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So close, Dick Jauron. And according to the Buffalo faithful, expected. Hell, inevitable.

I don’t buy it, but I’m not a Buffalo sports fan. I didn’t watch Scott Norwood shank a 47-yarder which, apparently, has been reduced to a chip shot in current retellings of the game. I did watch the Sabres get screwed out of a chance to lose later in overtime by a skate in the crease, though. So maybe they have a point.

Regardless, if you didn’t see what happened, the Patriots were down 11 to the Bills last night in Foxboro with a few minutes left in the game, needing a very minor miracle and all of the fire that Tom Brady’s eyes can possibly produce. And they got both. After scoring a TD to pull within 5, they decided to kick away with 2 minutes left (apparently feeling confident in the flaccidity of Buffalo’s offense), putting the ball in the hands of Leodis McKelvin three yards deep in the end zone. And McKelvin brought it out. Then Brandon Merriweather put a perfect stick on him to loosen up McKelvin’s grasp just enough for a second Patriot to rip it out and recover it. When Tom Brady came back on that field, and had that California forest fire burning in his eyes, you just knew he wasn’t going to throw another pick to a defensive end. Game. Over. Greatest 15-yard game winning drive in NFL history.

The armchair quarterbacks have been going at it this morning both defending and vilifying McKelvin’s decision and the Buffalo coaching staff for not coaching McKelvin up well enough, and of course, I’m going to weigh in with my toonie as well. I have no problem at all with the decision to bring the ball out, and if you are that afraid of fumbling, why even run a play after you take the touchback? Just take a knee. F it…punt it on first down. Bringing the ball out of the end zone not only burns time off of the clock, but also gives Buffalo its best chance of getting the ball down the field. I would bet my left…uh, arm that more kickoffs are returned to the 40-yard line than are fumbled, and doing so likely would have iced that game. Additionally, every player in the world knows you can’t fumble there. Sure, it’s always bad to fumble, but there are certain situations where you know that you CAN NOT lose the ball and you adjust accordingly. That’s all on McKelvin, not the coaching staff. If Dick Jauron needs to have a “Don’t Fumble the Game Away” seminar, then the Bills might as well just finalize their transition into the CFL today.

I think a worse sign for the Bills was the futility of their drive following New England’s go-ahead TD. How do you get beat so quickly by a 3 and 4 man rush? It was like watching the Steelers out there. You know what? Maybe the Buffalo Swampers do have a point. Maybe it is the “same old Bills”.
Better luck next week, T.O.!

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that the kickoff in question occurred with 2:06 remaining on the clock. Since the clock doesn’t start until the returner is in possession of the ball, chances are that if anything the coaching staff actually instructed McKelvin to go for the return. Doing so would have deprived the Patriots of what essentially would have been a 4th timeout.