Canadian Buffalo and the Hype that Wasn't

as first published at www.ongameday.ca

Time will tell whether canning Jauron will make a positive difference in Bill’s long term health, but winning one at home two weeks later sure helps makes the decision look smarter.  Even though their playoff hopes were all but scuttled in the last minutes of the first regular season game, the Bills have given a few cheery moments to their bedeviled fans, and none as thoroughly pleasing as playing spoiler in this Sunday’s whipping of their aquatic arch-rivals. Any die-hards who put their mark on H+ are looking pretty smart today.  The chemistry between Owens and Fitzpatrick keeps on rolling out tasty tasty goodness with 96 yards and a TD late when it really mattered.  The only way this revelation could make Trent Edwards look worse would be actually having him play some more.

All in all it was a great team effort in front of a home crowd that deserves that sort of win a lot more than they get it.  Miami was eyeballing a coup d’etat on their perpetual NFC leaders in two weeks, but thanks to Buffalo the Pats breath a little easier this Monday as they hold their grocery bags in front of the tank named New Orleans. 

And now, Ontario proper can look forward to hosting the most important game of the year as two teams with no prayer of playoff contention coming to Toronto this Thursday. After the buzz blared through the thousand-headed Roger’s Hydra failed to drum up the excitement.  TO in TO they cried, as if Terrell was going to perform ninety minutes of standup during the day-long festival of lead up.  Well, the big day is four nights away and tickets are still on sale, as of this writing 100 level seats are still going for around a “reduced” two hundred clams a pop.  I think Canada as a whole, being immersed in the NFL at no less a clip than our neighbors to the South, would appreciate a game more if it didn’t feature the bottom feeders of the AFC East duking it out for honour and draft picks.  After all, ninety percent of Canada is a good road trip away from a stadium and we aren’t losing our collective minds about the game because nobody is losing their minds about the game, but that’s just the cynic in me talking. 

 

Talk of the Bills migrating North to the Roger’s center for good had reached a fever pitch this summer, but it seems to have died down in the quiet way disappointment tends to.  Now good old At-Least-We’re-Not-Baghdad Buffalo is talking big, Bill Cower big, and I’ll be damned if the hope that runs eternal doesn’t actually feels less ridiculous from my Bill-fan acquaintances.

Cheering for the Bills this coming Sunday in Toronto should come pretty easy to a city full of underachieving teams that are ceremoniously fed to the lions in every professional sport thay participate in.  To be fair though, having two teams each coming off big wins might just make this one enjoyable and there are a host of reasons to expect an good performance.  After all, both teams have explosive elements, Buffalo has a wide receiver core that can stand against any, while the Jets’ defense is still ridiculously talented despite their salty record.  Now that Sanchez got the monkey off his back he might even swagger into Toronto and throw like he did the first 4 games.  Regardless, it should be every loyal Proline playing Canadian’s duty to have an opinion on this game and put their mark where it counts.  Maybe even shell out a hundred bucks on nosebleeds, they’ll close the dome and you can always PVR Private Practice
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