Eagles 13, Bills 12

In baseball, the old adage was that you played for the win on the road and played for the tie at home toward the end of the game. Having the bottom of the inning to either match or best your opponent was enough of an advantage to justify the strategy and football offers nothing similar (except in the college football overtime format where who goes first is determined by coin toss). I would have found Sean McDermott’s decision to go for the win last night more understandable had the Bills defence been gassed, had the offence sputtered near the end, if the momentum had been with the Eagles or if Josh Allen hadn’t missed a wide-open Khalil Shakir in the endzone. But the Bills defence had stiffened in the second half and the offence, while not setting the house on fire, was finally moving the ball with success late in the fourth quarter after producing very little through the first 55 minutes of the game. Usually, two touchdowns will beat a touchdown and two field goals but when you can’t convert either touchdown, it doesn’t. I don’t blame the kicker for the blocked extra point on the first one, although maybe it came off his foot a bit low, but – and I realize this is a classic example of Monday morning quarterbacking – I think that playing for the tie and sending the game to overtime would have been the right call. And it would have been the conservative call which, had the kicker missed or if the kick had been blocked again, would have all of us Monday morning quarterbacks saying that they should have gone for the win. The play that Joe Brady dialed up was a good one and their confidence in it was probably a big reason why they went for it. But it didn’t work out.

Yesterday felt like a lot of waiting. Waiting for the possibly catastrophic ice storm here in Central Ontario, waiting for the power to be knocked out, waiting for the Bills game to finally start, waiting for the Bills offence to show up…...at one point I felt like I was waiting for Godot. Like in the Beckett play, Godot never did show up but the freezing rain certainly did and the Bills offence eventually and finally did but it came up one throw short of eking out another unlikely win. The ice accretion was somewhat less than the apocalyptic forecasts were suggesting it seems and, as of this writing early Monday morning, the power remains on in our corner of Muskoka. Strong winds and heavy snow squalls coming later today will probably change that. We’ll see.

While the Bills clinched a playoff spot with last week’s win in Cleveland, yesterday’s loss dropped them to the seventh and last seed in the AFC. They are tied with the Chargers and the Texans at 11-5 but do not hold the tie-breaker with either. The fifth seed is the best that they can hope for but that will require both a Chargers loss to the Broncos in Denver and a Texans home loss to the Colts. The latter seems unlikely as the Colts have completely unravelled since Daniel Jones went down and Philip Rivers admirably stepped in. The former is much more likely as the Broncos will want to seal the first overall seed in the AFC with a win – and they will play in the same 4.25pm window as the Patriots.

Assuming wins next week by the Bills, Broncos and Texans, the Bills will occupy the sixth seed which will very likely mean a road game at Jacksonville. The Bills finish up their season and their 53-year tenure at Rich Stadium next Sunday against the Jets who were trounced by the Patriots yesterday. A Bills win is likely. With the Chargers likely to lose at Denver and the Texans likely to win at home against the Colts, the sixth seed seems like where the Bills will end up. If they somehow manage to fall to the seventh seed, that will almost for sure mean a trip to New England to face the Patriots. I’d rather take my chances in Jacksonville where the Bills could easily be favoured on the road. For the Bills, the road to the Superbowl looks like it will go through Jacksonville. FL, Foxborough, MA and Denver, CO. For eternal optimists, there still remains a very slim chance of a Bills home playoff game in early 2026. It will require the following: A Bills win combined with Chargers and Texans losses on Sunday then in the Wildcard round, wins by all three road teams. This would result in Divisional round games being played in Denver and Buffalo. So, I’m saying there is a chance.

The NFL Week 18 schedule was finalized while most of us slept last night. For some reason, the Bills v. Jets game was slotted into the 4.25pm window on Sunday. The two games on Saturday are equally compelling: the Panthers play in Tampa at 4.30pm to determine the winner of the NFC South with the loser very likely out of the playoffs and the late game features the Seahawks playing in Santa Clara, CA against the 49ers who won last night against the Bears. This game will determine not only the winner of the NFC West but the number one seed in the NFC bracket. The loser will be a wildcard team. Then after a Sunday afternoon lineup of somewhat less interesting games, the Sunday night game between the Steelers and the Ravens in Pittsburgh will determine the winner of the AFC North with the loser going home.  

With the temperature rising overnight to about plus 4 at 7am, where I now sit, wind is picking up and ice is falling from the trees like shrapnel onto the roof and glancing off the windows of the cottage. If the trees can shed most of the ice and snow before the temperature drops and the winds arrive, it may in fact save us from much more severe damage – and long power outages - than were forecast. It’s a “weather bomb” they say and I’m looking forward to a return to normal winter conditions like we’ve been enjoying for about three weeks now.   

Bills 23, Browns 20

The winter solstice occurred at 10.03am EST yesterday. It marks the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the southernmost point of the sun’s path across the sky from daybreak to sunset. A lesser-known fact about the variability of the hours of daylight and darkness is that the rate of change – the number of minutes and seconds gained or lost each day – is at its lowest point at the solstices and at its maximum at each equinox in March and September. The length of each day’s daylight hours in our part of the world remains close to constant over the two months on either side of the solstice - from November 21^st to January 21^st – but begins to increase much more rapidly toward the end of February and peaks in late March where daylight hours grow noticeably longer almost every day. At the end of the year, every place on this planet will have received the identical number of daylight hours. These are the darkest days of the year for us and we won’t notice much change for another two months. The photo I took yesterday shows the sun setting over the southwest corner of Clear Lake around 4.30pm. We would have to wait another seven hours before the sun set on the Buffalo Bills chances at a home playoff game in the dark days of January, 2026.

The 2025 winter solstice brought another long day of football – from the Bills frustrating win in Cleveland to the close and exciting games in the 4.25pm window to the late game statement made by the New England Patriots in Baltimore. I stayed up for all of it in the hopes of a second consecutive Patriots loss which would have brought the Bills even with them at 11-4. Down 11 points in the fourth quarter against the Ravens second-string quarterback, the Patriots stormed back with two touchdowns to seal the win and, although not mathematically just yet, clinch their first AFC division title since before COVID struck. Were they to lose to the Jets and the Dolphins over the next two weeks and if the Bills win out against the Eagles and Jets, the Patriots would then find themselves in a wildcard position. But that wildcard position, this season, will belong to the Bills who will aim to be the fifth seed, facing a trip to probably either Pittsburgh or Jacksonville in the wildcard round. The only shot they have at a final playoff game at Rich Stadium next month will be in the Divisional Round if all three wildcard teams, seeds five through seven, can win their wildcard games. The January 4^th game against the lowly New York Jets will almost for sure be the last game played at Rich Stadium after 53 seasons.

I found the Myles Garrett sack record chasing business to be an unnecessary distraction yesterday but I was relieved that Dion Dawkins was able to keep him in check. He did earn one half of one sack on a play where Josh Allen should have thrown the ball away but didn’t and ended up circling himself into falling down at the goal-line, hurting his right foot in the process. How the league ended up crediting Garrett and Alex Wright with a half-sack each I’m not really sure but he has now come within a half-sack of tying the season record set by Michael Strahan in 2001 and equaled by TJ Watt in 2021. Garrett has two games remaining to set a new single-season sack record but he had better do it next week against the Steelers to avoid the dreaded asterisk on account of the now 17-game season. Strahan posted his 22.5 sacks in a 16-game season while Watt had the luxury of an extra game which was added to the NFL schedule in 2021. The NFL officially began recording quarterback sacks in 1982. Before that, they were simply another kind of “tackle for loss”. Deacon Jones, who played from 1961 to 1974, might well hold the record had sacks been a statistical category when he played. I remember when the Bills signed high profile free agent edge rusher Mario Williams in 2012. His salary for that season was $16 million and, in the interests of symmetry, he recorded 16 sacks. But like the Cleveland Browns this year, the 2012 Bills were not a good team at all.

Up next for the Bills is a home date in the 4.25pm window next Sunday against the defending Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles who are coming off a decisive win in Washington on Saturday. The Eagles will win the NFC East division again but the road to the Superbowl on the NFC side of the draw looks like it will go through Seattle who managed a thrilling win on Thursday night over their division rival Los Angeles Rams. This the so-called “17^th game” for the Bills whose AFC East division was matched against the NFC South division this year. The Bills 2025 season consists of the standard six games against division opponents, four against the NFC South, four against the AFC North, two against last year’s AFC division winners from the AFC West and the AFC South (the Chiefs and the Texans) and this the 17^th game against the Eagles. The Bills are early 2.5-point favourites.

For those celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever else might be marked or observed at this time of year such as the pagan ritual of observing the winter solstice like I do, I wish everyone all the best.   

Bills 35, Patriots 31

As a keen follower of Buffalo Bills history and an observer of NFL football’s occasional symmetry, I must begin with a look-back to the events of September 25, 2011. In a game I attended, the Bills entered week three of that season, what would be their 12^th of 17 consecutive years finishing out of a playoff position, with a 2-0 record and the mighty New England Patriots visiting Orchard Park. After an opening touchdown by Wes Welker, native son Rob Gronkowski (he’s from Amherst) scored two touchdowns of his own to stake the Patriots to what seemed like an insurmountable 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. Game over. Probably. But quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, cornerback Drayton Florence and place-kicker Rian Lindell scripted an alternative narrative as the Bills stormed all the way back to a late lead on Florence’s interception of Tom Brady’s tipped pass which he returned for a touchdown. Brady then led his team to another touchdown to tie the game at 31. Fitzpatrick crafted his own game-winning drive which was capped by Lindell’s field goal as time expired for a 34-31 Bills win which sent Bills fans home in celebration with a 3-0 record and the prospect of a return to the playoffs. Shortly afterward, Fitzpatrick was rewarded with a lucrative contract extension as the Bills seemed set to revive their winning ways of 20 years earlier. They finished the season at 5-11 and Fitzpatrick was run out of town a year later.

