Rocking the Cradle

Great picture (thanks Dinette) of my son Andrew putting in his first-ever cradle in a match at recent Great Lakes Elementary Wrestling League outing at Mercer (where we rode from Erie Saturday in an unheated bus. Temp on board had to be close to 0 F. Oh well, it ended up being a good time despite.)

Ego: God vs. the Devil

This is from a novel I'm reading A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, which is a fictional account of events surrounding the attempted murder of Bob Marley in 1976. It's a good read so far. Published in 2014, it is written from the perspective of several characters, with each chapter in an alternating character's voice.

This quote is from some "white bwoi" visiting Marley's house before the shooting, as told by Papa-Lo, a Jamaican gangster. "The thing about God is that he needs the fame, you know? Fine, the attention, the notice, the recognition. He said it himself, in all your ways acknowledge me. If you stop paying attention or call his name out he kinda cease to exist.

"Now the devil, he doesn't need acknowledgement, in fact, the more hush-hush the better.

"Meaning he doesn't need to be name-checked, identified, or even remembered. The way I see it, the devil could be anyone around you."

Worth thinking about.

Rex Snowed the Bills

"He was very impressive during the interview process, as were many of the candidates to which we spoke, and we feel Rex is the best fit for our team," [Bills owner Terry] Pegula said. There it is. There is the quote (from this ESPN story) I have been waiting to see to explain why the Bills hired Rex Ryan to coach the football team.
From the logical standpoint, the move makes little sense. First, I'll go over some positives:
1. Rex had proven he can win in the AFC East, especially against the Patriots.
2. He's a good defensive coach.
3. His ex-players love him.
4. Mike Pettine, a former Ryan disciple, really turned our defense around in 2013.
5. The hiring of embattled former 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who favors a ground and pound run game is supposed to complement Rex's coaching style.

Now from a negative standpoint:
1. The Jets went 4-12 this year and haven't finished above .500 in four years.
2. The Bills absolutely spanked the Jets twice this year.
3. Rex is defensive coach and the Bills already have a great defense, and a solid defensive coordinator (Jim Schwartz) that, from my perspective, was somewhat similar to Rex as a head coach.
4. Also, Schwartz and Rex employ different defensive schemes (and quite frankly, Shwartz's worked pretty well this year.)
5. Bills don't have a starting QB and Rex has shown no ability to develop starting QBs.
6. I'm not sure Greg Roman is a good coach, as the 49ers offense, in the past four years when he's been OC, has ranked (going backward from 2014) 20, 24, 11, and 26 in yardage in the NFL.

My view is that Terry Pegula is new to the NFL and took on too much responsibility in participating in the head coach interviews and was dazzled by Ryan during the interview - which is typical Rex. Heck, New York writers loved the guy and that's no easy task. No doubt, Rex will be a fun head coach to have around, but as far as building a winning football team. Well (and hats off to the Pegulas for investing in Western NY, but) when the Pegulas bought the Sabres during the 2010-2011 season, they were a playoff team. They have not made the playoffs since and are currently the second-worst (to Edmonton probably, which is incidentally suing our OHL Junior team) team in the NHL. Not that the Pegulas don't have good intentions... but the Polian thing kind of neutered Doug Whaley and now it seems that the owner has been snowed by a fast talking ex-New Yorker....I don't expect this to end well for football fans in Western New York (and parts of PA for that matter.)

One Point in Favor of Doug Marrone

Although, he did preside over the Bills first winning season in a long time, I have not been too shy about my criticism of Doug Marrone. Not that he reads my blog, but it seems the poor guy doesn't take media criticism very well. That is his prerogative of course, but it is also one of the reasons I think he'll have a tough time lasting as a head coach in the NFL. I think media criticism is part of the gig and you have to either learn to ignore it (Belichick) or embrace it (Rex Ryan).

Anyhow, if I'm going to criticize Marrone for stuff like being way to conservative on fourth down, I should probably praise him when he does something I agree with. And his apparent stance on the Sammy Watkins trade is certainly something I agree with. Once again, I want to point out that I think Watkins is a great player and in a bubble could certainly be worth giving up two first round picks (this year's and last) for. But, the Bills don't exist in a bubble. The problem from the start was that we didn't have a QB that I felt would be able to take full advantage of Watkins' skills.

