Yesterday's game technically qualifies as a fourth quarter comeback because the Buffalo Bills trailed the St. Louis Rams 14-13 at the end of the third quarter. Jabari Greer intercepted Trent Green's pass on the first play of the fourth quarter and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown to give the Bills a lead for good as they cruised to their first 4-0 record since 1992 when Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith were the core of that dominant team.
Give the Rams credit. Personal pride, professionalism - call it whatever you want - but it carried them through 3 quarters yesterday as they tried to avoid their fourth loss in as many games but, in the end, they just don't have enough talent. Running back Stephen Jackson is their best player and, while he still needs to get fully up to game speed after a long contract hold-out, he broke into the secondary several times on his way to a 110 yard day.
Buffalo looks like a team which now knows how to win. After taking the lead on the Greer interception, on their next possession, Trent Edwards went for the Rams jugular by finding Lee Evans on a 39 yard touchdown pass and then finding him again for a 2 point conversion to put them up 28-14. As coach Dick Jauron said afterwards, the Bills "ended up making more plays at the end and that's what the game's all about". Yes, that's what it's all about but it's also about having the confidence to make those plays and to know how to close out a game.
Up next: the Arizona Cardinals in the desert. The Cardinals allowed Brett Favre to throw no less than 6 touchdown passes against them yesterday as they gave up 56 points to the Jets. If the Bills can find a way to win this one, they have their bye week before hosting one of the AFC's top teams, the San Diego Chargers.
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The Bills can go 16-0 this season, and maybe even make it to the Stanley Cup. But history has proven what will happen next. They will lose the SuperBole, either by way of a missed field goal or a foul ball. I'm not the only one saying this. Norm Chomsky, the famous MIT prof who in the 1970s single-handedly achieved a Thomas Kuhn-esque paradigm shift in the field of linguistics and then devoted the rest of his career to launching endless verbose and off-the-mark polemics against U.S. foreign policy, has little to say on this. But I'm sure I could dredge up an Ottawa Rough Riders fan who agrees. Jim Kelly couldn't hold Rocky Marciano's jockstrap.
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