To say that the Bills got off to a slow start yesterday in Foxborough would be like saying that the 2011 season didn’t play out as planned. With no first downs in the first quarter, they found themselves down by that familiar 21-0 score. “We’ve got them just where we want them” I said, recalling the game from 14 years earlier as the Bills did manage a score on a pass to James Cook before the Patriots got a late second quarter field goal to take a 24-7 lead into halftime. The Bills then stormed all the way back with three touchdowns to take a 28-24 lead before the teams traded touchdowns again which put the Bills up 35-31 in one of the best games in yesterday’s early window. Joey Bosa got a hand on Drake Maye’s final fourth down pass to seal the massive win for Buffalo. Dawson Knox had two touchdowns on the day to bring his career total to 26, passing Pete Metzelaars on the Bills all-time list for tight-ends. Cook had another big game with three touchdowns and over 100 yards rushing. Matt Milano whose impact seemed to have diminished this season, had a big game with two sacks.

Had the Bills lost yesterday, the issue of the role of replay assist would be top-of-mind this morning. On the Patriots first drive, Maye’s deep pass to Kayshon Boutte down the right sideline was allowed to stand while replay assist quickly nullified Josh Allen’s pass to the Brandon Cooks who could not tap his second foot down before going out of bounds. I don’t share the outrage as the replays of the Boutte pass did not clearly show that he may not have maintained control of the ball as he hit the ground. Replays of the Cooks pass did clearly show that it was incomplete and replay assist quickly corrected the call on the field. Easy for Monday morning quarterbacks to say but Sean McDermott should have used one of his challenges on the Boutte pass but he did not. CBS rules analyst and former NFL referee Gene Steratore said on the broadcast that the Boutte pass would probably have been ruled incomplete on review. On this Victory Monday morning, the point is moot.

I am a fan of one Greg Cossell, seasoned NFL analyst, senior producer at NFL Films and nephew of Howard Cossell. He appeared last week on the Colin Cowherd show previewing the Bills v Pats game. He told Cowherd that, in his learned opinion, the Bills do not have a particularly strong roster. The receiving corps is weak and there really is really no impact player on defence. Drafting near the bottom of the first round for the last five years may be catching up with the Bills, he said, and he was not confident that they could win against a motivated Patriots team seeking their first division title since 2019. Cowherd commented that beyond Josh Allen, “I don’t know what Buffalo is”. Well, Buffalo has proved over the last two weeks to be resilient, if nothing else. Is their roster skilled enough to carry them deep into the playoffs this season?  We will see.

Up next for the Patriots is a trip to Baltimore to face the Ravens who are battling the Steelers for a division title. Baltimore is an early 2.5 favourite and will present a significant challenge to the Patriots who may be feeling a small measure of self-doubt creeping in after posting ten straight wins before yesterday’s loss. A loss and a Bills win in Cleveland would pull the two teams even atop the AFC East at 11-4. The Patriots still hold the tie-breaker (after head-to-head where they’re also now tied) which for a division title is each team’s record within the division. The Patriots now stand at 3-1 against AFC East teams with games remaining against the Jets and Dolphins in weeks 17 and 18. The Bills stand at 3-2 and face the Jets at home in week 18.

The Bills travel west along the south shore of Lake Erie to face Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns. They are 10-point road favourites. Teams out of contention playing out the schedule can be dangerous and unpredictable and with nothing to lose, they can and often do pull out fake punts and other trick plays and generally take risks they wouldn’t take early in the season. The Bills would be well-advised to get off to a better start against the Browns than they have over the last two games – if only to save their fans another nerve-racking Sunday afternoon.        

Bills 39, Bengals 34

After yesterday’s wild game in Orchard Park, probably the third-last game to be played at Rich Stadium, Bills cornerback Christian Benford explained that the proper technique – which he obviously did not follow – is not to leave your feet when closing in on a quarterback who is about to throw the ball. But he jumped high enough to easily catch Joe Burrow’s attempted lob pass and scampered to the endzone with his second career touchdown in as many weeks. Along with last week’s scoop-and-score in Pittsburgh, each of Benford’s two touchdowns turned the game in the Bills favour. I’m really looking forward to his next four touchdowns against the Patriots, Browns, Eagles and Jets to close out the season with an even half-dozen touchdowns. They don’t call him Christian for nothing as he attributed his going off-script and leaving his feet to an act of God. Whoever was responsible for it - God, Burrow or Benford – it was a magical (Divine?) moment in this topsy-turvy Bills 2025 season.

As we watched the first half yesterday, I kept saying that the Bengals were just practicing on their first and second down plays from scrimmage. A running play here, an incomplete pass there or maybe a short completion for a few yards to set up a third-and-five – these were done only to set the Bengals up for where they would truly excel yesterday – on third down where they converted each of their first eight. They could have and should have made it nine if Burrow hadn’t overthrown a wide-open Tee Higgins on a scramble on third and 18. It felt like there was no way that the Bills would ever stop them on third down as the Bengals put together three long drives for touchdowns on their first three possessions and looked like they would cruise to an easy win as the Bills could only muster 11 points in the first half. Not until their 10^th third down attempt, on their final possession of the first half when it felt like they were about to go up 28-11, did the Bills pass rush finally cause Burrow to hurry a throw and miss out of bounds to force a punt and hold the lead at ten going into the break.

Once again trailing by ten in the fourth quarter, the magic (Divinity?) began for the Bills who reeled off 21 points in four-and-a-half minutes to take a 39-28 lead. Josh Allen started off the rally with a long touchdown run which was followed shortly afterward by Benford’s pick-six then on the Bengals next play from scrimmage, Jordan Phillips batted a pass which drifted easily into the arms of AJ Epenesa for another interception and the Bills then converted a fourth down attempt on the ensuing drive for another touchdown – this one to tight-end Jackson Hawes whose name makes him sound like a character from a Civil War era novel.

The game felt a lot like the season’s opening game, also at Rich Stadium, when the Bills made an unlikely comeback to stun the Ravens with the aid of a late fumble recovery. This season’s home schedule has now produced two such epic comebacks for the home team with two regular season chances remaining. Had the Bengals been able to hang on to the lead they enjoyed for most of the game, they would still be realistically alive in the AFC wildcard playoff race and the Bills would have finally been shutout of any chance at their sixth division title and the home playoff game(s) which go with it. While the Bengals remain mathematically alive with the best possible scenario having them finish 8-9 if they win out, they are likely done. The Bills still hold a mathematical chance at the division title but the programs which calculate such things put their chances of this at less than 10% as the Patriots will likely have a better division record, the first tie-breaker if they finish with the same win-loss record. But 10% means that there still is a chance, right?

Last week, I speculated that next week’s game in New England against the Patriots might be flexed out of the 1pm time slot to 4.25pm or maybe even to Sunday Night Football. The deadline for so doing came and went last Wednesday with no schedule changes so we are set for another early afternoon game next Sunday. I was quite surprised to see that the Bills have been installed as early 1.5-point favourites against the Patriots who have won ten straight games and will be coming off their bye week. If I were Mike Vrabel, I would be tempted to use this as a motivational tool. If the oddsmakers can’t see their way to favouring the Patriots, who beat the Bills in Buffalo earlier this season and sit at 11-2 with a chance to seal their first division title in six years for their home fans, what then is it going to take? The answer of course is a win over Buffalo at home on Sunday. I guess the Josh Allen factor is a major component in the setting of betting lines which, remember, are done not necessarily as a prediction of the game's outcome but to attract equal money on each team. Vegas likes big names and Josh Allen is one of the biggest in the NFL right now so on that level, the line does make some sense. The so-called “smart money” - bet in large amounts by professional gamblers – could and probably will come in on the Patriots which would move the line down towards a pick'em. Who knows? I just hope that the moment and the pressure will be too much for the Patriots and their young quarterback Drake Maye whose name sound like it comes from The Young and the Restless. I like the Bills in this game, 24-20.     

Bills 26, Steelers 7

As Stephen Brunt once said, you can put any football game of any kind on television and he’ll at least watch some of it. Even by that standard, that was a lot of American football over a four-day period: three NFL games on Thanksgiving Thursday enjoying their own time-slot, then another on Friday, then rivalry weekend in college football on Saturday then the slightly reduced slate of Sunday NFL games. By halftime in the Denver v. Washington game, I’d had enough football although when I checked the score in the night, part of me wished I had seen the dramatic and unsuccessful overtime two-point conversion attempt by Washington which gave the Broncos a one-point win and pulled them even with the Patriots at 10-2 as these two battle for the AFC’s number one playoff seed. But it really was a lot a football.

