. . . finally unwinding after a long day, I am rewarded with space to spread out, and ESPN's Sportsnation. They’re about 20 minutes into a half-hour presentation of WHY DID IT WORK (where "coach" breaks down important plays from last week using a whiteboard), when they get to Russell Wilson's first TD run against the Bills.

I have an elementary understanding of x's and o's, and the three of coach’s breakdowns I'd watched hadn't built on it. My attention waned, and my finger crept toward the Ch + button. But, as coach pronounced the names Nick Barnett and Mario Williams, my hand withdrew from the remote, and as coach circled different x's I felt a growing excitement, almost a thrill surging through me as he scribbled arrows attached to the o's.

Coach went from the right of the board to the left in his analysis, and in his first grouping he spanned four buffalo x's, circled three of them, and pointed to which o's they were defending. He then proceeded leftward, showing the Buffalo front four, Mario Williams being optioned, and so on, out to the left margin, where George Wilson follows the Seattle QB into the endzone.

Coach never did return to that fourth, uncircled x at the right of the board: the one with apparently nothing to do. Did that x represent a man at all, or did it represent the mystery of the Bills contained within the key to that mystery?

The key to the Buffalo Bills is that we not only have a 12th man, we have an 11th too.

It all makes sense now. We play an extra man in the crowd.

Go Bills!!