Bills 24, Chargers 22

Christmas Greetings from Moncton, New Brunswick. There’s no snow here either which is much more unusual than green Christmases are in southern Ontario. Yesterday we drove four hours or so from Edmundston on deserted roads through a series of unpopulated valleys with Irving gas stations sprinkled every 50km or so. It’s like driving in northern Ontario but with major rivers taking the place of small lakes. This is Canada’s only truly bilingual province where the young people working in service jobs pivot effortlessly between English and French. We tried ordering in French at a Tim Horton’s drive-through (because we were greeted in French) but the young woman recognized my weak accent and switched to English. What remains of my high-school French is embarrassingly poor but probably not as bad as New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs whose French accent and vocabulary makes John Diefenbaker sound like Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

The Saturday night Bills game was on television in our Edmundston hotel room on CTV 2 which, for whatever reason, was only available in standard definition. At first, it made me realize that I watched every hockey and football game without HD for the first few decades of my life and that I managed this just fine. But when Josh Allen heaved a long bomb to Gabe Davis for the Bills first touchdown of the game, I thought that the ball had slipped through his hands…..until I saw him dragging a defender into the endzone clutching what appeared to be a football. It was a spectacular catch by Davis who decided to have a “number one wide receiver” game with four catches on six targets for 130 yards and that important first touchdown which cut an early ten-point deficit to three. As Chris Collinsworth pointed out, Davis seems to have two speeds: he either goes off for more than 100 receiving yards or he focuses on blocking (at which he is very good) and is not targeted at all in the passing game.

I can’t quote the percentages but generally in the NFL a team that loses the turnover count also loses the game. But obviously not always. Teams that lose the turnover count by three surely have an even worse record. The Bills handed the Chargers three turnovers on two fumbles – one by Deonte Harty on a punt return and one by James Cook (who thankfully was not benched afterward) - and a Josh Allen interception. The Chargers did not record a turnover and certainly played well enough to win anyway. But the Bills defence stiffened when it was most needed: Ed Oliver, a rare example of a player who responded to a lucrative second contract by significantly improving his play, recorded a crucial sack in the last minute of the game which mostly sealed it for the Bills who briefly looked like they may have found a way to lose another last-second heart-breaker. The final play of the game for the Chargers featured the obligatory series of laterals which might just have worked if one of them had not been an illegal forward pass.

Yesterday, Bills fans became Dallas Cowboys fans for three hours but they were not able to close out the Dolphins who clinched a playoff spot with their last-second 22-20 win in south Florida. I was surreptitiously following the game on my Score app through Christmas Eve dinner (which was tourtiere from an Acadian family recipe passed on through many generations) but I managed to slip away to catch the last ten minutes on television. The Cowboys remain a good team but they will have to figure out how to win away from Jerry Jones’s palatial AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The road to the Superbowl, on the NFC side of the draw, will very likely go through Santa Clara, California and the Cowboys will be in tough if they even make it far enough to face the 49ers.

Although the Patriots came up big in Denver last night for only their fourth win of the season, the Bills should be able to handle them next week in Orchard Park to go to 10-6 on the season. Hopes for another AFC Division title for Buffalo are now in the hands of the Baltimore Ravens who face the Dolphins next week at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. I love the story of the naming history of that stadium which was called PSI.Net Stadium between 1999 and 2001. PSI.Net filed for bankruptcy in June, 2001 but since the company had pre-paid the stadium naming rights through 2001, the stadium carried that name throughout the 2001 season despite the company having ceased operations before the season began. I’m sure that PSI.Net shareholders took a special kind of comfort in the stadium continuing to bear the company name during the 2001 season after its stock was delisted and while the liquidation process played out. If the Dolphins can win next week (or if the Bills were to fall to the Patriots), the AFC East title is theirs despite what may happen in week 18.

Week 17 brings Bills fans a rare 1pm (Eastern) Sunday game on New Year’s Eve. The out-of-town scoreboard will be closely watched as the Ravens and Dolphins kick-off at the same time. Ironically, New Year’s Eve is really the only night of the year where I actually try to stay up until midnight (I usually don’t succeed) so I would welcome having a late-night football game as extra motivation. I’m glad I don’t live here in the Atlantic time zone where night NFL games start at 9.15pm. Maybe I should try the west coast where they start at 5.15pm and the regular Sunday slate begins at 10am. Go Bills! And equally importantly, Go Ravens!   

Bills 31, Cowboys 10

Former Bills offensive lineman and nine-time Pro Bowler Rueben Brown was a guest on WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo a few years ago talking about, among other things, what makes NFL offensive linemen tick. He explained that while today’s pass-happy style of play values the pass-protection abilities of offensive linemen, what they really love doing – what makes them feel complete as football players – is run blocking. The offensive lineman’s task in pass protection is to fend off, impede, hold up and misdirect defensive pass rushers (whose job seems more offensive than defensive) for long enough to allow their quarterback time to find open receivers downfield. On the other hand, with run blocking, the offensive line is in proactive mode, creating gaps for running backs to dart through then moving second level linebackers and safeties out of the way down the field. They need not worry about the dreaded offence of being “illegally downfield” which only applies on passing plays. Ask any NFL offensive lineman what plays they like to run and they will all provide the same answer: running plays. The Bills ran the ball yesterday in Orchard Park as effectively as they have in years. They won the game easily despite Josh Allen completing only seven passes for 94 yards. After the game, he said that he felt like the kid who contributed almost nothing to the class project but still got an A.  

In his post-game locker room speech yesterday, Bills head coach Sean McDermott started by acknowledging the play of his offensive line which created enough gaps and made the right blocks to enable the Bills offence to rack up 266 yards on the ground with James Cook accounting for 179 of those while adding another 42 yards on two catches with two touchdowns. Cook’s outstanding rushing day was almost 100 yards short of the single-game franchise record of 273 yards set in 1976 by one Orenthal James Simpson. Yesterday belonged to the Bills offensive line - a five-man unit which has remained healthy and has started every game this season. The Bills yesterday demonstrated that In this current era of “chunk plays” and speedy wide receivers “taking the top off the defence”, an old-fashioned running attack can still win football games. The Cowboys defence, on the field for a full ten minutes longer than their offence was, looked tired and demoralized as the game ground on. They are a unit built to defend against the pass, often this season playing with a big lead and letting their dominant pass rush quickly turn games into blow-outs.

The Bills sent their fans home brimming with optimism about the final three games of the season and the prospect of a playoff berth and maybe even a division title and the coveted home playoff game which comes with it. There is much work to do to get there and the Bills will need help from others to challenge for the division. The Dolphins moved to 10-4 with their 30-0 shellacking of the Jets yesterday but their schedule becomes considerably tougher over the next two weeks. First up for the Dolphins is a home game next week against these same Dallas Cowboys who are battling the Eagles for the NFC East division title and still have their sights on home field advantage in the NFC. After that, the Dolphins travel to Baltimore to face the Ravens who will be trying to shore-up their hold on the top seed in the AFC. Should the Dolphins lose one of these games and if the Bills were win their next two, the week 18 game in south Florida will decide the winner of the AFC East. If this happens, expect the Bills v. Dolphins to be the Sunday Night Football match-up and the final game of the NFL regular season.

Before Bills fans start shopping for February package deals to Las Vegas (the site of Superbowl LVIII), they have a short week to prepare for a team which will have had three full days of extra rest and preparation and have just fired their head coach and general manager after an embarrassing loss on Thursday to the Raiders who hung 63 points on them. The Los Angeles Chargers have had a very disappointing season to say the least but teams coming off a head coach firing can be dangerous for a few intangible reasons: professional pride, players looking ahead to their next contracts, the naturally injected energy of a new coach (interim head coach Giff Smith has been a defensive coach on the Chargers staff since 2016) and, if they felt any contempt toward the fired coach, an instinct to show the team owner that he made the right move. Add in a cross-continent trip to the west coast for a Saturday night game and this is certainly an opportunity for the Bills to stumble. I don’t think they will.

Saturday’s game will be carried on Peacock, an NBC-owned streaming service which I gather is not available in Canada – at least not legally. I assume then (but have not been able to confirm) that it will be available on TSN or CTV in Canada. I’ll be watching the game from a hotel in Edmundston, New Brunswick, a popular stopover point on the drive from Ontario to Atlantic Canada. On Christmas Eve, we drive to Moncton to spend Christmas with family there. We are booked in for three nights. Second prize was five nights in Moncton.        

Bills 20, Chiefs 17

With unlimited pre-snap motion which allows all receivers and backfield personnel to charge the line of scrimmage with a running start, on almost any play in a typical CFL game, it looks to me like at least one offensive player is offside, crossing the line before the ball is snapped. I have never seen it called. In American football which limits pre-snap motion to one player, the other ten players must be lined up and set for one second before the snap. Receivers must not line up ahead of where the ball lies. It’s pretty simple. I don’t think I’ve ever seen offensive offside called in an NFL game – until yesterday. As Gene Staratore, former NFL referee and CBS in-house officiating commentator posted on his Twitter account last night, it is almost never called because offensive players almost never line up ahead of where the ball is spotted. But when they do, shouldn’t it be called?

