Thursday, September 17, 2026

Wow, that was a scripted production...

There was no doubt that the Bills were going to win the first game in their new stadium tonight.

The Lions more than made sure of that with a number of indisciplined penalties, effectively zero defense, and basically a full surrender job after a turnover at 34-24 in the fourth.

But they still scored another touchdown to make it 41-31, and make the Buffalo Bills the first team in NFL history to go 2-0, giving up over 30 points in both games.

Let me give you an idea of how thrown this was on the part of the Lions -- AND how much the NFL had to struggle not to completely lose it's Amazon audience.
  • The Buffalo Bills got almost 300 yards of offense in their first four drives in the first half, all resultant in touchdowns.
  • It's 27-7, third down, Buffalo's driving again about their 40 yard line.  Josh Allen scrambles and appears to have the first down if he keeps running.
  • So he shovels the ball off to a receiver, who drops it because he didn't expect, fourth down, the game's first Buffalo punt.
  • With 6 seconds left, Detroit decides to run the ball to confuse the Buffalo defense, and Buffalo gets called for tripping the ball carrier.  (Only thing that would've mattered was the distance -- there WAS one second left and Detroit had a time out.)  Bugger if we could see it on the replay.
  • Field goal -- 27-10 at halftime.
  • At that point, I call it during the halftime...

  • Wouldn't you know it?  27-17 after about a six-minute drive.
  • But then the Bills dogwalk the Detroit "defense" on an EIGHT-MINUTE drive for 34-17.
  • Then Detroit decides people still need to be watching the game in the fourth quarter -- five-minute drive, 34-24.
  • They get the stop...
  • And then 3 and out, and that's the surrender.
  • Touchdowns are traded for 41-31, the final.
And I guess we, at least for Sunday, have to go on Record Watch.

The 72 points tonight means the first 17 games in this NFL season have now scored 862 points.  An average of 50.71 points per game.

That is an NFL record for 17 games.  Remember that Week 1 tied the NFL record for most points in a Week 1 with 2002.  Only one game in that Week 2 beat the 71 -- and that was a 45-39 overtime game, also with Buffalo winning, this time over Minnesota.

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