One thing that occurred to me after the first play from scrimmage of the second half of yesterday's game in Pittsburgh which featured a Joey Bosa blindside sack of Aaron Rodgers then a scoop-and-score by cornerback Christian Benford which propelled the Bills to what became a relatively easy win at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium was that as Mason Rudolph entered the game on the next play from scrimmage, it was not Rudolph who was sporting the red nose but rather it was Rodgers, who turns 42 tomorrow and looked old, hurt and defeated as he left the game clutching his lame left arm and with his nose bloodied by Bosa’s hit. I have never ever taken pleasure from an injury to any player but I will admit that when Rodgers went down on that play, my sympathy for him, for a few reasons, was ever-so-slightly less than it would have been for almost any other NFL player. To his credit, he returned to the game one series later but was just as ineffective as he had been earlier. If I were a Steelers fan, despite not posting a losing season in 20 years, the prospects at quarterback with Rodgers and the not-so-red-nosed Rudolph atop the depth chart are bleak at best. Add to that the expiring shelf-life of the very long-in-the-tooth (but still highly respected and for good reason) head coach Mike Tomlin, and Steelers Nation will be expecting, and will probably get, some big changes this off-season. The Steelers have only had three head coaches since 1969: Chuck Knoll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. Looks like its time for a reset in Pittsburgh. The boos were loud and Tomlin, the Steelers head coach since 2007, acknowledged them afterward. He and Bills coach Sean McDermott were teammates at the College of William and Mary and share a close friendship. Tomlin is a class act but I’d say his time is done.

As for the Bills and their offensive mindset going into yesterday’s game, they obviously committed to the run and they certainly stuck with it. How many times did we hear Tony Romo on the CBS broadcast ask how many times the Bills were going to run the same simple rushing play with James Cook? Although there wasn’t much to show for it in the first half, they certainly did not waiver from the plan and the box score shows that it ended up working very well indeed. Cook ran for 144 yards on 32 carries, Ray Davis had nine carries for 62 yards, Ty Johnson had five yards on two carries and Josh Allen added 38 yards on eight carries. All told, the rushing effort added up to 249 of the Bills 372 total yards – the most the Steelers have ever given up at Acrisure Stadium (which opened in 2001) and the most they have allowed at home in 50 years. Keon Coleman, who will be chairing a series of team and community meetings this week, returned to the lineup and caught two balls on three targets with a touchdown. The team’s leader in the passing game yesterday was none other than James Cook with three catches for 33 yards. Cook continues to prove that he is, as Bill Cowher pointed out, the second-best player on the team.

Saturday’s big game at the Big House in Ann Arbor did not live up to its billing as the continuation of what ESPN has called the greatest rivalry in American sports. The Wolverines came into the game - known as “The Game”- as the 15^th ranked team nationally and a win over undefeated and top-ranked Ohio State probably would have propelled them into the 12-team college football playoff but the 121^st meeting between these powerhouse programs was not close with the Buckeyes winning 27-9, a score which flattered the Wolverines and sent their 112,000 fans home disappointed. This rivalry dates back to 1897 with the Wolverines and Buckeyes meeting every season since except for 1918 (because of WW 1) and 2020 (because of COVID). Michigan leads the all-time series 62-53 with six ties.

Up next for the Bills is a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals which was originally scheduled to be a featured 4.25pm game for FOX but was flexed last week to a less prominent 1pm start as the Bengals are not one of the top teams in the AFC as they were expected to be. But they do have Joe Burrow back and he led his team to a big win in the Thanksgiving night game in Baltimore. The Bills have struggled against Cincinnati in the Josh Allen era and with the Bengals having four extra days to prepare and with only a highly unlikely outside shot at a wildcard spot, they will present a real challenge on Sunday in Orchard Park.

Joey Bosa, who has bucked his injury-prone reputation so far this season, left the game in the second half with an undetermined hamstring injury. He was seen walking normally afterward so he may be available against the Bengals but hamstring injuries – just ask Dalton Kinkaid – can linger and usually need a week or two. Thankfully, the Bills came away from yesterday’s game with no other injuries that we know of.

As a side note, looking ahead to the Bills big rematch with the Patriots in Foxboro the following week, the game is currently scheduled to be a 1pm start but (this is pure speculation on my part) it seems likely that it will be flexed to 4.25pm or possibly to the Sunday night game which is currently scheduled to be Minnesota at Dallas.      

Texans 23, Bills 19

I started going to the Vanier Cup in the early 80s when it was held at Varsity Stadium. My alma mater, Western, was usually either playing in the game or had lost the Mitchell or Uteck Bowl the week before. Our usual routine was to attend the game which ended around 4pm then make our way to the Morrissey Tavern on Yonge Street where we would be well in our cups by the dinner hour. We stopped going after the 1989 game which was moved to dome and featured the most antiseptic atmosphere possible: 40,000 empty seats with undecipherable announcements echoing off the steel and concrete roof. In recent years, the location has moved around the country with this past Saturday’s match-up between Les Carabins de l’universite de Montreal and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies taking place for the first time at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium. In an obvious attempt at three-down symmetry vis-a vis the identical Grey Cup match-up a week earlier, the game was won by Montreal, its third championship overall and its second in three years. Attendance was just under 9,000. I saw none of it as I spent most of the afternoon driving Siobhan to airport and battling Christmas shopping traffic in the process.  

The NFL game on Thursday Night in Houston was a sobering three hours for Bills Mafia. Among other revelations which came into focus, it became clear that the 2025 Buffalo Bills are not a Superbowl calibre team – at least not right now. And there’s no reason to think that they will be able to pull themselves together for a long playoff run – a run which looks like it would have to take place entirely on the road. Not enough offensive weapons, porous run defence and, it pains me to say this, poor coaching plagued the Bills as they have too many times this season. The most disappointing part of the game in Houston was the performance (or lack thereof) of the offensive line which was dominated by the Texans four-man pass rush on almost every snap. Not only did the Bills have no answer for this, they appeared not to try to make any adjustments to it whatsoever. It reminded me of the old Anthony Robbins trope of trying the same thing over and over and expecting the results to change. I wouldn’t have had any issue with them lining up nine at the line of scrimmage – 14 personnel if you will with one running back, four tight-ends and no wide receivers – and trying some short tight-end passes just to prove to Josh Allen that he could make a throw from the pocket without being hurried, pressured or sacked. The Texans front four pass rush was relentless and highly effective to an extent that I don’t think I’ve seen in the Josh Allen era. For his part, Josh forgot how to throw the ball away under pressure and this cost his team field position and exposed himself to an unsustainable physical pummelling. Spencer Brown lost the use of his right arm which is an important arm for anyone trying to play right tackle in the NFL. My man O’Cyrus Torrence (I have his game jersey) was noticeable for the first time in his two-and-a-half-year career for the wrong reasons. All-pro left tackle Deon Dawkins had a poor game as well and was called for a critical false start on the game’s second-last play when the Bills were driving for what would have been an unlikely game-winning touchdown.   

Amongst the gnashing of teeth in the aftermath, the knives were out in some circles for offensive coordinator Joe Brady whose play-calling, they said, lacked the creativity he has shown in the past and had somehow become predictable. There were even calls for the reinstatement of the recently-fired former Giants head coach and now theoretically available Brian Daboll who gave Josh Allen his wings as Bills offensive coordinator in Allen’s early years. With no love lost between Daboll and Sean McDermott, that isn’t going to happen – at least not during this season. Chris “Bulldog” Parker said it best on WGR on Friday by pointing out that when it is said that Brady’s play-calling lacks creativity, what they really mean is that they would like him to stop calling plays which don’t work. Had James Cook made that short fourth down run successfully instead of being tackled for a two-yard loss, Brady’s play-call at that moment would have of course been spot-on. Such is the nature of Monday (or in this case Friday) morning quarterbacking.

With the new Highmark Stadium set to open less than ten months from now, the Bills sent season ticket holders a rather heavy wood plaque rendering of the soon-to-be-mothballed Rich Stadium which opened in 1973. It weighs at least three pounds and arrived by UPS last week. Other than the “Bills Bucks” card (with a value reflecting a percentage of each subscriber’s season ticket invoice) which can be used for merchandise or at the in-stadium concession stands, it’s been several years since the team has sent any physical item to its subscribers. With season ticket holders accounting for more than 60,000 of the 71,000 seats at Rich Stadium, imagine the cost to not only manufacture these plaques but to send them to each subscriber. Good thing the fracking business afforded Terry Pegula the means to do what he does……although maybe the ten new minority limited partners in the ownership group (including former Raptor players Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady) may have opposed the plaque idea.

I caught parts of some good games yesterday: the Chiefs came back to hand the Colts their third loss in overtime and then then FOX must have been pleased to see the Cowboys overcome a 21-point deficit to the Eagles by scoring 24 unanswered points to win 24-21. The ratings must have been huge for the second half – probably even higher than the Bills v. Chiefs for CBS in week nine.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers who lost in Chicago without the services of Aaron Rodgers whose injured left hand was too vulnerable for him to play. Expect him to be back in the lineup against the Bills who have been installed as four-point favourites for the late-window 4.25pm CBS game.     

