Chiefs 42, Bills 36 OT

Football doesn't build character; football reveals character. So said Marv Levy some years ago and on this cold and snowy Monday morning in Central Ontario, I think that it surely applies to both the Chiefs and the Bills and, just as importantly, to their respective fan bases. The ups and downs of last night's Divisional Playoff game, especially in the final minutes and seconds of the fourth quarter and overtime, certainly revealed the character of each of the teams. As for the fans of the teams watching in the stadium or on television, just sticking with the game through its agonizing conclusion revealed character enough. Chiefs fans have another game to look forward to (and probably two more) and Bills fans will have to add this one to their list of crushing losses. Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News said that it rivals any of the Superbowl losses or Homerun Throwback for the most painful loss in Bills franchise history. "Wide Right", "Homerun Throwback" and now "13 Seconds". The longest and most painful 13 seconds in franchise history.

The naysayers and Monday Morning Quarterbacks will be busy today, this week and for the remainder of the off-season questioning the coaching decisions and defensive strategy over those fateful 13 seconds following the Bills taking a three point lead on Gabriel Davis's fourth touchdown catch of the game and Stefon Diggs acrobatic grab on the two-point conversion. They should have squib-kicked the kick-off, they'll say. Safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were playing to deep, they'll say. They played it as if the Chiefs needed a touchdown and not a field goal, they'll say. The Bills called a timeout before each of the two plays over those 13 seconds and still couldn't stop the Chiefs from quite easily - far too easily - moving into comfortable field goal range. The overtime seemed like a training camp scrimmage where the first string offence goes against the back-up defensive unit to see how fast they can march down the field to the endzone. The Bills chose not to use any of their timeouts in overtime when the defence probably could have used a break. But then the time-outs didn't work during the 13 seconds, did they?   

Although I am a long-time season ticket holder. it's been two years since I have made the pilgrimage to Orchard Park to drink a couple of morning beers, barbeque some hot Italian sausages and take in some NFL football. I really hope that eight months from now, I will be doing just that. My team has a once-in-a-generation quarterback to watch for the next decade at least along with a solid coaching and management and stable ownership. A new stadium is in the works too so I'll have to start saving for the inevitable Personal Seat Licences which I will have to buy to continue on as a subscriber. 

Bills fans need to remember that you have to make it to these big games in order to suffer the crushing losses that they can bring. It's more stressful as a fan to watch than, say being a New Yok Jets fan has been over the last few years. Earning the right to play in important games means winning many games along the way and the Bills have done that since Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane came to town. As fans, we should be grateful. The losses are tough but the best kind of character sports should reveal is the ability to savour the wins and let the losses roll off you. It's just professional sports, right? Noam Chomsky is right in the end (isn't he usually?) when he says that the intellectual energy, time and emotion consumed by the ritualistic following of sports is just a distraction from the things which actually do matter in our lives. Being a native of Philadelphia, its east for him to say. The Eagles won the Superbowl four years ago and, although he is loathe to admit it publicly, it surely put his mind to rest.    

Bills 47, Patriots 17

Ten years ago, I met and had a rather long and quite pleasant conversation with Tim Hudak, then leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, at our neighbourhood outdoor hockey rink. Among other things, we discussed the soon-to-drop report from economist Don Drummond but the conversation somehow came around to the subject of football and the Buffalo Bills (I was probably wearing a Bills winter hat). When Hudak, a native of Fort Erie, realized that we shared a rooting interest in the Bills, he asked me "Don't you just hate the Patriots?". I replied, truthfully, that I really didn't hate anyone or any particular team. He probably realized at this point that I might also be referring to my political leanings and that I was not likely to be a supporter of either him or his party. He was certainly right about that but our conversation continued for another few minutes and I ended it by saying to him that I admired those willing to stand for political office and face all of the vitriol which accompanies that vocation. I genuinely appreciated speaking with him and I have had a positive impression of him as a person ever since. And, in the years since then, whenever the Patriots have beaten the Bills, however often and however badly, I think of him and, as if to be true to what I said to Mr. Hudak that day, I remind myself that I don't hate the Patriots.

