Bills 31, Dolphins 28

I wrote about Ryan Fitzpatrick in this space last season and I'm going to do that again now because his NFL career continues to be equal parts remarkable and enduring. This is Fitzpatrick's 16th season in the league after being picked by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. He was the 250th overall pick and the last of 14 quarterbacks to be drafted that year. He signed with his eighth NFL team - the Miami Dolphins - in March of 2019.

When partnered with Chan Gailey, the current offensive co-ordinator of the Dolphins, Fitz seems to be at his best. The partnership has three chapters: first in Buffalo from 2010 to 2012 where Fitzpatrick was the starting quarterback and Gailey the head coach, second with the Jets in 2015 and 2016 where Gailey was offensive co-ordinator and now in 2020, after Gailey had been out of the league for three entire seasons, they are re-united. Gailey has a long track record as an effective play-caller who designs offences according to the strengths of the personnel at hand, rather than according to a particular philosophy. CBS NFL colour commentator Adam Archuleta reported that Gailey was quite surprised to receive a call from Dolphins head coach Brian Flores early this year to canvass his interest in the job he now holds.  

The partnership between these two obviously works quite well. But not well enough to achieve real success. Together, they have never really come close to the playoffs, nor have they ever even enjoyed a winning record together in any particular season. Fitzpatrick seems to bounce around amongst the league's bottom feeders while Gailey has had two unsuccessful stints as an NFL head coach along with his long tenure as a co-ordinator. Fitzpatrick has always been able to lead teams to the threshold of important wins but usually falls just short. His trademark has unfortunately often been a critical and devastating late-game interception to seal defeat. While he doesn't produce wins, he comes agonizingly close. Like yesterday. Predictably, the Fitzmagic did not carry through to success with the on-side kick his team needed after a late touchdown which brought them to within a field goal of the Bills. But the Dolphins, with Gailey and Fitzpatrick, are now 0-2 and likely headed for another high draft pick in the spring. 

Through two games this season, Josh Allen has more than 700 passing yards, 6 touchdown passes and no interceptions. In year three, it seems like he has made the big step forward that Bills fans were hoping for. Move over JP Losman, Trent Edwards, EJ Manuel, Tyrod Taylor and Nathan Peterman. Allen has now established himself as the best quarterback to suit up for the Bills since Jim Kelly who retired after the 1996 season. Yes it helps that he has a receiving core which looks to be one of the better ones in the league and the team's opponents through two weeks will probably each finish the season with lopsided losing records and both may have top-five draft picks in 2021. But Allen looks confident, is making much better decisions and has improved his throwing accuracy - something which the pundits who panned his high pick in the 2018 draft said couldn't be coached.

A much tougher test comes this week when the Los Angeles Rams come to the empty confines of what is now called Bills Stadium (after New Era negotiated its way out of a long term naming agreement). The Rams are 2-0 after a close home win over the Cowboys and an decisive performance yesterday in Philadelphia. Quarterback Jared Goff looks to be playing at his 2018 level which was good enough for a trip to the Superbowl (Saints fans may disagree) that season. The two teams have met only 12 times with the Bills holding a 7-5 margin. The last time the Rams came to Orchard Park was in 2012 when they pulled out a 15-12 win. Buffalo won 30-19 in Los Angeles in 2016.

The "attendance" at yesterday's game in South Florida was listed as slightly more than 11,000 but it looked to me that there were really only about 4-5,000 people in the stadium. The weather, which caused a near 40 minute game delay, could have kept some away. The health risk of attending a live sporting event in Florida may have done so too. Whether games are played before no fans or only a few fans seems almost irrelevant through two weeks of NFL play. Television ratings are strong and the games I have seen have been entertaining. Pandemic or not, the NFL is unstoppable. But then we always knew that.          

  

      

Bills 27, Jets 17

Seems like 2020 has been tough for just about everyone. My dad died in the early hours of March 7th and before that, I had been focused on matters related to his illness and hospitalization and, in the days after his death, on comforting my grieving mother. I was driving somewhere in St. Catharines on Wednesday March 11th when I heard the news that the NCAA had announced that its men's and women's basketball tournaments would proceed but without fans in attendance. It was the moment when I finally realized the potential reach of the pandemic which we were all about to experience. No fans in the stands for one of the biggest North American sports events on the calendar? I couldn't imagine it. Since the three games of the men's Final Four are played in a domed football stadium, viewers would see a backdrop of 70,000 empty seats? It sounded surreal. 

