The 10-4 Buffalo Bills are headed for the Playoffs. But first, they have an afternoon game with the 11-3 New England Patriots today. For the Bills to win the AFC East, they would have to defeat the Patriots then beat the NY Jets next week…and the Patriots would have to lose to the Miami Dolphins. Not likely.
So do the Bills rest some of their key players today and next week? Do they treat these games like Preseason games? We’ll find out later today. The one thing that could derail the Bills’ hopes is…injuries. Will you be watching this game? Check out the WALL STREET JOURNAL article about the Buffalo Bills:
If the Bills Shock the Patriots, Should a National Holiday Be Declared?
A pesky Buffalo football club has a small, outside chance to win the AFC East. That’s amazing unto itself.
By Jason Gay
I know the country is roiling right now, ablaze with a president’s impeachment, a clamor of partisan finger-pointing, a lot of Beltway yappers barking in circles on cable news, and, as always, angry tweets. So many angry tweets. Also, there’s a very alarming new “Cats” movie, apparently, with singing, mewling cats.
Still, I need everyone to focus on something much more important:
The Buffalo Bills have a chance to shock the world.
They can topple the mighty, mightily respected, mightily despised New England Patriots.
I know. I told you. It’s a big deal. Knocking off the fancy Death Star Patriots? It’d be more seismic than impeachment. Clocks would stop. Mountains would move. Parents, children and dogs of all sizes would rush to the streets and dance. A national week of celebratory Bills Mafia table smashing would commence.
But…let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
The 10-4 Bills travel to Foxborough, Mass., for a Saturday afternoon contest against an 11-3 Patriots team that does not feel very 11-3. The Patriots have lost two games in December already, and Tom Brady is finally looking his age (a handsome 89) as he struggles to connect with another iffy set of wide receivers the Patriots appear to have found on Etsy.
Meanwhile, the NFL is investigating yet another claim of Patriots cheating shenanigans, and the irritated and anxious New England fandom is behaving like Cape Cod will be closed next summer.
Let’s get some perspective here. There are at least 28 or so teams in the NFL which would love to have the Patriots’ problems. Caution is advisable. New England motivationally feasts on predictions of their demise. We heard a lot of “End is Nigh” speculation around this time last year, and then the Patriots went on to win their nine billionth Super Bowl.
But this could be the moment the Patriots are vulnerable—and not just vulnerable in the playoffs. They’re also potentially vulnerable in their own division, the AFC East, which has been a light appetizer they’ve snacked on for this entire century.
Enter the Bills. Buffalo isn’t a perfect club—they’ve beaten a lot of middling teams on their way to their first 10-win season since Bill Clinton was in office—but they’re feisty, and they’re just one game in the standings behind the Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain, Bill Belichick. They have an excellent defense (third-ranked in NFL total defense) a sturdy secondary (led by Pro Bowler Tre’Davious White) and there’s stability at quarterback, in second-year passer Josh Allen from Wyoming.
Head coach Sean McDermott has taken Buffalo to the playoffs twice in his first three seasons, and he appears to know what he’s doing, which immediately vaults him over basically all of the Bills coaches since Marv Levy left the sideline. McDermott’s turned the Bills into nasty visitors: Buffalo is 6-1 on the road this season after their Sunday night victory over Pittsburgh.
Because of this, they actually have an outside crack at the AFC East. Let’s be clear: the Bills will need to win and get some help to do it. For the Patriots to fork over the division, they would need to lose to Buffalo Saturday and also drop their regular-season finale with fetid Miami.
That’s a big ask. Probably not going to happen.
But the fact that it’s the third week of December and we’re even talking about this is, well, staggering.
That’s because the AFC East has been New England’s sure thing for close to two decades. Since the 2001 season, when Brady replaced Drew Bledsoe and led the Patriots to their first Super Bowl title, New England has won the AFC East a startling 16 times, including the last 10 in a row. The only other teams to win the division since 2001 are the 2002 New York Jets, quarterbacked by Chad Pennington, and the 2008 Miami Dolphins, also quarterbacked by Chad Pennington.
I’ll ask it for you: why isn’t Chad Pennington in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for this mere factoid alone?