Someone on ESPN explained that on Saturday night in frigid Orchard Park, "the Bills were paying the Patriots back for all of their ancestors sins". The history of the division rivalry between the Bills and the Patriots over the last 20+ years has been decidedly one-sided in the Patriots favour. I'm sure that Dolphins and Jets fans have the same tale to tell about this as the Patriots have racked up Superbowl appearances and wins in numbers almost unimaginable over the Belichick/Brady years. Whether it was opening week, mid-season, late season or for much-anticipated prime time games, the Patriots have had the Bills number almost every time - until the last couple of seasons when the tables turned. When the Patriots pulled out a win in the wind-blown Monday night game on December 6th and looked to be on their way to the division title, it felt like the tables had turned back again. But when the Bills pulled together one of their best games of the season on Boxing Day and returned the favour in Foxborough, the dragon was slayed for good, right? When the Chargers couldn't get it done last weekend against the Raiders, sending the Patriots to Orchard Park for a Wildcard playoff game, I had a bad feeling about it. Belichick would find a new way to slow the game down, run the ball and keep Josh Allen off the field, capitalize on the Bills weak punting game or somehow make Tim Hudak hate them even more. But that's not what happened.

Even Jerry Sullivan, local naysayer and glass-half-empty sports columnist (who was relieved of his duties at the Buffalo News a few years ago for being too negative) tweeted near the end of the game "How do you watch this and not consider them the favourite to win it all?" Well Jerry, I would have to agree. With a clean injury report going into the game, on every series the Bills looked motivated, prepared, focused and disciplined. They shredded the Patriots defence, plain and simple, scoring seven touchdowns with no turnovers. And Matt Haak had one of his best games of the season, only taking the field as the holder on extra point tries (two of which were blocked but not because of poor holding). Whenever Josh Allen faltered this season, Jerry Sullivan was quick to point out that he wasn't really earning his $258 million contract extension, signed before the season started. With Saturday's performance, he certainly did. Maybe not all $258 million in one game but enough to take Jerry Sullivan out for dinner every night for the rest of his life. And enough to shift Tim Hudak's focus from hating the Patriots to finding new ways to drive Ontario real estate prices ever higher.

Last night, I was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. At least until I went to sleep when it looked like they had little chance of coming back against the Chiefs. The Bills will make another January trip to Kansas City next Sunday night in the Divisional Round against the number two seeded Chiefs who rolled easily over the Steelers last night. The Bills will need to play at least as well as they did on Saturday to move on the the AFC Championship Game, especially on defence. Patrick Mahomes matched Josh Allen's five touchdown passes last night, throwing for over 400 yards against the Steelers. He is no Mac Jones and the Bills number one ranked defence will need to bring their best game. This will be the fourth game between the Chiefs and Bills over the last two seasons. The Chiefs have won two of the three so far and I wonder if Tim Hudak might be starting to hate them too.   

Bills 27, Jets 10

Last night's Raiders v. Chargers game featured an intriguing possibility which did not come to pass although it sure looked like it was going to literally right up to the end of the ten minute overtime period. Going into the NFL regular season's last day, the unprecedented scenario of a mutually beneficial tie in the season's final game, which depended on the league's worst team, the Jaguars winning against the Colts, was discussed but mostly theoretically on account of the unlikelihood of a Jacksonville win. But the Jags did win and this set up what could have been a nightmare for the league - two teams colluding to produce a certain result. If last night's game had ended in a tie, then both the Raiders and the Chargers would have been playoff bound with the Steelers being eliminated. Although there is not a specific rule against such collusion, I wonder if the league office contacted the teams before the game to implore each of them to play the game to win it. If that happened, it certainly worked. 

Buffalo Bills fans were more than a little interested in the outcome in Las Vegas last night as well. A Chargers win would have brought them to Orchard Park next weekend but the Raiders not only ended their season and earned a playoff birth of their own, but set up a third game this season between the third seeded Bills and their arch-rivals the New England Patriots who come again to Buffalo on Saturday night for a playoff game, the first between the two teams since the AFL Divisional round of 1963. I think that most Bills fans would have preferred to see the Chargers make a winter trip to Buffalo but the Patriots, who stumbled down the stretch, offer the Bills another chance to slay that particular dragon - this time in an elimination game. 