I watched Patrick Mahomes post-game press conference last night. When the game ended, he was visibly upset, slamming his helmet and screaming at someone on the Chiefs sideline. He explained that he was upset at the call which negated a “hall of fame play by a hall of fame player”. And it also happened to be what could have been the game-winning touchdown. He explained that playing organized football going back as far as he could remember, this isn’t called before multiple warnings are issued by officials. As kids playing football, receivers would take their place at the line of scrimmage and look at the line judge who would then indicate that they were positioned correctly or motion them to move back as needed. Last night, no such warnings were issued (probably because there were no infractions) but as referee Carl Jeffers said afterward, “if it’s egregious enough, it would be beyond a warning”. Chiefs coach Andy Reid corroborated his quarterback’s analysis after the game saying that he would typically be given a warning before a call is made and that “it’s a bit embarrassing for the National Football League for that to take place”. There is no question that Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney was lined up forward of the ball on the fateful play. The camera angles showed very clearly that he was lined well forward of the ball. Mahomes said that when he saw the flag fly before he made his throw to Kelce, he assumed that it was for defensive offside (sometimes called a “neutral zone infraction”).    

It seems clear to me that the real issue was that the penalty call – which was correct by any standard – negated a brilliant play by Travis Kelce which could have and probably would have been the game-winning touchdown. Had the call been made on a three yard run or a short pass to Kelce, it would not be the subject of such scrutiny this morning. Successful offensive plays are regularly called back in football games – for holding penalties, for players illegally downfield, for offensive pass interference, etc. It’s part of the game and always will be. The play by Kelce where he made the catch 25 yards downfield then turned and threw a perfect lateral to (ironically) Kadarius Toney who streaked down the left sideline and into the endzone was a highlight reel play for sure and had it stood as the game-winning play, would surely have been in the season’s top ten plays. But it doesn’t appear in the boxscore this morning and basically never happened.

Were I a Chiefs fan this morning looking back at the plays which changed the trajectory of the game, I would be focused on the Josh Allen “completion” to Latavius Murray which kept the Bills drive alive and allowed them to kick the what became the game-winning field goal. As he fell out of bounds, Allen floated a pass to Murray who got his hands on it and as Gene Steratore explained, appeared to complete the requisite three steps needed to make it a completion before fumbling. The ball was then pushed out of bounds on the ensuing scramble and the Bills maintained possession. When CBS went to commercial for the replay review, I was convinced that the ruling would be overturned based on the angles shown. I am equally convinced this morning that had the pass been ruled incomplete on the field, that would have been upheld.

The Bills find themselves still in the AFC playoff contention, although just barely because at 7-6, they are tied with five other teams all pursuing two wildcard playoff spots. Since all but one of the Bills losses this year have been to AFC teams, the Bills would lose most tie-breaker scenarios so a prolonged winning streak will be required and still might not be enough.

Up next: The Dallas Cowboys make their once-every-eight-years trip to Orchard Park next Sunday for another 4.25pm start. The Bills are early two point favourites.

Eagles 37, Bills 34, OT

"To Davis for the win''..... Jim Nantz has a flare for the dramatic call. After all, he is the lead play-by-play voice of CBS television sports for good reason. And if Gabe Davis had turned to his right in the endzone early in overtime at a wet and cold Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia yesterday evening rather than to his left as he did, Nantz's call would have been perfect. But the pass fell incomplete, the Bills settled for a field goal and went on to lose their sixth game of the season to once again even their record at .500. Since the NFL changed the regular season overtime rules from "first score wins" to "each team will have a chance to possess the ball unless there is a touchdown or a defensive score", I can't recall a game where a field goal by one team was surpassed with a touchdown by the other. It's probably happened but not in a game involving the Bills. 

The game was highly entertaining for those with no rooting interest and was easily the best game on the NFL's week 12 slate. Sean McDermott's Bills seem to have developed a knack for finding themselves in these "instant classic" games but seem never to come out on the winning end of any of them. "Another devastating loss for Buffalo" is a recurring post-game comment which I have grown weary of - literally and figuratively. Not that I would have felt better had they lost 37-10 but as these razor-thin losses in critical games pile up, it can be a bit disheartening. Maybe they can lose another overtime in Kansas City in two weeks time.

I can not recall a four day period where I watched more football games (or parts of games) than I did this past American Thanksgiving weekend. Not that they were all good close games but I did see parts of each of the three games on Thursday, the Friday game where the Jets offence looked even worse than it did a week ago, a full state of very important college games on Saturday, the Vanier Cup also on Saturday (but not until the Michigan v. Ohio State game was over), yesterday's early games, the Bills nearly four hour game and then the Ravens and Chargers which I only managed to stick with through the first quarter. Football overdose is what I think I'm feeling the effects of this morning.

Montreal finds itself firmly on top of what remains of the world of Canadian football in 2023. After the Alouettes captured the Grey Cup last weekend, the Universite de Montreal Carabins outlasted the UBC Thunderbirds in the Vanier Cup played at Queens University in Kingston. I saw only the last few minutes. The contrast between Michigan Stadium with more than 110,000 on hand and Richardson Memorial Stadium in Kingston with an announced attendance of 7,109 for the championship game of Canadian University football is pretty stark. I would have watched the Vanier Cup from the beginning had the Michigan game not also been on. Canadian football has experienced a bit of a renaissance in Quebec over the past decade so for Montreal to capture both the Grey and Vanier Cups this month seems fitting.

In Ann Arbor, the game was competitive and close with the Wolverines outlasting the Buckeyes for the third consecutive year. This was the 116th meeting between the schools and the pre-game hype on FOX about how this rivalry game was the most important thing in the world was a bit much especially considering the one or two other events unfolding in the world today. The ad featuring former Wolverine Charles Woodson and former Buckeye Eddie George about how Michigan has never had a live mascot was quite amusing. Reminded me of David Letterman often saying that, pound-for-pound, the wolverine is the toughest and fiercest animal in the world. I don't know why Dave liked to say this but he did. On to the Big Ten Championship Game for the Wolverines against the Iowa Hawkeyes in Indianapolis next Saturday. Michigan is favoured by 23 points. Should they not stumble, they will earn a spot in the four-team college football playoff for the third straight year. Ohio State will probably not get a spot in the playoff as they did a year ago, even after losing to Michigan. Georgia, Washington and Florida State will likely be the other three teams. Both semi-final games will be played on New Year's Eve and the National Championship Game is set for January 8th in Houston. The first Bowl Game of the season is the Myrtle Beach Bowl on December 16th. As Stephen Brunt once said, "I'll watch any football game which they bother to broadcast". It will be a busy next five weeks for him. And for me too.

For the Bills, their bye week comes quite late in the season but it is finally here. Most of the key injured players are out for the season but the opportunity for the others to rest and re-energize is surely welcome after 12 straight weeks of games. At 6-6, they are not out of playoff contention but they are headed in that direction. Yesterday's game showed that they are still a good team which could have and probably should have beaten an Eagles team which is now 10-1. It doesn't get any easier with a trip to Kansas City on December 10th, once again in the late afternoon time slot. Time for another instant classic but the Bills need to make it up to Jim Nantz by executing the way he calls it.    

     

Bills 32, Jets 6

Jets quarterback Zach Wilson unwittingly created a meme last night at Highmark Stadium which encapsulated his team's season in one unassisted stumble. Wilson, jogging backwards from the sideline to to the huddle and receiving last-second instructions from the coaching staff in the third quarter, somehow went ass-over-tea-kettle and landed on his back with no other player within ten feet of him. The video clip was making the rounds last night as a perfect example of the ineptitude of the Jets quarterbacking in 2023. Coach Robert Saleh finally benched Wilson in favour of someone named Tim Boyle whose bust will certainly not end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. 

It made me wonder how much better the trainwreck which is the Jets offence would have been this season with Aaron Rodgers under centre as planned. There can be little doubt that things would not have played out as poorly as they have for Gang-Green but the question which will never have an answer is how much of an improvement would Rodgers presence have made? Persistent issues with the offensive line, as Tony Romo pointed repeatedly last night, would obviously not have been solved by Rodgers, nor would the weak wide receiver play or the lack of creativity in passing schemes (where have we heard that before?). But it seems safe to say that Rodgers would have lifted the Jets offensive production, limited the devastating turnovers (where have we heard that before?) and generally willed his team-mates to a better showing than Wilson, and now maybe Boyle, have been able to deliver. The Jets have built one of the best defences in the league and they have somehow managed to squeeze out four wins with a historically anemic offensive output. Rodgers recovery and rehab has been going well buy all accounts and he has a theoretical chance to return late next month. But why would he if the team has no shot at the playoffs? 

Speaking of maybe or maybe not having a shot at the playoffs, the Bills finally got the "re-set" game they have needed since things went off the rails in north London six weeks ago. Whether new offensive coordinator Joe Brady"s approach at scheming the offence made the difference or not, the production was obviously there last night and against a very good defence which has stifled the Bills for the last few games they have faced them. As Tony Romo pointed out, Josh Allen's clean and turnover-free game (he did have an interception on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half) was as much a product of the desperation throws which he didn't make as it was anything else. After the Miami game in week five, it has seemed like Josh Allen felt like he had to turn every busted play into a high stakes roulette wheel of forced and ill-conceived passes. James Cook ran well, Dalton Kincaid's production continues to ramp up and Khalil Shakir had the longest play from scrimmage this season for the Bills, an 81-yard touchdown catch and run which sealed the game. Rasul Douglas has a good shot at earning defensive player of the week honours as he recorded two interceptions, one fumble recovery, three pass break-ups and four tackles. With injuries in the defensive backfield continuing to pile up, adding him at the trade deadline was as fortuitous a mid-season move as the Bills have made possibly ever.

