It's been 15 games, eight years and countless heartbreaking Sundays in the making; but (ink this in the NFL history books) the Bills finally beat the Patriots 34-31! I feel like my cat just had kittens: I'm just so proud and overcome with emotion! SO PROUD!
I think you all deserve to picture my immediate reaction to Lindell's winning field goal (when someone gives me a reality show this will be a non-issue) so here's how it went:
Sitting next to my daddy in a booth at a sports bar. There are tables next to me separated by a glass partition, a booth directly behind me, tall tables with stools on my other side/directly in front of me and a whole half of the restaurant in the back. The Bills called a timeout on third and goal and I was kneeling on the booth seat, clutching my dad's arm and fretting over whether or not this plan was going to work. Lindell set up for the field goal and I went from kneeling to crouching. Lindell connected with the ball and I went from crouching to standing. The ball went through the posts and I went from standing to jumping while screaming and exclaiming 'ohhhh omg I can't believe it omggg we beat the PATRIOTS omg ohhh I can't even handle this omg we beat the Patriots!' while clutching myself and flailing.
My uncontrolled and unfiltered reaction was what it's like to attend a Boyz II Men concert with me...or experience any other overwhelming moment. I can't help myself, the emotions overtake me! I was definitely a spectacle but luckily the entire sports bar was a Bills fan at that moment...the place went crazy! So bizarre and so surreal.
I'm overwhelmed just thinking about this so this recap is gonna have to be short...we all know what happened, anyway! I'm sorry for being the worst sports blogger ever right now, I'm actually just being fan. I'm not sorry, I totally deserve this after so many devastating years of heartbreak and pain.
The first quarter was a distressing 15 minutes of Patriots scoring so let's skip right to the second quarter when, for the second straight week, the Bills rallied over a massive deficit (21 points this time) to score 17 unanswered points. Four Brady interceptions (that's his total from last season...crazy!) and fierce efforts from Fitz, Freddy J, Stevie Johnson, Donald Jones (totally redeemed himself for earlier missteps) and defensive strength at critical moments (Drayton Florence, George Wilson and Leodis McKelvin in particular) all worked together to create the beautiful, magical, unbelievable outcome: 34-31 win. Oh, seeing that never gets old!
For a less spastic recap, click here.
Can we talk stats and gameplay analysis in the Bengals preview post later this week? I can't mentally or emotionally handle spouting out impressive numbers like Fitz's 369 yards and two TDS (Brady only had 387...not that much more!); or Freddy J's 74 rushing yards, 87 receiving yards, one TD and one almost TD (thank God it got called back!); or Donald Jones' 101 yards; or Stevie Johnson's 94 yards and one TD; or David Nelson's 84 yards.
It's only been three weeks, but so far this season I've come to a realization. Now that I'm old, football Sundays are currently the equivalent of drinking Saturdays. It takes a couple days to fully recover from both--the only difference is drinking recovery consists of overall illness and Buffalo Bills football recovery is two straight days (at least!) of randomly getting overwhelmed, overjoyed and overcome by love and amazement at any given moment of the day (on Monday I kept track: before noon, I had already loudly exclaimed and clutched myself on five separate occasions).
Winning is just such an unusual phenomena that I'm not used to, so it's difficult to ascertain the proper response. When we lost, I spent the majority of my life putting a positive spin on the Bills' struggles for my sanity. But now, people are congratulating me and genuinely happy for me...and I don't know how to react! It's what I imagine it would be like to go from 350 pounds to 150 pounds, when suddenly you're the talk of the town, or when you've just had a baby and everyone wants to gawk at it...the Bills are that baby and/or hypothetical weight loss...everyone wants to talk to me...I'm so popular!
Sunday night's Sportscenter said it best (WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME WE WERE A FEATURED STORY FOR POSITIVE REASONS ON SPORTSCENTER?!): the Bills are winning games this football season with heart, soul and sheer will. The team rallies one another and never gives up to see games through and (unlike the past) actually win! My lucky shirt and self-tattooed encouragement could also be a factor.
I'm dreading the week we finally record a loss, but until then, I could get used to this winning thing!
Please, share your reactions (Bills fan or not!) to Sunday's win.
Fun fact: The Patriots' 15 game winning streak over the Bills was the longest in current NFL history. Now that the streak is broken, the Bills' 10 game winning streak over the Bengals is the longest. Creepy...
GO BILLS!!!