Bills 42, Dolphins 17

I saw not a single snap of yesterday's game in Orchard Park. Not live anyway; I have seen a couple of the game's key plays online just this morning. As Kyle Williams was leaving the field for the last time, I was leading a group of cross-country skiers across three frozen lakes in Muskoka. There just isn't enough snow to ski on the trails, although that is forecast to change later today.

Kyle Williams was picked by the Bills in the 5th round of the 2006 draft from LSU. As he said on Friday when he announced his retirement from the NFL, Williams has only ever lived in two places: Louisiana and Buffalo, NY. His family, including five children, call Buffalo home. Williams is not only one of the best players ever to wear a Bills uniform but he has been the undisputed team leader and ambassador. When the team made a successful push to sign defensive end Mario Williams in 2012, Williams was front and centre in making the case for him to come to Buffalo. When the team watched the Cincinnati Bengals upset the Baltimore Ravens in week 17 last season to send the Bills to the playoffs, Williams jumped around in the locker room like a kid on Christmas morning. Through his 13 seasons with the team, it would be the only playoff game he would see.

Williams has seen some very lean times in Buffalo with the team's record through his entire tenure being only 76-120. The team never really bottomed out (although the 2010 season where they ended at 4-12 after starting 0-8 came close) and rebounded - it just kept plodding along through various head coaches - Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey, Doug Marrone, Rex Ryan and now Sean McDermott - piling up disappointing but not disastrous records year after year. Always the team player and always seeing the positive in a sea of negativity, Williams remained loyal and committed to the team. His name will rightly go on the Wall of Fame maybe as early as next season. I have never seen a player deliver a more consistent effort on each and every snap he ever played. In last season's final game, Williams ran for a touchdown and yesterday, he caught a pass for a nine yard gain. To me, on that play, he looked like a better receiver than Kelvin Benjamin ever did. Kyle Williams wins the Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award for week 17 but for all the right reasons.

Josh Allen had another strong game for the Bills under centre, going 17 for 26 for 224 yards, and 5 touchdowns - 3 passing and 2 running - for a quarterback rating of 114. His counterpart, Ryan Tannehill, whose future with the Dophins is uncertain at best, finished the game with a rating of 43. Allen made one bonehead throw which was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, allowing the Dolphins to tie the game late in the first half. He will need to eliminate these disastrous plays in the future but the Bills fan base should feel optimistic about Allen's prospects going into next season and beyond.

Around the league yesterday, the Patriots secured another first round bye which sets them up for a likely trip to the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City. In the NFC, the Saints will be tough to beat at home but the Eagles made it in to the tournament and will play at Chicago next weekend. Should be some interesting games in what has been an entertaining season for the league.

I will have a post after the Superbowl. My prediction is the Saints and Patriots will play in Atlanta on February 3rd. Happy New Year. 
   

Patriots 24, Bills 12

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - at least it is where I am now. It's early morning on Christmas Eve - a few minutes after 6am - here on Clear Lake in eastern Muskoka. It's still dark but about 5cm of fresh snow fell through the night, pretty much ensuring a white Christmas. I arrived early yesterday morning to find a thin layer of crusty frozen snow and ice on the ground from the rain which fell on Friday. But I also found good skating conditions on the lake. The ice is about six inches thick so I donned my life jacket and a length of rope, wished myself good luck and set out on the blades. I stayed close to shore and had no issues. There are few activities as satisfying as skating on a frozen lake and I'm happy to have had an early season chance at it. Today I will cross country ski. But not before I make another batch of my Christmas jam. This year, it is apple / pineapple. The first batch turned out ok but I need to extend the cooking a bit to get it to the proper set point.

After skating, I settled in to watch the Bills take on the Patriots in Foxborough with a chance to deny them their 10th consecutive AFC East division title. It wasn't to be. Throughout the week, I was following the evolving point spread for the game which started and ended at 13.5 points. Early in the week, money came in on the Bills (for some reason) which pushed the spread down to 12 but, when the so-called "sharp money" came in late in the week, the 13.5 point spread was restored. For those who took the points and the Bills, you made the right call as they covered the spread by losing by only 12. And that included a missed field goal and a botched extra point which would have reduced the margin to 8 points.

The Patriots usually come up with game plans which serve them well against particular opponents and yesterday was no exception as they decided that they would run the ball against the Bills highly rated pass defence. And run the ball they did, piling up 273 yards on the ground and dominating the line of scrimmage and the time of possession. The Bills managed only 72 yards rushing. LeSean McCoy had 6 carries for 9 yards and looked so slow that he earns his second Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award in 3 weeks. Tom Brady needed only 117 passing yards, compared to Josh Allen's respectable looking 289 yards. Both threw two interceptions and each team fumbled the ball away once. Though the score never got out of hand, the game never felt like one where the result was in question.

If a win wasn't in the cards yesterday, Bills fans were hoping to see more positive development from Josh Allen. I would characterize his progress as steady but slow. He was unable to run the way we have seen over the past few weeks (probably a good thing) but I was hoping to see more improvement in his passing and I'm not sure I saw that yesterday. His arm strength is obviously impressive and serves him very well on deep balls and on broken plays or instances where he escapes the pocket and has more time to throw down the field but he still lacks the requisite touch on some of the mid-range throws which NFL quarterbacks need to make. I can't tell whether it looks like he will be able to improve enough on those throws to be the 10 year franchise quarterback we all hope he will be. 

Around the league yesterday, the Saints locked up home field through the NFC playoffs with a big win over the Steelers who are likely out of the playoffs. In the AFC, things are more complicated but the Chiefs and Chargers could each still claim the number one seed.

The Bills face the Dolphins in Orchard Park on Sunday. Both teams have been eliminated and if the weather is foul, the stands will be sparsely occupied.

Hoping that everyone who wants to has a Merry Christmas and safe travels. The photo was taken above the village of Pheriche, Nepal (4,700 metres above sea level) which is about a day's walk from Mount Everest Base Camp.

Bills 14, Lions 13

Jerry Sullivan was the lead sports columnist for the Buffalo News for 16 years before he was unceremoniously punted by the newspaper in May because his "voice was becoming bad for business". That was the reason given to Sullivan, now an independent Buffalo-based journalist, by the paper. Were his columns, particularly about the Bills (and especially during the post-2000 playoff drought and before Ralph Wilson's death), often quite negative? Yes they were. But for good reason in my opinion. A cheerleader he was not. Sullivan was critical of Wilson's cheapskate management and coaching hiring practices after the departure of the triumvirate of GM Bill Polian, coach Marv Levy and quarterback Jim Kelly. It was my impression that Sullivan had a large following of readers among Buffalo sports fans - those who agreed with him and those who didn't. The Buffalo News obviously saw it differently. I always loved his description of how he approached his job with the paper in terms of not being a homer: "I column as I see 'em".

I have no idea how Sullivan earns a living theses days. I follow him on Twitter and I read his columns after every Bills game (which he posts to his Twitter account). Maybe there are advertisements for Tops Friendly Markets or Dunn Tire embedded somewhere in his column that I subconsciously see but I certainly don't pay to read what he posts. Not to say that I necessarily wouldn't pay if it came to that but, for me, either way, he is a go-to source after every Bills game. Yesterday, Sullivan referred to the Bills win over the Detroit Lions as a key part of the equation in their "epic race to 7-9". It reminded me of something he said about Dick Jauron who coached the Bills from 2006 through November of 2009. The Bills finished 7-9 in 2006, 2007 and 2008 under Jauron. In a sarcastic reference to his pursuit of mediocrity, Sullivan wrote that "Jauron strings up 7-9 seasons like Christmas lights on his house".

