Bills 38, Patriots 9

Apart from watching Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs continue their season-long game of pitch and catch, my favourite image from ESPN's coverage of last night's blowout football game in Foxborough was Bill Belichick angrily (almost violently) throwing what appeared to be an 80s style cordless telephone after presumably speaking to whoever recommended that he throw the red challenge flag on a sideline catch by Bills tight end Dawson Knox. Not because I dislike him because I really don't dislike him. I just think that he is a bit of a sore loser. Think back to Superbowl XLII when, after posting a 16-0 regular season record, his team lost the championship game 17-14 to the NY Giants, ruining what would have been only the second perfect season in NFL history. After the clock ran out, he stormed off to the locker room without walking toward the centre of the field to shake the hand of Giants coach Tom Coughlin. That stuck with me because I don't think I've ever seen an NFL coach fail to perform that particular post-game ritual before or after that game. 

As I was drifting off to sleep after the game last night - or trying to - WGR's post-game coverage included the virtual press conferences from each head coach. Bills coach Sean McDermott was asked repeatedly to comment on the significance of the win for the Buffalo Bills franchise and fan base. "Was this win a changing of the guard - a declaration by your team that the Patriots have finally been ousted from their 20 year run of domination in the AFC East?" McDermott, never one to create "bulletin board" material for any other team (even if wouldn't be used until next season), wouldn't take the bait and literally said that. "Nice try but this was just a big win for our football team and we have more work to do to reach our goal as an organization". I'm not worried about the bulletin board consideration so I'll offer my own answer: Yes it was. In many ways. Amazingly, 2020 was the first season since 2000 which saw any of the Patriots three division rivals sweep both games in one season. This is also the Patriots first losing season in 20 years. The Bills division title comes after the Patriots claimed the crown for the past 11 consecutive years. And to win this particular game in such an emphatic style is what Bills Nation was hoping for going in while most prognosticators (including me) predicted that Belichick would find a way to keep the game close. 

As for Belichick's press conference, he made the appropriate deferential comments about the team he just lost to, saying in his customary monotone style that they played better than his team did in all three phases and are well-coached etc etc. He was then specifically asked about the telephone throwing incident. After a long pause where even in my half-asleep state I could feel his slow burn, all he offered was that the Bills receiver made a good catch and that his challenge was unsuccessful as it should have been. He was asked again why the play was challenged - and at the time I also wondered why as all replays clearly showed Knox with full control of the ball with both feet touching well inside the white line - and he simply repeated his first answer about the catch being good. Whoever suggested to Belichick that he challenge the call was probably on the other end of that phone call and deserves full criticism for costing the Patriots a time-out. Belichick will probably insist that he personally pay for a replacement telephone for the bench. I actually have one in a drawer somewhere which worked well before I disconnected my landline, although the battery pack may be dead. Dead like the 2020 Patriots.

In September, 2013, the Carolina Panthers came to Orchard Park and lost a one-point game on a late game comeback engineered by Bills rookie quarterback EJ Manuel. I attended the game and I distinctly remember carefully watching Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, in his third year in the league, display his other-worldly athleticism and strong and accurate throwing arm. He was then and remains an impressive physical specimen and now at age 31, he should be in his prime - if not at his peak - as an NFL quarterback in his 10th year in the league. Following the 2019 season, after injuries plagued him for his last two seasons in Charlotte, the Panthers gave up on him. When the Patriots signed Newton this past off-season, I predicted a full revival for him in Belichick's system with years of tormenting the Bills lying ahead. But, despite retaining his athletic ability (seen clearly on the Patriots only touchdown last night), the man, for whatever reason, has lost his ability to throw a football. The ESPN crew kept referring to the Patriots passing game posing no real downfield threat and, trailing by double digits in the third quarter when it was most needed, they didn't even try to throw deep. Josh Allen, be thankful for what you have. In the NFL, it can be fleeting.

The NFL has managed to steer its ship, listing at times but always recovering, nearly to the finish line as week 17 of the regular season approaches. No week 18 will be needed and the playoffs and Superbowl are set to proceed on schedule. In September, I would have bet against this. Sure, the league has its retractors and for good reasons. But what it has managed to pull off in 2020 deserves to be applauded. The only complaint that comes to mind about the NFL this season, for me, is that game officials seem to have completely forgotten to call "helmet to helmet" hit infractions. There were two obvious incidents last night: one against Bills running back Devin Singletary and a second initiated by Bills safety Jordan Poyer against Cam Newton. Neither infraction was called but Poyer was taken off the field afterward for concussion evaluation and did not return. It was obviously a league initiated decision to remove him from the game after the violent hit. More credit to the NFL for this I guess but they have to call penalties on those hits if they are ever going to stop them.  

 

Bills 48, Broncos 19

Near the end of regulation time in the first game I ever attended at Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, NY, Fred Smerlas was able to get a big paw up and block a field goal attempt to send the game into overtime tied at 6-6. It was November 20, 1988 - week 13 of the NFL season which had no bye weeks. Linebacker Cornelius Bennett recovered a NY Jets fumble in overtime which set up the winning field goal by Scott Norwood who would become a household name across the football world a couple of years later. The fans, releasing pent-up frustration since 1980 which turned to euphoria, pulled down the goalposts in the post-game celebration. With the win, the Bills, now at 12-1, had clinched their first AFC East division title since the days of Joe Ferguson, Frank Lewis and Lou Piccone. The eight years which had passed since their last division title seemed longer than that as the team had sunk to the bottom of the league with consecutive 2-14 seasons in 1984 and 1985 under the entirely forgettable head coaching of Kay Stephenson who was fired four games into the 1986 season.

Taking Stephenson's place in October, 1986 was one Marv Levy who had been coaching football for almost 40 years already but had been out of the game for almost two seasons, most recently coaching the Chicago Blitz of the USFL. Levy's NFL coaching career began as a special teams assistant with George Allen in Washington but his only previous NFL head coaching experience was five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs from 1978 to 1982. That 1988 AFC East division championship was to be the first of a run of six division titles over the next eight years, with the most recent one coming in 1995. Sean McDermott reported that he received a congratulatory email from Marv Levy, now 95 years old and living in his home-town of Chicago, on Saturday evening after the Bills had clinched their first division title in 25 years. McDermott apparently did not hear from Kay Stephenson. 

Josh Allen's was born on May 21, 1996. It has been erroneously reported that he had not been born when the Bills played their last home playoff game but he was actually about seven months old when the Bills lost the wildcard game at Rich Stadium to Jacksonville on December 28, 1996. The Jaguars sacked Jim Kelly late in the game and knocked him out - out of the game and out of football for the rest of his life - then recovered his fumble before kicking the winning field goal for 30-27 win. Yes, the Bills have not played a playoff game in Orchard Park since Jim Kelly was under centre. Levy went on to coach one more season before giving way to Wade Phillips who guided the team to two playoff appearances in 1998 and 1999. 

Sean McDermott's record in Buffalo over the last four season has been massively impressive. After a stretch of 17 seasons with no playoffs, McDermott has steered his team to the post-season in three of his four years. And with the wholesale changes in New England this season which released Bill Belichick's iron grip on the AFC East, the coveted division championship and the home playoff game which goes with it, have now too been achieved. What Bills fans are looking for now is for the team to win playoff games and the chances of that seem pretty good.

Going into Saturday's late afternoon game in Denver, I was feeling pretty good. Cross-country skiing in the morning, skating on the lake in the afternoon, a pot roast in the oven, plenty of firewood inside and we were all set. And the Bills did not disappoint. The 48 points they put up were the most the team had scored in ten years and Josh Allen had another outstanding game, going 28 of 40 for 359 yards and two running touchdowns, two touchdown passes and, once again, no interceptions or fumbles. His best throw might have been the laser touchdown pass to heretofore unknown receiver Jake Kumerow who, like so many NFL players who toil in anonymity, was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Bengals after playing for the Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks, a Division III school. He bounced around the practice squads of the Bengals, Patriots and Packers before coming to Buffalo in September. It was his first catch of the season.

