One Fan’s View: Turning into a Bill-iever
by Kevin Shenoy
For the record, I sent a text to two people (Mark and my Dad) that said “game over” when it was 21-3. Minutes before halftime, I went to pick up the pizza for our group watching at Kellys Sports Bar (Buffalo Bills Backer Bar in NYC, which you know but I like to plug anyways). We were four deep and seemed to have a pretty good system of drinks and food. I walked out as Fancy I was about to make it 21-6 with the Bills getting the ball for the second half. I sent a text to Mark that said, “I got to be honest. I kind of believe.” I returned to Kelly’s with my pals Adam and Erik telling me that Fancy I missed the field goal. Since I had pizza fingers, I couldn’t retext Mark what would have said, “damn it Fancy I, now it’s game over.” In the time it took me to eat the pizza and clean my hands, Fred Jackson had already given us hope that the comeback was on.
Fred Jackson’s slow motion running style is so enjoyable because it always looks like people should be able to bring him down, yet he evades everyone. I’ve decided to call him the F bomb. Fred Jackson played out of his mind. He was even lead blocker on one of Spiller’s long runs. I would have Fred inducted to the wall of fame now.
Then you look at Fitz. Another F bomb. He got the ball around to every one of our receivers, most of which have the unusually common last names. I am routinely confused between Donald Jones and David Nelson. Then there is Martin, Johnson, Jackson, and Chandler. I feel like these are the last names of a presidential debate from 1863.
With this all being said, I do feel like I’m living in the movie “12 Monkeys”. I kind of predicted all this so far. I saw all this. The 2-0 start, getting to the point of having hope that this is the year we beat the Pats. Yet, I’m desperately trying to stop that future. Because the way I see it, we still won’t beat the Pats. I’m the one with the loose fitting moustache and bad wig running in the airport. It’s going to be Brady who shoots me in the back. The future is inevitable.
I specifically said that being 2-0 would have lesser fans saying, “if we beat this Pats team, it’s different.” And I stated that I wasn’t going to fall for it this time. Well, I lied. I am in that boat despite knowing better. I refuse to believe that Brady’s near 1000 yards in 2 games can be kept up. Their defense is giving up a lot of points. They are getting turnovers and capitalizing on them. The Bills aren’t turning it over. The defense is strong up the middle, our defensive looks have all been fairly standard.
If the Bills protect the ball, and Fitzharvard uses that big brain to make big plays, the results will be different. I’m genuinely excited for that game. I’ve even managed to snag a seat on a friend’s couch in Boston to watch this game within enemy lines. They are going to win this game and the crowd is storming onto the field. Hopefully the army of the 12 monkeys agree.
DVD Extras
– The Kelly’s crew – So this was the season opener for Erik and me. I brought a new pal, Adam, and Erik brought a high school pal of ours, Mandy. As a group of 4 getting accustomed to each others fandom, the first Jackson touchdown resulted in a round of poorly timed high fives. Hands going up but no one slapping immediately, two people going for the same hand leaving one person totally alone. It was essentially the Bills first half in terms of celebration. By the 5th touchdown we were a well oiled machine. I thank the Bills for providing enough moments to help us work out our kinks. Secretly, I was hoping that we’d have a Pearl Jam “Ten” album insert high five where we all high fived simultaneously with our heads down. That never happened, but seeing that the Bills are averaging 39.5 points a game and for the most part I see that as a trend that will continue indefinitely, we’ll get more cracks at this.
– McKelvin – In the second half, our group found the right alignment for victory. During the comeback Mandy and I were standing closer to the TV with Adam and Erik directly behind us. Late in the fourth quarter Erik and I briefly switched around. In that time, Mckelvin let Denarious Moore catch a 50 yard bomb TD . We switched back to the original winning formation and all was right with the world. Again, most the research done in the world of sports superstition supports what we believe. That our physical locations actually make a difference on the outcome of sports. I kind of think we need to put foot prints made out of the fatheads material on the floor of Kelly’s with our names on them.
