Raw post: Notes from a wild wild-card weekend

Texans / Bengals

• I spent most of this game working my day job, so only some sporadic notes:
• Dalton picked off and it’s returned for a score by JJ Watt. Everybody on twitter makes stupid puns like WATT A CATCH and WATT IS POWERED UP and I open a bottle of Russian Standard, prepared to drink myself into oblivion.
• Tom Hammond is doing the play by play for this game, I keep wishing his brother Daryl was in the booth too
• The game starts pretty cool, both sides trading blows. The Bengals actually look good and are moving around on the Texans, but miss a couple field goals. As the second quarter winds down, the Bengals look like crap; by game’s end, they’re smelling like it too.
• Dalton is a young QB, he plays like a rookie. He makes occasional nice plays but for the most part, he looks lost. Also he’s a ginger, but isn’t inspiring a bunch of lame jokes on twitter, for which I’m eternally thankful.
• Houston, though, looks really good, especially on defence. I find this surprising, since I always think of the Texans as a team that scores a shitload of points and allows almost as many. They made good stops, though, and kicked into high gear in the second half.
• Game theme:

Detroit / New Orleans

• Detroit takes it in early in the first, looks good.
• Brees first play is a huge pass for like 35 yards. They move upfield but fumble. It’d be really cool if the Saints fall apart in another opening-round game
• Cris Collinsworth is impressed by Stafford’s game calling, overlooks the presence of an offensive coordinator
• Deep into the second quarter, New Orleans still hasn’t punted.
• Good call, after review at end of second. Colston made a good try, but it wasn’t a catch. But it wasn’t a penalty either; a pretty weak call. Detroit makes a good stop and holds the Saints to a field goal after a first and goal at the six-yard-line
• Pierre Thomas has had a couple of solid runs. Brees comes out throwing deep on Detroit; Meachem drops a sure TD, then Henderson catches and runs one in from 41 yards out. The Saints came out firing.
• The Lions are playing a cool kind of defence where they don’t tackle
• Brees to Colston, for 40 yards. Another huge catch, yet another deep pass on the Lions defence, and a play later it’s a 10-point lead
• Stafford chucking it, too. Throws a high, arcing pass to Calvin Johnson, who has to slow down to catch it; a 42-yard gain, sticks ‘em right by the goal line. On third and goal, Stafford makes a risky move: fake handoff (complete with a jumping RB) as he rolls out and runs to end zone, diving and sticking the ball out ahead of him. Refs call it a TD, gets reviewed and held up.
• “today this lions team means so much to detroit” cris collinsworth, a modern day heraclitus
• People are going to mention Brees passing for mega-yards, but Pierre Thomas having a great game on the ground, too. He’s busting tackles all over.
• Another huge pass, this time to Meachem for a 56 yard, walk-in score. Detroit’s defence is non-existent.
• Detroit’s down huge, midway thru 4th, and its looking bad. Stafford could - will? - throw for 400 yards and still lose this game; detroit’s going to allow like 600. Still, Calvin Johnson catches his 12th pass, this time for a score, and it’s 28-38 Saints.
• This is the better game of the two, but it’s not been a tremendous game, either.
• Brees just chucks it downfield again to Meachem. Feels like a routine, or a game of techmo bowl where you just constantly use a play with a fly route. Also Dadboner’s twitter is going crazy which is nice
• The Saints just blowing away the Lions in the second half. What did they find out at halftime? That Detroit’s secondary doesn’t know how to tackle? They’ve scored 35 points in the second half. Their defence makes a token play, picking off Stafford with about three minutes left, and it’s basically over
• “Unable to match points with Drew Brees tonight,” says Cris
• New Orleans doesn’t punt all game; every second half possession ends in a TD - except the last one, when they ran out the clock deep in Detroit’s end; if they wanted to score, I bet they could have.