Well, apparently Marrone felt similarly. From ESPN, "Marrone was not in favor of Buffalo surrendering a future first-round pick to the Cleveland Browns in a trade that did not involve a quarterback, sources said." If this is accurate, it would seem GM Doug Whaley is to be blamed for the misplaced faith in EJ Manuel heading into this year, which seriously retarded (and I don't mean mentally disabled) our development. This excellent article by the Buffalo News' Jerry Sullivan will give you some idea of the sorry shape the Bills' front office is currently in following the rift between Marrone and Whaley, with the new owners, the Pegulas, left holding the bag (which unfortunately is kind of like the flaming bag of shit you leave on someone's doorstep as a joke).

The Bills certainly have their work cut out for them and are reportedly interviewing almost a dozen head coaching candidates, which seems like way too many. Hopefully, something works out here and somewhat quickly.

Marrone, Orton Gone; Things Looking Up

As you may have heard (I initially missed the news as I was busy with New Year's Eve Party prep), Doug Marrone has resigned as coach of the Bills. This came a couple days after stating QB Kyle Orton retired. You might think I'd be bothered, as we just had our first winning season  in awhile and have seemingly lost two key pieces of our organization. Well, bully on that. I think those two guys are the primary reason we only went 9-7, and not at least 10-6.

Marrone seems to have made a smart decision, as, due to a unique change-of-ownership clause in his contract, he gets his $4M 2015 salary whether he coaches the team or not. Rumors have him going to the Jets, where we will theoretically be paying him to try and beat us. And this year espeically, we played great against the Jets so I can see why they would be interested, but in the long run I think they will be disappointed.

Bills could promote Jim Schwartz, whose D was awesome this year, but I think he already proved to be a disastrous head coach with Lions and I wouldn't be in any hurry to change things up on the defensive side anyhow. No, we need help on offense, so let's bring in ex-Bills back QB par excellent Frank Reich, who was OC for Chargers last year. Rumors are Polian is coming back as advisor/czar, so it would be reunion of sorts.

Happy New Year and things already looking up for Bills in 2015!

A Fun Offensive Wrinkle

Bills Offsenive coordnantor  Nate Hackett has come under quite a bit of fire this year (and last for that matter) and mostly it has been justifiable because our offense has sucked. But, check out this cool play the Bills ran Sunday for a score: As described by Gregg Easterbrook in his always entertaining Tuesday Morning Quarterback column:  "Needing to shake up its dormant offense, Buffalo showed a wide-trips formation composed entirely of tight ends. Reaching third-and-goal at the 1, the Bills put six offensive linemen on field, then split 6-6, 330-pound tackle Chris Hairston, who reported eligible, out wide covered by a skinny cornerback. As New England pointed at the wide giant, Buffalo ran up the middle for a touchdown."

Although I was watching the game, I admittedly dosed off during this part of the game...which gives an idea of how exciting the contest (and the Bills offense throughout most of the season) was.

Eight Most Dissapointing Bills Losses in Recent Memory

I've been a Bills fan since 1974 I think, the day my grandmother took a 7-year-old Redskins fan into a western NY clothing store to buy me a football jersey. And do you think they had any Redskins shirts? No. This was the year after O.J. had gone for 2,003 and I came out of there with a brand new, sweet, royal, 32 jersey with Bills across the front. Thanks Grandma?

So, there have been a lot of disappointing Bills losses over the years, starting with that 1974 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And yes, I live in Erie, PA, so any Steelers (or Browns) loss hurts particularly. The Steelers used that '74 plaoff game to launch themselves to four Super Bowl titles in six years, while the Bills, well, two years later we were 2-12, and won one playoff game in the next 14 years. But then we had 1988 - a completely wonderful, kind of a surprise year when were went 12-4 and made the AFC championship game. That year was so satisfying, I'll push the reset button on disappointing losses up to that point. The list that follows is off the top of my head and includes game from 1988 on. (If you need specifics like score and dates, you're not a true Bills fan.)

8. Dallas Monday night loss - This one sucked because we blew it on a lost on-side kick (like the one we couldn't convert yesterday), it was at home, and it was in front of a national audience. On a personal note, I'm a Yankees fan and the Yanks lost a key playoff game to the Indians (remember I'm from Erie) that night - which I had the pleasure of watching simultaneously with the Bills loss.

