Bills 23, Vikings 6

When the Buffalo Bills began their run of four straight Superbowl appearances, it was my hope each time that their opponent would eventually be the Minnesota Vikings because the Vikings and the Bills share the misfortune of sporting a combined 0-8 record in Superbowls – with four losses each. The Vikings losses came in 1969, 1973, 1974 and 1976 (not four in row but pretty close) while the Bills achieved the losing four-peat from 1990 tom 1993. Apart from the four Superbowl losses for each franchise, the similarity between the teams is striking: The same head coaches were on the sidelines for all four losses in each case: Bud Grant with the Vikings and Marv Levy with the Bills. Both Grant and Levy were head coaches in the CFL before becoming NFL head coaches. The Bills began play in the AFL in 1960 and the Vikings in the NFL a year later. Both teams have loyal and long-suffering fanbases. Both play in border states and enjoy strong fan support from their Canadian neighbours – the Vikings drawing from northwestern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the Bills mainly from southern Ontario. Both Minneapolis / St. Paul and Buffalo are relatively small regional markets within the United States. Both have (relatively) new stadiums – US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis is now ten years old and, given the weather in Minnesota, it is an entirely indoor facility while Buffalo decided to stick with the perceived advantage of an outdoor facility with the New Highmark Stadium. The weather is probably colder in Minnesota but Buffalo probably gets more snow. They seem like sister or maybe cousin franchises. One day, may they meet in the Superbowl.

I messaged a friend in suburban Minneapolis last week with a little pre-game trash talk and she reciprocated with a reference to Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray’s “injury” as an advantage for the home team. It’s amazing how hamstring soreness can develop and keep you out of the lineup if you’ve been struggling. I guess he’s been bad enough that the prospect of Carson Wentz starting in his place was seen as positive news for Vikings fans. What is it with the Vikings and their quarterbacks? After posting a 14-2 record in 2024 which earned the Vikings the NFC’s second seed, quarterback Sam Darnold was kicked to the curb after a disappointing playoff loss. Darnold won the Superbowl last season with the Seahawks. Then there’s J.J. McCarthy who the Vikings drafted 10^th overall in 2024 after leading the Michigan Wolverines to their first National Championship since 1997. After missing his entire rookie season with a knee injury which required surgery, he was named as the Vikings starter for the 2025 season but again missed several games with injury. This season, the Vikings, for reasons known only to them, traded for Kyler Murry who somehow beat out McCarthy for the starting job. McCarthy was relegated to the third string behind Murray and Wentz before he was traded to the Giants a few weeks ago (after Jackson Dart was lost for the season) where he is now the starter. In recent years, Minnesota is a good place to have come from if you’re an NFL quarterback but not a good place to be.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman managed to scratch their way through another edition of Monday Football the way a separated couple takes one last family vacation with the kids – except this vacation lasts 17 weeks. You wouldn’t know there was trouble in paradise which speaks to their professionalism, I guess. ESPN renewed Buck a few months ago but apparently decided to move on from Aikman and in the process torture the two of them by putting them through an entire season of primetime broadcasts when they reportedly can no longer stand each other’s company.  I know that the knives have been out for Aikman with some NFL fans but I’ve always considered the pair to have consistently delivered quality football broadcasts, including last night for what became a frustrating and stilted game to watch, especially for fans of the home team.  Maybe my standards are too low.

Last time Josh Allen suited up at US Bank Stadium was eight years ago in his first season and his second-ever career start. In that game, the Bills shocked the heavily favoured Vikings 27-6 and Allen made a highlight reel leap over a defender for a key first down. Last night, the Vikings once again managed only six points in a game which quarterback Carson Wentz would like to forget. He generally looked like he hadn’t thrown a football in about five years as his passing efforts were simply awful as he repeatedly missed open receivers. The Vikings managed only 178 yards of total offence and nine first downs. Third string quarterback Max Brosmer who mopped up for Wentz went 6 for 7 for 58 yards. The Bills were playing a near prevent defence by that point but the Vikings faithful gave a loud Bronx cheer for each of Brosmer’s completions. Remind me again what the problem was with Sam Darnold? And why did they think that Kyler Murray was the answer? For a team with the NFL’s top-rated defence, how could they allow such a sad state of affairs at the game’s most important position?