Atlanta /  New York Giants

• Joe Buck and Troy calling this game; does that make it America’s Game of the Week of the Century??
• Just noticed that Eli’s captain patch is all lit up, like he’s caught 100 rings and in Super Saijin Mode or w/e
• A few minutes into the first and both sides have punted more than New Orleans did last night. Each side with two straight three-and-out. I guess you could call this a defensive struggle, but my gut’s telling me it’s because both teams aren’t any damn good
• Eli to Ballard on the first play of the Giants third possession results in the first first down of this game. We’re only seven minutes into the game before the offense shows up. they punt. the falcons pick up their first on their next possession, too
• I was kind of hoping this would be the exciting match this weekend: yesterday’s games were blowouts and the later game tonight pits two great defences against each other, which will probably translate to a 7-3 final. Kind of surprised at the lack of offence here.
• Falcons putting together a nice drive, not testing the Giants defence really, but picking their spots. They go for it on 4th and inches, which I think you should always do, and are just short, maybe by like an inch? (fun note: only possession of the first half where they don’t punt it away! except a hail mary at the end of the 2nd, which shouldn’t count)
• And just like that, the Falcons get their first points: a falling Eli chucks one away from inside the end zone; it’s intentional grounding and is ruled a safety. Falcons are heating up!
• Jacobs puts his head down and rushes for eight (about 8 left in 2nd). First run of his today that stands out to me; he tries it again on second down and it doesn’t work. Still, the Giants are putting a nice drive together, for once. A few plays later, he busts out a HUGE run. On the replay they cut together different angles for the run, which is kind of neat. The Giants have a 4th and inches and they go for it: handoff to Jacobs, who spins and picks up a couple. 46 with a nice block, too. Next play, Eli throws to Nicks, who makes a off-balance, spinning grab for the first TD of the day. 7-2 Giants.
• At one point, near the two-minute warning, this is the sequence: play, commercial, play, commercial, play, punt, commercial. GOTTA GET THOSE ADS IN.
• Halftime score: 7-2, New York. Both offenses are struggling, although they have put together a few nice drives. Eli’s had some nice plays, but a couple of boneheaded ones, too. Jacobs have looked really good. On the Falcons? Well, they’re not awful, I guess. Matt Ryan is 13 of 19 for 98 yards, no scores and a 80.6 QB rating; Manning is 10 of 14 for 60, one score and 103.3 (and a safety). Jacobs has more yards on the ground (48) than Atlanta does (37).
• a few giants get hurt when they collide. One, Ross, goes to the lockers.
• first big play of the second half: bradshaw explodes to his right, is hauled down around the five after picking up 30 yards! Giants running game is on today, they’re just pounding it. It’ll be neat to see the time of possession. This run leads to a field goal, 10-2 NY. As Fox goes to commercial, their replay shows Coughlin throwing his hands in the air, flippant
• Atlanta goes for it on another 4th down and turns it over on downs a second time. Cue an endless string of coaches saying “never go for it”
• This leads to a Manning pass to Nicks, who finds a seam, busts past like three guys and runs in a score. It was a shortish pass up the middle and Nicks was wide open + had an angle where nobody was really able to catch him. 72 yards pass + run!
• The Falcons are not doing it in short yardage. On third and short, they get stuff, so they punt it away. Turner not having a good game on the ground.
• Giants game coming together. Eli gets tons of time to throw a deep one to Manningham in the end zone, for a 27-yard score. We’re entering blowout territory, 24-2 Giants. Eli is now 19 of 28, for three scores, 241 yards and a QB rating of 130.2(!). The Giants offence is just blowing away the Falcons right now; Atlanta’s offence is sputtering, especially in short yardage
• I spent most of the fourth looking at used cars. Atlanta had a cool three-and-out that lasted less than a minute, the Giants marched all over and missed a chip shot FG and then the Falcons put together a drive for the 2-minute warning.
• Final thoughts: another case where one team just dominated. More than that, Atlanta’s offence just didn’t have it today. they couldn’t get anything done. on drives they failed on short yardage situations and their running game was non-existant. as a passer, ryan wasn’t awful - certainly not as bad as some tebow games - but he’s still only a midlevel qb, still not as great as he looked as a rookie. the big question coming into next week is going to be if the giants are for real (maybe) and if so, are they a legit super bowl contender? they get this benefit from 2007, when they ripped through the playoffs, sneaking past green bay in ot to make the super bowl. this is not that team, they’re not as good. I think they’ll give green bay a good test, especially on the ground, but won’t pull it out.

