THE ROCKPILE REVIEW – “How Does It Feel to Have a Quarterback?”

[Shaw66]

It was a gorgeous day. Bright blue sky, a little wind, temperature climbing quickly from the 60s to around 80. In less than two hours, we’d driven from central Connecticut to MetLife Stadium. We cruised into the parking lot a little after 11.

 

It was mostly Jets fans tailgating, with Bills fans sprinkled in all around. Two guys were sitting in folding chairs behind their car, which was about as close to the entrance to the stadium as possible. They must have been in line when the parking lots opened. They sat, chatting comfortably. They could have been sitting in their backyard, having a beer, and watching the kids splash in the kiddy pool. Except, one was dressed in Jets green, head to toe, the other completely in Bills red – the famous “color rush” style that the NFL and Nike promoted one year on Thursday Night Football.

 

A few steps further, a Bills fan approached us and offered some Josh Allen MVP Puffs, right out of the box. With a big grin on his face, he said my daughter and I (unmistakably Bills fans in our blue and red caps and clothes and me in my brand-new blue Bills Nikes) could take some, but not our friend, who was decked out in green. We each took a handful—including our friend. We chatted with him for a few minutes, and then we headed into the stadium.

 

My friend has three seats for Jets games at MetLife, and for many of the past 15 years he has shared them with me when the Bills come to town. Usually, he and I go with one of my family members; occasionally he’s given the third seat to someone else. Sometimes, he gives me all three. He’s a generous guy.

 

And these aren’t just any seats. These seats are on the 30-yard line, second row, behind the right-hand end of the Bills’ bench, where the defensive linemen sit. A few hours after we walked into the stadium, the spectacular Rutgers marching band played right in front of us at halftime—they were great. A few minutes after that, James Cook would weave his way through the Jets defense right in front of us and then blaze into the end zone for the play of the day.

 

It's just a great place to watch a Bills game.

 

When we got to our seats, I stood for a few minutes, taking in the view.  Only a few thousand fans had entered the stadium. A few players were on the field, stretching and loosening up, and stadium workers continued to set up miscellaneous stuff. A Jets fan from the next section walked along his row and approached me.

 

“Can I ask you a question?”

 

I said, “sure.”

 

And then he asked the only question that matters: “What’s it like to have a quarterback?”  

 

He went on. “I mean, we really haven’t had one since Namath. Actually, I’m a Giants fan first, and both the Jets and Giants could have drafted Josh Allen. So, I want to know how it feels.”

 

He knew an old Bills fan was the right person to ask, because Bills fans had a Super Bowl run with a Hall of Fame quarterback, then 20 years of quarterback futility, and now we have Josh Allen. We’ve truly been on the quarterback roller coaster.

 

With a big grin on my face, I said, “It’s great! Having a quarterback is all that matters.” Nothing else needs to be said. I told him that I’d recently heard a Bills fan say, “The Bills used to lose games they should have won. Now, the Bills win games they should lose.” That’s how it feels to have a quarterback.

 

And then he returned to his seat, and he and I sat watching what it means to have a quarterback and what it means to have—well—Justin Fields. Fields, now in his fifth season in the NFL, looked like a rookie as he tried to figure out what to do with the Bills’ defense. He couldn’t. In three quarters of football, he had three completions on nine attempts for 27 yards and two sacks that lost 19 yards. It was abysmal.

 

The Jets couldn’t run the ball, either. Breece Hall, their star running back, managed just 29 yards on 10 carries. Fields and Tyrod Taylor, who relieved Fields in the fourth quarter, broke free on a few big scrambles, but nothing that amounted to anything.

 

Meanwhile, Allen was having a workmanlike day, finding open receivers and delivering catchable balls. Allen’s stats would have been significantly better if Dawson Knox hadn’t dropped two passes. Allen added a few of his own scrambles—like Fields, he averaged 9.8 yards per carry.

  

James Cook was the star ball carrier, with 132 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns, including the highlight-reel 44-yard gem.

 

The Bills defense, which had struggled last week against the Ravens (the Ravens have a quarterback), simply outmatched the Jets everywhere, stopping the run and the pass with equal effectiveness. Tre’Davious White returned to the starting lineup and teamed with Christian Benford, challenging the Jets receivers to make plays against two #1 corner backs. Cam Lewis filled in for Taron Johnson nicely, and the Bills didn’t miss last week’s star, Ed Oliver. Joey Bosa stepped up in Oliver’s absence, flying around the field as he did so often for the Chargers, contributing a sack and forcing a fumble. He was a disruptive force.