As for the Bills, I was impressed with (1) their defensive effort, albeit against a mostly incompetent quarterback for the second straight week, and (2) their commitment to the run, especially on first down and especially with two starters on the offensive line out with injury. It finally yielded results late in the game with James Cook carrying 31 times for 107 very hard-earned yards – only a 3.5 yard per carry average. With the Bills holding the ball for more than two thirds of the game, the Vikings defence was finally gassed by the end, allowing Cook to look like himself in the fourth quarter when the Bills pulled away.

Up next for the now 7-1 Bills are two division games against comparatively weak opponents – the Jets on the road and the Dolphins at home. The last time the Bills started a season at 7-1 (1993), they went to the Superbowl. Same with the time before that (1991) and the time before that (1990). I will taking in next Sunday’s 1pm game live and in person at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey so I will be filing my post from our hotel at Broadway and 32^nd Street in mid-town Manhattan.  

 

 

 

 

 

    

    

     

Bills 36, Ravens 10

Trent Dilfer is now 54 years old. If the Baltimore Ravens had been able to reach him yesterday afternoon, he would have been on his way to Orchard Park, NY to suit up for them under centre in yesterday’s frustrating and disjointed game against the Bills at the new Highmark Stadium. After leading the Ravens to their first Superbowl title in 2000, Dilfer remains the only Superbowl-winning quarterback to be released by his team following a championship run. Not to take away from what Joe Fagnano, the undrafted free-agent quarterback who played his college football for the Maine Black Bears and the UConn Huskies, was able to do yesterday in a “emergency” quarterback role after the Ravens first and second-string quarterbacks went down with injuries in the first half. The Ravens were energized going into the game with their two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson back in the line-up after missing the last three games with a high-ankle sprain. But on the team’s first offensive play, Jackson dislocated the thumb on his throwing hand and is now out for a minimum of another four games (and possibly the remainder of the season), with surgery required.  

Lamar Jackson is certainly one interesting cat. He remains one of the few elite athletes in the world who does not and has never had an agent representing him. Drafted 32^nd overall by the Baltimore Ravens in 2018, he and his mother negotiated his rookie contract with the team, saving him the usual 3% of his salary which NFL agents generally command. In early 2023, with his rookie deal having expired at the end of the previous season and Jackson engaging in protracted and unsuccessful contract negotiations with the Ravens, he faced widespread criticism for handling a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars entirely on his own (with only his mother as his key advisor) against a sophisticated NFL team owner (Steve Bisciotti) and his attorneys. Turning down multiple offers from other teams, he held firm with the Ravens and it paid off spectacularly. In April, 2023, Jackson signed a five-year deal with the Ravens worth $260 million with $135 million guaranteed, making him the highest paid player in NFL history (at the time). For those trying to do the arithmetic, 3% of $260 million is just under $8 million. Unfortunately for Jackson, he didn’t notice the part Bisciotti snuck into the fine print at the end of the contract but Jackson says he really doesn’t mind changing the oil in Bisciotti’s Aston Martin and he always remembers to tighten the oil pan plug to the required torque setting. Either way, he and his mother are quite happy to have the extra $8 million. Critics still argue that Jackson’s choice to self-represent has cost him dearly in terms of non-football earnings as he currently has no shoe deal, no apparel deals and (almost) no national television advertising exposure. By comparison, we now see multiple television ad campaigns featuring Josh Allen, Dak Prescott and Joe Burrow in addition to many years of seeing Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers peddling insurance and pick-up trucks. An agent may have secured Jackson his requisite non-football income but only after his public image had been polished to the point where sponsors were comfortable with him representing their brands. His reputation as a quiet, if not aloof and private athlete, a bit rough around the edges and a with not-ready-for-prime-time demeanor is probably a true reflection of who he really is. And fair enough. After all, $135 million guaranteed, of which he keeps 100% (before tax) is pretty good - and probably good enough - for a kid who grew up in relative poverty in Pompano Beach, FL.

Yesterday’s injury notwithstanding, Jackson has also faced criticism for taking too long to recover from injuries and missing too many games. Due it seems to his style of play, he does suffer injury more than the average NFL quarterback does and he also seems to recover from injury on his own schedule.  Would an agent make a difference with this? Last week for example, on the Friday before Sunday’s home game against the Bengals, he was widely expected to play but when Saturday came, he was declared to be out for the third straight game. The Ravens lost the key division game badly. With a game against the Jaguars coming up three days from now and the status of second-string quarterback Tyler Huntley uncertain, the Ravens season is hanging by a thread.