Yesterday, Sullivan described the Bills v. Lions game at Ralph Wilson Stadium as "having an August feel to it". I'm quite sure that he wasn't referring to the weather - rather to the fact that the game felt much like it was taking place in the pre-season with little for either team to play for in terms of the importance of a win or a loss. The Bills and Lions do play every year in week four of the pre-season - usually the least relevant of the NFL's four-game season ticket holder punishment program before the real games start.

Another thought that Sullivan had yesterday was about the emergence of Robert Foster as a legitimate NFL wide-receiver. Foster, who played his college football at Alabama, was signed by the Bills as an undrafted free agent in May. This reunited him with Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll who was Foster's coordinator in Tuscaloosa. At last winter's combine, Foster's 4.41 in the 40 yard dash ranked him fifth among receivers but was not quite enough for any team to draft him. He was called up to the Bills from the practice squad last month and yesterday, he recorded four catches for 108 yards - his third 100 yard receiving game this year. Yesterday;s effort included catching the game-winning 42 yard touchdown pass from Josh Allen in the fourth quarter. Presumably the Bills will have a fresh new cohort of receivers on the team in 2019 but Foster has shown enough to deserve a chance to compete for the number one receiver position in training camp.

As for the Bills epic race to 7-9, it may prove to be too tall an order as they travel to Foxborough next week to face the Patriots who have now lost two consecutive games. They still lead the AFC East but currently occupy the third seed which means a home playoff game but no first round bye and road games in the second and third rounds. They would obviously like to move up to the second seed which would earn them a week off followed by a home game. If Josh Allen and Robert Foster can lead the Bills to a win, it would be truly epic.

Oh, and the winner of this week's Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award is.......Bills running back Marcus Murphy who left the game in the second quarter with an apparent broken arm. He's done for the season and may be done withe the Bills altogether. I wish him well.

Jets 27, Bils 23

Last week, I did feel some measure of redemption for my latest Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award winner. After last week's game in Miami, I gave the award to Kelvin Benjamin, who had been posing in a Bills uniform as an NFL No. 1 wide receiver for over a year. Last Tuesday, the Bills released him, along with another receiver, Andre Holmes. In a puzzling move, the Chiefs then proceeded to sign Benjamin to a one-year deal. As injury back-up I presume. Benjamin was not active in yesterday's Chiefs overtime win over Baltimore.

As for this week's winner, I'm afraid that it's going to be LeSean McCoy who injured a hamstring in the first half yesterday and did not return. The sand has run out of the hour-glass for McCoy this season - his 10th in the league and his fourth with the Bills. Until this year, McCoy has been excellent for the most part with an instinct for finding seams when none appear to be open and a unique ability to evade tacklers in space. As with many backs who turn 30 (like he did this year), the half step of speed he has lost seems to have made the difference between success and being ready to retire. He is averaging 3.3 yards per carry this season - not good enough for a featured running back. I expect that McCoy will not be on the Bills roster next season but he may be a useful third down back for a contending team in the future. His days of getting 25 touches per game are probably over.

Yesterday's game in Orchard Park was billed as the battle of the two first-round quarterbacks in the AFC East. With the Bills coming into the game at 4-8 and the Jets stuck at 3-9, the game was really part two of the AFC East Consolation Bowl. The Bills easily won the first round of it four weeks ago in the Meadowlands and yesterday was the Jets chance to end a six game losing streak and even the season series with their division rivals. More than 59,000 fans turned out on a sunny but cool day to see which of the two rookie quarterbacks would step up.

The answer is that it was Sam Darnold who came through for his team when it counted, leading his team for the game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter. As for Josh Allen, he showed a few more signs of developing into the franchise quarterback that Bills fans hope he will be but, in the end, he did not throw the ball well enough to win the game or as well as Darnold did. Yes, he ran the ball very well again yesterday and did hit some passes but his issues with inaccuracy cost him two interceptions, including on the potential game-winning drive in the final minute. In fairness to Allen, despite his risking injury with continued scrambling, I am starting to feel ever-so-slightly more confident with him under centre. Could just be familiarity.

The geniuses who create the NFL schedule gave the Bills three December home games this season - all, as it turns out, against losing teams. Two of those remain, including next week's tilt against the Detroit Lions. The Lions won in Arizona yesterday to improve to 5-8 on the season but the game offers virtually no compelling reason to attend, other than to see Josh Allen continue his evolution.

As I pointed out after their week one loss at Baltimore, the Bills have plenty of cap space going into next year. I think that the 2019 roster will look quite different from the current one, particularly in the offensive skilled positions. As nice a job as former practice squad players Robert Foster and Isaiah McKenzie have done late this season, the Bills need more play-makers to help Josh Allen along.

   

Dolphins 21, Bills 17

This photo was taken about 10 days ago at the top of Kala Patthar, the highest point we reached on our recent Everest Base Camp trek in northeastern Nepal - elevation 5,545 metres or about 18,500 feet above sea level. The top of Everest is above my head (where it shall always remain). Our entire team made it to this point but as illness took its course (in the form of either GI issues or chest colds - or both), two were evacuated by helicopter on the descent. The team was fully re-united in Lukla. By dumb luck, I was the only one who suffered no illness on the trek.

We generally had spectacular weather throughout the 12 day trek with deep blue skies every day offering us clear views of the Himalayan alpine peaks and the valleys we ascended. My small digital camera recorded about 650 images and I am starting the process of vetting them to come up with about 25 of the best ones. There are many images of animals - yaks, donkeys, goats, dogs - and some irresistible images of Sherpa children to choose from as well as all of the breath-taking shots of the various snow-capped sets of incisors which are the Himalayas. John Krakauer used the term "incisors" to describe the mountains in Into Thin Air and when I first saw them on the flight from Khatmandu to Lukla, it was clear why.

Our journey not only took us up the Khumbu valley toward the world's highest mountain, but also through the rich history of the region with our Sherpa guides providing an ongoing and thorough context for us which connected the ancient world of subsistence farming and animal husbandry with the rapidly growing tourism industry which is now the backbone of the local economy. Nepal is a desperately poor country with an annual average per capita income of about $400 USD. Licensed trekking and mountain guides earn enough to place them in the top 1% of the Nepalese income scale. Porters, many of whom carry unimaginably heavy loads of supplies to the teahouses where trekkers eat and sleep (not to mention loads of lumber, building materials, rolls of flooring and carpets etc), earn less than guides do but still more than most others in Nepal.

In May of 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary became the first humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest. After his famous ascent of the mountain, Hillary made it his life's work, through his foundation which carries on today (some 10 years after his death), to help build infrastructure in the Khumbu, including schools, hospitals and bridges. He is rightfully a revered figure whose legacy will endure. Our lead Sherpa guide attended one of the schools which Hillary built in 1962 (and which we toured). He was the only one of his 12 siblings to attend a proper school - and this enabled him to learn sufficient English to become a trekking guide. He hopes to be able to move with his wife to either the US or Canada within the next couple of years.

I last named a winner of the Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award in my post on November 5th. The winner that week was Nathan Peterman who claimed his third such honour. For the period since then, which includes two Bills wins and a bye week, I have decided to claim the award myself since I obviously abandoned the team by leaving the country. As for this week, I've decided to give it to Bills wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin who has been pretending to be a No. 1 NFL receiver for a season and a half. He isn't and should have retired weeks ago.