Yesterday's 110th Grey Cup game was reported to be a sellout with more than 28,000 in attendance at Tim Horton's Field in Hamilton. I regret to say that I saw not one second of the game live but, in typical CFL fashion, the game ended with a last-second touchdown to earn the Alouettes their championship rings. Also in typical CFL fashion, the league scrambled late in the week to add some French signage inside the stadium after a few Montreal reporters (and others) pointed out that with a Quebec-based team playing in the big game, it might be a good idea. Since my dad was a follower of the CFL (he was a high school class-mate of Danny Nykoluk who played for the Argos from 1955 to 1971), I try to follow it, try to watch it (without much success) and I generally hope that it finds a way to continue. It's dwindling fan base of old-stock Canadians won't be around forever but reports of the demise of the CFL have been around literally for decades - yet it endures. Good attendance at last week's Eastern Final in Toronto and yesterday in Hamilton is certainly encouraging. Too bad that Winnipeg, whose fan base remains strong and loyal, couldn't pull it out. 

In College Park, MD, the Michigan Wolverines held on to beat the Terrapins and finish the exhibition portion of their schedule at 11-0. It all comes down to Saturday's game in Ann Arbor against the Ohio State Buckeys who also finished their exhibition schedule at 11-0. This annual end-of-season match between these two has become known as "The Game" and I will be watching. The winner is pretty much guaranteed a spot in the four-team college football playoff.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to Philadelphia next week for another late afternoon game. The Eagles are the class of the NFC and will be favoured. I see two reasons why the Bills may have a better chance than the pundits and the point spread may indicate. The first is that the Eagles play their week 11 game tonight against the Chiefs in Kansas City and then, after playing the Bills, they face the 49ers at home. The combination of a short week to prepare (although the Bills themselves had no issue with that yesterday) after a tough road game and a big conference game the following week could make this a classic "trap game" for the Eagles.      

Broncos 24, Bills 22

As Wil Lutz's 41 yard attempt sailed wide right in the dying seconds last night, the sense of relief - a collective exhale - was palpable both in the stadium and in my own mind. But only for a moment. 12 men on the field for the attempt gave Lutz another shot from five yards closer and he didn't miss. A critical pass interference call against Taron Johnson on an underthrown Russell Wilson pass set the Broncos up for the game winning kick and they took full advantage...the second time around. Add in four turnovers which could easily have been six and the Buffalo Bills are now 5-5 with their hopes for a home playoff game probably gone and hopes for a berth in the playoffs fading fast. 

The knives are now officially out for Sean McDermott - at least amongst the angry post-game callers to WGR 550. I turned it off after a couple of calls. "I gave him the benefit of the doubt", lamented the first caller "after they blew a 16-0 lead in Houston. I gave him the benefit of the doubt after falling to the Chiefs in the AFC title game in 2021. I gave him the benefit of the doubt after 13 seconds. And I gave him the benefit of the doubt after his team didn't show up in the snow last year against the Bengals. After this game, he is out of chances and should now be fired". He will not be fired between now and January but maybe McDermott's time in Buffalo has an end in sight. I rarely question coaching decisions but benching James Cook for most of the first half after a fumble on the game's first play seemed like something out of junior varsity. I mean he's an NFL player - and a good one - who was stripped of the ball twice last night (and miraculously got the second one back without losing stride). He ran the ball well after returning. Benching him doesn't make him hold the ball tighter. Fumbles happen. He should have been in there all night. 

I'd say that one thing we have learned over the last two seasons is that Brian Daboll, who is suffering through a second season as Giants head coach which is as miserable as his first one was brilliant, was indeed a very good offensive play caller for Josh Allen and the Bills offence. It seemed like he always had a play or two in his back pocket which were going to work when they really needed it. I get no such sense with Ken Dorsey's playbook. They have good players at skilled positions. They bolstered the offensive line in the off-season. They should be better than they have shown. On a short week, I expect no changes before the Jets game.  

On Saturday, the Michigan Wolverines silenced the 110,000+ at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA with a strong running game and no need for head coach Jim Harbaugh to be on the sidelines. The Big Ten handed him a three game suspension as punishment to the Michigan program for what is alleged to have been a sophisticated and obviously illegal sign-stealing effort. Rather than deny the allegations, Michigan's response to the charges was to accuse three other Big Ten schools of doing the same. Three corresponding wrongs don't make a right as far as I know but I admit having little knowledge of Big Ten jurisprudence in these matters. Whether they knew Penn State's signs or not, the Wolverines came up big in their first real test of the season. Harbaugh is permitted to coach the team throughout the next two weeks but will not be on the sidelines when they take on the Maryland Terrapins next Saturday and then the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Big House on the 25th in the most important game of the year in college football - as it almost always is. Michigan sought an injunction on Saturday morning reinstating Harbaugh to the sidelines with a ruling needed before the noon kick-off. It was not granted. Maybe the judge was an Ohio State alumni. No appeal was filed as the appeal court offices are closed on Saturdays. Only in America.

Also on Saturday, the Argos couldn't get it done in the Eastern Final before the largest crowd they have ever drawn at BMO Field - "announced" at more than 26,000. The CFL has not released in-game attendance figures for the past few seasons, except when it suits them like it did in this case. Too bad the home team couldn't reward the fans who turned out. Kudos to Chris Berman who included the CFL conference title games at the end of his three-minute wrap-up last night. The CFL conference championship games were formerly played on Sundays but the league figured - probably correctly - that they would draw more viewers when not directly competing with NFL games. MLB took the same approach this season with no World Series games being played on Sundays. Leaving Sundays to the NFL is the only approach which makes any sense at all. Those who watch television on Sundays in North America and are not watching NFL football are either watching Netflix or are left with B-level made-for-TV movies and maybe re-runs of Mannix, Baretta or Starsky & Hutch. A colour bar would probably do almost as well.

Up next for the Bills is another home game against the Jets on Sunday at 4.25pm. It doesn't seem plausible to think that things will turn around now. On a weekend which featured no less than six games decided by last-second field goals (including last night's game obviously), one caller to WGR reflected before I turned the radio off: "the Bills have taken the joy out of watching football". 

      

Bengals 24, Bills 18

As game-time approached last night, I was feeling relaxed. Not because I thought the Bills would win the game against the Bengals but because it seemed so likely that they wouldn't. And they didn't disappoint the pundits, did they? Jason Garrett, who, as someone pointed out earlier in the season, looks like he's in love with Maria Taylor (and why wouldn't he be although she is clearly pregnant and there is no evidence I have seen that Garrett had anything to do with it), was the only one of the cast of studio analysts, NFL "insiders", pundits, wagering experts and other hangers-on who form part of Sunday Night Football (the highest-rated television program in the US), who picked the Bills to win the game. So I decided to forego my usual superstitious rituals of where and how I sit to watch the game and I was actually quite relaxed during most of the evening and had a better sleep than I usually would have because of it. It's called "managing expectations" and I executed my game plan perfectly. 

In baseball, the old saying is "at home, play for the tie; on the road, play for the win". I guess that's what Sean McDermott was thinking when the Bills finally got their second touchdown of the game with less than four minutes to go and then they gambled and were successful on their two point attempt to come to within six points of the Bengals. Stefon Diggs scored all eight points on the touchdown and convert and did a great job getting both feet down on the convert. As he went to the ground and rolled, he took the legs from under an obese security official wearing a powder blue jacket whose back was turned to the play. It looked like the fat man might have landed on Diggs who got up slowly afterward. I clearly remember a game in Orchard Park in 2005 where a touchdown was scored at the back of the endzone and the receiver and defender both landed at full speed and rolled toward the wall, taking out the legs of a large security guard whose back was also turned away from the play. The blind-side crash broke both of the security guy's legs (quite gruesome to see - sort of the like the Joe Theismann break but times two) which delayed the game for a few minutes. These security guys are always large and they fall hard, especially when they don't see it coming. I have no injury update on the powder blue jacket guy. Maybe Diggs can tell us more about what happened. 

Speaking of injuries, I don't know how many more the  Bills defence can withstand. Terrel Bernard left the game with a head injury (and will probably be in the concussion protocol this week) and Christian Benford left with a hamstring injury. Neither played at all in the second half. Newcomers Rasul Douglas and Linval Joseph were used sparingly but both made contributions. Joseph stuffed Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow on a sneak play by grabbing Burrow's buttocks and crotch and lifting him about three yards behind the line of scrimmage. Douglas looked fine but was burned by Ja'Marr Chase for 32 yards to help set up the Bengals final field goal to put them up 14. 

Looking over the boxscore, statistically, the Bills fared ok in terms of total yards gained and first downs but the Bengals did not turn the ball over and the Bills did twice. The first, a Josh Allen interception ended up not costing them but Dalton Kinkaid's fumble in the fourth quarter was a killer as the Bills were driving to make it a one score game with about 13 minutes remaining. As the crack NBC camera crew were able to isolate so clearly, the ball was perfectly punched from his hand while in mid-air. Not many players would be able to hang on to the ball in that situation and I don't blame Kincaid at all for it. he had another nice game and is starting to show why he was their top pick in April's draft.  

Saturday brought another slate of lopsided college games. Michigan was unable to cover the 32 point spread in a 41-13 win over Purdue at the Big House but next Saturday at noon brings - finally - a meaningful game against a ranked opponent as they travel to State College, PA to face the 9th ranked Nittany Lions. Ridiculous as it is but this will be the first real test for the Wolverines this season. They are 4.5 point road favourites. 