7. Stevie Johnson's drop in the end zone vs. Steelers: Once again, I'm from Erie.

6. Yesterday's loss vs. Oakland: According to Grantland's Bill Barnwell, Bills only had like a 5% chance of making playoffs heading into the weekend and we still would have had to win at New England. But still, talk about a punch to the gut. So many things went wrong. Oakand, 2-12 coming into the game, ran all over and we couldn't run at all on them. Bills came out flat. It certainly brought to mind that atrocious game vs. Pittsburgh a few years back when we couldn't beat their third string...

5. Miami Playoff game w/ Flutie at QB: From what I remember we had several chances to convert a TD in the fourth quarter but couldn't get it done. Eric Moulds had more than 200 yards receiving and we lost. I also missed the first half of this one because, well, a guy in a Browns t-shirt (remember the Browns had no team at this time) showed up at my house at kickoff to show me how to use the incubator to combat my newborn son's slight case of jaundice. You can't make this shit up!

4. 1989 Browns Playoff Game: Once again the Erie thing.

3. Steelers Playoff Play-in fiasco: There were just so many things wrong with this game - as I said, it was similar to the Oakland game. Let's take the fans, for example. I seem to remember the announcer wondering how the Steelers fans could have let Bills fans get so many tickets for the game - before he was corrected and informed the game was actually in Buffalo - so the reverse was actually true, and even though we were playing for our playoff lives, well there were a lot of Steeler fans there. And we lost. To their third string. And Bledsoe was jettisoned, and J.P. Losman became our starter...One positive note, Steelers fans took pity on us after this one.

2. Giants Super Bowl: Wide right. Gag!

1. Titans - Music City Miracle: Vomit.

So, yesterday's loss was only like the 6th most disappointing Bills loss in the past 25 years. That's not so bad, is it.

I Say Bears Keep Cutler

So, now that the Bears have benched Jay Cutler in favor of Jimmy Clausen, there is a lot of talk about the Bears trading Cutler, who still has, I believe, two guaranteed years left on his contract, for like $15M each, so they can't just cut him without killing their salary cap. There has been a lot of talk about Culter landing in Buffalo, and apparently Bills brass would prefer just about anybody to their current QB tandem of Kyle Orton and EJ Manuel. I've watched probably more than 90% of Bills' offensive snaps this year, and I can't say I disagree.

That said, my fear is that Cutler would be another Drew Bledsoe, a past-his-prime veteran that just can't get the Bills over the hump. Then again, the asking price for Cutler, at least initially, would seem to be considerably lower than the first round pick the Bills gave up for Bledsoe 10 years ago or so. Yeah, you still gotta pay him, but, from what I understand, the Bills have room under the cap.

That said, I don't think it will happen, because there is no way the Bears go into next season with Jimmy Clausen as their starting QB. And I don't think they will have a high enough draft pick to get either Winston or Mariotta, the only highly touted QB prospects in the upcoming draft. And the 2015 QB free agent class is not currently looking stellar - as a Bills fan I've thought about all this stuff a lot!

Personally, I think the Bears will fire their coach before they trade Cutler - as decent NFL starting QBs - which Cutler has been in the past mostly - are harder to find than mediocre head coaches. And if they do trade Cutler, it will be to the Jets - well, because they really are the perfect fit for him.

Alexander Supertramp on Adventure

Came across this inspirational quote from Christopher McCandless from shortly before he left on his final ill-fated journey to Alaska. If you don't recognize the name, McCandless was the kid they made the movie "Into the Wild" about. He basically graduated from college cum laude, gave away all his possessions and lived like a hobo for a couple years before starving to death in Alaska. His body was found in an abandoned bus that people used for shelter.

Before it was a movie, Into the Wild was a book, written by Jon Krakauer, a writer for Outdoor magazine, who also wrote a well-known account of a disastrous trip to the summit of Mt Everest (of which he was a part), called Into Thin Air. I stumbled across Into the Wild while looking for a biography of Lawrence of Arabia that my friend Stan L. had recommended.

Here's a quote from a letter that McCandless (who had unofficially changed his name to Alex) wrote to a friend of his while he was preparing to embark on the what proved to be the final leg of his journey. "....will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy in life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon..." I think you get the point.

Cheers.

Ralph

November Bills Update

Just realized I made it through November without a blog post. Maybe this had something to do with the end of the baseball season or just a general malaise regarding the Bills season. If you haven't been following offline, the Bills went 2-2 last month with two sloppy losses followed by two fairly impressive wins. We'll discount the Jets win, because we seem to have the Jets number (and they seem somewhat awful) but yesterday's 26-10 stomping of the Browns was somewhat impressive.