Bills 44, Buccaneers 32

Anyone who has worked in or been associated with any organization of any size knows that one of the most common and enduring issues which besets them is the curse of meetings. The wasted time, the unnecessary blathering on of those whose opinions really don’t matter, the inability of participants to decide anything beyond the date and time of the next meeting – yes time spent in meetings is easily the most unproductive portion of the average person’s work effort, week in and week out. Keon Coleman, at the ripe old age of 22, has apparently learned this lesson already and has decided to demonstrate, in a very public and open manner, his disdain for meetings. Reached for comment late yesterday in Orchard Park after his team’s big win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Coleman reminded everyone that in meetings he actually did attend last spring with his agent and with NFL scouts, he made it abundantly clear that meetings were not something he was interested in. He had nothing to add, he said, before he got up and left, to any meetings, except of course this particular one in which he described his unwillingness to attend meetings. He offered to read the minutes of meetings afterward if he had time, which he suggested that he probably would not. So, this business of Coleman repeatedly being late to meetings or blowing them off entirely should be no surprise to Bills head coach Sean McDermott or to offensive coordinator Joe Brady. It is therefore unconscionable for the team to have made him a healthy scratch yesterday for reasons which were explained as “not performance related”. They knew his position on meetings.

He has faced disciplinary team sanctions before for this issue but they were limited to being benched for the first offensive series. Yesterday’s “healthy scratch” was a first for him and hopefully the last time this needs to be addressed. It is truly astounding to think that this guy can not get himself to team meetings on time or, in some cases at all. As the 33^rd overall pick in last year’s NFL draft, Coleman signed a four-year $10 million+ rookie contract with a signing bonus of $4.2 million and over $9 million guaranteed. The opportunities for Coleman – personal, professional and financial – are truly massive compared to the average American and with effort, focus and hard work, he should easily be able to secure a coveted second NFL contract which would create long term financial security for himself and his family. His on-field results have been mixed through his first season-and-a-half but the potential to emerge as a solid NFL receiver is clear. I can not imagine how frustrated his agent must be with all of this. Does he need a new alarm clock? Was he just trying to get a jump on the Black Friday pre-sales? Maybe he’s renting an apartment in Fort Erie and was delayed at the border. I have no idea what personal demons Coleman may be battling – and if he suffers from any form of mental illness or has substance abuse issues (neither of which has been reported) help is available for these. He can obviously afford the help if he needs it. Joshua Palmer, Mecole Hardman and Tyrell Shavers dressed and contributed yesterday in Coleman’s absence with Shavers probably being the odd man out if and when Coleman decides to show up on time for team meetings. Too bad because Shavers had a strong game with a nice touchdown catch.   

The game yesterday featured the partial return of the reckless 2018 Josh Allen. Fortunately, the much-improved version of Josh Allen of the last few years carried the day in the end as he accounted for six touchdowns on the day – three running and three passing. His two-handed chest pass attempt near his own goal-line early in the game, which was easily intercepted, was the worst example of the young Josh Allen, with his second interception on a ball he tried to force to Dawson Knox who was double-covered being the less egregious example. Otherwise, he has a fantastic game and looked like the MVP from a year ago.

The main problem for the Bills this season – and last season as well – is their inability to stop the run. As a fan watching, it is so frustrating – almost demoralizing – to watch the defence get gashed repeatedly on the ground series after series. The front seven just aren’t big enough or fast enough to shut down the run and force their opponent to throw. Without Josh Allen and his high-powered offence to save the day, the Bills wouldn’t be where they are which is in a playoff position and only a game-and-a-half behind the Patriots for the division lead. Ed Oliver, how’s your bicep feeling these days?

I managed to catch most of the second half of the Grey Cup last night and was happy for the good folks of Regina who partied well into the night celebrating their team’s big win – only their fifth ever which seems incredible in a nine-team league. Montreal made it close but fell just short as quarterback Davis Alexander heroically battled a pulled hamstring to almost complete the comeback. The stands in Winnipeg looked full too.   

Up next for the Bills is a short week and a trip to Houston to face the Texans on Thursday night. The Bills are early 3.5-point favourites and the status of Texans first-string quarterback CJ Stroud is uncertain. The Texans narrowly beat the now 1-9 Titans yesterday on a late field goal.  If I were Keon Coleman, I would be in the team meeting room right now preparing slide decks, flip charts, brewing coffee and arranging pastry platters and fruit trays.    

Dolphins 30, Bills 13

One thing from yesterday which turned out better than I planned was the cabbage rolls. A labour-intensive endeavour they are with their 27 steps – with steps 22 through 27 being completed after the Bills game kicked off in south Florida. My inattention, especially at the beginning of the game, may have cost the Bills the win they needed yesterday but the pundits say that there were other factors at play……and who am I to question them anyway?

Chief among the long list of reasons why the Bills lost badly to the Dolphins yesterday (apart from my not starting my cabbage roll odyssey earlier than I did) is the now quite obvious fact that the Bills have one of the weakest wide-receiver rooms in the NFL. For a consensus Superbowl-contending team as the season began, the lack of talent on the outside has become quite shocking. It has managed to turn Josh Allen into a reincarnation of Trent Edwards, also known as Captain Check-down, throwing most of his passes along the line of scrimmage rather than down the field. With one of the best throwing arms we’ve seen suit up in an NFL uniform, to see him reduced to repeated attempted hitch passes to Khalil Shakir feels sad on some level and frustrating on most others. Keon Coleman made one good contested catch for a touchdown after the dye was cast but otherwise, the Bills offence is sorely lacking in the kind of explosiveness its quarterback, the defending MVP of the league (no risk of a repeat this season), requires and deserves.

It was widely reported that at last week’s trade deadline, Bills General Manager Brandon Beane offered the Dolphins a package of draft picks, including the Bills first-rounder next year, in exchange for talented receiver Jaylen Waddle, who Miami picked sixth overall in the 2021 draft. We know that teams are generally loathe to trade within their division but the Dolphins didn’t trade Waddle to another team at the deadline; in fact, he hauled in five passes yesterday for 84 yards and a touchdown, averaging 17 yards per catch. Whoever is in the interim GM’s chair in Miami probably made the right move by hanging on to Waddle. Time will tell. Were he in a Bills uniform yesterday, would that have made enough of a difference to the game’s outcome? Not with the performance of Buffalo’s defence, that’s for sure. Beane was unable to complete a single transaction at the trade deadline, despite apparently being close on a couple. Market conditions were tough for contending teams looking to bolster their rosters: look no further than the Colts parting with two first-round picks to get Sauce Gardner from the Jets. That’s a steep price to pay and one that Beane was understandably unwilling to consider if it was even on the table for him. As had to be pointed out repeatedly on Buffalo sports talk radio, his job includes looking out for the team’s medium and longer-term prospects as well as adding to the roster for this season’s stretch run.

As I saw Dalton Kincaid hobbling off the field after suffering a hamstring injury, I realized that the Bills chances of a sixth straight AFC East division title (and a January home playoff game) were quite possibly slipping away. So I switched to the Patriots game in Tampa for a few minutes, hoping that the Bucs could hand them their third loss and keep the Bills only a half-game behind. Then Drake Maye hit former Buffalo fan-favourite Mack Hollins for a 54-yard completion on a third and 14 to the Bucs 8 in the fourth quarter and the Patriots did not look back from there. They are clearly in the driver’s seat for the division and have as good a shot at the first overall seed as either the Colts or the Broncos do. For Patriots fans, your time in the wilderness has been short – too short I’d say.

With the trade deadline now passed and with nine games down and eight to go, where do the Bills go from here? No roster moves are really possible, other than practice squad rotations or the unlikely chance of finding a hidden treasure among the ranks of retired receivers (John Brown, anyone?) so it seems clear that we’re stuck with what we have. Can Joe Brady somehow insert some element of a downfield threat to the offence with the personnel on hand? If he could, it seems safe to assume that he would have already. The best chance they have is probably to lean on the offensive line and harness James Cook to rack up 150 yards every game and play a ball-control kind of offence. Teams have won plenty of Superbowls with this approach but it usually includes a solid defence which the Bills don’t have at the moment either.

Up next is a rare 1pm home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who make only their fourth trip ever to Orchard Park after joining the NFL in 1976. After losing at home to the Patriots yesterday, they now have a 6-3 record just like the Bills. The long-range forecast is calling for a temperature of 11 degrees with rain. Could be just what the Bills running game needs.    

The cabbage rolls were delicious and very much worth all the effort – in part because I made enough for at least three meals for the two of us and perhaps more. The most difficult of all of the tasks involved is peeling whole cabbage leaves off the head without tearing them. Blanching the entire cabbage head is the key to success with this part. I used ground beef, pork and lamb with brown and white rice for the filling. It’s a culinary challenge for sure and one I probably won’t attempt again on a Bills game-day.        

Bills 28, Chiefs 21

By 11.30pm on Saturday night, I had decided that I was pretty much sick of baseball. Sick of the stress and tension, sick of the blown opportunities, sick of the called strikes which were balls and the called balls which were strikes, sick of the sleep disruption from too many late nights in a short period and sick of the players, coaches and managers’ constant spitting of saliva or sunflower seed shells in and around the dugout steps. By the time Alejandro Kirk hit into the season-ending double play, it seemed like they could have just flipped a coin to see who would win the World Series.  It felt random and it felt genuinely unlucky - for Blue Jays fans anyway. After Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning, I thought we were on our way to a decisive win like the Kansas City Royals 11-0 game seven win in the 1985 World Series – the year that a wild-blown three-run Jim Sundberg triple off the top of the right-field wall of Excruciating Stadium, hit off Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb, clinched the ALCS for the Royals and thereby created the first playoff baseball nightmare for Toronto fans. Some forty years later, Saturday’s loss is worse, not just because of recency bias, but because it came in extra innings of game seven of the World Series. Considerable time was invested in this playoff run and it ended in bitter disappointment. I guess we’ll get ‘em next year. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training about 100 days from now.

