Chiefs 27, Bills 24

The clouds parted in north Toronto just after 9am and I basked in the morning sunshine from the 12^th floor of my building as I drank my coffee and wondered how the traffic would be, where we would park and whether or not I should wear my huge arctic parka. We had tried one night game a few years ago – an 8.15pm start – which got me home just before 3am.  Little did I know that despite last night’s game kicking off almost two hours earlier than a regular night game, thanks to inexplicably and unbearably slow egress from the stadium parking lot and heavy traffic up to and including the Canada Customs line-up and the Peace bridge, I would arrive home once again at the aforesaid time of 3am.

A bit more on yesterday’s (and this morning’s) travel details: It was a tale of two driving trips. The drive to Queenston, the US border line-up and the rest of the drive to the stadium parking lot was clear and uneventful, even once we began to see the towering snow banks south of Buffalo and into Orchard Park. We were parked and ready to begin our seven-hour outdoor winter adventure shortly after the stadium parking lots opened four hours before kick-off. A couple of drinks, a good barbecue and smooth entry into the stadium brought us to our seats a full hour before kick-off. This allowed ample time to watch the Chiefs players’ wives gather, greet each other and mingle around in their fancy coats and boots during the warm-ups. The guy who sits next to me arrived a little later, sporting a photo of the back of Taylor Swift on her way in to the stadium a few minutes earlier. After the game, as one parking lot attendant commented, it was “the worst night ever”. He had heard that an ambulance had tried or was trying to access the area and that was apparently part of the reason why we moved about 10 metres in 75 minutes before actually starting to leave the stadium parking lot. As we sat wondering about the cause of the delay, Mike Schopp and the Bulldog on WGR waxed on about Wide Right 2.0 and whatever else had gone wrong with the game.

The elevated level of excitement and anticipation around this game was palpable as kick-off approached. Bills mafia were ready to finally slay the Chiefs dragon – the playoff version at least – in their house. But of course it wasn’t to be. A few key dropped passes on deep balls, the evaporation of the running game in the second half and a missed game-tying 44 yard field goal were certainly valid contributors to the crushing loss but, in my view, it was the inability of the Bills depleted defence to stop Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Isiah Pacheco which cost the Bills the game. Even if Tyler Bass had made the kick and tied the game at 27, it seemed highly likely to me that the Chiefs, with 104 seconds on the game clock and two time-outs still at their disposal, would have easily been able to drive far enough for Harrison Butker to kick the Chiefs into the AFC Championship Game anyway. But he missed the kick wide right and the Chiefs needed only one more first down to seal the game.

Despite the profound disappointment of another playoff loss to Kansas City – the third one in four years – and the salary cap and roster issues which General Manager Brandon Beane will be faced with starting this morning, optimism will continue to abound around the Bills and their fans as the off-season finally leads to the start of training camp in the late July heat. 2024 will be Josh Allen’s 7^th season as the Bills quarterback. He is clearly one of the best players in the league and he will continue to be as he is arguably only now entering the prime years of his career. Primarily for this reason, I will clean my barbecue grill and pack away my Bills gear not with a heavy heart but with anticipation of another successful Bills season to come. The injury pendulum may swing back in 2024; Dalton Kincaid could begin to earn the label as the NFL’s new Travis Kelce; James Cook might continue his journey to becoming one of the league’s offensive stars. I am confident that with a few luckier bounces here and there, a key fake punt play that actually works, a healthy defence and the continued and unwavering support of Bills fans, the team can easily surpass what they accomplished this season. That’s what being a real fan is all about – even on this gloomy sleep-deprived Monday morning.

The NFL season now only has three games remaining. The Chiefs go to Baltimore as 3.5 point underdogs. I’ll be cheering them on.   As I watched Kansas City’s star players up close last night and the commanding presence of Andy Reid lumbering (and slightly limping) around the sidelines, delivering short messages from time to time to certain players, gave me new respect for him and program he has built in Kansas City. He is rumoured to be contemplating retirement after this season and I would find it pleasing if he were to win another championship before he walks away. And maybe shoot some new State Farm commercials for the Superbowl.                 

