Bengals 27, Bills 10

The final score was flattering to the Buffalo Bills whose season ended yesterday in typical snowy January Buffalo weather. The Cincinnati Bengals carried on right where they had left off 20 days earlier when they looked like they could move the ball down the field at will - at least on their first two drives. The first quarter was really all we needed to see in terms of how the game was going to go with the Bengals taking what felt like a commanding 14 point lead. The Bills got spanked fair and square by a team which looked prepared, motivated and determined to dominate the line of scrimmage on both offence and defence. As the second half began, Tony Romo said that such dominance rarely changes at halftime. He was right.  

If Bills fans are being honest about it, the cracks have been evident for a while now. Starting with the truncated game in Cincinnati on January 2nd and carrying on through the games against the Patriots and Dolphins - two teams which the Bills should have handled easily but struggled to pull away from. The early season success had clearly slipped away. Why? On the FOX broadcast, Sean Payton reminded viewers that the Bills pass rush has been anemic since Von Miller went down on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit. His presence, particularly on third down, was obviously missed more than we really knew or were willing to acknowledge. 

Jim Nantz mentioned an interesting statistic about the Bills playoff success playing in the now 50 year-old stadium in Orchard Park: They had only ever lost one home playoff game there before yesterday. Not that there were really very many of them outside the four Superbowl years. It was a game I remember well: December, 1996 against Jacksonville. The game had not sold out in time for the television blackout to be lifted so I drove to London, Ontario (outside the blackout zone) and watched it with my friend Jim at a bar downtown. On the game's deciding play late in the fourth quarter, Jim Kelly was sacked hard and fumbled the ball away. He suffered a concussion and would never suit up in the NFL again. The game was certainly closer than yesterday's was. 

I did end up buying two tickets to the theoretical (and now moot) game in Atlanta as Bills and Chiefs season ticket holders were given priority access to tickets last week. the NFL announced that this resulted in more than 50,000 ticket sales even before any public sale. Last week I wondered if the Jaguars might save me a trip to Atlanta by winning in Kansas City. Turns out that it was the Bengals who ended the possibility of a neutral site game. Last night, I was reminded of the eight World Series tickets I bought in October, 1985 after the Blue Jays had taken a three games to one lead over the Royals in the ALCS before eventually losing in seven games on a Jim Sundberg windblown shot off the top of the right field wall. That was when tickets really were tickets and not a barcode in a phone. They were beautiful: at least 8 inches long and three inches wide with the World Series trophy shown prominently. I took a photo of them before mailing them in for my refund. I think they were about $100 each which was a lot almost 40 years ago.

I had a lovely ski before the game yesterday and I was feeling eerily confident as it started. That confidence evaporated immediately as the Bengals scored easily on the first drive and never looked back. At least there was no heart-breaking ending like there was in last year's Divisional Round game in Kansas City. 

I will be rooting for the Bengals next week for a few reasons. Top among them was the way that they handled the Damar Hamlin injury by agreeing to suspend the game and with the Bengals fan base showing compassion and support for Hamlin in the aftermath. And they've been to three Superbowls without a win to show for it. In fact, they made it to the big game in three different eras with three different quarterbacks: Ken Anderson in 1981, Boomer Esiason in 1988 and Joe Burrow last year. Maybe their time has come. 

As for the Bills, I am confident that they will regroup, draft appropriately and continue the "process" with full continuity with the general manager and head coach. They have been a playoff team five of the last six years. We should be thankful and remain hopeful. After all, this is the year of the rabbit in Chinese astrology. This is said to portend longevity, peace and prosperity. 2023 in particular is predicted to be a year of hope.  

     

Bills 34, Dolphins 31

About 15 years ago, a former colleague of mine (you know who you are JA) attended a mortgage conference somewhere in the US where long-time NFL referee Jeff Triplette gave a non-mortgage related luncheon keynote. He was able to speak at some length with Triplette afterward. One of his comments which stood out was that, in addition to the obvious objective of getting calls on the field correct as much as possible, a key metric on which NFL referees are graded is their ability to keep games at or as close to three hours in duration as they possibly can. It did seem a bit surprising to me that this would be considered so important to the league but there are very good reasons why it is. Yesterday in Orchard Park, Brad Allen's crew failed miserably at this as the game, which did not include overtime, lasted a minute or two short of a full four hours. For whatever reason, the first half didn't end until almost 3pm and, for Bills fans anyway, this only added to the stress and frustration of a playoff game which their team could have easily lost. Multiple video reviews of catches which were ruled good on the field then overturned were the main culprit and the officiating crew had little control over this but for those of us who wanted to get some exercise in the last hour of daylight yesterday afternoon, the final review of Devin Singletary's almost but maybe not quite first down which was ruled a first down on the field and confirmed by review (where it was impossible to tell from any camera angle) took until almost 5pm. A four hour non-overtime game. 