As for the Bills, now at 6-1, there were some positives to take away from their 26-point win. The defence, and in particular the secondary, looked much better than in previous weeks but the competition they were facing probably justifies a large asterisk beside their performance. The offence, sputtery and inconsistent through the first half, still somehow managed to put up 426 yards and 36 points on the day. Who knows how much they can score If they ever really get rolling. The bye week was obviously beneficial for rest and injury rehab but the team looked a little rusty yesterday and I wonder how the game would have played out if Lamar Jackson had been played more than one snap.

I saw a photo of Larry Csonka yesterday with a glass of champagne in his hand after the Minnesota Vikings lost for the first time, leaving no undefeated teams in the NFL in 2026. It only took until week eight for Csonka and his teammates to perform their ritual of celebrating another year for which their undefeated record will stand. Csonka and his 1972 Miami Dolphins recorded the NFL’s only perfect season when they went 17-0, with 14 regular season wins and a Superbowl championship. The longest they waited was 19 years ago when the champagne sat on ice until February 3, 2008 when the 2007 New England Patriots came closest to matching the record with a perfect regular season and playoffs but a loss to the New York Giants in Superbowl XLII.   

Next up for the Bills is another prime-time game a week from tonight in Minneapolis against those Vikings who will be looking to avoid a second straight loss.

     

 

Bills 33, Raiders 30

What happens in Irvine CA stays in Irvine, CA. On a short week, the Buffalo Bills practices at Crawford Field, on the campus of the University of California Irvine, were closed to the media. With two games in the Pacific time zone within six days, the Bills remained on the west coast and practiced at UC Irvine’s training facility. Home to the Los Angels Rams training camp, Crawford Field has been the training site for countless Big Ten teams (and others) preparing for the Rose Bowl every January and the Broncos, Lions and Chargers have all used the facility over the years. Nearby Crawford Hall (home of the UC Irvine Anteaters basketball and volleyball teams) offers spacious locker rooms and modern training facilities, making the location an easy choice for the Bills and their traveling entourage of more than 200 players, coaches and staff.  And it’s a short one-hour flight to Las Vegas, NV which the team took on Saturday afternoon.

I have been to Las Vegas once, in April 2010. At the end of a ten-day hiking and camping trip through Nevada and California, we spent 24 hours there: stayed in a nice new (at the time) hotel, ate dinner at a fancy restaurant, caught a Cirque de Soleil show (Eau), walked the strip, saw the water fountain show at Bellagio and, in the process spent more money on that last day than we did on the rest of the trip. It was interesting to see for sure but I feel no desire to ever go there again. Except perhaps for a Bills game against the Raiders or, better yet, the Superbowl in a couple of years (following the 2028 season). My sources on the ground in Las Vegas reported that Bills Mafia (I really don’t like that term and it makes me feel uncomfortable being associated with any kind of “mafia” but I’ve given up on it) had taken over the Las Vegas strip last week and seemed like a majority of fans yesterday at Allegiant Stadium. They were also celebrating enthusiastically in their customary hard-drinking fashion after the game last night. Supporters of the Buffalo Bills have become one of the best traveling fanbases in the NFL (Steelers fans have long been the gold-standard in this regard) and with Las Vegas being one of the most popular domestic destinations in the country, it’s hardly surprising that Bills Mafia made their presence known on the strip last week and at the game yesterday. For the Raiders and their fans, playing in a destination city creates high demand for tickets but probably takes away some of the usual home-field advantage most NFL teams enjoy.

When the Raiders got their last touchdown last night after the two-minute warning and with no time-outs left, their hopes were pinned to an on-side kick which Khalil Shakir easily cradled to end the game. The irony of that touchdown scored in Las Vegas having huge implications for the betting lines was not lost on anyone. With the over/under set at 53.5, it locked in the over for those who selected it and it also meant that the Raiders covered the spread which ranged anywhere from four to five-and-a-half. My Proline ticket was dead on arrival already but the Raiders late touchdown caused a swing of probably tens of millions of dollars for sports books and their customers.

Scanning through the game statistics last night, I was surprised to see that James Cook fell short of a 100-yard day on the ground. He finished with 95 yards and did not break off a long one as he usually does (his longest run was 13 yards). Cook also caught three passes for another 58 yards, including a 26-yarder. When he retires, he should run clinics for running backs on how to protect the ball because his technique, effort and consistency in that regard was flawless and impressive. The Bills had an entirely clean game with no fumbles and no turnovers. Cook’s 153 “all-purpose” yards were key to yesterday’s win as were Keon Coleman’s four catches for 59 yards, including a touchdown on a classic Josh Allen ad-libbed pitch pass in the third quarter. With DJ Moore out once again, Coleman looked like a number-one receiver yesterday. What a difference a year makes: from being late to team meetings and designated a healthy scratch by Sean McDermott to team leader, clutch receiver and a very valuable NFL player.

