Broncos 33, Bills 30

Someone called into WGR a few years ago lamenting Buffalo’s four consecutive Superbowl losses. “I wish they hadn’t made it to any of them because they lost all of them”, he stated, believing that it’s better to not play at all than it is to lose. I remember thinking that as each NFL team enters a new season, the best possible result at the end is a Superbowl victory. From its owner to its coaches, managers, players and fanbase, that objective is unarguable. But what is the second-best possible accomplishment? The answer is clear in my view: it is to lose the Superbowl. Doesn’t matter how many times – consecutively or not. The opportunity to savour the lead-up, the hype, the endless analysis over the two weeks between the Conference Championship Games and the big game is one which should not be passed up. Believing otherwise is like believing that it’s better to have never loved at all than to have loved and lost.

For the Bills often-tortured fanbase, their team seems to have the unique ability to find ever-more excruciating ways to lose with each passing playoff run. The list is long: Wide Right, the Music City Miracle, 13 Seconds etc and Saturday’s overtime loss in Denver will probably take on its own moniker (maybe it already has) as sports talk-radio fodder and to formally add it to the Wall of Shame. Would we have preferred finishing out of the playoffs instead of making it, winning in Jacksonville last week then getting very close to the conference title game but falling just short? Not me. When the Broncos took a 23-10 lead in the third quarter, it felt like the game could end up 30-13 but the Bills came back, took the lead, gave it up, tied it late then came agonizingly close to winning it in overtime but didn’t. Would I have preferred 30-13? Of course not.

Sean McDermott has now completed nine seasons as Bills head coach. His teams have made the playoffs in all but one of them, winning eight playoff games along the way and making the conference title game twice. With the exception of the 27-10 home loss to the Bengals after the 2022 season, their playoff exits have been heart-breaking for sure but anyone who says that they would have preferred not to compete than to lose in gut-wrenching fashion, I suggest doesn’t know how to be a sports fan. After the game ended, I poured myself a scotch, settled in to the Seattle game and thought about how thankful we as Bills fans should be with the team’s long run of success. And I thought about Josh Allen’s turnovers. And the officiating. I considered firing up my sauna and dunking through the ice hole in the photo but I left that to the next day.  

Speaking of officiating, let’s review some of the key controversial calls from the game. Gene Steratore, the former NFL referee and rules/officiating expert on CBS (who is often accused of always siding with his referee brethren), posted his reflections on Twitter after the game. On the Brandin Cooks reception/interception in overtime, Steratore said this: “My perspective on it is that Cooks lost the ball as soon as his body hit the ground. In my opinion, if there was no defender near him and he lost the ball when he hit the ground, the ruling would’ve been incomplete.” I agree with his analysis with only this caveat: Had no defender been with him, it is possible that Cooks could have kept the ball from touching the ground while rolling on his back, then regained control as he completed the roll. I do think that Steratore is right on this and he implied that if Cooks had maintained control of the ball through contact with the ground, the defender would not have been able to wrestle it from his hands. I don’t think I have seen a similar play in all my years of watching football. It was obviously a critical play in the game and McDermott’s main complaint afterward was that there was no stoppage for a booth review. Steratore agreed that there should have been but also suggested that a review would have not have resulted in the call being overturned.

There were three instances of defensive pass interference, two of which Steratore commented on in his post: the first took place in the endzone with Broncos cornerback Riley Moss interfering (in my opinion although Steratore did not comment on this one) with Brandin Cooks in the endzone by holding Cooks arm. No flag was thrown. The second instance where Taron Johnson was called for DPI was very similar to the first one and Steratore thought that it should not have been called. But it was called. The third was the back-breaker call on Tre’Davious White at the five yard-line which essentially ended the game. It was called DPI as Steratore said it should have been. I agree that it was clearly pass interference. In my view, the Moss and Johnson instances should both have been called the same way and both probably would have been called DPI in the first quarter of a week five game. The DPI on Cooks took place in the endzone and would have given the Bills a first-and-goal at the one yard-line.

Josh Allen turned the ball over four times with two fumbles and two picks. I blame him completely for the careless fumble at the end of the first half which led to a Broncos field goal. His blindside sack/fumble wasn’t entirely his fault, the first interception was on a deep ball and the “interception” on the Cooks play was basically a completion. The play which Allen surely wants back is the missed pass to a wide-open Dawson Knox with ten seconds left in regulation. A lower thrown ball would have resulted in an easy touchdown and a 34-30 Bills win.

For Bills Mafia, there is much to look forward to in 2026. In addition to still having Josh Allen under centre, the team will hopefully retool its receiver room and have better luck on the injury front. But there is a new stadium to look forward to as well. I don’t know how quickly the old stadium can be demolished – since the entire lower bowl is below ground level, maybe they can just topple the upper decks down into the lower bowl, smooth it out and make it a much-needed parking lot. Whatever they do, I’m looking forward to hearing all about it this off-season, almost as much as I’m looking forward to paying off my seat licences in the fall. My tickets will cost about 50% more then they did in 2025 but I’ll be right at the 50 yard-line, 25 rows up from the visitor bench.

Bills 27, Jaguars 24

As the founder of the recently formed Bahamas Bills Backers, I am pleased to present this blog post from our perch on Paradise Island, Bahamas where there is nothing but warm turquoise water between where I now sit and Jacksonville, FL to the northwest. We were able to find a secluded spot to  watch yesterday’s football game online within the confines of the Shivananda Yoga Ashram retreat, where alcohol, meat, coffee and most forms of fun are all strictly prohibited. Bills playoff games don’t usually count as fun – for Bills fans anyway – so we felt that by watching yesterday’s game on the Ashram property, we were only bending the rules. Plus, at the risk of expulsion from the property, we have been making and drinking contraband coffee. We aren’t the only ones drinking coffee but I think we were the only ones who even knew about the NFL’s Wildcard Weekend and yesterday’s Bills game. It just doesn’t seem to fit within the scope of the deeply spiritual world which is Shivananda yoga. But watch it we did.

The point of coming to a yoga retreat – apart from gathering comedy material by watching and interacting with the full-time devotees – is to relax, unwind and disconnect, leaving the stress of our every day lives behind. Watching yesterday’s game played at Everbank Stadium was the antithesis of what one might do to achieve these objectives, for fans of either team. The Jaguars had a great season and are a strong team which probably deserved a better fate than a one-and-done playoff exit, especially in front of their fans who have suffered through some bad football over the last 30 years. But the Bills were certainly due for a road playoff win and they came through with one in the clutch yesterday – something they have been unable to do since the end of the 1992 season. The stress relief I felt when Cole Bishop clasped his hands around Trevor Lawrence’s deflected pass in the game’s closing minute easily surpassed what any number of sun salutations could ever do. After more than three hours of pure stress, it felt pretty awesome. So, I skipped the 4pm yoga class and went for a swim in the warm, salty Atlantic waters, savouring the victory.

The game was very evenly matched and the statistics bear that out: each team has 20 first downs, the Jags outgained the Bills 359 yards to 340 but the Bills won the time of possession battle by about eight minutes and won the key turnover statistic two to one with the late-game interception. The game was as hard-hitting as it gets and also featured four lead changes in the fourth quarter, the final one being a “tush-push” touchdown by Josh Allen with just over a minute to play. But as I look back at the game this morning with the northeast tradewinds ruffling the curtains of our room here at the Ashram, the key moment might well have been the missed field goal on the final play of the first half by arguably the NFL’s best kicker, the Jags Cam Little.

The Patriots win last night against the Chargers guaranteed that last week’s relatively meaningless game between the Bills and Jets was indeed the last game to be played at the old Highmark Stadium. The Bills are now the lowest remaining seed in the AFC draw and will play on the road as far as that road goes. The next stop on Buffalo’s road trip will be the Divisional Round which takes them to Denver, CO where the Broncos and Bills are set to play on Saturday probably in the late window. I had to check this twice but the Bills have been listed as early 1.5-point road favourites against the number one seeded Broncos who are coming off a bye week and have the advantage of playing at an altitude of more than 1,600 metres above sea level. This reflects the appeal of Josh Allen within the betting public, or at least the bookmaker’s perception of his appeal. I expect the line to move in the Broncos favour later in the week as the so-called “smart money” comes in on Denver. The Broncos are a well-coached and now well-rested team which is accustomed to playing at altitude. If I had to make a meaningful wager on the game, I wouldn’t do it because I never bet against the Bills.

With one game remaining in Wildcard Weekend, the quality of the first five games overall was excellent. Fourth quarter comebacks and lead changes made for compelling viewing with all of the games competitive throughout. The league, its partner television networks and advertisers couldn’t have asked for more and the Divisional Round games look like they will deliver more of the same.