FOX carried the Giants v. Vikings game which began just after 4.30pm. Most NFL viewers would probably have watched the Bills.v Dolphins to the end (targeted to be around 4pm) then switched to the FOX pregame. The FOX audience was probably pretty small until the Bills game finally ended and this is why the league, its broadcasters and television advertisers needed the Bills game to end within the three hour time frame. Overtime is one thing. But a four hour regulation game which cuts out another broadcaster's entire pregame show and part of the first quarter of its game is unacceptable and I am sure that it will be a main topic of discussion this morning on Park Avenue.

The Dolphins sure did play the Bills tough all three times they played this season. All of the games were close and either team could have gone 3-0 or 0-3. The Dolphins 1-2 mark seems fair I suppose but yesterday's performance, going in as 14 point underdogs, was pretty impressive. Or did the Bills just come in a bit flat and almost blow it? Who's to say but the main thing is that, as Josh Allen said afterward, every game is a one-game season now you just have to win and then move on to next week. Allen was responsible for three turnovers himself (not unusual for him) but he made some spectacular plays (also not unusual) en route to a 23 for 39 day with 352 yards and two touchdowns. Gabe Davis made the best play he has made all season with his catch and toe-tap for what was eventually the winning score. 

I just can not stay up these days for the non-Bills night games. On Saturday night, we turned on the Chargers game after dinner when they were leading 10-0. Then 17-0, then 24-0, then 27-0 as Trevor Lawrence appeared to be running an interception workshop with Asante Samuel, Jr working the other side of the line of scrimmage for demonstration purposes. The NBC broadcast showed a stone-faced Jaguars owner Shad Khan in his box with Roger Goodell, both staring straight forward as if they were really nowhere near each other, along with distraught Jags fans whose hopes of home playoff win seemed to have been dashed. The visiting Chargers were favoured by two points and it obviously should have been much more as the Jaguars were clearly not quite ready for a prime time playoff game. We went to sleep. I awoke around 2am, checked my phone and it said that the Jags had won the game 31-30. It's a relatively new phone which hadn't given me any trouble so far but that score must have been from a game in 1990s I thought. So I pressed ctrl+alt+delete (notionally) and got the same result. For the Chargers, a collapse of this magnitude is tough to swallow but good on the Jags. I wish them all the best in Kansas City. If they can win there, it could save me a trip to Atlanta.

The resumption/rematch of the Bengals v. Bills game which drew attention for the wrong reasons on January 2nd, goes on Sunday at 3pm. The Bills are early four point favourites but I predict that the line will tighten as the week goes on. I saw only the first half of the Bengals game last night with the Ravens taking a 10-9 lead into halftime. This should be a much tougher test for the Bills defence than the Dolphins were. This might be the game to go to. It would be my first one in more than three years.   

Bills 35, Patriots 23

Opening day of the 2007 NFL season - Sunday September 9th - was an unseasonably cool and wet day in Orchard Park, NY.  My seats were near the 30 yard line, south side tunnel end of the stadium. After attempting a tackle on the return of the second half kick-off, Bills tight end and special teamer Kevin Everett lay motionless on the field. Medical staff ran out, the stretcher board appeared, then the ambulance. I think I remember him giving the "thumbs-up" but I'm not sure about that. Away he went, the game resumed and the Bills lost 15-14 on a Denver field goal as time expired. We wouldn't learn the extent of Everett's injuries or of his grim short-term prognosis until later that evening. The most remarkable outcome from the event was that, despite doctors giving him a statistically very small chance to walk again, he indeed did walk again. In the days following the injury, he made slow incremental progress, finally being able to move his arms and wiggle his toes after a few days. Aside from spinal surgery which included a bone graft and a plate with screws between his third and fourth vertebrae, the medical team's best move - described as experimental at the time - was to cool Everett's body and spinal cord immediately after the injury by way of ice water immersion and cold intravenous treatment. Four months later, Everett sat with Roger Goodell at the Superbowl and, on opening day the following season, he walked on to the field in Buffalo to receive the George Halas Award, given every year since 1969 to the NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes the most adversity in order to succeed.