– Being winner’s again – Let’s be honest, shall we? Prior to these two weeks of football, I was riding the negative Nancy Train to 4-12-ville. Buffalo sports has not been kind to us over the last 10 years. I am incredibly bitter, yet very optimistic that one day it will turn around. As a result, I’m rooting absolutely anything Buffalo. And that manifested itself 3 weeks ago when Shelly and I were watching “Millionaire Matchmaker.” It’s a terrible show, and I love it dearly. For the record I did just say “let’s be honest.” Anyways, in the episode I watched, the matchmaker introduced the millionaire to two women. One woman was from Buffalo. I immediately rooted for the Buffalonian to win. And each step of the way I was like, “and this is where Buffalo goes home.” But she never did. She kept making the cut. And I kept trying to poo-poo the whole thing. “Of course she’s getting further along; the world wants to kick her in the gut later when more is on the line.” But in the end, she won! She won the millionaire. I was ready to open a small bottle of Gatorade, get into the shower and dump it on myself. This is the most victory I’ve seen out of Buffalo in a long time. I didn’t realize that lady was changing Buffalo Mojo. The Raiders game couldn’t have happened without her. Maybe Fitz and Fred Jackson saw that episode and were like, “I want that moment. I want to win Millionaire matchmaker for this city.” For full disclosure, the millionaire asked Buffalo to move to Dallas and she seemed cool with that, so who knows how Buffalo she really is. Her response shouldn’t have been “yes I love you, let’s move to Dallas.” It should have been “I love you, I’m not going to that town of cheating goal scorers and cocaine loving wide receivers.”
– Chandlaars – until he has a terrible game, that is Scott Chandler’s new name.
– Roscoe – Who possibly could see that the first members of the Bills to get hurt during the season would be Terrence McGee and Roscoe Parrish? The two most fragile guys being the first onto the injury list? I just never saw it coming. But Roscoe has a big problem. The Bills now seem to have a lot of weapons, and they have two TE’s who are producing. And specifically, they are producing in the middle of the field where Roscoe is supposed to be a big asset. If he can’t get out there and be better than dropping easy balls, he’s not going to be here next year. Which means the Bills will have to try surviving on only having 4 punt returners on their roster. Mcgee, on the other hand, may survive simply based on how awful McKelvin looked on Sunday.
– Brad Smith – The aerial cam showed on the 3rd and 23 that he had two guys wide open. Granted the receivers looked like they were on top of each other briefly, my friend Adam did state, “isn’t that all the more reason to throw it there? Twice the opportunity of coming down with it!” He had a decent game otherwise, but if that play happened, I have a feeling that the Bills wouldn’t have needed an electric second half.
– Things that make you second guess the Bills greatness – the Raiders took 6-8 penalties in the second half. They gave up almost a 100 yards in the second half on penalties alone. Would better teams do that? Maybe not. It’s something that makes you wonder about the Bills real strength. It seems like this game could be the Bengals win from last year. A come-back against a bad team. However, on the flip side, the Bills didn’t take any penalties and that’s an incredible amount of discipline. And it is one of the big reasons I like Chan Gailey.
– No Blitzing – the Bills seemed intent to not blitz even though they just weren’t getting to Campbell. Part of me is hoping that the Bills were trying mightily to not show their exotic packages to the Patriots. But the front 4 and linebackers didn’t really get any pressure and allowed a team of back ups (where have I heard that before) to almost beat them which I guess is a step up from getting beaten by a bunch of back ups. The Bills aren’t going to beat the Pats just sitting back and letting Brady throw whenever he feels like it.
– Denarious Moore’s 50 yard TD – I was actually mildly happy with that touchdown because I knew the Bills didn’t have a stop in them. That touchdown gave the Bills 3 minutes to work their magic, and they hadn’t been stopped yet at that point. Imagine, if the Raiders would have methodically drove down the field and scored with like 1:20 seconds left. The choice of plays for the Bills would have been greatly reduced. Instead they had 3+ minutes with the middle of the field totally available at their disposal.
– Referee madness – I found out on Monday morning that the refs reviewed the last play of the game 10 minutes after the conclusion. Now mind you, there are a couple things happening here. One, in years past, we would not have gotten that call. And frankly I don’t know how I’d process walking out of the bar a winner, getting home thinking we won to find out via Sportscenter that we lost. That is so karmic-ly Buffalo, it’s disgusting. Frankly, knowing what I know now, I’m shocked it didn’t happen. If they did reverse the call and make the Bills losers 10 minutes after the final gun, it would have been more devastating than the touchdown throw-forward which resulted in 10+ years of Bills misery. If that win was overturned, I would have parked that memory right next to the Flyers goal that went through the side of the net in 2000 playoffs. Two, the fact it didn’t get reversed must mean the tides are turning. Combined with the “Millionaire Matchmaker” effect, Buffalo is getting its moment. Slowly but surely. This was a subtle sign that the football gods have decided to let us back into the circle of enjoyable football. We can not blow this.
– Brady Fitzpatrick? – I read an article on Yahoo!sports where Fitzpatrick talks about the birth of his son, Brady. I don’t know what I think about this going into this week’s game. Is this his source of his incredible play? Or is this a bad sign that a Buffalo QB named his son after the most evil football player this side of hell? I guess we’ll find out.
Kevin Shenoy can be reached at binaural02@hotmail.com. I read everything you guys send me and try to respond to everything as well. Plus, now that we are winning, I want to hear the good stuff from you guys instead of the pessimistic stuff!