As for the Bills defence, it remains a work in progress and that is being kind. As JJ Watt pointed out on the CBS broadcast, the Bills clearly have a Championship calibre offence but they give up far too many chunk plays on defence. Can they keep winning these shoot-out games as the season grinds its way into November and December? We’ll see. The most frustrating pattern from yesterday’s game was that the defence generally looked competent on first and second downs but time after time on third down, Kirk Cousins was able to shred the Bills secondary and extend drives. I don’t claim to have any real expertise here but the talent level of the players seems to be less of an issue that the so-called “scheme” and coverage assignments. We expected that the transition from the Sean McDermott “bend but don’t break” method to Jim Leonhard’s 3-4 system would be rough at times but this is getting ridiculous. And speaking of ridiculous, I will be interested to see how Joe Brady deals with the CJ Gardner-Johnson situation after he was ejected from the game for spitting in the general direction of Raiders tight end Brock Bowers. The Bills are Gardner-Johnson’s eight team in nine years which tells us all we really need to know about him. I’d say that if Brady thought that his team’s personnel would be solid enough without him, he’d be gone but my prediction is that he will be given yet another chance.

Now at 5-1, the Bills bye week is upon them. Later bye weeks are the usual preference but this time around, a pause might help (1) to clarify and reinforce assignments in the defensive backfield and (2) to rehab DJ Moore and Ed Oliver back into the starting lineup.

On November 1^st, the Baltimore Ravens come to Orchard Park. With the clocks going back earlier that day, we will all have had extra hour of sleep which I am looking forward to mainly because I so dislike prolonged morning darkness like there is right now. If Ontario and New York State ever move to permanent Daylight Saving Time, I will continue to change my own clocks twice annually. So if I’m meeting you for lunch, check the time carefully.    

 

 

 

    

    

Bills 37, Rams 34 (OT)

The first four notes of Johnny Pearson’s 1970 instrumental piece Heavy Action are among the most iconic and identifiable musical notes for sports fans in North America and in the United Kingdom. It has been closely associated with ABC’s (and later ESPN’s) Monday Night Football (MNF) since 1975 when it was first used in its broadcast introduction and as a looping background soundtrack for Howard Cossell’s halftime review of highlights from the previous day’s NFL games. Pearson, the long-time leader of the Top of the Pops Orchestra, originally wrote the piece for the UK sports show Superstars. It has been re-arranged multiple times but in 2018, ESPN resumed using Pearson’s original arrangement for MNF and has continued using it up to and including last night. A few years ago, I downloaded the original version and I still dial it up occasionally during the long football off-season.

The history of MNF is fascinating. In early 1970, Pete Rozelle, NFL Commissioner from 1960 to 1989, first proposed his idea of a weekly Monday prime time NFL game to NBC and CBS. Skeptical that Americans would want to watch football on Monday nights, both declined. He then approached ABC Sports head Roone Arledge who reluctantly agreed to give it a try. ABC was mired in third place in US network ratings, well behind NBC and CBS. From it’s first broadcast on September 21, 1970 from Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, it was a huge hit. Arledge hired the controversial New York sports personality Howard Cossell to do play-by-play and to boost ratings. Cossell was a strong and early supporter of black athletes and developed a close relationship with Muhammed Ali. He was probably the first broadcaster who attracted viewers who tuned in to “hate watch” him. Bars across the US had parties on Monday nights where patrons were invited to throw bricks through old television sets whenever Cossell irritated them enough. His abrasive and pompous broadcast style became legendary and helped make Monday Night Football must-see-TV from the outset.  Howard Cossell famously let the world know of John Lennon’s assassination on a live game broadcast on December 8, 1980. Lennon himself appeared in Cossell’s broadcast booth for a short interview during a 1974 game.  Another curious personality added to the Monday Night Football broadcast booth was comedian Dennis Miller who lasted two seasons alongside Al Michaels and Dan Fouts who years later said that he never quite knew what to make of the Dennis Miller experiment and felt uncomfortable with it for the entire two seasons.

