For the first 10 or so years of my tenure as a Bills season ticket holder, each August I received from team, by way of an inconvenient trip to the FedEx pick-up depot in a nondescript industrial area near York Mills and Don Mills, a new ball cap, a t-shirt, a pin, a bumper sticker, a flag or some other piece of Bills branded gear. A few years ago, the pre-selected and directly shipped swag changed to a gift card which is redeemable at the Bills online store or at the stadium concession stands. Since I don't usually buy anything in the stadium, I pick and order items from the Bills online store and then pay a somewhat mysterious customs brokerage fee to FedEx when I pick up my package. Inconvenience aside, after all these years, I am certainly quite well equipped with Bills gear including shirts, jackets, shorts, a collection of ball caps, winter hats, scarfs, mugs, neoprene beer coolers, shot glasses and towels so this year, I chose a few small and more eccentric items, including licence plate holders and a pair of Bills branded socks.
As the excruciating first half of the NFL season opening game in the Meadowlands of New Jersey came to and end yesterday afternoon, I realized that I had somehow managed to sit down to watch the game without wearing a single piece of Bills branded clothing - something I rarely, if ever, do. So, realizing that the team really needed a re-start on offense as they entered the second half, I decided to don the socks at halftime. They ended up doing the job in the end but not before the Bills had dug themselves into a much larger hole - a 16-0 deficit - after giving up a safety (I still think Frank Gore made it out of the endzone on the first down play), a touchdown and a two point convert to the Jets in the third quarter.
Near the end of the game, CBS colour analyst Rich Gannon pulled out a stat which caught my attention: he said that, statistically, if a road team gives up 4 turnovers while the home team registers none, the chances of the road team winning the game are less than 1%. I have not independently verified this data point but it seems credible enough to me. As unlikely as the the Bills eventual victory was, and even though Josh Allen led the team to two 4th quarter touchdowns to steal the one point win, the Bills defence was the reason why the team finds itself at 1-0 this morning.
As bad as the Bills offense was in the first half, the defence was fantastic all day, holding the Jets to 223 total yards. Le'Veon Bell, who hadn't taken a hand-off in a year and a half, carried the ball 17 times for the Jets but only for 60 yards - an average of 3.5 yards per carry. Contrast that with the performance of Bills rookie Devin Singletary who rode the pines for the entire first half and then made the most of his 4 second half carries, earning 70 yards for an average of 17.5 yards. If he can maintain that per carry average throughout his career (and carry the ball 20 or more times every week), the Bills can trade all of their receivers away and run the ball on every down like teams did 100 years ago when the NFL began play. LeSean who?
The Bills could just stay in New Jersey this week if they wanted to. Next up is another game at the Meadowlands, this time against the Giants who were beaten soundly in Dallas yesterday and whose prospects for this season are not looking good. The Bills therefore have a good chance of starting the season with two road wins before coming home in two weeks to face the Bengals. I may order more socks.
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