I thought maybe this was the best way to talk about our favorite teams this season rather than individual threads for each team.

Hey - with how good the Bills looked, the Jets with Favre and the Pats with no Brady - this division may actually be more than a one team show this season. I hope the Bills at least hang close so that their game up here in Toronto on Dec. 7 - which I have tickets for - means something.

What? Nobody hatin' on the Pats? Guess Brady's injury has had at least one (other?) positive effect, so far.

Matt Cassel, though not flashy, sure did look pretty poised for a guy who hadn't started a game since high school. And with the Chargers, Jaguars and Colts looking shaky so far, the entire AFC looks like it could be wide open.

Matt Cassel didn't hurt the Pats yesterday. But he did't really help them either. On one of their final drives he missed two fairly open touchdown passes with severely underthrown balls - deep left sideline to Randy Moss and then on a short fade pass to the right (not sure who the intended receiver was on that play).

Pats didn't need the extra points yesterday. But he'll need to step up his performance at some point this year if the Pats are going to be serious contenders again.

There's not much to hate, yet. Let's see if there's some more cheating or running up the score (the latter seems highly unlikely now)...

of course, the jets couldn't beat the brady-less patriots.

same ol' jets.

Funny, but the Dolphins managed to beat the Pats.

By 25 freakin' points! With 461 net yards on offense!

And the Bills are 3-0! Though I don't know why they were behind for so much of the game.

Well, giving up 38 points to the Dolphins says more to me about the Patriots decline in defense than the loss of Tom Brady on offense.

That's FIRST PLACE Buffalo Bills to you pal!!

Dare I say it 'round these parts, but the Raiders game had all the makings of a classic "trap" game. Bills big favorites at home to a completely disfunctional Raider club. Good job by the Bills in pulling the game out in the end.

I think punt returner Roscoe Parrish has let all the press about his abilities get to his head. Field a punt at the goal line which turned into bad field possesion which turned into an interception that led to a TD that put the Raiders in control of the game at 16-7.

Luckily Oakland's D kicked back after scoring what appeared to be a back breaking TD with about seven minutes to go. And three cheers for Trent Edwards.....finally, the Bills appear to have a solid QB for the first time since Doug Flutie made it to the Pro Bowl in '98.

Next two games on the road @ St. Louis and Arizona...could the Bills be 5-0 at the bye week??? Wow.

Last time the Bills started 3-0? 1992 - A Super Bowl season.....just sayin'

Isn't it about time for a post from Cyd about how we're all haters because we're not supporting The Greatest Football Team With An Injured Starting Quarterback Ever?

And how did they do in that Super Bowl? Just wonderin'....

Irrelevant...haven't seen the postseason since '99...I'd take that same result again now...

OK, maybe not.

Was '92 the year Buffalo had the epic comeback against the Oilers?

Bills 31, Rams 14.

I believe that makes the Bills 4-0. One of only two 4-0 teams remaining(Tennessee).

Got off to a slow start, like last week but took command in the second half in scoring 25 unanswered points.

Next up: @ Arizona.

Damn, it's been a while since I've seen a season like this.....gonna enjoy as best I can from here on out.

Just so long as the Bills win the division (since the Pats chances don't look so good). I just can't bear a Brett Favre-led Jets revival.

favre or not, jets aren't good. it'll take him more than a year to learn the playbook.

Bad day for the Bills in the desert. Trent Edwards leaves the game on the 3rd play with a concussion - and the Bills defence could not stop the Cards all day. 41-17 the final. Good time for the Bills to have a bye. Hopefully Edwards can play in two weeks time against what will be an undoubtedly tough Chargers team. After their loss to the Dolphins today they need to beat the Pats next week and will want another win before heading over to England after their Bills game for the Saints at Wembley Stadium.

JP Losman made a few of his usual mistakes - standing in the pocket too long - but otherwise was not too bad. The defence lost this one for the Bills.

And hey with that Dolphins win - who knows the only Bills game not yet sold out this year - yup the one in Toronto against those Dolphins - which still has tickets in the $175 - $450.00 range available - that may be a big game.

Actually what would be great is for that game to be picked by NBC as part of the flex schedule. And the reason I say that is because then the game ends up being shown here in Canada on TSN instead of on Rogers stations across Canada. And with the rip-off outrageous prices that Rogers is charging for the Bills games at the Rogers Centre - that would be poetic justice that his TV stations - not get that game so he can't make any additional advertising revenue for what will undoubtedly be the higher Canadian TV ratings for that game.

Well, the joyride had to end sometime. I was just hoping it would come later. Oh well.

The bigger concern has to be the status of Trent Edwards, while JP Losman did a good job in his stead there is no one out there who believes that this team would be 4-0 with Losman under center. Hopefully Trent will be able to return after the bye week. The season pretty much rides on it.

BTW, rumor has there were eleven men on the field playing defense for the Bills yesterday, I sure couldn't see any.

Thank you Giants for letting Kawika Mitchell go! His end zone interception was huge in the Bills 5th win of the season.