The very next day, the tournaments were cancelled completely. And then the NHL and NBA seasons along with MLB training camps were suspended as well. The WHO had officially declared a pandemic and professional sports around the world ground to a halt. I didn't make sourdough like I was supposed to but I did isolate at the cottage through the spring, making weekly trips to St. Catharines on luxuriously empty roads. We got an internet dish at the cottage and, to replace the sports we would have watched, we binged all five seasons of Breaking Bad and all three seasons of Ozark. To change things up, we have now seen almost all of the first season of Fleabag. I did slowly come back to hockey and basketball when they resumed "bubble" play and got fully engaged with the Raptors seven game series against the Celtics which ended last week. The Blue Jays are having success too and I've been watching a bit.

But I was not terribly confident that the NFL would be able to pull off a season. With the sheer number of people needed to support an NFL team - multiplied by 32 - it seemed very likely that infections would sabotage the season before it even began. That's why the most impressive statistic I heard on the weekend was that of the more than 5,000 Covid tests administered to NFL players, team personnel and game-day stadium staff on Saturday, there were exactly zero positive tests. With 16 weeks of play plus playoffs still to come, there is plenty of opportunity for the NFL season to find its way off the rails but with week one almost complete as of this Monday morning, I am encouraged. 

If this were a "normal" year, I would have been so fired up about the Bills prospects for the upcoming season that I would have needed a sleep aid on Saturday night. About six weeks ago, the Bills offered season ticket holders a full refund on 2020 tickets which were paid for (in my case) in March. We were of course urged to leave the funds on account with the Bills for 2021 and if we did, we would qualify for extra swag, free subscriptions to I'm not sure what and, maybe most importantly, an option on game tickets in the event that a limited number of fans could attend home games later in the 2020 season. So that's what I did. If fans are permitted for later home games and if I am offered tickets and if the border is opened, I still might not go. We'll see. Before the game yesterday, a reporter tweeted that there were "plenty of good seats still available". Indeed.

As for yesterday's game, I thought that it looked good on TV. Pretty close to normal. The actual play between the lines looked just as competitive as ever with the stands at Bills Stadium empty. Same for the bits of live action and highlights from other games around the league. Some stadiums are allowing fans but most are not. My sense is that this will end up making less difference than I would have predicted. The rules around piped-in noise in stadiums seem odd with a decibel cap of 70 which is well below normal noise levels in places like Buffalo, Seattle and New Orleans. 

The Bills were in complete control of the game yesterday despite the relatively close looking score. Next week, they will play before about 15,000 fans in Miami. Why the City of Miami and/or the State of Florida is allowing fans at all is a bit of a mystery to me but the same number were allowed in Kansas City on Thursday.        

Texans 22, Bills 19

Sean McDermott asks us to "respect the process". I know I do. And most Bills fans probably do too. The next logical incremental step in the "process" for the Buffalo Bills, it seems to me, would have been to win their wildcard playoff game in Houston on Saturday and then see what would have happened in the divisional round against either the Chiefs or Ravens (since the Titans won, it would have been the Chiefs). In his first year as Bills head coach in 2017, McDermott managed to wrestle the playoff drought monkey off the back of Bills nation (thanks in large part to Andy Dalton's 4th and 12 miracle in Baltimore) with a 9-7 record and a sub-optimal quarterback in Tyrod Taylor. Last season, with a rookie quarterback and virtually no offensive play makers, he somehow squeezed out six wins in a full rebuilding year. This season, with an improved second-year quarterback, new weapons for him to throw to and a re-built offensive line (not to mention a continued outstanding defence), a win two days ago in Houston was, if not expected, clearly the next step for the team to take. But it wasn't to be. Like any close NFL game, we could point to as many as 10 plays which, had they turned out differently, would have changed the result. But at least the Patriots lost.

And I mention the Patriots loss not to gloat. As a sports fan, I pride myself on not being a negative fan - as in, I generally don't cheer against teams, no matter how tempting, unless it's based on a tangible and specific rooting interest I have for my own team. I don't hope that the Boston Bruins lose in the playoffs unless they're playing the Leafs and I don't hope for Yankee or Red Sox losses unless they're playing the Jays. When I say "at least the Patriots lost", I say it only in the context of the Bills inching closer to winning the AFC East division one day and the reaping the reward of the home playoff game which goes with it. Saturday's Patriots home playoff loss to the Titans obviously came too late to have any direct impact on the Bills but it does signal perhaps the beginning of the end of their amazing run and sets up what appears to be a realistic shot at the division title for Buffalo in 2020. Tom Brady may return to New England next season and he may not. And the Patriots will probably still be good in 2020 and beyond but the Bills will have a better chance of de-throning them next season than they have had at any time in the last 20 years. And the loss to the Texans on Saturday is probably irrelevant in this regard.

