Bills 37, Commanders 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bills 38, Raiders 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jets 22, Bills 16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bengals 27, Bills 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

Bills 34, Dolphins 31

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

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

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

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

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

Bills 35, Patriots 23

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

       

Bills 35, Bears 13

Marv Levy always said that to win in the NFL, a team need only do two things and two things only: run the ball and stop the run. This philosophy might be a nod to the NFL of yesteryear - the "three yards and a cloud of dust" approach - with the running game accounting for well over 50% of offensive snaps. Today's pass-happy brand of football has taken over for the most part but when weather conditions restrict the passing game, the ability to run the football - or the lack thereof - carries the day even today. 

Going into the Christmas Eve game in Chicago, the Bears had managed to ride their strong running game, led by second-year quarterback Justin Fields, to a dismal 3-11 record despite a promising opening week win against the San Francisco 49ers. In week 9 against the Dolphins, Fields set the league record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a single regular season game at 178, breaking Michael Vick's 20 year-old record. The Bills would have to contain Fields on a day where running was going to critically important. The defensive game plan was pretty much perfect as Fields rushed for a net of 11 yards and was dropped for losses a couple of times too. Bills Linebackers were patient in resisting the temptation to over-pursue, one of the cardinal sins in playing against an explosive running quarterback. The Bears rushed for only 80 yards en route to posting an anemic 209 total yards in the game. 

On offence, the Bills gashed the Bears for 254 yards on the ground, averaging 8.2 yards per carry, with both Devin Singletary and James Cook having strong games with each breaking out for long touchdown runs. Singletary finished with 106 yards on 12 carries and Cook fell a yard short of the century mark with 99 of his own. Run the ball and stop the run. Check and check. In one of the coldest and windiest games in Bears history, the Bills adjusted their usually pass-oriented attack accordingly and shut down the Bears main offensive weapon. For his part, Josh Allen passed Dan Marino for the most touchdowns by a quarterback in the first five years in the league (passing, running and receiving). 

The importance of the Bills next game, Monday January 2nd in Cincinnati, OH can not be over-stated in the context of seeding for the NFL playoffs. The Bengals have won seven in a row and sit one game behind Buffalo (winners of six straight themselves) in the AFC standings at 11-4. If the Bengals can win a week from today, they will leapfrog over the Bills in the AFC playoff seeding by virtue of the head-to-head win and the only chance that the Bills would have of regaining the number one seed would be if the Baltimore Ravens can win in Cincinnati in week 18. Early lines have the Bills as 1.5 point favourites. My guess is that the line will tighten as the week goes on. If  the Bills Pro Bowl centre Mitch Morse, who suffered the sixth concussion of his career last week against the Dolphins, can return, I will like the Bills chances much more. Another night game - the Bills 5th of the season - awaits, as does another disruption of my usual early-to-bed and early-to-rise routine. With these late-night Bills games, the last few hours before sleep are usually tense and stressful, making the following day feel as if I'm recovering from a trip to west coast. 

Around the NFL, week 16 featured much jockeying for playoff positions and seeding with some teams clearly on the rise and peaking at the right time while others are flaming out. Leading in the flaming out category is the Miami Dolphins who have now lost four straight and have fallen to 8-7. Tua Tagovailoa threw three brutal interceptions in the second half yesterday and, after a strong first half of the season, questions about him as the franchise quarterback in Miami have returned. The Dolphins opponent yesterday, the Green Bay Packers are on the rise, having won three straight to improve to 7-8 with a shot at a wildcard playoff spot. The Jaguars have the inside track on the fourth seed in the AFC and the LA Chargers are finishing strong too.