More thoughts on Dolphins vs. Bills

The truth is this was just a Bills win that should make you happy and giddy if there even if you are cynical as a rule of thumb.  It was just a wonderful win.

All of the players played very hard and were very jubilant and emotional, and so was the coach. The fans were into it, and it was great weather. The Bills struck a mortal blow to their hated rival's playoff hopes. It was a beautiful game that had alot in it. And alot of stuff underneath the surface too. Also the Bills broke a franchise record in longest run for a TD by a QB.

But there were several storylines that left you with an optimistic feeling if you thought about them.

Moorman started off shanking a punt...badly it was by some strange fortune it took a very Buffalo bounce but it was terrible and Moorman ripped off his chinstrap in anger. Now rather it was Moorman's competitive nature or rather it was Fewell saying something to him, his final punt that went out of bounds at the 2 would later set up what I called the game winning play which was Lindell's field goal. Seeing how excited he was at seeing his friend make that FG was very memorable to me too.

T.O. I remember being at the Titans game and towards the end I have to say that it really looked like T.O. had stopped trying. He pretty much stopped his route and was mocked by the Titans crowd, and generally was miserable all day. That has changed dramatically these last two weeks, the man is blocking running, crisps routes, making good catches, doing everything he is asked offensively, scoring and most importantly he is smiling again. T.O. is happy for whatever reason, and he is engaging the fans and firing up the team in a good way. And keep in mind T.O. is not beholden to anyone, he isn't playing for his job, he has no reason to favor one coach over the other if he doesn't want to. T.O. knows he can phone it in if he wants to and the Bills can't really do alot about it.
Whatever T.O. is doing he is CHOOSING to do for whatever reason, and so these past two weeks have been very encouraging.

Not every player is blessed with alot of talent. But the ones who make the absolute most out of the talent they are blessed with, I can't help but respect much in the same way I look down on those who have amazing talent and who squander it. Ryan Fitzpatrick or should I say Ryan "Vick"spatrick in part willed that team to victory and especially with his legs.

And nobody saw it coming, me least of all.
When he ran for that Touchdown, even T.O. couldn't believe it!
This guy is something else because at least to me he is like a mockery of the standard QB who makes all the throws but has limited to no decision making skills. This guy can barely make any of the throws outside of what I like to call "lofts" deep, but the vast majority of the time knows exactly where to go with the ball. You see stuff like the WR being open but the ball flopping around up in the air barely anywhere near the guy.

With other quarterbacks you sometimes say "Where was he going with that?"  but with Fitzy you often and find yourself saying, "Oh I see what he was trying to do there, he was just so embarassingly bad at it that my neighbor with a broken arm could throw a better pass etc etc."
I came up with a name/reference for these kinds of passes, "did you see how that pass Fitzzled out. A real Fizzler that one!" (No? Oh well, worth a try anyway. :) )
But you can't have everything after all and Fitz was downright inspiring in this game.

But the most important thing was what happened with Lindell. I remember reading an article about Kickers that said that many of them are very superstitious, and self conscious no matter how hard they try not to be. Missing kicks does effect them and they want nothing more than to be in that exact same kicking situation the very next play to prove to their team that they can do it, and most importantly prove that to themselves. Perry instead of yelling at the kicker or giving him the silent treatment went right up to him and told them that the "team needed him" and he didn't just say that to cheer him up. He took a significant risk as a coach who hasn't developed alot of reputation and would have been criticized very harshly by the media if Lindell misses, which considering he had never hit from 56 yards was a risk. I think Lindell's kick was in some ways a game winning kick almost in the same way that Lindell's overtime kick against the Jets was. Because the team's morale skyrocketed after that kick. Lindell then understood that when Fewell said "they needed him" he wasn't saying that to cheer him up. Fewell needed him to win the game in a way he had never done before. Lindell also saw the dichotomy between what Jauron did and what Fewell does. Now the reason I say that Jauron wouldn't have done that is was because he objectively DID NOT do that in the past. That is why this was Lindell's longest field goal.

Now both men saw the same kicker. Both saw the same kicker kick in practice but one saw something the other didn't and I still believe that made all of the difference in this game. Feel free to disagree, but had Lindell missed that kick the Bills would have likely lost, but had Lindell never taken that kick the Bills would have likely lost. And while I'm sure that had he missed it, he wouldn't have been mentally ruined, I think this did marvelous things for his confidence and more importantly when we NEED him to make a kick at the most crucial time I think he will come through. I think that kick yesterday was worth several additional points down the road, I really do.


This game was a perfect example of the duality of the game as a mostly logical, methodical, and stoic sport that CANNOT thrive without occasional risk, aggression and pride.

When I hear about "running up the score" or "going for the throat", I DO feel that there is a time and a place for it and for a struggling team that has been beaten down, abused, marginalized, injured, who has seen close games slip away time and time again, who has continued to lose in front of their home crowd,  and have seen the frustration level building into a boil, they needed this more than anything. They needed to go out there especially against a team like the dolphins where there is already bad blood and hit them in the mouth and gain confidence. Now they also exploded against the Chiefs last year in this kind of way so it will be interesting to see what the team does next.
One thing is for sure though:
That was just a great day for Bills football even if it was just a day. There wasn't anything else you could have asked of them. And they made us all proud.