The game had its share of bizarre plays - none more than the phantom touchdown which was awarded to the Bills - then reversed - on the opening kick-off the second half. Texans returner DeAndre Carter was, upon further discussion among the officials, determined to have "given himself up" after referee Tony Corrente initially ruled that when Carter failed to take a knee and then flipped the ball in Corrente's general direction, it was still live and after the Bills recovered in the endzone, a touchdown was signaled. Callers to talk radio complained after the game that the Bills were robbed of a touchdown under a strict interpretation of the rules. If the touchdown had stood and the Bills had gone up 20-0 and gone on to win the game by less than a touchdown, the controversy would have rivaled the uncalled pass interference in last year's NFC Championship game. The league needs to clarify the rule and returners need to follow it but I, even as a Bills fan, am glad that the touchdown did not stand. DeAndre Carter for some reason didn't follow the letter of the rule, but the spirit of it was correctly enforced in the end - as it should have been.

There was, however, a clear and important missed call in the overtime period. With the Texans lined up at their own 19 yard line for a 3rd and 18 attempt, the play clock ticked down to zero where it remained for what seemed like a full second before the ball was snapped. A delay of game penalty should have been called and was not. It would have brought up 3rd down and 23 for the Texans from their own 14 yard line. Instead, receiver Duke Johnson was able to gain exactly 18 yards on the 3rd and 18 play to extend what would become the game-winning drive. 

Did Josh Allen's mistakes and questionable judgment in a couple of situations cost the Bills the game? The answer is probably yes. But I don't see the point in hanging the loss entirely on him. If Siron Neal and/or Matt Milano had sacked DeShaun Watson on the play which ended up going for 34 yards to the Bills 10 yard line in overtime, maybe the Texans drive would have stalled, giving the Bills the ball back. If Cody Ford hadn't felt the need to dish out a blind-side hit and cost his team 15 yards on the previous series, maybe Steven Hauschka kicks the game-winning field goal and the Bills are preparing for the Chiefs this morning.

Stepping back and looking at the "process" of Josh Allen's growth from the turnover-prone wild-throwing rookie he was in 2018 to the more polished and accurate quarterback he showed himself to be as this past season unfolded, he remains a work in progress but still one with considerable upside. I predict that he will continue to improve at reading defences, not taking sacks and with general ball security. His arm strength and deceptive speed will remain his best weapons and he will learn, through more reps, more games and more big situations to be a formidable NFL quarterback. As a famous Canadian politician said more than 40 years ago, the world is unfolding as it should. But it still sucks to lose a playoff game in overtime after leading 16-0.     

Jets 13, Bills 6

The NFL playoff picture finally saw its final pieces fall into place late last night. Two teams lost at home yesterday - one in a huge upset - reducing their prospects in the post-season tournament which begins next weekend. The Seattle Seahawks came literally within an inch of taking the NFC West title and the right to a home playoff game with a home loss to San Francisco and the New England Patriots lost at home to the Miami Dolphins - something I said for the past two weeks was not going to happen. The Patriots still won the AFC East but now find themselves playing in the wildcard round for the first time in ten years. As is usually the case with the NFL's final day of regular season play, some games featured high drama while others were entirely irrelevant.

I made my way to one of the irrelevant games yesterday in Orchard Park where the Bills dropped their second straight game to finish the season at 10-6. In a drenching rain, the New York Jets cobbled together enough offense to post their 7th win of their lost season mostly against the Bills second-stringers. A massive rain system impacted Sunday's games in the eastern time zone and the Buffalo area took a direct hit. Luckily, the rain held off for the tailgating portion of the day and we were able to heat our turkey vegetable soup (a new cold-weather addition to the tailgating menu) and cook our sausages on charcoal in an on-and-off light drizzle. The heavy rain held off until after the game started and more than 69,000 still showed up for at least some of the game. I expect that my socks will be dry by tomorrow. The crowd was soaked and subdued for the most part but the loudest cheer came when we saw a replay of Tom Brady throwing a pick-six against the Dolphins in their most unlikely win.

