After taking a one point lead into halftime yesterday in Oakland, the Bills came out of the gate in third quarter, inspired by another long run from scrimmage by LeSean McCoy, and promptly scored two touchdowns to take what looked like a comfortable 24-9 lead. The Raiders, whose playoff drought dates back to 2002 when they went to the Superbowl and lost to Tampa Bay, were 0 for the last 72 times they found themselves trailing by 15 or more points. Make that 1 for 72 now as they roared back with 29 unanswered points in less than 12 minutes of play. And the Bills last won in Oakland in 1966.
Tied with the Patriots at 10-2, the Raiders are in a strong position to earn a first round bye in the AFC playoffs, if not home field advantage throughout. Raider fans have waited a long time for this but Bills fans have three years on them and New Era Field doesn't have any of its upper deck sections covered with tight fitting tarps because the seats can't be sold. The stadium in Oakland is old and decrepit but the sightlines from those tarped off sections look ok and it seems surprising to me that, in this very successful season, the team wouldn't open them up for sale. The Raiders may well end up in Las Vegas before long and the league apparently has a hate on for its owner, Mark Davis. In Oakland, success on the field isn't matched by overall franchise success. But the most dedicated members of Raider Nation still stand above any other fan base in terms of the elaborate make-up and costumes they don on Sundays at the Black Hole. Every NFL highlight package on weeks when the Raiders play at home includes a look at some of them. For these guys, it's Halloween eight times every year.
As for the Bills, hopes for an end to the playoff drought are all but gone. Winning out to finish 10-6 probably won't get it done as it looks to me like both wildcard teams will come from the AFC West which has four strong teams this year. One again, Bills fans are faced with December home games where the team is playing for next year's roster positions, for pride or perhaps to play a spoiler role as they did last year against the Jets in week 17. The Steelers come to Orchard Park next week to kick off three straight December home games. Then the winless Cleveland Browns come in on December 18th and the Dophins, who lost badly yesterday, come in on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas.
I keep hoping - yearning, to use a Seinfeld reference - for Tyrod Taylor to show that he is a proficient NFL passer but he keeps letting me down. Until yesterday, he had been very solid at ball protection and his scrambling ability is as good or better than any quarterback in the league but his passing skills just aren't there and yesterday was another good example as he missed several open receivers and couldn't get the right touch on some short passes either. I'm afraid that the Bills will have to look once again to the draft to try to nail down the most important position in the game. Jim Kelly retired 20 years ago and the team is still looking for his replacement.
The College football four-team playoff participants were announced yesterday: Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Washington. I think that it's only a matter of time before the playoff is expanded to eight teams as at least two of the teams left out of the tournament this year (Michigan and Penn State, both from the Big Ten) are at least as good as Washington. In an eight team playoff, the 9th and 10th best teams will always make similar arguments but still....
I've left politics alone on this blog since the US election and I intend to stick with that approach. However, rather than submitting my usual monthly sports column for True North Perspective, I decided to write an article on the Electoral College for December's issue. You can read it here.
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