Yesterday in South Florida, Josh Allen took another step in his evolution to a No. 1 quarterback. In fact, had the ball not slipped from his hands on the Bills final offensive play from scrimmage, Charles Clay would have easily caught the go-ahead touchdown and the Bills could have found themselves at 5-7 this morning. Allen has shown that he is an accomplished runner with impressive pocket awareness and deceptive speed. This is all fine except the team also still employs LeSean McCoy and Chris Ivory in the running back position and, as has happened to so many mobile quarterbacks in the NFL, Allen's running - however prolific - will eventually lead to injury.

The New York Jets travel to Orchard Park next Sunday for an irrelevant game but one which will offer Josh Allen another opportunity to work on his throwing accuracy. I hope he focuses on that and tries to leave the business of running to the running backs. If anyone wants to go to the game, my tickets are available and at this point, I'm a pretty motivated seller. The Jets are ranked 32nd - or dead last - in the most recent NFL Power Rankings. Let me know. 

Bills 41, Jets 10

In Nepal, it is known as Sagarmatha. In Tibet, the name is Chomolungma. In 1865, Andrew Waugh of the Royal Geographic Society, who held the post of British Surveyor General of India, decided to "re-name" the world's highest mountain after his predecessor and the man who hired him, Welshman George Everest. Everest, who had never seen the mountain himself, apparently objected to his name being used in this case because, among other reasons, it was not easily pronounced in or translated to Hindi. The Society went ahead anyway and the name has obviously stuck.

Mount Everest rises 12,000 feet from its base which sits at about 17,000 feet above sea level. Its peak is measured at 29,028 feet or 8,848 metres. In other words, the top of the world's highest mountain stands almost nine kilometres above sea level. By comparison, the deepest part of the ocean lies south of Japan and east of the Philippines in a part of the Mariana Trench known as Challenger Deep. That clocks in at just short of 11,000 metres (or 11km) deep.

One day, I plan to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, swim to India and then climb Mount Everest. But I will start by going to Nepal and trekking to Everest Base Camp - something which I am on my way to do right now. I have received more that $500 of vaccinations, filled prescriptions for Diamox (to prevent or minimize altitude sickness) and a powerful anti-biotic in case of intestinal infection and I have been climbing the stairs in my 12 floor building for a few weeks.

Am I ready? We'll see. This trip could make wilderness canoe tripping seem like 5-star luxury. Our guides tell us that Nepal is a mystical and spiritual place with wonderful warm people who rely largely on whatever income they can generate from the thousands of trekkers and others who come to see the world's most spectacular mountains. Everest Base Camp alone sees about 40,000 trekkers every year.

As you read this, I will be on a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. We left Sunday evening and will arrive on Tuesday. Crossing the International Date Line in a west-bound direction means we will not experience Monday this week, although I understand that the Giants v. 49ers Monday Night Football game will take place anyway. On the way back, we will endure Thursday November 29th for a couple of days. The Saints play at Dallas that day.

Meanwhile, yesterday in the Meadowlands, the NFL dialed up another entirely unpredictable outcome as the Bills dominated the home team in all three phases of the game with Matt Barkley looking decidedly above average at least in terms of his ranking among the team's 2018 class of quarterbacks through ten weeks of play. I'm sure that Barkley jersey sales came close to crashing the Bills merchandise site when they went up 31-0 late in the second quarter. I have a feeling that I may be seeing soon-to-be former Jets coach Tod Bowles within the next few days. If I were him, I would seriously consider immediately going trekking in Nepal. 

I scheduled the trip in order miss only one Bills game - the November 25th home game against the Jaguars. The bye week is next week so there will be no blog posts from me until Monday December 3rd, after the Bills play the Dolphins in south Florida.

Bears 41, Bills 9

Nathan Peterman's great grandfather, Nathaniel Jeremiah Peterman, established the family tradition of interception throwing way back in the early 20th century when he played college football somewhere in Florida at a time when passing in football was only beginning to find its way into offensive playbooks. Three generations later, Nathan Peterman proudly carries on the family tradition in a Buffalo Bills uniform. His relationship with interceptions is complex and deep. They are a fundamental part of who he is as a football player and as a man. And he is committed to the practice: his career NFL statistics show that he throws an interception on every tenth pass attempt. Even when they are not his fault, the interceptions just seem to pile up when he is under centre. But that didn't stop the Bills from taking him in the fifth round of last year's draft and naming him as their starting quarterback going into week one this season. He got another start yesterday - the third of his NFL career - as he was clearly the best quarterback on the roster not suffering from an injured elbow or a concussion.

The Chicago Bears had 11 first downs yesterday in Orchard Park. The Bills had 22. The Bears gained only 190 total yards compared to the Bills 264. Buffalo won the time of possession battle by eight minutes. These statistics usually lead to a win but the Bills engineered their own blow-out by handing the game to the Bears with three turnovers in six offensive plays in the second quarter. Two of these were returned for touchdowns. Peterman did achieve a couple of irrelevant milestones yesterday: first, he played a complete game for the first time in his career and second, he led the team on a touchdown drive (and scored the touchdown himself) which began on their side of mid-field for the first time in 25 quarters, or almost 40% of an entire NFL season. Albeit, that was in garbage time. I had long since taken the dog for a walk at that point and didn't see it but I'm sure that NFL Films will feature it one day as part of its deep dive on Nathan Peterman as the only player to win the Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award three times in one season. And there are still seven games to go. If he wins it again, that record will likely stand until climate change consumes the earth in fire.

On Saturday, I caught most of the second half of the game in Austin, Texas where the No. 7 West Virginia Mountaineers stole a 42-41 win over the Longhorns. After scoring a late touchdown which brought them to within a point of tying the game, the Mountaineers rolled the dice and went for the win by going for a two-point convert which was successful. I admire that kind of aggressive approach and it helped make that the game of the day in College football. Going into yesterday's NFL action, the game of the day was either going to be the Saints and the Rams (the league's only undefeated team) or the Patriots and Packers. The saints ended up handing the Rams their first loss of the season in a very entertaining game, thereby prompting the 1972 Miami Dolphins to uncork their champagne knowing that their record of an undefeated season, including the playoffs and the Superbowl, will stand for another year.

The US mid-term elections take place tomorrow. I saw some eye-popping numbers from the advance polls over the weekend which point to a high turnout and renewed engagement on the part of voters aged 18 to 29. These numbers may not carry through to the final results but in some states, the early voting numbers for that cohort are quite impressive: in North Dakota, turn-out in advance polls among 18-29 year-olds was up 2,400%, in Wisconsin, it was up 758%, Tennessee 666% and over 400% in Texas and in Georgia. I read some analysis which predicted that this mid-term round will probably have the highest voter turn-out since 1966 when about 49% of eligible voters exercised their right. The last few mid-term rounds have averaged at or below 40%. High turn-out and an engaged pool of younger voters probably spells bad news for the GOP but engagement on both sides appears to be strong, thanks to inflamed rhetoric and the unprecedented political divide in the US right now.

The Democrats are on a path to re-take the House of Representatives as all of its 435 seats are up for grabs tomorrow. The Senate is another story with only 35 seats being contested, 26 of which are held by Democrats. They will need to hold all of these and gain another two seats if they are to take over control of the Senate. Or, if they lose one (as seems likely in North Dakota), they will need to take away three seats from the Republicans. The most likely states where the Dems have a chance to unseat Republican Senators are Texas, Tennessee, Arizona and Nevada. The party which occupies the White House is almost always dealt a set-back in mid-term elections. Tomorrow night, we'll learn how big that set-back is.

For those who might care, the Bills play the Jets next week at the Meadowlands of New Jersey.

