Chiefs 42, Bills 36 OT

Football doesn't build character; football reveals character. So said Marv Levy some years ago and on this cold and snowy Monday morning in Central Ontario, I think that it surely applies to both the Chiefs and the Bills and, just as importantly, to their respective fan bases. The ups and downs of last night's Divisional Playoff game, especially in the final minutes and seconds of the fourth quarter and overtime, certainly revealed the character of each of the teams. As for the fans of the teams watching in the stadium or on television, just sticking with the game through its agonizing conclusion revealed character enough. Chiefs fans have another game to look forward to (and probably two more) and Bills fans will have to add this one to their list of crushing losses. Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News said that it rivals any of the Superbowl losses or Homerun Throwback for the most painful loss in Bills franchise history. "Wide Right", "Homerun Throwback" and now "13 Seconds". The longest and most painful 13 seconds in franchise history.

The naysayers and Monday Morning Quarterbacks will be busy today, this week and for the remainder of the off-season questioning the coaching decisions and defensive strategy over those fateful 13 seconds following the Bills taking a three point lead on Gabriel Davis's fourth touchdown catch of the game and Stefon Diggs acrobatic grab on the two-point conversion. They should have squib-kicked the kick-off, they'll say. Safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were playing to deep, they'll say. They played it as if the Chiefs needed a touchdown and not a field goal, they'll say. The Bills called a timeout before each of the two plays over those 13 seconds and still couldn't stop the Chiefs from quite easily - far too easily - moving into comfortable field goal range. The overtime seemed like a training camp scrimmage where the first string offence goes against the back-up defensive unit to see how fast they can march down the field to the endzone. The Bills chose not to use any of their timeouts in overtime when the defence probably could have used a break. But then the time-outs didn't work during the 13 seconds, did they?   

Although I am a long-time season ticket holder. it's been two years since I have made the pilgrimage to Orchard Park to drink a couple of morning beers, barbeque some hot Italian sausages and take in some NFL football. I really hope that eight months from now, I will be doing just that. My team has a once-in-a-generation quarterback to watch for the next decade at least along with a solid coaching and management and stable ownership. A new stadium is in the works too so I'll have to start saving for the inevitable Personal Seat Licences which I will have to buy to continue on as a subscriber. 

Bills fans need to remember that you have to make it to these big games in order to suffer the crushing losses that they can bring. It's more stressful as a fan to watch than, say being a New Yok Jets fan has been over the last few years. Earning the right to play in important games means winning many games along the way and the Bills have done that since Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane came to town. As fans, we should be grateful. The losses are tough but the best kind of character sports should reveal is the ability to savour the wins and let the losses roll off you. It's just professional sports, right? Noam Chomsky is right in the end (isn't he usually?) when he says that the intellectual energy, time and emotion consumed by the ritualistic following of sports is just a distraction from the things which actually do matter in our lives. Being a native of Philadelphia, its east for him to say. The Eagles won the Superbowl four years ago and, although he is loathe to admit it publicly, it surely put his mind to rest.    

Bills 47, Patriots 17

Ten years ago, I met and had a rather long and quite pleasant conversation with Tim Hudak, then leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, at our neighbourhood outdoor hockey rink. Among other things, we discussed the soon-to-drop report from economist Don Drummond but the conversation somehow came around to the subject of football and the Buffalo Bills (I was probably wearing a Bills winter hat). When Hudak, a native of Fort Erie, realized that we shared a rooting interest in the Bills, he asked me "Don't you just hate the Patriots?". I replied, truthfully, that I really didn't hate anyone or any particular team. He probably realized at this point that I might also be referring to my political leanings and that I was not likely to be a supporter of either him or his party. He was certainly right about that but our conversation continued for another few minutes and I ended it by saying to him that I admired those willing to stand for political office and face all of the vitriol which accompanies that vocation. I genuinely appreciated speaking with him and I have had a positive impression of him as a person ever since. And, in the years since then, whenever the Patriots have beaten the Bills, however often and however badly, I think of him and, as if to be true to what I said to Mr. Hudak that day, I remind myself that I don't hate the Patriots.