Bills 31, Steelers 17

Had I managed to email her directly – not her publicist, her manager or a web form on her site – but directly to her, I would have invited Taylor Swift to join me on Sunday night in section 111 with our group of long-tenured and civilized season ticket holders. Why does she always have to sit high above the field in a private box with Travis Kelce’s mother and Patrick Mahomes’ wife Brittany? Why not sit 23 rows above the Chiefs bench where she would be a short walk down to field level to hold hands with Kelce between quarters or during TV timeouts? Well, I think the reason may be tied to the inaccessibility of her personal email address. I was trying to imagine the security requirements for a celebrity of her level and I suppose that openly sitting in the crowd simply would not be feasible for her. I know it, you know it and the American people certainly know it. However, I also know that the MAGA crowd most definitely does not like Taylor Swift but it does seem like her arrival on the NFL scene this season has been yet another net benefit for the league. Her attendance at the game in Orchard Park on Sunday will be as much of a story in some circles as the Bills extensive injury report will be.

Crews consisting of heavy snow removal equipment in and around the stadium and legions of volunteers (who were paid $20 per hour) who partially shoveled the seating areas did as good a job as they could have given the limited time between the three-foot snowfall which carried on until Sunday morning and the 4.30pm kick-off. Plenty of snow remained in the seating areas and there was mention on the pre-game radio broadcast about the potential for one or more 15 yard penalties to be assessed to the Bills (as per league rules) for the throwing of snowballs by fans. Bills fans are notorious for throwing snowballs at the visitor bench and players on the field if given the opportunity. We have certainly seen it before but last night, it was considerably more muted than I had expected given the amount of ammunition available. Then I realized why. It was too cold to make snowballs unless you were able to moisten the snow or somehow warm it up. It would have taken some effort to make snowballs and there were a few but what we mostly saw in the stands was snow flung in the air which created snow showers and nothing more. Had the temperature been much closer to the freezing point and had the Bills been losing the game in the second half, I’d say that there was a solid chance that the game could have been forfeited (again, as per league rules) on account of fans continuing to throw snowballs after being ordered to stop. For a few reasons, I hope that all the snow will have been removed from the stadium by Sunday.

The Kansas City Chiefs come to Buffalo – finally – for a much-anticipated Divisional playoff game. This game will generate huge ratings for CBS with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo (who were hotel room bound in Buffalo during the storm) return to Orchard Park for a second straight week. The NFL loves match-ups between marquis quarterbacks and this one will not disappoint in terms of hype as the week goes on. Add Taylor Swift to the mix and Roger Goodell (who attended yesterday’s game) just might ask for another raise. 

There must be a point at which the Bills defence can not withstand any more injuries. No less than four more were added to the list last night: cornerbacks Christian Benford and Taron Johnson as well as linebackers Terrel Bernard and Baylon (Arlon) Spector all left the game with injuries. Offensive lineman Connor (George) McGovern was also injured but only missed a snap or two which should keep the Bills season-long streak of starting the same five offensive linemen going into week 20. And punter (and place-kick holder) Sam Martin, who has been outstanding all season, pulled his hamstring running full-out in pursuit of the returner of a blocked kick. He returned to punt once more time and got it off admirably but his status is also uncertain this morning. But the defence is the main injury story. While the back-ups have played well beyond reasonable expectations, how many more competent players are there on the roster? As the short week goes on, the status of injured Bills defenders will be a major area of inquiry – maybe the most important questions there are. The Chiefs – whose offence looked pretty good against Miami – are looming on the short horizon and obviously present a bigger challenge than the Steelers did yesterday.  The Bills training and physiotherapy staff have a big week ahead of them.   