Looking at playoff seeding scenarios, the Chiefs are closing in on number one but if the Steelers find a way to lose to the Bengals tonight, they would be tied with the Bills at 11-3 with the Bills holding the tie-breaker, having won their head-to-head game last week. The Titans and Colts are both a game behind the Bills at 10-4. After having only six days to prepare for each of the last two games, the Bills now have a luxurious nine days to get ready for a trip to New England for their second official Monday Night game of 2020.       

Bills 26, Steelers 15

Like Carrie Underwood, I waited all day for Sunday Night - quite patiently too - but for most of the first half of last night's big game on NBC, the wait didn't really seem worthwhile as the Bills and Steelers treated viewers to a plodding defensive punt-fest. My dad used to say that he liked watching prolific defences ply their trade in football and he said that he didn't like the US college game very much because the defences just weren't very good. Both defences were certainly good in the first half last night but I found it frustrating to watch. That is, until things opened up for both offences - especially for Josh Allen and the Bills - in the second half.  

With the Bills trailing 7-3 late in the first half, safety Taron Johnson stepped in front of Steelers receiver Jo Jo Smith-Shuster, grabbed the pass thrown his way by Ben Roethlisberger and streaked into the endzone to give the Bills a 9-7 lead at the break. That was the game's turning point as the Bills then scored touchdowns on each of their first two possessions of the second half to open a 23-7 lead which the Steelers would not overcome. As much as Josh Allen struggled with the Steelers relentless blitzing in the first half, he and his offensive line found a way to overcome the pressure after the break and show the prime time television audience that his performance six days earlier against the 49ers was no fluke.  

Al Michaels, the ageless play-by-play man who looks almost the same now as he did when he called the Miracle On Ice in 1980, sat out the trip to Buffalo and this upset some Bills fans calling in to WGR 550 last week. Michaels, now 76, is one of the most iconic American sports broadcasters of all-time and fully deserving of a weekend or two off in this 2020 season. Enter Mike Tirico, formerly of ESPN, who took his place in the booth with Chris Collinsworth last night. Tirico, although his resume isn't as long as Michaels, is an outstanding sportscaster in his own right and that showed as I thought that he and Collinsworth (who can be a bit fawning at times) delivered excellent play-by-play and colour commentary respectively. As they remarked, last night's game would have been a great one for live fans and the repeated aerial shots of an empty Bills Stadium still seemed surreal to me even this late in the season.

And the Dolphins lost yesterday too. I watched most of their game as they hung in with the Chiefs but came up short and, with the Bills big win later on, fell two games behind them with three games to go. The Bills had only six days to prepare for the game (after playing on Monday night) and they will have another six days once again to prepare for their next game on Saturday in Denver. The 4.30pm game against the Broncos will be the Bills third of four consecutive games on national television with the possibility of a fifth to end the season if the week 17 game against the Dolphins is flexed to Sunday Night. As much as I'm sure that Al Michaels would love to finally make it to Orchard Park this season, I hope it doesn't happen because it will mean that the Dolphins will have closed the gap with a chance to challenge for the division with a win. At 10-3, I don't think that it's a stretch to say that the Bills are now legitimate Superbowl contenders. The Chiefs now have the inside track on the first seed overall and the road to the Superbowl will probably go through Kansas City. As things stand now, the Bills clearly have a very good shot at making it to the AFC Championship game.   

Michigan and Ohio State were scheduled to play on Saturday, about three weeks later than usual, as part of the Big Ten's truncated football season. But, last Tuesday, the Wolverine football program reportedly registered more than 40 positive COVID tests and Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel appropriately informed the Buckeyes and the Big Ten that the annual game between the two rivals would not be played for the first time since 1917. At 5-0, the Buckeyes will still earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game against Northwestern after the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors changed the rules, for the second time in a month, reducing the minimum number of games played to qualify the Buckeyes to play for the conference title. This has been the strangest of college football seasons where many games have been postponed or cancelled altogether due to COVID outbreaks and some programs have not taken the field at all. After all, a school called Coastal Carolina of the Sunbelt Conference, at 10-0, is currently ranked 11th in the AP top 25 poll and the closest Division I team to Toronto, the University of Buffalo Bulls of the Mid-American Conference, sits 24th in the same poll. But, when the four schools who will participate in the National Championship playoff are announced next Sunday, four quite familiar names will probably be on the list: Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State. Sorry, Coastal Carolina and UB, maybe you've had your dream seasons but its time for the dominant programs to dominate once again. Maybe the world is returning to a semblance of normalcy after all.

Bills 34, 49ers 24

Was I ready for some football, as Hank Williams, Jr. would have asked. A Monday night party? All his rowdy friends were there for Monday night - or so he used to say. Williams, a well-known Republican, lost his Monday Night Football musical gig after comments he made about a 2011 golf game involving Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner. He disapproved of Boehner agreeing to play with the President, saying that it was like Benjamin Netanyahu agreeing to play golf with Hitler.  But anyway, yes I was ready. No rowdy friends - just Sophie and I but we were both fully prepared after a beautiful sunny day of frolicking in the Muskoka snow. I began adjusting my sleep patterns last week in anticipation of a late night and a short sleep, what with the pressure of writing this blog at my usual early hour. 11.30pm now feels like the middle of the night for me but the game kept me awake and a bit tense until near its end. Sophie decided to re-energize for another day of chasing tennis balls in the snow and slept through the entire game.

Before last night, the Bills last win in an official Monday Night Football game came 21 years ago in Miami (not counting their 2014 win in a "home" game in Detroit which was originally scheduled for the day before but more than a metre of lake effect snow in Orchard Park led to its postponement and change of venue.) Doug Flutie hit Eric Moulds with a perfect back-shoulder fade pass to the endzone to seal the win. I remember the game very well - watched it with a work colleague at our bosses house in Etobicoke. The Bills have not fared well in prime time in recent years, going 8-22 since 2000. 

But they have enjoyed recent success in nationally televised games as Josh Allen seems to excel on the big stage with two big wins last year - at Dallas on Thanksgiving and at Pittsburgh on a late-season Sunday night. Last night's performance was easily his best in a Bills uniform. He went 32 of 40 for 375 yards, no interceptions and four touchdowns. He looked calm and collected - in total control of the Bills offence. Good thing he was because the running game never materialized, posting only 81 yards. The defence continued its improved play in recent weeks with a "bend but don't break" approach which saw the 49ers rack up 402 yards and 24 first downs. By comparison, the Bills had 449 yards and 31 first downs. 

The game started with two consecutive four-down goal-line stands - one by each team - before Zack Moss fumbled on his own two yard line, giving San Francisco its first score. With the win last night, the Bills took a 7-6 lead in the all-time series between the teams. Their first meeting, a 27-20 Buffalo win, was in 1972 at the Rockpile. Chris Berman is one of my favourite NFL broadcasters ever, with his trademark middle name insertions like baseball catcher Tony "what are they" Pena, pitcher Rich "280 ZX" Dotson and quarterback Jake "daylight come and you wanna" Delhomme (possibly his best one was "fettuccini" Alfredo Griffin). The MNF broadcast made reference to Berman's prediction of a Bills v. 49ers Superbowl for many consecutive years starting in 1988. Although one of the two teams did make it to the big game in many of those years, they have never met outside the 13 regular season games. The best known game in the series took place in September, 1992 with the Bills posting a 34-31 win in a back-and-forth contest between two prolific offences which became known as the "no punt" game.

The Bills continue their late-season string of prime-time games next week with a match-up against the no longer undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. Of all the Bills home games this season, having fans at this one would have generated an electric atmosphere in Orchard Park. With only a three-hour drive between the two rust-belt cities and with Steeler Nation being one of the best travelling fan bases in the NFL, this would have been the game to attend in 2020. The Steelers, losers to Washington in the 5pm game yesterday, are now tied with the Chiefs at 11-1 and will be highly motivated to avenge their first loss of the season. The Bills need another prime-time win to stay a game ahead of the Dolphins. Sunday Night Football surpassed Monday Night Football in viewership several years ago and next week's game will surely attract another huge television audience. Just what Josh Allen ordered.  

