Bills 16, Cowboys 6

I've always been fascinated with the US college football bowl games which run throughout the holiday season. With the exception of the featured games on New Year's Day and the national semi-finals games on New Year's Eve, the names, the sponsors, the teams and the places the games are played are constantly changing. This year saw the Cure Bowl, Bahamas Bowl, Heart of Dallas Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl and, the best name for a new bowl game, the Potato Bowl which was played in Boise, Idaho and won by the University of Akron Zips over the Utah State University Aggies, 23-21. The Sun Bowl, played for many years in El Paso, Texas, featured a mix of rain and sleet which changed to wet snow as the Washington State Cougars outlasted the University of Miami Hurricanes 20-14.

After watching football for several decades, a certain play which I had long wondered about finally happened. It was in the Pinstripe Bowl, played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Duke Blue Devils on Boxing Day, which went to overtime. Duke lost the overtime coin toss and were up first from the Indiana 25 yard line. Their possession sputtered and they kicked a field goal. Indiana could have then won the game with a touchdown but also settled for a field goal try of their own to extend the game to another overtime possession. The kick was long enough but, as viewed from several camera angles, it sailed directly over the top of the right goal post - by about three feet. The two referees, one standing under each goal post, ruled the kick as no good. I'm not sure that it was the wrong call but Indiana kicker Griffin Oakes was convinced that the kick was good and demanded a replay review which confirmed the ruling on the field and ended the game. I have long believed that the goal posts in football are simply not high enough and the evidence from the Pinstripe Bowl clearly supports this view. I'm amazed that this has not happened before. I have seen many kicks which reach higher that the goal posts but obviously fly either between or outside them but this is the first time I've seen one fly directly above one of them without being clearly inside or out. I felt for the kicker and his team who deserved a better fate - in the form of certainty about the result - than they got.

This is the second year of the college football playoff system where 4 teams are given berths in the two semi-final games played to be played on Thursday. Oklahoma will play Clemson at 4pm in the Capital One Orange Bowl and Michigan State will face Alabama in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at 8pm. The winners will play in the National Championship Game on Monday January 11th. I would like to see the playoff format expanded to 8 teams with play over 3 weeks and with the two semi-final games taking place on New Year's Day. They are now played the day before in order to protect the tradition of Rose Bowl and, to a lesser extent, the Sugar Bowl and the huge TV money these games generate. Why not make the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl the two semi-final games? Tradition changes slowly.

On to the Who Cares Bowl, played yesterday in the steady rain in Orchard Park between the Bills and the Dallas Cowboys. The game should have been played on a warm August evening because the line-ups fielded by the two teams looked very much like what we would see in the 4th and final pre-season game. To their credit, the teams played hard and the Bills played well enough to win. I was keeping an eye on the Falcons/Panthers and the Jets/ Patriots. The Jets close out the regular season next week at Orchard Park in a huge game for them. I'm happy for Ryan Fitzpatrick who has played extremely well this season. The Harvard graduate is a good and decent guy who has fashioned a solid career for himself, transitioning most years from back-up to starter. Happy New Year.

Redskins 35, Bills 25

Rex Ryan was feeling the heat at his post-game press conference yesterday in Landover, Maryland. He said that changes were coming to his team which was officially eliminated from the NFL playoffs after a disheartening loss to the Washington Redskins. Ryan was asked if some of the changes might come in connection with a report last week that Bills GM Doug Whaley had expressed his displeasure with some of the team's assistant coaches. Ryan dismissed the report but his terse response and body language said (to me at least) that all is not well between the Bills front office and the coaching staff. Whaley has been disappointed, according to the report, with offensive coordinator Greg Roman's heavy emphasis on the run game which leaves star wide receiver Sammy Watkins as a spectator on far too many plays. Whaley has a particular interest in seeing Watkins live up to the price the team paid to get him in the 2014 draft by trading its first round pick this year to grab him at number four overall - a move orchestrated by Whaley himself. Watkins has been very good through his first two seasons but not good enough to justify his price.

The problem is that Whaley was already the GM when Doug Marrone mysteriously resigned at the end of last season and Ryan was hired as head coach by team owners Terry and Kim Pegula. Ryan then brought in Roman, known for his emphasis on the running game, as offensive coordinator. Whaley then traded for running back LeSean McCoy but now apparently wishes that the team had thrown the ball to Watkins more than it has. If I were Whaley, my questions would be directed much more to the coaches on defensive side of the ball. Ryan and his hand-picked defensive coaches have steered the Bills defence to a league ranking of 20th going into yesterday's game. Last year, with an almost identical defensive line-up but different coaches, the Bills defence finished the season ranked number four in the league. I would much rather hear Ryan's explanation about that than about play selection on offense.

Before the NFL schedule was released in April, and knowing that the Dallas Cowboys were scheduled to make their once-every-eight-years trip to Orchard Park in 2015, I was quite certain that the league would schedule the game on a Monday night in the first half of the season in a effort to replicate the thrilling 2007 game, still seen as one of the best games played in Buffalo in the last 20 years. But, no, the game was scheduled for two days after Christmas. So, here it is: Up next, the 4-10 Cowboys, minus Tony Romo who is on injured reserve and out for the season, will take on the 6-8 Bills with the teams relative 2016 draft positions the only matters still to be decided.

OPP Sergeant and communications "officer" Kerry Schmidt was on the radio this morning providing some statistics on this year's RIDE program. Almost 500 drivers have been charged with impaired driving in Ontario so far this holiday season (and we're still 5 days away from Christmas), including 95 this past weekend. It seems like drunk driving is making a comeback but there is another very disturbing trend this year: drivers attempting to flee RIDE check points. In December alone, there have been at least three reported incidents of this in Ontario (Whitby, Guelph and London). A 24 year old female pedestrian was killed by one of these fleeing drivers and the others have ended up crashing their vehicles while being chased. I guess alcohol clouds judgment but I am still fascinated that someone would decide to try to flee from police in any circumstances at all. The ironic and tragic thing about these stories is that, unless the driver is killed in a crash, they always end up getting caught, they are often injured, their vehicles are usually written-off, they are charged with flight from police and charged with other Highway Traffic Act offenses like wreckless driving. To cap it all off, and in the ultimate of ironies, they are also charged (I assume) with impaired driving. Happy Holidays.