Pittsburgh / Denver

• Kind of weird feeling that Pittsburgh, the better team on paper, is away here to a Broncos team that fell backwards into the playoffs.
• Feeling weird about this one: Ben’s hurt, which limits Pit’s offence. And Denver’s defence wins them games. Other side of ball: Tebow, who’s looked bad in wins and worse in losses, facing one of the league’s best defences. It’s going to be a rough game, but maybe the first close one of the weekend.
• “should be a most exciting game,” says Nantz. Well, by law of averages, maybe...
• I like this side-by-side video they show of a pre-and post-ankle injury Roethlisburger throwing and how his motion has changed. kind of odd to use so early in game, but nice they went to the effort
• Miller making some great catches early on, including one for 33 yards. Opening drive stalls around the denver 40, will kick a long FG, makes it.
• Through the first, 6-0 Pittsburgh. Denver with two three and out, plus one drive that runs through the quarter.
• Harrison comes in low for a hit, probably destroys Decker’s knee. I don’t think it’s a really dirty hit, but with Harrison’s rep, he’s going to get fined like a million dollars.
• Tebow tests the Pitt secondary, throws a deep pass to Thomas, with Ike Taylor right on top of him. Good toss, especially for tebow, even better catch. He again throws deep, to Eddie Royal, for a 30-yard score. Denver leads, 7-6
• Next poessession, Roethlisburger throws deep for Wallace, a 52 yard catch - but denver challenges and gets it overturned. I wonder if it’s a gamechanger? Crowd loves that ruling. Three drops by Pitts receivers, notes Simms. Drive sputters, Pittsburgh punts.
• Injuries mounting for Steelers. Not good, especially with the team already banged up.
• Tebow lets out out, a 57-yard throw to Thomas, who beats Taylor (again). He’s found something he likes, wonder if Pittsburgh will mix up secondary for second half. Tebow rushes it in himself; Tebow time knows no bounds.
• Next, Tebow takes some savage hits, he’s getting pounded. He throws a pick, is hit hard again. Denver takes over inside the 20, Tebow throws to end zone, Troy nearly picks it off... and Pittsburgh gets a roughing the passer and this could be over, folks. Denver kicks a FG, 17-6.
• New series: Ben picked, but a flag - offside on defence - so it doesn’t stand. Still, though. He’s hurt, can’t do anything. Pull him, put in Batch. they won’t and they’ll die by the sword. They punt away.
• Another big pass by Tebow, 40 yards to Fells. Tebow’s looking great - albeit against an injured, sinking team. It’s 20-6, now, with all 20 in the second quarter. Steelers falling apart: Ben fumbles a snap, recovers but loses 23 yards. Pittsburgh melting, like something inside a steel mill. Cower asks if resting Ben at season’s end would have been better. I’m inclined to agree.
• Halftime thoughts: Pittsburgh beat up, wonder what changes they’ll make. Ben’s hurt, too hurt I think to warrant staying in. And Denver’s taking advantage of Pittsburgh’s battered defence, exploiting how they play Tebow. You can’t let him run amok, but he’s also making good throws. Give credit to his receivers, too: Thomas with over 100 yards.
• Tebow: 5 of 11 for 185 yards, 1 TD pass, one TD rush, 122.3 QB rating ; Ben’s 11 of 23 for 134 yards, no scores, one pick and a QB rating of 48.1
• Second half for the Steelers offence opens with some weird plays, include a backwards pass that was almost a fumble. Simms explains that a forward pass has to go forward and causes a minor twitter avalanche. Then, the Steelers start moving: a pass for 18, then another... #33 - Redman - rushes down to the end zone, is dragged down, fumbles, but was maybe across the goal line? Going upstairs for a review. On the TV replay, Redman looks like he was down before the goal line, which makes it neither a fumble or a TD. After review, it’s called a first and goal from the one-half yard line. Wallace makes a run to his right, from around the line, into the end zone. 13-20, Denver.
• Heath Miller with some nice blocks on this drive, too. They’re down a weapon w/him blocking, but he’s helping curb a tough defence rush.
• Next Denver possession: Tebow escapes a sack, rushes away for a gain. Then he uncorks a deep one thats way off. Then rushes for another first. Ike Taylor is called out again by Simms. As third ends, they’re moving, right down into Pittsburgh’s red zone. Denver kicks a FG, 23-13.