 

Bills 21, Dolphins 14

I find myself this morning almost as excited about a 1pm Sunday start for the Bills next game as I am about the fact that the team claimed the number two seed in the AFC playoffs. Despite a sense of relief coming after the Tennessee Titans held on to defeat and eliminate the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the day, guaranteeing the Bills a playoff spot, last night’s game in south Florida was a stressful as any have been this season with the game’s outcome in doubt until the final minute of play. These late games leave me feeling completely wired at 11.45pm which is already a good couple of hours past the time I usually retire for the night. I’m off to a bit of a late start this morning trying, without much success, to get more information on some of the injuries the Bills suffered in the slugfest.

As Josh Allen said after, last night’s game was a microcosm of the Bills season: some good things early, then injuries, turnovers and missed opportunities, followed up by a key special teams play, a swift recovery and a hard-earned, razor-thin win. Allen also said that on the drive which produced the game-winning touchdown pass to Dawson Knox, the ball was coming out of his hand better than it had all season. It was certainly enough to overcome another turnover-plagued first half where he threw two interceptions in the redzone (the team’s first redzone turnovers of the season) and also fumbled the ball away on a strip-sack. We saw bad Josh Allen turn to good Josh Allen over the course of the game and good Josh Allen is usually good enough to win. It certainly was last night.

The boxscore from last night reads like a blowout game with the Bills dominating most key statistical categories: They posted 26 first downs to the Dolphins 16, 473 yards of total offence to the Dolphins 275 and held the ball for just over 38 minutes to the Dolphins 22. The two quarterbacks both threw two interceptions each with Tua Tagovailoa’s final one to Bills safety Taylor Rapp sealing the win. Allen earned a passer rating of 101.6 completing 30 passes on 38 attempts for 359 yards with two touchdowns and the two picks. Tua’s passer rating was a lowly 62.7 as he reached only 173 yards.

There are new injury concerns for the Buffalo sports radio talking heads to pour over this coming week. Gabe Davis watched most of the game from the sidelines after suffering what appeared to be another “non-contact” injury and Rasul Douglas and Tyrel Dodson both left and did not return. Dion Dawkins somehow lacerated his hand but did return to the game. The fact that the Bills seems to be able to maintain such a high level of defensive play no matter how many starters go down is, in my view, a testament to Sean McDermott and the job he has done as defensive coordinator this season. We will know more about the seriousness of these injuries in the next couple of days.

The Miami Dolphins, clearly a Superbowl contender for much of the season, now find themselves the AFC’s sixth seed with a game in Kansas City next Saturday night where winter weather is forecast to have arrived with a vengeance. The Dolphins needed this game arguably more the Bills did – and they looked well-positioned to claim the Division title and the second seed with its two home playoff games until Deonte Harty’s brilliant 96-yard punt return tied the game and completely changed its trajectory early in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins went three-and-out on their next series and the Bills scored the winning touchdown on the ensuing drive. “All Three Phases” is a term we hear often enough and certainly it rang true for the Bills last night. I can not see the Dolphins having much success on a cold dark night in Missouri five days from now. What a fall it has been for these Fish: from the high-flying early season juggernaut which raced up and down the field at will (admittedly mostly against weaker teams) and scored ten touchdowns against the Broncos in late September. As a division rival and long-time nemesis, the Miami Dolphins get no sympathy from me but it must be a tough morning to be a fan of theirs.

Next up for the Bills are the Pittsburgh Steelers who ground out a win on Saturday at a saturated PSI.net stadium (as I still like to call it) in Baltimore against the Ravens back-ups. The Bills are early 9.5 point favourites. Home playoff games are what NFL teams play for all season and the Bills have definitely earned theirs. But the Steelers will not be intimidated by cold weather or the hostile environment. There will not be as many Steeler fans in Orchard Park on Sunday as there were Bills fans in Miami Gardens last night but Steeler Nation is known as perhaps the best travelling fan base in the league and plenty of them will make the short trip north then east along the south shore of Lake Erie for this game. This bodes well for those of us who may be looking to unload tickets on the secondary market.       