Last night was our last at the Ashram so I decided to take in one of the twice-daily Satsang services/ceremonies. The Ashram is primarily a spiritual retreat for those who dedicate their lives to the ancient teachings of pranayama and asanas whose written form is entirely in Sanskrit. The facility exists for the purpose of advancing the study and education of Vedanta and practice of the Shivanada yoga tradition with its 12 core principles for spiritual growth. These include breath and relaxation practices, diet, and positive thinking with the actual yoga exercise being only a small part. The facility’s operations are primarily funded (as far as I can see) by “vacation yoga” attendees like us who come to the warm climate of the Bahamas to practice yoga with instruction from the Ashram's many masterful teachers. The Satsangs are 90-minute sessions which begin with 30 minutes of silent meditation (I evaluated NFL playoff scenarios), then about 20 minutes of singing from the ancient Sandskrit scripts in a call-and-response format, either a speaker or a musical performance and ending with final prayers and blessings. I can honestly say that, although I generally could not relate to much of it, attending the Satsang was a profoundly moving experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity to have witnessed and participated in it. Go Bills!   

Bills 35, Jets 8

The Buffalo Bills playoff run after the 1992 season began with the Comeback Game, also known as The Miracle at Rich, a game which I attended in early January of 1993. The Bills came back from a 35-3 deficit early in the third quarter for a thrilling 41-38 overtime win. This, the largest comeback in NFL history (a record since broken by the Vikings by one point in 2022), came with quarterback Jim Kelly injured in favour of back-up Frank Reich. The following week in the Divisional Round, the Bills won in Pittsburgh - this time quite convincingly - with Reich still under centre, 24-3. Kelly returned the following week for the AFC Championship Game in Miami which the Bills won easily, 29-10, earning their third consecutive Superbowl berth. That game, played on January 16^th, 1993, is the last road playoff game won by the Bills. If they are to make a run to the Superbowl in the early weeks of 2026, it will require three road wins – unless the Los Angeles Chargers can win two road games over the next two weeks – in New England and in Denver. If the Bills and Chargers can between them post four road wins over the next two weeks, the AFC Championship Game – Los Angeles Chargers at Buffalo - will become the last game to be played at Rich Stadium.

But in reality, of course, the last game at the concrete slab 20 miles south of Buffalo was played yesterday. It was a good showing by the Bills back-ups and a handful of starters who had their way with the pathetic New York Jets who might consider folding the franchise, finding a new owner and a new name and starting over as an expansion team. I can’t see how they could do much worse than they did in 2026. Josh Allen maintained his consecutive start streak which now stands at 71 and dates back to week 12 of the 2018 season. After taking the opening snap and handing it off to James Cook (more on him in a minute), Allen gave way to Mitch Trubisky who went 22 for 29 for 259 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. It did come against the Jets but still, he looked comfortable and confident in what quickly became a laugher.

James Cook became the first Bills running back to win the NFL rushing title since OJ Simpson in 1976. His 1,621 yards, only 15 of which came yesterday, was 24 yards more than Derrick Henry finished with and 36 more than Jonathan Taylor of the Colts. Cook’s 15 yards yesterday before he gave way to Ray Davis who went off for 151 yards on 21 carries (again, it came against the Jets), could easily have not been quite enough as Derrick Henry piled up 126 yards in last night’s loss (more on that in a minute). Had Henry broken just one more run for 25 yards, the title would have been his. But this morning, the title belongs to Cook and to the Bills offensive line which takes great pride in this accomplishment as clearly one of the best units n the league this season. I hope that Cook got his five collaborators more than Isotoner gloves for Christmas.

Week 18 in the NFL always produces plenty of drama. In a curious scenario, the winner of the NFC South division - which would be either the Panthers or the Bucs – was determined by the outcome of a game between the Saints and Falcons. The Falcons won (but coach Raheen Morris was still fired), giving the division title to the 8-9 Panthers who had lost the previous day in Tampa. Although the upsets we often see in week 18 didn’t really materialize, the final regular season game of the 2025 season was a thriller with four touchdowns, each producing a lead change, coming in the fourth quarter. Two missed kicks in the game’s final minute added to the drama with Steelers kicker Chris Boswell missing what seemed like a crucial extra point then Ravens kicker Tyler Loop missing what would have been the game-winning field goal on the final play. The Ravens bowed out in excruciating fashion once again, after last year’s dropped two-point convert attempt in Buffalo. One wonders if the 2026 season will see both coach John Harbaugh and quarterback Lamar Jackson return. Each will be in demand should they party ways with the Ravens.

For the second straight year, the Bills find themselves in the familiar Sunday at 1pm window for the Wildcard playoff round. This time, the game will be played at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, FL. The Bills and Jaguars have previously met twice in the playoffs with the Jags winning both times. The first was in late December of 1996 in what would be Jim Kelly’s final game – a 30-27 Jags win. The second time was in early 2018 in Sean McDermott’s first season as Bills head coach (with Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen still only a twinkle in Brandon Beane’s eye) after a miraculous win by the Cincinnati Bengals in Baltimore earned the Bills their first playoff appearance in 17 years. The game, with Tyrod Taylor under centre for Buffalo, was an exceedingly frustrating punt-fest, won by the Jags 10-7.

Josh Allen and Sean McDermott are 0-5 in road playoff games, with three of those losses coming at the hands of the Chiefs in Kansas City. Another road playoff loss in Houston came two years after the Jacksonville loss. It’s been 33 years since the last Bills road playoff win – three years before Josh Allen was born in Firebaugh, CA. Time to flip the script and also time to root for the Chargers who play the Patriots in the Saturday night game.         

Eagles 13, Bills 12

In baseball, the old adage was that you played for the win on the road and played for the tie at home toward the end of the game. Having the bottom of the inning to either match or best your opponent was enough of an advantage to justify the strategy and football offers nothing similar (except in the college football overtime format where who goes first is determined by coin toss). I would have found Sean McDermott’s decision to go for the win last night more understandable had the Bills defence been gassed, had the offence sputtered near the end, if the momentum had been with the Eagles or if Josh Allen hadn’t missed a wide-open Khalil Shakir in the endzone. But the Bills defence had stiffened in the second half and the offence, while not setting the house on fire, was finally moving the ball with success late in the fourth quarter after producing very little through the first 55 minutes of the game. Usually, two touchdowns will beat a touchdown and two field goals but when you can’t convert either touchdown, it doesn’t. I don’t blame the kicker for the blocked extra point on the first one, although maybe it came off his foot a bit low, but – and I realize this is a classic example of Monday morning quarterbacking – I think that playing for the tie and sending the game to overtime would have been the right call. And it would have been the conservative call which, had the kicker missed or if the kick had been blocked again, would have all of us Monday morning quarterbacks saying that they should have gone for the win. The play that Joe Brady dialed up was a good one and their confidence in it was probably a big reason why they went for it. But it didn’t work out.

Yesterday felt like a lot of waiting. Waiting for the possibly catastrophic ice storm here in Central Ontario, waiting for the power to be knocked out, waiting for the Bills game to finally start, waiting for the Bills offence to show up…...at one point I felt like I was waiting for Godot. Like in the Beckett play, Godot never did show up but the freezing rain certainly did and the Bills offence eventually and finally did but it came up one throw short of eking out another unlikely win. The ice accretion was somewhat less than the apocalyptic forecasts were suggesting it seems and, as of this writing early Monday morning, the power remains on in our corner of Muskoka. Strong winds and heavy snow squalls coming later today will probably change that. We’ll see.

While the Bills clinched a playoff spot with last week’s win in Cleveland, yesterday’s loss dropped them to the seventh and last seed in the AFC. They are tied with the Chargers and the Texans at 11-5 but do not hold the tie-breaker with either. The fifth seed is the best that they can hope for but that will require both a Chargers loss to the Broncos in Denver and a Texans home loss to the Colts. The latter seems unlikely as the Colts have completely unravelled since Daniel Jones went down and Philip Rivers admirably stepped in. The former is much more likely as the Broncos will want to seal the first overall seed in the AFC with a win – and they will play in the same 4.25pm window as the Patriots.