So, at 5-4 now, the Bills have a tough road ahead. Their remaining schedule is the toughest in the league but with two winnable home games coming up, there is still a long way to go and I have not lost hope. The way I look at it, that's part of what being a fan is. Up next, the Denver Broncos, who are coming off their bye week, come to Orchard Park for yet another prime time game - the Bills second appearance on Monday Night Football this season (to go along with their two Sunday Nighters). Then the Jets come to town for a Sunday afternoon game in the 4.25pm time slot. If they can get to 7-4 before they go to Philadelphia the following week, who knows what their fate night be.       

Bills 24, Buccaneers 18

The NFL trade deadline is fast approaching (it's tomorrow at 4pm eastern time) and the Buffalo Bills are considered to be buyers rather than sellers. I would certainly hope so. With their 2022 first round pick Kaiir Elam not dressing - a healthy scratch once again - for this past Thursday's game against the Bucs and with Tre White lost for the season, the most urgent need appears to be at cornerback. The NFL doesn't see nearly as much in-season trading (or even off-season trading for that matter) as we see in baseball or hockey but the Bills are really hoping to land some help in the defensive backfield. I've also seen reports that they are looking to bolster the running back position after Damien Harris went down against the Giants. It was rumoured last week that the Bills were leading contenders to land Derrick Henry from Tennessee but the Titans apparently informed Henry a couple of days ago that he will not be moved at the deadline. We'll see what happens but I'm not expecting anything earth shattering. I don't think it's too early any more to declare Elam a bust as a first round draft pick. Soon-to-be 36 year-old Josh Norman, who re-joined the team less then three weeks ago, dressed for the Bucs game while Elam sat. I can't think of a more difficult position to play in professional sports than NFL cornerback (with the possible exception of an NHL goaltender) but Elam seems not to have shown whatever Brandon Beane and the Bills scouting staff foresaw in him when they picked him 23rd overall in April, 2022. Maybe he just doesn't fit in Sean McDermott's defensive scheme. It's hard to say but he has had every opportunity to earn a starting job and just hasn't come through. Maybe he will excel with another team one day but I don't expect him to play much more for the Bills. I hope I'm wrong and that he figures it out and plays many years as a solid starting cornerback in Buffalo but the prospects of that seem remote today.

The game on Thursday against the Bucs was promising in many ways for Bills fans. The offensive game plan was more creative with some no huddle, some Josh Allen designed runs, good ball distribution to players not named Stefon Diggs and it generally looked less predictable and more dangerous. The Bills were clearly the better team on Thursday - I'll stop short of saying that they dominated the game - but, for the third straight game the Bills found a way to allow their opponent to whittle the game down to its last play or close to it before the outcome was decided. The Patriots came away with a win while the Giants and Bucs both had shots to win and each could have had yet another shot after their last ones had pass interference been called as it probably should have been in each case (the Giants should have benefitted from a second consecutive PI call). Pundits refer to this business of letting teams hang around until the end as the lack of ability to "close out games". Good teams seem to have it while bad teams do not. The Bills need to find it again. As I said last week, the Miami game  four weeks ago now feels like it's from another season.

The Bills upcoming schedule will not be kind to those of us who like to watch our teams play on Sunday at 1pm. Thursday's game was the first of three consecutive prime time games followed by four straight games in the 4.25pm Sunday time slot. The Bills will not play again on Sunday at 1pm until New Year's Eve when the Patriots come to Orchard Park. Successful teams with high profile quarterbacks get "rewarded" with these prime time and late afternoon Sunday games which look like fun when the schedule is released in April but in practice, for me anyway, they disrupt my sleep schedule and generally leave me feeling out of sorts. I realize that Patriots fans had to endure this throughout their twenty-year reign as perennial contenders. I wonder if they're happy with their mediocre team and mostly 1pm Sunday time slots. Maybe Tom Brady got out because he just wanted to get some more sleep.   

I watched most of the Bengals game in San Francisco yesterday. As an AFC contender, my default wish was that they would lose but if they had, they would be highly motivated to get back in the win column this week against the Bills. They certainly looked good against one of the better defences in the league and my confidence level in the Bills defence being able to slow them down isn't high at the moment. Mixon can run well and Jamar Chase is a top three receiver in the league. The only way I see the Bills winning in Cincinnati is by a score of something in the range of 41-38. The intangible emotional impact of Damar Hamlin's return to Paycor Stadium almost ten months to the day from his near-death experience is tough to quantify but if it provides an edge to either team, I give it to the Bills, especially if Hamlin is active for the game. Another Sunday Night Football appearance and another late night awaits next weekend. As the song says, I'll be waiting all day for Sunday night......but I'd rather just get it over with right after lunch.       

Patriots 29, Bills 25

Only two coaches in NFL history have more regular season wins under their belts than Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Those two are Don Shula and George Halas. Belichick hit a significant milestone yesterday by recording his 300th regular season win against the Bills in Foxborough, MA. He stands only 18 wins behind Halas and 28 behind Shula. If you had asked me before yesterday's game if current Patriots quarterback Mac Jones would be the one to deliver the 19 and/or 29 wins Belichick needed to move up in the pecking order of coaching wins, I would have said no. But after his performance yesterday, leading his team from behind on a game-winning drive to deliver the winning touchdown pass with seconds remaining - although it came against an injury-depleted Bills defence - I will now say that he just might be. Yesterday's game may be the break-out moment Jones and the Patriots' fan base needed to bolster his confidence and begin to regain the team's winning tradition. The NFL is a humbling league where you're only as good as your last game. Just ask Bills quarterback Josh Allen.  

For the first time since probably the 2019 season, the Bills now do not look like a team in serious contention for - or at least with a legitimate shot at - a Superbowl championship. There is obviously a long way to go and with the team now at 4-3, all is not lost but the trend is not encouraging. Josh Allen's "nothing to see here" answers about his throwing shoulder this past week may not have been entirely accurate as his throws certainly looked off at times yesterday - starting with his very first throw for an interception which set up the Patriots first touchdown and staked them to a 10-0 lead. His offensive line struggled in pass protection much of the day and that didn't help but Allen and the offence have seemed out of sorts over the past three weeks. They need to regain the swagger they had in the Miami game which now seems like it was from another season although it was only three weeks ago. With so many injuries on the defence, the generally healthy offence is supposed to pick it up. Instead, they are regressing. 

In the AFC, the Chiefs once again have the inside track on coveted number one seed after disposing of the Chargers yesterday. The Eagles who, along with the 49ers who play tonight in Minnesota, are the class of the NFC this morning. The Eagles did the Bills a huge favour last night by beating the Dolphins who fell to 5-2, only one game ahead of the Bills who hold the tie-breaker against them. The Dolphins five wins have come against teams with a combined record of 8-25 and they have lost both games against teams with winning records (the Bills and Eagles). Still on the schedule for the Bills this season are the Chiefs, Eagles and the Dolphins in Miami. So, the opportunities for the Bills to regain their championship form will certainly present themselves but look for them to drop out of the top ten in this week's power rankings - and for good reason. 

Continuing with last week's thread on the college football schedule, Michigan faced its cross-state rivals Michigan State on Saturday with the Paul Bunyan Trophy at stake. This was the 116th meeting between the two schools which first faced each other in 1898 and have played every season since 1945. This year's game was in East Lansing and the Wolverines found themselves in unfamiliar territory, favoured by only 24 points. The game looked more like a football practice as the Wolverines won 49-0. I guess Jim Harbaugh has been much better at recruiting the best players in the state (and beyond) than have the Spartans. The  Wolverines won't be shellac-ing anyone this week as they have a bye before returning home to Ann Arbor on November 4th against the Purdue Boilermakers. The spread in that game should be at least 30 points as the uncompetitive college football schedule rolls on. 

Next up for the Bills is a home game three days from now - Thursday Night Football - against the Tampa Bay Bucanneers. If I could pick one of 31 NFL teams with which the Bills have the most "opposite of a rivalry", it  would be the Bucs. This is the 13th meeting all-time between the teams and only the third time the Bucs have ever travelled to Orchard Park. The Bucs lead the all-time series 8-4 but the Bills have won both games in Buffalo - in 2009 and in 2017. The Bills are 7.5 point favourites. I'm too old to be driving home (safely) at 2.30am and based on what's available on the secondary market, ticket demand for this game is weak. If anyone wants to go and see NFL football from the best seats in the house, let me know.      

Bills 14, Giants 9

Throughout Tyrod Taylor's three seasons as Bills starting quarterback, he earned the reputation as a very competent game manager: he is a good athlete who can scramble to sustain drives, his ball security is almost always impeccable and he can make some of the throws which an NFL quarterback needs to make. But at particularly crucial times, his arm strength and accuracy would often fail him. I have oodles of respect for Taylor as the man who was under centre when the Bills 17 year playoff drought ended in Sean McDermott's first season six years ago. Last night in Orchard Park, Taylor made just enough plays to give his team a good chance to win but on the final play of a long and frustrating game, he was unable to deliver the pass to tight end Darren Waller. He has parlayed his talent and consistency into an impressive NFL career (mostly as a back-up) but has not been able to make key plays at critical times. Last night, in addition to coming up short at the end of the game, his audible on what turned out to be the final play of the first half cost his team a chance at crucial points which probably would have changed the trajectory of the game. Giants coach Brian Daboll, a hot-head at the best of times, was in full melt-down as the teams went to their locker rooms with the Giants leading 6-0. 