Last time the Bills clinched the AFC East in front of their home fans was 1995 and the last time they played a home playoff game with a full house was in December, 1996 against Mark Brunel and the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was Jim Kelly's last game in the NFL. The Bills clinched their second consecutive division title yesterday in a strangely frustrating game which was much closer than the boxscore would indicate. Some patches of empty seats were visible on wide shots of the stadium yesterday but the game still drew more than 64,000 fans as the Bills finished the season with two January home games, both against relatively weak teams in the Falcons and Jets. 

The Jets came into the game with what was statistically the league's worst defence and an offence which looked to be making improvements. But in the NFL, trends don't always hold: the Jets offensive output yesterday was limited to four first downs and 53 total yards. Both of these are franchise record lows for the Bills defence. On the other hand, the Bills offence generated 25 first downs and 424 total yards while the defence also recorded nine sacks, a season high. Despite the statistical dominance, the game was still in question into the fourth quarter when Devin Singletary scored two touchdowns to put the game away. 

The game featured no less than 18 punts - 11 by the Jets and seven by Matt Haack who clearly had his most stressful day as a professional football player. Haack, who had not seen the field (except for a free-kick on a safety) since the Panthers game three weeks ago, had a rough time in the third quarter in particular as he bobbled a snap and barely got off a partially blocked punt before shanking three consecutive punts into the wind, giving the Jets great field position each time. But the Jets offence could only manage one decent play from these opportunities. Haack will be hoping for less wind and a more dynamic performance from the Bills offence on Saturday night. 

The long range forecast for Saturday looks ok with the temperature expected to be around minus five which is fine for two cold weather teams but would have been a clear advantage for Buffalo against the Chargers. Among his many memorable pre-game expressions, Marv Levy used to say to his team just before a winter game against a warm weather or dome team "When it's too cold for them, it's just right for us". Seems like it will be just right for both teams on Saturday. Let's hope that the Bills offence from Boxing Day shows up.

Bills 29, Falcons 15

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan believed that he had scored a touchdown with about four minutes remaining in yesterday's game in wintry Orchard Park - one which would have brought his team to within one score of the Buffalo Bills, making it a closer game than Bills fans would have wanted. NFL rules say that a quarterback who slides "feet first" is deemed to be down by contact when his slide begins and he need not even be touched by a defender for the play to be whistled dead. But Ryan didn't slide feet first at all; rather, he dived toward the goal line and was clearly well over it when Jordan Poyer bumped him, prompting Ryan to say something to Poyer earning him a flag for taunting which would then be enforced on the ensuing kickoff, right? Wrong. When Ryan's left knee came down, the ball was not over the goal line but over the one yard line. No touchdown. I'm still not sure why since he did not slide feet first and clearly wasn't touched before he crossed the goal line. Instead, it was third down and goal from the 16 yard line after enforcement of the 15 yard taunting penalty. Two incomplete passes later and the Bills were a couple of first downs away from victory formation and the clinching of a spot in the NFL playoffs. A difficult exit from playoff contention for Atlanta and for Ryan who will complete his 14th season as the Falcons quarterback next week. For the Bills, a win they needed to maintain their inside track toward a second consecutive AFC East title. 

Bills punter Matt Haack did not "punt" for the second consecutive week although he did take the field and kick the ball by dropping it from his hands and booting it down the field. But there was no long snap to catch and no rushing defenders to avoid. The box score reads that Buffalo punted zero times yesterday but the scoring of a safety, a relatively uncommon event in football with a strange sequence which follows, meant that Haack had to take the field to execute a "free kick" which gave the Falcons the ball back after taking a 2-0 lead on a fumbled punt return by Marquez Stevenson. I found myself trying to explain the phenomenon of a safety to my partner who is now an enthusiastic watcher of NFL football but who had not seen such a play before. I was impressed a few minutes later when she correctly predicted the play calls which led to the Bills first two touchdowns later in the first half. "Josh Allen will run it in for a touchdown" she said not once but twice. She was right both times. "Should they play man or zone on this series?" I asked next time the Bills defence lined up against Ryan. I didn't really want an answer and I didn't get one either. 