I read somewhere that the Bills allowed the Browns something like 8 yards on seven possessions during one stretch. The game really turned on two TDs scored by the Bills in the 3rd quarter. First, Kyle Orton hit Robert Woods with a long pas that set up our first score and made it 7-3 Bills. Then, on the next play from scrimmage, the irrepressible Jerry Hughes stripped a Browns running back of the ball, picked up the fumble and trotted into the end zone. With the way the Bills defense was playing that was basically all she wrote.

Bills finished with two sacks, two interceptions, and what should have been two fumble recoveries for TDs, if not for a bad call by Jermone Boger's crew on Johnny Manziel's second possession. But anyway.

As great as our D looked, it was somewhat disturbing that the Browns offense actually outgained our offense, and Kyle Orton threw two picks. I was not a huge fan of the change to Orton from E.J. Manuel, but that said, he's definitely been an upgrade. He brings a veteran presence to the field and he certainly seems more savvy that Manuel. That said, he's fairly immobile and really doesn't have the strongest arm. I don't think Manuel makes that throw to Woods that turns the game around yesterday - but it was still more of Woods' great catch than Orton's throw that made the play. That said (again), Orton at least attempted the throw and gave Woods a ball he could catch. I'm not sure Manuel could've/would've done that.

Of course, then again, how can you lose when you have this going on (picture from the Buffalo News)?

Next up, we are at the Broncos. It's really hard to see us winning that game, but if we get enough pressure on Manning with our front four, who knows? Basically, we need to go at least 3-1 coming home to make the playoffs and we are at Broncos and Patriots, at home vs. Green Bay, and at Oakland, so it's a tall order. Offense probably needs to come alive to make this happen. Not sure it is capable of that.

One final thought is that after the season the Bills should do what the early 80s  Bears did, when they fired their head coach but kept their defensive coordinator - Buddy Ryan (and then hired Mike Ditka as head coach). Now, I'm not so sure Jim Schwartz is Buddy Ryan, and the Bills defense was pretty good last year when Mike Pettine (current Browns head coach) was running it, but it certainly hasn't gotten any worse under Schwartz and we lost arguably our two best defensive players (Kiko Alonso [injury] and Jarius Byrd [free agency]).

I like head coach Doug Marrone's attitude, in that he knows that what the Bills are doing is not good enough, but really, the offense since he got here has pretty much been one misadventure after another. I won't get into details now, but suffice to day if he goes down it's going to be because of the offense, which we all thought was kinda supposed to be his specialty.

Man as a Disruptive Force

From Elizabeth Kolbert's fine book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History: "Before humans emerged on the scene, being large and slow to reproduce was a highly successful strategy, and outsized creatures dominated the planet. Then, in what amounts to a geologic instant, this strategy became a loser's game. And so it remains to today....Though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it's not clear that he ever really did."

Which all of course leads to the question of where did man, this agent of change, come from?

Game 7: Bumgarner's Herocis and A Little on Gordon's Stopping at Third

About the only thing left to discuss after last nights win by the Giants in Game 7 is where Madison Bumgarner's World Series heroics put him the pantheon of greatness. Well, he is currently a legend, especially in San Francisco. For the record, he was the winning pitcher in three of the Giants four victories. He threw a complete game shutout in Game 5 and then came back with five scoreless relief innings to close out Game 7. Bumgarner threw 21 innings in all, gave up one earned run, nine hits, and one walk. His WHIP was .476.

So, that's an all-time great performance you say? It certainly is, but somewhat surprisingly to me at least, is that it is not unprecedented. In fact, SI's Cliff Corcoran (with valid reasons) ranks Bumgarner's series only 5th among all-time great World Series pitching performances. And he doesn't even mention Mickey Lolich's 1968 performance, which is the one that immediately came to mind for me - as it was the most recent and both Bumgarner and Lolich are lefties.

Upon further review Bob Gibson may be the best comparison. Gibson's 1967 performance is rated above Bumgarner's, and Gibson, like Bumgarner was great in multiple World Series. He went 7-2 with nine complete games and an ERA below 2. Bumgarner is currently 4-0 in 5 starts (and one memorable relief appearance) with a 0.25 ERA in three World Series. It's certainly good company to be mentioned with Gibson - probably better than Lolich.