• As fourth opens, Pittsburgh is looking better on offence. That’s a positive. They’re not as good on defence, allowing a drive of 63 yards. That’s bad. The Broncos are chewing up time on offense. Might not be enough time for a two-score comeback.
• Redman making some good runs. Just tears off one for 28. Next play, Ben rolls out to his right, super slowly. Somehow he isn’t sacked (throw is incomplete). Pittsburgh kicks a FG, cuts it to 23-16.
• Tebow getting rushed, shakes off a tackle, moves to his left and fucks up a lob pass + misses an open reciever. Next pass, tho, complete to Thomas (over Taylor!) for a first down and 15 yards. But next play, Willis McGahee fumbles and turns it over! Denver challeges (why wouldn’t they?)
• McGahee to this point had an okay game. 50 yards on 16 carries. But fumble costs not only possessions, but a timeout and their last challenge. Hope it was worth it.
• Ben makes a quick pass, Sanders spins around a defender, makes it 3rd and one. Redman pounds it across, first down. Under six to play. Ben rushes and moves like he’s the tin man. Redman: another first down. He’s pounding it up. Ben throws a deep one, to a double-teamed Wallace. It’s just about picked off by Bailey - “shoulda had it,” says Simms - but isn’t. Steelers timeout.
• Ben to pass, has all kinds of time, rushes out of pocket. Throws deep to end zone, complete! to Cotchery! Tie game with 3:43 left!
• Open the twitter gates: “Tebow time” say all. He makes a big pass, for 17 yards, to Fells. They run it down to two-minute warning.
• Never let this be understated: today, Tebow’s been impossible to sack. He just ran away from like three tackles, out of the pocket and got ball off. He just saved 10 yards. But on 3rd and 8, his pass is short.
• Ben takes over deep in his own end. He has time, tries to move and is sacked. clock running, again with time, throws up middle to Brown, clock running, 33 seconds left. He throws outside to Sanders, picks up 18 and they stop the clock. 29 seconds left, Suisham is warming up on sideline. His career long is 52 yards. The catch to Sanders is amazing, a falling forward grab, an eight on the difficulty scale.
• Ben is rushed again, fumbles and they’re lucky to still have it. But it’s second and 21, no timeouts left. On own 44. Ben’s deep toss to Ward is batted away, over the head of Wallace too. Flag on 3rd down, delay of game. A short toss to Redman, who goes out of bounds at about the 50. Suisham not going to kick, Ben to pass and he’s sacked. We go to overtime!
• Ben’s blitzed by five guys, hit down by 91.
• This is the first playoff OT under the new rules, the college style one. First play is a huge pass, ran in for a score. The camera catches Tebow kneeing, in prayer. Of course. it’s an 80 yard play. There was nobody from the steelers in the middle, and it was a footrace. Ike Taylor was stiff-armed and nobody came close. Thomas was a total beast today, Tebow had a hell of a game. The most yards against the Steelers defence this year.
• Basically, what a game! It was about as exciting as you could have asked for. A hell of a finish, a great second half.
• Final thoughts: Steelers defence looked bad, really bad. Ike Taylor was called out so many times it’s unreal, but he’s not alone. Tebow’s not a phenomenal passer, but he looked like one today, maybe playing the best game of his career. Certainly played the most exciting one.
• And what about Ben, the other hyped QB? He was okay, I suppose, although he looked a tad slow. In the second half he put it together, as the Steelers came back to tie the game. But look at Redman, who rushed for 121 yards, a career high. Look at Heath Milller, who picked up 60 yards receiving and did a hell of a lot of blocking, too. I wouldn’t call it a flukely loss, but it’s one where Tebow’s abilities at QB meshed well with Pittsburgh’s flaws. It’s not every game where he’ll throw this many yards and expose the secondary.
• Final Score: 29-23, Denver

Politics, hockey and the French Language

No place in Canada takes the matter of language quite as seriously as Quebec. Go to Montreal and look around for some English. It’s generally not there and when it is, it’s buried under the French, smaller too.

