"Classic Trap Game" is the term that NFL touts will often use to describe a game against a lesser-light which comes right before one against a much better team. Is that what happened yesterday in the dystopic suburban wasteland of New Jersey? Did the Bills take the Jets for granted as they have had the luxury of doing over the past few years? I'm not sure that's the right take on it but I did have a feeling going in that this game was a huge one for the Jets and their coach Robert Saleh obviously had them ready for it.
I will channel a bit of Pat Burns here in terms of the way he usually took a contrarian view in his postgame comments: If his team had won a close game, Burns might say "well, if we keep relying on our goalie like that, we won't win may more" and after losing a close game, it would be more like "the effort was there and we played well enough to win; if a couple of bounces had gone the other way....". This is a "glass half full" analysis but I think that yesterday's game is exactly what the Bills needed as they come to the halfway mark of the regular season. After four straight wins, a loss to the Jets should and I think will be a wake-up call as they prepare for the 7-1 Minnesota Vikings in Orchard Park on Sunday.
There are certainly areas for concern with at least a couple which have spanned the last two games. Josh Allen has had two poor performances throwing the ball and the run defence has been equally weak over those games as well. When quarterbacks throw to wide-open defensive backs who should be clearly within their line of sight, it certainly looks mysterious on TV. Did the receiver turn left when the play called for him to turn right? How is it that he didn't see that defender? A friend of mine is a big Steelers fan (and a bit of a conspiracy theorist) and after the January, 1996 Superbowl, he was convinced that Steelers quarterback Neil O'Donnell had been paid to throw interceptions at two key points in the Steelers loss to Dallas. "There isn't any other explanation for it", he said, claiming that it simply wasn't possible for him not to have seen those cornerbacks or safeties. The Cowboys won and whoever paid O'Donnell cashed in on it handsomely I'm sure. Good thing I lost touch with him because there's never been a better time to be a conspiracy theorist and I'm sure that he's deep into the vaccine question. But the run defence is another matter. No suggestion of the entire defence being paid to miss tackles. They were injury depleted - with more injuries suffered yesterday. Teams will be trying more than ever to run on the Bills so they better stiffen up. And I think they will.
When the Jets lined up to punt on a fourth and one at mid-field in the third quarter, I called the fake out loud. I know the dog heard me. It seemed obvious to me that this was the perfect situation for it and the Jets executed it perfectly. It wasn't a deciding factor but it added to the feeling of the inevitability of a Jets win, for me anyway. With a strong defensive performance and solid quarterback play, the Jets deserved to win the game and they are now a good enough team to follow through on it. Zach Wilson, despite looking weak recently, played well, made good decisions and threw no interceptions. Maybe he just wasn't offered proper compensation.
Apparently, the CFL held their Division Semi-Finals yesterday and I also heard that TSN continues to carry these games on live television. If I were making the decisions, I would try to not to have CFL games - playoff or not - directly up against week 9 NFL games. And I mean directly as the Eastern game kicked off at 1pm and the Western game at 4.30pm. They might do better against US College football by playing on Saturday. Who knows. Same thing next weekend as the Argos host Montreal at 1pm and the Bombers play BC in the late afternoon slot. Plenty of good seats remain for the 109th Grey Cup in Regina the following week. The game is officially "sold out" they say but with many thousands of tickets available for cheap on the secondary market.
US College football continues to offer plenty of clunkers on its Saturday schedules with the exception this past weekend being the game in Athens, Georgia between the top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 3 Bulldogs. Georgia won and now occupies the top spot in the AP Poll. Michigan and Ohio State remain on a collision course toward their Nov 26th game at the Horseshoe in Columbus with the winner guaranteed one of the four playoff berths.
The Minnesota Vikings have won six straight games. That streak ends on Sunday in Orchard Park, I like the Bills 30-17. And I like Kathy Hochul to win over Lee Zeldin on Tuesday. If Herschel Walker wins the Georgia Senate seat, comedians across the US will rejoice.
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