Assuming wins next week by the Bills, Broncos and Texans, the Bills will occupy the sixth seed which will very likely mean a road game at Jacksonville. The Bills finish up their season and their 53-year tenure at Rich Stadium next Sunday against the Jets who were trounced by the Patriots yesterday. A Bills win is likely. With the Chargers likely to lose at Denver and the Texans likely to win at home against the Colts, the sixth seed seems like where the Bills will end up. If they somehow manage to fall to the seventh seed, that will almost for sure mean a trip to New England to face the Patriots. I’d rather take my chances in Jacksonville where the Bills could easily be favoured on the road. For the Bills, the road to the Superbowl looks like it will go through Jacksonville. FL, Foxborough, MA and Denver, CO. For eternal optimists, there still remains a very slim chance of a Bills home playoff game in early 2026. It will require the following: A Bills win combined with Chargers and Texans losses on Sunday then in the Wildcard round, wins by all three road teams. This would result in Divisional round games being played in Denver and Buffalo. So, I’m saying there is a chance.

The NFL Week 18 schedule was finalized while most of us slept last night. For some reason, the Bills v. Jets game was slotted into the 4.25pm window on Sunday. The two games on Saturday are equally compelling: the Panthers play in Tampa at 4.30pm to determine the winner of the NFC South with the loser very likely out of the playoffs and the late game features the Seahawks playing in Santa Clara, CA against the 49ers who won last night against the Bears. This game will determine not only the winner of the NFC West but the number one seed in the NFC bracket. The loser will be a wildcard team. Then after a Sunday afternoon lineup of somewhat less interesting games, the Sunday night game between the Steelers and the Ravens in Pittsburgh will determine the winner of the AFC North with the loser going home.  

With the temperature rising overnight to about plus 4 at 7am, where I now sit, wind is picking up and ice is falling from the trees like shrapnel onto the roof and glancing off the windows of the cottage. If the trees can shed most of the ice and snow before the temperature drops and the winds arrive, it may in fact save us from much more severe damage – and long power outages - than were forecast. It’s a “weather bomb” they say and I’m looking forward to a return to normal winter conditions like we’ve been enjoying for about three weeks now.   

Bills 23, Browns 20

The winter solstice occurred at 10.03am EST yesterday. It marks the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the southernmost point of the sun’s path across the sky from daybreak to sunset. A lesser-known fact about the variability of the hours of daylight and darkness is that the rate of change – the number of minutes and seconds gained or lost each day – is at its lowest point at the solstices and at its maximum at each equinox in March and September. The length of each day’s daylight hours in our part of the world remains close to constant over the two months on either side of the solstice - from November 21^st to January 21^st – but begins to increase much more rapidly toward the end of February and peaks in late March where daylight hours grow noticeably longer almost every day. At the end of the year, every place on this planet will have received the identical number of daylight hours. These are the darkest days of the year for us and we won’t notice much change for another two months. The photo I took yesterday shows the sun setting over the southwest corner of Clear Lake around 4.30pm. We would have to wait another seven hours before the sun set on the Buffalo Bills chances at a home playoff game in the dark days of January, 2026.

The 2025 winter solstice brought another long day of football – from the Bills frustrating win in Cleveland to the close and exciting games in the 4.25pm window to the late game statement made by the New England Patriots in Baltimore. I stayed up for all of it in the hopes of a second consecutive Patriots loss which would have brought the Bills even with them at 11-4. Down 11 points in the fourth quarter against the Ravens second-string quarterback, the Patriots stormed back with two touchdowns to seal the win and, although not mathematically just yet, clinch their first AFC division title since before COVID struck. Were they to lose to the Jets and the Dolphins over the next two weeks and if the Bills win out against the Eagles and Jets, the Patriots would then find themselves in a wildcard position. But that wildcard position, this season, will belong to the Bills who will aim to be the fifth seed, facing a trip to probably either Pittsburgh or Jacksonville in the wildcard round. The only shot they have at a final playoff game at Rich Stadium next month will be in the Divisional Round if all three wildcard teams, seeds five through seven, can win their wildcard games. The January 4^th game against the lowly New York Jets will almost for sure be the last game played at Rich Stadium after 53 seasons.

I found the Myles Garrett sack record chasing business to be an unnecessary distraction yesterday but I was relieved that Dion Dawkins was able to keep him in check. He did earn one half of one sack on a play where Josh Allen should have thrown the ball away but didn’t and ended up circling himself into falling down at the goal-line, hurting his right foot in the process. How the league ended up crediting Garrett and Alex Wright with a half-sack each I’m not really sure but he has now come within a half-sack of tying the season record set by Michael Strahan in 2001 and equaled by TJ Watt in 2021. Garrett has two games remaining to set a new single-season sack record but he had better do it next week against the Steelers to avoid the dreaded asterisk on account of the now 17-game season. Strahan posted his 22.5 sacks in a 16-game season while Watt had the luxury of an extra game which was added to the NFL schedule in 2021. The NFL officially began recording quarterback sacks in 1982. Before that, they were simply another kind of “tackle for loss”. Deacon Jones, who played from 1961 to 1974, might well hold the record had sacks been a statistical category when he played. I remember when the Bills signed high profile free agent edge rusher Mario Williams in 2012. His salary for that season was $16 million and, in the interests of symmetry, he recorded 16 sacks. But like the Cleveland Browns this year, the 2012 Bills were not a good team at all.

Up next for the Bills is a home date in the 4.25pm window next Sunday against the defending Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles who are coming off a decisive win in Washington on Saturday. The Eagles will win the NFC East division again but the road to the Superbowl on the NFC side of the draw looks like it will go through Seattle who managed a thrilling win on Thursday night over their division rival Los Angeles Rams. This the so-called “17^th game” for the Bills whose AFC East division was matched against the NFC South division this year. The Bills 2025 season consists of the standard six games against division opponents, four against the NFC South, four against the AFC North, two against last year’s AFC division winners from the AFC West and the AFC South (the Chiefs and the Texans) and this the 17^th game against the Eagles. The Bills are early 2.5-point favourites.

For those celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever else might be marked or observed at this time of year such as the pagan ritual of observing the winter solstice like I do, I wish everyone all the best.   

Bills 35, Patriots 31

As a keen follower of Buffalo Bills history and an observer of NFL football’s occasional symmetry, I must begin with a look-back to the events of September 25, 2011. In a game I attended, the Bills entered week three of that season, what would be their 12^th of 17 consecutive years finishing out of a playoff position, with a 2-0 record and the mighty New England Patriots visiting Orchard Park. After an opening touchdown by Wes Welker, native son Rob Gronkowski (he’s from Amherst) scored two touchdowns of his own to stake the Patriots to what seemed like an insurmountable 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. Game over. Probably. But quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, cornerback Drayton Florence and place-kicker Rian Lindell scripted an alternative narrative as the Bills stormed all the way back to a late lead on Florence’s interception of Tom Brady’s tipped pass which he returned for a touchdown. Brady then led his team to another touchdown to tie the game at 31. Fitzpatrick crafted his own game-winning drive which was capped by Lindell’s field goal as time expired for a 34-31 Bills win which sent Bills fans home in celebration with a 3-0 record and the prospect of a return to the playoffs. Shortly afterward, Fitzpatrick was rewarded with a lucrative contract extension as the Bills seemed set to revive their winning ways of 20 years earlier. They finished the season at 5-11 and Fitzpatrick was run out of town a year later.

To say that the Bills got off to a slow start yesterday in Foxborough would be like saying that the 2011 season didn’t play out as planned. With no first downs in the first quarter, they found themselves down by that familiar 21-0 score. “We’ve got them just where we want them” I said, recalling the game from 14 years earlier as the Bills did manage a score on a pass to James Cook before the Patriots got a late second quarter field goal to take a 24-7 lead into halftime. The Bills then stormed all the way back with three touchdowns to take a 28-24 lead before the teams traded touchdowns again which put the Bills up 35-31 in one of the best games in yesterday’s early window. Joey Bosa got a hand on Drake Maye’s final fourth down pass to seal the massive win for Buffalo. Dawson Knox had two touchdowns on the day to bring his career total to 26, passing Pete Metzelaars on the Bills all-time list for tight-ends. Cook had another big game with three touchdowns and over 100 yards rushing. Matt Milano whose impact seemed to have diminished this season, had a big game with two sacks.

Had the Bills lost yesterday, the issue of the role of replay assist would be top-of-mind this morning. On the Patriots first drive, Maye’s deep pass to Kayshon Boutte down the right sideline was allowed to stand while replay assist quickly nullified Josh Allen’s pass to the Brandon Cooks who could not tap his second foot down before going out of bounds. I don’t share the outrage as the replays of the Boutte pass did not clearly show that he may not have maintained control of the ball as he hit the ground. Replays of the Cooks pass did clearly show that it was incomplete and replay assist quickly corrected the call on the field. Easy for Monday morning quarterbacks to say but Sean McDermott should have used one of his challenges on the Boutte pass but he did not. CBS rules analyst and former NFL referee Gene Steratore said on the broadcast that the Boutte pass would probably have been ruled incomplete on review. On this Victory Monday morning, the point is moot.