Yesterday’s marquee matchup between the Chiefs and the Bills at Highmark Stadium probably drew a US television audience of about 30 million for CBS, based on the 2024 numbers for the same teams a couple of weeks later in the season. In preparation for the Blue Jays big game seven on Saturday, I looked at some historical viewing data for the World Series and there is no doubt that FOX would have been thrilled to have drawn 30 million for their game seven broadcast. Through five games, the World Series was averaging about 12.5 million viewers per game in the US. Even if that increased to 20 million for game seven, that’s still only two thirds of what yesterday’s regular season NFL game in Buffalo drew. World Series viewership peaked in 1978 at about 40 million US viewers per game but in the mid-80s, it began to decline and by 2023, had dropped to under ten million viewers per game. Baseball has become a “regional” sport in the US, with strong local support for teams in most markets in terms of gate, merchandise and local media but it seems like many Americans will only watch the World Series if their own rooting team is in it. The NFL commands the airwaves in this respect by drawing huge national audiences for games between teams (in yesterday’s case) in relatively small markets like Buffalo and Kansas City.

When Bills General Manager Brandon Beane realized that Utah Utes safety Cole Biship had dropped to the Bills in the second round of the 2024 draft, his facial expression was equal parts thrilled and surprised. Bishop’s rookie season was mixed as he battled injuries while learning the Bills defensive scheme and how to play safety in the NFL. Yesterday’s performance against the Chiefs was Bishop’s best game as a pro as he was prominent in multiple pass break-ups while delivering some big hits, including against Travis Kelce in the endzone at the end of the first half. As the Bills defensive backfield has battled through injuries this season, we are now seeing why Beane was so high on Bishop 18 months ago.

Now add Maxwell Hairston to the mix. The first-round pick in April’s draft saw the field for only the second time yesterday after missing almost all of training camp and the first six games of the season with an injury. He grabbed his first NFL interception and showed his speed and his ability to cover fast receivers down the field – something that wily veteran cornerback Tre White can no longer do nearly as well as he did a few years ago. The emergence of Bishop at safety and now Hairston at cornerback may save the Bills defence after all in 2025.

Yesterday unfortunately brought another devastating injury to the Bills defence with Michael Hoecht suffering a non-contact Achilles injury which will sideline him for the rest of the season. Hoecht was suspended by the league for the first six games of the season (for PED violation) but played very well last week and yesterday until he went out. Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard both returned to the lineup but Ed Oliver remains sidelined until the playoffs with a torn bicep. Evey team has injuries.  Although they sometimes seem trivial, the draft picks teams make in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds and the undrafted free agents they sign each spring are critical to building depth as injuries often mean that these players will see the field, often in critical late-season situations. Michael Hoecht, we hardly knew you!

Yesterday’s game against the Chiefs produced another regular season win against their conference rival which was very important in terms of playoff seedings. The Chiefs are in tough now at 5-4, chasing both the Broncos and the Chargers in the AFC West. The Bills remain a half-game back of the Patriots who hold the tie-breaker by virtue of their win in Orchard Park a month ago. The week 15 game in Foxborough is looming large on the schedule and will likely determine the winner of the AFC East.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to south Florida to take on the reeling Dolphins who fired their General Manager last week and feel like a slow-motion train wreck at 2-7. The Patriots also play in Florida, taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who will travel to Orchard Park the following week. The baseball playoffs certainly took their emotional toll over the past three weeks but I’m happy to have it behind us now with the full focus now clearly on the NFL.        

Bills 40, Panthers 9

The timing may seem unusual but this week’s post begins with an injury report. Unfortunately, it is my own injury report:

There are nine steps from the small deck outside my wood-burning sauna down to the walkway leading to the water and the cold plunge which is such an essential part of the sauna experience. Over the course of the 1,500+ saunas I’ve had since we built it in 1994, I have descended these steps, usually (but not always) buck-naked and sometimes carrying a full bucket of warm water in each hand, more than 4,500 times (usually three times per sauna) without slipping or falling. That changed this past Wednesday at around 6pm. Generally, when the temperature is below plus ten, for my sauna ritual, I wear Keen sandals which have good treads and a solid platform but with the temperature that evening at plus nine, due solely to laziness (the sandals are stored for the summer in another cabin 25 metres away), I decided to proceed in bare feet. After my first session in the sauna, I began my descent down the steps in the usual way – rather quickly in order to preserve warmth before immersing in the cold water but with my right hand not-so-firmly on the hand rail - but when my right heel contacted the wet surface of the second step, it felt like a proverbial banana peel and down I went. All the way to bottom. And hard. I landed on the bottom three stair treads mostly on my left side, partly on my face and somehow also on my right shin. These parts of what’s left of my body have turned from a dull blue colour with a tinge of red, through various shades of purple, yellow and now they are starting to look (to continue the banana analogy) the way a banana does when it is relegated to the freezer to one day become banana bread. The worst contusion is on my left thigh which swelled grotesquely at first and has partly receded in the days since but is still extremely sore to the touch and induces sharp pain when I’m limping around the cottage. I think I have a hematoma in that spot and I’ll be seeking a medical opinion on it later today. Amazingly, I broke no bones. My energy level remains subdued as my body focuses on the long healing process which lies ahead. The experience and the mild post-traumatic replaying of the event in my mind over the last few days has been a poignant wake-up call for me about the perils of aging. And it was also a powerful reminder of the pummelling which my late mother, who fell repeatedly in her later years, took so stoically.

Since I’ve been so physically restricted over the last five days, there has been more than plenty of time to watch sports on television. Late October is by far the best time of year for those of us who follow professional (and college) sports with literally every major North American sport in full swing. From the Maple Leafs and Raptors, whose regular seasons are recently underway, to CFL, US college, Canadian University and NFL football all going full-tilt and then there’s the World Series which is a major focus this year for most Canadian viewers and some (although a steadily shrinking number) of American viewers, this time of year is almost too much to keep up with. The baseball over the past ten days has been spectacular for Blue Jays fans and the World Series games have taken centre-stage for good reason. Major League Baseball knows enough not to schedule World Series games on Sundays as this is the almost exclusive domain of the NFL – particularly on Sunday night where Sunday Night Football is the highest rated television program in the United States from September through January. After the Bills bye week last week, and despite over-dosing on televised sports in recent days, by yesterday, I was, to quote Hank Williams, Jr, definitely ready for some football. Some Buffalo Bills football. And the Bills did not disappoint.

A 40-9 drubbing of the Carolina Panthers may be just what the team needed to get back on track after two concerning losses. The Bills defensive performance, the takeaways, the special teams play – they were all encouragingly positive but if Sean McDermott had only one game-ball to give out in his post-game locker room speech, it would obviously have gone to running back James Cook. Cook had a game for the ages, scoring twice and rushing for 216 yards which is the highest in the league this season and the most for a Bills running back since OJ Simpson almost 50 years ago. And he accomplished all of this without playing a snap in the fourth quarter. The offensive line of course deserves plenty of the credit for James big day as well as it came against a Panthers run defence which had allowed only 131 rushing yards over its previous three games which were all victories. It all came at a perfect time because the Bills passing game continues to seem stalled with a clearly noticeable lack of separation being achieved by the receiving corps. Many of Josh Allen’s completed passes were short screen passes to Khalil Shakir who broke one for a score and made a nice move to evade the final defender on his way to the endzone. The need for a deep threat – a receiver who can “take the top off the defence”, as the saying goes, was never more evident than it was yesterday.

Up next for the Bills is a home date with the Kansas City Chiefs who play at home tonight against the Commanders. The Chiefs appear to be firing on all cylinders and are an early 1.5-point favourite on the road in Orchard Park next week. I would never suggest or predict a Bills loss in any game of any kind against any opponent but maybe this is the year that the Bills and Chiefs switch their recent head-to-head histories of regular season Bills wins and Chiefs playoff wins. But, obviously, if the Bills still want to secure that elusive first playoff seed in the AFC, winning next week will go a long way toward achieving that goal.

Falcons 24, Bills 14

There was a guy who lived in my building a few years ago who had grown up in Toronto but was a fully committed fan of the Atlanta Falcons. He had an uncle whose employer relocated him there in the 1970s and for Christmas one year, he sent my friend a Steve Bartkowski game jersey. This was at a time when genuine game jerseys were not nearly as popular as they are now and, adjusted for inflation, were considerably more expensive too. That was all it took for a ten-year old Toronto boy to create and maintain a rooting loyalty for an NFL team based a thousand miles away. I’m glad he moved out a while ago because I would have had to spend the next two weeks avoiding him and his gloating over last night’s game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Falcons now hold a two-game advantage over the Bills (8 wins against 6 losses) in the all-time series between these teams who face each other every four years. The Bills had won the last two meetings, including the teams’ last meeting in Atlanta in Sean McDermott’s first season as Bills head coach. The Bills also fell to the Falcons in overtime on December 1^st, 2013 in a game I attended at the Rogers Centre. It would be the final game in the ill-fated Bills “Toronto Series” and the only game where there would be no “papered house” – as in, no free tickets. The plan for this game was to see if the Toronto market could legitimately support NFL football unaided. The game drew 39,000 and the plug was finally and mercifully pulled on the experiment which Ralph Wilson and Ted Rogers cooked up in 2008.

