Bills 28, Lions 25

I wanted to wait until (1) the NFL's Week 12 was almost complete and (2) the critical college games on Saturday were played before posting this morning. The Bills, despite winning for the second time in five days at Ford Field to improve to 8-3, now stand 5th in the AFC playoff standings with two division games coming up, starting with another Thursday game - their third this season - four days from now in New England. The Chiefs hold the first overall seed at 9-2 with the 8-3 Dolphins holding the second seed. The week 15 game in Orchard Park on the weekend of December 17th/18th will be a big one for sure with the AFC East division title probably hanging in the balance. The league can wait until after this week's games (week 13) to announce the TBD portion of the schedule for week 15 with three games set to be played Saturday the 17th - early afternoon, late afternoon and a night game. Look for the Bills v. Dolphins game to be either the Saturday night game or the Sunday night game. If it ends up being slotted into either of those night games, my hopes of attending my first live game in three years will be dashed. Don't think I have what it will take for a winter night game and driving until 3am.

As for this weekend's games, let's start with the Vanier Cup. Here's a good football trivia question: Which game has a longer history - the Superbowl or the Vanier Cup? The answer is the Vanier Cup but only about three months longer. Superbowl LVII will be played in Glendale, AZ in February but the 57th Vanier Cup was played Saturday in London, ON. Neither holds a candle to the Grey Cup which, as of last weekend, now has a 109-year history. The Laval Rouge et Or won their 11th Cup (in 13 trips) over the Saskatchewan Huskies at Western Alumni Stadium (formerly called J.W. Little Stadium which makes me wonder if something in Mr. Little's history was unearthed and deemed to be unsavoury) before an announced sell-out crowd of 8,420. London is quite a hike from either Laval or Regina which meant that only a handful of actual fans of the two teams made it to the game. After we graduated from university, a group of us attended the Vanier Cup every year at Varsity Stadium in downtown Toronto. We stopped going after the first year that the game was moved to the canvernous Skydome where the combination of a small crowd and a closed roof made for the most antiseptic possible atmosphere (and a longer walk to the Morrisey Tavern). We would have driven to London if the Western Mustangs had made it but probably not otherwise. The Mustangs fell a game short of  Saturday's game which would have made it a "home" championship game for them. The weather certainly cooperated and in the images I saw of the stadium, it looked more full than Mosaic Stadium in Regina did the previous weekend for the Grey Cup. So ends another season of three-down football. I feel like the core group of Canadian football fans (of which I am one) has no younger generations coming behind it to take up the cause. Twenty years from now, will be talking about the 129th Grey Cup and the 77th Vanier Cup? I hope so but I'm honestly not sure.     

By several orders of magnitude, the biggest game on Saturday was played in Columbus, OH where the Michigan Wolverines won "The Game" (the 118th in the storied rivalry) for the second straight year and guaranteed themselves one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff, also for the second straight year. Attendance at the Horseshoe was 106,787. The Wolverines gained ten yards on the ground in the first half but finished the game with 252 as they physically dominated the Buckeyes at the line of scrimmage in the second half. The No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs will also be in the playoff but the other two spots are still up for grabs and dependent on the Conference Championship Games this weekend. In the running are: USC and TCU with Alabama and, yes, Ohio State still with outside shots. The participants are chosen by vote rather than by competition on the field so there is no certainty about which teams will make it - except that even if Michigan loses to Purdue in the Big Ten Championship or if Georgia loses to LSU in the SEC Championship, they are both considered to have earned their spots in the four team playoff.

After every NFL, each team's head coach delivers a brief post-game speech in the locker room with cameras rolling. We rarely see them from the losing locker rooms (maybe after the Conference Championships or the Superbowl) but they offer coaches the opportunity to deliver an inspirational or congratulatory message which reflects their personality, coaching style and communication style. On Thursday afternoon in Detroit, Sean McDermott's speech was worth seeing. He started calmly, recounting the previous week's blizzard, two flights to Detroit and the life lessons that such adversity can offer. He then erupted in joy declaring that it was "One Hell of an Effort!" to the cheers of the half-dressed players surrounding him. It was great to see some emotion from the usually stoic and tight-lipped coach. He then offered "Game Balls" to No 17 for the clutch throw near the end of the game, to No 14 for the catch and to "our little kicker" Tyler Bass who sheepishly appeared from behind a couple of behemoth linemen to claim his game ball for the winning kick. I really do think that McDermott and Beane have built a positive and sustainable winning culture.  