Eagles 23, Bills 20

When the Philadelphia Eagles worked out a deal to trade running back LeSean McCoy to the Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso on March 9th of this year, the two teams apparently decided not to inform either of the players involved until the trade was approved by the league, which it was the following day. According to Eagles coach Chip Kelly, who tried to set the record straight on this last week, the problem with the plan was that word of the trade was leaked before league approval was obtained and McCoy learned of it through his agent (who had heard through his own sources) and not through anyone in the Eagles organization. This upset him and understandably so. Kelly expressed regret that he did not handle the situation differently by informing McCoy himself as he says is his usual practice in these situations. After all, McCoy had established himself as one of the premier running backs in the NFL over the course of six seasons with the Eagles who drafted him 53rd overall in the second round of the 2009 draft from the Pittsburgh Panthers. The explanation of a leak between the time that the deal was made and league approval was given - as the reason why McCoy wasn't informed of the trade by the team - does seem plausible but perhaps should have been provided more publicly at the time and not nine months later. Kelly also explained last week that the trade was made for financial and salary cap reasons as McCoy was to have represented more than an $11 million cap hit for the Eagles in 2015 while Alonzo's cap hit was only $700,000. Kelly is also very familiar with Kiko Alonso, having coached him for four seasons at Oregon. After describing his perspective on the trade last week, Kelly also said that he would like to try to repair the relationship and offered to shake McCoy's hand before the game.

McCoy's explanation of the reason why he was traded by the Eagles, which he offered immediately after the trade was made, was considerably different that Kelly's. McCoy explained that Kelly didn't respect the league's star players and that he had at least some racial motivation in trading him for a white linebacker. This I find to be a much less plausible story than Kelly's. As the "revenge" game approached, McCoy was asked about Kelly's comments but declined to change his story and stated that would not shake Kelly's hand on Sunday and wanted nothing to do with him. This story became the main backdrop for yesterday's game. While I can certainly understand McCoy's bitterness not only at being traded but also (and likely more so) by the way he learned of it, his suggestion that any NFL coach in 2015 makes player personnel decisions based on whether players are white or black simply isn't credible. But, he was clearly motivated to play well yesterday for a variety of reasons.

McCoy was clearly hoping to have a big game against his former team and what he had was a decent game with 74 yards rushing on 20 carries and another 35 receiving yards on 4 catches, but the main story from yesterday's game was the 15 penalties called against the Bills, most of them on offensive and defensive linemen. The Eagles defensive line had a strong game - too strong for the Bills offensive line who took several holding penalties to protect their quarterback. On the other side of the ball, the defensive line jumped offside repeatedly on Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford's hard counts. Now at 6-7, while not mathematically eliminated, the Bills find themselves out of the playoff picture this morning. This will be the 16th consecutive season with no playoffs, the longest current stretch in the league.

Donald Trump continued to make news last week as he called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration to the US. Finally, the leadership of the GOP responded with a rebuke of this idea and Trump then hinted that he could still consider a presidential run as an independent candidate next year if he is not successful in securing the nomination. This would surely bode well for the Clinton campaign and be disastrous for the Republican Party. It would also serve to clearly quantify just how popular Trump's ideology is, mostly among uneducated white males. However it plays out, political culture in the US will become even more divided than it already is.      

Bills 30, Texans 21

Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor, the fifth year man out of Virginia Tech, has not thrown an interception in five consecutive games now - a new team record. And, looking at his body of work through the ten games he's started this season, his natural instinct to maintain attention to ball security has enabled him to consistently manage to avoid disastrous plays. Many a young and mobile quarterback in the NFL has suffered from a tendency to self-destruct in their first season or two before learning to protect the ball as it should be protected. I honestly think that spending four entire seasons as Joe Flacco's back-up (and never registering a regular season or playoff start) seasoned him to the point that when he did get his chance to be a franchise quarterback this season in Buffalo, he was truly ready. He's really played very well all season, including in yesterday's match-up with the Texans, winners of four straight coming into the game. In fact, both teams protected the ball yesterday as there were no turnovers by either team, until the game's very last play when Marcus Easley intercepted Brian Hoyer's pass in the end zone.

LeSean McCoy rushed for over 100 yards, Sammy Watkins caught three balls for over 100 yards and a touchdown and Taylor finished 11 for 21 with three touchdowns - just the kind of stats Greg Roman would have been hoping for as he drew up the game plan. When Rex Ryan hired Roman to be the team's offensive coordinator, he said that their offensive approach would emphasize the run over the pass. The Bills ran the ball 36 times yesterday and passed 21 times in their 57 plays from scrimmage.

So, at the three-quarter mark of the season, the Bills have posted a perfectly symmetrical record, now being 3-3 at home and 3-3 on the road with four games to go. The next three games come against NFC East teams: At Philadelphia next week, at Washington the following week and then home to the Cowboys two days after Christmas. The Jets visit on January 3rd to close out the regular season. With yesterday's win, the Bills remain squarely in the wildcard hunt, now with the same record as the Texans but holding the all-important tie breaker against them. A 10-6 record will very likely be enough to earn a post-season spot.

The New York Times published an editorial on its front page this past weekend, the first time it has done so since the 1920s. It wasn't exactly a revelation that the Times supports some measure of stricter gun control and the paper's publishers surely knew that the editorial would probably serve to strengthen the resolve of the NRA types so dedicated to closing down any debate at all on what they see as the spirit of the sacred Second Amendment. But, as long as the gun lobby helps to fund most Republican Congressional campaigns and as long as the Republicans control Congress (which they will at least for another year), then no action will be taken. The argument against any move toward tighter gun safety is the "slippery slope" theory which says that, while it is possible that any individual restriction, such as not allowing those on the terrorist "no fly" list to purchase firearms, may sound reasonable in isolation, it would represent the first step in a march toward the federal government taking away the guns of citizens. The other argument I've heard is that bad people will always be able to get guns if they want them. This was also the basis of the main objection to the now scrapped Canadian long gun registry. If we look at jurisdictions like the U.K. and Japan which have very restrictive gun ownership laws, these countries see gun deaths which are orders of magnitude lower than in the US. The San Bernardino couple who killed 14 people last week had an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons and ammunition in their home - all of which were legally purchased. As David Frum said last week, the NRA has established conditions where not only nothing can be done about this, but nothing can be said either.  