 

Bills 27, Patriots 21

New Year’s greetings from Muskoka where our lake remains mostly open and we have no snow whatsoever on the ground. I feel for those businesses in the north and the “near north” who rely on good skiing, ice fishing and snowmobiling conditions for their livelihoods. This holiday season has been a bust but maybe things will turn around this month. For now, November-like conditions are stretching into a third month. Like Mark Maron sarcastically said recently, we have probably passed the tipping point in terms of irreversible and disastrous climate change but we should take comfort in knowing that we have done absolutely everything we could have to avoid it and it’s clearly not our fault.

Bills fans would have to describe their relationship will Bill Belichick as tortured. For the last 25 years or so, he has been the mastermind of many of the Bills most painful losses. Yesterday probably marked his last trip to Orchard Park as Patriots head coach so I’d like to pay tribute to him and suggest a new angle he could take if he wants to continue coaching. Pundits have suggested that some owner somewhere – Carolina, Arizona, Los Angeles (Chargers), perhaps even the Jets if they decide to move on from Robert Saleh – will want to bring him in as head coach next season. His name carries as much coaching cache as anyone’s and his hiring would surely advance (or at least shore up) ticket sales and general fan engagement in any market in the league.

My view is that hiring Bill Belichick as head coach would not be a smart move in terms of a team’s long term football interests. The correlation between the departure of Tom Brady and the Patriots offensive anemia is quite clear. Add to that the recent history of his drafting misses (as he is currently the Patriots defacto general manager as well) and Belichick’s resume on the offensive side of things is sliding badly. But – and this is the gist of where I’m going with this – he remains a defensive genius. Yesterday, his team’s defensive performance would have been enough to register a significant upset (similar to last week’s win in Denver) but his offence coughed up the ball too many times for his defence to overcome. The Bills had just enough success on third down late in the game to hang on for the win but their explosive offence never really got comfortable; the Patriot offence kept giving them short fields to work with and they converted just enough of these opportunities. It was another defensive gem for Belichick but another loss for his team.

If he would be willing – and if I had to guess, I’d say that he would probably not be – to take a position as defensive coordinator somewhere in the league, teams should be lining up to hire him. Throw in “Associate Head Coach” to sweeten the pot and maybe he’d be interested in the right situation. Call it a sort of phased retirement if you like. The combination of a young offensively creative head coach (like the Dolphins Mike McDaniel for example) and Belichick running the defence would make a formidable force to reckon with. No drafting or offensive responsibilities at all for Bill – just defence. His presence in this role would bring instant credibility to any organization and I honestly think this is the highest and best use of his skills and experience in the NFL. Wherever he lands later this year, I wish him all the best. Except against the Bills.

The stars aligned perfectly yesterday for the Bills in terms of preserving a shot at the division title but they didn’t get the help they needed to clinch a playoff spot just yet. The New York Times playoff chance simulator still gives them a 97% chance to make the playoffs going into week 18. A win over the Dolphins gets them the second seed in the AFC (which would mean a second home playoff game if they win their first one) but if they lose to the Dolphins, they will need help next week in the form of any one of (1) a Steelers loss, (2) a Jaguars loss or (3) a tie between the Texans and Colts.

The NFL released the times for the full slate of week 18 games last night and to no one’s surprise, the Bills v. Dolphins game will be final regular season game of the 2023 season – the Sunday Nighter on NBC. They will obviously know before kick-off whether or not any of these three results above became reality. It’s like the home team batting in the bottom of the ninth knowing exactly what they need to do. The NFL has enjoyed many individual game television ratings bonanzas this season and it seems reasonable to think that the game next Sunday night might generate the highest ratings of any regular season game in a long time. NBC and its sponsors must feel like they’ve hit the jackpot this time. I’ll start adjusting my sleep patterns mid-week for yet another late-night game. As Steve Tasker likes to say, late in the season, if you win a big game, it always leads to another even bigger game next week.  