I was hoping that the Blue Jays would have built a comfortable lead by 7.15pm last night to allow my full attention to be turned to the Bills. Turns out that they were comfortably trailing the Seattle Mariners and ended up getting smoked 10-3 to fall two games behind in their best-of-seven ALCS. Losing the first two games at home presents them with a monumental challenge as the series moves to the Pacific northwest for the next three games. There remains only a flicker of hope in this situation for Blue Jays fans: I am reminded of the 1977 Toronto Maple Leafs who faced the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL quarter-finals after battling them for seven games (before losing) the previous year. The Leafs somehow managed to win the first two games of the series at the Spectrum before going on to lose the next four consecutively. Dave “Tiger” Williams famously said after game two that the Flyers were “done like dinner” and I was hoping that a member of the Mariners would say something similar last night but I have seen no reports of any such comment. Williams himself could not be reached for comment.

Standing in line outside Metlife Stadium on September 14^th before the Bills beat the Jets, we had a conversation with a guy who was one of the few New York Giants fans to express his disappointment that his team had moved on from quarterback Daniel Jones. He predicted that Jones would have great success in Indianapolis away from the intense media scrutiny of the New York market. After week six, the road to the Superbowl on the AFC side of the draw now goes through Indianapolis, thanks in large part to the solid play of Daniel Jones. The Steelers, having an early bye week, sit at 4-1 with a handful of teams at 4-2, including the Bills, Patriots (who now occupy top spot in the AFC East, holding the tie-breaker over Buffalo), Jaguars, Chargers and Broncos. Probably most surprising is that the Baltimore Ravens fell to 1-5 and look to be in a heap of trouble after being considered pre-season Superbowl contenders. The Jets, now 0-6, will likely be relegated to the CFL.

When the NFL schedule was released in May, Bills fans were not happy to see that their bye week would come quite early – in week seven. Usually, a later bye week is considered desirable as injuries pile up and fatigue sets in as the season grinds on into November and December. With injuries continuing to plague the Bills both on defence and now on offence too, a recovery week seems well-timed now, Last night Joshua Palmer went down with an ankle injury in the second quarter with Dalton Kincaid being ruled a no-go during warm-ups with an oblique injury. Most significantly, star linebacker Terrell Bernard left with an ankle injury late in the first half and did not return. Bring on the bye week!

Looking back to last season, we see a similar trajectory playing out in 2025. The 2024 Bills came out of the gate with three straight wins before stumbling badly in Baltimore and then again the following week in Houston to fall to 3-2. They did not lose again until a December 8^th shoot-out against the Rams. I see a similar pattern this year except that the Bills, now having lost their last two, have two weeks to regroup, rest and recover from injuries.

Up next, on October 26^th, is another NFC road game – this time in Charlotte against the Carolina Panthers who improved to 3-3 with a win over the Cowboys on Sunday. The Panthers have their own bye week coming up – sort of – with a trip to Metlife Stadium to play the doormat Jets. Much hand-wringing will ensue in Buffalo over the next two weeks but I expect the Bills to pull things together and get back in the win column against the Panthers before returning home to play the Kansas City Chiefs on November 2^nd.  

Patriots 23, Bills 20

Every football season since 1972, members of the only team to win every regular season and playoff game, including the Superbowl - the Miami Dolphins of that same year – have made a tradition of uncorking champagne when the last undefeated NFL team suffers its first loss. The furthest into any season that they had to wait for their uncorking was February 3, 2008 when the New England Patriots lost the Superbowl XLII 17-14 to the New York Giants after going 16-0 in the regular season and 2-0 in their two playoff games leading to the final game. Going into yesterday’s week five action, both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Buffalo Bills had won their first four games and were both playing at home as solid favourites. Surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins, most of them in now in their 80s, probably did not bother putting their champagne on ice yesterday but they should have as both the Eagles and the Bills fell, leaving Larry Czonka, Bob Grieise, Garo Yepremian and Paul Warfield’s 1972 team intact as still the only NFL team to register a perfect season.

For the Denver Broncos (who overcame a 14-point deficit in Philadelphia) and the New England Patriots, yesterday brought “signature” wins for their young quarterbacks and new head coaches – Sean Payton in his second year with the Broncos and Mike Vrabel in his first year with the Patriots. Despite their recent successes and upward trajectory, I suggest that neither of these teams is likely to represent the AFC in San Francisco in February but either could easily be Superbowl contenders next season and beyond.

As for the Bills, the turnover metric began to revert to the mean last night and, once again, their defence was suspect with key injuries continuing to plague them. But full credit must go to Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (whose name sounds like he’s from some 19^th century aristocracy) and to receiver Stefon Diggs who played his best game since leaving Buffalo after the 2023 season. Diggs was the X-factor last night, hauling in 10 catches for 146 yards and inspiring his teammates all evening on the sidelines. As was mentioned several times on the NBC broadcast, Maye looked like Josh Allen did six years ago – and I would add without the wild propensity for turnovers which Allen displayed then. The Patriots fully deserved their signature win, fair and square. Were they to play a best-of-seven series, I would take the Bills in five or perhaps six games.   

Please indulge me with the following commentary on the weather we’ve been having: I wouldn’t be saying this in mid-July but I’m actually getting quite tired of searing-hot sunny days. It’s like we live in Arizona now with each day a scorched carbon copy of the previous one. The Anthropocene is clearly upon us, despite apparently not yet meeting the strict geological criteria which would formally mark the beginning of a new epoch – a shift from the Holocene which began about 12,000 years ago. Hap Wilson, the well-known naturalist, outdoorsman and Temagami canoe route guru, posted a photo last week of a dry river bed somewhere in Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park, stating that water levels in the Temagami area have reached their lowest in at least 70 years. The quantity of rain required to restore ground and surface water levels in eastern North America to anywhere remotely close to their historical averages before freeze-up is several orders of magnitude more than what we’ll likely get over the next ten weeks. Our best hope at restoration of normal lake levels is another heavy dose of lake-effect snow like we experienced last year when central Ontario received more than a metre of snow over the first few days of December.

Buffalo, Orchard Park and the South-towns were clobbered with lake-effect snow in late autumn last year too but the timing of the snow dumps did not necessitate moving any Bills home games to Detroit which happened in 2014 and again in 2022. The new stadium will have high exterior walls and a rim around the top which will greatly reduce the amount of snow which will actually accumulate inside the facility but the challenge with clearing roadways and parking lots in the surrounding area – for emergency vehicles as well as for football fans – will remain, even of hundreds of shovelers are not needed to clear the seating rows and aisles inside. The most recent seasonal forecast for western New York calls for another heavy lake-effect snow season coming up, fueled by much-warmer-than-usual water temperatures in Lake Erie. The Bills have home games scheduled for December 7^th and 28^th along with a week 18 game on either January 3^rd or 4^th. Chances seem good that at least one of these games could be moved or postponed on account of snow. Seems hard to imagine that scenario right now as we are in store for yet another blistering, sunny October day with humidex readings still registering in southern Ontario and western New York. Good thing last night’s game against the Patriots kicked off well after dark. Last week’s 1pm game against the Saints was absolutely sweltering inside the stadium. I’m definitely ready for some cool wet weather – if it ever comes.

On account of a family event in downtown Toronto yesterday afternoon, I took in almost the entire Blue Jays game-two win over the Yankees on the car radio. By far the most uninterrupted radio baseball for me since the days of Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth and it was fantastic – partly because of the game’s importance and way it played out but also because of the play-by-play by Ben Shulman whose call seemed almost as good as his dad Dan’s probably was on television. Not sure who the colour-man is but the radio broadcast was excellent overall.   

Up next for the Bills is yet another prime-time game next Monday night in Atlanta (where my niece now lives and refers to it as Hot-lanta) against a Falcons team coming off its early bye week. Look for the Bills to get back in the win column before their own bye week.  

Bills 31, Saints 19

The largest point spread of the 2025 NFL season through four weeks opened early in the week at 16.5, floated down to 14.5 on Thursday and settled in at 15.5 early yesterday morning as I was packing my sauerkraut, Dijon mustard, vegetable tray, beer and Italian sausages into my cooler. The Buffalo Bills were playing the league doormat New Orleans Saints and some of the pundits on the radio early yesterday were saying take the points and the Saints. If I was to have wagered against the spread on this game, I probably would have too. And it would have been the winning call as the Saints lost by 12 and covered the spread. I had a feeling that it would be a closer game than was expected. A spread of more than two converted touchdowns is almost unheard of in the parity-driven NFL and proved to be too high yesterday at a sun-baked Highmark Stadium. And the brutalist slab of concrete bult in 1973 now features (from my seats 23 rows behind the visitor bench) a clear view of the top of the new, much taller Highmark Stadium just across Abbot Road which will open ten months from now. I’m looking forward to it for football and for traffic reasons.  

For Toronto sports fans, the Blue Jays 162^nd game of the season was top of mind, even for those of us attending the game in Orchard Park. Would they blow the division lead they had held for most of the summer? Would the Yankees finally stumble after seven straight wins? Would they both win or both lose? I like the MLB’s scheduling plan starting every game on the season’s final day at 3pm or shortly after as every team with something to play for would have to field their best line-ups. We dialed up the game on the car radio with the Jays leading 5-4 and listened as they pounded out eight more runs and sealed the deal on their first division title in ten years, earning the top seed in the American League playoff draw and a valuable first-round bye. Quite an accomplishment.           