Chiefs 30, Bills 22

CFL Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge unveiled the new Canadian Football League logo at his "State of the League" address on Friday, two days before the league's signature event, the 103rd Grey Cup. The league has now had four different logos since the 1950s and Mr. Orridge hopes that this latest one will help build a new generation of Canadian football fans. The league always seems to put on a good show for the Grey Cup, as it certainly did yesterday, despite the viability of the league appearing at times to be hanging from a thread. It isn't now and I hope that it can continue on for a long time because I like it.

Being a resident of Toronto and an NFL season ticket holder, people assume that I am not a fan of the CFL. Far from it. I can remember very clearly when the Argonauts won the Grey Cup in 1983 in Vancouver, led by back-up quarterback Joe Barnes, running back Cedric Minter and receiver Terry Greer. It was the team's first Cup win since 1952 (hard to believe in a nine or eight team league) and it felt like a big deal at the time. The 1983 Argos season featured big crowds at Exhibition Stadium who rushed the field after each home win. 55,000+ filled the stadium for the Eastern Final against Hamilton, a game won by the Argos on a highly questionable pass interference call against the Ti-Cats. I watched the game in a packed sports bar in London, Ontario.

In November of 1994, I attended an Edmonton Eskimos game at Commonwealth Stadium with my uncle Dave who was a long-time Eskimo season ticket holder. The opponent was the Las Vegas Posse. The game was scheduled to be a home game for the Posse but was moved to Edmonton due, presumably, to a lack of interest and ticket sales in Las Vegas. I think the Eskimos won the game and, later that month, the Grey Cup was won by the BC Lions over the Baltimore Stallions. Baltimore would win the Cup the following year, marking the only time that a non-Canadian team won the CFL championship. The league has obviously been willing to try new strategies to remain viable.

Stephen Brunt was pontificating on the FAN last week about the CFL's problems in Canada's largest city. Argos attendance at the Rogers Centre has been weak for many years and the team receives little coverage in the Toronto media, compared to that given to the Leafs, Blue Jays and Raptors. Brunt observed that on local sports radio call-in shows, the subject of the Argos and the CFL does come up from time to time but he also recalled that it has been literally years since any caller wanted to ask or comment about the team's quarterback, defensive game-planning or needs in the draft. Rather, calls are about the viability of the team, the shortcomings of the stadium or ownership issues. The team has now played its last game at the dome and will make an expanded BMO Field its home beginning in 2016. Capacity for football will be about 30,000. Brunt suggested that, despite the expected lift from the novelty of a new home, that number may be a bit big for the current Toronto CFL appetite. The recent success of the Montreal Allouettes can be attributed to a "scarcity" of tickets in a 20,000 seat stadium which has led to consistent sell-outs. I am happy not to see another football game in the dome which feels cavernously empty even with 35,000 inside. Will I buy a ticket to an Argos game at BMO Field next season? Perhaps I will. Jeffrey Orridge needs me to and he also needs to sell the game to a much younger generation than I represent. I wish him success with that.

As for the Bills, it feels like the season is slowly but surely slipping away. Rex Ryan apparently said that his staff in the booth did not have a good view of Chris Hogan's catch in the 4th quarter which was ruled incomplete. It was clearly a catch and would have been reversed on a challenge, keeping the Bills drive alive. They would have needed a touchdown and a two point conversion to tie. Now, at 5-6, the playoffs are still a possibility with the Houston Texans coming to Orchard Park on Sunday. Amazingly enough, my tickets are still available.

  

Patriots 20, Bills 13

Last night's game was generally quite infuriating to watch. Not only because the Bills offense sputtered with quarterback Tyrod Taylor having a poor night throwing the ball but because the game, which wasn't officially over until its last minute, went WAY past my usual bedtime. This was due obviously to an 8.30pm kick-off but also because of delays from numerous injuries on both sides and several officials' on-field conferences where strange calls were discussed and confirmed. Overall, it was just another loss to New England. Not including last season's week 17 win against the Patriots third stringers, the Bills have beaten the Patriots only once since the opening game of 2003 - a week 3 win in Buffalo in September of 2011.

The week 17 win in Foxboro last season was the one which secured a winning season for Buffalo at 9-7, their first one since 2004 when their record was also 9-7. Of note is that each of the two coaches who guided the team to those 9-7 winning seasons, namely Mike Mularkey (now serving a sentence as the Titans interim head coach) and Doug Marrone, both resigned their positions as head coach of the Bills. Mularkey resigned following the 2005 season after Ralph Wilson brought back Marv Levy to serve as the team's general manager. Mularkey foresaw his own firing, presumably, and Levy then hired Dick Jauron who claimed (and proved) that it is indeed hard to win in the NFL. Marrone's resignation was more mysterious as he bailed out last New Year's Eve after rumours circulated that the team was considering bringing back Bill Polian as general manager (which did not happen). Marrone won the jackpot anyway, landing a job as the offensive line coach for the Jaguars. If coaching football is your chosen career path and you find yourself holding one of the 32 jobs which represent the pinnacle of your profession, would you not hold that job for as long possible regardless of who your team may or may not bring in to be your boss? The Bills could easily finish this season at 9-7, after which Rex Ryan will likely resign. Just to follow the pattern.

If Rex doesn't resign after this season (if the Bills finish 8-8, for example), then he will have two more chances next year to beat the Patriots (and state several more times as those games approach that he has no desire to kiss Belichick's rings) with Brady and Belichick but maybe not many more than that as these two will have to retire at some point. Their schedule is quite favourable the rest of the way and they have a great chance to post another 16-0 season, like they did in 2007. At this point, I'm hoping they are able to do that, not only because the Bills are finished with them this season but because they're just so impressive.

The AFC playoff picture is cloudy now but next week's game will clear things up a little as the 5-5 Bills travel to Kansas City to face the 5-5 Chiefs, who are playing as well as any team in the league now. Then the schedule gets considerably easier with a home game against Houston, followed by 3 straight against NFC East teams before closing out the schedule at home to the Jets. The playoffs are still well within reach for this team. If they can make it and break the 16 year drought, Rex Ryan will need to think long and hard about whether or not to resign.
  

Bills 22, Jets 17

Meet Garrison Sanborn. He's not a musician or an American civil war general; he is a professional athlete who holds a highly specialized job - perhaps the most specialized position in sports: an NFL long snapper. He and his 31 other long snapping colleagues around the league are paid to propel footballs from the ground, backwards from between their legs, a distance of about 7 yards and about one yard off the ground for field goals and extra point attempts or about 11 yards at waist height to punters. The role of long-snapper is usually a little noticed one, unless, of course, they make a bad snap. The consequences of a bad snap can be disastrous. Good snaps, like good refereeing, are almost never discussed.