 

Bills 27, Chargers 17

Chargers coach Anthony Lynn, former Bills quarterback coach and one of the contenders to replace Rex Ryan after the 2016 season, faced heavy criticism for calling a running play on the goal-line with 25 seconds remaining in yesterday's game. With no time-outs remaining and trailing by 10 points, the Chargers needed a score on that play and the Bills run defence denied them by stopping Austin Ekeler at the one yard line. As the offence scrambled to the line, the clock ticked all the way down to six seconds before the next snap, an incomplete pass which removed another three seconds from the clock,  The game then ended with quarterback Justin Herbert tackled on a keeper which may have been a broken play. How could Lynn be so incompetent as to call a run play up the middle in that situation? "Inexplicable" said CBS colour man Rich Gannon. "He should be fired for that decision alone" said another talking head later in the day. Well, had it worked and resulted in a touchdown, Lynn would have been praised for his innovative and gutsy play calling. Isn't one of the most important elements in offensive play calling to do what the defence isn't expecting? Sure it is but when the risk of the play being unsuccessful could easily foreclose any chances, however slim, that the Chargers had, it was tough for Lynn to defend afterward. I still compliment Lynn, whose team fell to 3-8, for taking the kind of risk that only a long-established head coach whose job isn't in jeopardy might take. He may not last the week and if this was his last game, I hope that he can sleep peacefully knowing that he truly believed Ekeler would score on that running play.

The Bills found a way to hang on for the win in a game which, for much of the second half, felt closer than the score made it look. After turning the ball over on three consecutive fourth quarter possessions, Tre'Davious White intercepted Herbert which led to a Tyler Bass field goal and a ten point lead. Shaking off the two week hangover from the "Hail Murray" loss in Phoenix to improve to 8-3, the Bills, amazingly, gave up another Hail Mary style pass which took the Chargers inside the five with a chance for a quick score and an onside kick attempt. We, and Anthony Lynn, know what happened after that. 

The Bills looked good in the first half with a re-established running attack and better run defence too. Although neither Devin Simgletary nor Zack Moss went over 100 yards rushing, together, they helped the team rack up 172 yards on the ground. And they needed it too as Josh Allen played on of his weaker games of the season, throwing erratically at times and personally causing two turnovers which could have been costly. I'll still take him over Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold any day. 

The Bills next game, a Monday Night Football contest against the San Francisco 49ers, is just as likely to be played at Lawrence Park High School in North Toronto as it is anywhere else. In an effort to curb the rapid spread of COVID, on Saturday, Santa Clara County, California (where the 49ers Levi's Stadium is located) imposed a temporary ban on all contact sports within its boundaries. In addition to the MNF game against Buffalo, the 49ers have another scheduled home game the following week. The team will also have to find another facility in which to practice. According to The Sporting News, the most likely places for the 49ers to play their next two games are State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ (home of the Cardinals and the site of last week's Hail Murray game), the Oakland Coliseum (former home of the Raiders) which is in Alameda County or California Memorial Stadium (home of the PAC 10's Golden Bears) which is also in Alameda County. If Alameda County follows the lead of Santa Clara County with a similar ban on contact sports, that leaves only the Cardinals home field as a viable option right now. So, the Bills will be travelling somewhere, probably westward, next Sunday to play the 49ers on Monday Night. 

Although the NFL has managed to navigate almost all of the COVID roadblocks so far this season and has executed its schedule in full, yesterday featured the Denver Broncos having to resort to their 5th string option at quarterback after all four quarterbacks on the active roster were ruled out for either testing positive or having been in close, unmasked contact with a player who did. That meant that practice squad receiver and sometimes college quarterback Kendall Hinton got the nod under centre against the Saints yesterday. Hinton won't be hearing from his agent this morning about interest from other teams in his quarterbacking as he went one for nine, passing for 13 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. The Broncos pulled out a 1930's era NFL playbook and ran the ball on almost every snap in a 31-3 home loss. Tomorrow's game between the Ravens and Steelers, originally scheduled to be the Thanksgiving night game, is still a go.   

Cardinals 32, Bills 30

The term "Hail Mary" pass came into the popular NFL vernacular after a playoff game which took place on December 28, 1975 in Minneapolis, MN. With his team trailing 14-10 in the game's dying seconds, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach launched a desperation pass toward the endzone which was caught by Drew Pearson at the two yard line as a Minnesota Vikings defender fell to the ground, allowing Pearson to walk into the endzone for the winning score. After the game, Staubach, a Catholic, told a reporter "I just closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary". The term had apparently been used as early as the 1930s by coaches and players at Notre Dame University and other Catholic schools to describe a low probability long passing play which would require Devine intervention to succeed. Although there are many examples of successful Hail Mary passes in recent NFL history (Aaron Rodgers has had a couple of them in his career), probably the most famous one comes from a college game the day after Thanksgiving in 1984. It was thrown by Doug Flutie of Boston College against the Miami Hurricanes and became known as "Hail Flutie". I can not recall a successful Hail Mary pass in Buffalo Bills history - either for or against - until yesterday.  

A successful Hail Mary pass requires Devine intervention. Or DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins, one of the top receivers in the league and playing his first season with the Cardinals, leaped high in the air on the left side of the endzone and somehow plucked the ball away from three Buffalo defenders who surrounded him. It gave quarterback Kyler Murray and the Cardinals a miraculous win and crushed the spirit of Bills Nation after Buffalo had scored what looked to be the winning touchdown to take a four point lead with 34 seconds left in the game. Lost in the aftermath of the Hail Mary will be the drive which Josh Allen engineered, including the 21 yard touchdown pass which was an excellent throw by Allen and a spectacular catch by Stefon Diggs. Allen and the Bills played poorly at times over the course of the game but appeared to have pulled it out at the end as the team heads into the bye week after 10 games. Instead of an 8-2 record, the Bills sit at 7-3, with the 6-3 Dolphins in hot pursuit. As the weeks roll by, the Dolphins week 17 game in Orchard Park looms larger and larger. 

The bye week for the Bills comes with six games remaining. Three of the those games will be in prime time - at San Francisco, home to the undefeated Steelers and at New England. The other games see the Chargers come to Buffalo in two weeks and the Bills travel to Denver before Christmas before the week 17 Dolphins game on January 3rd. Through 10 games, the offense had generally been very good with the addition of Diggs and the defence has been disappointing overall. Special teams have been surprisingly good: Cory Bojorquez (yesterday's shank notwithstanding) has punted well if not infrequently, place kicker Tyler Bass has settled in very well with another strong game yesterday and return specialist Andre Roberts has been nothing short of outstanding. Recognizing that this may be a result of recency bias, I would still say that he is the Bills best kick-off and punt returner I can remember. He has sure hands, good speed and usually chooses the right return path.

I gave up a long time ago trying to understand the political strategy of Donald Trump. His continued delusional claim of massive electoral fraud which he surely knows will not succeed is just the latest inexplicable tactic. But it is the most destructive one yet. As President Obama said on 60 Minutes last night, Trump's ego and refusal to accept legitimate defeat by a clear (but certainly not overwhelming) majority of American voters is understandable to those who know him but the ongoing complicity of most other senior Republicans who "should know better" is not. They obviously fear retribution from him if they break ranks but as the transition to the Biden Administration moves forward and Trump's voice recedes to the far-right shadows of the internet, they will have to recognize reality sooner or later. History will not look kindly on them. Or on Donald Trump. I guess I would say that if American democracy can survive this, it can survive anything.   

  

  

Bills 44, Seahawks 34

I felt old when we heard that Josh Allen's grandmother died on Saturday as the last of my grandparents have been gone more that 25 years. Coach McDermott offered him the chance to sit out yesterday's game at Bills Stadium but he chose to play. And play he did. After four weeks of relative mediocrity, both Allen and the Bills reverted to the form they showed through the season's first four weeks, posting a convincing win over what was thought to be one of the league's best teams. It is certainly possible that the Seahawks, who had the NFL's worst defence statistically entering the game, actually aren't as good as advertised but the Bills played well in all three phases of the game and were deserving winners. The game plan was solid too: virtually no running attack on offence and aggressive pass rushing on defence. Jerry Sullivan, ever the glass-half-empty Buffalo-based sports writer, even called it Sean McDermott's signature win in his three and a half seasons as Bills head coach. I would point to last season's Thanksgiving Day win in Dallas for that but sure, it was a big one indeed.