For the Bills, they will, as expected, travel to Houston to face the Texans in the first of the NFL's 10 January playoff games on Saturday at 4.30pm. The Texans are early 3.5 point favourites. The Bills didn't quite achieve their objective of surviving the game without injuries as cornerback Levi Wallace suffered a non-contact right ankle injury as he made an interception in the first quarter and right tackle Ty Nsehke re-injured his ankle on an almost identical play to the one which sidelined him in November in Miami. Early reports are that Wallace is probable for Saturday while Nsehke is likely done for the year. Josh Allen saw limited action yesterday before Matt Barkley took over while most of the other key offensive players were inactive. T.J. Yeldin ran the ball effectively, especially later in the game and fan-favourite and former CFLer Duke Williams made some good catches in the rain.

As we left after the third quarter, I said to my season-ticket neighbour to my left, a very serious football fan named Steve (who looks a lot like Metallica frontman James Hetfield) that I would either see him for the AFC Championship Game in three weeks or in September for the 2020 home opener. As the fifth seed, if the Bills and the 6th seeded Tennessee Titans can collectively win four road playoff games at Houston, New England, Kansas City and Baltimore over the next two weekends, the AFC Championship Game will see the Titans travel to Orchard Park for the right to a birth in the Superbowl. I give that about as much of a chance as I gave the Dolphins of winning yesterday in Foxborough. Ok, maybe a bit less than that but I still can't quite believe that Ryan Fitzpatrick was able to pull out the win yesterday. He has one year remaining on his deal with the Dolphins and I expect to see him again next year in Miami, probably seeing plenty of playing time, even if the Dolphins draft another quarterback in the first round.

If the Patriots were the biggest losers yesterday (honourable mention to the Steelers), the biggest winners were the 49ers whose win secured home field throughout the NFC playoffs. A loss would have pushed them down to the fifth seed needing to win three games on the road to get to the Superbowl. Now, like the Ravens in the AFC, a bye week to rest followed by two home wins gets them there. In the four games next weekend, here are my picks: The Bills with a road win over Houston, the Patriots at home over Tennessee, the Saints at home over Minnesota and the Seahawks over the Eagles in Philadelphia. In a strange scheduling quirk, both AFC games go Saturday and both NFC games are on Sunday.

Patriots 24, Bills 17

Earlier this month, after the Bills had won in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, my friend Paul and I concocted what we thought would turn out to be a brilliant scheme. We decided to go all-in on the Bills final game of the season in Orchard Park against the New York Jets. He bought two lower bowl seats as Christmas gifts for his two sons and, with he and I using my seats, the four of us would witness a critically important game with complex playoff seeding implications for the Bills and for the other AFC teams jockeying for one of the six positions in the post-season tournament and/or for the admittedly remote possibility of securing a home playoff game and and the even-more-remote shot at one of the top two seeds which carries with it the advantage of a first round bye. Like a rookie quarterback trying to decipher a Bill Belichick defensive formation, we mis-read it. We were sacked, we fumbled and the fumble was easily returned for a touchdown. Did we lose the game? Well, like Sunday's upcoming regular season finale against the Jets, does it matter at all?

After the Thanksgiving win in Dallas, the Bills chances at their first division title since 1995 went from slim to almost none over the course of the next three weeks, even after the Patriots lost consecutive games to the Texans and the Chiefs and the Bills posted a big prime time win last week in Pittsburgh. Going into Saturday's game in Foxborough, the Bills had to win and then hope for a week 17 miracle in the form of a Dolphins win - also in Foxborough - while they took care of business against the Jets. The Bills, we figured, would leave their starters in against the Jets at least until the out-of-town scoreboard showed the Patriots with a big lead over the Dolphins. The possibility of something really big would exist for the first half anyway, we figured. This was all dependent on the Bills winning in Foxborough on Saturday. And they did not.

They came pretty close though and, although Sean McDermott doesn't subscribe to the theory of moral victories, the Bills showed, for the second time this season, that they can hold their own against their nemesis. As happened in their week 4 game against the Patriots in Orchard Park, the Bills came within one successful drive of  tying the game. In week 4, after Josh Allen left the game with a concussion, Matt Barkley was overwhelmed by the Patriots defence on the Bills final drive and on Saturday, after leading the team all the way down to the 8 yard line in the final minutes, Allen couldn't overcome the Patriots pass rush when it mattered most and they came up empty on 4 consecutive tries for the tying touchdown.