Patriots 25, Bills 6

A hastily arranged gathering of the clan took place last night. The clan being a small group of men in their mid-fifties and the gathering being a get-together focused on watching televised professional sports. Late October clearly is the very best time of year for North American sports fans with every team sport operating on some level. If the World Series had been even a bit more interesting than it was this year, game six would be tonight. Hockey and basketball regular seasons are well under way. The CFL is entering the final week of its regular season while the NFL is half way through theirs. There isn't a late October night that goes by without some solid sports viewing to be had and last night was obviously no exception with the Maple Leafs at home against Calgary, the undefeated Raptors visiting the undefeated Milwaukee Bucks and the Bills playing a home game on Monday night. So, the clan gathered, aided by the best multiple picture feature that Bell Fibe has to offer as all three relevant games were on concurrently.

The Leafs fell first, giving up two quick early third period goals before losing 3-1, then the Raptors hopes of an 82-0 season were dashed as they fell to the Bucks whose similar hopes remains alive for now. Not a good start for our Toronto based teams but down the road and across the river in Orchard Park, the Bills were hanging tough against their nemesis, the New England Patriots, trailing only 9-3 at halftime. The Bills were doing ESPN a solid by keeping the national football television audience tuned in for longer than most pundits (and me) expected. The second half of the game in Orchard Park earned the clan's full attention - and for good reason. There would be no early to bed on this night.

As Bills fans have seen so many times over the past 20 or more years (after Jim Kelly retired), their team's defence put in another inspired performance, keeping the Patriots out of the endzone until the fourth quarter while the offence coughed, sputtered and stopped possession after possession. But the home team and its fired-up fans trailed by a manageable score of 12-6 after the third quarter. A touchdown, if it ever came (and it obviously didn't), could win the game and upset the heavily favoured visitors. Matt Milano, the second-year fifth-rounder from Boston College looked strong again at linebacker as he and his defensive teammates played hard, hit hard and kept their team in the game until well into the fourth quarter. Tremaine Edmunds, the promising rookie linebacker who the Bills took at 16th overall from Virginia Tech, suffered a concussion in the second quarter and did not return. He earns this week's Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award - not because he should or will retire - just because he missed the second half and someone has to win the award each and every week of this 2018 season. His tackling is excellent and I hope to see him play many playoff games in a Bills uniform starting round about the 2020 season and beyond.

With the score 18-6, Bills tight end Jason Croom fooled us for a few seconds with what looked from the television angle like a spectacular one-handed 25 yard touchdown catch which would have made the game a one-score affair with six minutes left. But the replay clearly showed that he didn't actually make the catch and then two plays later, the Bills dialed up the old and always reliable interception-returned-for-a-touchdown play which sealed the game and sent us all home for the night. The Patriots would like to play the Bills more than twice every year as they are 32-5 in their last 37 games against them. Watching Brady playing and Belichick coaching last night made me feel that us Bills fans are caught in a never-ending feedback loop which just keeps playing losses to the Patriots over and over again. When will they leave and let us have a sniff at winning the AFC East and earning the coveted home playoff game which goes with it? 

At 2-6, the season is now a write-off and if this were English Premier League football, the Bills would stand a good chance of relegation. The remaining competition is for player evaluation and draft order. The Chicago Bears make their first visit to Orchard Park in 16 years on Sunday. Last time they played "at Buffalo", in November, 2010, the game was played in the subdued and quiet confines of the Rogers Centre, a few minutes walk from where we watched last night's games. The Bears, at 4-3, look to have a decent team this year after picking up former UB Bull Kahlil Mack from the Raiders. Their fans also travel well so there should be a good crowd back at New Era Field in five days time.

Colts 38, Bills 5

I can't decide whether yesterday's game was worse for Bills fans than week one at Baltimore was when the Bills were crushed 47-3. I am certain that it doesn't matter at all as either game provided clear evidence that the Bills are one of the worst two or three teams in the NFL in 2018. They are in contention for the first overall draft pick in 2019 along with the Cardinals, the Raiders and the 49ers. It seems hard to believe but going into week seven, some NFL pundits actually placed the Colts below the Bills in their power rankings. I expect that will change.

The game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis yesterday was scoreless through the first quarter but the Colts and their blue chip quarterback Andrew Luck came alive in the second quarter with 24 points. The Bills defence, which had played surprisingly well over the past four weeks, delivered a decidedly uninspired performance. On the other side of the ball, journeyman quarterback Derek Anderson, who was on vacation with his family two weeks ago when he got the call from Bills GM Brandon Beane, looked almost serviceable in the early going but faded as the game went on. He earns the Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award this week. For not staying retired. I suspect that this morning, he wishes that his vacation had taken him well out of cell range. Nathan Peterman probably watched the game from the sidelines with a feeling of relief that at least he would not be the scapegoat this week.

I caught some of the post-game commiseration on WGR yesterday. The mood fluctuated between somber and outraged as callers seemed particularly nonsensical and Mike Schop and the Bulldog gave them little leeway. They wondered if Bills coach Sean McDermott, now a season and a half into his head-coaching tenure, had, for the first time, "lost his team" yesterday. Did the defence simply lose motivation knowing that two weeks ago their starting quarterback was on vacation from his aluminum siding sales job? McDermott had been able to get his defence dialed-in for the last month but not yesterday. Will they end up at 2-14 and claim that first overall pick, they asked.

They then turned their attention to week eight. A Monday night home game. The first one in ten years. Wow! With the Patriots coming to Orchard Park in prime time, how should Bills fans be feeling about this game, they asked. What would the opening line be? The answer to that question is 13 points. As for how the fan base should be feeling, well, that's a tough one.

NBC took over the broadcast rights to Sunday Night Football from ESPN (which had the rights to the Sunday prime time games since they began in 1987) in 2006. ESPN took Monday Night Football from its related company ABC the same year. Ratings for SNF soon surged and is now consistently the most watched NFL game each week. Between 1970 and 2006, MNF was the league's prime time jewel. Since I became a dedicated Bills fan in the late 1970s, some of the most memorable Bills games took place on MNF. Among them are: (1) a game on November 14, 1988 when the Bills went into Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami and throttled the Dolphins 31-6 on their way to winning the AFC East before going all the way to the AFC Championship Game that season and starting their run of dominance which lasted until Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season, (2) the October 8, 2007 home game against the heavily favoured Dallas Cowboys which the Bills should have won but lost 25-24 on a long field goal as time ran out, and (3) another 25-24 loss on opening week of the 2009 season at New England when Leodis McKelvin fumbled the game away on a kick-off return. Fans spray-painted messages on the front lawn of McKelvin's house later that night. Maybe this week's game will remind us of the 2007 game with a cranked-up crowd supporting the underdog. And maybe the kicker will miss as time runs out.

Today, in Ontario, we vote. I'm not sure who is running for dog-catcher in my ward but I will make it my business to find out before I walk up to Glenview Presbyterian Church this evening. I have been thinking that it may be time to make some changes to municipal government structure in Ontario - in two areas in particular: the "weak mayor" system and the prohibition of political parties. Maybe these changes should apply only to Toronto (or to Toronto and perhaps four or five other large Ontario cities). Whoever wins the Toronto mayoralty tonight will have earned more direct votes than any other politician in Canada - in the hundreds of thousands at least - and in return, they will hold one vote of 26 on the new council. That's it. To move their agenda forward, they will have to earn the support of a majority of their council colleagues. This is something that Rob Ford never quite understood or accepted and, honestly, I think he may have had a valid point. As for political parties, I have collected the campaign brochures of those running for council and school trustee in my ward. Everyone seems to be in favour of better transit, reduced traffic gridlock, affordable housing, more efficient municipal services and smaller class sizes. I have also met and spoken with some of the candidates and I think I know how I'm going to vote. But for most people in this major urban centre where they are very unlikely to know any of the candidates personally, how would they possibly decide? If candidates in municipal elections were permitted to affiliate themselves with political parties, those affiliations alone would help guide voters in some way. I just wish I could vote for an NDP dog-catcher.     