Sanborn, from Tampa, Fla, is the 4th highest paid long snapper in the NFL, earning a base salary of $910,000 in 2015. Signed as free agent in 2009 by the Bills, his contract was extended by 3 years in September, 2014 keeping him under contract to the Bills through the 2017 season. He is considered to be one of the most consistent and reliable long snappers in the league but, on Thursday night in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, late in a close game against the Jets, a bad Sanborn snap caused Bills Punter Colton Schmidt to fumble the ball for a second - long enough to prevent him from getting his punt off and giving the Jets the ball deep in Buffalo territory and down by only 5 points. The Bills defence came up big and they hung on to win the game, despite the bad snap. Sanborn hopes for no further notariety this season.

Rex Ryan kept saying, as the game approached, that his return to New Jersey was not the story of this game but his demeanor during his post-game press conference said differently. He was clearly thrilled to have been leaving the Meadowlands with a win and he spoke directly and by name to many in the New York sports press corps with whom he had developed close relationships over his 6 years as head coach there.

The Bills next game represents the ultimate test on their schedule and seems like an impossible assignment: a prime time match-up at Gillette Stadium against the undefeated Patriots next Monday night. The Bills actually won on their last visit there - a season-ending sleeper after the Patriots had home field wrapped up before going on to win the Superbowl. To win, the Bills will need not only their best game in all 3 phases but some turnovers and probably some other forms of luck.

The most entertaining game of week 10 featured those same Patriots against the Giants in the same Meadowlands where the Bills won on Thursday. The Giants literally let the game slip away with both a touchdown pass and an interception "dropped", or at least not held onto long enough late in the game. A very late 54 yard field goal after those drops preserved the Patriots perfect season. The schedule lines up nicely for them the rest of the way and it is entirely possible that yesterday's one point win over the Giants will end up being the closest call they have all season.

As I have said many times over the years, the only way that the Bills will ever have a home playoff game is by winning their division. There simply isn't any other way, I have declared over and over. But that's actually not true as I realized yesterday while hauling huge chucks of hemlock on a fridge cart along our cottage road. If the Bills were to secure the first wildcard spot - the 5th seed in the AFC playoffs, after the 4 division winners - and if both the second wildcard team, the 6th and final seed, and the Bills, were to win two road playoff games each, then the AFC Championship Game would be played in Buffalo. The chances of that scenario unfolding seem about as likely as a Bills win next Monday night. But it is possible. And I like to live in the world of the possible.

Bills 33, Dolphins 17

"Have you crossed together before?" asked the US Border Patrol officer in Lewiston, NY yesterday just after 9am, in keeping with the well-established practice of making sure to ask a question that I have never been asked before. I was with a friend with whom I had never traveled anywhere. The only problem with him that I know of is that he's a long-time Miami Dolphins fan. So much so that he insisted on wearing his Ricky Williams Dolphins game jersey into the stadium (and it earned him a few comments too). He's also a doctor and one with a connection to the auto insurance/IME industry to which I have recently and quite unexpectedly been introduced in my own right. So, we talked a bit about that business and he sort of told me where the industry's bodies are buried and some other juicy stuff too. Turns out that people in the industry, like in all other industries, act in their own self-interest. But the system works more or less satisfactorily and is clearly the product of heavy political pressure to hold and/or lower auto insurance premiums in Ontario.

"No we haven't", I said to the border officer, making a mental note of yet another new question to add to the list. We then declared our alcohol and all other forms of contraband on board and a moment later we were on our way along I 290 toward the bridge to Grand Island on a spectacular November morning.

Being the closest home game to Veteran's Day, the national anthem was sung with an American flag almost as big as the playing field stretched out and then folded up with remarkable speed and precision by military personnel. And a hercules flew over low and steeply banked just as the anthem ended. Americans love this stuff, But they don't wear poppies like we do in Canada. I had a poppy on my Bills lanyard yesterday and it may have been the only in the stadium.

Poppies or not, the Bills didn't disappoint their fans yesterday as they snapped a three game home losing streak, powered by strong performances from some key players on offense like Sammy Watkins, LeSean McCoy and Tyrod Taylor. All looked healthy although McCoy was slow to get up on a fourth quarter play but Karlos Williams, himself back from a concussion a few weeks ago, finished the game, and the Dolphins, off.  With me in the stands, the Bills home record is 2-0. Without me, its 0-3.

So the Bills, having swept the Dolphins this year, find themselves with three days to prepare for another critical division tilt against the Jets which also features Rex Ryan's first trip to the Meadowlands since being fired after coaching there for the past six seasons. The league, in its constant effort to create and market new product lines, has assigned official Christmas colours to each team for Thursday's game. The Bills will be dressed entirely in red and the Jets entirely in green. At 4-4, a Bills win would bring them even with the Jets who are now 5-3. The Patriots will win the division of course and could easily run the table like they did in 2007. The race for the two AFC wildcard spots looks to still be wide open at the mid-point of the season.

Otherwise big changes are happening. There's a new Prime Minister and cabinet in place and I have a new place to go on weekdays now. I take the Sheppard subway as far east as it runs and then get on a bus and go further east to the Consumer's Road Area (CRA) where I get off the bus and enter a non-descript CRA office building. It isn't a signature location for the city in terms of the quality of the local architecture or the lunch options or much else really but, ever so slowly, for reasons I can't explain, it is growing on me. I'll be sure to include a full description of my experience in the CRA in the long-form census comments section.

Jaguars 34, Biils 31

One of my Buffalo friends said after the Cincinnati game that he would never attend another game if EJ Manuel was the starting quarterback for the Bills. I'm not yet willing to go that far but, for the 16th overall pick now in his third year in the league, there is some basic element of what good quarterbacks have that he just doesn't. The trifecta in the second quarter yesterday in London which consisted of a sack and fumble returned for a touchdown, followed by a pick six and then by another awful interception which led to another score. I like what I've seen from Tyrod Taylor for the most part so far but the quarterback position remains unsettled, as it has been for most of the years since Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season. Taylor could be good but may be injured too much; Manuel is running out of time to elevate his game; Matt Cassel is gone; Josh Johnson is the third quarterback in the depth chart. Do they look for a quarterback in the first round once again and hope to finally get it right?

