Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan believed that he had scored a touchdown with about four minutes remaining in yesterday's game in wintry Orchard Park - one which would have brought his team to within one score of the Buffalo Bills, making it a closer game than Bills fans would have wanted. NFL rules say that a quarterback who slides "feet first" is deemed to be down by contact when his slide begins and he need not even be touched by a defender for the play to be whistled dead. But Ryan didn't slide feet first at all; rather, he dived toward the goal line and was clearly well over it when Jordan Poyer bumped him, prompting Ryan to say something to Poyer earning him a flag for taunting which would then be enforced on the ensuing kickoff, right? Wrong. When Ryan's left knee came down, the ball was not over the goal line but over the one yard line. No touchdown. I'm still not sure why since he did not slide feet first and clearly wasn't touched before he crossed the goal line. Instead, it was third down and goal from the 16 yard line after enforcement of the 15 yard taunting penalty. Two incomplete passes later and the Bills were a couple of first downs away from victory formation and the clinching of a spot in the NFL playoffs. A difficult exit from playoff contention for Atlanta and for Ryan who will complete his 14th season as the Falcons quarterback next week. For the Bills, a win they needed to maintain their inside track toward a second consecutive AFC East title.
Bills punter Matt Haack did not "punt" for the second consecutive week although he did take the field and kick the ball by dropping it from his hands and booting it down the field. But there was no long snap to catch and no rushing defenders to avoid. The box score reads that Buffalo punted zero times yesterday but the scoring of a safety, a relatively uncommon event in football with a strange sequence which follows, meant that Haack had to take the field to execute a "free kick" which gave the Falcons the ball back after taking a 2-0 lead on a fumbled punt return by Marquez Stevenson. I found myself trying to explain the phenomenon of a safety to my partner who is now an enthusiastic watcher of NFL football but who had not seen such a play before. I was impressed a few minutes later when she correctly predicted the play calls which led to the Bills first two touchdowns later in the first half. "Josh Allen will run it in for a touchdown" she said not once but twice. She was right both times. "Should they play man or zone on this series?" I asked next time the Bills defence lined up against Ryan. I didn't really want an answer and I didn't get one either.
Josh Allen had a tough day throwing the ball. His passer rating for the day was 17, the lowest of his four-year career. The quarterback passer rating is a calculation which takes into account attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns and interceptions. The highest possible passer rating is 158.3. The calculation resembles the one used in consumer lending for credit scores in that it isn't completely clear how all of its elements fit together (it isn't a proprietary algorithm like the credit score is - you can look up how the calculation works) but common sense says that if you throw three interceptions, your passer rating will suffer. And that's what happened to Allen yesterday. But he still had a good game in my opinion and contributed over 80 yards rushing, including the two touchdowns. Aside from Allen, the Bills running game had its best day in a long time as Devin Singletary had career highs in carries with 23 and yards with 110 while scoring two touchdowns as well. The Bills posted 28 first downs to Altanta's 18 and dominated the time of possession.
The only team standing between the Bills and another AFC East title is the pesky New York Jets who come to Orchard Park on Sunday to close out the 17 game regular season. The Jets built a big lead over Tom Brady and the Bucs yesterday but eventually found a way to lose. In addition to seeing their team blow the lead against the heavily favoured Superbowl champs, fans at the Meadowlands of New Jersey also witnessed what will hopefully be the final NFL side show by Antonio Brown who inexplicably left the game in the third quarter with the Bucs down 24-10. He removed his jersey, threw his gloves into the stands and did some jumping jacks in the endzone before disappearing for hopefully the last time. I presume that he's having lunch today with Vontae Davis who left the NFL in similar fashion (without the public disrobing) in week one of the 2018 season while playing for Buffalo.
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