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One of the most frustrating things about seasons that get away from your football team is what to do with the games that are left once you've crawled from the wreckage of another season in flames. You can keep doing the denial riddled playoff dance. You can think about the draft if you like and even dream of sweeping changes in the off season, as unlikely as they may be.
I hate days like this because I have some trouble knowing where I want to stand. On one hand, I think about the 53,000 fans who sat through what at times was a driving rain. How do they feel about this game? They got some good plays from stars like CJ Spiller and Mario Williams. Fred Jackson went for 100 yards. The Bills as a team went for 232 yards on the ground. Ryan Fitzpatrick didn't do much, but he did hit Stevie Johnson and Scott Chandler for touchdowns as well as rookie TJ Graham for a long gainer early. Heck, Rian Lindell even got to try a 50 yard field goal and made it and everything.
So if you were out there Sunday, know you have my respect and that I'm glad you got to see your team play a good game against a pretty bad looking Jacksonville team.
What happens to me during games like this one in December after I've given up the yearly playoff pipe dream is that any win that inches the Bills back towards the "In The Hunt" graphics on CBS tends to make me full of regret about the games that already got away.
It's the annual loser's lament here in Buffalo. Could've should've had this game or that game. Do I really need to run them down for you? You watched them all too, right? I've even got the added pleasure of watching the Bills, forced to rely on their ground game by the horrible weather, plowing under the Jaguars. Mostly the Bills were able to run all over Jacksonville because, well they're Jacksonville. That said, I have to admit I found myself wondering about the Houston game where Chan Gailey was scared to run it. If that game had been played in the rain would they have run it more despite the Texans actually playing a whopping 7 men in the box? Could they have beat Houston had they done that? I don't know for sure, of course. I do know Houston is way better than Jacksonville, so it's dubious.
But still, right? Maybe maybe maybe. It's the same every year. Sunday, in the rain and wind Chan Gailey tried a 50 yard field goal. Two times earlier in the year you might have thought making a field goal from that distance was as likely as finding Bigfoot.
Get me a touchdown at New England instead of a pick. Don't throw the late pick against Tennessee. Find a way to beat Indianapolis. Then I'm talking up the rest of the schedule and telling you about how they might be able to squeeze into the post season and took care of business against Jacksonville.
Instead I'm left telling you it means nothing to me that the Bills beat the Jaguars. It's just another in a long line of meaningless wins over lousy teams late in lost seasons.