It will be interesting to see how Bumgarner bounces back next year after throwing close to 270 innings this year (including last night's outing  [what, was it 70 pitches on 2 days rest?]), after never before topping out at more than 225 innings. The multiple-round postseason would seem to put a bit more variable stress on pitchers than when Gibson and Lolich were pitching - those guys went the distance every game in the Series but topped out at 27 extra innings per year. Bumgarner threw over 50 postseason innings this year.

Although, check this out - Lolich, who is not in the Hall of Fame, threw more than 300 innings four years in a row- topping out at 376 when Billy Martin was his manager in 1971. Of course, somewhere in that stretch he lost it. Let's assume the Giants are going to be smarter with Bumgarner.

Could Gordon have scored?
Other big question that came up last night was could Alex Gordon have scored on his hit in the bottom of the ninth that went past Giants' CF Gregor Blanco? Watching it live, it certainly seemed like a possibility - and with a hobbled Salvador Perez coming up next (not to mention the Royals reputation for aggressive baserunning), it crossed my mind that the Royals should have at least forced Giants to make a play at the plate. However, this article on Deadspin contradicts my theory and explains why Gordon would have been out by a mile.

Somewhere in my mind, I'm still skeptical. I think I need to see the Zapruder film on the play before I render my final judgement.

Great season and great series.

Game 7 Tonight

Royals send Jeremy Guthrie vs. Tim Hudson for the Giants in tonight's pitching match-up. It's a rematch of the Game 3 match-up, which saw the Royals prevail 3-2. I know that score makes it sound like a pitchers' duel, but Game 3 was the game where I saw the most good defensive plays in my life. There were like 20 Web-gem quality plays turned, the majority of them by the Royals. To his credit, Guthrie didn't walk anyone, he made the Giants hit the ball, and they hit him hard, but the Royals fielders kept making plays. Can they duplicate this feat in Game 7? I don't know, but they are regarded as a great fielding team.

I don't recall Hudson pitching very well in Game 3, but his stats don't look horrible. He did give up three earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, but only four hits. Of course, that was enough, as the Royals legendary shutdown bullpen took over from there.

Couple variables in place today

• Top three in Royals bullpen are well rested, so I wouldn't expect Guthrie to have to go more than five, which could be a very good thing. That said, Giants touched up Herrera and Davis in Game 5, and hit Finnegan hard in Game 4, so maybe some of the air of invincibility is gone out from the Royals bullpen - but, it's worth noting that the Royals were behind when Herrera and Davis entered in Game 5, a situation those pitchers are not used to being in, so maybe it affected their mentality. I fully expect them to be tougher if the Royals have the lead in Game 7 (and for Finnegan to be left on the bench - except for maybe to get a lefty batter) when they enter, but the Giants also now know they can be hit and scored on.
• On the Giants side, the availability of Madison Bumgarner out of the pen would seem to change the dynamics a bit. With him there, when is too early to go to the pen? Do you let Hudson work twice through the order and then pull him - as that is when he got into trouble in Game 3? Of course, you want to stop a full-fledged disaster like the Giants ran into last night in the second inning, when Peavy clearly didn't have it. Royals are a good hitting team up and down the line-up and can put a hurtin' on a bad pitcher. If last night was Game 7, would Bochey have gone to Bumgarner in the second inning? Giants bullpen is also hurt a bit by Petit's looking mortal last night. KC solved him and now his mystique is gone. Such is the drama of a short series.

My prediction is that the Royals will win because of more better hitters and having a better bullpen.

Good luck to both teams.

Bills Take Easy Win from Jets

Best thing about yesterday's game - it was over 50 seconds into the fourth quarter when the Bills went up 37-17, thanks mostly to the sixth Jet turnover of the day - and I could go outside and enjoy the rest of a beautiful afternoon  I hate to say that about a game where we stomped somebody and it probably should be a cause for celebration - but it really wasn't that exciting of a game. Most exciting play was the should've-been 89-yard TD pass to rookie sensation Sammy Watkins who decided he was going to start celebrating at the 10-yardline and got tackled from behind.

Some offensive stats from the game:

• Bills had 12 first downs
• Bills averaged 2.1 yards per carry on 32 rushing attempts
• Kyle Orton dropped back to pass 21 times and was sacked 4 times.
• Kyle Orton also threw 4 TD passes - and two long completions to Watkins
• Bills had 15 drives, with 12 of them going 4 plays or less, and 7 plays being the longest drive
• Bills scored 43 points
• Jets had 6 turnovers, Bills had none
• Geno Smith threw 3 interceptions on first eight passes, while completing 2 passes to Jets receivers
• Michael Vick, called on to replace Smith after his atrocious start, fumbled 4 times, losing two of them.

