I can remember the 1989 season opener very clearly. With two seconds left on the clock in a steamy, humid Joe Robbie Stadium with the Bills trailing the Dolphins by four points, Jim Kelly, never known for his ability to scramble, dropped back to pass then executed the quarterback draw perfectly, scoring the winning touchdown. Bills win 27-24. Then, a bit more than three years later, on the same field, in the AFC Championship Game, Kelly led his team to a 29-10 win to earn a spot in their third consecutive Superbowl - where they would be crushed by Dallas 52-17.
Since the series between the AFC East division rivals began in 1966, Buffalo wins in Miami have not been plentiful, although not unheard of either. Through the 1970s, the Dolphins dominated the series, both at the Orange Bowl and at Rich Stadium, making Miami the Bills fiercest rival. The rivalry has continued on, although neither team has tasted much success recently. Going into this season, the Dolphins were considered to be much improved and were favoured by pundits as having the best chance to unseat the Patriots for the AFC East title. It appears that neither the Dolphins or the Bills are likely to overtake the Patriots this season but, if yesterday's game in Miami was any indication, Buffalo looks to have a better chance.
Just like last week, the Bills first series on defence resulted in a three-and-out and their first series on offence produced a touchdown. But, unlike last week, the momentum continued and the Bills cruised to an easy win in the humidity of South Florida before an unenthusiastic gathering of Dolphin fans who had hoped for more from their team in its home opener and especially after losing to Jacksonville last week.
Speaking of Florida, former governor and one-time front-runner for the Republican party's presidential nomination, Jeb Bush, must be wondering what he can do to revive his stumbling campaign. Now that John Boehner has thrown in the towel and effectively turned over the House Speakership to the far-right fringe section of his party (or to someone who is beholden to it), Bush's road to the nomination just got a lot rougher. With Donald Trump still leading in the polls, followed by Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, Bush, as the "mainstream" candidate, may find that his party chooses a "real" conservative next year. The Democrats clearly hope that they do.
In Canada, we are now three weeks from election day and absolutely nothing is clear. The three way race shows no signs of breaking and it also seems very unlikely that any party will win enough seats to form a majority government. I hope that David Johnson has dusted off his constitutional texts because he's probably going to need them. Take this scenario: The Conservatives win the most seats but are in a weak minority position. Harper has said that he will try to form a government in this scenario. Let's say that Mulcair and Trudeau form an alliance (something short of formal coalition) and they together approach the Governor General and ask him to let one of them form a government the support of the other. They may also make it clear that if he asks Harper to govern, they will defeat that government at the first opportunity and then ask him to let them form a government. Why would he choose to ask Harper to govern knowing that his government would be almost immediately defeated? Would public pressure not push him to ask the quasi-coaltion to govern? Maybe MacKenzie King's mother knows that answer.
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