The Dolphins continue to impress and surprise too. They won yesterday in Phoenix - the site of the Bills game next Sunday and the last one before their bye week. The Cardinals will be highly motivated not to lose a second consecutive home game to an AFC East opponent so it will present another big test in a season with a much tougher schedule than last year. But, with yesterday's statement win which improved their record to 7-2, the Bills held on to their claim of being one of the top teams in the AFC and could still challenge for a first round bye - something which they have not achieved since 1993. 

The song "Georgia on My Mind" was written in 1930 and popularized by native son Ray Charles in 1960. His version became the official state song of Georgia in 1979. Over the next 57 days, Georgia will be on the minds of the Republican and Democratic party machines, CNN, FOX News and everyone else who follows US politics. If the Dems can win both of the two run-off Senate races in Georgia on January 5, 2021, the parties would be deadlocked at 50 seats each. In the Senate, the Vice-President, who we now know will be Kamala Harris, holds the deciding vote in the event of a tie. Georgia voters will therefore play a key role in determining just how much of the Biden administration's agenda it can enact - until at least the next round of Senate seats (and the entire House) is up for election two years from now. The Republican message to Georgia voters will be that they and they alone can stop socialism in America. It will probably work. For the next eight weeks, we will all come to know more about every city, town, county and precinct in the Peach State than we could have imagined. Like it or not, the US election of 2020 rolls on. 

Even if the Democrats win both Georgia Senate seats to achieve an equal footing with the Republicans, with the Filibuster, which effectively makes a 60 seat majority necessary for passing bills without the other party's agreement, President Biden will have to find ways to make deals with the wily Mitch McConnell who has been his colleague across the aisle in the Senate for decades. Apparently, the two have a good relationship and have worked together effectively over the years. But that was back in the days of cooperation and bi-partisanship between the parties and between the Executive and Congressional branches - something which, in my view, ended in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party. Biden has promised to begin the process of unifying the country and bridging its bitter partisan divide. He will have to navigate a split (and probably Republican controlled) Senate and a House of Representatives with a reduced Democratic majority if he is to succeed. I've heard no explanation from Trump or his surrogates as to how the perpetrators of the massive electoral fraud managed to engineer the defeat of Trump (while impressively growing his popular vote totals across the country) at the same time as the GOP (probably) held on to its majority in the Senate and cut in to the Dems House majority.      

A modest library could be filled with what I don't know about Snoop Dogg but I do know that he is from Long Beach, CA and is known to be a prolific marijuana smoker and huge professional sports fan. I also know that he - perhaps predictably - supported Barack Obama in 2008 and that he also - maybe less predictably - is known to have at one time supported Texas libertarian congressman Ron Paul. Here is the text of a very interesting Snoop Dogg tweet from last week:

"I get it, you hated him 4 years ago and you still hate him now, I’ve seen a lot of hate thrown his way, but this guy is a consistent winner and an overachiever. Call it jealously, call it envy, some people just can’t handle how successful he is and how much money he has, could even be jealous that he’s got a hot foreign model as his wife. That’s what the people who support him love about him. Yes there have been some scandals, yes there have been some lies, and maybe a few times he’s twisted the truth to make himself look better. He’s out there everyday proving those haters wrong time after time. You may not have wanted him in this role, but he’s there now and there is nothing you or I can do about it. I know its possibly going to get worse over the next several days, but like him or not, Tom Brady is turning things around in Tampa Bay."

I'll add that Snoop wrote this before last night's game against the Saints where Brady stopped "turning things around". 

Bills 24, Patriots 21

I've done some very rough calculations on the career football earnings of Bills defensive tackle Justin Zimmer. A native of the central Michigan town of Greenville, Zimmer, who played his college ball at Division II school Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan, was not drafted to the NFL when he left college in 2016. Since then, he has defined the role of fringe player, bouncing around the practice squads (with an occasional injury call-up to dress for an actual game) of the Saints, Montreal Alouettes, Falcons and Browns. 2020 represents his second stint with the Bills who first signed him as undrafted free agent in 2016 when Rex Ryan was coaching the Bills and Doug Whaley was the GM. The Bills signed him again on August 16th of this year, waived him on September 5th then, after having cleared waivers, signed to the practice squad - once again. He dressed for games this season in weeks one and six as well as yesterday against the Patriots. Entering the game, he had five career NFL tackles. I figure that, including his CFL earnings and four seasons mostly on various NFL practice squads, he has earned about $20 per hour - mostly for practicing football. Not exactly high paying work but more interesting and fulfilling than working at, say, an Amazon warehouse. 

With 16 seconds remaining in yesterday's game, the Bills appeared to have managed to play exactly well enough to lose the game 28-24 as Cam Newton had led his team into the red zone, and was surely about to complete the game's winning touchdown drive - or at least send the game into overtime if the drive stalled. But Newton wasn't ready for Justin Zimmer. Through his years of toiling in Division II, punching the clock on practice squads and even going north to the CFL for part of a season, Zimmer had been patiently biding his time, waiting for the opportunity to make his way to the headline of an NFL game recap - and into this blog. From behind, as Newton was about to be tackled, Zimmer punched the ball out of his hands and eventually into the hands of team-mate and fellow fringe player Dean Marlowe. It was the Patriots only turnover in a game where both teams were able to run the ball effectively at times on a windy and rainy day in Orchard Park. Maybe Zimmer will retire now that he has carved out his place in Bills history, delivering the key blow in the team's first home win against New England since 2011. But he probably won't. After all, he needs the money and with the economy the way it is.......

That last home win against the Patriots in 2011 also came as a result of a key and rare turnover in a game I attended. Tom Brady's 4th quarter pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage and landed easily in the hands of Bills cornerback Drayton Florence who ran it back for a touchdown. A few minutes later, Ryan Lindell then kicked the winning field goal as time expired as the Bills went to 3-0 on a warm September afternoon. Bills fans were giddy and sensed a magical season was at hand. After improving to 5-2 with win over Washington at the Rogers Centre in Toronto a month later, the Bills signed quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to a lucrative contract extension. He then slumped badly as the team would win only one more game for the remainder of the season, finishing 6-10.

But things are different this time. Josh Allen remains on his rookie contract so we don't have to worry about him - at least not until 2023 when he could become an unrestricted free agent if the Bills do not sign him to an extension beforehand. If he continues the season-to-season progression we've seen since 2018, he will command a top NFL quarterback salary which will probably be more than $40 million annually by then. Eat your heart out, Justin Zimmer. And the coach Sean McDermott, who yesterday earned his first win over legendary coach Bill Belichick in seven tries, is more likely to lead the team to the division title and a home playoff game than Chan Gailey ever was. Now that the Patriots have sunk to 2-5, the Bills will now need to worry more about the Dolphins as a division threat this season. And those Dolphins, predicted in the pre-season to be in the running for a very high draft pick, earned their first win yesterday with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa over the Rams to stay a game and a half behind the Bills at 4-3. Maybe their week 17 game in Orchard Park will be a big one after all.

Tomorrow (Tuesday November 3rd) is a big day for me for a few reasons. It marks the 10th anniversary of the death of a good friend, the 21st anniversary of the death of another good friend's father, the 94th birthday of yet another good friend's mother.....and the US election. The main hope I have for the election is that it be decided by the American voters and not by Amy Boney Carrot. I mean, she hasn't finished the SCOTUS orientation program yet, still needs the photo taken for her office pass and was seen on the weekend wandering around the east side of Capitol Hill looking for a washroom which wasn't locked. Let her settle in at least until the next abortion case reaches the court. 