Yes, this game was even uglier than last week's win over the Vikings, but maybe not as ugly as the win at the Lions. The Bills are certainly becoming masters as winning ugly, but there were some encouraging signs yesterday"

• Watkins was a monster once again - only 3 catches, but for 150-plus yards, and should've been two TDs
• Game plan seemed to work, both offensively an defensively. 
• Offense wasn't very aggressive, but it was almost like once Bills realized how bad the Jets offensive was against our D, we just packed it in, played conservatively and it worked to the tune of 43 points
• Defense had some trouble once Vick was inserted - to be fair I doubt they prepared for him - but seemed to make the necessary adjustments at halftime to keep him in the pocket and really render him ineffective after that. Hats off to Jim Schwartz
• Rex Ryan should probably be fired after his team was embarrassed so badly at home, and I think Bills should take some credit for that.

Bye week next Sunday. Try and do some mid-season evaluation.

In the meantime, enjoy the World Series. Giants lead 3-2, but going to be a challenge to close it out. Going back to KC and starting two pitchers who were fairly ineffective vs. Royals first time around. Should be fun!

Saulting a Past KC Sports Hero

After last night's San Francisco thrashing of the Royals in the opening game of the World Series Dr. D sent to a text asking where the great Amos Otis was when you need him. This launched a bit of a volley of names like Paul Splittorff and Dan Quisenberry who were part of some great Royals teams in the 70s and 80s - before their well-documented 20-plus year playoff drought.

This brought my mind around to other formerly great and someone obscure Kansas City sports stars of the past and one guy in particular, Ed Podolak:

I don't know what else to say about the ex-Chiefs running back that this picture can't. He played for the Chiefs for 9 years, '69-77, so he was there for my coming of age as a football fan. Problem was that while I remember him being regarded as good, I never really thought he was. He best year was probably 1973, one of my favorite years as it's when my sports memories basically start, as Ed had more than 1,100 yards from scrimmage that year and also returned punts. He finished his career with a strong season in 1977, but the problem was that Chiefs mostly sucked from 1973 through 1977, after being a powerhouse early in Podolak's career. So I remember him as like the best (at least the most focal) player on some pretty bad teams. Previous to that he had had a playoff game vs. Miami where he accounted for more than 300 total yards.

But look at him. Is it any wonder that if you Google his name, you get a link to a story titled "Is Ed Podolak the most underappreciated Iowa football icon?" Basically, he's a white halfback who wore number 14 in a day and age when the top halfbacks were the likes of O.J. Simpson, Franco Harris, and Walter Payton - all shifty fast black dudes with cool names who wore numbers in the '30s? Ed Podolak, well, there's this: 

That's right, check out that 'stache. I just want to finish by saying, that like the Iowa football program, Ed, I too, as a youngster ignorant to the nuances of the game, probably underappreciated your abilities on the football field. Nice work and great career.

Bills-Vikings Recap; World Series Starts Tonight

Haven't had a chance to post lately. Been caught up with such things as educating my kids on Batman - both the TV Series, which is currently running on IFC and Frank Miller's origins story, trying to finish Malcolm Gladwell's fascinating David and Goliath book, and, of course, my day job.

I did, as usual find time to watch Sunday's game vs. Dr. D's Vikings, which the Bills famously pulled out 17-16 on a last-second TD pass to superstar Sammy Watkins. That TD was preceded by two other incredible completions, one on a 4th-and-20, while the Bills were rushing to get the play off to save time, and the other a 28-yard pass to the half-yard line to UFA Chris Hogan (from his Wikipedia page: "He played college football for one season at Monmouth after graduating from Penn State in 2010 on a lacrosse scholarship.), on the second-to-last play of the game to set up the TD.

Kyle Orton was very good on this last drive-after the Bills offense had struggled most of the game. One difference between Orton and E.J. Manuel is that Orton is much less afraid to take chances. And this certainly results in screw-ups, including a costly interception and fumble vs. the Vikings, but the upside is what happened on that last drive.

This on-target ESPN blog post kind of sums up my feelings about the state of the team right now.

 The win was sort of an inverse of the Lions win from a couple weeks back. While the Lions did a great job giving the Bills the opportunity to win that game, the Bills gave the Vikings every opportunity on Sunday with four costly turnovers. But in the end, I guess the Vikings didn't want the win bad enough - of course it helps to have Sammy Watkins on our side.