So, locked into the 5th seed and awaiting a road game in either Kansas City or Houston (other remote possibilities of where they might play do exist - including going back to Foxborough), the December 29th game against the Jets is in effect the Bills bye week - and a well-earned one at that, after 4 consecutive weeks of high-pressure games against quality opposition. They can not change the fact that they will be the 5th seeded wild card team playing on the road on either January 4th or 5th. Unfortunately for those of us planning on going to the game, it is actually less important to the Bills than a pre-season game would be. At least pre-season games always carry elements of player evaluation and offer those players "on the bubble" the opportunity to move up the depth chart in the hopes of making the final roster of 53. But this game will largely be an exercise in avoiding injury while giving some real-time reps to the back-up position players. As for the Jets, their season was lost many weeks ago but as Bill Parcells said many years ago, "anyone who thinks that any NFL regular season game means nothing doesn't know what they're talking about." The Jets players and coaching staff will be motivated to secure jobs and contracts for next season and beyond by posting either their 7th win of the season after a win yesterday against the Steelers. The Bills will rightly be looking ahead to their playoff game, deploying nothing more than a vanilla game plan designed to reveal nothing for their playoff opponent to study.

We will make the drive anyway, immerse ourselves in the pre-game tailgate festivities and probably leave early to beat the traffic, get home at a reasonable time and prepare for New Year's Eve.   

 

Bills 17, Steelers 10

Looking this morning at tie-breaker scenarios, if the Bills win at New England on Saturday and finish the season tied with the Patriots with the same win/loss record, the Patriots hold the tie-breaker and that can not and will not change over the course of the next two games. According to the NFL's tie-breaker rules which determine division champions for teams in the same division with identical records, the winner is determined by the following, in this order: first is head-to-head play; if the Bills win on Saturday, the teams would be tied in head-to-head play at 1-1. Second is each team's record against their other division opponents; if the Bills win their next two games and the Patriots lose at home in week 17 against the Dolphins, the teams again would be tied. The third (and in this case the determining ) tie-breaker is the two teams record among common opponents during the season. This is where the Patriots hold the edge, with a two game advantage in this category. Both teams lost to Baltimore this season but the Patriots won against the Eagles and the Browns - and the Bills lost to both of those teams earlier in the season.

For the Bills, the securing of their first home playoff game since the 1996 season (Jim Kelly's last) remains possible but will require that they not only win at Foxborough on Saturday but then they must put their faith in Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Miami Dolphins to win on the road in week 17, also in Foxborough, in a very meaningful game for the Patriots and one on which nothing much rides for the Dolphins. It could happen: the Dolphins will obviously have nothing to lose and can dig into their bag of tricks and find fake punts and flea-flickers along with their New Year's hats and balloons. But I don't give them much of a chance really. And if the Bills don't win on Saturday, it's all moot anyway. Either way, the Bills, who, if they do not capture the division, can finish no worse than the 5th seed in the AFC and would play at Houston in the wildcard round if the current standings hold. Buffalo's week 17 opponent at home is the New York Jets.

Although they are likely locked into the 5th seed and will probably not play at home in January, last night the Bills secured their first 10-win season in 20 years and also clinched a playoff birth for the second time in Sean McDermott's three seasons as Bills head coach. For a team which has endured also-ran status and has seen a revolving door of general managers, coaches and quarterbacks over the past two decades, it must feel pretty good. And it must feel quite different from the miraculous way they made their way into the playoffs two years ago as the team watched from its dressing room as Andy Dalton completed an unlikely 4th down touchdown pass in Baltimore. That was lucky. This is different. The team has a top-three defence and a quarterback who seems able to seize the moment in big games before national TV audiences.

It may take me a few days for me to recover from staying up way past my usual bedtime and enduring the stress of last night's 4th quarter which saw the Bills score 10 points and over come a 10-7 deficit against a good Steeler defence. It ended up taking two late interceptions - of the four the Bills made - to seal the win and send Bills nation into celebration mode. Third-string Steeler quarterback Devlin "Duck" Hodges played competently last night at times but the difference in the game, which matched two of the best defences in the league, was Josh Allen's play at quarterback. Although his statistics from last night look unimpressive, he did what was needed to win when it counted most. The first-ever NFL quarterback from the University of Wyoming has found a home in Buffalo.