Someone on ESPN explained that on Saturday night in frigid Orchard Park, "the Bills were paying the Patriots back for all of their ancestors sins". The history of the division rivalry between the Bills and the Patriots over the last 20+ years has been decidedly one-sided in the Patriots favour. I'm sure that Dolphins and Jets fans have the same tale to tell about this as the Patriots have racked up Superbowl appearances and wins in numbers almost unimaginable over the Belichick/Brady years. Whether it was opening week, mid-season, late season or for much-anticipated prime time games, the Patriots have had the Bills number almost every time - until the last couple of seasons when the tables turned. When the Patriots pulled out a win in the wind-blown Monday night game on December 6th and looked to be on their way to the division title, it felt like the tables had turned back again. But when the Bills pulled together one of their best games of the season on Boxing Day and returned the favour in Foxborough, the dragon was slayed for good, right? When the Chargers couldn't get it done last weekend against the Raiders, sending the Patriots to Orchard Park for a Wildcard playoff game, I had a bad feeling about it. Belichick would find a new way to slow the game down, run the ball and keep Josh Allen off the field, capitalize on the Bills weak punting game or somehow make Tim Hudak hate them even more. But that's not what happened.

Even Jerry Sullivan, local naysayer and glass-half-empty sports columnist (who was relieved of his duties at the Buffalo News a few years ago for being too negative) tweeted near the end of the game "How do you watch this and not consider them the favourite to win it all?" Well Jerry, I would have to agree. With a clean injury report going into the game, on every series the Bills looked motivated, prepared, focused and disciplined. They shredded the Patriots defence, plain and simple, scoring seven touchdowns with no turnovers. And Matt Haak had one of his best games of the season, only taking the field as the holder on extra point tries (two of which were blocked but not because of poor holding). Whenever Josh Allen faltered this season, Jerry Sullivan was quick to point out that he wasn't really earning his $258 million contract extension, signed before the season started. With Saturday's performance, he certainly did. Maybe not all $258 million in one game but enough to take Jerry Sullivan out for dinner every night for the rest of his life. And enough to shift Tim Hudak's focus from hating the Patriots to finding new ways to drive Ontario real estate prices ever higher.

Last night, I was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. At least until I went to sleep when it looked like they had little chance of coming back against the Chiefs. The Bills will make another January trip to Kansas City next Sunday night in the Divisional Round against the number two seeded Chiefs who rolled easily over the Steelers last night. The Bills will need to play at least as well as they did on Saturday to move on the the AFC Championship Game, especially on defence. Patrick Mahomes matched Josh Allen's five touchdown passes last night, throwing for over 400 yards against the Steelers. He is no Mac Jones and the Bills number one ranked defence will need to bring their best game. This will be the fourth game between the Chiefs and Bills over the last two seasons. The Chiefs have won two of the three so far and I wonder if Tim Hudak might be starting to hate them too.   

Bills 27, Jets 10

Last night's Raiders v. Chargers game featured an intriguing possibility which did not come to pass although it sure looked like it was going to literally right up to the end of the ten minute overtime period. Going into the NFL regular season's last day, the unprecedented scenario of a mutually beneficial tie in the season's final game, which depended on the league's worst team, the Jaguars winning against the Colts, was discussed but mostly theoretically on account of the unlikelihood of a Jacksonville win. But the Jags did win and this set up what could have been a nightmare for the league - two teams colluding to produce a certain result. If last night's game had ended in a tie, then both the Raiders and the Chargers would have been playoff bound with the Steelers being eliminated. Although there is not a specific rule against such collusion, I wonder if the league office contacted the teams before the game to implore each of them to play the game to win it. If that happened, it certainly worked. 

Buffalo Bills fans were more than a little interested in the outcome in Las Vegas last night as well. A Chargers win would have brought them to Orchard Park next weekend but the Raiders not only ended their season and earned a playoff birth of their own, but set up a third game this season between the third seeded Bills and their arch-rivals the New England Patriots who come again to Buffalo on Saturday night for a playoff game, the first between the two teams since the AFL Divisional round of 1963. I think that most Bills fans would have preferred to see the Chargers make a winter trip to Buffalo but the Patriots, who stumbled down the stretch, offer the Bills another chance to slay that particular dragon - this time in an elimination game. 

Last time the Bills clinched the AFC East in front of their home fans was 1995 and the last time they played a home playoff game with a full house was in December, 1996 against Mark Brunel and the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was Jim Kelly's last game in the NFL. The Bills clinched their second consecutive division title yesterday in a strangely frustrating game which was much closer than the boxscore would indicate. Some patches of empty seats were visible on wide shots of the stadium yesterday but the game still drew more than 64,000 fans as the Bills finished the season with two January home games, both against relatively weak teams in the Falcons and Jets. 

The Jets came into the game with what was statistically the league's worst defence and an offence which looked to be making improvements. But in the NFL, trends don't always hold: the Jets offensive output yesterday was limited to four first downs and 53 total yards. Both of these are franchise record lows for the Bills defence. On the other hand, the Bills offence generated 25 first downs and 424 total yards while the defence also recorded nine sacks, a season high. Despite the statistical dominance, the game was still in question into the fourth quarter when Devin Singletary scored two touchdowns to put the game away. 