I am a fan of one Greg Cossell, seasoned NFL analyst, senior producer at NFL Films and nephew of Howard Cossell. He appeared last week on the Colin Cowherd show previewing the Bills v Pats game. He told Cowherd that, in his learned opinion, the Bills do not have a particularly strong roster. The receiving corps is weak and there really is really no impact player on defence. Drafting near the bottom of the first round for the last five years may be catching up with the Bills, he said, and he was not confident that they could win against a motivated Patriots team seeking their first division title since 2019. Cowherd commented that beyond Josh Allen, “I don’t know what Buffalo is”. Well, Buffalo has proved over the last two weeks to be resilient, if nothing else. Is their roster skilled enough to carry them deep into the playoffs this season?  We will see.

Up next for the Patriots is a trip to Baltimore to face the Ravens who are battling the Steelers for a division title. Baltimore is an early 2.5 favourite and will present a significant challenge to the Patriots who may be feeling a small measure of self-doubt creeping in after posting ten straight wins before yesterday’s loss. A loss and a Bills win in Cleveland would pull the two teams even atop the AFC East at 11-4. The Patriots still hold the tie-breaker (after head-to-head where they’re also now tied) which for a division title is each team’s record within the division. The Patriots now stand at 3-1 against AFC East teams with games remaining against the Jets and Dolphins in weeks 17 and 18. The Bills stand at 3-2 and face the Jets at home in week 18.

The Bills travel west along the south shore of Lake Erie to face Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns. They are 10-point road favourites. Teams out of contention playing out the schedule can be dangerous and unpredictable and with nothing to lose, they can and often do pull out fake punts and other trick plays and generally take risks they wouldn’t take early in the season. The Bills would be well-advised to get off to a better start against the Browns than they have over the last two games – if only to save their fans another nerve-racking Sunday afternoon.        

Bills 39, Bengals 34

After yesterday’s wild game in Orchard Park, probably the third-last game to be played at Rich Stadium, Bills cornerback Christian Benford explained that the proper technique – which he obviously did not follow – is not to leave your feet when closing in on a quarterback who is about to throw the ball. But he jumped high enough to easily catch Joe Burrow’s attempted lob pass and scampered to the endzone with his second career touchdown in as many weeks. Along with last week’s scoop-and-score in Pittsburgh, each of Benford’s two touchdowns turned the game in the Bills favour. I’m really looking forward to his next four touchdowns against the Patriots, Browns, Eagles and Jets to close out the season with an even half-dozen touchdowns. They don’t call him Christian for nothing as he attributed his going off-script and leaving his feet to an act of God. Whoever was responsible for it - God, Burrow or Benford – it was a magical (Divine?) moment in this topsy-turvy Bills 2025 season.

As we watched the first half yesterday, I kept saying that the Bengals were just practicing on their first and second down plays from scrimmage. A running play here, an incomplete pass there or maybe a short completion for a few yards to set up a third-and-five – these were done only to set the Bengals up for where they would truly excel yesterday – on third down where they converted each of their first eight. They could have and should have made it nine if Burrow hadn’t overthrown a wide-open Tee Higgins on a scramble on third and 18. It felt like there was no way that the Bills would ever stop them on third down as the Bengals put together three long drives for touchdowns on their first three possessions and looked like they would cruise to an easy win as the Bills could only muster 11 points in the first half. Not until their 10^th third down attempt, on their final possession of the first half when it felt like they were about to go up 28-11, did the Bills pass rush finally cause Burrow to hurry a throw and miss out of bounds to force a punt and hold the lead at ten going into the break.

Once again trailing by ten in the fourth quarter, the magic (Divinity?) began for the Bills who reeled off 21 points in four-and-a-half minutes to take a 39-28 lead. Josh Allen started off the rally with a long touchdown run which was followed shortly afterward by Benford’s pick-six then on the Bengals next play from scrimmage, Jordan Phillips batted a pass which drifted easily into the arms of AJ Epenesa for another interception and the Bills then converted a fourth down attempt on the ensuing drive for another touchdown – this one to tight-end Jackson Hawes whose name makes him sound like a character from a Civil War era novel.

The game felt a lot like the season’s opening game, also at Rich Stadium, when the Bills made an unlikely comeback to stun the Ravens with the aid of a late fumble recovery. This season’s home schedule has now produced two such epic comebacks for the home team with two regular season chances remaining. Had the Bengals been able to hang on to the lead they enjoyed for most of the game, they would still be realistically alive in the AFC wildcard playoff race and the Bills would have finally been shutout of any chance at their sixth division title and the home playoff game(s) which go with it. While the Bengals remain mathematically alive with the best possible scenario having them finish 8-9 if they win out, they are likely done. The Bills still hold a mathematical chance at the division title but the programs which calculate such things put their chances of this at less than 10% as the Patriots will likely have a better division record, the first tie-breaker if they finish with the same win-loss record. But 10% means that there still is a chance, right?

Last week, I speculated that next week’s game in New England against the Patriots might be flexed out of the 1pm time slot to 4.25pm or maybe even to Sunday Night Football. The deadline for so doing came and went last Wednesday with no schedule changes so we are set for another early afternoon game next Sunday. I was quite surprised to see that the Bills have been installed as early 1.5-point favourites against the Patriots who have won ten straight games and will be coming off their bye week. If I were Mike Vrabel, I would be tempted to use this as a motivational tool. If the oddsmakers can’t see their way to favouring the Patriots, who beat the Bills in Buffalo earlier this season and sit at 11-2 with a chance to seal their first division title in six years for their home fans, what then is it going to take? The answer of course is a win over Buffalo at home on Sunday. I guess the Josh Allen factor is a major component in the setting of betting lines which, remember, are done not necessarily as a prediction of the game's outcome but to attract equal money on each team. Vegas likes big names and Josh Allen is one of the biggest in the NFL right now so on that level, the line does make some sense. The so-called “smart money” - bet in large amounts by professional gamblers – could and probably will come in on the Patriots which would move the line down towards a pick'em. Who knows? I just hope that the moment and the pressure will be too much for the Patriots and their young quarterback Drake Maye whose name sound like it comes from The Young and the Restless. I like the Bills in this game, 24-20.     

Bills 26, Steelers 7

As Stephen Brunt once said, you can put any football game of any kind on television and he’ll at least watch some of it. Even by that standard, that was a lot of American football over a four-day period: three NFL games on Thanksgiving Thursday enjoying their own time-slot, then another on Friday, then rivalry weekend in college football on Saturday then the slightly reduced slate of Sunday NFL games. By halftime in the Denver v. Washington game, I’d had enough football although when I checked the score in the night, part of me wished I had seen the dramatic and unsuccessful overtime two-point conversion attempt by Washington which gave the Broncos a one-point win and pulled them even with the Patriots at 10-2 as these two battle for the AFC’s number one playoff seed. But it really was a lot a football.

One thing that occurred to me after the first play from scrimmage of the second half of yesterday's game in Pittsburgh which featured a Joey Bosa blindside sack of Aaron Rodgers then a scoop-and-score by cornerback Christian Benford which propelled the Bills to what became a relatively easy win at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium was that as Mason Rudolph entered the game on the next play from scrimmage, it was not Rudolph who was sporting the red nose but rather it was Rodgers, who turns 42 tomorrow and looked old, hurt and defeated as he left the game clutching his lame left arm and with his nose bloodied by Bosa’s hit. I have never ever taken pleasure from an injury to any player but I will admit that when Rodgers went down on that play, my sympathy for him, for a few reasons, was ever-so-slightly less than it would have been for almost any other NFL player. To his credit, he returned to the game one series later but was just as ineffective as he had been earlier. If I were a Steelers fan, despite not posting a losing season in 20 years, the prospects at quarterback with Rodgers and the not-so-red-nosed Rudolph atop the depth chart are bleak at best. Add to that the expiring shelf-life of the very long-in-the-tooth (but still highly respected and for good reason) head coach Mike Tomlin, and Steelers Nation will be expecting, and will probably get, some big changes this off-season. The Steelers have only had three head coaches since 1969: Chuck Knoll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. Looks like its time for a reset in Pittsburgh. The boos were loud and Tomlin, the Steelers head coach since 2007, acknowledged them afterward. He and Bills coach Sean McDermott were teammates at the College of William and Mary and share a close friendship. Tomlin is a class act but I’d say his time is done.