That’s all part of the physical manifestation of Quebec’s ongoing culture wars, their attack on the English language. Bill 101, passed in 1977 made French the official language of La belle province. And everything in Quebec is French, Quebecois up the wazoo. The original intent of Bill 101 was to essentially banish English from the province: it banned English from commercial signs and restricted education in English to those who had siblings already in such programs.

It was later amended in the Henri Bourassa years, allowing some English signage, so long as the French was twice as large as the imposing, lesser language. Mordecai Richler once wrote of well-meaning citizens who would stalk the streets, tape measure in hand, photographing offending signs.

Make no mistake; French is an endangered species in Canada. With the vast majority of the country speaking English, with media from all sides coming into the province in English and with a slackening support for traditional powers like the Bloc, it’s not too hard to see Quebec changing. The actual impact of the silent revolution is something to argue over all day, but it’s intent was simple enough: protect the language of a loud, vocal minority.

The loud, vocal minority has a proud history of stirring up shit in Quebec. One of the first moments of the Silent Revolution was the Maurice Richard Riot, where a suspension led to an act of domestic terrorism. Indeed, between riots sometimes spring up during the playoffs, either on the street or on the ice. Arguably more than anywhere else in Canada, Quebec takes it’s hockey very seriously.

These two passions – protecting their language and winning hockey – have met occasionally in the past and flared up in recent weeks. In the midst of a rocky season, the Canadiens fired head coach Jaques Martin and replaced him with assistant Randy Cunneyworth.

The problem isn’t that the firing came too late, after the Canadiens found themselves in the cellar of the Northeast Division. It’s not that he has zero coaching experience in the NHL. It’s that he doesn’t speak French. It’s not an issue of speaking to his team – only three of their players are from Quebec – but one of fitting into a province that is predominantly French speaking.

Fittingly, it’s the media that keep banging this drum: the same media that is mostly French. There are five French newspapers, three French TV stations and a French talk radio station. Cunneyworth’s languages was been drummed by them, and amplified by the national media, into A Real Story, a news cycle of it’s own. Never mind that the Canadiens are winners of just three of their last 10 games, Cunneyworth should resign because he doesn’t speak French.

A French-language advocacy group, Mouvement Quebec francais, has taken Cunneyworth’s hiring personally, like a slap to the face, calling it the latest in a series of insults to the French language. According to a National Post story, their laundry list of complaints includes everything from ambient music to the team’s roster; not enough French players.

It’s reminiscent of Bill 101: they have a good idea – serve the French fans as you would the English ones – and they make an interesting points about post-game interviews. But they immediately go too far and all but call for blood. A comfortable medium – say, hiring someone from Berlitz for post-game media scrum translating – never comes up. The kneejerk reaction is the blunt one, a hammer to pound away any traces of anything that isn’t pure laine Quebecois.

And what would that solve? Would bringing in more French players – last I checked, Patrice Brisebois was available – bring more wins? Pounding the drum of Quebecois nationalism is an easy trick for the media (witness how it was pulled this spring) and it helps mask whatever problems beat reporters and columnists have with a person who can’t communicate with them.

Working a country away, in Philadelphia, Mark Bowden wrote a great book about the Eagles and explained how the pack makes coaches, and especially Buddy Ryan. “…he understood The Pack. You let them stand on the sidelines during practice and you feed them a steady line verbal stingers and you reminded them at least once a week that they really knew jackshit about football… and before long, they were eating out of your hand.”