  

Bills 31, Browns 23

When Rex Ryan was hired as Bills head coach in January, 2015, one of his first efforts to endear himself to the local fan base was to have his pick-up truck emblazoned with “Bills” along the sides of the doors at a local auto body shop. The car reflects the man, they say. I don’t know what vehicle Sean McDermott drives (a Prius or Chevy Volt?) but one of the first comments he made in his post-game press conference in Detroit was to tell the story of how on Saturday afternoon he drove his own vehicle to pick up Von Miller and Sam Martin (who live either next door to each other or very close by, being former long-time teammates with the Broncos) in their Orchard Park subdivision to get them to the team facility. A snow plow driver spotted McDermott’s vehicle struggling with the deep snow on his way out of the neighbourhood and proceeded to plow the way for them (after the requisite photo opp) back to the main road. McDermott said that almost every player, coach and staff member (most of whom seem to live in Orchard Park) had a similar story of their epic journey to get to the stadium (and the team bus to the airport) through two metres of snow on Saturday. Some almost didn’t make it.

The stories of personal journeys through the snow made me presume that the team received special dispensation from the New State Troopers and local police for an exemption to the driving ban which was instituted late Thursday evening as the snow began. The only vehicles allowed on the roads in Erie County from Thursday onward were snow plows, emergency responders and any vehicle transporting Bills players, coaches or staff. And the Buffalo Airport was also closed – except for the Bills charter to Detroit of course. The team arrived at their hotel in Detroit just before 7.30pm Saturday. The Bills ended up with about as much practice as they would for a Thursday game – just like they’ll have this week as they prepare for their second game at Ford Field in four days. As Sal Capaccio explained on the pregame radio broadcast, even if the Bills played in a domed stadium in Orchard Park, the game would have been moved (or postponed) anyway as the snow would have made it impossible for 70,000 fans to get to the area, let alone allowing access by first responders, police and emergency vehicles. Yes, the stadium will have to be shovelled out by hand but the roads around Orchard Park will not be clear of the two metres of snow for at least a few days.

56,000 discounted tickets to yesterday’s game were sold on short notice and in the true spirit of American enterprise, many were sold at considerable profit on the secondary market. Hey, I was trying to sell my own tickets too but ended up with just a credit on my season ticket account with the Bills. The crowd, according to Bills radio play-by-play man John Murphy was about 75% Bills supporters and 25% Browns fans.

As much as wanted to see the late afternoon Cowboys v. Vikings game and the Chiefs v. Chargers SNF game, I couldn’t turn away from the 109^th Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. For what seems like decades now, the CFL manages to cap off disappointing seasons (in terms of fan interest) with classic championship games which leave casual fans thinking that maybe the three-down game is actually worth watching – and maybe more than once a year. With a dramatic ending which included each team blocking field goals in the final minutes, the Toronto Argonauts, the least deserving team in the league on account of epic fan disinterest in Canada’s largest city, managed a thrilling one point win over the two-time defending champion Blue Bombers. Amazingly, in a nine team (and in some years eight team) league, the Argos and Bombers had not faced each other in the Grey Cup since 1950. The Argos have won the Cup each and every time they have faced the Bombers in the big game. The game was “sold out” but it was a heavily papered house with plenty of empty seats throughout the stadium (which is by far the best one in the league). As someone from Regina said yesterday morning, CFL fans in Saskatchewan might show up just to cheer against their arch-rivals one province to the east. Some did that I guess. I ended up watching most of the Grey Cup for the first time in a few years and I’m glad I did. Will I go to the parade? Will there even be a parade? Maybe Larry Tannenbaum could just drive down Bay Street one morning with the coach and quarterback in his car. I would go down to watch.