MNF has been a 56-year television ratings success story but in 2005 when the NFL decided to make Sunday Night Football its marquee prime time offering, Disney moved MNF from ABC to ESPN. Ratings remained strong on Mondays but by 2011, NBC’s Sunday Night Football climbed to the top of weekly American television ratings where it has remained ever since. When broadcast crews were shuffled following the 2021 season, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman left FOX and moved into the MNF booth where they continue to deliver solid game commentary and strong ratings. MNF games began at 9pm until 1997 when the kick-off was moved to 8.15pm. I would welcome a 7.30pm start time but I guess that’s too early for west coast viewers. I am sometimes asked why they don’t start the prime-time games earlier (because many of the games go 11.30pm or later like last night’s did, far past my cohort’s usual bedtime). The answer is that if they thought they could attract more viewers by staring the games at a different time, they would start the games at a different time.

Dateline: November 20, 1988. In a game I attended, Bills defensive lineman Fred Smerlas got a big paw up to block a Pat Leahy field goal attempt with 25 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime where the Bills would go on to beat the New York Jets 9-6 and claim their first AFC East title since 1980. It was probably the most important blocked kick in Bills history but, allowing for some recency bias, Greg Rosseau’s block in overtime last night at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles now stands in second place to the Smerlas block. Picked 30^th overall in the 2021 NFL draft, Rosseau is now in his sixth season with the Bills and it looks to be by far his best with six quarterback sacks through the first three games. His block allowed Josh Allen to engineer the winning drive and one of the most epic October Bills wins in recent years. And all of this on Monday Night Football! I definitely had more trouble falling asleep afterward than I did staying up through the game’s tense final moments. A great win it was for the Bills who were due for a break or two to fall their way in a tight national game.

After a sort of sleepy first half, the Bills took a 13-7 lead to the locker room and led 19-14 after three quarters before the teams exploded for 35 points in the fourth quarter to finish tied at 37 after 60 minutes. After James Cook’s second fumble, things looked bleak for the Bills before Rosseau saved the day. Despite missing an extra point earlier, with two minutes remaining in the extra period, Tyler Bass hit a 45-yard field goal which looked like it would have been good from 65. A rather large monkey was removed from Josh Allen’s back in the process as his record in overtime games improved to 1-7. The Bills also converted on a two-point attempt which removed a much smaller but quite irritating monkey as well.

A few quick thoughts this morning: (1) I wish Josh Allen would learn to slide. That extra yard or two usually isn’t worth the injury risk he takes in getting them. (2) A few Bills players (with the exception of Spencer Brown who did not return) appeared to suffer significant injuries – Benford, Bernard, Gardiner-Johnson – but each returned to the game. (3) James Cook needs to hold the ball more securely on every carry. He should watch film of Stefon Diggs who was the master of ball protection upon first contact. It’s harder for running backs but opposing defences will be coached-up to punch the ball out of his hands on every carry because it seems like it’s easy to do – too easy.   

The Bills will stay on the west coast this week as they face the Las Vegas Raiders in sin city next Sunday at 4.25pm in the featured late-window game on CBS.  

      

 

Patriots 29, Bills 26

I had a dream about Dianna Russini last night. No not that kind of dream. In an effort to resurrect her sports journalism career, she was interviewing various NFL podcasters and bloggers about their experiences, how they build their viewership and readership, how they got into the business etc (remember, it was a dream) and as we sat in her makeshift studio on a terrace at a swanky Sedona, AZ resort, her husband, Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt, kept poking his head around the corner to see what we were actually doing. Then, Mike Vrabel’s wife Jennifer showed up with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and that’s about all I can really remember. Vrabel did not appear in the dream as I guess he had business to attend to in Orchard Park, NY.

In the aftermath of the exposure of their extra-marital affair this past April, Vrabel and Russini have been on very different trajectories. Russini resigned from her position as NFL “insider” at the Athletic (a New York Times media property) as her employer conducted its own investigation into the matter. That investigation would eventually find that Russini violated the terms of her employment. No kidding. From 2015 to 2023, Russini was an NFL reporter for ESPN which included time as a beat reporter assigned to the Tennessee Titans where Vrabel was head coach from 2018 to 2023. It is clear that as a sports journalist, Russini’s involvement with the coach of an NFL team she was covering represented a breach of trust. And it has obviously cost her deeply as her wiki page identifies her as a “former” sports journalist and it appears that she is currently unemployed. Vrabel, on the other hand, was “disciplined” by Robert Kraft who may not be the best judge of character in this regard, having been caught soliciting sexual services at a Florida massage parlour in 2019 and is alleged to have had a long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The NFL cleared Vrabel of any wrongdoing in its slipshod investigation and Vrabel’s “punishment” from Kraft amounted to a few counselling sessions and a public statement about his having had some “difficult conversations” with his family and with the team. So, she’s unemployed and he gets a slap on the wrist and we all move on watching NFL games as we always did. It’s a man’s world, isn’t it? And not just in football.