As for the Bills and their offensive mindset going into yesterday’s game, they obviously committed to the run and they certainly stuck with it. How many times did we hear Tony Romo on the CBS broadcast ask how many times the Bills were going to run the same simple rushing play with James Cook? Although there wasn’t much to show for it in the first half, they certainly did not waiver from the plan and the box score shows that it ended up working very well indeed. Cook ran for 144 yards on 32 carries, Ray Davis had nine carries for 62 yards, Ty Johnson had five yards on two carries and Josh Allen added 38 yards on eight carries. All told, the rushing effort added up to 249 of the Bills 372 total yards – the most the Steelers have ever given up at Acrisure Stadium (which opened in 2001) and the most they have allowed at home in 50 years. Keon Coleman, who will be chairing a series of team and community meetings this week, returned to the lineup and caught two balls on three targets with a touchdown. The team’s leader in the passing game yesterday was none other than James Cook with three catches for 33 yards. Cook continues to prove that he is, as Bill Cowher pointed out, the second-best player on the team.

Saturday’s big game at the Big House in Ann Arbor did not live up to its billing as the continuation of what ESPN has called the greatest rivalry in American sports. The Wolverines came into the game - known as “The Game”- as the 15^th ranked team nationally and a win over undefeated and top-ranked Ohio State probably would have propelled them into the 12-team college football playoff but the 121^st meeting between these powerhouse programs was not close with the Buckeyes winning 27-9, a score which flattered the Wolverines and sent their 112,000 fans home disappointed. This rivalry dates back to 1897 with the Wolverines and Buckeyes meeting every season since except for 1918 (because of WW 1) and 2020 (because of COVID). Michigan leads the all-time series 62-53 with six ties.

Up next for the Bills is a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals which was originally scheduled to be a featured 4.25pm game for FOX but was flexed last week to a less prominent 1pm start as the Bengals are not one of the top teams in the AFC as they were expected to be. But they do have Joe Burrow back and he led his team to a big win in the Thanksgiving night game in Baltimore. The Bills have struggled against Cincinnati in the Josh Allen era and with the Bengals having four extra days to prepare and with only a highly unlikely outside shot at a wildcard spot, they will present a real challenge on Sunday in Orchard Park.

Joey Bosa, who has bucked his injury-prone reputation so far this season, left the game in the second half with an undetermined hamstring injury. He was seen walking normally afterward so he may be available against the Bengals but hamstring injuries – just ask Dalton Kinkaid – can linger and usually need a week or two. Thankfully, the Bills came away from yesterday’s game with no other injuries that we know of.

As a side note, looking ahead to the Bills big rematch with the Patriots in Foxboro the following week, the game is currently scheduled to be a 1pm start but (this is pure speculation on my part) it seems likely that it will be flexed to 4.25pm or possibly to the Sunday night game which is currently scheduled to be Minnesota at Dallas.      

Texans 23, Bills 19

I started going to the Vanier Cup in the early 80s when it was held at Varsity Stadium. My alma mater, Western, was usually either playing in the game or had lost the Mitchell or Uteck Bowl the week before. Our usual routine was to attend the game which ended around 4pm then make our way to the Morrissey Tavern on Yonge Street where we would be well in our cups by the dinner hour. We stopped going after the 1989 game which was moved to dome and featured the most antiseptic atmosphere possible: 40,000 empty seats with undecipherable announcements echoing off the steel and concrete roof. In recent years, the location has moved around the country with this past Saturday’s match-up between Les Carabins de l’universite de Montreal and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies taking place for the first time at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium. In an obvious attempt at three-down symmetry vis-a vis the identical Grey Cup match-up a week earlier, the game was won by Montreal, its third championship overall and its second in three years. Attendance was just under 9,000. I saw none of it as I spent most of the afternoon driving Siobhan to airport and battling Christmas shopping traffic in the process.  

The NFL game on Thursday Night in Houston was a sobering three hours for Bills Mafia. Among other revelations which came into focus, it became clear that the 2025 Buffalo Bills are not a Superbowl calibre team – at least not right now. And there’s no reason to think that they will be able to pull themselves together for a long playoff run – a run which looks like it would have to take place entirely on the road. Not enough offensive weapons, porous run defence and, it pains me to say this, poor coaching plagued the Bills as they have too many times this season. The most disappointing part of the game in Houston was the performance (or lack thereof) of the offensive line which was dominated by the Texans four-man pass rush on almost every snap. Not only did the Bills have no answer for this, they appeared not to try to make any adjustments to it whatsoever. It reminded me of the old Anthony Robbins trope of trying the same thing over and over and expecting the results to change. I wouldn’t have had any issue with them lining up nine at the line of scrimmage – 14 personnel if you will with one running back, four tight-ends and no wide receivers – and trying some short tight-end passes just to prove to Josh Allen that he could make a throw from the pocket without being hurried, pressured or sacked. The Texans front four pass rush was relentless and highly effective to an extent that I don’t think I’ve seen in the Josh Allen era. For his part, Josh forgot how to throw the ball away under pressure and this cost his team field position and exposed himself to an unsustainable physical pummelling. Spencer Brown lost the use of his right arm which is an important arm for anyone trying to play right tackle in the NFL. My man O’Cyrus Torrence (I have his game jersey) was noticeable for the first time in his two-and-a-half-year career for the wrong reasons. All-pro left tackle Deon Dawkins had a poor game as well and was called for a critical false start on the game’s second-last play when the Bills were driving for what would have been an unlikely game-winning touchdown.   

Amongst the gnashing of teeth in the aftermath, the knives were out in some circles for offensive coordinator Joe Brady whose play-calling, they said, lacked the creativity he has shown in the past and had somehow become predictable. There were even calls for the reinstatement of the recently-fired former Giants head coach and now theoretically available Brian Daboll who gave Josh Allen his wings as Bills offensive coordinator in Allen’s early years. With no love lost between Daboll and Sean McDermott, that isn’t going to happen – at least not during this season. Chris “Bulldog” Parker said it best on WGR on Friday by pointing out that when it is said that Brady’s play-calling lacks creativity, what they really mean is that they would like him to stop calling plays which don’t work. Had James Cook made that short fourth down run successfully instead of being tackled for a two-yard loss, Brady’s play-call at that moment would have of course been spot-on. Such is the nature of Monday (or in this case Friday) morning quarterbacking.

With the new Highmark Stadium set to open less than ten months from now, the Bills sent season ticket holders a rather heavy wood plaque rendering of the soon-to-be-mothballed Rich Stadium which opened in 1973. It weighs at least three pounds and arrived by UPS last week. Other than the “Bills Bucks” card (with a value reflecting a percentage of each subscriber’s season ticket invoice) which can be used for merchandise or at the in-stadium concession stands, it’s been several years since the team has sent any physical item to its subscribers. With season ticket holders accounting for more than 60,000 of the 71,000 seats at Rich Stadium, imagine the cost to not only manufacture these plaques but to send them to each subscriber. Good thing the fracking business afforded Terry Pegula the means to do what he does……although maybe the ten new minority limited partners in the ownership group (including former Raptor players Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady) may have opposed the plaque idea.

I caught parts of some good games yesterday: the Chiefs came back to hand the Colts their third loss in overtime and then then FOX must have been pleased to see the Cowboys overcome a 21-point deficit to the Eagles by scoring 24 unanswered points to win 24-21. The ratings must have been huge for the second half – probably even higher than the Bills v. Chiefs for CBS in week nine.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers who lost in Chicago without the services of Aaron Rodgers whose injured left hand was too vulnerable for him to play. Expect him to be back in the lineup against the Bills who have been installed as four-point favourites for the late-window 4.25pm CBS game.     

Bills 44, Buccaneers 32

Anyone who has worked in or been associated with any organization of any size knows that one of the most common and enduring issues which besets them is the curse of meetings. The wasted time, the unnecessary blathering on of those whose opinions really don’t matter, the inability of participants to decide anything beyond the date and time of the next meeting – yes time spent in meetings is easily the most unproductive portion of the average person’s work effort, week in and week out. Keon Coleman, at the ripe old age of 22, has apparently learned this lesson already and has decided to demonstrate, in a very public and open manner, his disdain for meetings. Reached for comment late yesterday in Orchard Park after his team’s big win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Coleman reminded everyone that in meetings he actually did attend last spring with his agent and with NFL scouts, he made it abundantly clear that meetings were not something he was interested in. He had nothing to add, he said, before he got up and left, to any meetings, except of course this particular one in which he described his unwillingness to attend meetings. He offered to read the minutes of meetings afterward if he had time, which he suggested that he probably would not. So, this business of Coleman repeatedly being late to meetings or blowing them off entirely should be no surprise to Bills head coach Sean McDermott or to offensive coordinator Joe Brady. It is therefore unconscionable for the team to have made him a healthy scratch yesterday for reasons which were explained as “not performance related”. They knew his position on meetings.