My first experience entering the United States after the President’s re-election came a couple of weeks ago (At Toronto Pearson) and was quite smooth as was yesterday’s encounter at the Queenston-Lewiston crossing. It almost felt as if a memo had been circulated by the Department of Homeland Security to the border agents suggesting that they might be a bit more welcoming of low-risk Canadians as they pass through border checkpoints. Travel by Canadians to the US is down 30% since the winter and businesses in American border communities have suffered accordingly. With all the tough talk from the White House in the administration’s first few months, local and state Chambers of Commerce have carefully and quietly expressed their concerns and, after all, business is business. Rather than asking questions requiring detailed answers, the pleasant mid-thirties border agent woman asked – pleasantly - if we were going to the Bills game and if we would be returning to Canada later the same day. “Yes” to both of those I answered as she ran our passports through the scanner and we were on our way. Easily the friendliest, fastest and most relaxed border agent experience I’ve had at least since 9/11. After early reports last winter of phones being scanned and occasionally even an uncomfortable question or two about the President being asked of Canadian travellers, despite the admittedly small sample size of two, for what it’s worth, both of my recent experiences have been good.

As for the Bills who, along with the Eagles, now sit atop the NFL at 4-0, have plenty to work on in preparation for the Patriots next Sunday night as they close-out their three-game homestand. Starting with tackling. The Saints running game racked up almost 200 yards by breaking easily through to the second and third levels of Buffalo’s defence far too many times. The ageless Alvin Kamara, now in his ninth season with the Saints, gained 70 yards on 15 carries while Kendre Miller ran for 65 and quarterback Spencer Rattler added 49 yards, making some impressive open-field moves along the way. Getting DT Ed Oliver back will help to shore up the line play but even with him, the Bills defensive front is soft and seems to operate, like it did last year, in “bend but don’t break” mode which often just looks too easy for opposing offenses to move the ball at will. Josh Allen through an interception – the Bills first turnover since before Christmas - but James Cook continues to justify his new contract by running for over 100 yards once again and reaching the endzone for the eighth straight game.   

Another key division game is up next for the Bills as the New England Patriots, fresh off a routing of the Carolina Panthers and now sitting at 2-2, come to Orchard Park Sunday night. My game tickets remain available but here’s something which explains the scarcity of parking at Highmark Stadium in 2025: My Lot 7 parking pass, for which I paid $40, sold for $175 (all USD) online the other day. I mean Lot 7 is certainly well-located if you’re sitting on the visitor side of Highmark and is right in the thick one of the best tailgating experiences in the NFL but I just can’t see paying $175 for the privilege. You have to park somewhere I guess as there is no public transit option that I’ve ever seen. For over 50 years now, eight Sundays every fall and winter, 70,000 people drive to Orchard Park, consume alcohol (some more than others of course) then, a few hours later, drive home.  

Bills 31, Dolphins 21

Call it JP Losman disease or maybe Ryan Fitzpatrick disease. The symptoms are easy to recognize:  play a good game through 55 minutes, make good passes, inspire the confidence of your teammates, drive your team to a position to tie or take the lead late in the game – then throw a crucial and baffling interception to seal the game in your opponent’s favour. Tua Tagovailoa presented with a textbook case of this ailment last Thursday night in Orchard Park which left his team at 0-3 and cruising for a high pick in the 2026 NFL draft.

The close-up replay showed Tua’s eyes looking only to his right and Bills linebacker Terrell Bernard locked in on where the pass was going and he made what looked like the easiest interception he’s ever made. Tua couldn’t have telegraphed the play better if he had arranged to have it shown on the video screen at Highmark Stadium. It wasn’t a deflected pass (although one angle did show that a Bills defender's hand grazed the ball without changing its trajectory); wind didn’t effect it; it wasn’t overthrown or underthrown. Bernard knew where it was going and he effortlessly stepped in and grabbed it. One more first down by Elijah Moore and the Bills were 3-0 with the early inside track on the AFC’s number one seed four months from now.

The Miami Dolphins impressed me with their effort and execution on Thursday and, without a key special teams penalty and the aforementioned crushing interception, they played more than well enough to have won the game, salvaged their season, lowered the temperature on their coach’s seat and given their fan base some hope. But now they will have 11 days to regroup and prepare for the Jets at home on next week’s early game on Monday Night Football. Even at 1-3, it will be a tough but not impossible road to regain respectability. The problem will probably continue to be their quarterback and his propensity to hand games away. One analyst commented that the Dolphins probably played their best game on Thursday but it still wasn’t good enough. If they lose to the Jets a week from tonight, look for Mike McDaniel to be the first coaching casualty of 2025 with a key player or two like Tyreek Hill being traded for draft picks.

As for the Bills, they won the game the way that good teams do – without playing their best game but still finding a way. Their defence has been sporadic through three games although its seemingly solid performance against the New York Jets in week two may prove to have been an aberration because of the utter ineptitude of the opponent. Still, at 3-0, the Bills are well-positioned to achieve their regular season objective – the number one seed in the AFC and the bye through the first playoff round which it carries.

Through week three, only six NFL teams are sporting perfect 3-0 records – three in each conference. Along with the Bills, the Colts and Chargers lead the AFC with undefeated records while the Eagles, Bucs and 49ers sit atop the NFC. The Chargers appear to be the most likely to challenge Buffalo for the top seed in the AFC but with 14 games to go, it’s obviously too early to really say. The Bills and Chargers do not face each other this season. In the NFC, it would be foolish to bet against the defending champion Eagles.

When the Jets blocked a field goal and returned it for a touchdown late in yesterday’s game in Tampa to take a one-point lead, I was pulling for them not to give up the game-losing drive but in typical Jets fashion, that’s exactly what they did and they remain winless along with the Dolphins, Texans and Titans. In the NFC, only the Giants and Saints are still winless. The Patriots found a way to lose again, this time to the Steelers at home, to slip to 1-2. The Bills do have a clear advantage in the AFC with six division games against three weak teams, something that they share with the Colts but not with the Chargers.

Up next, the New Orleans Saints, widely considered to be “on the clock” for the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, make their once-every-eight-years trip to Orchard Park. The Saints lead the all-time series 7-5 with the Bills winning the most recent match-up in the Big Easy four years ago. But, their last trip to western New York, in a game I attended in Sean McDermott’s first year as Buffalo’s head coach in 2017, is a game he would like to forget as Drew Brees and the Saints delivered the Bills a 47-10 drubbing. This will be the sixth time that the Saints have ever played in Buffalo and by strange happenstance, I will have personally attended three of them with the first being a December 1989 loss to the Bobby Hebert led Saints – a game and a time I remember for being just a few days after the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal massacre.

With the new stadium construction in full-swing, parking is scarce and egress from the parking lots is reportedly the worst it has ever been. After each of the two games I attended last season, we were pinned for over an hour either in the parking lot or on a stadium exit road overrun by pedestrians streaming out with what looked like no effort on the part of Erie County Sheriffs to manage traffic flow – like they had just given up and were using the Lord of the Flies approach and were just hoping no one was hurt or killed. Promises have been made about greatly improved traffic flow with an emphasis on the latest in traffic engineering when the new stadium opens. So, for this week, we’re hoping for a comfortable Bills lead early in the fourth quarter, an early exit and a smooth trip home.   

Bills 30, Jets 10

I’m not sure if my sense of smell has been heightened now that I’m in my early 60s but since I’ve been walking around Manhattan for the past three days, aside from the carnival-like atmosphere which permeates every square inch of real estate in this the smallest (geographically) of the five boroughs which make up New York City, a myriad of aromas, odours and fragrances is omnipresent on every street and around every corner. Everything from cheap perfume to sewer gas to deep fryer exhaust has met my nostrils head-on with every step I’ve taken – and I’ve averaged about 18,000 steps each day. The principle of creating scent-free spaces is yet to reach this densely crowded island or the throngs of tourists, hucksters and presumably those who try their best to live their lives here. Every scantily-clad woman seems to be wearing enough sweet fragrance to reach the Jersey shore and beyond. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and sometimes it’s downright seductive but it’s impossible to ignore and it adds another thick layer to the sensory overload which makes this place like no other I have ever experienced, except for Kathmandu.

When the NFL schedule was released in May, I circled this weekend as the one which would include my first trip to the Big Apple. A tour of the main branch of the New York Public Library, a Broadway show, a two-and-a-half-hour boat cruise around the entirety of Manhattan, a patio dinner in the East Village and many miles of walking were the opening acts for a trip to the Meadowlands of New Jersey yesterday to see the Bills v. Jets at Metlife Stadium. Getting there by public transit from mid-town Manhattan is easy and fast: a round trip ticket from Penn Station on New Jersey transit to the stadium costs about six bucks and even with a change of trains in Seacaucus takes just over 30 minutes. The stadium itself seats 82,000 and has fantastic sight-lines even from the upper level. After careful consideration, I decided to wear my Bills colours and was a bit surprised to see that about 30% of those in attendance made the same decision. Our section was at least three quarters Bills fans but featured an enthusiastic, entertaining and very loud Jets fan whose mood began with abounding optimism which quickly turned to bitter disappointment, anger which included colourful cursing of his team and its coaching staff then finally, brooding silence. It’s tough to be part of “Gang-Green” these days and has been for many years now. 