The Giants, now 1-5, played as if their season was on the line - which it was. Wink Martindale, the 89 year-old former disc jockey and game show host turned defensive coordinator (how can two somewhat famous people with the same last name end up with the same nickname?) dialed up a solid defensive game plan which kept the Bills scoreless through three quarters. But he got little support from Taylor and the offence which could not find the endzone all night. The Giants effort and grit was impressive in a losing cause. It was clear that Daboll and Taylor really wanted this one - not only to try to salvage their season but on account of their respective histories in Buffalo. It must have been a bitter way to lose.

For the Bills part, they looked out of sync on offence for most of the game before finally finding the endzone twice in the fourth quarter. Josh Allen took some big hits including one where his helmet hit the turf, earning him banishment to the blue tent for two plays. He also wrenched his throwing shoulder although he finished the game and post-game X-rays were negative. We will hear more about this shoulder in the next couple of days. The Bills tight-end depth helped as little-used Quinton Morris, targeted for the first time all season, caught what turned out to be the game-winning score on a classic Josh Allen high risk thread-the-needle throw on a scramble with less than four minutes remaining. 

A word on college football: Having attended a game at the Big House in Ann Arbor 20 years ago, I am a casual to sometimes serious fan of the Michigan Wolverines. Through seven weeks of the season, Jim Harbaugh's team has maintained its number two national ranking in the AP poll. How the poll voters can really know how good the Wolverines really are is beyond me as they have won all of their games by a combined score of 276 to 47. They have been double digit favourites in every game including this past Saturday where the spread was posted at 33 against the Indiana Hoosiers who as far as I know are quite good at basketball. Michigan won 52-7. In short, the college football schedule is a mystery to me with so many lop-sided games, especially in the first few weeks of the season. The Wolverines have feasted on the likes of East Carolina, Bowling Green and UNLV - with all of these game played at the Big House before crowds of more than 108,000. I don't know who benefits from these mis-matches. Certainly not the Michigan fans unless they value being able to leave before halftime to beat the traffic. Aside from the season finale against Ohio State, the Wolverines will not face any legitimate competition at all this season with the exception of a trip to State College PA to pay the Nittany Lions on November 11th. I guess there just aren't enough quality teams for the NCAA to present a competitive schedule in September and October as the top 10 programs in the country sign all of the top national recruits every year. Maybe the time has come for a high school draft. College football remains popular with television ratings up this year but I can only imagine how much more compelling the games would be with more competitive balance throughout the season.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to Foxborough to play the sad-sack Patriots who sit at 1-5 as their fans question whether Bill Belichick is still a good coach and if Mac Jones is a legitimate franchise quarterback. Gillette Stadium was death valley for the Bills (and most other teams) for so many years, it's still hard for Bills fans to feel comfortable about it but maybe with the ill-fated trip to London and last night's nail-biter in the rear view mirror, the time has come for the team to regain their form as a Superbowl contender.  

   

Jaguars 25, Bills 20

The Jaguars and the Bills stand first and second in the NFL in terms of the most regular season games played outside the United States. The Jaguars have unwittingly become London's team after agreeing some years ago to play at least one game per season at Wembley Stadium for an extended period. Team owner Shahid Khan jumped at the "opportunity" when his team was a perennial league doormat and was suffering attendance problems in north Florida. Rather than have vast sections of empty seats in the upper deck (which look awful on television - like most CFL games do these days), the Jaguars made large tarps (with team branding) to entirely cover sections in the upper corners of EverBank Stadium in an effort to make the stadium look "full". Losing one home game annually to an overseas location seemed better than struggling to sell tickets at home. Now that his team is respectable at worst and a legitimate contender at best, Khan may be regretting his commitment but yesterday's win over the bad luck Buffalo Bills marks the team's second consecutive win in the UK this season. Their first win came last week against the Falcons at Wembley.

The Bills hold second position in games played outside the US because former team owner Ralph Wilson decided in 2008 to play one home game each season in Toronto for a period of five years. The Bills ended up seeing that five year commitment through and adding one more game in 2013. Rogers communications made Wilson an offer so good for the first five years (which also included one pre-season game each season)  that he couldn't - or at least didn't - turn it down. The "Toronto Series" was a disaster by any standard of measurement as the team lost its considerable home field advantage as well as all but one of the games. With losses to the Dolphins, Jets, Bears, Seahawks and Falcons in regular season play at the Rogers Centre, fans in Buffalo were furious while fans in Toronto seemed indifferent at best. The Bills only win in Toronto came in 2011 against Washington and Bills fans may remember that the team signed quarterback Ryan "Fitzmagic" Fitzpatrick to a lucrative contract extension following that game. He went on afterward to earn the nickname "Fitztragic" for good reason. The Toronto series left the Bills with a record of one win and five losses in what were supposed to be "home" games. Toronto fans' proved that, while there are plenty of NFL fans in the area, not all - certainly not enough - are Bills fans.

In 2015, the Bills headed to London to play the Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in the team's first game outside the US since the Toronto debacle. Quarterback EJ Manuel put on an interception clinic in a 34-31 loss - a score which flattered the Bills who scored a couple of late touchdown to make the score look close. Entering yesterday's game, the Bills took their 1-6 international record to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London and added another failure to the loss column. I saw almost none of the game as we were engaged in the moving of a building at the cottage - a project which was extremely difficult, fraught with problems, took two entire days but was ultimately successful (except for some minor damage to the roof). I did pop inside just as Matt Milano was being helped off the field in what looked like great discomfort. He is probably lost for the season with a leg break or a knee injury (or both), according to reports I read last night. His leg was "rolled up on" in what is a very common way to be seriously injured in football. After avoiding the injury bug for the first five years of the Sean McDermott era, reversion to mean is happening in real time this year to the Bills who have lost a star defensive player in each of the last two games - Tre White last week and now Milano who is one of the best linebackers in the NFL and one who played every down. Recovery from these injuries is certainly possible but it will take an offensive explosion every week to overcome them. If Josh Allen can lead the team to 40 points every week, they may have a chance but based on yesterday's mostly anemic performance by the offence, my confidence level is not high at the moment.

But, the Bills next three opponents - the Giants, Patriots and Buccaneers - may be just what the doctor ordered to get their offence back on track. Maria Taylor and the Sunday Night Football crew come to Orchard Park next week as the Giants visit the Bills. After a sizzling first half of the season and a road playoff win for then rookie head coach (and former Bills offensive coordinator) Brian Daboll in 2022, the Giants have been a disappointment so far this season, getting blown out yesterday in Miami. For the Bills, at least there are no more games on foreign soil on the schedule.

Bills 48, Dolphins 20

The Miami Dolphins joined the AFL in 1966 and since then the Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills have played each other twice each regular season. The two teams have also squared off in five playoff games. Yesterday's meeting was the 120th in the history of the series which has seen periods of domination by one team or the other as well as periods of parity and very intense competition. That's a lot of football games between two teams but is well behind the Bears v. Packers who have met more than 200 times. The Dolphins lead the regular season series 61 to 53 with one tie. The Bills have won four of the five playoff match-ups including the AFC Championship Game in Miami in January of 1993 and a first round playoff game in Orchard Park in January of this year. 

Due mostly to recency bias, many Bills fans probably consider the rivalry with the New England Patriots to be the fiercest one they know but historically, the Bills v. Dolphins rivalry has a much deeper meaning, particularly for those who remember the 1970s. Led by coach Don Shula and quarterback Bob Griese, the Dolphins dominated the Bills throughout the entire decade of the 70s, winning each and every one of the 20 games played between 1970 and 1979. The frustration of Bills fans through this period was not relieved until 1980 when Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson broke the streak with a home win which sent fans streaming onto the field like we often see in a major college upset. I think I have seen the Bills play the Dolphins five times with the biggest game by far taking place on December 23, 1990. With Jim Kelly injured, Frank Reich led the Bills to a critical home win which secured the AFC East division title and home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs as they earned their first trip to the Superbowl. One of the most iconic images in Bills history is a photo taken during this game where Bruce Smith has his arms wrapped around Dan Marino as he brings him to the concrete-like astroturf. "Squish the Fish" is the Bills fans rallying cry for this rivalry. It was never more appropriate than it was yesterday in Orchard Park.

The Dolphins offence seemed unstoppable after the first three weeks of the season, especially after they hung 70 points on the Broncos last week. The game began as predicted with the two teams trading touchdowns on each of their first two drives. The Bills scored again on their third drive and then began stiffening their defence before pulling away. The 31 points the Bills racked up in the first half was the most in a half in 30 years. The Bills skilled players on offence shined throughout the game and the defence played well enough to slow the Dolphins down as much as was needed. 

The postgame celebration for Bills fans however had a bittersweet aftertaste. Tre'Davious White, the standout cornerback now in his seventh season is probably lost for the season (to be confirmed today by MRI) with an Achilles tear. When the Bills face the New York Jets in November, perhaps White and Aaron Rodgers can sit together and compare notes on season-ending Achilles injuries. For White, this will be the second season-ending injury in the last three years. The most infuriating part for him I would think is that both of these injuries were "non-contact" - as in caused either by the turf or just an awkward body movement. On Thanksgiving Day in 2021, White tore ligaments in his left knee just by catching his shoe on the turf which flexed his knee sideways. He did return a year later but was not 100% until the beginning of this season. Now an Achilles tear will keep him out presumably until 2024. For a sport known for its violent hits, head injuries and 300 pound linemen falling on other players legs, a player like White who has now had two major non-contact injuries must feel like the most unlucky football player ever. 

