Maybe the Pegulas don't really look forward to December. For the third consecutive year - every December since they acquired the Buffalo Bills - turmoil surrounds their football team. Multiple reports surfaced before yesterday's game that a power struggle was playing out at One Bills Drive between the head coach and the general manager about who should start under centre for the team's final three or four games.
Rex Ryan apparently still believes that Tyrod Taylor is the team's quarterback of the future and should start the remainder of the team's games as long as he's healthy. Doug Whaley wants to see third stringer and 2016 fourth round draft pick Cardale Jones start the team's last three games to see how he does on a big stage, although after the season is lost, as it now is. The reports suggested that Ryan could be gone as early as today (Monday). If there is any truth to this, then it seems to me that Ryan could save his job by coming around on the quarterback issue and agreeing to start Cardale Jones, if he wants to. I just wonder how EJ Manuel must feel this morning. Maybe he's permanently stuck at the two spot in the Bills quarterback depth chart. Ryan has more than $16 million remaining on his five year contract and, unlike the players he coaches, his money is guaranteed.
Yesterday's game was not nearly as close as the score indicates. Taylor and the Bills offense was awful and the defense wasn't much better although they did capitalize on some errant throws by Ben Roethlisberger. I actually saw only the first and fourth quarters as I decided to go out cross-country skiing between 1.30 and 3pm. It was lovely as it will be today with another 15cm having fallen here in Muskoka overnight.
Like many sports fans in southern Ontario, I tuned in to the MLS Championship game on Saturday night. I even watched a bit of the pre-game discussions, mostly among unknown (to me at least) British analysts. Before Saturday, the only soccer games I have ever consciously tuned it for have been World Cup finals or perhaps semi-finals. I don't think I had seen a minute of a TFC game on television but I had heard from many sources that attending a game live makes for a highly enjoyable event. I think I'm even more mystified about the game now than I was last week.
First, the semi-final was a two-game total goal format (I can remember when the CFL did this in its conference finals up to the 1970s) between Toronto and Montreal while the league championship is only a single game. Seems odd. The game itself wasn't particularly interesting to me and I found myself back to the Leaf game in Boston before long. But I did keep switching back and watched quite a bit of it. The game, for me, lacked a sense of urgency that could reasonably be expected for a championship game. TFC had the better chances and I read the next morning that the X Box team didn't register a shot on goal for the entire game, including extra time, injury time and the extra minute or two that the referees let the teams play beyond the injury time.
The basic problem with soccer for most North American sports fans is that it is simply too difficult to score goals. I have no idea what a solution for this might look like. I can remember a few years ago a soccer expert explaining the difference between soccer and the four North American sports this way: he said that North American sports fans want their sports to "explode" while soccer is a game which simply "unfolds". Yes, it unfolds and it can be very pleasing to watch but when the score, after 120 minutes plus injury time, is nil/nil, maybe it needs to explode just a little. Then, almost like a coin toss, the game is decided on penalty kicks because the concept of a sudden-death, "play until someone scores" approach would, apparently, lead to highly defensive play on each side and the game would go on and on and on. One suggestion I can think of is to allow multiple - hey how about unlimited - substitutions during extra time to increase the chances of a goal or, at the very least, a shot on goal. Or just let the game end in a tie. Both teams could then half-heartedly hoist the cup.
The Bills welcome their sorry Lake Erie cousins, the 0-13 Cleveland Browns, this weekend in Orchard Park. It will be one hot ticket. Unfortunately, I have two.
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