Texans 20, Bills 13

Derek Anderson was signed by the Buffalo Bills last week to be a mentor to Josh Allen. He was not on an NFL roster at the time, having reached the end of the line after last season with his former team, the Carolina Panthers, where Bills head coach Sean McDermott and General Manager Brandon Beane knew Anderson well. Anderson's first day with the Bills was last Wednesday and when Josh Allen arrived at the stadium, Anderson was already hard at work, having completed his weight session and was deep into reviewing film of the team's upcoming opponent. By all accounts, Anderson, a 14 year veteran, was helpful to Allen last week as he prepared to face the Texans in Houston. Fast forward less than a week and Anderson may find himself as the Bills starting quarterback on Sunday in Indianapolis.

Nathan Peterman is a past winner of the Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award (and there are only four of them, after Davis himself) but this week, I am awarding him with a variation on the award - a sort of forced retirement - as he is likely to be cut by the Bills after earning the starting quarterback job coming out of training camp and the pre-season. Peterman will become a punchline in Buffalo for his propensity to throw interceptions and it seems unlikely that any other NFL team would want to add him to its roster. In his two career starts - one in Los Angeles last year and another in this year's opener in Baltimore - and after coming in to last season's playoff game in Jacksonville and then entering yesterday's game in the third quarter for an injured Josh Allen, Peterman has established himself as a prolific interception thrower. He threw five in his ill-fated start last season and another in the playoff game but yesterday he reached a new level by literally throwing the game away with 1.23 remaining in the fourth quarter of a tied game. Peterman's pass, intended for Kelvin Benjamin, was read easily by Texans cornerback Jonathan Joseph (as Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News put it, "he couldn't have read it more easily if it were flashed on a giant neon sign") who easily returned it for the game-winning touchdown. I can not see Peterman remaining on the Bills roster through the end of the season. If Allen can not play this week, look for Anderson to get the start with Peterman backing him up and then look for the Bills to cut Peterman once Allen is healthy again.

Lost in all of the Peterman interception excitement was an outstanding performance by the Bills defence in Houston yesterday. Think back to halftime of week two against the Chargers. Through a game and a half, the Bills defence looked like they couldn't stop anything. It was certainly enough for Vontae Davis and with clearly prolific ineptitude on both sides of the ball, I was preparing for the possibility of an 0-16 season and the first overall draft pick which goes with it. But since then, the Bills defence has steadily improved and yesterday in Houston, it looked very impressive indeed, allowing only 216 yards of offence and 13 points. The pass rush was awesome as Texans quarterback DeShaun Watson was sacked seven times and hit repeatedly. The Bills defence forced another three turnovers and held the Texans to a field goal at the end of the fourth quarter after setting up with a first down at the Bills one yard line after a pass interference call in the endzone. An outstretched Matt Milano got his hand in front of a third down pass from Watson to prevent a game-wining touchdown. Houston had little success in the run game with only 74 yards and, despite having one the NFL's best receivers in DeAndre Hopkins, the Texans managed only 142 passing yards on the day. With any modest level of offensive support, the Bills defence played more than well enough to win. I chalk up the improvement to good coaching.

Up next, the Bills travel to Indianapolis. By that time, cannabis use in Canada will have become legal. I think I'm looking forward to trying it on Wednesday to see if legal cannabis is any different from the kind which has been firmly embedded in the Criminal Code for a hundred years. I'll report back next week if I remember. I do hope that users will show respect for those who do not choose to use it and who find the smoke and the smell not only offensive but bad for their health. What we do not need, in my view, is a free-for-all with people smoking-up on the streets, in parks and in other public places any more than they already do now. I support the concept of legalization but I also support a reasonable and respectful level of discretion around the use of cannabis in public. 



 

Bills 13, Titans 12

Since the Music City Miracle in January of 2000, the Bills and Titans have faced each other eight times with the Bills winning only three of those games, including yesterday's last second 13-12 win in Orchard Park. With the most recent meeting before yesterday being a 14-13 win in Nashville in 2015, the Bills have now won the last two meetings with the Titans by a single point. Had Home Run Throwback not succeeded as it did so tragically for Bills fans, the Bills would have won that one 16-15. Tennessee entered the game yesterday as a five-and-a-half point favourite after beating the Super Bowl champion Eagles last week.

One long-time reader of this blog encouraged me to continue the "halftime retirement" theme throughout the season if possible. So, I will not only oblige but I have decided to name one player from each Bills game for the rest of the 2018 season as the winner of the weekly Vontae Davis Halftime Retirement Award. This week's candidate was more of a challenge to come up with but I have decided to name Titans wide receiver Nick Williams as the winner. Williams played for the University of Connecticut and was initially signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an un-drafted free agent in 2013 where he moved on and off the practice squad and saw limited action before signing with Washington and finally the Titans entering this season. He will quite likely be cut once again today and could find that his chances of getting on with another team are quite slim. Although his retirement-inducing play came in the fourth quarter yesterday when he dropped what looked like an easy touchdown pass from Marcus Mariota on a third down play, had he have been able to foresee it, he surely would have retired at halftime, thereby saving himself from being the game's goat (I know its a stretch).

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving and, as I have done for several years, I brined, stuffed and roasted the turkey for our family dinner. The turkey went into the oven exactly at noon, immediately after which I did my one-hour bike ride and then settled into the game surrounded by family and friends who generally cared not at all about the Bills or any kind of football on TV. But I fought through the distractions and watched the Bills defence play a solid game which earned them three turnovers. The running game also showed up for the home team with LeSean McCoy gaining  a season-high 85 yards on 24 carries and Chris Ivory adding another 43 yards. Josh Allen picked up 19 yards which included the game's only touchdown in the first quarter. Allen did not have a strong game passing the ball but made a few key throws at critical times, especially on the final game winning drive.     

So, at 2-3 (and having won two of their past three games) the Bills are showing signs of having earned some measure of respectability in the NFL. I doubt that they will finish with the league's worst record as seemed likely after their first two games. On to Houston next week to face the Texans who eeked out an overtime win against the Cowboys last night. The Bills are early 10 point underdogs.

In a departure from recent posts, I want to weigh in on the recent SCOTUS developments. The point I want to make is by way of comparison of the US system to the convention which governs Canadian Supreme Court appointments. Now that the drama around his nomination and confirmation has mostly ended, I have to say that I was most struck by the way in which Mr. Kavanaugh comported himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee when he gave testimony the week before last. And I'm not really talking about the fact that he decided to repeat what I would classify as Fox News talking points in his testimony (which I disagree with but that's not the point I'm trying to make here). It was his demeanor and attitude which shocked me. In my view, it was the antithesis of how a judge on the nation's top court should behave in a very public setting. When I think of characteristics which befit a judge, I think of words like calm, thoughtful, reserved, rational, neutral, learned. In Canada, we rarely hear judges say anything at all publicly except perhaps after the retire from the bench. And when judges are appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, we hear very little about their personal lives or political leanings and no mention at all of whether they might be conservative or liberal. The appointment process in Canada purports to operate above the unsavoury partisan bickering of the red/blue tug of war. Maybe we are fooling ourselves thinking that our judges aren't partisan and who knows, maybe they would react just as angrily as Mr. Kavanaugh did if we conducted pre-appointment hearings which included salacious details of their past personal lives. I just think that the events which played out over the past two weeks in the United States have damaged the American people's confidence in the SCOTUS and that is a sad development. 