The game featured no less than 18 punts - 11 by the Jets and seven by Matt Haack who clearly had his most stressful day as a professional football player. Haack, who had not seen the field (except for a free-kick on a safety) since the Panthers game three weeks ago, had a rough time in the third quarter in particular as he bobbled a snap and barely got off a partially blocked punt before shanking three consecutive punts into the wind, giving the Jets great field position each time. But the Jets offence could only manage one decent play from these opportunities. Haack will be hoping for less wind and a more dynamic performance from the Bills offence on Saturday night. 

The long range forecast for Saturday looks ok with the temperature expected to be around minus five which is fine for two cold weather teams but would have been a clear advantage for Buffalo against the Chargers. Among his many memorable pre-game expressions, Marv Levy used to say to his team just before a winter game against a warm weather or dome team "When it's too cold for them, it's just right for us". Seems like it will be just right for both teams on Saturday. Let's hope that the Bills offence from Boxing Day shows up.

Bills 29, Falcons 15

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan believed that he had scored a touchdown with about four minutes remaining in yesterday's game in wintry Orchard Park - one which would have brought his team to within one score of the Buffalo Bills, making it a closer game than Bills fans would have wanted. NFL rules say that a quarterback who slides "feet first" is deemed to be down by contact when his slide begins and he need not even be touched by a defender for the play to be whistled dead. But Ryan didn't slide feet first at all; rather, he dived toward the goal line and was clearly well over it when Jordan Poyer bumped him, prompting Ryan to say something to Poyer earning him a flag for taunting which would then be enforced on the ensuing kickoff, right? Wrong. When Ryan's left knee came down, the ball was not over the goal line but over the one yard line. No touchdown. I'm still not sure why since he did not slide feet first and clearly wasn't touched before he crossed the goal line. Instead, it was third down and goal from the 16 yard line after enforcement of the 15 yard taunting penalty. Two incomplete passes later and the Bills were a couple of first downs away from victory formation and the clinching of a spot in the NFL playoffs. A difficult exit from playoff contention for Atlanta and for Ryan who will complete his 14th season as the Falcons quarterback next week. For the Bills, a win they needed to maintain their inside track toward a second consecutive AFC East title. 

Bills punter Matt Haack did not "punt" for the second consecutive week although he did take the field and kick the ball by dropping it from his hands and booting it down the field. But there was no long snap to catch and no rushing defenders to avoid. The box score reads that Buffalo punted zero times yesterday but the scoring of a safety, a relatively uncommon event in football with a strange sequence which follows, meant that Haack had to take the field to execute a "free kick" which gave the Falcons the ball back after taking a 2-0 lead on a fumbled punt return by Marquez Stevenson. I found myself trying to explain the phenomenon of a safety to my partner who is now an enthusiastic watcher of NFL football but who had not seen such a play before. I was impressed a few minutes later when she correctly predicted the play calls which led to the Bills first two touchdowns later in the first half. "Josh Allen will run it in for a touchdown" she said not once but twice. She was right both times. "Should they play man or zone on this series?" I asked next time the Bills defence lined up against Ryan. I didn't really want an answer and I didn't get one either. 

Josh Allen had a tough day throwing the ball. His passer rating for the day was 17, the lowest of his four-year career. The quarterback passer rating is a calculation which takes into account attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns and interceptions. The highest possible passer rating is 158.3. The calculation resembles the one used in consumer lending for credit scores in that it isn't completely clear how all of its elements fit together (it isn't a proprietary algorithm like the credit score is - you can look up how the calculation works) but common sense says that if you throw three interceptions, your passer rating will suffer. And that's what happened to Allen yesterday. But he still had a good game in my opinion and contributed over 80 yards rushing, including the two touchdowns. Aside from Allen, the Bills running game had its best day in a long time as Devin Singletary had career highs in carries with 23 and yards with 110 while scoring two touchdowns as well. The Bills posted 28 first downs to Altanta's 18 and dominated the time of possession. 

The only team standing between the Bills and another AFC East title is the pesky New York Jets who come to Orchard Park on Sunday to close out the 17 game regular season. The Jets built a big lead over Tom Brady and the Bucs yesterday but eventually found a way to lose. In addition to seeing their team blow the lead against the heavily favoured Superbowl champs, fans at the Meadowlands of New Jersey also witnessed what will hopefully be the final NFL side show by Antonio Brown who inexplicably left the game in the third quarter with the Bucs down 24-10. He removed his jersey, threw his gloves into the stands and did some jumping jacks in the endzone before disappearing for hopefully the last time. I presume that he's having lunch today with Vontae Davis who left the NFL in similar fashion (without the public disrobing) in week one of the 2018 season while playing for Buffalo.