Bills 30, Chiefs 21

“The play of the year” exclaimed Jim Nantz on the CBS broadcast after Josh Allen bulldozed his way to the endzone on a game-clinching 26-yard run on fourth down and two to put the Bills up 29-21 last evening in Orchard Park. Tyler Bass came on for the critical extra point to extend the lead to two scores and made it. I had spent most of the game - after Bass missed the extra point wide-right in the first quarter – convinced that the Chiefs would end up winning the game by a point, making Bass the scapegoat once again. But he was solid on his one field goal try and his other three extra points. Not as confidence inspiring as we might want but Bass does seem to have the ability to shake off his shaky moments and regain consistency.

When Josh Allen is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH, yesterday’s touchdown run will be included in the highlight reel of the top ten plays in his career. Hopefully, along with his multiple Superbowl winning plays as well. Someone commented that on his touchdown yesterday, Allen ran as if it might be the very last thing he did in his time on this earth. I was happy enough to see him pass the first down marker then amazed as he made another three or four Chiefs miss or get dragged into the endzone with him. The play of the year indeed.  

When I saw late in the week that Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker sprained his misogynous bone and was placed on Injured Reserve (meaning he must miss at least four games), I wondered how his wife Isabella was feeling about the prospect of having him around the house more than usual during his recovery from arthroscopic surgery. His traditional ideas around marriage and the role of women, which sound like those of a stereotypical 1950s American family, probably mean more work for her with him laid up as he is. She’ll be doing more cooking, more cleaning etc. I guess but will probably be happy to oblige as, according to her husband, and by happy coincidence, she shares his views on family roles and responsibilities.

The Chiefs plucked Spencer Schrader from the Jets practice squad to handle placekicking duties for the next four games. The Jets had elevated Schrader for their week 10 game against the Cardinals and he made both kicks he tried. But they left him on their practice squad rather than protecting him by moving him up to the active 53-man roster - presumably unaware that another team like the Chiefs might claim him. He kicked his three extra points yesterday as if they were 60-yard field goal attempts and certainly looked confident doing so. He will be a much cheaper option than Butker next season and beyond.    

I’ll be sure watch Chris Berman’s halftime week 11 recap package tonight where he will be sure to include some Grey Cup highlights as he does every year.  Berman is one of the all-time great sports broadcasters, having invented the convention of the insertion of a middle name for sports figures as in Tony “what are they” Pena, Pat “international” borders and probably my favourite: “fettuccini” Alfredo Griffin. Berman will be running through highlights of another Toronto Argonaut Grey Cup victory – the team’s 19^th in its 151-year history. The Argos are the oldest professional sports team in North America which still uses its original name. Now owned by MLSE (the reason why CEO Keith Pelley was shown celebrating fourth quarter touchdowns), the Argos have had an eclectic ownership journey over the last few decades which famously included Wayne Gretzky and John Candy in the early 1990s.

I have never been to a Grey Cup game but I make up for it partly by having attended several Vanier Cup games at Varsity Stadium and one – my last one – at the dome in Toronto. My CFL cred comes from being at a few Argos games in the early 1980s at Exhibition Stadium and running onto the field afterward to celebrate. One of those times, we smoked a joint in the Blue Jays dugout. Seriously. I am also one of the very few surviving attendees of the Las Vegas Posse game in Edmonton in the final week of the 1994 CFL season. Originally scheduled as Posse home game, it was moved to Commonwealth Stadium on account of stadium lease issues in Vegas along with a general lack of fan support. The Posse folded immediately following the game. A great CFL story indeed.

The Bills now find themselves at 9-2, a half game up on the Chiefs and now holding the potentially all-important tie-breaker with them. Teams usually hope for a late bye week and this one now upon them comes at a perfect time for the Bills with a growing list of nagging injuries which will benefit from a couple of weeks off.

The Chiefs have an easy remaining schedule, starting with a trip to Charlotte this week to face the 3-7 Panthers. They may not lose again in the regular season which would lock up the number one seed in the AFC for them. It safe to assume that their offence will improve when stud running back Isiah Pacheco returns from injury perhaps as early as next week. The defence – and the run defence in particular – is mainly what led them to the 9-0 start and it looked very good most of the time yesterday as well. Despite trying, the Bills were unable to establish an effective run game yesterday and had most of their offensive success by way of Josh Allen.

After the break next week, the San Francisco 49ers come to Orchard Park for Sunday Night Football on December 1^st. The last time they visited western New York was in the middle of the Colin Kaepernick controversy when players were kneeling or choosing to stay in the locker room during the national anthem. Kaepernick was on the 49ers roster that day. I was at the game and saw many anti-Kaepernick signs in the parking lot. The political situation in the United States seems ripe for another round of some form of civil protest. Who knows if and when it might manifest itself but Roger Goodell is certainly hoping that if it happens, it happens well away from NFL stadiums.   