Packers 22, Bills 0

I wasn't really worried about another halftime retirement by a member of the Bills (ok, there's only been one and I'll move off this theme after today) but if anyone was going to hang 'em up after the first half of yesterday's game at Lambeau Field, it could have been Josh Allen. Things went well for him last week in Minnesota but, as happens with rookie quarterbacks in the NFL, it all turned around yesterday against the Packers. Allen and the Bills offence were anemic at best, gaining only 145 yards on the day. Allen generated three turnovers - two interceptions and one fumble - while completing 16 of 33 attempted passes. Whatever pocket presence he had shown through his first two starts deserted him yesterday as he was was sacked a total of seven times. Green Bay fans will take comfort in a solid defensive effort by their team while Bills fans will lament an offensive performance to be forgotten.

Although the score never got out of hand, the game was not competitively close in any way. At times it felt like I was watching a football practice - a Packers practice, that is - where the Bills were only on the field as a scrimmage opponent posing no threat to actually win the game. The Bills were not quite the Washington Generals playing the role of doormats to the Harlem Globetrotters but at times the two teams didn't look like they play in the same league. I can remember games from the early 1990s which felt like yesterday's game with the Bills calling the practice drills against their own versions of the Generals.

Aaron Rodgers looked sharp yesterday despite a couple of missed throws and he also gave up a rare interception on a ball which was tipped twice. Otherwise, it was clear why he is one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. He used yesterday's game as a chance to work on his pocket movement and, on a few plays, he looked like he was testing his mobility and playing a game of something between keep-away and chicken with the ball as he easily avoided the Bills pass rush. Those skills, combined with his arm strength and accuracy, make Rodgers a huge challenge to defend against. He is one of the NFL's biggest stars and one of its most recognizable faces. He has been able to leverage his popularity and clean image into lucrative television commercials with another campaign this season for State Farm insurance and a new gig for Bose noise-cancelling headphones where he is able to tune out Chicago Bears fans as he warms up before a game. The only known less-than-wholesome aspect of Rodgers public persona is the somewhat mysterious rift between him and his immediate family - his siblings and his parents - with whom he has not spoken for at least a couple of years. He doesn't comment publicly on this. His annual football salary is more than $33 million and he recently signed a contract extension which included $100 million guaranteed.

The Bills return home next week to face the Tennessee Titans who beat the Super Bowl champion Eagles in overtime yesterday. The overtime in Nashville was one of the few I can remember where the team which had the ball first (the Eagles) scored a field goal on their opening possession and then went on to lose the game. I still strongly feel that the NFL should adapt a version of the college football overtime format which is more dramatic and also ensures that no games end in ties. There have been two games already this season which have ended in ties and yesterday there could have easily been another two - Tennessee/Philadelphia and Oakland/Cleveland.

The AFC East reverted to the norm yesterday with the Bills, Jets and the previously undefeated Dolphins all losing and the Patriots showing that they are still for real. With a win against the Titans in Orchard Park on Sunday, the Bills can improve to a respectable sounding 2-3 on the season. They then go on the road again for two weeks with theoretically winnable games against Houston and Indianapolis before returning home for a Monday night home game against the Patriots.

Bills 27, Vikings 6

As the clock wound down toward the end of the first half in yesterday's game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, I thought that the Bills roster would again be reduced by another halftime retirement. And this week's candidate was going to be Nathan Peterman. Had he followed Vontae Davis' lead from last week, Peterman probably would have made his decision when Josh Allen decided to launch himself up and over Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr on a third and nine run late in the first quarter with his team up 17-0. Peterman could have resigned himself at that point that he wasn't going to see another live snap this season as he watched Allen establish himself as the confident, aggressive, athletic leader the team was hoping he would become when they picked him seventh overall in April.

I guess Peterman wanted to stick around for the second half to see if his team would fold and allow the Vikings back into the game. But that didn't happen as the Bills came close to shutting out the Vikings on their home field for the first time since 1962. By the time the home team did finally score, the game was beyond reach and the Bills went on to earn their first win of the season. And if the team ends the season with three, four, five or perhaps six wins, yesterday's road performance will probably be remembered as the highlight - as the day that Josh Allen showed us why he is the future of the team and the day that the Bills showed the football world that they are in fact better than the Alabama Crimson Tide and maybe not the 32nd best professional football team in North America.

To put yesterday's win in perspective, the betting line at kick-off was Minnesota minus 16.5 which was the largest spread for a September NFL game in five years. The line opened at minus 17 but some Buffalo money late in the week brought it down by a half point. The spread was so large that Proline delisted the game and it actually was not on my $25,000 ticket (which didn't win but came close). Here's an even more remarkable statistic from yesterday's game: the Bills were the biggest underdog to win an NFL game outright since 1995. This game proved the principle we know by rote that any team can win on any given Sunday. Pundits, odds-makers and gamblers also know the principle of a "trap game" and the Vikings, who travel to Los Angeles to play the Rams on Thursday, fell hard into the trap of overlooking what was considered to be the worst team in the league while subconsciously preparing to play the Rams four days later, who some consider to be the best.

I heaped plenty of praise on Tony Romo as a colour commentator last season (his first) so I don't need to go on about it again - except to say that he delivers the most insightful analysis of anyone in that role, ever. Yesterday was no exception. I'm not sure why Buffalo at Minnesota deserved CBS's top broadcast team of Romo and his play-by-play partner Jim Nantz but I'm glad that it did. Romo addressed the issue which emerged after last week's game against the Chargers where head coach Sean McDermott took over the defensive play-calling from coordinator (and former Vikings head coach) Leslie Frazier at halftime. Romo explained that the passing back and forth of play-calling responsibilities between head coaches and coordinators is common-place and depends on who has the best feel for how the game is going. I don't know who called the defensive formations yesterday but they worked extremely well as the Bills were able to pressure Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins all afternoon. The Bills pass rush earned them two key turnovers in the first quarter which they turned into 10 points and never looked back. In his post-game locker room speech, McDermott gave the game ball to Frazier.

The Green Bay Packers lost yesterday in Washington to bring their season record to 1-1-1 with the high-flying Bills traveling to the not-quite-frozen tundra of Lambeau Field on Sunday. I suspect that the Packers will not fall into the same trap as the Vikings did so the Bills will have a much tougher test in week four. But, as we know, and as was proven yesterday, any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday. 

Chargers 31, Bills 20

Vontae Davis, we hardly knew ya!

Have you ever taken a new job and felt like quitting at lunchtime? Maybe the company's prospects look bleak; perhaps the management appears to be less than competent; could be that you're just not feeling that great and you'd rather be somewhere else. Then take inspiration from Davis and just walk out. You can show them that you think nothing of bolting if things aren't going your way. One thing's for sure: you will be remembered for quitting - and for the way you quit - even if you had a decent 10 year career beforehand.

The Buffalo Bills signed the cornerback, entering his 10th NFL season, in February to a one-year contract worth $5 million, with $3.5 million of that guaranteed. He was a healthy scratch from the Bills line-up in week one but was activated for yesterday's home opener in Orchard Park. He played the first half and apparently felt that he was physically unable to perform to the level he wanted. So, he quit. Quit the team, quit the NFL, quit the sport of football. At halftime. Not only did he pull himself from the game but he showered, changed into street clothes and, rather than joining his teammates on the sidelines for the second half, he left the stadium and then issued a self-serving statement to the media. There is no precedent for this as far as I know. So, readers, take inspiration; if things don't go well this morning, when noon rolls around, just walk out.

