Every football season since 1972, members of the only team to win every regular season and playoff game, including the Superbowl - the Miami Dolphins of that same year – have made a tradition of uncorking champagne when the last undefeated NFL team suffers its first loss. The furthest into any season that they had to wait for their uncorking was February 3, 2008 when the New England Patriots lost the Superbowl XLII 17-14 to the New York Giants after going 16-0 in the regular season and 2-0 in their two playoff games leading to the final game. Going into yesterday’s week five action, both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Buffalo Bills had won their first four games and were both playing at home as solid favourites. Surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins, most of them in now in their 80s, probably did not bother putting their champagne on ice yesterday but they should have as both the Eagles and the Bills fell, leaving Larry Czonka, Bob Grieise, Garo Yepremian and Paul Warfield’s 1972 team intact as still the only NFL team to register a perfect season.
For the Denver Broncos (who overcame a 14-point deficit in
Philadelphia) and the New England Patriots, yesterday brought “signature” wins
for their young quarterbacks and new head coaches – Sean Payton in his second
year with the Broncos and Mike Vrabel in his first year with the Patriots. Despite
their recent successes and upward trajectory, I suggest that neither of these teams
is likely to represent the AFC in San Francisco in February but either could easily
be Superbowl contenders next season and beyond.
As for the Bills, the turnover metric began to revert to the
mean last night and, once again, their defence was suspect with key injuries
continuing to plague them. But full credit must go to Patriots quarterback Drake
Maye (whose name sounds like he’s from some 19th century aristocracy)
and to receiver Stefon Diggs who played his best game since leaving Buffalo after
the 2023 season. Diggs was the X-factor last night, hauling in 10 catches for
146 yards and inspiring his teammates all evening on the sidelines. As was
mentioned several times on the NBC broadcast, Maye looked like Josh Allen did
six years ago – and I would add without the wild propensity for turnovers which
Allen displayed then. The Patriots fully deserved their signature win, fair and
square. Were they to play a best-of-seven series, I would take the Bills in
five or perhaps six games.
Please indulge me with the following commentary on the
weather we’ve been having: I wouldn’t be saying this in mid-July but I’m
actually getting quite tired of searing-hot sunny days. It’s like we live in
Arizona now with each day a scorched carbon copy of the previous one. The
Anthropocene is clearly upon us, despite apparently not yet meeting the strict
geological criteria which would formally mark the beginning of a new epoch – a shift
from the Holocene which began about 12,000 years ago. Hap Wilson, the well-known
naturalist, outdoorsman and Temagami canoe route guru, posted a photo last week
of a dry river bed somewhere in Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park,
stating that water levels in the Temagami area have reached their lowest in at
least 70 years. The quantity of rain required to restore ground and surface water
levels in eastern North America to anywhere remotely close to their historical
averages before freeze-up is several orders of magnitude more than what we’ll likely
get over the next ten weeks. Our best hope at restoration of normal lake levels
is another heavy dose of lake-effect snow like we experienced last year when
central Ontario received more than a metre of snow over the first few days of
December.
Buffalo, Orchard Park and the South-towns were clobbered with
lake-effect snow in late autumn last year too but the timing of the snow dumps did
not necessitate moving any Bills home games to Detroit which happened in 2014
and again in 2022. The new stadium will have high exterior walls and a rim around
the top which will greatly reduce the amount of snow which will actually
accumulate inside the facility but the challenge with clearing roadways and
parking lots in the surrounding area – for emergency vehicles as well as for football
fans – will remain, even of hundreds of shovelers are not needed to clear the
seating rows and aisles inside. The most recent seasonal forecast for western
New York calls for another heavy lake-effect snow season coming up, fueled by
much-warmer-than-usual water temperatures in Lake Erie. The Bills have home
games scheduled for December 7th and 28th along with a
week 18 game on either January 3rd or 4th. Chances seem
good that at least one of these games could be moved or postponed on account of
snow. Seems hard to imagine that scenario right now as we are in store for yet another
blistering, sunny October day with humidex readings still registering in
southern Ontario and western New York. Good thing last night’s game against the
Patriots kicked off well after dark. Last week’s 1pm game against the Saints
was absolutely sweltering inside the stadium. I’m definitely ready for some
cool wet weather – if it ever comes.
On account of a family event in downtown Toronto yesterday
afternoon, I took in almost the entire Blue Jays game-two win over the Yankees
on the car radio. By far the most uninterrupted radio baseball for me since the
days of Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth and it was fantastic – partly because of the
game’s importance and way it played out but also because of the play-by-play by
Ben Shulman whose call seemed almost as good as his dad Dan’s probably was on television.
Not sure who the colour-man is but the radio broadcast was excellent overall.
Up next for the Bills is yet another prime-time game next
Monday night in Atlanta (where my niece now lives and refers to it as
Hot-lanta) against a Falcons team coming off its early bye week. Look for the
Bills to get back in the win column before their own bye week.