For the second out of three games, the rookie wideout dominated play when the Bills had the ball, finishing with 9 catches for 122 yards and two TDs. He did similar work against the Lions - after the Bills mysteriously threw to him only three times against the Patriots two weeks ago. Okay, former all-world corner Darrell Revis was covering Watkins- so maybe the game plan was not so mysterious - but as I had said previously, Stevie always had success vs. Revis, so why were we so scared of him? (Maybe cuz Marrone is only in his second year and Revis played for Tampa last year, so he missed all that Stevie success?)

Biggest pause in the Vikings game had to be our sloppy run defense. Even without the legendary AP, Vikings gashed us for 158 yards on 29 carries, averaging 5.4 a tote. Good thing Teddy Bridewater struggled to throw effectively, especially early on.

Also, World Series starts tonight in KC. Do you realize that the betting underdog has won every series so far in this year's postseason? That means Giants should take the Series.

Out.

Patriots Way Smarter than Bills

The Bills have now lost to the Patriots 6 times in a row and 21 out of the last 22 times the two teams have played over the last decade or so. Pretty incredible. Of course, during this time, the Patriots have had one coach and one quarterback. The Bills, by contrast, have had at least four coaches (depending if you count Perry Fewell, who was an interim) and started at least 7 quarterbacks, and probably more.

Here's an interesting article I came across that gives you an idea of why divisional games are often so weird and hard to predict. It's about the Eagles coming up with a method for countering a Giants scheme that the G-Men had come up with for attacking the Eagles inside zone blocking scheme. Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that divisional rivals play each other so often that they invest a lot in strategies to beat each other. And the bottom line is that Brady and Belichick are better strategists that whoever the Bills are throwing at them.

Yesterday's game was a prime example. The score at halftime was 13-7, although it should have been 7-7 if not for some horrible in-game strategy by Bills coach Doug Marrone at the end of the half. And the Patriots' 7 was mostly the result of another bad Kyle Orton interception. In the first half, Brady completed 12-of-20 passes for just 88 yards. Our defense was doing really well.

Then, my friend Matt, who I'm watching the game with, utters the fateful worlds, "I wonder what kind of adjustments the Bills will make on halftime." After which, we look at each other and both laugh knowingly. "It's the Patriots who will likely make the proper adjustments," we said almost simultaneously.

Yes, we are both long-time Bills fans and Brady's second-half stats proved how correct we were. 15-of-17 for 273 yards and 3 TDs. Game over. Another loss for the Bills.

Bills, and Baseball Champtionship Series Predictions

Quite a bit to catch up on. Had a very busy week at my day job, with a newsletter deadline that I completed earlier in the day. Hurrah!

Okay, so I was wrong on three out of my four Divisional Series predictions, which pretty  much shoots my credibility to hell after I went two-for-two in the Wild Card games. Funny thing about the Wild Card round is that all four of the lower-seeded teams won. Cards-Dodgers was riveting action and I expect the same out of Cards-Giants - two great teams with great fan bases. Orioles-Royals I'm not quite as excited about - although a business colleague/friend of mine from Baltimore called today to let me know one of his best friends, Boog Powell, is throwing out the first pitch in the opener, so that's pretty cool.

In the ALCS, I'm taking the Orioles, just because from what I've seen of them this year they have been awesome and I've seen less awesomeness (maybe it just has to do with volume - as the Orioles beat up on the Yankees pretty good) from the Royals. In the NLCS, I like the Cardinals. I really thought the Dodgers had a better squad, but the Cards totally found ways to beat them - who were also being very poorly managed (at least on a strategic level) by Donnie Baseball. Even though the Giants are great at finding ways to win too, I think the Cardinals have more talent  (plus they are great at to find ways to win), so that gives them the advantage.

Now, to the Bills who match up with their nemesis/rival Patriots who are coming off a stomping of Cincinnati. This is actually a pretty good match-up for the Bills, with their strong defensive line against the Patriots relatively weak o-line. Plus, against the Chiefs at least, the Patriots could not stop the run and that is our strong point. That said, they have Tom Brady playing quarterback and we have Kyle Orton.
 
I really want to pick the Bills in this one, because we're playing at home and are going to have an emotional lift with the new ownership presiding over its first game. Also, the Patriots aside from last week, have kind of sucked this year. That said, the Patriots offense looked really good against the Bengals, with several quick strike throws that - if they are able to complete those against the Bills and our mediocre secondary - will neutralize our rush, and we'll be sunk.