Up next for the Bills is the aforementioned game in Foxborough on Saturday. Amazingly, it will be their third nationally televised game in the last four - and last week's game against the Ravens was the lead game on CBS and was seen by all of the "neutral" markets in the US (markets which have no team or whose team wasn't playing in the 1pm timeslot). The first two have gone well as the team posted wins in Dallas and Pittsburgh. Maybe next year, there will be a prime time home game. I'm getting weary just thinking about what time I'll get to bed after that one.

Ravens 24, Bills 17

Although it has history longer than Coca-Cola (by one year), I'm not sure if I've ever consumed a can or a bottle of the soft drink Dr. Pepper. Sold in the United States since 1885 and now available around much of the world, Dr. Pepper has long been a sponsor of American college football with its big-budget advertising campaigns appearing on nationally televised games for many years.

Since 2008, the Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway has been a halftime feature of college football Conference Championship games which are played on the last full weekend of play before the bowl games begin later in December. The Tuition Giveaway is a live halftime competition where two current or aspiring post-secondary students compete by throwing as many footballs into an oval shaped opening in a life-sized can of Dr. Pepper as they can in one minute from a distance of about ten yards. In recent years, winners have used the chest pass technique rather than using a traditional overhand football throw. In each competition, the winner receives $100,000 toward post-secondary tuition and the runner-up gets $25,000 (Dr. Pepper says it has given away more than $10 million over the past 12 years). In one of the games on Saturday, I happened to see one of these halftime competitions which was followed by a brief interview with the winner, a cheerful young woman whose goal is to attend medical school. "I want to thank God and I want to thank Dr. Pepper", she said in a rehearsed bit with the company's VP of marketing standing beside her with a giant cheque for $100,000. It reminded me of what a remarkable country the United States really is - one where a nationally promoted partnership between God and Dr. Pepper doesn't seem unusual until you think about it a little. This is a melding of three of the most important elements of what America is all about: football, religion and corporate power. If this particular young woman realizes her dream of being a doctor, she better have a can of Dr. Pepper on her desk to remind herself and her patients of who funded her education.

There were two very similar defensive plays which were critical in deciding NFL games yesterday - one in Orchard Park, NY and one in Foxborough, MA. The Bills almost completed their unlikely comeback but, trailing by seven points, Josh Allen's last minute 4th down pass intended for John Brown on the goal line was deflected away by Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters. This sealed the Ravens 11th win of the season and gave them the inside track to having home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Patriots also found themselves down by seven with a chance to tie the game in the final seconds against the Chiefs. A 4th down Tom Brady pass thrown into the endzone toward Julian Edelman was deflected away by cornerback Bashaud Breeland, allowing the Chiefs to hang on for the win. The Patriots have now lost two games in a row and the Bills remain one game behind them with three games remaining, including a head-to-head match-up in week 16.

This NFL season has been quite successful from the league's perspective with improved television ratings, a welcome absence of criticism from Donald Trump and only a few minor off-field player indiscretions. The biggest area of concern is clearly the poor quality of the officiating which has been evident almost every week. Yesterday was no exception. The Bills final drive was aided by three penalties against the Ravens, including one personal foul call which was not discernible to me on replay. In the Patriots/Chiefs game, it was much worse. A key missed pass interference call cost the Chiefs but the Patriots were the victims of two particularly egregious missed calls - one where receiver N'Keal Harry was called out of bounds on a play where he not only wasn't out of bounds but the replay showed clearly that he actually scored a touchdown . Under the replay challenge rules, since the Patriots were fresh out of replay challenges and the play was not a "scoring play" (not ruled a touchdown on the field) and did not occur within the last two minutes, it was not reviewed. The other missed call was on a play where the Chiefs Travis Kelce was called down by contact but had actually fumbled. The call was reversed on review but, had the right call been made on the field, the Patriots would have advanced the fumble and probably scored. Make no mistake, I'm happy that the Patriots lost but the league has a growing credibility problem caused by too many bad calls by on-field officials. As for the rules around replay challenges, since the millions watching the game on television saw N'Keal Harry's foot clearly land in-bounds before he launched himself over the goal line, the fact that the play could not be reviewed just feels wrong.

Up next for the Bills is a trip to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on Sunday Night Football. Jerry Sullivan wondered if the league and NBC might be second-guessing their decision to flex that game for next week after the Bills woeful offensive performance yesterday. C'mon Jerry, the Ravens defence is really good, isn't it?