He has faced disciplinary team sanctions before for this issue but they were limited to being benched for the first offensive series. Yesterday’s “healthy scratch” was a first for him and hopefully the last time this needs to be addressed. It is truly astounding to think that this guy can not get himself to team meetings on time or, in some cases at all. As the 33^rd overall pick in last year’s NFL draft, Coleman signed a four-year $10 million+ rookie contract with a signing bonus of $4.2 million and over $9 million guaranteed. The opportunities for Coleman – personal, professional and financial – are truly massive compared to the average American and with effort, focus and hard work, he should easily be able to secure a coveted second NFL contract which would create long term financial security for himself and his family. His on-field results have been mixed through his first season-and-a-half but the potential to emerge as a solid NFL receiver is clear. I can not imagine how frustrated his agent must be with all of this. Does he need a new alarm clock? Was he just trying to get a jump on the Black Friday pre-sales? Maybe he’s renting an apartment in Fort Erie and was delayed at the border. I have no idea what personal demons Coleman may be battling – and if he suffers from any form of mental illness or has substance abuse issues (neither of which has been reported) help is available for these. He can obviously afford the help if he needs it. Joshua Palmer, Mecole Hardman and Tyrell Shavers dressed and contributed yesterday in Coleman’s absence with Shavers probably being the odd man out if and when Coleman decides to show up on time for team meetings. Too bad because Shavers had a strong game with a nice touchdown catch.   

The game yesterday featured the partial return of the reckless 2018 Josh Allen. Fortunately, the much-improved version of Josh Allen of the last few years carried the day in the end as he accounted for six touchdowns on the day – three running and three passing. His two-handed chest pass attempt near his own goal-line early in the game, which was easily intercepted, was the worst example of the young Josh Allen, with his second interception on a ball he tried to force to Dawson Knox who was double-covered being the less egregious example. Otherwise, he has a fantastic game and looked like the MVP from a year ago.

The main problem for the Bills this season – and last season as well – is their inability to stop the run. As a fan watching, it is so frustrating – almost demoralizing – to watch the defence get gashed repeatedly on the ground series after series. The front seven just aren’t big enough or fast enough to shut down the run and force their opponent to throw. Without Josh Allen and his high-powered offence to save the day, the Bills wouldn’t be where they are which is in a playoff position and only a game-and-a-half behind the Patriots for the division lead. Ed Oliver, how’s your bicep feeling these days?

I managed to catch most of the second half of the Grey Cup last night and was happy for the good folks of Regina who partied well into the night celebrating their team’s big win – only their fifth ever which seems incredible in a nine-team league. Montreal made it close but fell just short as quarterback Davis Alexander heroically battled a pulled hamstring to almost complete the comeback. The stands in Winnipeg looked full too.   

Up next for the Bills is a short week and a trip to Houston to face the Texans on Thursday night. The Bills are early 3.5-point favourites and the status of Texans first-string quarterback CJ Stroud is uncertain. The Texans narrowly beat the now 1-9 Titans yesterday on a late field goal.  If I were Keon Coleman, I would be in the team meeting room right now preparing slide decks, flip charts, brewing coffee and arranging pastry platters and fruit trays.    

Dolphins 30, Bills 13

One thing from yesterday which turned out better than I planned was the cabbage rolls. A labour-intensive endeavour they are with their 27 steps – with steps 22 through 27 being completed after the Bills game kicked off in south Florida. My inattention, especially at the beginning of the game, may have cost the Bills the win they needed yesterday but the pundits say that there were other factors at play……and who am I to question them anyway?

Chief among the long list of reasons why the Bills lost badly to the Dolphins yesterday (apart from my not starting my cabbage roll odyssey earlier than I did) is the now quite obvious fact that the Bills have one of the weakest wide-receiver rooms in the NFL. For a consensus Superbowl-contending team as the season began, the lack of talent on the outside has become quite shocking. It has managed to turn Josh Allen into a reincarnation of Trent Edwards, also known as Captain Check-down, throwing most of his passes along the line of scrimmage rather than down the field. With one of the best throwing arms we’ve seen suit up in an NFL uniform, to see him reduced to repeated attempted hitch passes to Khalil Shakir feels sad on some level and frustrating on most others. Keon Coleman made one good contested catch for a touchdown after the dye was cast but otherwise, the Bills offence is sorely lacking in the kind of explosiveness its quarterback, the defending MVP of the league (no risk of a repeat this season), requires and deserves.

It was widely reported that at last week’s trade deadline, Bills General Manager Brandon Beane offered the Dolphins a package of draft picks, including the Bills first-rounder next year, in exchange for talented receiver Jaylen Waddle, who Miami picked sixth overall in the 2021 draft. We know that teams are generally loathe to trade within their division but the Dolphins didn’t trade Waddle to another team at the deadline; in fact, he hauled in five passes yesterday for 84 yards and a touchdown, averaging 17 yards per catch. Whoever is in the interim GM’s chair in Miami probably made the right move by hanging on to Waddle. Time will tell. Were he in a Bills uniform yesterday, would that have made enough of a difference to the game’s outcome? Not with the performance of Buffalo’s defence, that’s for sure. Beane was unable to complete a single transaction at the trade deadline, despite apparently being close on a couple. Market conditions were tough for contending teams looking to bolster their rosters: look no further than the Colts parting with two first-round picks to get Sauce Gardner from the Jets. That’s a steep price to pay and one that Beane was understandably unwilling to consider if it was even on the table for him. As had to be pointed out repeatedly on Buffalo sports talk radio, his job includes looking out for the team’s medium and longer-term prospects as well as adding to the roster for this season’s stretch run.

As I saw Dalton Kincaid hobbling off the field after suffering a hamstring injury, I realized that the Bills chances of a sixth straight AFC East division title (and a January home playoff game) were quite possibly slipping away. So I switched to the Patriots game in Tampa for a few minutes, hoping that the Bucs could hand them their third loss and keep the Bills only a half-game behind. Then Drake Maye hit former Buffalo fan-favourite Mack Hollins for a 54-yard completion on a third and 14 to the Bucs 8 in the fourth quarter and the Patriots did not look back from there. They are clearly in the driver’s seat for the division and have as good a shot at the first overall seed as either the Colts or the Broncos do. For Patriots fans, your time in the wilderness has been short – too short I’d say.

With the trade deadline now passed and with nine games down and eight to go, where do the Bills go from here? No roster moves are really possible, other than practice squad rotations or the unlikely chance of finding a hidden treasure among the ranks of retired receivers (John Brown, anyone?) so it seems clear that we’re stuck with what we have. Can Joe Brady somehow insert some element of a downfield threat to the offence with the personnel on hand? If he could, it seems safe to assume that he would have already. The best chance they have is probably to lean on the offensive line and harness James Cook to rack up 150 yards every game and play a ball-control kind of offence. Teams have won plenty of Superbowls with this approach but it usually includes a solid defence which the Bills don’t have at the moment either.

Up next is a rare 1pm home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who make only their fourth trip ever to Orchard Park after joining the NFL in 1976. After losing at home to the Patriots yesterday, they now have a 6-3 record just like the Bills. The long-range forecast is calling for a temperature of 11 degrees with rain. Could be just what the Bills running game needs.    

The cabbage rolls were delicious and very much worth all the effort – in part because I made enough for at least three meals for the two of us and perhaps more. The most difficult of all of the tasks involved is peeling whole cabbage leaves off the head without tearing them. Blanching the entire cabbage head is the key to success with this part. I used ground beef, pork and lamb with brown and white rice for the filling. It’s a culinary challenge for sure and one I probably won’t attempt again on a Bills game-day.        

Bills 28, Chiefs 21

By 11.30pm on Saturday night, I had decided that I was pretty much sick of baseball. Sick of the stress and tension, sick of the blown opportunities, sick of the called strikes which were balls and the called balls which were strikes, sick of the sleep disruption from too many late nights in a short period and sick of the players, coaches and managers’ constant spitting of saliva or sunflower seed shells in and around the dugout steps. By the time Alejandro Kirk hit into the season-ending double play, it seemed like they could have just flipped a coin to see who would win the World Series.  It felt random and it felt genuinely unlucky - for Blue Jays fans anyway. After Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning, I thought we were on our way to a decisive win like the Kansas City Royals 11-0 game seven win in the 1985 World Series – the year that a wild-blown three-run Jim Sundberg triple off the top of the right-field wall of Excruciating Stadium, hit off Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb, clinched the ALCS for the Royals and thereby created the first playoff baseball nightmare for Toronto fans. Some forty years later, Saturday’s loss is worse, not just because of recency bias, but because it came in extra innings of game seven of the World Series. Considerable time was invested in this playoff run and it ended in bitter disappointment. I guess we’ll get ‘em next year. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training about 100 days from now.

