It came far too late to make any real difference, but in case you missed it, the Buffalo Bills we were supposed to see all season finally reappeared on Sunday in New Jersey.
"Who are these guys?" asked one bitter-sounding fan watching the game upstairs at Cole's on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, shortly after the Bills took a wholly uncharacteristic 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
They took the lead by throwing the ball, then protected it with the run. The defense stuffed the Giants on the ground and sacked Kerry Collins six times.
Sunday's 24-7 win over the New York Giants followed the blueprint for this year's edition of the Bills, a plan somehow misplaced two weeks into the season.
Of course, it helped that they were playing the New York Giants. Six days after seeing their own faint playoff hopes snuffed, the Giants proved the most accommodating of hosts.
New York's defensive strategists apparently lost the game films of Buffalo's displays of futility of in Dallas, Kansas City, Miami and even in the same stadium against its green-clad tenants.
Against the Cowboys, Chiefs, Dolphins and Jets, each of whom constantly sent blitzes up the middle at Drew Bledsoe and smothered his receivers, the Bills' offense posted a total of 14 points -- four field goals and a safety.
So the Giants did the logical thing. They blitzed half-heartedly when they even bothered. The rest of the time they sat in a zone, waiting for Bledsoe - still feeling the effects of a concussion suffered last week against Indianapolis -- to slice them up.
Which he did for nearly three quarters, before leaving after absorbing a head shot on Buffalo's third trip to the Giants' end zone.
That's right -- not one touchdown, not two, but three.
OK, so 24 points isn't exactly an offensive explosion. Eleven of the other 24 teams playing on Sunday scored as many or more. But for a team that matched that total once in 11 weeks and hadn't staged an end-zone celebration outside of Orchard Park since Sept. 14, it was a relative return to the days of Jim Kelly's K-Gun.
Again, New York's compliance was a big help. The Giants became the first team since Jacksonville to be victimized at home by offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride's throw-throw-throw script, with Bledsoe hitting 4-of-6 for 73 yards on Buffalo's third possession, capped by a 24-yard scoring toss to tight end Dave Moore.
Buffalo's defense gave it right back on the next play from scrimmage, when Kerry Collins' 77-yard strike to Amani Toomer provided New York's sole highlight of the day.
The Giants kept Buffalo's drive to a go-ahead field goal going with a stupid personal foul. Collins set up the Bills' second touchdown by tripping over an offensive lineman's feet for the second time in less than two quarters, this time fumbling the ball away.
New York showed no interest in staging a comeback in the second half. The Giants couldn't muster a single first down in the third quarter, and managed just three -- all on the same possession -- in the entire second half.
"We do not play the game of football very well," Giants coach Jim Fassell said with the candidness you only get from a coach who knows his firing is imminent. "We cannot block people, we don't tackle people, we don't cover people, we don't catch the ball in critical situations."
Other than that, they're terrific.
Those two touchdown passes by Bledsoe and Collins on the first two plays from scrimmage of the second quarter provided more excitement than the Bills had generated in two months. A few other moments -- Josh Reed's tip to Bobby Shaw to convert a third down on the drive to Rian Lindell's go-ahead field goal and Bledsoe's 22-yard touchdown throw to Shaw -- also got the attention of the crowd in the banquet room at Cole's, gathered to celebrate Brofestivus (a name that requires far too much explanation for this forum).
After that, though, not a lot happened. Toomer's touchdown resulted from a blown zone coverage, but the Bills gave up just 78 yards the rest of the afternoon.
Buffalo didn't do much more on offense, especially after Alex Van Pelt replaced Bledsoe following Travis Henry's touchdown run in the third quarter. Not that the Bills needed any more points, with the Giants incapable and uninterested in even moving the first-down chains.
The win isn't going to save any jobs, and Buffalo remains all but eliminated from a postseason berth, trailing Miami by three games with four to play for the final wild-card berth.
But for one afternoon, at least, we finally saw how things were supposed to look.
BILLS MVP: Bledsoe was particularly sharp in the first half, throwing for 198 yards and two scores before intermission. Henry had another better-than-solid outing, running for 113 yards and forcing BillStuff to continue vainly wondering what might have been. But three sacks and a fumble recovery make it impossible to give this to anyone but Aaron Schobel.
THE OTHER GUYS' MVP: OK, a blunder by the Bills let it happen, but Toomer's 77-yard score was the only play any Giant made all day.
STAT OF THE DAY: Six Bills were credited with carries, including Alex Van Pelt on a kneel-down, as well as Reed and third-string tight end Ryan Neufeld. Small-but-slow backup running back Joe Burns even got five shots, picking up 13 yards. See what happens when the other team gives up at halftime? Everybody gets to play.
BONUS COVERAGE: The Bills-Giants snoozer ended in time for CBS to switch to an example of why autumn Sundays have become a secular holiday, a showdown between two 9-2 teams with legitimate Super Bowl hopes.
Peyton Manning guided Indianapolis within three feet of completing a 21-point comeback against New England, but the Patriots stopped All-Pro running back Edgerrin James three times in four plays, including a fourth-and-1, to seal a 38-34 win.
That, my friends, is football as it's meant to be.
WING REPORT: Mark, the generous-to-a-fault host, made sure there were plenty of quality mediums and barbecues on hand, not to mention three types of pizza and succulent roast beef. The wings were well-cooked and held up nicely on the buffet table, never a sure thing when serving in bulk. Grade: A.
BS FAN OF THE WEEK: Dan was the token Giants backer, which on this day merely meant he lost interest a little sooner than everybody else. The extended lulls in the action led to discussion of the Giants' worst coach ever (Allie Sherman was Dan's selection), as well as their most inept quarterback (Norm Snead got the nod over Joe Pisarcik and Craig Morton).
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 2 2003 |