Bills 30, Colts 20

My dad grew up in Scarborough and attended Scarborough Collegiate (now R.H. King Academy) in the early 1950s. One of his pals and class-mates was Danny Nykolyk (older brother of one-time Leaf coach Mike Nykoluk) who went on to play 16 seasons as an offensive tackle for the Toronto Argonauts. When I was a kid, we watched the Argos and the CFL. The NFL was not on our sports radar at all. Only later in his life, and mainly due to my fandom of the Buffalo Bills, did my dad develop an interest in the NFL – and that interest was only a passing one (forgive the pun) at best. In the 1970s, average CFL salaries were actually higher than those in the NFL. Tony Dorsett once famously said “I’d play for peanuts before I’d go to Canada”. The Dallas Cowboys paid him more than peanuts I’m sure but many US college players came to the CFL because it paid well, was popular and well-attended and offered black players a chance to be revered - even worshipped - by appreciative Canadian fans as well as offering a much more equitable social setting. Times have obviously changed considerably in the last 50 years with the CFL now an afterthought for most Canadian football fans, except for a shrinking and aging cohort of what Stephen Harper called “Old Stock Canadians”. Fun fact: Canadian football is actually a four-down game but, being Canadian, teams are so conservative that they always punt on third down.

Last year, the CFL finally figured out that it might draw more viewers if it played its playoff games (except for the Grey Cup) on Saturdays rather than going up against the NFL juggernaut on Sundays. The two conference championship games played two days ago – the East game in Montreal and the West game in Winnipeg – were both well-attended. Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on the campus of McGill University was sold out and Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg looked completely full as well. The East game was exciting and close with the visiting Argos holding on for a 30-28 win and a birth in the 111^th Grey Cup game next weekend in Vancouver. The Blue Bombers sent their fans home happy with a dominating 38-22 win over Saskatchewan. I heard a report that Grey Cup tickets were selling well last week in Vancouver, a market whose support of the CFL in recent years has been about as lukewarm as Toronto’s has. Let’s hope we don’t see many empty seats. The Argos will be without their starting quarterback Chad Kelly (nephew of Jim Kelly) who suffered a gruesome broken ankle in the second half of Saturday’s game. The Argos will look to Nick Arbuckle (a great sports name), who finished the game capably, to guide them to the Grey Cup.

The Indianapolis Colts have suffered from problematic ownership since Robert Irsay acquired the team (then the Baltimore Colts) in 1972. After his extended unsuccessful negotiations with the City of Baltimore around the construction of a new stadium, the Maryland legislature passed a law permitting the City of Baltimore to seize the Colts from Irsay under the legal principle of Eminent Domain. In response and after receiving a sweetheart offer from the City of Indianapolis, Irsay orchestrated the team’s “midnight move” in the early morning hours of March 29^th, 1984 when 15 tractor trailers were loaded with the team’s filing cabinets, office furniture, shoulder pads, athletic tape, etc. The move made headlines around the North American sports world and reinforced the doctrine that NFL owners can do almost anything they want to. Son Jim Irsay assumed control of the team following his father’s death in 1997 but only after a bitter legal battle with his stepmother. Jim Irsay has struggled with addiction and was charged with impaired driving in 2014. Police found oxycodone and a large amount of cash in his car but he was able to avoid jail time, pleading to two misdemeanors. He faced heavy criticism two years ago for firing head coach Frank Reich mid-season and replacing him with former Colts Pro Bowl centre Jeff Saturday who had no previous coaching experience beyond the high school level. After drafting Andrew Luck first overall in the 2012 NFL draft, Luck abruptly retired from football two weeks before the 2019 season was to begin. The team has struggled since then and those struggles continued yesterday against the Bills with 39 year-old Joe Flacco under centre.

The game at Lucas Oil Stadium was a sloppy affair with multiple errant passes and fumbles by both teams. Star slot cornerback Taron Johnson intercepted Flacco on the Colts first play from scrimmage and returned it for a pick-six touchdown. The Bills have not lost since Johnson returned from injury five weeks ago. Curtis Samuel made an appearance and a significant contribution early in the game as the Bills were without both Keon Coleman and Amari Cooper. The Colts Jonathan Taylor had great success running in the first half, racking up 107 yards but managed only another seven yards in the second half. The Bills final scoring drive was a classic close-out drive, chewing up significant fourth quarter time and finishing with a James Cook two-yard touchdown run to put the Bills up 30-13.