Weird day with the power going out at the Ralph, apparently some balloons hit a transformer outside the stadium @ about 1230 and most fans watching on TV missed about half a games worth of action. From what I hear from those who went, it was kind of like watching a pee wee football game, no scoreboard, no clock, actually having to look at the down markers on the field and the chain gang to keep track of what was going on. No music clips, no commercials or long breaks in the action. Despite a fifteen minute delay early on the game still finished at about 4 pm

I'll start the campaign....Trent Edwards for MVP!!!!!

Three division foes in a row, @ Miami, Jets, and @ Patriots. I'll take 7-2 at the end of that.....

Methinks, Brett Favre doth protest too much! What is the story? Did he or did he not speak to Detroit about his former team?

And, more importantly, should he have come out of retirement? Last Sunday showed that his throwing arm is not what it used to be.

I always liked Brett as a player and as a person, but I'm beginning to think his image has gone to his head. Looking back, all the hullaballoo surrounding his coming back out of retirement, would the Packers use him or release him, his acquisition by the Jets, his feelings about the team that made him who he is, et al brings me to this conclusion. There was a lot of talk last summer that he was calling as much attention to himself as T.O. does, but he got a free pass because of who he is. That talk may have been right. Just saying!!

After tomorrow it is quite likely the AFC East will have two 6-3 teams and two 5-4 teams

Big game tomorrow has the 5-3 Bills at New England to face the 5-3 Pats. Buffalo has to snap out of this slump they are in as they can't really afford to drop to 0-3 within the division with a loss if they are hoping to win any tiebreakers in this tight division.

The 5-3 Jets and 4-4 Dolphins are favoured to win their home games against St Louis and Seattle respectively which would move the Jets into a 6-3 tie with the winner of the Bills/Pats game and move the Dolphins into a tie with the loser of that game at 5-4.

At least it is looking like the December 7th game being played up here in Toronto between the Bills and Dolphins will be a meaningful one.

I can't believe the play calls coming from Philadelphia??????

Did that just happen? I hate Eagles-Giants equally, but it would have been nice to see the NFC East open for debate going into the final games of the season.

no.

After last night's game against the Brady-less Patriots, I'm eating my words about Favre!

And it comes from a Giants' fan, no less!

favre does make the entire team so much better. good for them.


too bad, mangina almost lost the game again last night.

Wow that Browns - Bills game had a bit of everything last night - including the usual WILD Monday night Buffalo crowd. That stadium sounded like it was rocking non-stop all night long. At least until those painful words for all Bills fans were heard in the dying seconds. 'WIDE RIGHT!'

So many great plays by so many Bills players - but Trent Edwards looked like a deer caught in the headlights all night long. In fact on a couple of his interception throws he seemed to be blinded by those headlights - because the passes were right to the Browns' defenders. And he looked like he really was afraid to throw the ball down field as pointed out on numerous occassions by the ESPN crew.

What an amazing game - especially that incredible 4th quarter! First play of the quarter - 72 yard run for a Browns touchdown to put them up by 10. Second play of the quarter - 98 yard kick-off return for a Bills touchdown to get back to within 3. Last three minutes of the game - an incredible run by stud Marshawn Lynch to set up a go ahead Bills touchdown to put the Bills up by 1. Brady Quinn moves the Browns just far enough and their kicker INCREDIBLY nails a 56 yard field goal to put the Browns ahead. Another great return and a couple of first downs later it is the Bills trying a game winning 47 yard field goal. the same distance as Scott Norowood's infamous 'Wide right' Superbowl kick. And sure enough the result for the jinxed Bills - 'Wide Right!'

So the Bills drop to 5-5 one game out of a wild card spot - but really more than that because of all the losses they have to division rivals. They almost need to run the table now to make the palyoffs I think. They do have two games they should win on the road at KC and then home to the 49'ers before making their trip here to Toronto to play the Dolphins.

Here's hoping Edwards snaps out of it and the Bills win those two games between now and their game here against the Dolphins on the 7th - so at least there is a sense the game still means something when they play up here. Hell I've paid $170 for an upper deck endzone seat so the game BETTER mean something!

Are the Jets really for real? They took care of Tennessee pretty handily. The Brett Favre hype is just growing and growing...

I don't know if they're for real per se, but they are a substantially better team than they were at the beginning of the season. They've had two consecutive road wins against top-notch teams, and today they totally dominated apreviously unbeaten team. Favre is amazing......

Three days and counting until the first ever NFL regular season game to be played in Canada with the Dolphins and Bills game to be played here in Toronto this Sunday. In some ways this turns out to be weird timing for the game as many people were looking at this series of 8 games to be played at the Rogers Centre to be the first step to Ted Rogers buying the team from Ralph Wilson when the Bills' lease expires in 2012 at Ralph Wilson Stadium and moving them here to Toronto, but - Ted Rogers (who owns the stadium and the Jays) died a couple of days ago. Plus with the ridiculous prices they are charging the game is still not a sell-out with a couple of thousand tickets still remaining. I'm sure somebody will buy the remaining tickets at 4:00PM today so that the blackout gets lifted as that would be the ultimate embarrassment if the game ended up being blacked out locally. So with Ted Rogers death and the realization that there is a limit to what people will be willing to pay to watch an NFL game here - who knows what the future holds now.