The Bills returned to Buffalo last night and will fly back to Detroit on Wednesday for Thursday’s 12.30pm kick-off against the Lions who have now won three straight, including yesterday’s win against the Giants. To sum up some of yesterday’s football: Buffalo beat Cleveland in Detroit, Detroit beat New York in New Jersey and Toronto beat Winnipeg in Regina.

After the Bills game Thursday, the biggest game of the year in college football kicks off at noon Saturday at the Horseshoe in Columbus. The annual Michigan v. Ohio State game has never had more riding on it as the winner gets a berth in the four team playoff. The loser will end up in some irrelevant bowl game or other over the holidays

Vikings 33, Bills 30, OT

I’ve been tuning in recently to the syndicated CBS Sports Radio programming which the FAN in Toronto carries very early on weekend mornings. When its 5am on a Saturday, the host’s job seems to be to float opinions which are controversial, provocative or otherwise inflammatory enough to cause North America's insomniacs and early risers to reach for their phones and call in to explain why the host is wrong. It usually works well enough to occupy the airwaves through these hours when the human spirit is usually at its lowest ebb. Last weekend, host Zach Gelb decided to tell his overnight listeners (Alan McPhee referred to it and them as “vacuumland” when he occupied CBC Radio’s overnight airwaves in the 60s and 70s) that the NFL itself is at a low ebb with fewer and fewer compelling games, explosive plays or memorable moments. He suggested that maybe the shrinking participation in tackle football in the US – from junior and Pop Warner programs to high school and even high level college programs – is starting to filter upward in the form of a watered down talent pool in the NFL. TV ratings are down a bit across the board this season for the NFL but even so, it’s televised games continue to dwarf any other programming on conventional television. Viewership for the Thursday night package is off sharply but I’d say that’s mostly because they are carried by Amazon Prime in the US and not on regular television at all. A slate of Thursday night clunker match-ups doesn't help either. I didn’t call in to disagree but others certainly did.

I wonder if Zach Gelb was watching the Bills and Vikings epic battle in Orchard Park yesterday – or any of the close games the Bills have played already in 2022 in Miami, Baltimore, Kansas City and New York. Anyway, Zach Gelb, I know you have to say things at 5am which you may not really mean but I have a feeling you’ll be casting yesterday’s game in a positive light one day when you’re fawning again over the juggernaut that is the modern NFL.

It’s great to have your team involved in games which become instant classics but I suspect that they’re even more satisfying when you end winning one of them. In retrospect, analysis of most close football games isolates a couple or maybe a few critical plays which, had they gone the other way, would have changed the outcome of the game. I can think of at least ten of those from yesterday: the interceptions in the endzone for sure, the Singletary fumble which if the call on the field had ruled him “down” would have stood as such, the Cam Lewis almost interception which ended up being a miraculous 32 yard catch by Justin Jefferson on a 4^th and 18, the botched snap, fumble and Vikings touchdown to name a few. The Vikings should have won the game in regulation if the replay officials had noticed Gabriel Davis’s non-catch with 17 seconds left which helped set up the tying field goal. In short, for viewers without a rooting interest, it was an exciting and at times even shocking game to watch - and easily the best regular season game of 2022. Just like the playoff game in Kansas City in January, it was a testament to how exciting NFL football can be. I’m sure that even Zach Gelb can see that.

After the game, I was in the car and well within range of the WGR radio signal. The fans were angry; some were apoplectic. This team finds new and different excruciating ways to lose games every year, they said. Add this one to the list of franchise heartbreakers. Sure. The bottom line, according to Chris Parker (aka Bulldog) is that with Josh Allen, we’re going to get plenty of spectacular plays but we’re going to have to accept a few “What the hell are you doing!” moments along with them. In some games more than others; maybe for a few games in a row (and we seem to be in one of those stretches right now) but overall, Allen needs to play with an approach somewhere between aggressive and reckless to be at his most effective. He played that way yesterday and he plays that way pretty much all the time. Most teams would take it in a heartbeat.

At 6-3 (the same record as they had after nine games last season) , the Bills, amazingly, have dropped to third place in the AFC East and currently hold the sixth seed in the AFC playoff picture. Four division games remain with three of those at home. Up next, their Lake Erie cousins and perennial NFL doormat, the Cleveland Browns, come to Orchard Park on Sunday. Four days later, they play the Lions in Detroit in the early Thanksgiving Day slot. They should end up 8-3 after those games but who knows.    