That feeding, or rather the lack of it thanks to Cunneyworth’s language barrier, could end his coaching career before it even began. Is it right? Maybe not, but it’s certainly Quebecois.

MacGregor gets it wrong, even though he's right

You know, I could have sworn the war was over when it cames to statistics, bloggers and sportswriting. It's been three years since the Oilers kicked a blogger out of the Rexall Centre and 15 since the first Baseball Prospectus came out (and about a decade since it started to become mainstream). Teams, leagues, newspapers and TV stations all have bloggers on staff. Some, like The Score, not only have blogs for every sport, but they've even given them broadcast slots.

I thought the war was over, could have sworn stats and blogging were accepted now. After all, aren't stats like On Base Percentage on TV now? Don't box scores include things like Faceoff Percentage? So why is Roy MacGregor contemplating them as the end of sports journalism?

His piece, The Dumbing Down of Sportswriting, argues that things like "Blackberry Journalism", over-reliance on statistics and social media are destroying good storytelling and hard-hitting journalism. From his piece:

"It is called, derogatorily, “BlackBerry Journalism.” Television, ironically, is the worst offender, with the most visual of tools reducing so much of sports journalism to talking heads reading off rumours or various crumbs of minutiae handed off to them by those in a position to control such information..."

He argues great storytellers like AJ Liebling, Gay Talese or Roger Kahn would have been hamstrung by today's requirements: posting information on Twitter, transcribing tape, shooting video, etc, ad infinitum (Never mind that, for one, Liebling's habit of making stuff up wouldn't fly in today's landscape). That as networks start to rely on statistics provided by the respective leagues, they can lose sight of the message. And that more people need to read Paul Gallico's Farewell to Sport, a very cool book written by a guy who quit sportswriting to devote his life to writing novels.

It's not as troubling a column as the reaction would have one believe. MacGregor makes some very good points about how easy it can be to lose sight of the big picture by focusing on small, irrelevant details. And he's absolutely right on the overburden some reporters now have. The always-cool Rosie DiManno said the same in her column last week. To wit:

Perhaps young’uns just entering the business enjoy all this multi-platform clutter and embrace the challenge of reinventing newspapers. From my perspective, it takes the eye off the only ball that should matter to print journalism: words.

Both DiManno and MacGregor rightly argue that reporters have to do a lot more these days and it's harder to tell good stories as a result. Hell, when I was in J-School, I experienced it first hand: I once went to an interview adorned with a digital SLR, a handheld camcorder, a digital audio recorder, about 20 feet of assorted cords, notepads, pencils and cell phone. I had to shoot video of the interview for the online news segment, audio for the part to air on campus radio plus shoot still photos and make notes for the written story, too. And that was 2008, before social media. Now I'd have to tweet, live-blog, etc., ad nauseam.

I don't mean to give MacGregor a complete pass, though. His column is wrong in how it argues nobody cares about small details like suspension length or that statistics get in the way of things. Thanks to the rise in popularity of fantasy sports, even the most mundane statistics can be meaningful. Even Face Off Percentage.

When he suggests the media needs to focus more on storytelling, he omits mention of all the great writing going on right now, from Spencer Hall to Joe Posnanski to Jeff MacGregor. One might refer him to Grantland or The Classical, where such storytelling is the norm. Twitter has hurt none of today's Taleses. Hell, thanks to sites like SportsFeat, Longform or Byliner, it's helped make it more popular.

It's too bad he's used such a broad brush because he makes a lot of good points. Sports reporting on TV now is a lot of noise and not much signal: take TSN's heavy reliance on ex-jocks, for instance. And newsrooms are understaffed, leaving reporters overworked, thanks to a shrinking media market.

The reaction to his column is kind of ironic: it's easier to pick up what he missed and spread it through Twitter than it is to sit, read and think about what he wrote. Nowhere does he actually say blogs are killing sportswriting. It does say he respects the power of Twitter and that too many are focused on getting hits rather than doing good work. But it's easier to pick out and focus on the smaller, more mundane things in his column and focus exclusively on those: a snide comment on Talese tweeting DiMaggio 140 characters at a time, a quote about statistics he took from a book.

