Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Not Sixty Minute Men, Yet

Sometimes you can play 55 minutes of a football game and win. Not if you're the Buffalo Bills and definitely not if you're playing the New England Patriots.

Like many others, I did not give the Bills much respect going into the game. I was expecting a slaughter. Opening night, Tom Brady's first game in two years, a hostile crowd on the road - it looked bad.

But this team, they surprised me. The offensive line gave Trent Edwards protection, the defense put incredible pressure on Tom Brady. Fred Jackson was amazing, taking over the starting job from the suspended Marshawn Lynch, he was running smart and caught a nifty pass to put the Bills ahead by 11 with five minutes left in the game.



Then a team that knows how to win took over the game from a team that does not know how to hold a lead. Tom Brady knows how to guide a team to victory, like Montana, Bradshaw and Elway, he took over the game against a tiring Bills defense that lost two starters due to injury and got the job done by tossing a pass to Ben Watson to cut the deficit to five.

This is where it ended. On the kickoff Leodis McKelvin did not down the ball in the end zone and chose to run it out. You knew something bad was going to happen the moment he crossed the five (as he fumbled his previous kickoff). Sure enough, he coughed up the ball again and Brady threw another one to Watson. There was your game.

Moral victories stink. Yet, I'm optimistic about the Bills chances against Tampa Bay in the friendly confines of Ralph Wilson Stadium this Sunday. And that is how this fan deals with a tough loss. Yes, the kid looked at me weird when I yelled and my Scottish Wife does not have a clue, but this is what I do for seventeen weeks starting in September. Annually.

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