I had a conversation on Saturday with a cottage neighbour who lives in West Virginia. He said that the COVID situation there has worsened considerably in recent weeks (and he is headed back there shortly) so I looked up some of the numbers. With a population of 1.8 million, the state recorded 1,800 new cases on Saturday alone and 8,000 over the past week. That would be like Ontario, with a population of 14.5 million, seeing more than 65,000 new cases in a week. Republican Governor Jim Justice has refused calls for a new indoor mask mandate and is likely to join other GOP Governors in a court challenge of President Biden's recent vaccine mandate for businesses and organizations in the US with more than 100 employees.
There were more than 50,000 unmasked fans on hand at Milan Pusker Stadium in Morgantown for the Mountaineers 66-0 win on Saturday over the apparently toothless Long Island University Sharks. The Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio and the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan both saw mostly unmasked crowds of more than 100,000 on Saturday - nothing out of the ordinary in non-pandemic times but I can't help but wonder if these football games will turn out to be "super-spreader" events.
With US land border crossings still closed to Canadians travelling for "non-essential" purposes, the Bills have offered (and I have accepted) refunds for the first four home games of the season, obviously including yesterday's game against the Steelers. It's sort of a blessing in disguise as I'm not sure I would have been comfortable being in close quarters with 70,000 vaccine-status-unknown Bills fans whose pent-up desires for screaming have been building for nearly two years. So, the earliest game I'll attend is October 31st against the Dolphins but I'm not optimistic about the border opening by then anyway.
With all the pre-season hype about the Bills being legitimate Superbowl contenders (which I believe they still are), the scope of the letdown for Bills fans yesterday was massive. Although the boxscore reads as if Buffalo was the better team - in terms of some key metrics like yards gained, first downs and time of possession - their play did not live up to what fans were expecting and the team posted its first opening game loss since the Nathan Peterman debacle in Baltimore in 2018.
A couple of key plays made for the Bills undoing: A questionable 4th down play call which had quarterback Josh Allen fake the keeper then throw a backward pass to Matt Breida (who dressed in place of Zack Moss, a surprising healthy scratch yesterday) which resulted in a seven yard loss and a disastrous special teams play in the form of a blocked punt which the Steelers returned for a touchdown, giving them a 10 point lead with less than 10 minutes to go.
One of the most disappointing areas for the Bills yesterday was the play of the offensive line. They were flagged for no less than six holding calls, four of then enforced. Dion Dawkins, who spent most of training camp rebuilding his strength after a serious case of COVID was responsible for three of the holding penalties. The Steelers rushed only four lineman most of the game and successfully thwarted the Bills passing game with tight coverage and some inaccurate passing by Josh Allen, fresh off the signing of a new $258 million contract extension. Looking more like he did in his rookie year than last season when he was in the running for league MVP, Allen also fumbled the ball twice, losing one of them.
So, at 0-1, the Bills travel this week to the heat, humidity and COVID of South Florida to play the Dolphins who squeaked out a 17-16 win yesterday against the Patriots. I look for the Bills to be much better. I wonder if tight end Dawson Knox will wear his shiny red gloves in the Florida heat. I'd love to get me a pair of those. For washing dishes.
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