As for the rest of the game, despite coming back to take the lead in the 4th quarter, the game was lost, for me at least, on those three plays from the quarterback. I watched the game on my laptop/turbo-stick at the cottage and right after the trifecta, I logged off and went for a bike ride. Saw the end of the game afterward but I almost wish I hadn't.

I guess the biggest question I have after 7 games, because EJ has really never given us any reason to think that he will figure out how to be an NFL quarterback, is why the defence has taken a step back this year under defensive guru Rex Ryan and his long-time co-ordinator, Dennis Thurmond. Way fewer sacks yes, but its the vulnerability to the run which surprises me more than anything. They've given up 6,7 or 8 yard runs on first down so many times this year and its really hard to get defensive stops on 2nd and 3rd down if you're doing that. Injuries at key skilled positions certainly don't help but the team just looks kind of weak coming out of this game. Up next: after the much-needed bye week, on November 8th, the Miami Dolphins come to Orchard Park for the annual squish the fish game.

So, we put on a good election last Monday, I thought. No controversy, no involvement from the GG. no ambiguous mandate - at least in our "first  past the post" system where winning between 38 and 40% of the vote converts to 100% of the legislative power for the "winning"party. Stephen Harper's transformation of Canada is now over but we've got some undoing to do now. Looks like they've decided where to start:

I've waited a long time to say this and I know that I only have a one-in-five chance anyway but I just can't wait to see if I get one of the "long" census forms next year which are almost certain to be back by popular demand. I'm assuming that, in addition to the usual detailed demographic research questions, the new long form will be even longer with the addition of a special series of questions about evidence-based decision making and the perils of using ideology instead.

Bengals 34, Bills 21

It was not a very good weekend for the professional sports teams I root for. The Leafs apparently won a hockey game in Columbus, Ohio on Friday night but, other than that, the loss column filled up as the Jays dropped 2 games to the Royals in the ALCS and the Bills slipped to 3-3 with a loss to the Bengals in Orchard Park. En route to London right after the game, the team has to feel that it has under-achieved through the first 6 weeks. And the injuries at key positions continue to pile up. Assuming that the Bills can handle the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley on Sunday morning, that would leave them at 4-3 entering their bye week. Is there really hope that they can make a run for the playoffs through the season's last 9 games? It doesn't seem likely.

If the Blue Jays are going to win the ALCS, they will clinch in in Missouri as the best they can hope for is a 3-2 series lead after the 3 games in Toronto which start tonight. Games 4 and 5 are 4pm starts as the US networks obviously prefer to have the Mets/Cubs series in prime time, Tonight is a big night for TV watching and many viewers across the country will be working their remotes switching back and forth between the election seat count and the ball game. I like their chances with Stroman tonight.

I almost cancelled my Globe and Mail subscription in June of last year when, to the surprise of many, it endorsed Tim Hudak and his "Progressive" Conservative Party a few days before the provincial election, only to see the Liberals win a majority. The Globe's endorsement this time around is a bit of a mystery as it says that the Conservative Party deserves to continue governing but without Stephen Harper. The party is somehow our best option, claims the Globe, but the Prime Minister has to go and all will be fine. But the Conservative Party, as it now exists, is Stephen Harper and what another incarnation of it might look like after he's gone is hard to say, if not hard to imagine. I'll keep reading the Globe but I do wonder what value there is in endorsing an option which not only isn't on offer but that doesn't even exist. In fairness, the editorial urged the party to return to its roots - its progressive roots and not its Reform roots - by being "fiscally conservative, economically liberal and socially progressive". In other words, a return to kind of values the party held under the likes of Diefenbaker, Stanfield, Clark and Mulroney. There was a good reason why the word "progressive" was dropped when the Reform Party hijacked the PC party and drove it into the right wing ditch. The Globe and Mail may want the party to return to its real roots but it will take more than just a new leader.

Robyn Doolittle tweeted the photo of Harper with the Fords from the weekend and reminded us that it was a photo of the Prime Minister of Canada two days before a federal election. The decision to try to leverage the Ford brand (presumably to rally the base) in the final day or two of the campaign almost seems fitting and, as this is one of his final photo opps as Prime Minister, sort of looks good on him I guess. He's been a mean-spirited and divisive leader. Whatever we get tonight, I'm confident that most of us will feel better about it and that will be a good start.  

Bills 14, Titans 13

The Blue Jays didn't need the three runs from Troy Tulowitski's 6th inning blast to win last night's third game of the ALDS in Arlington, Texas but the team and the player need his bat if they want to win the next two games and go on to the ALCS and perhaps the World Series. The Jays were beneficiaries of a brilliantly pitched game by Marco Estrada and, with an effective bullpen performance, were able to put the pressure back on the Rangers who will not want to have a game 5 in Toronto on Wednesday. R. A. Dickey gets the call tonight with one of either Price or Stroman set to go in the deciding game. Price warmed up in the bullpen and looked as if he was about to enter the game before Osuna finally got up to come in for the 9th. I have a feeling that Marcus Stroman will get the call if there is a game 5 with David Price perhaps pitching out of the bullpen where he almost certainly will not earn the first playoff win of his career. Or another loss. Game time today is 4pm and, on this traffic-laden Thanksgiving Day, I will need to plan carefully as to the timing of my departure from Muskoka and the route I'll take - being sure than I'm back by 4pm - and then come up with a plan on where to watch the game in Toronto.

As for the Bills, I couldn't help but think of the most famous one of Dick Jauron's lines (and there certainly weren't many to choose from) which was "It's hard to win in the NFL". Both the Bills and the Titans can attest to that after yesterday's frustrating and relatively poorly played affair in Nashville. This year's Titans are considered by most observers to be a team in the bottom third of the league and the Bills, well, they're probably in the middle third with aspirations of climbing into the top third. Buffalo's offense was pathetic through the first half but, thanks to a few key plays by Tyrod Taylor and Chris Hogan, were able to generate just enough offense to come home with a road win. Taylor made some brilliant scrambling plays to extend drives but he needs to do a better job of protecting himself or we are sure to see the third incarnation of EJ Manuel before too long. The Bills earned only one turnover yesterday and it was on the last meaningful play before they moved into victory formation. All wins in the NFL are hard, for sure, and road wins are even harder. Just ask the Seahawks who blew a big lead yesterday and let the Bengals pick up their 5th win of the season. Cincinnati travels to Orchard Park on Sunday and the Bills will look to move to 4-2 before heading to London the following week.