In a related story, last week, San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York was suspended by the NFL for six games and fined a whopping $500,000 as punishment for his arrest in an Ohio mobile home park on prostitution-related charges. What does it mean when an owner is “suspended”? I guess he has to watch the games on television like the rest of us – and probably not in a mobile home park. Perhaps Dianna Russini should interview him next.

One of the legions of NFL pundits said on Saturday that yesterday’s game at Highmark Stadium was far more important to the 1-2 New England Patriots than it was for the 3-0 Buffalo Bills. For the Patriots, a loss would have meant slipping three games behind the Bills in the AFC East and, taking into account the tie-breaker formula, four games behind. With a loss, the pundit argued, the Bills would still hold a one game lead in the division. It was close to a must-win game for the Patriots and they came through, as one would have expected from a team which went to the Superbowl last season. Through three games, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye demonstrated a level of regression which was alarming to Patriots fans and the pressure was clearly on him yesterday. He delivered in spectacular fashion while his opponent on the other sideline, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, posted his second consecutive sub-par game. As the Bills were driving to tie the game with a field goal or take the lead with a touchdown, Allen’s ill-advised deep ball into double coverage, after miraculously eluding a sack, sealed the win for the Patriots.

The game featured three spectacular catches which deserve mention. One was by Bills receiver Keon Coleman, who arguably had his best day as pro, on the left sideline where he showed incredible athleticism, body control and concentration in securing the ball (he later made a nice catch for a touchdown). Two Patriots receivers made one-handed touchdown catches which should each make the highlight reels when the 2026 season is done. Romeo Doubs, wearing his Great Gazoo helmet cover (a few players around the league now wear an extra layer of padding on the outside of their helmets – like former Bills player Taylor Rapp), made his brilliant catch on a fade to the right side of the endzone. Then, everyone’s favourite undrafted free agent out of Eastern Washington University and sporting one of the best names ever to suit up in the NFL, Efton Chism III, taking time out from his responsibilities as Commodore of the Boston Yacht Club, made what would be the game-winning one-handed grab in the fourth quarter. I’m willing to say right now that Efton Chism III will never make a more impressive catch for the rest of his career.

Up next for the Bills is a Monday Night Football match-up with the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on Canadian Thanksgiving Day/Night. Yesterday’s loss will generate a bit of soul-searching and angst among the Bills fan base and I will be interested to see how first-year coach Joe Brady handles the questions this week. With their first taste of adversity this season, look for the Bills to better than they have shown over the last couple of weeks against the Rams in what could be a Superbowl preview. The Bills then travel to Las Vegas in week six which also fell to 3-1 with a loss to the Chiefs yesterday.   

 

 

 

Bills 24, Chargers 16

David Mamet’s 1975 play American Buffalo (and the 1996 film with Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz) takes place in a junk shop where the owner has sold a Buffalo Nickel to a customer for $90 then regrets the low sale price and plans to steal it back. Buffalo Nickels are five-cent coins struck by the US Mint between 1913 and 1938 and are considered to be somewhat rare and valuable. These coins form the historical basis for the “alternate” Buffalo Bills uniforms, called the “Nickel City” uniforms, unveiled early in the Bills 2026 training camp. Reaction to the uniforms at the time was swift and negative. Josh Allen asked fans to relax and assured us that the uniforms were fine and that we would all grow to appreciate them. They were worn in yesterday’s game at Highmark Stadium for the first time in the regular season and the reaction – both nationally and within the Bills fan base – remained overwhelmingly negative. I decided to wait and see but I now officially join the mainstream body of opinion in saying that they’re simply awful. The strange colour palette looks like the bastard child of the uniforms of the Detroit Lions and the New York Giants. The numbers and player names are hard to see and Mike Schop said on WGR that they looked like they weren’t fitted properly. The Bills now have a minor public relations problem on their hands as the uniforms are scheduled to be worn again on December 19^th when the Bills host the Chicago Bears. I doubt that the plan will change but I will be interested to see how they spin things as that date approaches. We all know why the NFL mandated alternate uniforms – to sell more merch. And it has worked: we saw plenty of Nickel City game jerseys at the home opener. I guess if all you had was a Diggs jersey from five years ago, it might be an interesting option. Give me the Royal Blue and White in any jersey and pant combination and leave it at that.