Bills 18, Jets 10

When the Bills lose a game, I usually claim afterward to have had a "bad feeling" about the game before it started. I make that claim once again this morning. Although my concern was certainly real after they fell behind the hapless New York Jets 10-0, the bad feeling I had was that the game was going to be much closer than pundits and most Bills fans were predicting. Plenty of NFL games quickly turn into blowouts even between relatively evenly matched teams but it seems that when one team is heavily favoured over an opponent, particularly in a divisional game with the visiting team favoured by double digits, blowouts rarely ensue. Instead, a nail-biting game which isn't decided until the last couple of minutes of the fourth quarter is just as likely as a rout. 

Sports books favoured the Bills yesterday by between 9 and 11 points - the largest pre-game spread I can recall in a long time for a road game. Callers to WGR 550 last week declared that anything short of a decisive margin of 25 to 30 points against the Jets would be considered to be reason for concern. The Jets were clearly a team in turmoil at 0-6 going into the game. A schism between the head coach Adam Gase and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams flared up over the week with Gase at the top of the list of NFL coaches on the hot seat. Williams, a former Bills head coach from 2001 to 2003, would be the logical interim replacement for Gase. The Jets were reportedly shopping around quarterback Sam Darnold, picked third overall in the 2018 draft (the Bills selected Josh Allen seventh overall in the same draft), as trade bait given that the team has the inside track to draft Clemson star Trevor Lawrence. Credit is therefore due and owing to the Jets players who started the game strong and played a good first half before regressing to what had been expected of them all along. 

Is the absence of a touchdown on the Bills side of the boxscore reason for concern? Quite possibly but some of the other data points related to the Bills offensive performance were impressive even if they came against a team which might struggle to beat Clemson: 26 first downs, 126 rushing yards, 296 passing yards for Josh Allen with no interceptions thrown. On the negative side of the ledger, the Bills were flagged for 11 penalties for 106 total yards. A Josh Allen touchdown pass to Gabriel Davis was negated on an illegal formation penalty. 

There were at least two dangerous hits in the NFL yesterday. Bills safety Micah Hyde was flagged for his vicious hit on receiver Breshad Perriman late in the game. Hyde's perfectly timed hit broke up a long passing play but was delivered too high as he hit Perriman's neck and head area. Cowboys quarterback Andy Dalton lay motionless on the field for several minutes after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit from Washington linebacker Jon Bostic who was ejected from the game (and will likely face further sanctions from the league). The Bostic play was indefensible. Hyde's hit was tough to watch but players will always say just how difficult it is to pull up when running at full speed and trying to time their hit just as the ball arrives. Hyde did lead with his shoulder rather than with his helmet but I wish (and I hope he wishes) that he had hit Perriman in the chest or hips. 

Watching the pre-game NFL Today on a Detroit CBS affiliate yesterday, nine days before the US election, exposed us to an avalanche of elections commercials. If I were an undecided voter who did not follow the Michigan Senate race closely, watching these ads yesterday would have caused me to lose all faith in the two main candidates whose messages only attack each other without making any case for why their own candidacies should be considered. Apparently, neither candidate will protect those with pre-existing medical conditions and both candidates intend to line their own pockets if they go Washington. These television ads are costly - both in real dollars for the candidates and, I suggest, in further eroding faith in the political process among potential voters.  

Up next for the Bills: home to New England Patriots next Sunday November 1st. With Tom Brady gone and Cam Newton doing a relatively poor job in his place, the Patriots have looked like shadows of their former selves the past two weeks.     

Chiefs 26, Bills 17

When the score in last night's game at drizzly Bills Stadium was 20-10, Troy Aikman remarked that the score looked relatively close but that the game itself did not seem close at all. Although the Buffalo Bills were able to avoid a blowout on the scoreboard and appeared to have forced a turnover deep in Chiefs territory in the fourth quarter while down by only six points, the Chiefs held control over the game throughout. The fumble was correctly overruled on replay review and the Chiefs tacked on a late field goal to seal their win. 

Bills head coach Sean McDermott explained after the game that his team's defensive approach was to take away big plays down the field - almost a "prevent" defence - and make the Chiefs earn their points by way of the short passing game and the run. So, that's exactly what they did. The Bills strategy could have worked if their run defence had showed up at all and if the offence had been able to generate any sustained drives not aided by penalties. McDermott, when asked if he had considered loading the "box" with nine defenders (thereby leaving two wide receivers in man-to-man coverage on the outside), he said that teams who have tried that approach against the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes under centre regretted the strategy which lead to the Chiefs hanging more than 40 points on the board every time. The explanation made sense and the strategy could well have worked if the offence had done its part.

The Bills gave up 245 yards on the ground and had problems, once again, making plays against the run at the line of scrimmage. Chiefs rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the last pick in the first round (32nd overall) of the 2020 draft, was able to get to the second level of the Bills run defence far too often and piled up 161 yards in the process. Mahomes, for his part, did what he was asked to do within Andy Reid's game plan, adding 221 passing yards. The Chiefs gained 466 yards overall, compared to the Bills paltry 206. In the fourth quarter, two of the leaders on the Bills defence, cornerback Tre'Davious White and safety Jordan Poyer lost their composure and each was flagged for personal fouls for late hits out of bounds two play apart. On WGR, Mike Schopp described Poyer's out of bounds tackle as being "about 3 weeks late".  Last season, the Bills fielded a top-ranked defence but, as happens in the NFL more often than in any other sport, the players who were good a year ago have fallen into mediocrity. Look no further than Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson who tore up the league last year. This year? Not so much. At least not yet.

At 4-2, the Bills remain on top of the AFC East, one game ahead of the Ryan Fitzpatrick led Dolphins. Next week, they face the league's worst team in the New York Jets for the second time. They are early 11 point favourites and had better not stumble for a third consecutive week. The Jets are a mess at 0-6 but, with their season lost, will be loose and willing to take risks which contending teams wouldn't. Time for Josh Allen to find his accuracy again and for the running game to get back on track.

I watch television in two places: in Muskoka on a satellite service where the main US network affiliates come from Detroit and in Toronto on an HD antenna where the US channels originate in Buffalo. In the past couple of weeks, I estimate that I have seen at least 10 Biden ads for every one Trump ad. In fact, I don't think I've seen any Trump ads coming from Buffalo stations in the last few days which makes sense given that New York is a solidly blue state (and Trump has no chance there with the "winner take all" electoral college system). But Michigan, which Trump won four years ago, is a swing state and, all things being equal, I would have expected an even split of ads on the airwaves. But over the past three weeks, I have seen multiple reports that Trump's fund-raising has fallen off dramatically and that his campaign has cancelled previously booked television ad buys in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The messaging on social media from the Biden campaign is now warning against complacency. The last Presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday as long as either of the candidates doesn't find a way to back out of it. 

Titans 42, Bills 16

Now that the 1972 Miami Dolphins have scratched the Buffalo Bills off their list of potential challengers to their record of an undefeated season, let's look back to another time that the Bills eliminated themselves from contention for this record. On October 7, 1991, the high-flying 5-0 Bills mailed in their second-worst performance of that season (second only to the ugly loss to Washington in the Superbowl) in prime time, before a national television audience on Monday Night Football. The Chiefs won the game 33-6, thanks to five Buffalo turnovers which highlighted an entirely uninspired performance by the Bills. Coach Marv Levy said after the game that in most football blow-outs, the difference between the teams is rarely as great as the score would suggest. I remember the game well. The Bills proceeded to cruise to a 13-3 regular season record which secured them home field advantage for the AFC playoffs and their second consecutive trip to the Superbowl. They were a dominant team which stumbled badly in that week 6 game but fully recovered.

I am not predicting a Superbowl birth this season but I do hope that the Bills will recover from last night's debacle in Nashville - the site of their most infamous meltdown in a playoff game 20 years ago when a play called Homerun Throwback ended their season after a playoff game appeared to be won. The schedule does not get easier from here. If, in retrospect, last night's stinker proves to have been a wake-up call, then Bills fans probably will see it as an anomaly in an otherwise successful season. But if the team's success over the first four weeks of the season fades to mediocrity or worse, the Tuesday in Tennessee will be seen as the turning point.

