do the same before we proceed with it. And none has done so – yet.

We tend to hear more complaining about the twice annual switching when we “spring forward” and lose an hour’s sleep than we do in November when we gain that hour back. It’s a nuisance they say - adjusting our clocks and our circadian rhythms twice annually - and the idea of scrapping the current practice does seem to have a good measure of popular support. As with many seemingly simple and logical ideas, the devil is very much in the details so before we all proclaim our agreement to scrap Standard Time altogether, let’s look at what it would actually mean.

Under Standard Time, in Toronto, on December 21^st, the sun rises at 7.50am and sets at 4.43pm – leaving us with less than nine hours of daylight and more than 15 hours of darkness. Most of us who travel to work each day in December do so in morning daylight and return home in late afternoon darkness. Children making their way to and from school enjoy daylight for each leg of their journey.

Were we to remain on DST through the dark winter months, as the Time Amendment Act proposes, morning daylight would then come an hour later. In Toronto, between November and March, that would mean darkness until almost 9am with most commuters and students completing their morning journeys before daybreak. Yes, evening darkness would also come an hour later with the December 21^st sunset coming at 5.43pm – still well before most commuters have arrived home.

I am an early riser. I like morning daylight and would prefer not to wait until 9am before I can see it. In my view, Standard Time offers the most judicious and sensible allocation of our less than nine hours of daylight during this dark five-month period. It allows for safe and well-lit travel to and from school for children even if the afternoon commute home for most workers is done mostly in darkness.

If we were to remain on Standard Time year-round as has also been suggested, in June, early dawn light in Toronto would arrive around 4am with the actual sunrise just after 4.30am. Sunset would be just after 8pm. Do we really want daylight at 4am?

A third possibility – one that has not been widely discussed, if at all – is to scrap both Standard Time and DST and settle half-way between the two - 30 minutes earlier than DST and 30 minutes later than Standard Time. Had we decided on this solution before this weekend which is now upon us, we would be preparing to set our clocks ahead on Saturday night by 30 minutes. Then we would never have to worry - or complain - about ever having to change them again. 

We could call it “Half-Baked Time” (HBT). Under HBT, in December in Toronto, sunrise would be at 8.20am and sunset at 5.13pm. In June, sunrise would be at 5am and sunset at 8.30pm. If we are determined to do away with the twice-yearly time changes, why must it be an “either/or” choice between DST and Standard Time?

In my view, Standard Time is best for the short days of winter and DST is best for the rest of the year. I don’t mind the current twice-yearly clock changing practice (which for many of us includes changing the batteries in our smoke and CO2 detectors) but if we, along with our neighbouring jurisdictions, really are determined to scrap the practice, I say let’s go with HBT.