Back to the $3.5 million in guaranteed money. If I were Bills GM Brandon Beane, I might try to avoid Terry Pegula today at least until I can think of a reasonable explanation for giving away $3.5 million of his oil-fracking money to one player in exchange for one crappy half of football. If his deal had been $5 million for the season with nothing guaranteed, then Davis would have earned one game cheque of about $312,500 -  and it seems to me that the Bills would have a solid argument to cut that amount in half. He will earn that single game cheque anyway but he also walks away with the $3.5 million. Move over Jian Ghomeshi, Vontae Davis is this week's hashtag. I have a feeling that Davis won't feel as sorry for himself as Ghomeshi apparently does.

Driving home from the cottage, WGR post-game hosts Mike Schop and the Bulldog were looking for any suggestion of a silver lining from the home opener and they latched on to the performance of quarterback Josh Allen. Despite some notable throwing inaccuracies, they said that Allen looked poised under centre and overall played decently enough to encourage the fan base and give them some optimism for the future. Hardly glowing praise but I am inclined to agree with their assessment in that he certainly does not seem to have the Nathan Peterman "deer in the headlights" look about him and his big arm, when properly harnessed, will serve him well as long as he can improve on locating his passes. He seems to have a good instinct for pocket presence and is deceptively fast when flushed. Maybe his big arm will serve him well when the weather turns cold and windy.

Schop and the Bulldog also made the point that last year's unlikely trip to the playoffs provided Bills ownership and management with the necessary relief for the fan base to justify stripping everything down, having an epically bad season in 2018 and rebuilding most of the roster from the bottom up starting next year. This follows 16 years of posting between 6 and 9 wins - not bad enough to be the worst but not good enough to be a playoff team except for last season when a fortuitous 4th down play on New Year's Eve in Baltimore squeaked them into the tournament as the 6th seed in the AFC.

That analysis makes sense to me. But I still have 7 home games this season to deal with. The appeal will be watching the continuing development of Josh Allen while hoping that the Bills league-worst offensive line doesn't get him killed in the process. With December games against the Jets, Lions and Dolphins on the schedule, if Allen is injured, I for one won't be too interested in watching Nathan Peterman deal with his gremlins. 

Ravens 47, Bills 3

When the NFL first introduced a salary cap in 1994 (set at $34 million per team) it was intended to, among other things, assist in the creation of long-term league-wide team parity. The age of team dynasties in the NFL - think of the Steelers in the 1970s and the 49ers in the 1980s - essentially died with the advent of the cap. The Buffalo Bills were actually one of the last examples of a team which maintained its core group of star players through many seasons, earning four consecutive AFC Championships at one point along the way.

NFL General Managers not only assemble their team's coaching staffs and rosters and oversee armies of college and pro scouts but they must also constantly focus on adherence to the league salary cap which is set at $177 million for the current season. Each team is restricted by that upper limit but also must spend not less than 89% of the cap each year. With NFL player contracts not guaranteed beyond the amount of their signing bonuses, these bonuses - and the way they must be accounted for under the cap - can sometimes haunt teams for years after players who earned them are jettisoned. That's because any unamortized portion of a released or traded player's signing bonus counts against a team's cap in the current year even if the bonus was paid in full when the contract was signed. This is known in the salary cap world as "dead money". It can kill a team - and sometimes quickly.

The Buffalo Bills enter the 2018 season with a staggering and by far the league's biggest dead cap money allocation at $54 million . Think of it this way: Of the $177 million they can spend on player salaries, $54 million is unavailable off the top because of the accumulation of unamortized signing bonuses for players the Bills have traded or released. The league average this year is $11.9 million. Four players - Marcel Dareus, Eric Wood (who retired unexpectedly for medical reasons), Cordy Glenn and Tyrod Taylor - account for about $41 million of it. The team with the second highest dead cap number is the Cowboys with $28.8 million. The New England Patriots have $6.3 million.

The dead cap anvil around Bills GM Brandon Beane's neck - and yesterday's embarrassing rout in Baltimore - are the bad news. And there will probably be much more of it over the next 15 games. The good news is not for this season but for next as the Bills will enjoy the second-highest salary cap space in the league at $76 million. With that, they can sign free agents and lock in some of their other assets. But that's going to happen in 2019. We need to get through 2018 first and season ticket holders like me need to come up with reasons to go to the 8 home games on the schedule. Or reasons for anyone to go.

The game in rainy Baltimore yesterday unfolded as the antithesis of what Bills fans had hoped for. They won the coin toss. Then everything unraveled as fully and completely as it could have. Especially for Nathan Peterman whose second career NFL start was not much better than his first one last season. Josh Allen came in when the score reached 40-0. And I went for a bike ride.

The Los Angeles Chargers, who travel to Orchard Park next week for the Bills home opener, lost their own home opener yesterday so both teams will be looking to avoid an 0-2 start. For the Chargers, it matters a lot as they are expected to compete for a division title in the AFC West. For the Bills, I'll be happy to just see more of Josh Allen under centre and some improvement on the only two things Marv Levy said a team needs to do to win in the NFL: running the ball and stopping the run.








      

Eagles 41, Patriots 33

My opinion of the NFL sort of went full circle over the weekend. I ended up feeling better about it after the game than I did before kick-off. The game was a best-case-scenario for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in terms of entertainment value and competitiveness with outstanding plays made by both teams throughout. The game's only blemish came when Patriots receiver Brandin Cooks was knocked out of the game on a helmet-to-helmet hit from his blind side.

The Eagles and their fans finally have their Lombardi trophy which - and this has always been one of my pet peeves about the NFL - was presented by Goodell not to the team's quarterback, captain or coach but to the team's owner Jeffrey Lurie. The NHL does it right every year when the Commissioner hands the Stanley Cup to the winning team's captain.

I wrote these three paragraphs yesterday afternoon before the game:

Justin Timberlake held a press conference last Thursday - as is the requirement for the headliner of the Superbowl halftime show. Among other things, he confirmed that no special guests would be appearing alongside him for his 20 minute performance. He also made an offer to Patriots coach Bill Belichick that if all of his receivers were injured, Justin was ready to suit up and run routes himself. Very nice. Then came a question about his 3 year-old son perhaps running routes in the NFL some day. Timberlake replied with "he will never play football". He then moved on to a rambling explanation of how he just wants his son to become a great person whether or not he shows interest in the arts or sports or anything else. Goodell was probably doing a slow burn.

There were two newspaper articles this past weekend which, quite honestly, made me seriously question whether or not I will renew my Bills season tickets - a decision I will have to make within the next two or three weeks. I don't recall an NFL player named Rob Kelly who played five seasons at safety for the Saints and the Patriots between 1997 and 2001 before his career ended with a neck injury he suffered in training camp in 2002. On Friday, the New York Times published an article written by Kelly's wife Emily about her husband which I found quite disturbing. Starting in 2009 (seven years after his football career ended), Kelly began to suffer from mood swings, depression and weight loss which eventually qualified him for "total and permanent disability payments" under the NFL's pension plan. She says that her husband certainly recognized that football was a dangerous game but, along with many other former players, she states that "these men chose football, but they didn't choose brain damage". Emily Kelly's husband is now a shadow of his former self and she finds support within a group of wives and partners of former players suffering similar problems. I'm aware that we hear only about those former players who are suffering the long-term effects of a football career. I wonder, of the thousands of players who have suited up in the NFL, what percentage is more-or-less fine ten or more years afterward and what percentage is not.