In response to player injuries, coaches like the phrase "next man up" as injuries present opportunities for whoever is the next man up. For the Bills, that man surely is Kaiir Elam. Last year's 23rd overall pick has been inconsistent at best (he was a healthy scratch in week one) and lost the second cornerback competition to Christian Benford who was drafted five rounds later. This is obviously the best opportunity Elam will have to show why the Bills made him their first round pick in 2022. Let's hope he rises to it.

Sean McDermott was quite emotional after the game when describing White's injury. He also said that in all his years in the NFL, he has never heard crown noise at any time in any stadium like he did yesterday. He said it was like a jet engine. Watching on television, it seemed loud as it always does but I didn't get the feeling that it was above and beyond the usual. It would have been a great game to see live as long as you brought plenty of sunscreen. 

Next up for the Bills is an overseas trip to face the Jaguars in London. Kick-off is set for 9.30am Eastern on Sunday. I hope to have my turkey stuffed and ready to go into the oven before game time. I'd like to extend a personal thank you to TcketMaster UK for shutting me out of their site and denying me tickets to the game despite the "special season ticket holder preferred access pre-sale" link I received. I'd say that one of the most challenging jobs I can think of would be Communications or Public Relations Director for this highly unethical company. I won't be applying.          

Bills 37, Commanders 3

Throughout most of the 1990s,Toronto sports radio personality Bob McCown maintained a residence in Las Vegas and often did his syndicated radio program Prime Time Sports from his home studio. After having his usual time slot taken from him by "Tim and Sid", McCown left the airwaves of the Fan 590 in Toronto in 2019 (after quite a public expression of his displeasure with the demotion) and earlier this year he suffered two serious strokes which left him unable to walk or speak - although he said this summer through his Twitter account that he is on the mend and hopes to be back doing his sports podcast again before too long. I remember McCown saying repeatedly that by far the best place to be for a Superbowl was Las Vegas. I presume that what he meant was that it was the best place to be if you couldn't actually be at the game in person.

Now that online sports gambling platforms have earned official status in most jurisdictions in North America (the television ads are ubiquitous on almost all live sports broadcasts) and now that the league has officially climbed into bed with them, NFL viewership ratings are climbing even further - something I doubted was even possible. With the Raiders now settled into a new stadium in Las Vegas, the Superbowl will be played there in a few months. The combination of the frenzy that takes over the sports books in the big Vegas hotels for the Superbowl and with the big game actually taking place there, Vegas will truly be the place to be in early February for even the most casual football fan. 

Last week, I received an email from the league setting out a few of the Superbowl packages offered by the major hotels on the Vegas strip. For a bit more than $14,000 USD, you can enjoy three nights at the Wynn, admission to the Superbowl Players Tailgate Party which features appearances by 50 NFL celebrities, a five-star food menu created by celebrity chefs, an open bar etc etc. The party will apparently not feature open fires in a parking lot which typifies the kind of tailgating we experience in Orchard Park. The package obviously includes ground transfers to and from Allegiant Stadium and a game ticket but air transportation to Las Vegas is not included. Since attending a Superbowl has long been an item on my own bucket list (although it is not really near the top), perusing these Superbowl packages did cause me to fantasize about it and if I were in a position to piss away $20,000 CAD on a Vegas weekend at the Superbowl, it would be tempting. But in the course of indulging my fantasy, I realized that my bucket list item is really to attend a Superbowl in which the Buffalo Bills are playing.

Although we may know well in advance that the Bills will not be playing in the big game, if they do in fact make it to their first Superbowl in 30 years, we will not know this until after the AFC Championship game - two weeks before the Superbowl. What will the price for these hotel packages be by then (if they are available at all) and what will a flight to Vegas cost if it is booked so close to the game, I asked myself. Why am I even wondering about this I also asked myself.... Then I remembered that if the Bills do make it to the big game, as a season ticket holder I will be entered in a Superbowl ticket lottery which I now realize is not only my best chance but my only chance of getting to the big game. I have it all planned out: After winning a pair of the tickets allocated to each Superbowl team (or winning the option to purchase them), I would drive my car to the California desert and camp in Death Valley National Park (as I have done before) and make the two hour drive to Las Vegas on game day. I might even watch the Superbowl Players Tailgate Party from outside the fence. So that's my plan to attend Superbowl LVIII in Las Vegas: the Bills win the AFC Championship Game, I win the ticket lottery, drive there and camp in Death Valley. It's a solid plan. Wish me luck.

Some of this fantasizing was made possible yesterday by a dominant performance by the Bills in Landover, Maryland. The game was not as close as the score would indicate as the Bills found the endzone three times in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 37-0. By this point, I was looking at  specific campsites at the Furnace Creek campground. Buffalo's defence was too much for Commanders quarterback Sam "Thurston" Howell who threw four interceptions and was sacked nine times. 

In south Florida, the Miami Dolphins racked up no less than 10 touchdowns against the inept Broncos defence. The 70 points the Dolphins scored was the most in an NFL game since 1966 and the 726 yards of total offence was the second most ever in league history. Denver coach Sean Payton called his team's performance "embarrassing". 

These same Miami Dolphins, now 3-0, travel to Orchard Park next week in what will be a huge test for the Bills defence. For a week four game, there is plenty at stake: a Bills win would pull them even with Miami in the AFC East with a hold on the tie-breaker while a loss would put them two games behind with the Dolphins holding the tie-breaker (which would effectively give them a three game lead).  

Bills 38, Raiders 10

The Oakland (then Los Angeles then back to Oakland and now Las Vegas) Raiders tenure at the decrepit Oakland Alameda County Coliseum dates back to 1966 and, by all accounts, the stadium has not aged well. The Athletics baseball team - arguably MLB's weakest franchise at the moment - still calls it home (and plays most of its games before crowds of well below 10,000) but the Raiders, who have actually moved away from it twice, departed for good before the 2020 season. Overseeing the move to Las Vegas was the team's current "owner" Mark Davis. The only child of Al and Carol Davis, Mark assumed the de facto role of owner upon his father's death in 2011 when the team was left to his mother and him. Together, they own 47% of the team but under its governing partnership agreement, they hold a controlling interest. For having permanently moved the team away from Oakland, Mark Davis probably isn't the most popular personality in the Bay area or among certain traditional elements of Raiders Nation (which has a large membership across the US and beyond). 

Al Davis was one of the NFL's most colourful and controversial personalities. He is the only person in NFL history to serve as scout, head coach, general manager, league commissioner (for the AFL) and team owner. He was known as a very litigious yet highly principled man who, among his many notable actions as Raiders owner, sued the NFL in 1980 for not allowing him to move the team to Los Angeles (he succeeded in doing this two years later) and in the 1960s, he forbid his team from travelling to cities where black and white players would be required to stay in separate hotels. He hired the league's first black head coach (Art Shell) and its first Latino head coach (Tom Flores). The Raiders also became the dumping ground for some of the NFL's least savoury players (in terms of criminal records etc) and, partly in response to criticism for this, he coined the phrase "Just Win Baby". Son Mark, with his signature "bowl" haircut has followed in his father's social justice footsteps by being the first NFL owner to speak out against domestic violence in response to some of the more infamous incidents involving NFL players and when NFL owners voted to require players to either stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room until after the anthem, the Raiders were the only one of the league's 32 teams not to vote in favour of the measure (they abstained).  

As the player warm-ups wrapped up yesterday at a mostly sun-drenched Rich Stadium, from our seats at the 45 yard line, we noticed a heavy security presence making its way up the aisle beside our section. Two Erie County Sheriff's officers and at least four very large suit-attired men were escorting Mark Davis up the aisle from field level behind the Raiders bench to his private box just above our section. It wasn't clear at first what the security was for but I recognized the bowl haircut and then Davis's rather unique face below it. If any disgruntled member of Raider Nation (or perhaps anti Colin Kaepernick hammerheads) wanted to get at Mr. Davis, they were certainly not going to be successful yesterday. Despite his feeling secure in the stadium as I am sure he did, Mr. Davis probably didn't enjoy the game very much.

The Bills treated their fans to a blowout win in the home opener but the game did not start well as they allowed the Raiders an easy touchdown on their first possession and then went three-and-out on their first offensive drive. But Terrel Bernard got his hands on a tipped Jimmy Garoppolo pass on the next series and Bills tied the game shortly afterward and never looked back. Josh Allen silenced the naysayers with a tidy three touchdown day with no turnovers. A very conservative offensive game plan seemed to be the perfect remedy for his wild turnover-filled Monday night in week one. James Cook looked dangerous all day and racked up 123 yards on 17 carries. The Raiders Josh Jacobs, the league's leading rusher a season ago, was held to minus two yards on nine carries. A comfortable fourth quarter lead also allowed us to leave with a few minutes left, beat the stadium traffic and enjoy a smooth trip through the border and home as we listened to Mike Schopp and the Bulldog take post-game calls. 