 

Bills 24, Chargers 22

Christmas Greetings from Moncton, New Brunswick. There’s no snow here either which is much more unusual than green Christmases are in southern Ontario. Yesterday we drove four hours or so from Edmundston on deserted roads through a series of unpopulated valleys with Irving gas stations sprinkled every 50km or so. It’s like driving in northern Ontario but with major rivers taking the place of small lakes. This is Canada’s only truly bilingual province where the young people working in service jobs pivot effortlessly between English and French. We tried ordering in French at a Tim Horton’s drive-through (because we were greeted in French) but the young woman recognized my weak accent and switched to English. What remains of my high-school French is embarrassingly poor but probably not as bad as New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs whose French accent and vocabulary makes John Diefenbaker sound like Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

The Saturday night Bills game was on television in our Edmundston hotel room on CTV 2 which, for whatever reason, was only available in standard definition. At first, it made me realize that I watched every hockey and football game without HD for the first few decades of my life and that I managed this just fine. But when Josh Allen heaved a long bomb to Gabe Davis for the Bills first touchdown of the game, I thought that the ball had slipped through his hands…..until I saw him dragging a defender into the endzone clutching what appeared to be a football. It was a spectacular catch by Davis who decided to have a “number one wide receiver” game with four catches on six targets for 130 yards and that important first touchdown which cut an early ten-point deficit to three. As Chris Collinsworth pointed out, Davis seems to have two speeds: he either goes off for more than 100 receiving yards or he focuses on blocking (at which he is very good) and is not targeted at all in the passing game.

I can’t quote the percentages but generally in the NFL a team that loses the turnover count also loses the game. But obviously not always. Teams that lose the turnover count by three surely have an even worse record. The Bills handed the Chargers three turnovers on two fumbles – one by Deonte Harty on a punt return and one by James Cook (who thankfully was not benched afterward) - and a Josh Allen interception. The Chargers did not record a turnover and certainly played well enough to win anyway. But the Bills defence stiffened when it was most needed: Ed Oliver, a rare example of a player who responded to a lucrative second contract by significantly improving his play, recorded a crucial sack in the last minute of the game which mostly sealed it for the Bills who briefly looked like they may have found a way to lose another last-second heart-breaker. The final play of the game for the Chargers featured the obligatory series of laterals which might just have worked if one of them had not been an illegal forward pass.

Yesterday, Bills fans became Dallas Cowboys fans for three hours but they were not able to close out the Dolphins who clinched a playoff spot with their last-second 22-20 win in south Florida. I was surreptitiously following the game on my Score app through Christmas Eve dinner (which was tourtiere from an Acadian family recipe passed on through many generations) but I managed to slip away to catch the last ten minutes on television. The Cowboys remain a good team but they will have to figure out how to win away from Jerry Jones’s palatial AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The road to the Superbowl, on the NFC side of the draw, will very likely go through Santa Clara, California and the Cowboys will be in tough if they even make it far enough to face the 49ers.

Although the Patriots came up big in Denver last night for only their fourth win of the season, the Bills should be able to handle them next week in Orchard Park to go to 10-6 on the season. Hopes for another AFC Division title for Buffalo are now in the hands of the Baltimore Ravens who face the Dolphins next week at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. I love the story of the naming history of that stadium which was called PSI.Net Stadium between 1999 and 2001. PSI.Net filed for bankruptcy in June, 2001 but since the company had pre-paid the stadium naming rights through 2001, the stadium carried that name throughout the 2001 season despite the company having ceased operations before the season began. I’m sure that PSI.Net shareholders took a special kind of comfort in the stadium continuing to bear the company name during the 2001 season after its stock was delisted and while the liquidation process played out. If the Dolphins can win next week (or if the Bills were to fall to the Patriots), the AFC East title is theirs despite what may happen in week 18.

Week 17 brings Bills fans a rare 1pm (Eastern) Sunday game on New Year’s Eve. The out-of-town scoreboard will be closely watched as the Ravens and Dolphins kick-off at the same time. Ironically, New Year’s Eve is really the only night of the year where I actually try to stay up until midnight (I usually don’t succeed) so I would welcome having a late-night football game as extra motivation. I’m glad I don’t live here in the Atlantic time zone where night NFL games start at 9.15pm. Maybe I should try the west coast where they start at 5.15pm and the regular Sunday slate begins at 10am. Go Bills! And equally importantly, Go Ravens!   