The Bills were in full control of the game from the opening drive. Even without their week-one star DT Ed Oliver, the Bills defence smothered the Jets who could muster only a paltry 154 total yards of offence on the day. Jets quarterback Justin Fields was knocked out of the game and into the league’s concussion protocol by Joey Bosa’s fourth quarter sack but managed only one impactful play before that – 27-yard scamper in the second quarter. As we exited the stadium with about ten minutes remaining in the game, we heard the Jets radio play-by-play broadcaster ask his colour-man if this was the kind of game where you just burn the tape and move on or if there was something to be learned for the team and its coaching staff. He replied that there was definitely something to be learned but seemed usure about exactly what that might be. 

Taking into account that the Jets are in rough shape and have been in the wilderness since Rex Ryan left, the level of support and enthusiasm (except for the aforementioned guy in our section) seemed surprisingly weak compared to what Buffalo fans offer their team. Even throughout the 17-year playoff drought which ended in 2017, Bills fans showed up on time and were always loud even when there wasn’t much to cheer for. Early on in the game, before it was out of reach, on defensive third downs, Jets fans cheered tepidly at best (despite encouragement from the four massive video screens) and generally seemed disconnected from the beginning. Joe Klecko’s pre-game leading of the signature cheer of “J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets” created little excitement and generated only passive participation. Bills scoring drives produced almost as much noise. Aaron Glenn may be the right coach for the Jets but this will be another long season for them and bumbling owner Woody Johnson may run out of patience with him too early – as he always does.

Today, we will see the 9/11 Memorial and take a look around Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange in Lower Manhattan before heading to LaGuardia. Older Jets fans will remember the days of defensive stalwarts Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau who became known as the New York Sack Exchange. That must seem like several lifetimes ago for them. 

Up next for the Bills is a short week and a Thursday night home game against the Miami Dolphins whose fortunes entering week three seem about as bleak as those of the Jets. Tyrek Hill is frustrated and Tua is regressing week by week and season by season. Head coach Mike McDaniel, known equally for his supposed offensive genius and his irreverent and unorthodox style of conducting press conferences, may not last the season in Miami either. The New England Patriots appear now to be the second-best team in the AFC East and with four winnable division games, could challenge for a wild-card playoff spot – something which seemed unthinkable a year ago. 

I’m hoping to make this New York weekend an annual one and I’m also hoping that the schedule makers can make it a little later in the fall when the weather is cooler. There are of course more Broadway shows to take in, more museums to see, many more Manhattan miles to walk and, hopefully, more easy Bills wins against the Jets in New Jersey.            

   

Bills 41, Ravens 40

When the NFL schedule was released in the spring, the Buffalo Bills week one match-up with the Ravens brought my memory of the January 19^th Divisional Round playoff game, and its one critical and decisive play, back to the surface of my consciousness. Having just scored a touchdown to narrow the margin to two points with a minute and a half remaining, the Ravens needed a two-point convert to tie and send the game to overtime on that wintry Orchard Park night. Along with the entirety of Bills Mafia, I was worried about this prospect as the Ravens had momentum in their favour and the Bills defence, having benefitted from three turnovers already, looked spent. Tension in the stadium was palpable as the Ravens lined up for their attempt and as the well-crafted play developed, leaving tight-end Mark Andrews open in the front right corner of the endzone, I had already begun to foresee how the overtime might play out. Lamar Jackson’s pass was perfect – not too high, not too low and placed squarely into Andrews’ breadbasket. As the pass reached him, I think I may have looked away for a split second in disappointment, perhaps to process the unfortunate turn of events and to contemplate the ensuing risk and stress of overtime. The next thing I remember seeing was the eruption of Bills fans on the goal-line behind Andrews as he had somehow let the ball slip out of his hands and onto the thin layer of snow beside him. An easy recovery of an onside kick, one more first down and it was time for victory formation for Buffalo.

For the Baltimore Ravens, for Mark Andrews and Lamar Jackson personally, for John Harbaugh and his coaching staff, the 232 days which have passed since that cold January night surely included reliving that particular play over and over. The schedule-maker’s gift of the earliest possible chance at redemption in the first game of the new season in the very same stadium provided the Ravens the ultimate motivation as last night approached. Add in the kick-off of the 20^th season of Sunday Night Football (the top-rated television show in the US), a huge national audience and arguably the best week-one match-up on the slate, and the Ravens could not have asked for a better-scripted opportunity to once again establish themselves as the team with the best chance at securing the AFC’s top seed. A week one match-up with playoff and potential tie-breaker implications made this a pretty compelling game all around.

A clear pattern has taken shape over the past five years when the Bills face the Kansas City Chiefs with Buffalo winning the regular season games and the Chiefs winning the playoff games regardless of which team plays at home. Last season, the Bills lost badly in Baltimore early on in the regular season but held on for a 27-25 home playoff win four months later. Will the same pattern emerge with the Ravens? With last night’s incredible and unlikely one-point win, Bills fan obviously hope not. I’d say that the Bills would prefer not to see the Ravens again at all but another home playoff game against them in January seems likely.

Josh Allen said after the game to NBC’s Melissa Stark that those fans who left in the fourth quarter with the team down by 15 points should “have some faith next time”. Well, as was pointed out on the broadcast, the last time that the Bills came from behind after being down by 15 points in the fourth quarter was in 1967 – some six years before Rich Stadium opened. Sixty years later, the Bills treated their fans (those who stayed) to a thrilling comeback in the stadium’s final home opener after being shredded by Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson for most of the game.

Speaking of Henry, the Ravens dominant and powerful running back racked up 169 yards on 18 carries (it seemed like more) with two touchdowns (also seemed like more) for an average of 9.4 yards per carry (seems about right) and was a terror for the Bills undersized front. For his part, Bills DT Ed Oliver did his own terrorizing (as Chris Collinsworth mentioned more than once on the broadcast) with a brilliant sack and another key tackle-for-loss of Henry. He also generated the game’s only turnover at a key time in the fourth quarter by knocking the ball from Henry’s hands and setting up what would have been the game’s tying touchdown drive had the Bills not failed on their third two-point conversion attempt of the night. Then and only then did the Bills defence find a way to get a key three-and-out which set up the game winning drive, culminating with 58-year-old Matt Prater hitting a short field goal as time expired.

Ok, Prater is 41 years old and Buffalo is his seventh NFL team. Before Thursday, he was not on any team’s roster or practice squad but continued to hone his craft at a high school somewhere in Arizona. After a red-eye flight to Buffalo Thursday night, he now finds himself the toast of the town after a perfect night, hitting three field goals and two extra points.

After their thrilling opening week win, the Bills now travel to the Meadowlands of New Jersey to face the New York Jets who came up short in their own home opener yesterday against the Steelers. It’s been 35 years since I took in a Bills road game which was a 34-30 playoff loss to the Browns at Cleveland’s ancient Municipal Stadium in January of 1990. Ronnie Harmon dropped the winning touchdown pass from Jim Kelly on the game’s second-last play. I’m hoping for a better result next week against the Jets and I’m looking forward to visiting NYC. In addition to Sunday’s game, we’re seeing Wicked on Broadway, touring the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, taking a boat cruise around Manhattan Island, museums etc. Fireman Ed, I’m coming!

Happy Tommy Douglas Day Weekend

Happy Victoria Day! A friend of mine is an emergency room nurse in a small but busy hospital which serves a large hinterland of cottage country in eastern Ontario. He tells me that the Victoria Day long weekend is always the busiest three-day period of the year as his hospital is inundated with injured patrons who have been in car or boat accidents, chopped or cut themselves with axes or chainsaws, fallen off ladders or roofs or otherwise maimed themselves often with alcohol-fueled carelessness. 

We stopped marking Queen Victoria's birthday on the 24^th of May in 1952 (although we still do every seven years) in favour of observing it on the Monday closest to but not after the 24^th. Victoria ruled the British Empire for 64 years, ending with her death in 1901. At the risk of offending Monarchists or United Empire Loyalists, Queen Victoria’s relevance to most Canadians has pretty much disappeared. Sure, she was an important figure in British history but maybe it’s time to change the name of our spring holiday long weekend, which marks the unofficial start to the summer season, to something more Canadian. I suggest that we call it Tommy Douglas Day. Douglas clearly deserves recognition as the driving force behind Canada's publicly funded healthcare system. It seems entirely appropriate to name this long weekend after him so that when dangerous drivers, drunken boaters and over-zealous weekend-warriors end up in the hospital over the next few days as a result of their letting loose on this long weekend, they can thank Tommy Douglas for bringing us the universal, single-payer healthcare insurance system we value so much. Have a great (and hopefully safe) Tommy Douglas Day long weekend!

Easter Greetings

Easter certainly has a lot of moving parts: the rabbits (which do not lay eggs), the eggs, the chocolate, the egg-shaped chocolates, the rabbit-shaped chocolates, the crucifixion of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus two days later, the traffic and shopping mayhem on Bad Thursday because everything imaginable is closed for the next four days…..and when we mix all of these unrelated elements together and then, as a final wildcard, throw in the fact that it can take place any time between the Superbowl and Victoria Day, based on the whims of  the lunar cycle in strange combination with with the randomness of the Gregorian calendar, Easter truly is the most incomprehensible annual event we still observe. That's why everything is closed for four days - to give us a chance to try to make some sense of it. One question I do often hear leading up to Easter is about what traditional festive meal is most appropriate to mark this unique occasion. The answer, for obvious reasons, is rabbit with eggs. Happy Easter!