With a week to go in the federal election campaign, it still seems to be up for grabs. The parties' strategies, as seen in the latest round of TV ads, is interesting with Harper now reminding us that the election really isn't about him and Trudeau asking us to choose hope over fear and to dismiss the Harper claim that he is the only one capable of managing the economy. I think that the Liberals have good momentum now which they can build on over the next 7 days. I'm not really sure that I want a Liberal government but, like two thirds of us, I need to see the current regime, and its shameful neo-conservative ways, thrown out. Last year, the Conservatives ran an ad which claimed that Canadian values are Conservative values. It wasn't true then and it certainly isn't true now.  

Giants 24, Bills 10

When Marv Levy coached the Bills, I loved his references to historical events in his cerebral descriptions of football games. "We've liberated Berlin but we haven't won the war yet", he said in a post-game press conference in December of 1990, as the Bills came to within a game of clinching home field through the AFC playoffs. They would earn that home field advantage the following week and go on to lose Superbowl XXV to the NY Giants 20-19. Marv knew a lot about football - and obviously still does as he is now 90 - and had a unique the ability to boil the game down to its highly quotable basics. One of the things I heard him say more than once was that to win games in the NFL, a team need only be able to do simple things well: run the ball and stop the run. These were the two things, as it tuned out, that the Bills were unable to do much at all yesterday against the 2015 Giants in Orchard Park.

The pre-game crew on WGR were suggesting that the game's most glaring mis-match would be the Bills front 7 against the Giants offensive line and running backs. The Giants would have trouble establishing the run against Buffalo's fearsome defensive line and Manning would have to win the game for them. What won the Giants the game was their running game, especially on first down, and their run defense. Just like Marv used to say.

So, after 4 weeks, are the Bills a good team? Are the Giants a good team? Both are 2-2 but this morning, one is feeling much better than the other. The Bengals, Packers, Panthers, Falcons and Broncos are all 4-0 with the Patriots having an early bye this week at 3-0. Will they all make the playoffs? Probably not but its still very hard to tell who's actually good and could contend at the end of the season. I thought the Bills were good after pasting the Dolphins last week then I watched the Dolphins look horrible again against the Jets yesterday, making the Bills win last week seem considerably less impressive. After yesterday's game, it certainly looks like the Giants are good but maybe they'll fall back next week. One thing is clear: the Packers are good.

So, the Bills travel to Nashville next week, scene of their most recent playoff game in January, 2000 which will forever be remembered as the Music City Miracle. Rob Johnson, where are you now? You had that game won and then it slipped away on what I firmly maintain was a forward pass which was ruled to be a legal "lateral" on a kick-off return. I realize I'm referencing a lot of Bills history in this post; its the influence of Marv Levy.

Also, the Bills lost the game yesterday largely because of 17 freakin penalties which cost them 135 yards and two called-back touchdowns. I like how Rex defended his team and said he was still proud of their effort but he will have to address the ongoing issue of discipline if his team is going to find a way to be good this season. Imparting a commitment to individual personal conduct with every player on his team, including temper control and finding a balance between playing with passion and playing within the rules, is a critical part of any football coach's responsibility. Even more important than conducting entertaining press conferences.  

 

Bills 41, Dolphins 14

I can remember the 1989 season opener very clearly. With two seconds left on the clock in a steamy, humid Joe Robbie Stadium with the Bills trailing the Dolphins by four points, Jim Kelly, never known for his ability to scramble, dropped back to pass then executed the quarterback draw perfectly, scoring the winning touchdown. Bills win 27-24. Then, a bit more than three years later, on the same field, in the AFC Championship Game, Kelly led his team to a 29-10 win to earn a spot in their third consecutive Superbowl - where they would be crushed by Dallas 52-17.

Since the series between the AFC East division rivals began in 1966, Buffalo wins in Miami have not been plentiful, although not unheard of either. Through the 1970s, the Dolphins dominated the series, both at the Orange Bowl and at Rich Stadium, making Miami the Bills fiercest rival. The rivalry has continued on, although neither team has tasted much success recently. Going into this season, the Dolphins were considered to be much improved and were favoured by pundits as having the best chance to unseat the Patriots for the AFC East title. It appears that neither the Dolphins or the Bills are likely to overtake the Patriots this season but, if yesterday's game in Miami was any indication, Buffalo looks to have a better chance.

Just like last week, the Bills first series on defence resulted in a three-and-out and their first series on offence produced a touchdown. But, unlike last week, the momentum continued and the Bills cruised to an easy win in the humidity of South Florida before an unenthusiastic gathering of Dolphin fans who had hoped for more from their team in its home opener and especially after losing to Jacksonville last week.

Speaking of Florida, former governor and one-time front-runner for the Republican party's presidential nomination, Jeb Bush, must be wondering what he can do to revive his stumbling campaign. Now that John Boehner has thrown in the towel and effectively turned over the House Speakership to the far-right fringe section of his party (or to someone who is beholden to it), Bush's road to the nomination just got a lot rougher. With Donald Trump still leading in the polls, followed by Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, Bush, as the "mainstream" candidate, may find that his party chooses a "real" conservative next year. The Democrats clearly hope that they do.

In Canada, we are now three weeks from election day and absolutely nothing is clear. The three way race shows no signs of breaking and it also seems very unlikely that any party will win enough seats to form a majority government. I hope that David Johnson has dusted off his constitutional texts because he's probably going to need them. Take this scenario: The Conservatives win the most seats but are in a weak minority position. Harper has said that he will try to form a government in this scenario. Let's say that Mulcair and Trudeau form an alliance (something short of formal coalition) and they together approach the Governor General and ask him to let one of them form a government the support of the other. They may also make it clear that if he asks Harper to govern, they will defeat that government at the first opportunity and then ask him to let them form a government. Why would he choose to ask Harper to govern knowing that his government would be almost immediately defeated? Would public pressure not push him to ask the quasi-coaltion to govern? Maybe MacKenzie King's mother knows that answer.        

Patriots 40, Bills 32

Things started out just fine yesterday. Tyrod Taylor took the opening kick-off and marched his team down the field for a touchdown. The Patriots then went three-and-out on their first possession which included Tom Brady having to take a time-out due to crowd noise, presumably. From that point on, despite mounting a late comeback of sorts, the Bills were outmatched, outcoached and overwhelmed for the rest of yesterday's game in Orchard Park. I presume that the Guinness Book of World Records folks, there to measure crowd noise for a possible outdoor world record, left early.