Someone said last night that the Kansas City Chiefs are the worst 9-0 team ever. That may well be but they extended their winning streak to 15 games (including the Superbowl) yesterday by blocking a 35-yard field goal in the dying seconds to hang on for a 16-14 win over the Denver Broncos. Will their win streak come to an end on Sunday in Orchard Park? In the most anticipated game of the 2024 season so far, CBS has decided to send its studio crew to the Highmark Stadium parking lot on Sunday. They are expecting to witness Bills Mafia fully in its drunken stupor, chugging beer bongs, jumping through folding tables and proving that they are the hardest drinking and most dedicated fans in the NFL. With the late 4.25pm start, Bills fans will definitely not disappoint.  

Bills 30, Dolphins 27

The Miami Dolphins played well enough to win yesterday’s game in Orchard Park. But of course they didn’t and their season is probably done – definitely done in terms of any hopes for a division title and probably also out of contention for a Wildcard playoff spot. Statistically, they topped the Bills in most key categories: they registered 26 first downs to the Bills 24, they outgained the Bills 373 yards to 325 and they held the ball for just under 32 minutes compared to the Bills 28. Tua Tagovailoa played very well with only three incomplete passes in 28 attempts, 231 yards, two touchdowns and an impressive Quarterback Rating of 124.9. It felt like the Dolphins knew that this game was essentially their season and they responded accordingly. It just wasn’t quite enough.

The ups and downs of Bills pipsqueak place-kicker Tyler Bass have been well-documented this season and yesterday’s game was a perfect sample of his inconsistency over the last two seasons. While he hit two field goals from 40 and 49 yards in the first half yesterday, he missed one extra point and doinked another off the goalpost which did go in but did not inspire confidence. On the Bills second touchdown, Bass remained on the sidelines as the Bills went for the two-point conversion and got it. His unlikely game-winning kick in the dying seconds of a tie game was a moment for the ages – a 61 yard kick which probably would have been good from 70 yards. He hit it perfectly – high, long and close to dead-centre. It was in fact the longest field goal in the team’s 65 year history, breaking the previous record of 59 yards set by Canadian Steve Christie 31 years ago.

The Bills dominance over the Dolphins in recent years – they’ve won 15 of the last 17 match-ups including playoffs – is noteworthy but still doesn’t match the Dolphins streak of 20 consecutive wins over Buffalo which extended through the entire decade of the 1970s including the OJ Simpson years. These division rivals have now played 123 times and, despite the Bills recent strength, the Dolphins still hold a 62-60 advantage with one tie game in 1968. The squishing of the fish remains a highly satisfying result for Bills fans, especially those old enough to remember the 1970s. Tyler Bass has kicked the winning field goal two of the last three times that the Dolphins have come to Orchard Park – yesterday and in a snow squall in December of 2022. Based on the team’s reaction to Sean McDermott’s awarding of a game ball to Bass in the locker room after the game yesterday, it seems clear that Bass is a popular figure with his team-mates. He stuttered his way through accepting the game ball, tearing up in his gratitude. It’s hard not to pull for him. Let’s hope that his huge kick yesterday will shake his jitters away for the rest of the season.

Against my better judgment, I ended up watching a bit of CNN over the weekend. Wolf Blitzer is one of the network’s most recognizable faces, dating back to 1990. His coverage of the 1991 Gulf War made him a household name and, now 76 years old, he is still going strong. Blitzer is also known as one of the most famous fans of the Buffalo Bills. Blitzer was born in Germany but grew up in Buffalo, attending Kenmore West Senior High School and earning a history degree from SUNY at Buffalo. Blitzer posts a photo on his Twitter account before every Bills game, usually adorned in Bills gear and always holding a Bills coffee mug. For whatever reason, Blitzer has for the most part been able to avoid being included in Trump’s “Fake News CNN” attacks which have targeted Jim Acosta, Anderson Cooper, Kaitlin Collins and most other CNN anchors. The chances of the US presidential election results being known a week from now seem to be about 50/50. Blitzer and his colleagues have a busy week ahead. Let’s hope that election unfolds in an orderly manner and that chaos is avoided. I’m referring, of course, to the Ward 15 Don Valley West Toronto City Council by-election which takes place today. I’m supporting whoever has the best chance at keeping former Sun columnist Anthony Furey from winning.

The Bills head to Indianapolis next week to face the Colts who lost last night with 39 year old Joe Flacco under centre. Anthony Richardson, the fourth overall pick in last year’s draft, made headlines last week by taking himself out of the game for one play due to fatigue in a loss to the Texans. Regardless of who the Colts start at quarterback, the main concern the Bills will have is running back Jonathan Taylor who helped the Colts spank the Bills in Orchard Park 41-15 in their most recent meeting three years ago. At 4-5, the Colts still have playoff aspirations and the Bills better not be looking ahead to their huge match-up the following week with the Chiefs at home. Kansas City plays tonight on MNF at home against Tampa Bay. Go Bucs!