Yesterday’s marquee matchup between the Chiefs and the Bills at Highmark Stadium probably drew a US television audience of about 30 million for CBS, based on the 2024 numbers for the same teams a couple of weeks later in the season. In preparation for the Blue Jays big game seven on Saturday, I looked at some historical viewing data for the World Series and there is no doubt that FOX would have been thrilled to have drawn 30 million for their game seven broadcast. Through five games, the World Series was averaging about 12.5 million viewers per game in the US. Even if that increased to 20 million for game seven, that’s still only two thirds of what yesterday’s regular season NFL game in Buffalo drew. World Series viewership peaked in 1978 at about 40 million US viewers per game but in the mid-80s, it began to decline and by 2023, had dropped to under ten million viewers per game. Baseball has become a “regional” sport in the US, with strong local support for teams in most markets in terms of gate, merchandise and local media but it seems like many Americans will only watch the World Series if their own rooting team is in it. The NFL commands the airwaves in this respect by drawing huge national audiences for games between teams (in yesterday’s case) in relatively small markets like Buffalo and Kansas City.

When Bills General Manager Brandon Beane realized that Utah Utes safety Cole Biship had dropped to the Bills in the second round of the 2024 draft, his facial expression was equal parts thrilled and surprised. Bishop’s rookie season was mixed as he battled injuries while learning the Bills defensive scheme and how to play safety in the NFL. Yesterday’s performance against the Chiefs was Bishop’s best game as a pro as he was prominent in multiple pass break-ups while delivering some big hits, including against Travis Kelce in the endzone at the end of the first half. As the Bills defensive backfield has battled through injuries this season, we are now seeing why Beane was so high on Bishop 18 months ago.

Now add Maxwell Hairston to the mix. The first-round pick in April’s draft saw the field for only the second time yesterday after missing almost all of training camp and the first six games of the season with an injury. He grabbed his first NFL interception and showed his speed and his ability to cover fast receivers down the field – something that wily veteran cornerback Tre White can no longer do nearly as well as he did a few years ago. The emergence of Bishop at safety and now Hairston at cornerback may save the Bills defence after all in 2025.

Yesterday unfortunately brought another devastating injury to the Bills defence with Michael Hoecht suffering a non-contact Achilles injury which will sideline him for the rest of the season. Hoecht was suspended by the league for the first six games of the season (for PED violation) but played very well last week and yesterday until he went out. Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard both returned to the lineup but Ed Oliver remains sidelined until the playoffs with a torn bicep. Evey team has injuries.  Although they sometimes seem trivial, the draft picks teams make in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds and the undrafted free agents they sign each spring are critical to building depth as injuries often mean that these players will see the field, often in critical late-season situations. Michael Hoecht, we hardly knew you!

Yesterday’s game against the Chiefs produced another regular season win against their conference rival which was very important in terms of playoff seedings. The Chiefs are in tough now at 5-4, chasing both the Broncos and the Chargers in the AFC West. The Bills remain a half-game back of the Patriots who hold the tie-breaker by virtue of their win in Orchard Park a month ago. The week 15 game in Foxborough is looming large on the schedule and will likely determine the winner of the AFC East.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to south Florida to take on the reeling Dolphins who fired their General Manager last week and feel like a slow-motion train wreck at 2-7. The Patriots also play in Florida, taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who will travel to Orchard Park the following week. The baseball playoffs certainly took their emotional toll over the past three weeks but I’m happy to have it behind us now with the full focus now clearly on the NFL.        

Bills 40, Panthers 9

The timing may seem unusual but this week’s post begins with an injury report. Unfortunately, it is my own injury report:

There are nine steps from the small deck outside my wood-burning sauna down to the walkway leading to the water and the cold plunge which is such an essential part of the sauna experience. Over the course of the 1,500+ saunas I’ve had since we built it in 1994, I have descended these steps, usually (but not always) buck-naked and sometimes carrying a full bucket of warm water in each hand, more than 4,500 times (usually three times per sauna) without slipping or falling. That changed this past Wednesday at around 6pm. Generally, when the temperature is below plus ten, for my sauna ritual, I wear Keen sandals which have good treads and a solid platform but with the temperature that evening at plus nine, due solely to laziness (the sandals are stored for the summer in another cabin 25 metres away), I decided to proceed in bare feet. After my first session in the sauna, I began my descent down the steps in the usual way – rather quickly in order to preserve warmth before immersing in the cold water but with my right hand not-so-firmly on the hand rail - but when my right heel contacted the wet surface of the second step, it felt like a proverbial banana peel and down I went. All the way to bottom. And hard. I landed on the bottom three stair treads mostly on my left side, partly on my face and somehow also on my right shin. These parts of what’s left of my body have turned from a dull blue colour with a tinge of red, through various shades of purple, yellow and now they are starting to look (to continue the banana analogy) the way a banana does when it is relegated to the freezer to one day become banana bread. The worst contusion is on my left thigh which swelled grotesquely at first and has partly receded in the days since but is still extremely sore to the touch and induces sharp pain when I’m limping around the cottage. I think I have a hematoma in that spot and I’ll be seeking a medical opinion on it later today. Amazingly, I broke no bones. My energy level remains subdued as my body focuses on the long healing process which lies ahead. The experience and the mild post-traumatic replaying of the event in my mind over the last few days has been a poignant wake-up call for me about the perils of aging. And it was also a powerful reminder of the pummelling which my late mother, who fell repeatedly in her later years, took so stoically.

Since I’ve been so physically restricted over the last five days, there has been more than plenty of time to watch sports on television. Late October is by far the best time of year for those of us who follow professional (and college) sports with literally every major North American sport in full swing. From the Maple Leafs and Raptors, whose regular seasons are recently underway, to CFL, US college, Canadian University and NFL football all going full-tilt and then there’s the World Series which is a major focus this year for most Canadian viewers and some (although a steadily shrinking number) of American viewers, this time of year is almost too much to keep up with. The baseball over the past ten days has been spectacular for Blue Jays fans and the World Series games have taken centre-stage for good reason. Major League Baseball knows enough not to schedule World Series games on Sundays as this is the almost exclusive domain of the NFL – particularly on Sunday night where Sunday Night Football is the highest rated television program in the United States from September through January. After the Bills bye week last week, and despite over-dosing on televised sports in recent days, by yesterday, I was, to quote Hank Williams, Jr, definitely ready for some football. Some Buffalo Bills football. And the Bills did not disappoint.

A 40-9 drubbing of the Carolina Panthers may be just what the team needed to get back on track after two concerning losses. The Bills defensive performance, the takeaways, the special teams play – they were all encouragingly positive but if Sean McDermott had only one game-ball to give out in his post-game locker room speech, it would obviously have gone to running back James Cook. Cook had a game for the ages, scoring twice and rushing for 216 yards which is the highest in the league this season and the most for a Bills running back since OJ Simpson almost 50 years ago. And he accomplished all of this without playing a snap in the fourth quarter. The offensive line of course deserves plenty of the credit for James big day as well as it came against a Panthers run defence which had allowed only 131 rushing yards over its previous three games which were all victories. It all came at a perfect time because the Bills passing game continues to seem stalled with a clearly noticeable lack of separation being achieved by the receiving corps. Many of Josh Allen’s completed passes were short screen passes to Khalil Shakir who broke one for a score and made a nice move to evade the final defender on his way to the endzone. The need for a deep threat – a receiver who can “take the top off the defence”, as the saying goes, was never more evident than it was yesterday.

Up next for the Bills is a home date with the Kansas City Chiefs who play at home tonight against the Commanders. The Chiefs appear to be firing on all cylinders and are an early 1.5-point favourite on the road in Orchard Park next week. I would never suggest or predict a Bills loss in any game of any kind against any opponent but maybe this is the year that the Bills and Chiefs switch their recent head-to-head histories of regular season Bills wins and Chiefs playoff wins. But, obviously, if the Bills still want to secure that elusive first playoff seed in the AFC, winning next week will go a long way toward achieving that goal.