Last Monday's truncated game in Cincinnati brought me back to that day 15 years earlier. But it was obviously a much more dire situation for Bills safety Damar Hamlin, at least in the short term. Bills Trainer Denny Kellington performed CPR on Hamlin - for several minutes we are told - and this, along with a shot from a defibrillator, saved his life that night at the 50 yard line of Paycor Stadium on the banks of the Ohio River. Hamlin has made significant progress in the days since and it is my hope that he can walk on to the field at Bills Stadium one day to accept his own George Halas Award. 

The NFL, its senior management team, team owners and scores of talking heads on television and radio across North America had much to discuss last week not only about Hamlin's injury but about if and when the Bills and Bengals might resume or replay their game and how the fallout would ripple through the rest of the league. The decision to declare the game a "no contest" was made mid-week then the owners approved a plan which included possibly playing the AFC Championship Game at a neutral site and the possibility of a coin toss determining the location of a playoff game between the Bengals and the Ravens. The first of these two possibilities remains (by virtue of the Bills securing the second seed yesterday) while the second won't be necessary (by virtue of the Bengals securing the third seed yesterday). Sports talk radio covered little else last week.   

Despite continuing to mask in all indoor public settings, a non-COVID virus finally got me over the holidays. And it really got me. Worst thing I've had in at least ten years. Maybe 20. Far worse than the COVID which I had in April. Anyway, throughout the week after Christmas, I was hunkered down in north Toronto riding out the virus and listening to the radio at all hours of the day and night (I turned on the TV only for the PBS News Hour and Jeopardy). Since CBC radio was carrying mostly specialty holiday programming which I'm sure is quite interesting for some, it wasn't for me so I stuck with WGR 550 and the syndicated CBS Sports Radio carried by the FAN Toronto. WGR would occasionally mention the Sabres and CBS would occasionally mention the NBA but otherwise, I figure I consumed, actively and passively, about 100 hours of football discussion and analysis that week leading up to the Bills v. Bengals Monday night game. Although my nasty cold virus is much-improved now, I'm not sure I'm any smarter for any of the endless football discussions . It all just seems to blend together to form a football-flavoured word salad with gridiron buzzwords liberally spread throughout: Joe Borrow needs to get the ball out in about 2.5 seconds; the Michigan offensive line will have its way with TCU's front seven (this was wrong); Tua has had two concussions this season - or maybe it's three if you count the week three incident against the Bills; Derek Carr is done in Vegas; the Broncos need to figure out how to get out from under the crushing Russel Wilson contract; Tom Brady could end up in Vegas or Denver or even with the Jets next season; the weather in Cincinnati on Monday should be mild but maybe there'll be rain in the second half (rendered moot) and on and on and on. Even as a pretty keen football fan, it just got to be too much. By Saturday and then Monday, I was well beyond ready for some actual football.

But we only got about a half a quarter on Monday Jan 2nd before the game was called with the Bengals leading 7-3. I didn't sleep very well and awoke to check for news on Hamlin a couple of times in the night. I, like others I'm sure, was genuinely worried that he might not make it. 

Yesterday in Orchard Park, the Bills clinched the second AFC seed and eliminated the Patriots from post-season play. Thanks to two kick-offs returned for touchdowns by Nyheim (Gregory) Hines, the Bills will play at home again on Sunday January 15th at 1pm against the Miami Dolphins who eked out their first win in six weeks to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Which of their quarterbacks will be healthy on Sunday remains unknown but this game will be third meeting between these teams this season and obviously the most important one. 

The four-team college football playoff format has had its share of detractors since it was created nine years ago but no one could complain about the quality of either of the semi-final games played on New Year's Eve. TCU outlasted Michigan 51-45 and Georgia rallied to top Ohio State 42-41, setting up tonight's Championship game which will be hard-pressed to match the excitement of either of the semi-final games. I support expanding the playoff field to eight teams. Since each of the four semi-finalists had more three weeks to prepare for their playoff games, there is obviously enough time to add another round and doubling the number of teams would create certainty that the best teams in the country are all given a chance at the title. But change comes painfully slowly in the world of US college football, steeped in tradition as it is and with a myriad of competing interests, many of which are motivated to maintain the status quo. Maybe it was easier and simpler when the Rose Bowl was played on New Year's Day between the Big Ten Champs and the PAC Ten Champs with no other consideration to be made. That's how it worked for 100 years anyway. The playoff format used now is better than the incomprehensible Bowl Championship Series (BCS) which came before it and better than having the National Champion decided by ballot. The Championship Game goes tonight in Los Angeles at 7.30pm Eastern.