From the drawers of the Top Secret Fyles:
The Bills, still favorites to be the AFC representative in February’s Super Bowl 57, are 0-3 over the past 11 months in the state of Florida after Sunday’s 21-19 disappointing loss to the Dolphins in Miami.
The losing margins in those defeats to the Jaguars, Bucs and Dolphins are three, six, and two points, respectively.
Since the start of the 2021 season and including the postseason, the Bills are 0-7 in one-score games. That’s like Texans’ territory in the NFL. The Bills’ average margin of defeat is 7.1 points.
However, in the Bills’ 14 wins over the same span, the average spread of victory is 23.4 points.
The Bills are like a heavyweight boxer with big KO power in the third round, but if a fight goes 11 rounds, they lose by a close decision.
It’s quite imperative that if the Bills are going to the Super Bowl, they have to be the AFC’s No. 1 seed to gain home-field advantage. During its four-year Super Bowl run in the early 1990s, Buffalo won the AFC championship three times playing at home.
Also, the Bills need to sustain a better running game to offset the workload of QB Josh Allen, who was involved in 68 of the team’s 90 offensive plays Sunday.
Buffalo needs better executing down the stretch in close games especially on the road. For example, not throwing the ball in the center of the field with no timeouts left (like Sunday) and not kicking the ball through the end zone with a three-point lead and 13 seconds left in regulation (like last year’s AFC playoff defeat).
■ Times colleague Dan Mount points out that eight Power Five college football programs have not hosted an ESPN’s “College GameDay” pregame show to date. The eight are California, Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia and Syracuse. Rumors are that ESPN may visit the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse when No. 10 North Carolina State comes to town Oct. 15.
■ Sideline chatter: Former Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer, now the defensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State, sees his squad with a 3-1 overall record after the Blue Raiders upset No. 25 Miami (Fla.) on Saturday. MTSU knocked off an ACC team for the first since beating Syracuse — how ironic — in 2017. Miami (2-2) turned the ball over on its first three possessions, falling behind 24-3 in the second quarter. All three turnovers occurred deep in Miami territory.
■ From the Seattle Times columnist Dwight Perry, stating the Tweet of the Week: It had been 3,934 days since the Jets, Jaguars, Lions and Giants all won on the same day (Sept. 18). That equates to a span of about 10 3/4 years.
Times sports copy editor Richard Fyle can be reached at rfyle@wdt.net
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