I caught some sort of sickness that prevented me from going to the game. In fact, I only flew into Buffalo on Saturday night to then realize I wasn’t going to be healthy enough to go to the game on Sunday. I was thankful for the sellout as I was able to watch the game on tee vee. At 10-0, I coughingly screamed out to my dad, “Thank god we did not go.” The following drive by the Bills was impressive. It was a response that they have usually not given. Any other time they have been challenged, they normally would let their tail get stuck between their legs and whimper away.

The Buffalo Bills would roll over and take the ass-kicking. But for whatever reason, they stepped up then, and scored a touchdown on a nice long drive. I was slowly impressed. The defense got a chance to get a breather and everyone felt uplifted that we actually had a drive over 60 yards that ended with a touchdown.

That being said, I cannot see the 37-17 win as a superb domination as the FOX commentators, ESPN Primetime Analysts, and other media types have proclaimed. In fact, I don’t see a lot of difference between the New England game and this last one. Sure Bledsoe was 15-24 for 185 yards. But did you know he threw for close to 160 in the first half? And did you remember that he picked up 54 of those yards on the flea flicker? For the most part, his passes were again all-over the place. Two of the Campbell TD’s were jump balls, the INT was ugly, and again the clock mismanagement where he had to take a timeout when the clock was winding down in the first half near the goal line was beyond being unacceptable. Did you notice he threw his head back in his own disbelief… again? He started the second half with incredible field position, and managed only one touchdown. We had to take two more field goals when the crowd was geared up for more TD’s.

I’m not just on Bledsoe’s case because I want to see him retire. The penalties on the McGahee runs were infuriating. Anytime anything exciting happens, you have to scan the entire field for a flag.

Drew Bledsoe, 32 years old, vs Daunte Culpepper, 27 years old. Drew Bledsoe has led the team for three years, the team has been on the verge of being sent to the CFL for its complete uselessness. However, he is the self-proclaimed leader of the team. Daunte Culpepper, on the other hand, while being as volatile as Anne Heche’s sexuality, has kept his team in the playoff hunt until the end of the season for the last couple seasons. I’m not asking for Daunte as a Bills QB mind you, but when his team was stinking it up this weekend, he gathered the troops, instilled some confidence and led the charge. When the Bills have squatted out horrible performance after regrettable performance, Drew is silent and confused. Let’s all look to the Sunday night picture where he’s meditating with the winter hat on the verge of tears. A leader who talks and delivers is a better leader than one who just talks about he’s the leader and can’t make any changes. I hope JP is taking notes, speaking of which…

I’m a little confused. Mike Mularkey said that he didn’t want JP playing in situations that would be adverse to his development. That being said he threw Losman in a game with the score out of hand with little to no practice against the World Champs on national television. On Sunday when the score was 37-17 with one quarter remaining and two turnovers in the red zone that sapped the Rams of any possibility of a comeback, we kept JP off the field in a home game with the crowd in a jovial mood. They also forgot to give Henry some time in the fourth but more on that later.

Sure, perhaps you’re thinking that I am being the unreasonable pessimist who can’t just enjoy a good win, but you’d be wrong. I did enjoy the game; I just can’t understand why we can win these bizarre games at home but can’t be remotely competitive on the road. Either we should suck all the way through, or squeak out wins all the time. I think the real truth is that if the defense isn’t getting turnovers, or the special teams isn’t scoring, there is very little room for this team to find momentum. The only consistant way for football teams to find momentum is on offense. And too many times, they haven’t been able to do that. Even in this game, the 3 offensive touchdowns did not correspond to momentum that made the fans think we were going to win, they merely answered the challenge by the Rams. I suppose at this point of the season, that’s as good as it will get for us.

If only the first half Bills Offense can meet the Bills Second half Defense, and play a full 60 minutes.

Kevin’s DVD Extras

• Defense keeps making adjustments in the second half. They allowed only 98 yards in the second half. Imagine if they didn’t play prevent half-way through the 3rd. They would have totally shut the Rams down. I feel like Jerry Gray will be a head coach in the next 3 years. We better make due while we have access to his beautiful Defensive mellon.
• Has the defense stopped a 4th down all year?
• Why not showcase T. Henry as trade bait in the 4th? I’m sure you’re going to get top dollar when he’s had like 10 yards on 3 carries after November.
• Fast Freddie? He got tracked down by a Linebacker. I think he’s pretty awesome for being a part of the equation that is putting the Bills special teams on the map, but he’s not exactly the fastest player. That takes a lot of gumption to say your fast when a linebacker can catch you. Mission Accomplished.
• Two of the three Bills interceptions were just sweet. It made you forget that more often that not we were the team on the wrong side of a bobble. It was nice to come out the winner in those bizarre situations. Did any of you hope that Sam Adams was going to run down the right sideline 98 yards for a touchdown? Why am I the only one who thinks these things?
• Erik Flowers’ fumble almost made up for the fact that we haven’t drafted an awesome lineman since we messed up by picking him.
• Willis “Drummond” McGahee had what would have been one of those TD runs we’d remember years from now if it weren’t for Lee “poundcake” Evans holding call. The tip toeing down the sideline after the hit was just amazing. It was like a Picasso, a Monet, a sunset, and a long walk on the beach all mixed together. It was as beautiful as it was perfect. Then to see there was a flag on the play was like seeing the LA Riots, going bankrupt, watching Norwood miss wide right and watching Drew Bledsoe for the last two years all mixed together. It was as painful as it was mind boggling that these things could occur.
• To all those people who are dumping on Nate Clements, he had a solid game. He was a constant threat in coverage, supported the run amazingly, had the TD return, went after Holt’s knees, and kept 2 drives alive for the Rams on holding calls. He never proclaimed to be a good playmaker. Just a playmaker. And all those things are worthy of the title. I honestly think he’s a solid CB despite taking jokes at his expense.
• Great day for the refs. There were holding calls that went uncalled on Bills defensive linemen all day. Including on the non-TD where Bruce was jumping out of the endzone untouched.
• Why are there parts of plays that are unchallengeable? Then what is the point of review? “We only want to get certain plays right. Everything else is left up to chance.” It makes no sense to me.
• Non-football, obligatory Pacers/Pistons commentary. Everyone is asking for more security and more police at sporting events. Hello? In a world of global terrorism, can we not just agree that we’ll drink a little less and be a little more civil? I don’t think we need to take cops off the streets to monitor our behavior of watching entertainment. Shame on us if we do. You don’t see cops sitting in the Orchestra during Broadway performances. “Jimmy, the guy playing MacBeth sucks, lets storm the stage and rip his head off.” And the second observation which should be the first, but its just so fundamentally part of me that I forgot to say it. Basketball sucks.
• They still elect to punt when they are in that deadzone between the 35 and 50. Is Rian “Fancy I” Lindell the most overpaid kicker. He gets like $1.5MM to kick anywhere between extrapoints and 40 yard field-goals. Everything else beyond 40 is out of his range. I believe there are local high-schoolers that would be willing to do it for $50K. Think cap-room, people. Think cap-room
• Taking a knee at the end of the game from the 5. I’m torn. As classy as it is, who are we to pretend like we don’t want more points down there. It’s like being a kid during Halloween. Normally parents don’t allow massive candy greed, but for this one night, everything has lined up perfectly. So why not just eat all the candy. In the long run, I’m sure doing the prudent thing will be rewarded to us in good Karma, but I would have liked to see more points.

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