Despite some success moving the ball in the first half, the Bills looked un-prepared and rusty - which, as the CBS crew pointed out repeatedly on the broadcast, was what most were expecting from their opponents, a Titans team which had not played in 16 days, has been ravaged by positive COVID tests and locked out of their practice facility for most of the time since their last game. After a 9-7 regular season, the Titans, had a strong playoff run last season which took them to the AFC Championship game. Coming into the game at 3-0, they looked sharp and dominant. Ryan Tannehill in particular, after languishing for seven seasons with the Dolphins, looked like a Pro Bowl quarterback and had a flawless game last night. Signed two years ago as almost an afterthought by the Titans, he has clearly found his stride in the Music City. 

Josh Allen, on the other had, looked more like he did in 2018 than he has over the past four weeks. His two interceptions were both due to inaccurate or ill-conceived throws. The team's discipline was questionable as they took a season-high 10 penalties, many of which, like false starts and illegal shifts on offence, were obviously the result of mental errors. After their win over the Raiders the previous week, the Bills probably suffered to some extent from having the identity of their next opponent in question as the Titans continued to teeter on the precipice of a second postponed game as they battled the virus. The Bills were scheduled to play the Chiefs at home tomorrow night and the coaching staff would have prepared the team for a short week before the schedule was adjusted. This of course isn't really an excuse as the Titans had similar or more difficult challenges.

Up next for the Bills: a re-match from 29 years ago - Monday Night Football against the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. Only this time, the game will be played in Orchard Park. New York State still has not authorized any fan attendance for Bills games. Last night in Nashville, attendance was 8,403 which is a number more in line with the average-sized crowd at a top-tier Friday night Tennessee high school game in usual times. Look for Sean McDermott to have his team ready to resume the season's trajectory set over the first four weeks.   

Daylight Saving Time Year-Round? I'll Vote No

 

Three weeks from now, as we settle in to the first week of November, we will have set our clocks back one hour as most of us in North America have been doing since the early 20^th century. Our return to Standard Time means more daylight in the morning – as in, an earlier sunrise – but for the next four months, late afternoon darkness will descend on us around 5pm.

We now observe Standard Time for only a bit more than a third of the year and for the remainder – between the first week of March and early November – our clocks are set to what we call Daylight Saving Time (DST). A construct of the World War 1 period, DST was initially created to save energy. Proponents also point to certain safety benefits and to some economic advantages related to recreation. Before the advent of DST, we remained on Standard Time year-round.

Jeremy Roberts, Ontario MPP for the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean, introduced a Private Member’s Bill (Bill 214) in the Legislature on October 7^th. It proposes that Ontario abolish Standard Time and remain on DST year-round. We tend to hear much more griping when we “spring forward” by setting our clocks ahead one hour in March (thereby losing an hour’s sleep) than we do in November when we gain it back. It certainly seems like a pain-in-the-ass adjusting our clocks and our circadian rhythms twice annually and the idea of scrapping the current twice yearly practice of switching between DST and Standard Time seems to have both popular support and a measure of political support too as the Ontario government has indicated that it just might support the bill. As with many seemingly simple and logical ideas, the devil is in the details so before we all proclaim our agreement to scrap Standard Time altogether, let’s look at what it would mean.

After we switch to Standard Time at 2am on Sunday November 1^st, on the following day, Monday November 2^nd, in Toronto, the sun will rise just before 7am and will set just after 5pm. We will have 10 hours of daylight and 14 hours of darkness. Fast forward to the winter solstice on December 21^st and our daylight hours are reduced to less than nine hours with sunrise at 7.50am and sunset at 4.43pm. In the days leading up to Christmas, most of us, if we still go to work at all, will be doing so in morning daylight and then returning home in late afternoon darkness. Children making their way to and from school will enjoy daylight for each leg of their journey.

Were we to remain on DST through the dark winter months, as Bill 214 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 come an hour later as well with the December 21^st sunset coming at 5.43pm – before most commuters have arrived home anyway.

I, for one, am an early riser. I like morning daylight and would prefer not to wait until 9am before I see it. For me, that’s more than just another reason not to move to Edmonton (although I would enjoy having summer sunlight last until well after 10pm). It seems to me that Standard Time during the darkest months of the year offers the most judicious use of our nine or 10 hours of daylight. It allows for safe and well-lit travel to and from school for children even if the afternoon commute home for workers is done mostly in darkness. Changing the few battery or wind-up clocks I have somehow feels like a right-of-passage which marks the changing of the seasons. Besides, when else would we know to change the batteries in our smoke alarms?

The most reasonable part of Bill 214 is its provision that no abolition of Standard Time will take place in Ontario unless two of our important neighbouring jurisdictions – Quebec and New York State – also agree to scrap it. This may come one day. If it ever does, I plan to personally continue with Standard Time between November and March. If I’ve agreed to meet with you at any time over the winter, I’ll be an hour late so adjust your schedule accordingly.

I’ll post next on Wednesday after the Corona Bowl, also known as the World Premiere of NFL Tuesday Night Football. If the game goes ahead.   

   

Bills 30, Raiders 23

Last Monday September 28th, several members of the Las Vegas Raiders attended a charity event at the DragonRidge Country Club in Henderson, Nevada. It was a fund-raiser for a charitable foundation created by Raiders tight end Darren Waller. Photos emerged the following day of Raiders players mingling with guests - all of whom were unmasked. Seems like the State of Nevada either doesn't really take the pandemic seriously or doesn't need the money (or probably both) as DragonRidge was fined a whopping $2,000 for violating two of the state's new pandemic rules: the requirement to wear masks at indoor public gatherings and to not have more than 50 people congregated at an indoor event. Compare that fine to the ones handed out by the NFL to Raiders coach Jon Gruden for not wearing his mask properly during a week two game against the Saints. He was personally fined $100,000 and the Raiders were hit for $250,000. At times in yesterday's game against the Bills (particularly in the fourth quarter), Gruden committed the same offence which may generate larger fines this time around.

The talk on WGR radio in Buffalo on Wednesday and Thursday was about the possibility that one or more of the Raiders players who attended the event may have been exposed to the coronavirus and then may have infected some of those teammates who did not attend the event as all Raiders players were in attendance at team meetings and practices from Tuesday onward. But no positive tests emerged within the Raiders organization throughout the week and the game at the brand spanking new Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada went ahead. And the Bills won to go 4-0 for the first time since 2008.

Next week's scheduled game is another story as the Bills will likely not be able to dodge the virus again as they are scheduled to travel to Nashville to play the Titans. A total of 20 positive tests within the Tennessee organization - 10 players and 10 staff - were confirmed last week. The Titans were scheduled to play the Steelers yesterday but the league had to postpone the game to a yet unknown date. If the Titans v. Bills does not go ahead on Sunday, re-scheduling options become much more limited. The possibility of pushing the game to Monday night or Tuesday is off the table as the Bills are set to host the Chiefs on Thursday October 15th. One scenario floated last night is that the NFL could simply add another week to its season - a week 18 - to complete the schedule for games which have already been postponed and for future postponed games this season - which seems like a virtual certainty. As of this morning, those 10 Titans players and Cam Newton of the Patriots are the only NFL players to have tested positive. It almost seems delusional to think that there won't be more. A week 19 and 20 or more may be needed. The Superbowl could be played on a warm spring day somewhere. Since the game will likely have no fans in attendance, maybe they could find a suitable spot somewhere in Nevada's Area 51.

Josh Allen did not pass for 300 yards yesterday for the first time this season. But he did not turn the ball over either and showed continued passing accuracy and poise. He caused Bills fans a bit of a angst late in the first half with what turned out to be a left shoulder injury he suffered on a hard tackle just as he unloaded a left-handed shovel pass to Stefon Diggs. After a quick trip to the locker room, Allen was back and finished the game. He said that he knew right away that it wasn't a collar bone which would have sidelined him for several weeks. A quarter of the way through the season, Allen is very much in the league MVP conversation. 