Josh Allen had a tough day throwing the ball. His passer rating for the day was 17, the lowest of his four-year career. The quarterback passer rating is a calculation which takes into account attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns and interceptions. The highest possible passer rating is 158.3. The calculation resembles the one used in consumer lending for credit scores in that it isn't completely clear how all of its elements fit together (it isn't a proprietary algorithm like the credit score is - you can look up how the calculation works) but common sense says that if you throw three interceptions, your passer rating will suffer. And that's what happened to Allen yesterday. But he still had a good game in my opinion and contributed over 80 yards rushing, including the two touchdowns. Aside from Allen, the Bills running game had its best day in a long time as Devin Singletary had career highs in carries with 23 and yards with 110 while scoring two touchdowns as well. The Bills posted 28 first downs to Altanta's 18 and dominated the time of possession. 

The only team standing between the Bills and another AFC East title is the pesky New York Jets who come to Orchard Park on Sunday to close out the 17 game regular season. The Jets built a big lead over Tom Brady and the Bucs yesterday but eventually found a way to lose. In addition to seeing their team blow the lead against the heavily favoured Superbowl champs, fans at the Meadowlands of New Jersey also witnessed what will hopefully be the final NFL side show by Antonio Brown who inexplicably left the game in the third quarter with the Bucs down 24-10. He removed his jersey, threw his gloves into the stands and did some jumping jacks in the endzone before disappearing for hopefully the last time. I presume that he's having lunch today with Vontae Davis who left the NFL in similar fashion (without the public disrobing) in week one of the 2018 season while playing for Buffalo. 

   

Bills 33, Patriots 21

I watched all three-and-a-half minutes of Bill Belichick's post-game press conference after yesterday's home loss to the Buffalo Bills. There is no chance that he would even consider doing these if the league didn't require him to and he is notoriously brief in his remarks and answers after losses. One reporter who was somehow allocated a question yesterday explained to him that she was working on a piece on New Year's resolutions and then asked if he had any to share with her readers. "Not right now. Maybe next week." was all she got - and maybe all she deserved in the circumstances. It almost seemed like her goal was to get him to answer rudely, thereby giving her a possible viral clip to share with her grandchildren decades down the road. Belichick said that Buffalo made more plays than his team did, executed better and were coached better. I'll add that they had the far better quarterback too. 

If the slate of week 16 games weren't played against the backdrop of the growing list of COVID casualties around the league, the Bills win yesterday at Foxborough would rank among the most significant regular season road wins in recent franchise history. Not that COVID took away from the importance of the win or that it sidelined many players from either team (as it did with some other teams) but this coming week might be a tough one for the NFL in terms of keeping its star players out of COVID protocols and on the field. If any league can pull it off, its the NFL but if it suffers anywhere near the same level of disruption as the NHL or the NBA, the quality of the product on the field will be called into question just as the season reaches its most critical period. I watched a few minutes of the Raptors game at Cleveland yesterday and couldn't help thinking that if I were a Cavs season ticket holder paying good money to see my team take on a ragtag group of D-Leaguers in Toronto uniforms, I would have asked for a refund. Maybe the NFL needs to isolate its players; maybe its new policy of not testing vaccinated non-symptomatic players will reduce casualties; maybe fans won't care who is wearing their team's helmets as long as they get their football. We'll see what happens but it might get ugly.

Three weeks ago, Isaiah "William Lyon" McKenzie was a healthy scratch against the Patriots on that windy night in Orchard Park. The sometime kick returner and occasionally used receiver, listed at five feet, seven-and-a-half inches, was drafted by the Broncos in the fifth round of the 2017 draft from the Georgia Bulldogs (who play Michigan on Friday night for a chance at the National Championship Game). The Bills claimed him on waivers mid-way through the 2018 season from Denver and, other than returning kicks, have used him effectively on power sweeps once or twice each game he dresses. Yesterday was by far the best day of his pro career as his 11 catches for 125 yards included a couple of acrobatic grabs and some valuable yardage afterward. He is a likeable guy too and I was very happy for him. 