That reaction's exactly what his column is warning against.

Not buying the Bills in Toronto

Sunday's Buffalo/Washington game was awful, horrible and boring beyond words. It was such a dull game it should count as an act of international aggression. It was Must Not See TV. It was brutal.

With any luck, it'll be one of the last Bills games in Toronto.

When the series started a few years ago, in 2007, the inclination was somewhat towards optimism. The series was conceived by a group that included heavy hitters like Larry Tanenbaum of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Ted Rogers. It came at a time when the Argonauts were doing poorly (they’d finish 2007 with a 4-14 record) and Rogers was upping their financial commitments to the Blue Jays: they had recently added AJ Burnett, BJ Ryan and Frank Thomas to the team.

Enter the Bills. They’re a team with a sizable chunk of fans in Ontario and, it appeared, an uncertain future. Owner Ralph Wilson was just shy of 90 when negotiations started; once he left the Bills, it was far from a given that the team would stay in Buffalo. After all, Buffalo’s one of the NFL’s smallest markets and it’s shrinking, too. Between 2000 and 2010, Buffalo’s population dropped by over 10 per cent. Ralph Wilson Stadium is old, too: it first hosted games in 1973, nearly 40 years ago. Earlier this year, the National Football Post ranked it 20th among all NFL stadiums, saying, “When it comes to architecture and amenities, RWS is going to rank at the bottom of the list.”

It was a great match: a team with a bad stadium, a group that wanted to bring pro football to theirs and was willing to throw money around. It was such a good match that the NFL issued a statement saying the Bills were not going to permanently move to Hogtown.

But nobody was really suggesting that was an option. While the Rogers Centre is an okay place for an exhibition game, it’s capacity of 54,000, is too small to regularly hold NFL games. A new stadium would solve that problem, but who’s going to build it? Toronto’s government is slashing budgets all around – the gravy train, as their mayor put it – so don’t expect a hand there. Why build one? For just eight NFL dates a year? The Argonauts are locked into a lease at the Centre and the TC have their own stadium.

The games have always been a way to make money. Tickets at a Toronto Bills game are more expensive than a game in Buffalo (at one point, costing three times as much: $180 Canadian to $51 US). A Rochester newspaper was blunt, calling the games cash cows. Indeed, the Bills made $78 million from the five-year deal. How much is that? A 2011 Forbes valuation put their yearly operating income at $40.9 million.

It’s been successful on that front. It’s less successful on the field. Sunday’s win was the first time the Bills won in Toronto. It came only a few days after Buffalo’s George Wilson suggested that it’s not really a home game, because the fans don’t care who wins.

And Wilson’s right. Toronto is not a Bills town. It’s not even a football town. It’s also not a Raptors, Argonaut or Blue Jay town. It’s a Leaf town. Hockey will always come first here. Yes, NFL fans will show up for the game, but that doesn’t suppose they’re Buffalo fans. Just take the moment when Scott Chandler jumped into the stands and was greeted by indifference (I distinctly remember one guy filming it on his smartphone).

At best – and one could argue with the Bills 5-2 record, this is their best – the games feel like a neutral field novelty. Despite how good Buffalo’s been this year, Sunday’s win featured a less-than-packed house.

Next year is the final year of the agreement. A lot has changed from when it was first signed. Ted Rogers is dead, the Canadian dollar has strengthened and the Bills are suddenly good. A new agreement would likely cost Rogers more than $78 million – and that’s even if the Bills want to keep giving up home games.

Simply put, the whole series feels like a tease. It’s a taste of NFL action, but without any of the payoff. It costs more than a game in Buffalo, but has little of the atmosphere: tailgating, packed stands, cold weather. It’s a sanitized, suit-wearing, straight-laced version of pro football, the equivalent of Mitt Romney. Yes, the Bills finally won a game in the cavernous Rogers Centre. But they couldn’t even make that interesting.

The Toronto experiment isn’t working: why pay more for games that feel like they mean less? That the players don’t even like? Next year’s series should be the last.