The Bills unfortunately are basically toast having lost last week to the 49ers - so the excitement I anticipated weeks ago when the Bills had gotten off to their great start just won't be there and word now is that Trent Edwards may not start due to a groin injury. Oh well it should be fun anyways. We'll head down to the 'official' tailgate party before the game. 'Real' tailgating is not allowed in Ontario - which may be a rude awakening for some who find themselves getting charged if they pull a cooler of beer from their cars in the parking lots surrounding the Rogers Centre. Instead they've licensed an area just north and west of the Rogers Centre along Blue Jay Way between Wellington and Front Street - so they can probably charge us something like $8.00 a beer to 'tailgate'. And I guess at $170 a ticket for an upper deck endzone seat for the game I still do not rate as a VIP so I'll be barred from the VIP section of the 'Budweiser Tailgate Party'. LOL
http://www.billsintoronto.com/tailgate.html
But I will get to see the Flutie Brothers Band, the Buffalo Jills and the Syracuse University Band - Oh Boy!

All of my dreams about how wonderful Canada is have been crushed.

Bring your wallet, Bills fans, as Bills in Toronto tickets are the highest in the league.

OK - I'm a wuss. All I can say is thank goodness for a dome. Watching the Bills do nothing for 3 hours was bad enough. If I had to do that in the -20C (about -5F) temperatures it would have been brutal.

You know it was a bad game when the highlight was the crowd singing the Canadian Anthem. A Buffalo team comes back to the Rogers Centre in 3 weeks with the UB Bulls who upset Ball State in the MAC Championship game the other night, playing UConn in the International Bowl Jan 3.

Maybe that will be a game that people from Buffalo can actually enjoy - instead of the mixed reaction Bills fans have to these Bills games being played up here in Toronto. At least the $25.00 tickets are more affordable.

Not much of a home field advantage for the Bills. My guess was that close to 25% of yesterday's crowd were Dolphins' fans. It probably even sounded as if there were more - because at least they had something to cheer about.

If they were hoping to turn Torontonians into Bills fans and NFL supporters, they failed. 16-3? The Bills failed to score even a single touchdown? I watched the game off and on, hoping something good might happen. But when Losman was intercepted in the endzone, I said to myself, this game makes the Raptors 1-point loss (earlier in the afternoon) look like a victory.

Matt Cassel's father has passed away. It hasn't been stated if Matt will play this weekend.

After a lackluster season, your heart goes out to the guy. It's never an easy time, though, to deal with the death of a loved one.

Patriot Reaction

Well - the AFC East is up for grabs.

If the Dolphins beat the Jets - they win the division regardless of what happens in the Pats at Bills game.

If the Jets beat the Dolphins and the Pats beat the Bills - it is the Pats who win the division. But if the Jets win and the Bills beat the Pats then the Jets win - and Mangini gets to keep his job.

He blew it yesterday with two stupid calls and I was so happy to hear colour commentator Steve Tasker - take him to task for it - if you'll pardon the pun. They were down by 7 early in the 4th quarter and were trying a 45 yard field goal that was good and had at least 10 yards to spare - but they were called for a delay of game penalty on the play. And inexplicably he decided to punt instead of kicking a 50 yarder which his kicker clearly had the leg for.

Then with about two and a half minutes to go and still down by 7 with the two minute warning and either 2 or 3 timeouts left - he decided to go for a 4th and long at their own 20 rather than punt and put any faith in his defence to stop the Seahawks to get the ball back. Crazy!

And I know the big games get the 'big name' announcers and I do really like Al Michaels and John Madden on NBC Sunday night games - but I think some CBS 'back-up' crews - in particular Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker are much better to listen to than a couple of CBS's supposedly 'star' combos like Nantz and Simms.

It's poetic that Chad Pennington can drive a stake through the hearts of the Jets this weekend. If the Dolphins win they win the AFC East and the Jets and Brett Favre go home. Pennington was always a classy guy, and the Jets dumped him in a very un-classy way when they thought Favre would lead them to the Promised Land, so I am rooting for the Fish this week....

congrats, chad pennington!

another NY collapse! thank god, i'm not a jets fan.

NE missed the playoffs too in spite of its 11-5 record.

The only reason I wish the Jets had won today would be that the Patriots would be in the playoffs. And now we'll have to endure weeks or months of Brett Favre speculation...will he or won't he retire? If he does retire, the Jets sure gave up an awful lot for a one-season playoff-less season.

The Patriots go home....the Cowboys go home...there IS a God...if only he had dispatched the Eagles as well.

Recommendation for new cheer at Jets games moving forward; dump that stupid,
"J-E-T-S Jets!! Jets!! Jets!!" cheer and replace it with, "C-H-A-D Chad!! Chad!! Chad!!"