Maybe the crappy alternate uniforms will be considered lucky as the Bills pulled out a win against the Chargers yesterday in a game they probably should have lost. Five turnovers usually means you lose but the Bills defence – much maligned through the first two games, and rightly so - was the difference in the end. James Cook had another strong game after fumbling on the very first play from scrimmage. A key interception by veteran safety CJ Gardner-Johnson set up a Cook touchdown which saw the Bills take an unlikely lead which they would not give up. This was a FOX game with their number-one crew of Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady. Brady seems now to have settled into his colour commentary role and I would give him a solid 7.5 out of 10 for yesterday’s broadcast.   

Dateline: September, 1973. Shortly after my eleventh birthday, I started at a new school (new for me) in St. Catharines, Ontario for grade six. It was Ridley College - a “private” school for boys (there was a handful of girls in grade 13 that year – the first year of what would be a successful co-ed experiment), conceived and operated in the image of English “public” schools: teachers were masters, the principal was a headmaster, grades were forms, we had classes on Saturday mornings, cadet training, a comprehensive sports program, chapel every morning and an archaic hierarchy of “old boys” and “new boys” where new boys performed tasks for old boys on request (shining shoes, carrying books etc). The old boy system was thankfully abolished long ago as the school modernized itself, maintaining some of the symbolic historical traditions while ditching the ones which seem preposterous in retrospect today. High educational standards were part of the formula throughout and continue to this day. About two thirds of the students were boarders. A cohort of about eight of us would move all the way from grade six (the sixth “form” as it was called) through to grade 13, graduating in 1981. Most, if not all, of our small cohort were “day students” who had grown up in St. Catharines, attending various public schools through grade five. A couple of nights ago, we marked the 45^th anniversary of our graduation from Ridley. By my count, five of us from that original grade six cohort made it. As I pointed out to Bill C., it was the 45^th anniversary of our graduation from Ridley but the 53^rd anniversary of our starting in the sixth form. Despite not seeing some of these cats for several decades, it’s amazing how personalities just don’t really change that much from age 11 to age 64. We hope to have everyone out – the full sixth form cohort and all of those who came to Ridley later and graduated with us – in five years time as we mark our 50^th. Thanks to Kelly N. and Jon B. for arranging and getting us all out on Saturday night in St. Catharines.

In five years time, I hope and expect that two or three (one at the very least) Superbowl Champion banners will hang in the new Highmark Stadium. Josh Allen, now in his ninth year in Buffalo and at the peak of his abilities – the perfect combination of physical and experiential proficeincy - will be on the back nine of his career but hopefully still playing effectively….maybe sort of like Aaron Rodgers but without the anti-vax crap.

Three AFC teams now sport undefeated 3-0 records: the Bills, the Chiefs and…..wait for it…….the Raiders. It’s easy to predict that the Raiders will soon revert to mediocrity but the Chiefs and Bills will not. Although it’s two months out, the Chiefs at Bills Thanksgiving night game on November 26^th looms large on the schedule.

Next up for the Bills is a visit from the New England Patriots on Sunday. The Pats are coming off a pretty brutal loss at Jacksonville and will be looking to right themselves in the first divisional game for both teams.  

Bills 41, Lions 31

Whenever my driving takes me on any form of triangular shape, I am reminded of the reclusive inventor Wendel Beckwith who lived alone on Best Island on Whitewater Lake in what remains of Wabakimi Provincial Park (after a devastating fire swept through it two months ago). Among other eclectic interests, he was fascinated by various triangular theories including his contention that Best Island was located at the exact the centre of the universe and existed in perfect triangulation with Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids. Beckwith died in 1980 and we visited what’s left of his cabins on Best Island in 2009.

Over the last four days, my own triangulation driving took me from east Muskoka to Orchard Park, NY, back to Muskoka and then to a small lake just south of Maniwaki, Quebec (150km north of Ottawa) where I visited with old friends, had a few laughs and did not do any night water-skiing like we had done 30 years ago. The triangulation among Orchard Park, Muskoka and Maniwaki is, in my view, just as significant as Beckwith’s was. As far as I know, my friend doesn’t theorize about Pi like Beckwith did but I can say with certainty that the drive from Orchard Park to Maniwaki via Muskoka is about 3.14 times longer than what you’d usually want to do on an average weekend.   