In a season where defences around the league seem to have taken a couple of steps back, the Bills were able to close out the Raiders yesterday only when the defence finally stiffened in the second half. They were able to pressure Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and forced three fumbles, recovering two of them. A late score allowed the Raiders a chance at an onside kick which was bobbled but recovered by the Bills to seal the win. 

As Jerry Sullivan, ever the glass half-empty Buffalo-based sports writer pointed out last night, in 2008, the last time the Bills started 4-0, they finished the season 7-9 under Dick Jauron who, as Sullivan also said a decade ago, "strings up 7-9 seasons like Christmas lights on his house". I highly doubt that Sean McDermott will be stringing up any of Jauron's lights come December. Instead, he has started and I predict will continue to string up playoff appearances which will hopefully soon include a string of home playoff games in January (or, this year, maybe February or even March). 

     

Bills 35, Rams 32

I am convinced that Josh Allen awoke yesterday morning with an unwavering determination to be the deciding factor in the afternoon game against the Los Angeles Rams at Bills Stadium in Orchard Park. He must have decided that, either way, win or lose, however it all turns out by around 4pm, that the final score in the game was to be because of his play between the lines. Speaking of lines, Allen is able, like no other quarterback I have seen, to straddle the line between brilliant and reckless. This season, he has clearly stepped up the brilliance but, true to form, just when Bills fans sense that he may have moved away from his reckless tendencies, he plants a foot on the reckless side of the line. Then another foot. And another. It seems that its just who he is. 

NFL rewind on the NFL Network replays the most exciting games from the previous Sunday over the course of the following week. There were some good ones to choose from yesterday (Cowboys v Seahawks, Packers v. Saints) but I think that the tilt between the Rams and Bills will make its way on to the NFL Network prime time schedule this coming week. There was obviously no other game yesterday which featured (1) the winning quarterback taking a face-masking penalty and then an unsportmanlike conduct penalty on what was the winning drive, (2) the losing team piling up 28 first downs and 478 yards of offence, or (3) an "interception" (Allen's first and only one this season through three games) where the receiver (Bills tight end Tyler Kroft) clearly makes the catch, has possession as he goes to the ground, then ends up in a situation which would be ruled a "jump ball" in basketball. FOX NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira disagreed with the ruling which was then upheld on review. Later, he agreed with what looked to be a questionable defensive pass interference call against the Rams which set up the Bills winning touchdown.  

I had the pleasure of attending what is known in Buffalo as "The Comeback Game" in January of 1993 when the Bills erased a 35-3 deficit and came back to win a playoff game against the Houston Oilers. I was thinking about that game as the Bills built a lead almost as lop-sided as the Oilers had and then, like the Oilers did on that January day 27 years ago, blew it and found themselves trailing late in the fourth quarter. Unlike the 1993 Oilers, Josh Allen and the Bills were able to generate one more touchdown to eek out the win before an audience of trainers and coaches in an otherwise empty Bills stadium. We almost left the game early in the second half in 1993 but agreed to stick it out until the end of the third quarter. Thousands of others didn't. No one needed to worry about that yesterday.

For casual sports fans, the rules of football can be baffling. I consider myself to be much more than a casual fan but yesterday, I found myself baffled by the non-call on what was clearly a horse-collar tackle on Josh Allen. He was obviously baffled too as he took that unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in reaction to it. FOX commentator and former quarterback Brock Huard pointed out on the broadcast that the horse-collar tackle rule excludes this particular tackle against a quarterback in the pocket. At the time, I made a mental note to look that up because it made no sense. It still makes no sense to me but I did look it up and Huard is correct: the rule does not apply to a runner in the tackle box or to a quarterback in the pocket. I can not think of why.

Speaking of FOX, I was amused by the promotion of the first presidential debate which is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday). The debate was promoted like a heavy-weight boxing match and will be moderated by FOX's Chris Wallace who was referred to on the promotion as America's best journalist. As the son of the famous Mike Wallace, he clearly has solid pedigree and is the only FOX News personality I can think of with legitimate journalistic integrity. I read some analysis recently which suggested that the televised debates, while they generate large viewing audiences, do not move the needle very much in terms of swaying voters; rather, they are mostly watched by those who are already firmly planted in their red or blue corners. Sort of like when I watch a Bills game. I am rooting for my team to win. No matter how well the opposing team plays, or how poorly mine does, there is zero chance that I will switch allegiance to the other team because of what happens in the game. Move over Malcolm Gladwell. My mind is made up.  

Bills 31, Dolphins 28

I wrote about Ryan Fitzpatrick in this space last season and I'm going to do that again now because his NFL career continues to be equal parts remarkable and enduring. This is Fitzpatrick's 16th season in the league after being picked by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. He was the 250th overall pick and the last of 14 quarterbacks to be drafted that year. He signed with his eighth NFL team - the Miami Dolphins - in March of 2019.

When partnered with Chan Gailey, the current offensive co-ordinator of the Dolphins, Fitz seems to be at his best. The partnership has three chapters: first in Buffalo from 2010 to 2012 where Fitzpatrick was the starting quarterback and Gailey the head coach, second with the Jets in 2015 and 2016 where Gailey was offensive co-ordinator and now in 2020, after Gailey had been out of the league for three entire seasons, they are re-united. Gailey has a long track record as an effective play-caller who designs offences according to the strengths of the personnel at hand, rather than according to a particular philosophy. CBS NFL colour commentator Adam Archuleta reported that Gailey was quite surprised to receive a call from Dolphins head coach Brian Flores early this year to canvass his interest in the job he now holds.  

The partnership between these two obviously works quite well. But not well enough to achieve real success. Together, they have never really come close to the playoffs, nor have they ever even enjoyed a winning record together in any particular season. Fitzpatrick seems to bounce around amongst the league's bottom feeders while Gailey has had two unsuccessful stints as an NFL head coach along with his long tenure as a co-ordinator. Fitzpatrick has always been able to lead teams to the threshold of important wins but usually falls just short. His trademark has unfortunately often been a critical and devastating late-game interception to seal defeat. While he doesn't produce wins, he comes agonizingly close. Like yesterday. Predictably, the Fitzmagic did not carry through to success with the on-side kick his team needed after a late touchdown which brought them to within a field goal of the Bills. But the Dolphins, with Gailey and Fitzpatrick, are now 0-2 and likely headed for another high draft pick in the spring. 

Through two games this season, Josh Allen has more than 700 passing yards, 6 touchdown passes and no interceptions. In year three, it seems like he has made the big step forward that Bills fans were hoping for. Move over JP Losman, Trent Edwards, EJ Manuel, Tyrod Taylor and Nathan Peterman. Allen has now established himself as the best quarterback to suit up for the Bills since Jim Kelly who retired after the 1996 season. Yes it helps that he has a receiving core which looks to be one of the better ones in the league and the team's opponents through two weeks will probably each finish the season with lopsided losing records and both may have top-five draft picks in 2021. But Allen looks confident, is making much better decisions and has improved his throwing accuracy - something which the pundits who panned his high pick in the 2018 draft said couldn't be coached.

A much tougher test comes this week when the Los Angeles Rams come to the empty confines of what is now called Bills Stadium (after New Era negotiated its way out of a long term naming agreement). The Rams are 2-0 after a close home win over the Cowboys and an decisive performance yesterday in Philadelphia. Quarterback Jared Goff looks to be playing at his 2018 level which was good enough for a trip to the Superbowl (Saints fans may disagree) that season. The two teams have met only 12 times with the Bills holding a 7-5 margin. The last time the Rams came to Orchard Park was in 2012 when they pulled out a 15-12 win. Buffalo won 30-19 in Los Angeles in 2016.

The "attendance" at yesterday's game in South Florida was listed as slightly more than 11,000 but it looked to me that there were really only about 4-5,000 people in the stadium. The weather, which caused a near 40 minute game delay, could have kept some away. The health risk of attending a live sporting event in Florida may have done so too. Whether games are played before no fans or only a few fans seems almost irrelevant through two weeks of NFL play. Television ratings are strong and the games I have seen have been entertaining. Pandemic or not, the NFL is unstoppable. But then we always knew that.          

