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.
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