     

Jets 20, Bills 17

"Classic Trap Game" is the term that NFL touts will often use to describe a game against a lesser-light which comes right before one against a much better team. Is that what happened yesterday in the dystopic suburban wasteland of New Jersey? Did the Bills take the Jets for granted as they have had the luxury of doing over the past few years? I'm not sure that's the right take on it but I did have a feeling going in that this game was a huge one for the Jets and their coach Robert Saleh obviously had them ready for it. 

I will channel a bit of Pat Burns here in terms of the way he usually took a contrarian view in his postgame comments: If his team had won a close game, Burns might say "well, if we keep relying on our goalie like that, we won't win may more" and after losing a close game, it would be more like "the effort was there and we played well enough to win; if a couple of bounces had gone the other way....". This is a "glass half full" analysis but I think that yesterday's game is exactly what the Bills needed as they come to the halfway mark of the regular season. After four straight wins, a loss to the Jets should and I think will be a wake-up call as they prepare for the 7-1 Minnesota Vikings in Orchard Park on Sunday.

There are certainly areas for concern with at least a couple which have spanned the last two games. Josh Allen has had two poor performances throwing the ball and the run defence has been equally weak over those games as well. When quarterbacks throw to wide-open defensive backs who should be clearly within their line of sight, it certainly looks mysterious on TV. Did the receiver turn left when the play called for him to turn right? How is it that he didn't see that defender? A friend of mine is a big Steelers fan (and a bit of a conspiracy theorist) and after the January, 1996 Superbowl, he was convinced that Steelers quarterback Neil O'Donnell had been paid to throw interceptions at two key points in the Steelers loss to Dallas. "There isn't any other explanation for it", he said, claiming that it simply wasn't possible for him not to have seen those cornerbacks or safeties. The Cowboys won and whoever paid O'Donnell cashed in on it handsomely I'm sure. Good thing I lost touch with him because there's never been a better time to be a conspiracy theorist and I'm sure that he's deep into the vaccine question. But the run defence is another matter. No suggestion of the entire defence being paid to miss tackles. They were injury depleted - with more injuries suffered yesterday. Teams will be trying more than ever to run on the Bills so they better stiffen up. And I think they will.

When the Jets lined up to punt on a fourth and one at mid-field in the third quarter, I called the fake out loud. I know the dog heard me. It seemed obvious to me that this was the perfect situation for it and the Jets executed it perfectly. It wasn't a deciding factor but it added to the feeling of the inevitability of a Jets win, for me anyway. With a strong defensive performance and solid quarterback play, the Jets deserved to win the game and they are now a good enough team to follow through on it. Zach Wilson, despite looking weak recently, played well, made good decisions and threw no interceptions. Maybe he just wasn't offered proper compensation.   

Apparently, the CFL held their Division Semi-Finals yesterday and I also heard that TSN continues to carry these games on live television. If I were making the decisions, I would try to not to have CFL games - playoff or not - directly up against week 9 NFL games. And I mean directly as the Eastern game kicked off at 1pm and the Western game at 4.30pm. They might do better against US College football by playing on Saturday. Who knows. Same thing next weekend as the Argos host Montreal at 1pm and the Bombers play BC in the late afternoon slot. Plenty of good seats remain for the 109th Grey Cup in Regina the following week. The game is officially "sold out" they say but with many thousands of tickets available for cheap on the secondary market. 

US College football continues to offer plenty of clunkers on its Saturday schedules with the exception this past weekend being the game in Athens, Georgia between the top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 3 Bulldogs. Georgia won and now occupies the top spot in the AP Poll. Michigan and Ohio State remain on a collision course toward their Nov 26th game at the Horseshoe in Columbus with the winner guaranteed one of the four playoff berths. 

The Minnesota Vikings have won six straight games. That streak ends on Sunday in Orchard Park, I like the Bills 30-17. And I like Kathy Hochul to win over Lee Zeldin on Tuesday. If Herschel Walker wins the Georgia Senate seat, comedians across the US will rejoice.