Bills 31, Cowboys 10

Former Bills offensive lineman and nine-time Pro Bowler Rueben Brown was a guest on WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo a few years ago talking about, among other things, what makes NFL offensive linemen tick. He explained that while today’s pass-happy style of play values the pass-protection abilities of offensive linemen, what they really love doing – what makes them feel complete as football players – is run blocking. The offensive lineman’s task in pass protection is to fend off, impede, hold up and misdirect defensive pass rushers (whose job seems more offensive than defensive) for long enough to allow their quarterback time to find open receivers downfield. On the other hand, with run blocking, the offensive line is in proactive mode, creating gaps for running backs to dart through then moving second level linebackers and safeties out of the way down the field. They need not worry about the dreaded offence of being “illegally downfield” which only applies on passing plays. Ask any NFL offensive lineman what plays they like to run and they will all provide the same answer: running plays. The Bills ran the ball yesterday in Orchard Park as effectively as they have in years. They won the game easily despite Josh Allen completing only seven passes for 94 yards. After the game, he said that he felt like the kid who contributed almost nothing to the class project but still got an A.  

In his post-game locker room speech yesterday, Bills head coach Sean McDermott started by acknowledging the play of his offensive line which created enough gaps and made the right blocks to enable the Bills offence to rack up 266 yards on the ground with James Cook accounting for 179 of those while adding another 42 yards on two catches with two touchdowns. Cook’s outstanding rushing day was almost 100 yards short of the single-game franchise record of 273 yards set in 1976 by one Orenthal James Simpson. Yesterday belonged to the Bills offensive line - a five-man unit which has remained healthy and has started every game this season. The Bills yesterday demonstrated that In this current era of “chunk plays” and speedy wide receivers “taking the top off the defence”, an old-fashioned running attack can still win football games. The Cowboys defence, on the field for a full ten minutes longer than their offence was, looked tired and demoralized as the game ground on. They are a unit built to defend against the pass, often this season playing with a big lead and letting their dominant pass rush quickly turn games into blow-outs.

The Bills sent their fans home brimming with optimism about the final three games of the season and the prospect of a playoff berth and maybe even a division title and the coveted home playoff game which comes with it. There is much work to do to get there and the Bills will need help from others to challenge for the division. The Dolphins moved to 10-4 with their 30-0 shellacking of the Jets yesterday but their schedule becomes considerably tougher over the next two weeks. First up for the Dolphins is a home game next week against these same Dallas Cowboys who are battling the Eagles for the NFC East division title and still have their sights on home field advantage in the NFC. After that, the Dolphins travel to Baltimore to face the Ravens who will be trying to shore-up their hold on the top seed in the AFC. Should the Dolphins lose one of these games and if the Bills were win their next two, the week 18 game in south Florida will decide the winner of the AFC East. If this happens, expect the Bills v. Dolphins to be the Sunday Night Football match-up and the final game of the NFL regular season.

Before Bills fans start shopping for February package deals to Las Vegas (the site of Superbowl LVIII), they have a short week to prepare for a team which will have had three full days of extra rest and preparation and have just fired their head coach and general manager after an embarrassing loss on Thursday to the Raiders who hung 63 points on them. The Los Angeles Chargers have had a very disappointing season to say the least but teams coming off a head coach firing can be dangerous for a few intangible reasons: professional pride, players looking ahead to their next contracts, the naturally injected energy of a new coach (interim head coach Giff Smith has been a defensive coach on the Chargers staff since 2016) and, if they felt any contempt toward the fired coach, an instinct to show the team owner that he made the right move. Add in a cross-continent trip to the west coast for a Saturday night game and this is certainly an opportunity for the Bills to stumble. I don’t think they will.