Occupying the seats just to the left of mine is a father/son tandem who attend every game  The father, in his early 80s, has been a season ticket holder for 50 years. The son, who has a clear resemblance to Metallica frontman James Hetfield, is a US Postal Service worker. They are dedicated "salt-of-the-earth" fans, life-long Buffalo residents and the kind of folks who make Bills Nation one of the best fan bases in the NFL. During the many television breaks yesterday, Mr. Hetfield and I discussed the new stadium under construction across the road and we commiserated about the lack of information from the team about timelines, seat selection and the likely cost of the personal seat licences (PSLs) which will be required to maintain seats in the best sections of the new stadium (if not the entire stadium). The most recent speculation I have seen is that for seats in our section, the PSL cost will likely be somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 USD per seat (a one-time cost). Mr. Hetfield and his dad have determined that their budget could handle a cost of only about $5,000 or perhaps a bit more and they are very concerned that they will be priced out of their seats and will see their five decade long tradition come to an end in a couple of years. I have no idea what I will do once we know the cost of the these PSLs but if fans like Mr. Hetfield and his dad are shut out of the Bills new stadium for financial reasons, this would be quite sad for them and probably for many other fans in similar positions. 

Next up for the Bills is a trip to Washington to play the Commanders. They had better be careful not to look ahead to the looming week four game in Orchard Park against the now 2-0 Miami Dolphins.     

Jets 22, Bills 16

When the Green Packers came for their once-every-eight-years trip to Buffalo in 2022, it was reasonable to think that it would be Aaron Rodgers last trip to western New York as an NFL player. Whoever bought my tickets to the game must have thought so anyway - it's the only reason I can think of to pay almost $1,500 USD for a pair of tickets. "Unless he somehow ends up on the Jets next year" I said at the time. It obviously wasn't a stretch to suggest that scenario as the Jets had hired an up-and-coming, young and bright head coach in Robert Saleh and built a top tier defence but had suffered from horrible quarterback play under Zach Wilson who was benched late last season in favour of someone named Mike White. The "Gang Green" fan base in New York had grown restless with their team as they had watched the Giants, their NFC cousins, have a successful 2022 season (winning a playoff game) under former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. The Jets also own the league's longest playoff drought which dates back to 2010. The Packers were clearly going to move on from Rodgers and hand the quarterbacking reins to Jordan Love. Although the trade negotiations and the process of securing Rodgers buy-in for the deal over the off-season took longer than it should have - including his strange period of meditative isolation for several days in a remote cabin somewhere - but the deal finally received Rodgers blessing - only after his long list of requirements was met. Optimism abounded in J-E-T-S Nation through the summer, training camp and the pre-season.

Meanwhile, upstate, the 2023 off-season saw the only NFL team which is actually based in New York, (1) lose its all-important middle linebacker (the "mic" linebacker as it is known and the quarterback of the defence) Trumaine Edmunds to the Bears in free agency, (2) lose its respected defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to semi-retirement from coaching (he said he was taking 2023 off) with the head coach assuming defensive in-game play-calling, (3) lose its kick returner and back-up running back Nyheim Hines who was badly injured in a jet-ski accident in July and is gone for the season (he commenced legal action last week against the other "driver"), and (4) its star wide receiver Stefon Diggs pout about something-or-other and, although he was on-site, miss the first day of the mandatory mini-camp in May without a full explanation of the exact nature of the issue or whether or not it had been fully resolved. Head coach Sean McDermott at one point said he was "very concerned" about the situation. The team did bolster its offensive line through free agency and the draft and selected another tight-end with the initials "DK" in the first round but the Bills fell out of favour with the pundits as the season approached and were no longer the favourites to win the Superbowl as they were a year ago. But they still had their all-world quarterback in Josh Allen along with a solid veteran roster around him. 

The first Monday Night Football match-up of the season last night between these two division rivals was therefore much-anticipated by both fan bases and by NFL watchers everywhere. Add in the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 with the game in New York (actually, New Jersey) and the hype meter was at its maximum for September football last night. 

Unfortunately for the Jets, their long-suffering fans and the league itself, four offensive snaps into the game, Aaron Rodgers went down on an innocent enough looking sack tackle. His left ankle appeared to flex the way ankles aren't designed to flex and, although he got up right away, he quickly sat down on the field and was attended to by trainers. At this point, I was thinking a sprain which would take him out of the game for a series or two before they taped him up and sent him back out. But he went first into the tent, then a cart picked him at the tent (by this time he had an inflatable boot on) and took him inside. Reports late last night indicate that he may have suffered an Achilles injury and could be lost for the season. For the Jets, this was the worst possible start to their season and, trailing by 10 points at the half, they looked dead in the water.

But Josh Allen, looking more like a rookie than a six-year veteran, singlehandedly turned the game around for the home team by turning the ball over four separate times: three interceptions - each of which looked to have been thrown into double coverage - and a late fumble deep in his own end with the game tied and the clock winding down. The Jets managed only a field goal on the next series and Allen led his team into position for Tyler Bass to connect (just barely) on the 50 yard field goal to send the game to overtime. The Jets sent their fans home happy (until they learned the news on Rodgers anyway) by returning a punt for a touchdown and pulling out an unlikely 22-16 win.

Week One was not a good one for the AFC's three top quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes played well enough in the Chiefs loss to the Lions but Joe Burrow, now the NFL's highest paid player, looked like he should have been earning the league minimum in the Bengals loss to Cleveland. And last night, Josh Allen somehow reverted to being a turnover machine. Do these three losses by the top three teams in the conference portend what is to come for the rest of 2023? The only thing I can say with (some) certainty is that I wouldn't want to have to play the Chiefs, Bengals or the Bills in week two. Look for each of them to rebound. The Dolphins just might be the team to beat in the AFC.  

Speaking of week two, the Bills return home on a short week to face the Las Vegas Raiders in Orchard Park on Sunday in the home opener - the third last home opener at Rich Stadium (as I have decided, for nostalgic reasons, to once again call it). It will be my first trip to Buffalo since 2019.        

Bengals 27, Bills 10

The final score was flattering to the Buffalo Bills whose season ended yesterday in typical snowy January Buffalo weather. The Cincinnati Bengals carried on right where they had left off 20 days earlier when they looked like they could move the ball down the field at will - at least on their first two drives. The first quarter was really all we needed to see in terms of how the game was going to go with the Bengals taking what felt like a commanding 14 point lead. The Bills got spanked fair and square by a team which looked prepared, motivated and determined to dominate the line of scrimmage on both offence and defence. As the second half began, Tony Romo said that such dominance rarely changes at halftime. He was right.  

If Bills fans are being honest about it, the cracks have been evident for a while now. Starting with the truncated game in Cincinnati on January 2nd and carrying on through the games against the Patriots and Dolphins - two teams which the Bills should have handled easily but struggled to pull away from. The early season success had clearly slipped away. Why? On the FOX broadcast, Sean Payton reminded viewers that the Bills pass rush has been anemic since Von Miller went down on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit. His presence, particularly on third down, was obviously missed more than we really knew or were willing to acknowledge. 

Jim Nantz mentioned an interesting statistic about the Bills playoff success playing in the now 50 year-old stadium in Orchard Park: They had only ever lost one home playoff game there before yesterday. Not that there were really very many of them outside the four Superbowl years. It was a game I remember well: December, 1996 against Jacksonville. The game had not sold out in time for the television blackout to be lifted so I drove to London, Ontario (outside the blackout zone) and watched it with my friend Jim at a bar downtown. On the game's deciding play late in the fourth quarter, Jim Kelly was sacked hard and fumbled the ball away. He suffered a concussion and would never suit up in the NFL again. The game was certainly closer than yesterday's was. 

I did end up buying two tickets to the theoretical (and now moot) game in Atlanta as Bills and Chiefs season ticket holders were given priority access to tickets last week. the NFL announced that this resulted in more than 50,000 ticket sales even before any public sale. Last week I wondered if the Jaguars might save me a trip to Atlanta by winning in Kansas City. Turns out that it was the Bengals who ended the possibility of a neutral site game. Last night, I was reminded of the eight World Series tickets I bought in October, 1985 after the Blue Jays had taken a three games to one lead over the Royals in the ALCS before eventually losing in seven games on a Jim Sundberg windblown shot off the top of the right field wall. That was when tickets really were tickets and not a barcode in a phone. They were beautiful: at least 8 inches long and three inches wide with the World Series trophy shown prominently. I took a photo of them before mailing them in for my refund. I think they were about $100 each which was a lot almost 40 years ago.

I had a lovely ski before the game yesterday and I was feeling eerily confident as it started. That confidence evaporated immediately as the Bengals scored easily on the first drive and never looked back. At least there was no heart-breaking ending like there was in last year's Divisional Round game in Kansas City. 

I will be rooting for the Bengals next week for a few reasons. Top among them was the way that they handled the Damar Hamlin injury by agreeing to suspend the game and with the Bengals fan base showing compassion and support for Hamlin in the aftermath. And they've been to three Superbowls without a win to show for it. In fact, they made it to the big game in three different eras with three different quarterbacks: Ken Anderson in 1981, Boomer Esiason in 1988 and Joe Burrow last year. Maybe their time has come. 

As for the Bills, I am confident that they will regroup, draft appropriately and continue the "process" with full continuity with the general manager and head coach. They have been a playoff team five of the last six years. We should be thankful and remain hopeful. After all, this is the year of the rabbit in Chinese astrology. This is said to portend longevity, peace and prosperity. 2023 in particular is predicted to be a year of hope.  