The Globe and Mail's sports editorial writer Cathal Kelly penned a piece on Saturday entitled "The sun is setting on the NFL, and fast" in which he chronicles the multiple issues facing the league. Chief among them is the concussion and CTE issue which the league first denied entirely before finally, in the face of incontrovertible evidence, acknowledging the connection between football and brain injuries. Aside from that, the most concerning data point in Kelly's article comes from a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll of American males aged 18-49. Four years ago, 75% of this group said that they followed the NFL closely. Now, that number has plummeted to 51%. With the league's television ratings down 10% this season (compounded with an 8% drop last year), the NFL's popularity looks like it's about to fall off a cliff. Sure, it may stabilize at some point and may even recover a bit of lost ground but it's hard to see how. Kelly compares the NFL's declining popularity to Facebook which is also suffering from a drop in new accounts and in overall engagement. But, as Kelly points out, there is no other Facebook while sports fans have many other options. The NFL chalks up the drop in viewership to cable cord-cutting, an increasingly fragmented television landscape and fans tuning in on devices other than televisions. All plausible explanations for sure but how then can the NBA's improving television ratings be explained?

The Onion reported this fun fact last night on Twitter: "All of this year's Superbowl confetti was made from shredded concussion and CTE studies".

Jaguars 10, Bills 3

The play which ended the Bills season was an interception thrown by Nathan Peterman and one which, with application of a strict interpretation of the meaning of a catch by the league officials in New York, could have been ruled incomplete on review. A fitting last play on both counts. I still held on to the fantasy that Peterman would be given another shot which would be a touchdown pass to Zay Jones to tie the game. But I also thought that if the Bills had won yesterday, they would have carried that momentum to Foxborough and dethroned the Patriots. Then the Steelers. Then the Vikings. They just fell a few steps short is all.

This was an infuriating game to watch for fans of both teams and probably only those with large wagers on the under found any satisfaction in it. Although the defences looked competent yesterday - if not quite good at times - the anemic performances by both offences made for generally excruciating playoff football viewing for those who made it all the way through. With the exception of a fourth down strike for the game's only touchdown, Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles looked like a recent call-up from the practice squad until he realized that running was really his best option. Tyrod Taylor looked a bit more polished for his part but with a receiving corps which is barely NFL worthy, he was unable to engineer the kind of scoring threat that wins NFL games. I wonder if his last play in a Buffalo uniform will turn out to be the one which knocked him from the game after his head was slammed backwards into the turf, and making way for Peterman who did what he has shown that he does best.

The Bills have a load of draft picks over the next two years, including picks 21 and 22 in the first round of this April's draft. I expect that one of those will be a quarterback. If Taylor does leave the team this off-season, I will remember him as someone who comported himself with dignity and professionalism in a Bills uniform - sometimes in the face of intense criticism. When he was benched in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, he handled it like a pro and went on to play well for the rest of the season. And - I will say this quite possibly for the final time - he always protected the ball and I always loved him for that. Speaking of professionalism, yesterday was probably the last game for Kyle Williams who wanted to retire a year ago. He has been the anchor of the defensive line since 2003 and will be missed.

Now that it's done, the 2017 Bills season has to be rated as a success with a drought-breaking trip to the playoffs even after appearing to opt early on for a rebuild strategy by jettisoning top players for draft picks. The current coaching staff and general manager have changed the culture for the better and Bills fans will be looking for more progress next year. I for one will want to see evidence that a division title (and the home playoff game that goes with it) is within reach. 

A note on television advertising: I watch on an HD antenna so during NFL football games, I get the US network commercials, many of which are not carried on Canadian simulcasts that most viewers see (but most Canadian sports fans will have seen the ads on other broadcasts). Without using any proper methodology but based on ads I have seen broadcast during this NFL season, I have concluded that the most competitive industry in America has to be property and casualty insurance. Nationwide has a series of spots this season with Peyton Manning and Brad Paisley; State Farm uses Aaron Rodgers and Clay Mathews; Progressive doesn't use football players but has featured "Flo" since 2008 and everyone knows that no US insurance company has a larger advertising budget than GEICO. The combined annual network television spending of these four firms alone is obviously massive and I wonder if one of them might consider unilaterally disarming from some of its television spending and actually offering lower insurance rates instead. If 15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance, imagine how much you could save with a company that you've never heard of and that doesn't spend many tens of millions (or more) on television advertising.

Look for one more post this season: the Superbowl edition on February 5th.

Bengals 31, Ravens 27

Our New Year's Eve dinner at the cottage was literally being served with the guests seated and hungry after I had prolonged the sit-down time through the end of the Bills game in Miami and the last few excruciating minutes of what looked like a Ravens come-back against a Cincinnati team which was motivated by playing a spoiler role and by winning what was likely to be the last game for their popular and long-tenured coach Marvin Lewis. "This is the last play right here" I said as the Bengals lined up for a desperate and probably game-ending fourth down and 12 at mid-field, trailing the Ravens by three points. Then Andy Dalton hit a wide open Tyler Boyd who raced to the endzone for the Bengal touchdown. It was amazing. But it wasn't the last meaningful play of the game as the Bengal defence had to hold the Ravens who needed a touchdown to win.  And the Bengal defence held indeed. Incredibly, they defeated the Ravens in Baltimore and by so doing eliminated them while sending the Buffalo Bills to the NFL playoffs for the first time since the Music City Miracle in Nashville in January, 2000.

I spent a bit of time on this New Year's Day morning trying to figure out why the Los Angeles Chargers did not earn the sixth and final seed in the AFC playoff picture but could not find the answer. They ended the season with the same 9-7 record as the Bills but held the head-to-head tie-breaker against them by virtue of their win in LA on November 19th in what Bills fans have come to know as the Nathan Peterman debacle. Maybe the tie-breaker works differently when multiple teams are tied - as they were with the Bills, Chargers, Ravens and Titans (who earned the fifth seed) all finishing the season tied at 9-7. Whatever. They're in and there is a Bills playoff game to be played on Sunday in Jacksonville. The Jaguars are early seven point favourites.

Before the Dalton to Boyd touchdown, the Bills had taken care of business in Miami with a strong game which was not as close as the final score of 22-16 would indicate. Tyrod Taylor continued his improved passing and the defence bent but didn't break. LeSean McCoy went down with an ankle injury which looked bad enough to keep him out for at least the next week but I am confident (pure speculation here) that he will be back for the Superbowl - if not the AFC Championship Game. McCoy or not, I like the Bills chances going into Jacksonville as the Jaguars are new to the idea of having a home playoff game and all of the pressure and fan expectations which go along with it. The Bills will be loose and irreverent as they look to extend their season with a win next week and earn a trip to either Foxborough or Pittsburgh the following week. I have virtually no confidence that they can win in either of those places but it would be fun to have a shot.

The NFL has had a very difficult season on a number of fronts as we all know. The commissioner recently pointed out that television ratings for NFL games this season are only down 1% from last year but he did not address the fact that there has been a much larger drop in actual in-stadium game attendance across the league. The Bills had good crowds for almost all of their eight home games this year but I was quite surprised to notice that most of the upper deck at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore was empty yesterday. Yes it was very cold by normal Maryland standards and it was late start which meant that most of the game was played after dark but this was a game where the home team simply had to win to get in to the playoffs and I would have expected much better fan support in Baltimore. Most NFL revenue is generated from its massive television audiences with stadium gate receipts well down the list of revenue line items but the in-stadium experience is one of the most appealing parts of the sport of football and the NFL. I don't like seeing swaths of empty seats any time but especially not for critically important later-season games with playoff births at stake.

It's been cold here in Muskoka. And I mean really cold. I arrived at 7.45am on Thursday morning with the outside temperature sitting at minus 33. Yesterday's high was minus 24. The skiing is squeaky and slow with little glide. The dog usually wants in after only a few minutes. One more sauna and cold plunge today before we leave tomorrow. Happy New Year.