As good as MacKenzie was yesterday, Josh Allen was the best player on the field for either team. Allen was 30 of 47 passing for 314 yards, three touchdowns (and another two sure touchdown passes were dropped) and no interceptions. He also ran for 64 yards which led the team. He was a force in every way and is clearly one of the top quarterbacks in the league. He's come a long way from Firebaugh, CA to the University of Wyoming to Buffalo, a town he now owns. 

We often see professional athletes doing charitable work - visiting children's cancer hospitals, food banks and shelters - and these are usually media events arranged by their teams and/or agents mostly for public relations purposes. On Christmas Eve, Stefon Diggs went to a MacDonalds drive-through in suburban Buffalo and decided to give $200 to each employee working there that night. The story was picked up because one of the lucky employees let someone in the media know about it and then it was widely circulated as a national wire story. I can't confirm this but as far as I can tell, Diggs did this on his own without planning any publicity around it. That's a nice Christmas story for me.

Now that the Bills control their own destiny in terms of winning the AFC East, they have two January home games to win, starting with the Altanta Falcons on Sunday. The Falcons have not been to Orchard Park since 2005 as the 2013 game, in which Matt Ryan led them to a come-back win, was the sixth and final game of the ill-fated Toronto series. I was at the sleepy Rogers Centre that day and thought it was a fitting way to end it.      

Bills 31, Panthers 14

When we learned moments before kick-off yesterday that the Carolina Panthers placekicker Zane Gonzales was injured in the warm-up and would not play, The FOX broadcast showed punter Lachlan Edwards nervously playing catch on the sidelines. He was probably the best of a few bad options as the Panthers held an emergency placekicking job fair minutes before kick-off with no one showing any game-worthy ability. To the great relief of Edwards, an Australian, the Panthers chose not to try a kick at all, going for a two-point convert on each of their two touchdowns and never lining up for a field goal even when well within in easy range. How much of a factor this was in the end? I'll say not as much as the FOX crew of Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma thought it was anyway. A healthy and competent kicker would have kept the Panthers a bit closer but the Bills were going to win this game one way or another.

On the FOX halftime show, Jimmy Johnson commented that the Buffalo Bills, a consensus Superbowl contender early in the season, are inconsistent in all three phases of the game and can not be trusted. I know what he means. I really was hoping for a more emphatic and dominant performance yesterday in Orchard Park, especially early in the game, but as Dick Jauron used to like to say, "It's hard to win in the NFL" and any win, any way is all you can hope for each week I guess. This season has felt like we are on a perpetual search for evidence to justify the lofty pre-season expectations and, as Jimmy Johnson said, sometimes we see glimpses of it but not often enough and not consistently.

Late in the season as we now are, big games usually lead to even bigger games. Sunday's week 16 game in Foxborough, MA is very big for both the Patriots and the Bills. A New England win would virtually guarantee them the division title and a Bills win would move them into the driver's seat, holding the tie-breaker with the Patriots. The tie-breaker for a division title between two division teams is: first, head-to-head games (where they would be tied at a game each if the Bills win on Sunday) then each team's record in games played within the division. If the Bills win Sunday then if both teams win their remaining two games, the Bills win the tie-breaker on this basis. This seems a likely scenario as the Patriots week 17 and week 18 games are against the Jaguars and at Miami while the Bills play at home against the Falcons and Jets. It all rests on next week's game. Yes, Boxing Day 2021 will probably decide who wins the AFC East and offer the Bills another perfect opportunity to re-establish themselves as a contender in the AFC. If the COVID Omicron variant doesn't derail them or derail the remainder of the NFL season.

With well over 100 players testing positive last week, the NFL found a way to re-schedule games to complete the week's schedule with two games tonight (Monday) and another two tomorrow. Thanks to COVID, Tuesday Night Football returns in 2021 with two games, both on FOX at 7pm Eastern. I can't help thinking that these won't be the last changes to the schedule over the next few weeks. The NBA and the NHL have similar problems with postponed games and some teams shut down for 10 or more days. 

