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.
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