That Aud Smell

Ah, I see. You were being earnest. Okay. I do mean it, generally speaking: Moral victories and $4 (is it $5 now?) will get you a fancy cup of coffee. But, I do agree ... They certainly did compete! Shoot - if the Ravens d-back hadn't made a (very) good play on that last pass - the game's tied. (After a marvelous acting job by Beasley, btw.) I trust that the Bills got the look they wanted with John Brown there -- essentially one on one coverage, no help coming from the other side. Really good play by the corner there. Also bear in mind: If the Bills send that game to OT, they would have at least secured a point for the wild card race.

IIRC, there were 2 or 3 sacks that seemed mostly like Allen's fault. These were instances where he waited too long (needed to dump it off or somehow throw it away), moving laterally toward pressure rather than stepping up in the pocket, and such. Moral victories are largely meaningless, but the Bills somehow hanging in there against the class of the league is somewhat encouraging. Also, I'm not going to read through it, but lulz at the fact that there's some sort of debate over whether the Bills did the right thing by going for 2 when they did.

there is a specific circumstance in which that is ... well, a clear sign that you and yours are having a fine time.

Correct. It does looks ugly. Still, what's a goon to do? Holy hell is that glorious.

Lit's geaux, Beau Fleu!

FTFY. Hells yeah.

Fair enough. Likely a blend, depending on the distance of the away team's city.

Do Ravens fans travel much? I'm asking. I think of traveling fan bases, I think of the Steelers, Jets, Eagles ... the Pats (I guess).

And, in fairness, that was a bad mofo who did the bad thing. Even so. Tom Wilson was out there.

On seeing Overchkin's and Wilson's (Wilson's!) "response," I don't think I ever need to hear again about how the Sabres fail to respond to goonery.

Great post - the above excerpted stuff especially. I did appreciate the shoutout to "walking the mall" -- it's nice to consider that another dying form of consumer entertainment might nonetheless be drawing eyes and butts away from the local NHL hockey game.

Disagree. It gets to a point where something is so bad ... that it crosses over into awesomeness.

The team being bad for a long, long time is going to have a downward effect on attendance. That seems natural and inevitable. I am curious, though, about whether and to what extent larger societal/cultural forces could begin to ding attendance at Sabres games. I can't put my finger on it, of course. It's just a general sense that rabid fandom among the hometown faithful is on the wane, and that young people get their sports-tainment content from all kinds of sources nowadays. If the Sabres are, say, 5 games over DeLuca .500 at the turn of the new year, I would expect most games to be sold out. But that's at the start of 2020. What about 2025? I dunno. Just thinking.

Sorry if I'm late to this: Was that Jean Knox in the pre-game ceremony? I used to see a lot of her comments on certain Facebook posts (I'm not even sure who our mutual connections were/are). Her posts were often a little loony-sounding, but also quite delightful.

Cropped up on the sides and back -- a little flourished mop up top. Solid look. Fairly spectacular given how unruly his hair is.

It’s the Leafs. Their games tend to be like that. I found it eminently enjoyable.

Let's go, Buffalo!

He's a remarkable talent. Sometimes I wonder about his hockey IQ ... in certain situations. I stopped keeping track, but I do wonder: How's his line faring against the line(s) that they're matched up against? Are they getting better than they give in terms of chances, etc.?

He looked pretty good against a pretty good D. Mostly a game manager, with a bit of upside for some chunk, plus plays.

I said it recently: I’d love to find a link to the French Connection’s Chef’s commercial where they sing That’s Amore. Probably a few times a month, I still find occasion to say in an awful Quebecois accent: “We didn’t have our Chef’s pasta sauce!”

Oh, Kristin Peca (nee Herzog). You minx, you.

I saw those too. Fair point.

Nothing he's quoted as saying surprises me. I don't disagree with any of it. I'm just about signed off on this season. The franchise's inability to get the ship righted is nothing short of astonishing.