I was lucky to have procured my third vaccine dose last week and I have ditched my Bills-branded cloth mask and switched to wearing a KN95 mask at all times when I'm not home. With my third shot five days ago, a good well-fitting mask and a cottage to retreat to, I am cautiously optimistic about my own ability to avoid the virus but I fear that, with COVID weariness turning to COVID exhaustion - particularly in the US  - this might get away from us in a hurry. Maybe I'm just feeling the effects of not eating for the last 36 hours as I have a colonoscopy set for noon today. 

For those who want to have one, I'll wish them a Merry Christmas. And for Boxing Day, more than ever, I will say Go Bills!   

      

Buccaneers 33, Bills 27

After watching the ESPN documentary "The Four Falls of Buffalo" a few weeks ago, a friend suggested to me that surely I would have found it better to not have had my team make it to four consecutive Superbowls than it was to have done this and then gone on to lose each and every one of them. He figured that the pain of the losses must have exceeded the joy of making it to those championship games in the first place. For me, it didn't. The way I look at it is that the ultimate achievement for an NFL team as each season begins is to win the Superbowl. It follows therefore that the second-best achievement must then be to lose the Superbowl. Believe me, the thrill of winning those conference championship games, each of which preceded two weeks of analysis, hype and anticipation, far outweighed the disappointment of losing the final games. Think about it: would you rather have your team lose a game to avoid the let-down of possibly losing the next game? Of course not. 

Yesterday's game in Tampa reminded me of this and provided the same somewhat conflicted emotion. With the Bills trailing 24-3 at halftime and then 27-10 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game, they looked to be dead in the warm salty waters of Tampa Bay. Would I have preferred that they simply went on to lose 34-10 rather than staging a thrilling comeback and forcing overtime before going on to lose on Tom Brady's 700th career touchdown pass? No. And for a couple of reasons: first, as a spectator, the game went from brutal to hopeful to fantastic and then finally ended on the wrong side of the ledger - all of which is better than it being brutal all the way through. Second, as difficult as it was to have lost the game after storming back to tie it, the team can take something positive from it as they prepare for the last four games of the regular season. If they had rolled over and lost 34-10, how would they be feeling this morning? I'm sure that local naysayer journalist Jerry Sullivan would be claiming that McDermott has "lost the room" and that his "process" has now been proven to be faulty. It may still be but the season isn't lost yet. Three of the last four games come against teams with losing records with the fourth being in New England on Boxing Day. 

In three-down football, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won their first Grey Cup in 30 years two years ago and have managed to remain at the top of the CFL throughout the missed COVID year and through to last night in the Hammer where they won in overtime. Good for them and good for Winnipeg. As we've been saying for about the last 40 years, the league really has to try to attract some younger fans. I have no idea how they might do this but if they don't, we'll be saying the same thing 40 years from now. I'll be 99. I wonder how many fans the Argos will be averaging in 2061.

In US College Football, as we await the two national semi-final games on New Year's Eve, the first of the litany of bowl games kicks off on Friday in Nassau. The University of Buffalo Bulls will unfortunately not have a chance to defend their Bahamas Bowl title. The winner will be either heavily favoured Toledo or Middle Tennessee. I wonder if fans of Middle Tennessee wish that their team hadn't made it to this bowl game. After all, they could easily lose. On Saturday, Navy beat Army in the 122nd meeting between the Black Knights and the Midshipmen. 

Next up for the Bills is a home date with the 5-8 Carolina Panthers. I predict that they will blow them out and, in the process, regain their confidence and general mojo. They find themselves on the outside of the AFC playoff picture this morning at 7-6, a game behind the Los Angeles Chargers who occupy the 7th and final spot. With their relatively easy schedule (with the exception of the re-match with the Patriots) over the last four games, I still like their chances to make the playoffs. With the division title seemingly now out of reach, if they do make it, they will be playing on the road and could easily be one of those teams whose record looks worse than they actually are and who no one wants to play. After all, this team, which arguably has improved from last season (on defence anyway), went to the AFC Championship Game a year ago. And, yes, I wish that they had won it and gone on to lose the Superbowl to Tampa Bay.