Saturday’s game will be carried on Peacock, an NBC-owned streaming service which I gather is not available in Canada – at least not legally. I assume then (but have not been able to confirm) that it will be available on TSN or CTV in Canada. I’ll be watching the game from a hotel in Edmundston, New Brunswick, a popular stopover point on the drive from Ontario to Atlantic Canada. On Christmas Eve, we drive to Moncton to spend Christmas with family there. We are booked in for three nights. Second prize was five nights in Moncton.        

Bills 20, Chiefs 17

With unlimited pre-snap motion which allows all receivers and backfield personnel to charge the line of scrimmage with a running start, on almost any play in a typical CFL game, it looks to me like at least one offensive player is offside, crossing the line before the ball is snapped. I have never seen it called. In American football which limits pre-snap motion to one player, the other ten players must be lined up and set for one second before the snap. Receivers must not line up ahead of where the ball lies. It’s pretty simple. I don’t think I’ve ever seen offensive offside called in an NFL game – until yesterday. As Gene Staratore, former NFL referee and CBS in-house officiating commentator posted on his Twitter account last night, it is almost never called because offensive players almost never line up ahead of where the ball is spotted. But when they do, shouldn’t it be called?

I watched Patrick Mahomes post-game press conference last night. When the game ended, he was visibly upset, slamming his helmet and screaming at someone on the Chiefs sideline. He explained that he was upset at the call which negated a “hall of fame play by a hall of fame player”. And it also happened to be what could have been the game-winning touchdown. He explained that playing organized football going back as far as he could remember, this isn’t called before multiple warnings are issued by officials. As kids playing football, receivers would take their place at the line of scrimmage and look at the line judge who would then indicate that they were positioned correctly or motion them to move back as needed. Last night, no such warnings were issued (probably because there were no infractions) but as referee Carl Jeffers said afterward, “if it’s egregious enough, it would be beyond a warning”. Chiefs coach Andy Reid corroborated his quarterback’s analysis after the game saying that he would typically be given a warning before a call is made and that “it’s a bit embarrassing for the National Football League for that to take place”. There is no question that Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney was lined up forward of the ball on the fateful play. The camera angles showed very clearly that he was lined well forward of the ball. Mahomes said that when he saw the flag fly before he made his throw to Kelce, he assumed that it was for defensive offside (sometimes called a “neutral zone infraction”).    

It seems clear to me that the real issue was that the penalty call – which was correct by any standard – negated a brilliant play by Travis Kelce which could have and probably would have been the game-winning touchdown. Had the call been made on a three yard run or a short pass to Kelce, it would not be the subject of such scrutiny this morning. Successful offensive plays are regularly called back in football games – for holding penalties, for players illegally downfield, for offensive pass interference, etc. It’s part of the game and always will be. The play by Kelce where he made the catch 25 yards downfield then turned and threw a perfect lateral to (ironically) Kadarius Toney who streaked down the left sideline and into the endzone was a highlight reel play for sure and had it stood as the game-winning play, would surely have been in the season’s top ten plays. But it doesn’t appear in the boxscore this morning and basically never happened.

Were I a Chiefs fan this morning looking back at the plays which changed the trajectory of the game, I would be focused on the Josh Allen “completion” to Latavius Murray which kept the Bills drive alive and allowed them to kick the what became the game-winning field goal. As he fell out of bounds, Allen floated a pass to Murray who got his hands on it and as Gene Steratore explained, appeared to complete the requisite three steps needed to make it a completion before fumbling. The ball was then pushed out of bounds on the ensuing scramble and the Bills maintained possession. When CBS went to commercial for the replay review, I was convinced that the ruling would be overturned based on the angles shown. I am equally convinced this morning that had the pass been ruled incomplete on the field, that would have been upheld.

The Bills find themselves still in the AFC playoff contention, although just barely because at 7-6, they are tied with five other teams all pursuing two wildcard playoff spots. Since all but one of the Bills losses this year have been to AFC teams, the Bills would lose most tie-breaker scenarios so a prolonged winning streak will be required and still might not be enough.

Up next: The Dallas Cowboys make their once-every-eight-years trip to Orchard Park next Sunday for another 4.25pm start. The Bills are early two point favourites.