Bills 31, Eagles 24

After five games, the Buffalo Bills lead the NFL in interceptions with 12. Yesterday, against Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles, they posted another four interceptions (as well as another takeaway) on their way to their third consecutive home win. Each of these home wins featured spectacular autumn weather in Orchard Park, exciting high scoring football and close games which each game's outcome undetermined until the very end. The 34 point drubbing of the Chiefs in week one now seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?

Any NFL coach will tell you (and Chan Gailey and Andy Reid both mentioned this in their post game press conferences) that if a team wins the turnover battle 5-1, like the Bills did yesterday, they are not going to lose very often. Well, the Eagles still made a game of it and looked like they were going to tie it before the final Barnett interception. The Bills deserve credit for the pressure they were able to bring on Vick. It certainly helped create the turnovers and kept him off balance for parts of the game. The Eagles were able to expose the Bills run defence on the outside, and when Vick did have sufficient time, he was effective.

Arguably the most important play in the game took place with 1.30 remaining. Facing a 4th down and about 6 inches, the Bills lined up as if they were going to go for the first down. Ryan Fitzpatrick was able to draw the Eagles offside resulting in a first down. Game over. Gailey explained that they practice the "hard count" drill every Saturday. I would also think that defensive teams would practice the same drill with the goal of staying onside. Gailey was asked if he was actually going to run a play in that situation or if he was going to punt if the hard count did not work. "I'll never tell" was his answer. I think that he would have run a play rather than giving the ball back to Michael Vick.

Buffalo travels to New Jersey next week to face the Giants who loast at home yesterday to Seattle. They will not want to lose at home in consecutive weeks so this will be a challenge. Then, the Bills have their bye week before playing the Redskins at the Rogers Centre on October 30th.

Last Tuesday, I was able, despite considerable confusion on the part of the Elections Ontario staff at the polling station, to get on the voters list in Eglinton-Lawrence and cast my vote for long time MPP Mike Colle. I thought that he would find himself in a close race against "star" candidate Rocco Rossi. Well, it wasn't close. Rossi got smoked and I couldn't be happier about it. Apparently, one of the first things Rossi did as the campaign approached was to try to closely affiliate himself with Rob Ford. They appeared together at bar-b-ques and other events and I can only presume that once Rossi realized the liability that Ford represented, it was too late.

The PC's were shut out of the 416 area entirely and now find their base in rural areas only. This is a disturbing trend which also reflects the situation with the federal party. The most dissapointing statistic for me from this election was that the voter turnout was below 50%.