Bills 27, Jets 14

It does seem like a mystery that Rob Ford can still maintain considerable personal and political support in light of his recent disgraceful behaviour. Ford Nation iis an interesting, if not disturbing, group of mostly suburban voters who are drawn to a certain kind of simplistic populism similar to that which created and propelled the Tea Party in the United States. As Andrew Coyne recently wrote, Ford's support is based on "condescending populism, (an) aggressively dumb, harshly divisive message that has become the playbook for the right generally in this country, in all its contempt for learning, its disdain for facts, its disrespect of convention and debasing of standards". 

First to Canadian football: I caught the end of the Eastern Final on the car radio after the Bills were in command of their game. A surprisingly (to me at least) big crowd of more than 35,000 at the dome saw the Tiger-Cats advance to their first Grey Cup since 1999. I was happy for them, for coach Austin, for the City of Hamilton and happy that, since the Argos season is now done, Rob Ford can not involve himself in any of the festivities in Regina this week. The Saskatchewan Rough Riders will try to become the third team in a row to win the Grey Cup in their home stadium. The Argos did so last year and the BC Lions did the year before.

This year's Vanier Cup will be won by either the Calgary Dinosaurs or the defending champs, the Laval Rouge et Or. My Western Mustangs were trounced by the Dinos in the Mitchell Bowl. The game will be played in Quebec City next Saturday.

I saw none of the Bills big win over the Jets yesterday. It was my mom's 75th birthday and the family gathered in St. Catharines to mark the occasion. The score was 17-0 when I turned on the car radio. The game was billed as as the battle between two AFC East rookie quarterbacks: Geno Smith, the West Virginia product taken by the Jets in the second round of this year's draft, and EJ Manuel of the Bills. Mirroring the Jets season so far, Smith has been either very good - he has beaten the Patriots and the Saints - or very bad. EJ Manuel, on the other hand, had not shown the same extremes in his play that Smith has. Manuel has also been erratic but yesterday's performance in the winds of Orchard Park certainly helped to reassure Bills fans who were deeply concerned after last week's ugly performance in Pittsburgh. 

The Bills have only one more game at Ralph Wilson Stadium this season, 5 weeks from yesterday against the Dolphins. As of last week, there were about 20,000 tickets remaining so the game will surely be the first and only one of the seven games at the Ralph to be blacked out this season - thanks to Ralph Wilson "buying" the remaining tickets to yesterday's game (and the Cincinnati game in October). I wonder where he gets the money. 

The bye week has finally come and then the Bills face the Atlanta Falcons at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. I might grab a cheap ticket at game time if I'm in town.