Falcons 24, Bills 14

There was a guy who lived in my building a few years ago who had grown up in Toronto but was a fully committed fan of the Atlanta Falcons. He had an uncle whose employer relocated him there in the 1970s and for Christmas one year, he sent my friend a Steve Bartkowski game jersey. This was at a time when genuine game jerseys were not nearly as popular as they are now and, adjusted for inflation, were considerably more expensive too. That was all it took for a ten-year old Toronto boy to create and maintain a rooting loyalty for an NFL team based a thousand miles away. I’m glad he moved out a while ago because I would have had to spend the next two weeks avoiding him and his gloating over last night’s game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Falcons now hold a two-game advantage over the Bills (8 wins against 6 losses) in the all-time series between these teams who face each other every four years. The Bills had won the last two meetings, including the teams’ last meeting in Atlanta in Sean McDermott’s first season as Bills head coach. The Bills also fell to the Falcons in overtime on December 1^st, 2013 in a game I attended at the Rogers Centre. It would be the final game in the ill-fated Bills “Toronto Series” and the only game where there would be no “papered house” – as in, no free tickets. The plan for this game was to see if the Toronto market could legitimately support NFL football unaided. The game drew 39,000 and the plug was finally and mercifully pulled on the experiment which Ralph Wilson and Ted Rogers cooked up in 2008.

I was hoping that the Blue Jays would have built a comfortable lead by 7.15pm last night to allow my full attention to be turned to the Bills. Turns out that they were comfortably trailing the Seattle Mariners and ended up getting smoked 10-3 to fall two games behind in their best-of-seven ALCS. Losing the first two games at home presents them with a monumental challenge as the series moves to the Pacific northwest for the next three games. There remains only a flicker of hope in this situation for Blue Jays fans: I am reminded of the 1977 Toronto Maple Leafs who faced the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL quarter-finals after battling them for seven games (before losing) the previous year. The Leafs somehow managed to win the first two games of the series at the Spectrum before going on to lose the next four consecutively. Dave “Tiger” Williams famously said after game two that the Flyers were “done like dinner” and I was hoping that a member of the Mariners would say something similar last night but I have seen no reports of any such comment. Williams himself could not be reached for comment.

Standing in line outside Metlife Stadium on September 14^th before the Bills beat the Jets, we had a conversation with a guy who was one of the few New York Giants fans to express his disappointment that his team had moved on from quarterback Daniel Jones. He predicted that Jones would have great success in Indianapolis away from the intense media scrutiny of the New York market. After week six, the road to the Superbowl on the AFC side of the draw now goes through Indianapolis, thanks in large part to the solid play of Daniel Jones. The Steelers, having an early bye week, sit at 4-1 with a handful of teams at 4-2, including the Bills, Patriots (who now occupy top spot in the AFC East, holding the tie-breaker over Buffalo), Jaguars, Chargers and Broncos. Probably most surprising is that the Baltimore Ravens fell to 1-5 and look to be in a heap of trouble after being considered pre-season Superbowl contenders. The Jets, now 0-6, will likely be relegated to the CFL.

When the NFL schedule was released in May, Bills fans were not happy to see that their bye week would come quite early – in week seven. Usually, a later bye week is considered desirable as injuries pile up and fatigue sets in as the season grinds on into November and December. With injuries continuing to plague the Bills both on defence and now on offence too, a recovery week seems well-timed now, Last night Joshua Palmer went down with an ankle injury in the second quarter with Dalton Kincaid being ruled a no-go during warm-ups with an oblique injury. Most significantly, star linebacker Terrell Bernard left with an ankle injury late in the first half and did not return. Bring on the bye week!

Looking back to last season, we see a similar trajectory playing out in 2025. The 2024 Bills came out of the gate with three straight wins before stumbling badly in Baltimore and then again the following week in Houston to fall to 3-2. They did not lose again until a December 8^th shoot-out against the Rams. I see a similar pattern this year except that the Bills, now having lost their last two, have two weeks to regroup, rest and recover from injuries.

Up next, on October 26^th, is another NFC road game – this time in Charlotte against the Carolina Panthers who improved to 3-3 with a win over the Cowboys on Sunday. The Panthers have their own bye week coming up – sort of – with a trip to Metlife Stadium to play the doormat Jets. Much hand-wringing will ensue in Buffalo over the next two weeks but I expect the Bills to pull things together and get back in the win column against the Panthers before returning home to play the Kansas City Chiefs on November 2^nd.  

Patriots 23, Bills 20

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 19^th 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 7^th and 28^th along with a week 18 game on either January 3^rd or 4^th. 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.  

Bills 31, Saints 19

The largest point spread of the 2025 NFL season through four weeks opened early in the week at 16.5, floated down to 14.5 on Thursday and settled in at 15.5 early yesterday morning as I was packing my sauerkraut, Dijon mustard, vegetable tray, beer and Italian sausages into my cooler. The Buffalo Bills were playing the league doormat New Orleans Saints and some of the pundits on the radio early yesterday were saying take the points and the Saints. If I was to have wagered against the spread on this game, I probably would have too. And it would have been the winning call as the Saints lost by 12 and covered the spread. I had a feeling that it would be a closer game than was expected. A spread of more than two converted touchdowns is almost unheard of in the parity-driven NFL and proved to be too high yesterday at a sun-baked Highmark Stadium. And the brutalist slab of concrete bult in 1973 now features (from my seats 23 rows behind the visitor bench) a clear view of the top of the new, much taller Highmark Stadium just across Abbot Road which will open ten months from now. I’m looking forward to it for football and for traffic reasons.  

For Toronto sports fans, the Blue Jays 162^nd game of the season was top of mind, even for those of us attending the game in Orchard Park. Would they blow the division lead they had held for most of the summer? Would the Yankees finally stumble after seven straight wins? Would they both win or both lose? I like the MLB’s scheduling plan starting every game on the season’s final day at 3pm or shortly after as every team with something to play for would have to field their best line-ups. We dialed up the game on the car radio with the Jays leading 5-4 and listened as they pounded out eight more runs and sealed the deal on their first division title in ten years, earning the top seed in the American League playoff draw and a valuable first-round bye. Quite an accomplishment.           

My first experience entering the United States after the President’s re-election came a couple of weeks ago (At Toronto Pearson) and was quite smooth as was yesterday’s encounter at the Queenston-Lewiston crossing. It almost felt as if a memo had been circulated by the Department of Homeland Security to the border agents suggesting that they might be a bit more welcoming of low-risk Canadians as they pass through border checkpoints. Travel by Canadians to the US is down 30% since the winter and businesses in American border communities have suffered accordingly. With all the tough talk from the White House in the administration’s first few months, local and state Chambers of Commerce have carefully and quietly expressed their concerns and, after all, business is business. Rather than asking questions requiring detailed answers, the pleasant mid-thirties border agent woman asked – pleasantly - if we were going to the Bills game and if we would be returning to Canada later the same day. “Yes” to both of those I answered as she ran our passports through the scanner and we were on our way. Easily the friendliest, fastest and most relaxed border agent experience I’ve had at least since 9/11. After early reports last winter of phones being scanned and occasionally even an uncomfortable question or two about the President being asked of Canadian travellers, despite the admittedly small sample size of two, for what it’s worth, both of my recent experiences have been good.

As for the Bills who, along with the Eagles, now sit atop the NFL at 4-0, have plenty to work on in preparation for the Patriots next Sunday night as they close-out their three-game homestand. Starting with tackling. The Saints running game racked up almost 200 yards by breaking easily through to the second and third levels of Buffalo’s defence far too many times. The ageless Alvin Kamara, now in his ninth season with the Saints, gained 70 yards on 15 carries while Kendre Miller ran for 65 and quarterback Spencer Rattler added 49 yards, making some impressive open-field moves along the way. Getting DT Ed Oliver back will help to shore up the line play but even with him, the Bills defensive front is soft and seems to operate, like it did last year, in “bend but don’t break” mode which often just looks too easy for opposing offenses to move the ball at will. Josh Allen through an interception – the Bills first turnover since before Christmas - but James Cook continues to justify his new contract by running for over 100 yards once again and reaching the endzone for the eighth straight game.   

Another key division game is up next for the Bills as the New England Patriots, fresh off a routing of the Carolina Panthers and now sitting at 2-2, come to Orchard Park Sunday night. My game tickets remain available but here’s something which explains the scarcity of parking at Highmark Stadium in 2025: My Lot 7 parking pass, for which I paid $40, sold for $175 (all USD) online the other day. I mean Lot 7 is certainly well-located if you’re sitting on the visitor side of Highmark and is right in the thick one of the best tailgating experiences in the NFL but I just can’t see paying $175 for the privilege. You have to park somewhere I guess as there is no public transit option that I’ve ever seen. For over 50 years now, eight Sundays every fall and winter, 70,000 people drive to Orchard Park, consume alcohol (some more than others of course) then, a few hours later, drive home.