The Patriots don’t lose this division. The Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain clings onto it like a bow line in a nor’easter. Outside of some mild pestering by the Jets and Rex Ryan 10 or so years ago, no one’s come close to unseating them as the division’s best team. The AFC East has basically operated as a four-team competition featuring the Globetrotters, plus the Generals, the Generals and the Generals. Here’s a fun fact courtesy of the Journal’s football czar Andrew Beaton: The last time the Bills won the division (1995), Josh Allen wasn’t even born. (Beaton himself was playing Legos in Yoda pajamas.)
This all could change over the next couple of weeks. A win by the Bills (5-34 against the Patriots since 2000) would be a mood-changing event. Even if the Patriots cling onto the division, a rival will have made them work for it. New England’s anxiety will intensify. I haven’t even gotten into the latest “scandal.” The league wants to know why a Pats staffer was videotaping the sideline of a Bengals game a week before New England’s game with Cincinnati. This is suspicious because A) it was the Patriots and B) who on earth wants to watch tape from a Bengals game?
For Buffalo, it would be a stunning revival for a club primarily known for a run of early ‘90s Super Bowl losses and—more recently—viral internet videos of their tailgating fans jumping off structures and smashing into cheap plastic tables.
The Buffalo Bills…AFC East champions?
Unimaginable. The skies would thunder. Birds would sing. So would those strange movie cats.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
The AFC East has been New England’s sure thing for close to two decades. Is this the beginning of the end for the Patriots dynasty? Join the discussion.
Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com
I will definitely be checking in one the game and rooting hard for the Bills to take down Brady and the overrated Patriots.
We had a story on the news last night about a lifelong (should we say long-suffering?) Bills fan who is dying of cancer, whose last wish was to congratulate the Bills on their successful season. Someone read it on social media and arranged for him to speak live on FaceTime (or something similar) with two of the Bills.
Jeff, one of my father’s regrets was that the Buffalo Bills didn’t win a Super Bowl in his lifetime. He did get to see the Bills LOSE four Super Bowls in a row, however.
There are some really good match-ups today and tomorrow—but I don’t know how much I’ll be able to see. School only got out yesterday and I still have Christmas shopping ahead of me. The Saints have two road games ahead of them: Tennessee tomorrow, Carolina next Sunday. They have to win both games to ensure a bye week. When the Saints play, New Orleans and the surrounding areas become ghost towns because everyone stays inside watching the game—so, as much as I hate to say it, I may have to take advantage of the shorter lines and smaller crowds and do some more Christmas shopping during tomorrow’s afternoon game. I’m nothing if not practical!
Deb, Diane and Katie plan to do some Christmas shopping during the first half of today’s Bills vs. Patriots game. The stores will be deserted!
1. I don’t understand why everyone hates the Patriots so much. Don’t tell me it’s because they “cheat”, because they all do the same stuff. It’s success I guess, just like everyone hates, or used to, the Cowboys. I was never a Bills fan until I began being your pal, George, but have long admired the Pats’ winning ways, even after that awful Super Bowl.
2. Seahawks play Arizona, should win. But then next week it’s the 49ers. Uh-oh. I want to see a Seahawks -Saints playoff game in Seattle.
Rick, statistically, winning a division in the NFL 10 years in a row reeks of anomaly. Yes, Tom Brady is an exceptional player. Yes, Bill Belichick may be the best coach ever in the National Football League’s history. But, suspicion flourishes that something is rotten in Foxboro, Massachusetts. And, it’s not just owner Robert Kraft’s trysts at the Orchids of Asia spa.
George, one of the restaurants we eat at when we’re in Florida is a seafood place in the same strip mall as Orchids of Asia! When we’re next there I’ll get you a picture, though I doubt Kraft will be there.
Jeff, apparently Robert Kraft was a frequent visitor to the Orchids of Asia before he got “exposed.”
Rick, as a Yankee fan for over 60 (!) years now, I have seen the hatred from the other side and know what you mean. Too much success, cheating, “buying” a winning team, I’ve heard most things. A lot is jealousy, of course. But in the case of the Patriots, I think Belichick’s attitude turns a lot of people off. I guarantee if their team had him as coach, they wouldn’t be complaining. And, of course, the Patriots do cheat!
😉
Jeff, you’re right on the money with your analysis of the Patriots and Belichick!
I will be watching Bills-Pats attentively while waiting for the Niners to come on and spank the Rams, or just as likely, lose their 4th game at the final whistle.
Art, the Rams have been up and down all season. I’m guessing they’ll be down today and the 49ers will win!
I’ll be watching the Rams-49ers game too, rooting for the Rams to win, since that would be better for the Seahawks.
Rick, see my comment to Art.