As I watched each and every one of Rex Ryan's press conferences from the day he was hired last January, through OTA's and training camp and after last Sunday's game, I wondered how his demeanor would change after a loss. He seemed angry and terse. And rightfully so. After building this week 2 game up as the potential defining moment of this season and his coaching tenure in Buffalo, the hype was fully deflated (sorry, had to use it) as Tom Brady passed for 466 yards (a Bills team record) as the Bills had no defensive answer at all. Ryan took full responsibility for the poor game plan and for the undisciplined conduct of his team which took 14 penalties on the day and, at times, lost its composure. Watching the game from home, it was endlessly frustrating and reminiscent of so many games the Bills have played over the past 15 years against New England.

I think that Rex may now regret having let expectations grow too high for yesterday's game. It's a long season with another big divisional game coming up on Sunday. Many teams are 1-1 after week 2 and I hope that coach Ryan and his team can prepare properly for a road game in south Florida against a 1-1 Dolphins team which will be highly motivated after lost at Jacksonville yesterday. The Bills will have to wait until week 11 for revenge when they will face the Patriots again in prime time on a Monday night.

Remember Donald Trump being one of the prospective purchasers of the Bills last year? I'm not sure that he was ever a serious bidder but imagine for a moment the chaos around the team if he had succeeded in buying it. How would the fan base feel about his controversial candidacy for the Republican nomination for President? He might wear a Bills hat instead of a "Make America Great Again" hat and isn't it possible that Tom Brady, apparently a good friend and supporter of Trump, may have felt some sense of mixed loyalty yesterday?

Trump's unlikely campaign momentum has carried him to the front-runner position, for now anyway. I see his statements, and those of some of his supporters, in a good news/bad news context. The bad news of course is that they are divisive, bigoted and often based on unthruths. The good news is two-fold: first, they will serve to pull the Republican party further to the right and force his competitors to play in his space and, second, while there is a shocking level of support for his views among those voting in Republican primaries, that support will fall short among the wider population, thankfully. Among other things, he's pretty much locked up the Latino vote - for the Democrats.

Next week's game is a late kick-off (4.25pm) in Miami. It will be a significant test of how Rex Ryan can re-set and re-focus his team.  

 















 

Bills 27, Colts 14

Rex Ryan is a master of media relations. Maybe not in comparison to politicians or corporate communications professionals but, as NFL coaches go, he's smart, savvy and relaxed in front of a microphone. He's a natural. He knows exactly what to say to motivate the fan base and the team and to show the appropriate deference to the team's relatively new owners, Terry and Kim Pegula.

Contrary to one of the main discussion threads from yesterday's season opening game at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor did NOT record his first career NFL start against the Indianapolis Colts. League records will show that Matt Cassel was under centre for the Bills first play from scrimmage, a trick play, in the tradition of the "wildcat" formation, which landed with a resounding thud and resulted in a six yard loss. Ryan explained in his post-game press conference that offensive coordinator Greg Roman conceived the play which went for touchdowns in practice. That led Ryan to brag about the upcoming play to game officials and to Terry Pegula as kick-off approached. Among some of his other comments, Ryan declared that the home crowd was better than the players yesterday, who were "pretty darn good" themselves. In the days leading up to the game, Ryan had called for Bills fans to make the stadium louder than ever yesterday - and they (we) responded accordingly. Noise levels when the Colts were running their offence were as loud as I can recall them ever being.

Taylor did get his first NFL start yesterday, if not officially, and he delivered a poised and confident performance by demonstrating his ability to throw the long ball on a pass to Percy Harvin, scrambling when it was required, showing a nice touch on screen and check-down passes and by not turning the ball over. Taylor has a long way to go before his name goes on the Wall of Fame at the Ralph but the 5th year man out of Virginia Tech likely went a log way towards earning the trust of Bills fans who haven't seen a real answer at quarterback since Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season.

Then, there's the defence. Andrew Luck is considered one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL but the Bills defence contained him and his new look offence with veteran running back Frank Gore by shutting them out for nearly three quarters as the Bills offence staked them to a 24-0 lead. And possibly the Bills best defensive player, lineman Marcel Dareus, didn't even suit up yesterday as he served a one game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Word is that he likes to smoke a little bit of marijuana. The Bills signed him to a contract extension last week and I think he may have smoked a little more to celebrate. Who am I to judge?

Kitchener, Ontario native and undrafted Yale graduate Tyler Varga got a few touches for the Colts yesterday with one carry, one pass reception and two kick-off returns.

Yesterday was a great day to be a Bills fan and to help answer Rex Ryan's call for the crowd to do its part. Next week, the stakes are even bigger as the defending Superbowl champion New England Patriots with quarterback Tom Brady and his entire legal team come to Orchard Park. Can the fans make even more noise next week?

Patriots 28, Seahawks 24

Pete Carrol explained the decision to call a pass on the play which effectively ended one of the most exciting Superbowls in history by simply saying that sometimes the play you call works and sometimes it doesn't. Now that I've slept on it, I don't blame him or the Seahawks for the play call. It's easy to say this morning that it was a bad call but if the relatively high percentage play had worked and the Seahawks had won their second consecutive NFL title, the decision would either be considered brilliant or, more likely, would not be discussed at all. One of the key elements of play calling is to resist the temptation to do what the defence expects and with the winning touchdown a yard away and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, a pass would not have been what the Patriot defence was looking for. So, it didn't work and the Patriots won. That's the way it goes.

When the Stanley Cup is won, the NHL Commissioner presents it to the captain of the winning team who then (almost always - unless there's a senior player who isn't the captain and has never won a Cup before) hoists the Cup over his head and skates around the ice before handing it to a team-mate. In the NFL, the Commissioner presents the Vince Lombardi trophy not to a team captain, not to the quarterback, not to the coach or general manager but to the team's owner. Robert Kraft now has another one to add to his display case which already had three. Another thing I like about the Stanley Cup is that there is only one of them (well, apparently there are two in case the one presented is damaged) but every year, a new Vince Lombardi trophy is made and the winning team keeps it. So, there are now 49 of them out there.

As President Obama said yesterday in the kitchen of the White House, the most surprising thing to most fans about the deflated ball controversy was that the individual teams have anything to do with the "preparation" of game balls. I think that it is a virtual certainty that this will end before next season and that game balls will be the exclusive domain of game day officials who will test the balls for inflation pressure and other specifications. The league could also come up with a policy which says that, in colder weather, balls are slightly less inflated. This helps with all aspects of ball handling and would make sense in order to reduce the chances of having games with multiple turnovers. The point is that each team plays with the same balls. I say you can bet on it.