     

Bills 34, Dolphins 31

About 15 years ago, a former colleague of mine (you know who you are JA) attended a mortgage conference somewhere in the US where long-time NFL referee Jeff Triplette gave a non-mortgage related luncheon keynote. He was able to speak at some length with Triplette afterward. One of his comments which stood out was that, in addition to the obvious objective of getting calls on the field correct as much as possible, a key metric on which NFL referees are graded is their ability to keep games at or as close to three hours in duration as they possibly can. It did seem a bit surprising to me that this would be considered so important to the league but there are very good reasons why it is. Yesterday in Orchard Park, Brad Allen's crew failed miserably at this as the game, which did not include overtime, lasted a minute or two short of a full four hours. For whatever reason, the first half didn't end until almost 3pm and, for Bills fans anyway, this only added to the stress and frustration of a playoff game which their team could have easily lost. Multiple video reviews of catches which were ruled good on the field then overturned were the main culprit and the officiating crew had little control over this but for those of us who wanted to get some exercise in the last hour of daylight yesterday afternoon, the final review of Devin Singletary's almost but maybe not quite first down which was ruled a first down on the field and confirmed by review (where it was impossible to tell from any camera angle) took until almost 5pm. A four hour non-overtime game. 

FOX carried the Giants v. Vikings game which began just after 4.30pm. Most NFL viewers would probably have watched the Bills.v Dolphins to the end (targeted to be around 4pm) then switched to the FOX pregame. The FOX audience was probably pretty small until the Bills game finally ended and this is why the league, its broadcasters and television advertisers needed the Bills game to end within the three hour time frame. Overtime is one thing. But a four hour regulation game which cuts out another broadcaster's entire pregame show and part of the first quarter of its game is unacceptable and I am sure that it will be a main topic of discussion this morning on Park Avenue.

The Dolphins sure did play the Bills tough all three times they played this season. All of the games were close and either team could have gone 3-0 or 0-3. The Dolphins 1-2 mark seems fair I suppose but yesterday's performance, going in as 14 point underdogs, was pretty impressive. Or did the Bills just come in a bit flat and almost blow it? Who's to say but the main thing is that, as Josh Allen said afterward, every game is a one-game season now you just have to win and then move on to next week. Allen was responsible for three turnovers himself (not unusual for him) but he made some spectacular plays (also not unusual) en route to a 23 for 39 day with 352 yards and two touchdowns. Gabe Davis made the best play he has made all season with his catch and toe-tap for what was eventually the winning score. 

I just can not stay up these days for the non-Bills night games. On Saturday night, we turned on the Chargers game after dinner when they were leading 10-0. Then 17-0, then 24-0, then 27-0 as Trevor Lawrence appeared to be running an interception workshop with Asante Samuel, Jr working the other side of the line of scrimmage for demonstration purposes. The NBC broadcast showed a stone-faced Jaguars owner Shad Khan in his box with Roger Goodell, both staring straight forward as if they were really nowhere near each other, along with distraught Jags fans whose hopes of home playoff win seemed to have been dashed. The visiting Chargers were favoured by two points and it obviously should have been much more as the Jaguars were clearly not quite ready for a prime time playoff game. We went to sleep. I awoke around 2am, checked my phone and it said that the Jags had won the game 31-30. It's a relatively new phone which hadn't given me any trouble so far but that score must have been from a game in 1990s I thought. So I pressed ctrl+alt+delete (notionally) and got the same result. For the Chargers, a collapse of this magnitude is tough to swallow but good on the Jags. I wish them all the best in Kansas City. If they can win there, it could save me a trip to Atlanta.

The resumption/rematch of the Bengals v. Bills game which drew attention for the wrong reasons on January 2nd, goes on Sunday at 3pm. The Bills are early four point favourites but I predict that the line will tighten as the week goes on. I saw only the first half of the Bengals game last night with the Ravens taking a 10-9 lead into halftime. This should be a much tougher test for the Bills defence than the Dolphins were. This might be the game to go to. It would be my first one in more than three years.   

Bills 35, Patriots 23

Opening day of the 2007 NFL season - Sunday September 9th - was an unseasonably cool and wet day in Orchard Park, NY.  My seats were near the 30 yard line, south side tunnel end of the stadium. After attempting a tackle on the return of the second half kick-off, Bills tight end and special teamer Kevin Everett lay motionless on the field. Medical staff ran out, the stretcher board appeared, then the ambulance. I think I remember him giving the "thumbs-up" but I'm not sure about that. Away he went, the game resumed and the Bills lost 15-14 on a Denver field goal as time expired. We wouldn't learn the extent of Everett's injuries or of his grim short-term prognosis until later that evening. The most remarkable outcome from the event was that, despite doctors giving him a statistically very small chance to walk again, he indeed did walk again. In the days following the injury, he made slow incremental progress, finally being able to move his arms and wiggle his toes after a few days. Aside from spinal surgery which included a bone graft and a plate with screws between his third and fourth vertebrae, the medical team's best move - described as experimental at the time - was to cool Everett's body and spinal cord immediately after the injury by way of ice water immersion and cold intravenous treatment. Four months later, Everett sat with Roger Goodell at the Superbowl and, on opening day the following season, he walked on to the field in Buffalo to receive the George Halas Award, given every year since 1969 to the NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes the most adversity in order to succeed.

Last Monday's truncated game in Cincinnati brought me back to that day 15 years earlier. But it was obviously a much more dire situation for Bills safety Damar Hamlin, at least in the short term. Bills Trainer Denny Kellington performed CPR on Hamlin - for several minutes we are told - and this, along with a shot from a defibrillator, saved his life that night at the 50 yard line of Paycor Stadium on the banks of the Ohio River. Hamlin has made significant progress in the days since and it is my hope that he can walk on to the field at Bills Stadium one day to accept his own George Halas Award. 

The NFL, its senior management team, team owners and scores of talking heads on television and radio across North America had much to discuss last week not only about Hamlin's injury but about if and when the Bills and Bengals might resume or replay their game and how the fallout would ripple through the rest of the league. The decision to declare the game a "no contest" was made mid-week then the owners approved a plan which included possibly playing the AFC Championship Game at a neutral site and the possibility of a coin toss determining the location of a playoff game between the Bengals and the Ravens. The first of these two possibilities remains (by virtue of the Bills securing the second seed yesterday) while the second won't be necessary (by virtue of the Bengals securing the third seed yesterday). Sports talk radio covered little else last week.   

Despite continuing to mask in all indoor public settings, a non-COVID virus finally got me over the holidays. And it really got me. Worst thing I've had in at least ten years. Maybe 20. Far worse than the COVID which I had in April. Anyway, throughout the week after Christmas, I was hunkered down in north Toronto riding out the virus and listening to the radio at all hours of the day and night (I turned on the TV only for the PBS News Hour and Jeopardy). Since CBC radio was carrying mostly specialty holiday programming which I'm sure is quite interesting for some, it wasn't for me so I stuck with WGR 550 and the syndicated CBS Sports Radio carried by the FAN Toronto. WGR would occasionally mention the Sabres and CBS would occasionally mention the NBA but otherwise, I figure I consumed, actively and passively, about 100 hours of football discussion and analysis that week leading up to the Bills v. Bengals Monday night game. Although my nasty cold virus is much-improved now, I'm not sure I'm any smarter for any of the endless football discussions . It all just seems to blend together to form a football-flavoured word salad with gridiron buzzwords liberally spread throughout: Joe Borrow needs to get the ball out in about 2.5 seconds; the Michigan offensive line will have its way with TCU's front seven (this was wrong); Tua has had two concussions this season - or maybe it's three if you count the week three incident against the Bills; Derek Carr is done in Vegas; the Broncos need to figure out how to get out from under the crushing Russel Wilson contract; Tom Brady could end up in Vegas or Denver or even with the Jets next season; the weather in Cincinnati on Monday should be mild but maybe there'll be rain in the second half (rendered moot) and on and on and on. Even as a pretty keen football fan, it just got to be too much. By Saturday and then Monday, I was well beyond ready for some actual football.

But we only got about a half a quarter on Monday Jan 2nd before the game was called with the Bengals leading 7-3. I didn't sleep very well and awoke to check for news on Hamlin a couple of times in the night. I, like others I'm sure, was genuinely worried that he might not make it. 

Yesterday in Orchard Park, the Bills clinched the second AFC seed and eliminated the Patriots from post-season play. Thanks to two kick-offs returned for touchdowns by Nyheim (Gregory) Hines, the Bills will play at home again on Sunday January 15th at 1pm against the Miami Dolphins who eked out their first win in six weeks to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Which of their quarterbacks will be healthy on Sunday remains unknown but this game will be third meeting between these teams this season and obviously the most important one. 

The four-team college football playoff format has had its share of detractors since it was created nine years ago but no one could complain about the quality of either of the semi-final games played on New Year's Eve. TCU outlasted Michigan 51-45 and Georgia rallied to top Ohio State 42-41, setting up tonight's Championship game which will be hard-pressed to match the excitement of either of the semi-final games. I support expanding the playoff field to eight teams. Since each of the four semi-finalists had more three weeks to prepare for their playoff games, there is obviously enough time to add another round and doubling the number of teams would create certainty that the best teams in the country are all given a chance at the title. But change comes painfully slowly in the world of US college football, steeped in tradition as it is and with a myriad of competing interests, many of which are motivated to maintain the status quo. Maybe it was easier and simpler when the Rose Bowl was played on New Year's Day between the Big Ten Champs and the PAC Ten Champs with no other consideration to be made. That's how it worked for 100 years anyway. The playoff format used now is better than the incomprehensible Bowl Championship Series (BCS) which came before it and better than having the National Champion decided by ballot. The Championship Game goes tonight in Los Angeles at 7.30pm Eastern.