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Woah.
Let me set the scene at my house for you. Four guys between the ages of 21 and 23 off the couch, kneeling on the floor counting down the final 20 seconds of another trademark Buffalo nail-biting finish. Fortunately, this one ended in our favor.
So how did we get there? Well let’s look back at a season defining game for this young Western NY squad.
First is Kiwaukee “If you’re going to signal a fair catch please do it out loud next time” Thomas. That was an incredible play and an equally incredible bogus call. Perhaps we all need to go back to signal school. First, a fair catch is not signaled by pointing to your wife in the stands (that point would have made Babe Ruth proud), you have to actually wave. Although apparently that doesn’t help since Rosco had a very fine looking wave on the next punt and a Viking decked him anyway. Second, I think (and I’m not an official or anything, I’m just some overexcited dude in a Brian Moorman jersey) you have to actually be in a position to catch the ball, and this guy was at least five yards away from the ball. That’s like some random guy on the other end of the field signaling fair catch or something. Bogus, totally bogus.
Next I need to mention my pick for the game ball, JP “Wheelie Dan” Losman. You can’t argue with 222 yards, a TD and no turnovers. Now that he seems to be getting more comfortable, I really like that they’re letting him use more of his assets. His decision-making still needs some improvement, but it is a lot better.
Not to mention everything from the Fox announcers today was about how smart JP Losman is. After the game Willis, Jauron, and Evans were all asked if JP was specifically coached to spread the field like that and they all said no, that it was JP’s decision making. All of this is definitely a hopeful sign. Don’t get me wrong, JP has some growing up to do before we change his name to “Winman” but at least they’re not going to call him Rob Johnson Jr. anymore (although he does have a nice man-tan. Way to go Man-tan!).
And how could I talk about our offense without mentioning Willis breaking his dry spell? Congrats on touchdown number one Willy Mac, you earned it. Speaking of number one, most of you avid Buffalo fans know Willis Mcgahee was the number one ranked rusher in the NFL going into this week. I know he’s been telling us that for some time, but it looks like the stats have agreed with him. As of this writing the updated rankings for this week aren’t out yet, so we’ll see if he holds it (probably not).
Next up is our defense. I know I’ve said this before, but for being so young these kids are tough. That last minute stop was exactly the thing this squad needed to boost their confidence. Can you imagine what blowing the game in the final minute would have done to our season? I can’t tell you how grateful I am that we’re not having that conversation.
Finally I need to mention an interesting addition to the game. Bill Clinton in a Bills hat. It seems the former president and his wife was invited to sit in the owner’s box with President Wilson. I don’t know who Clinton really roots for, but chances are he’s not really a hardcore Bills fan. Although I have a hard time imagining he’s a fair weather fan since Buffalo fans don’t know what fair weather is, but even so I’ll cut him some slack since his first name is “Bill.”
All in all it was a really impressive showing from our boys in Blue. We’ve kept ourselves out of the hole so we can go against a touch set of opponents like the Bears and the Pats with a little more confidence.
My official prediction for next week is as follows; I’m not sure we will be able to hold off the Bears at home. If our defense can step up yet another level I think we have a chance, but their defense is more than solid. Also I just saw that their offense just blew through Seattle like an enema. Oh well, here’s to hope, go Bills!
-The John