Tyrod Taylor says that he and Von Miller are friends. Maybe in the heat of the moment - with the temperature hovering close to 90 degrees and the Bills holding on to a seven point lead late in the fourth quarter of yesterday's game in Orchard Park - Miller decided to set aside their friendship by offering his hand to help Taylor from the ground after a hard hit and then pulling it away just as Taylor reached for it. Perhaps it was just an incident of competitive ribbing between friends or maybe it was the manifestation of Miller's frustration that a game in which his team was clearly favoured to win was slipping away. But Miller was called for unsportsmanlike conduct which gave the Bills a new set of downs and then a field goal which put them up by 10 points with just over three minutes to go.
I was surprised that the call was made. Not because it wasn't unsportsmanlike conduct - because it was - but because I have never seen such an act in a football game and I wondered if the officials had seen it before either. The CBS broadcast team of Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta obviously hadn't seen it called before either as Archuleta seemed stumped by the call, wondering why Miller's clean hit on Taylor was called: "it was a textbook shoulder to the chest hit", Archuleta declared, looking for a reason for the call. Sure, I've seen a player turn away from an opponent on the ground and not help him up after a play - I mean you don't have to help your opponent up after every play. But what Miller did was actually taunting in a slightly different form than it's usually seen and taunting is regularly called as unsportsmanlike conduct in NFL games. It was a devastating penalty for the Broncos and one from which they would not recover.
The Bills will likely find themselves climbing a few rungs in the NFL Power Rankings later this week after a solid performance against what was considered to be a clearly superior team in the Broncos. It was another outstanding defensive effort which in the end was too much for Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian, the Northwestern product in his third NFL season. Siemian made two awful plays in the second half which resulted in crucial interceptions and, along with a highly questionable fake punt play which the Bills stopped, cost his team the game. Kudos to the offence are also deserved: With the Broncos outstanding front seven shutting down the Bills running game, Tyrod Taylor was able to move the ball in the air, showing impressive touch on a couple of key passes in the second half and LeSean McCoy set aside his frustrations and was able to find his way to two key fourth quarter first downs which kept drives alive and kept the Broncos offence off the field. For the Bills, it was big win indeed.
I really am reluctant to wade into anything related to Donald Trump on this blog but since his recent statements were aimed directly at the NFL and prompted such a strong reaction, here's where I am on it: I have never understood Trump's strategy and I'm even more mystified by it this morning. I wonder if he is ever able to predict the response to his words and actions or if he practices any semblance of game theory in how he plays out issues he decides to tackle. Regardless of what I might think of him, his policies or his personal style, his success in politics can not be denied. Despite what seemed like insurmountable flaws, he won last year's election so while his strategy on any number of issues so often looks to be self-destructive, he somehow endures. Until he is impeached or indicted, his strategy works - like it or not. His recent statements have unified most of the NFL's players, many of its team owners and some of its fans. But, for sure, not all of its fans. If his goal was to divide NFL fans by making them choose sides, he surely succeeded. Did he foresee the on-field response yesterday with most players kneeling, locking arms in solidarity or skipping the national anthem altogether? Who knows? And who knows what, if any, his larger strategy with this issue really is. If he thought that Colin Kaepernick was a lone wolf who has been appropriately ostracized by the NFL for fighting an unpopular solo battle, he is obviously wrong. How or even if this forms part of any coordinated political game plan on his part is entirely unknown to me.
Things don't get easier for the Bills in week four with a trip to Atlanta to face the Falcons and their high powered offence.
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