  

      

Bills 27, Jets 17

Seems like 2020 has been tough for just about everyone. My dad died in the early hours of March 7th and before that, I had been focused on matters related to his illness and hospitalization and, in the days after his death, on comforting my grieving mother. I was driving somewhere in St. Catharines on Wednesday March 11th when I heard the news that the NCAA had announced that its men's and women's basketball tournaments would proceed but without fans in attendance. It was the moment when I finally realized the potential reach of the pandemic which we were all about to experience. No fans in the stands for one of the biggest North American sports events on the calendar? I couldn't imagine it. Since the three games of the men's Final Four are played in a domed football stadium, viewers would see a backdrop of 70,000 empty seats? It sounded surreal. 

The very next day, the tournaments were cancelled completely. And then the NHL and NBA seasons along with MLB training camps were suspended as well. The WHO had officially declared a pandemic and professional sports around the world ground to a halt. I didn't make sourdough like I was supposed to but I did isolate at the cottage through the spring, making weekly trips to St. Catharines on luxuriously empty roads. We got an internet dish at the cottage and, to replace the sports we would have watched, we binged all five seasons of Breaking Bad and all three seasons of Ozark. To change things up, we have now seen almost all of the first season of Fleabag. I did slowly come back to hockey and basketball when they resumed "bubble" play and got fully engaged with the Raptors seven game series against the Celtics which ended last week. The Blue Jays are having success too and I've been watching a bit.

But I was not terribly confident that the NFL would be able to pull off a season. With the sheer number of people needed to support an NFL team - multiplied by 32 - it seemed very likely that infections would sabotage the season before it even began. That's why the most impressive statistic I heard on the weekend was that of the more than 5,000 Covid tests administered to NFL players, team personnel and game-day stadium staff on Saturday, there were exactly zero positive tests. With 16 weeks of play plus playoffs still to come, there is plenty of opportunity for the NFL season to find its way off the rails but with week one almost complete as of this Monday morning, I am encouraged. 

If this were a "normal" year, I would have been so fired up about the Bills prospects for the upcoming season that I would have needed a sleep aid on Saturday night. About six weeks ago, the Bills offered season ticket holders a full refund on 2020 tickets which were paid for (in my case) in March. We were of course urged to leave the funds on account with the Bills for 2021 and if we did, we would qualify for extra swag, free subscriptions to I'm not sure what and, maybe most importantly, an option on game tickets in the event that a limited number of fans could attend home games later in the 2020 season. So that's what I did. If fans are permitted for later home games and if I am offered tickets and if the border is opened, I still might not go. We'll see. Before the game yesterday, a reporter tweeted that there were "plenty of good seats still available". Indeed.

As for yesterday's game, I thought that it looked good on TV. Pretty close to normal. The actual play between the lines looked just as competitive as ever with the stands at Bills Stadium empty. Same for the bits of live action and highlights from other games around the league. Some stadiums are allowing fans but most are not. My sense is that this will end up making less difference than I would have predicted. The rules around piped-in noise in stadiums seem odd with a decibel cap of 70 which is well below normal noise levels in places like Buffalo, Seattle and New Orleans. 

The Bills were in complete control of the game yesterday despite the relatively close looking score. Next week, they will play before about 15,000 fans in Miami. Why the City of Miami and/or the State of Florida is allowing fans at all is a bit of a mystery to me but the same number were allowed in Kansas City on Thursday.        

Texans 22, Bills 19

Sean McDermott asks us to "respect the process". I know I do. And most Bills fans probably do too. The next logical incremental step in the "process" for the Buffalo Bills, it seems to me, would have been to win their wildcard playoff game in Houston on Saturday and then see what would have happened in the divisional round against either the Chiefs or Ravens (since the Titans won, it would have been the Chiefs). In his first year as Bills head coach in 2017, McDermott managed to wrestle the playoff drought monkey off the back of Bills nation (thanks in large part to Andy Dalton's 4th and 12 miracle in Baltimore) with a 9-7 record and a sub-optimal quarterback in Tyrod Taylor. Last season, with a rookie quarterback and virtually no offensive play makers, he somehow squeezed out six wins in a full rebuilding year. This season, with an improved second-year quarterback, new weapons for him to throw to and a re-built offensive line (not to mention a continued outstanding defence), a win two days ago in Houston was, if not expected, clearly the next step for the team to take. But it wasn't to be. Like any close NFL game, we could point to as many as 10 plays which, had they turned out differently, would have changed the result. But at least the Patriots lost.

And I mention the Patriots loss not to gloat. As a sports fan, I pride myself on not being a negative fan - as in, I generally don't cheer against teams, no matter how tempting, unless it's based on a tangible and specific rooting interest I have for my own team. I don't hope that the Boston Bruins lose in the playoffs unless they're playing the Leafs and I don't hope for Yankee or Red Sox losses unless they're playing the Jays. When I say "at least the Patriots lost", I say it only in the context of the Bills inching closer to winning the AFC East division one day and the reaping the reward of the home playoff game which goes with it. Saturday's Patriots home playoff loss to the Titans obviously came too late to have any direct impact on the Bills but it does signal perhaps the beginning of the end of their amazing run and sets up what appears to be a realistic shot at the division title for Buffalo in 2020. Tom Brady may return to New England next season and he may not. And the Patriots will probably still be good in 2020 and beyond but the Bills will have a better chance of de-throning them next season than they have had at any time in the last 20 years. And the loss to the Texans on Saturday is probably irrelevant in this regard.

The game had its share of bizarre plays - none more than the phantom touchdown which was awarded to the Bills - then reversed - on the opening kick-off the second half. Texans returner DeAndre Carter was, upon further discussion among the officials, determined to have "given himself up" after referee Tony Corrente initially ruled that when Carter failed to take a knee and then flipped the ball in Corrente's general direction, it was still live and after the Bills recovered in the endzone, a touchdown was signaled. Callers to talk radio complained after the game that the Bills were robbed of a touchdown under a strict interpretation of the rules. If the touchdown had stood and the Bills had gone up 20-0 and gone on to win the game by less than a touchdown, the controversy would have rivaled the uncalled pass interference in last year's NFC Championship game. The league needs to clarify the rule and returners need to follow it but I, even as a Bills fan, am glad that the touchdown did not stand. DeAndre Carter for some reason didn't follow the letter of the rule, but the spirit of it was correctly enforced in the end - as it should have been.

There was, however, a clear and important missed call in the overtime period. With the Texans lined up at their own 19 yard line for a 3rd and 18 attempt, the play clock ticked down to zero where it remained for what seemed like a full second before the ball was snapped. A delay of game penalty should have been called and was not. It would have brought up 3rd down and 23 for the Texans from their own 14 yard line. Instead, receiver Duke Johnson was able to gain exactly 18 yards on the 3rd and 18 play to extend what would become the game-winning drive. 

Did Josh Allen's mistakes and questionable judgment in a couple of situations cost the Bills the game? The answer is probably yes. But I don't see the point in hanging the loss entirely on him. If Siron Neal and/or Matt Milano had sacked DeShaun Watson on the play which ended up going for 34 yards to the Bills 10 yard line in overtime, maybe the Texans drive would have stalled, giving the Bills the ball back. If Cody Ford hadn't felt the need to dish out a blind-side hit and cost his team 15 yards on the previous series, maybe Steven Hauschka kicks the game-winning field goal and the Bills are preparing for the Chiefs this morning.

Stepping back and looking at the "process" of Josh Allen's growth from the turnover-prone wild-throwing rookie he was in 2018 to the more polished and accurate quarterback he showed himself to be as this past season unfolded, he remains a work in progress but still one with considerable upside. I predict that he will continue to improve at reading defences, not taking sacks and with general ball security. His arm strength and deceptive speed will remain his best weapons and he will learn, through more reps, more games and more big situations to be a formidable NFL quarterback. As a famous Canadian politician said more than 40 years ago, the world is unfolding as it should. But it still sucks to lose a playoff game in overtime after leading 16-0.