So, the games are done but the NFL off-season will swing into full gear with the college player combine next then free agency, the draft, the schedule release, OTA's and then training camps in late July. My season ticket invoice from the Bills will be arriving in my mailbox shortly. I'm not looking forward to paying it with 78 cent dollars but I will.

Here's another prediction: the Bills will have a Monday night home game in 2015 and it will be against the Dallas Cowboys. As tempting as it will be to sell my tickets on the secondary market and recover some of my currency shortfall and the cost of the two pre-season games, I will most likely go. It will surely be the latest that I will have stayed up since the last night home game in 2012.

Let the Rex Ryan Era Begin

One of my favourite Rex Ryan quotes from his time coaching the Jets came when he was asked if he was intimidated by coaching against Bill Belichick. He responded by saying "I'm not going to kiss his rings". And there are three of them to kiss with a fourth possibly on its way in a couple of weeks.

There are many things to like about Ryan's hiring for Bills fans. First, here is what would have been the main reason not to hire him: The Bills challenges over the past two years have been on the offensive side of the ball. Without a franchise quarterback, the offence sputtered under Doug Marrone who, as a former offensive lineman in the NFL, was hired to help find a quarterback and, when they settled on EJ Manuel, to bring him and the Bills offence along. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz handled the defence brilliantly last season and most Bills fans would have agreed that the defence needed little or no tweaking going into 2015. But Ryan is a defensive coach and his arrival last week led to the departure of Schwartz only a few days later. With no obvious solution at quarterback, Ryan has hired former 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman to run the Bills offence. Roman's focus has been on a power running game - and that might suit the Bills personnel well if CJ Spiller returns but winning teams in the NFL are able to throw the ball effectively more now than ever. So, we'll see.

The press conference last Wednesday where Ryan was introduced was great to watch. Ryan has a certain swagger and, combined with his sense of humour and folksy charm, he will endear himself to the fan base easily. And, for the first time since the Bills hired former Rams coach Chuck Knox in 1978, Rex Ryan is a name - an experienced NFL head coach who has spent the last 6 years in New York. Other than Knox, Ralph Wilson's coaching hires, including Marv Levy, were either coordinators getting their first head coaching job or re-tread coaches who came cheap (like Levy was). Ryan brings a measure of credibility to the Bills who really needed it after Doug Marrone mysteriously "opted out" on New Year's Eve. But, as one of the WGR guys said last week, Ryan can have the most hilarious press conferences the Buffalo media has ever seen but if he can't find an NFL serviceable quarterback to lead the offence, he won't seem that funny after a few weeks.

So, after all the wild card machinations of the last two weeks of the NFL season, and with 10 of the 11 NFL playoff games in the books, we are left with the two top conference seeds: The Patriots and the Seahawks. This looks like a great match-up for the Superbowl. Yesterday's conference championship games were a study in contrast with one being a classic overtime thriller and the other not really competitive at all. Watching the Packers collapse yesterday, which included giving up an onside kick, I couldn't help wondering how their playoff run would have turned out had they been able to beat the Bills in week 15 and play the NFC Championship game at Lambeau instead of in Seattle.

Finally, I visited my friend and long-time colleague JS last week who has been knocked back by a medical issue. Get well soon. The Cowboys need you and so do the rest of us.

The Pegula Honeymoon is Over

Doug Marrone was apparently very upset with the Buffalo media and its apparent obsession with questioning his conservative approach on 4th down and probably other issues too. If he ends up coaching the Jets, he will find the New York media to be better behaved and much less likely to question his decisions.

Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News has his share of detractors (Marrone probably among them) for his decidedly negative tone over the years but I think that his journalism is good and right and presents readers with a valuable perspective. He called Ralph Wilson cheap - which he was. He also pointed out in a recent column that the honeymoon for the Pegulas is clearly over. When Kyle Orton resigned the morning after the Bills final game, it was understandable. After all, the Bills had to coax him out of a sort of semi-retirement to agree to be the "back-up" in 2014. But when news of Marrone's New Year's Eve "opt-out" reached me, it didn't sound like good news.

According to multiple reports, Marrone asked for a contract extension at some point in the first three days of last week and was turned down. This may have been a high stakes bluff game on the part of both Marrone and Pegula with Marrone sensing his market value had risen after having guided the team to its first winning season in 10 years and Pegula doubting that Marrone would really pull the plug if an extension was not granted. But the result is the antithesis of what many of us thought the Pegula regime would deliver to the Bills fan base. The quarterback retires and then the coach resigns. Perhaps both men would handle the negotiations differently were they to have a second chance but its done now and the Bills have no coach.

From Pegula's perspective, I understand his reluctance to consider a contract extension for Marrone. He is yet to hire - either permanently or on a "contract" basis - a football expert to advise him on the state of his $1.4 billion investment in a business where he is not an expert. Perhaps he should have moved sooner to do so but the man he apparently wanted, current ESPN analyst and former Bills GM, Bill Polian, turned him down after Marrone opted out. He may not have done so if the coach was coming back. Marrone was apparently concerned about Polian coming in to the organization with too much authority - authority which he wanted some of anyway. So, Marrone quit because Polian might be coming and Polian turned down a front office job because Marrone had left. What are we to think of this?

It's easy for me to say this but surely Pegula could have explained to Marrone that he needed a bit more time to review the team's operations before extending coaching contracts. He could have thrown him a bone of some kind - in private, of course. This could have been an assurance that his job was safe and that he would have more authority over personnel decisions - whatever - even if the promises were made without knowing if they would be kept. Pegula has a public relations disaster on his hands now with a President and a GM who are both fearful of losing their jobs after an analysis by the owner's appointed expert. But there is no expert in place now. And the top coaching candidates are all going through the interview process this week with the list of teams looking to hire. Any candidate for the Bills job who may receive other offers will have to consider that the team has potential lame ducks in the front office, pending Pegula's review of operations. Other offers will not come with that level of uncertainty.

Pegula has said nothing publicly and I think its time that he does. Marrone has made no statement either but he's gone and it really doesn't matter. Pegula built a business empire and a personal fortune. Surely, he can take steps to calm the fan base and bring stability to the front office, either by giving the President and the GM a vote of confidence or by cleaning house. He won't solve this one by pumping water deep underground. He needs to take charge, take action and do it fast.