Also, I fully expect Belichick to come up with a defensive scheme that will put the game in Orton's hands, and with Revis set to cover Watkins, that may be a tough order. Then again, Stevie always had success against Revis, why can't Watkins? (Seriously, if you have thoughts on this please let me know and maybe I'll change my pick). I'm going to go for it and pick the Bills by a field goal - go Dan Carpenter!.

Also, the Bills-Pats game is being aired on Fox this week, as part of something called the "cross-flex plan," part of which is designed "to to bring potentially under-distributed games to wider audiences." This is great new for Bills fans in Erie, as WSEE/CBS is carrying the Browns-Steelers game at 1 p.m. (as well they should be based on rooting interests in the area). But, according to this map at least, Erie's Fox 66 will be carrying the Bills-Patriots game. Once again, Hurrah!

Playoff Predictions Update

Well, after call both wild card games right, I sure messed up on my ALDS predictions. Not only did the Tigers and Angels lose, they did so in spectacular fashion, getting swept, setting up an ALCS (championship series) match-up between the Royals and Orioles. that doesn't start until Friday. That will give us the rest of the week to focus on the NLDS series, although the Giants-Nats could be over tonight - going the way I predicted - with Giants up 2-0 and their ace, Madison Bumgarner, on the hill tonight.

Cards-Dodgers played two very tight first games, including Friday's epic opener, a 10-9 win comeback win by the Cards against NL presumptive CY Young award winner and potential MVP Clayton Kershaw. Dodgers came back with a one-run win on Saturday. Tonight we see Dodgers' Korean ace Hyun-jin Ryu (who is third in Dodgers' stacked rotation ) against Cardinals veteran John Lackey. Normally, I'd like Ryu, as he is one of my favorite pitchers, against the ex-Seawolves hurler (yes, Lackey spent part of the 2000 season in Erie, when he was Angels farmhand and we had the Angels Double AA affiliate), but Ryu has been hurt and hasn't pitched effectively in a while, so I really don't know what to expect, except for some more exciting baseball.

Thanks for the Win Lions

The old saying is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm fairly certain Bills' win today over the Lions was pretty enough for Doug  Marrone and his staff. I'll start out by saying that the Bills defense certainly played beautifully. I mean it gave up one offensive touchdown, 263 net yards, 13 first downs, had six sacks. (NFL.com recap). That said, Lions seemed lost on offense without Calvin Johnson, who was injured and not playing at 100% and then (to the Bills D's credit) got tatooed by Leodis McKelvin and was knocked out of the game completely after one short catch. Also, the Lions kicker, I don't remember his names except that I tweeted @RalphsGrill "Worst Kicker Ever," was 0-for-3 on field goals - and missing the last one put the Bills in field position to enable them to win the game in the final minute/seconds.

On offense, Watkins was a monster with 7 catches for 87 years, several being fairly good grabs with his apparently giant hands. He also, as is typical of his play, seemed to be open quite often. Freddie, was Freddie, with several tough outstanding plays. His will alone helps carry the team. Then there was Orton. To his credit, he wasn't as bad as I feared he would be. He got hit hard several times, but took only two sacks. Mainly he stood in the pocket and looked increasingly comfortable back there as the game went on. He's not prime Brett Favre, but he certainly throws the ball better than E.J. does. That spiral to Goodwin down the sideline to set up our TD and was probably the difference in the game - well, that and the Detroit kicker. Orton also at least gave Watkins a chance to catch several balls, by putting them in the vicinity of his body and letting him snare them.

Was this what Marrone had in mind when he decided to start Orton? Well, I'm sure somewhat, but really the Lions played horribly and allowed us to win. I guess Manuel could have screwed it up, but the win was kind of a gift. That said, Orton and the offense surely looked better in the second half, so maybe there is some hope.

Oh yes, and Dan Carpenter is great. (True story, you can believe it or not, but my kids are witnesses. Before Lions kicker attempted his ill fated final kick, I said, "Bills just won the game. He will miss, Orton will throw one pass to Watkins, we'll call time out and Carpenter will hit a 60-yarder." Almost exactly what happened. So, that was cool....) I did get my pregame prediction wrong and I'll gladly accept the L. Next week at home vs. the Patriots. I'll wait on my pick to see how the Pats fare tonight vs. Bengals.