The triangulation began on Thursday with a rather slow and busy drive to the Queenston-Lewiston bridge. I thought for a second that the US Border Officer might just jump in the back of the car and go to the game with us. He commented about how he sure wished he was going to the Bills game which I suspected, incorrectly, might be leading to final bizarre question of some kind. It’s happened before. More thick Buffalo rush-hour traffic and the usual bottleneck around the stadium made it a four-hour drive. On a Sunday morning, it’s two-and-a-half. The reconfigured parking lots have noticeably smaller spaces leaving little room between vehicles. This became relevant when the folks next to us set up a single-burner butane stove less than a foot from their truck to heat water for corn. Somehow, as we stood within a metre or so of the sketchy-looking set-up, the entire thing burst into flames and burned intensely with six-foot high flames for about a minute before the butane was spent and someone nearby doused it with water. A scary minute it was but the party resumed immediately afterward. We left the game with eight minutes left and got out of the lot very quickly. I think the egress is better but we won’t know for sure until there’s a close game where everyone stays to the end.

Turns out that with two billion dollars a new NFL football stadium can be built – just not one with very good seats. Let me explain: the plastic seats in section 136 at mid-field on the visitor side look like the cheapest ones they could find and they are not particularly well-fastened either. They are of course perfectly fine for watching a football game. I guess I was expecting something a little better. The view from these “cheap-seats” is fantastic as I knew it would be – at the 48-yard line 22 rows from the field. The slope of the lower bowl is identical to that of the now mostly demolished Rich Stadium so it’s the same view as I had before except five yards closer to the 50 yard line and one row lower. I guess the padded and more spacious seats are in the club sections. There is definitely more leg room between the rows and more space for people to pass (as was promised) but most of us will still have to stand up, especially when bundled up for winter games. The stadium offers great sightlines and general aesthetics with a much more spacious and well-lit concourse with the field visible from all of it. Curiously, there seems to be absolutely no signage whatsoever for washrooms. No signs like “Mens”, or “Washroom”, or the universal washroom symbol. Nothing. Our investigation led us to a door with men streaming in and out marked “Exit Only” which we realized was indeed a men’s room. Only a small line-up inside (possibly because no one could find it) which was not bad for 15 minutes before kick-off. A non-existent security check at the gate (9/11 was 25 years ago so “let’s lighten up on it” seemed to be the sentiment) then a pinch-point at the ticket scanning stations but not nearly as bad as Rich was. Overall, an excellent and fully functional – but I will stop short of saying luxurious – new stadium which is orders of magnitude better than Rich was. Just get some washroom signage. After forking over $850 million, the taxpayers of New York State and Erie County surely deserve to be able to find where to relieve themselves.

Josh Allen, who Richard Sherman suggested was suffering from a bad bout of flu on Thursday, opened the new stadium in style, appropriately scoring the first touchdown, then passing for three more and running for another to reach five in total. The game was never in question really. Colin Cowherd suggested on Friday that the Lions never had a chance – missing their two starting safeties against Josh Allen who was opening the house that was built mainly for and because of him. Cowherd speculated that Lions coach Dan Campbell probably said to his team “if we can just survive the first quarter…..” Well, the Bills steamrolled through that first quarter and most of the second before the home crowd held its breath as receiver DJ Moore injured his shoulder in the endzone. Initial speculation was that it could be a broken collar-bone but it wasn’t and Moore is listed as day-to-day with an AC joint sprain, although his status for the Chargers game is unknown. Dalton Kincaid and Keon Coleman both had big games with seven and six catches respectively. James Cook had 21 carries for 135 yards and a touchdown. Like Moore, Ed Oliver, who was a game-time scratch with a hip injury, is listed as day-to-day.

Up next for the Bills is a visit from the Chargers who have arguably been the most disappointing team in the NFL through two weeks of play. Any half-decent team - which pre-season punditry suggested the Chargers certainly were – with an 0-2 record is a dangerous opponent indeed and their fear of going 0-3 may be stronger than the Bills desire to push to a 3-0 start. Maybe the Chargers aren’t that good in 2026 after all. As they say, that’s why they play the games.

The Bills should be considered, after two weeks of play, to be the early favourite to represent the AFC in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day. That could – and probably will – change as the season grinds on.