 

Sometime after the forced fumble, the defensive linemen sitting on the bench in front of us were enjoying the success they were having on the field. Bosa especially. He was walking around, chatting energetically with first one guy then another, demonstrating how he put hands on the blocker and pulled him forward while jumping to the side and bursting past him. He couldn’t sit down. Finally, he looked at me and the other Bills fans sitting around me and acknowledged us with a smile and wave. Here was a man who was happy to be a Bill.

 

My good-natured friend sat through it all, waiting and hoping for the Jets to give him something to celebrate, but there was nothing.

 

Late in the game, most of the Bills were milling around the sideline, watching the backups finish it up. Two boys and two girls in Bills gear and probably between five and ten years old came down the aisle and stood at the rail, trying to get the attention of any Bills player. They were blocking our view of the game; the ushers usually will move people away from there, but the game was essentially over, and the kids were having fun. They were calling out players’ names, calling especially for Josh. A lineman turned and waved at them, and they yelled back. A minute later Josh waved to them, and the four kids exploded in screams and shrieks before scrambling back to their seats to tell their parents.

 

That’s how it feels to have a quarterback.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Shaw66

[SoTier]

Thank you for an excellent description of a Bills game in Met Life!   

 

Many years ago, I went to a MNF Jets-Bills game in the old Meadowlands stadium when Jim Kelly led the Bills back from a 10 point deficit to win easily.   Jets fans are among the most long suffering in the NFL.

[Shaw66]

1 minute ago, SoTier said:

Thank you for an excellent description of a Bills game in Met Life!   

 

Many years ago, I went to a MNF Jets-Bills game in the old Meadowlands stadium when Jim Kelly led the Bills back from a 10 point deficit to win easily.   Jets fans are among the most long suffering in the NFL.

Thanks. Maybe I need to revise the post some, because I forgot to talk about the Jets fans.  As I said, I've been to several of these, but this time the Jets fans opened the game with about the same enthusiasm they had at the end of the game. It really seemed like they came to the stadium with no hope (and they were right - there was no hope).  They rarely made noise on third down, and they didn't have any plays to get excited about.  

 

The lack of noise and the Jets futility made it one of the more boring pro football games I've seen in a while. There was surprisingly little energy in the stadium, right from the beginning. The way I felt, and it seemed the way many people (including Jets fans) in the stadium felt, was that we were just sitting and waiting for the Bills to do something exciting, because the Jets weren't going to. 

[oldmanfan]

My younger daughter had to work yesterday, and when she got home we debriefed on the game.  I told her it actually was kind of boring to watch.  And it was, but in a great way.  It was really just domination up front on both sides of the ball.  As I say all the time, when you get right down to it, football always has been and always will be a physical game, a game decided on whether one team can impose their will physically on the other.  And our boys did so decisively yesterday.

 

Glad you and your daughter had such a great time.  We are coming up to WNY for the Tampa Bay game; my younger daughter and my older daughter’s husband are big fans but have never seen at game at the Rich, and I told them they had to see one there in the last season.  Praying for a little snow to have the complete experience although my wife is quite the opposite!

 

Go Bills!!!

[GaryPinC]

24 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It was a gorgeous day. Bright blue sky, a little wind, temperature climbing quickly from the 60s to around 80. In less than two hours, we’d driven from central Connecticut to MetLife Stadium. We cruised into the parking lot a little after 11.

 

It was mostly Jets fans tailgating, with Bills fans sprinkled in all around. Two guys were sitting in folding chairs behind their car, which was about as close to the entrance to the stadium as possible. They must have been in line when the parking lots opened. They sat, chatting comfortably. They could have been sitting in their backyard, having a beer, and watching the kids splash in the kiddy pool. Except, one was dressed in Jets green, head to toe, the other completely in Bills red – the famous “color rush” style that the NFL and Nike promoted one year on Thursday Night Football.

 

A few steps further, a Bills fan approached us and offered some Josh Allen MVP Puffs, right out of the box. With a big grin on his face, he said my daughter and I (unmistakably Bills fans in our blue and red caps and clothes and me in my brand-new blue Bills Nikes) could take some, but not our friend, who was decked out in green. We each took a handful—including our friend. We chatted with him for a few minutes, and then we headed into the stadium.

 

My friend has three seats for Jets games at MetLife, and for many of the past 15 years he has shared them with me when the Bills come to town. Usually, he and I go with one of my family members; occasionally he’s given the third seat to someone else. Sometimes, he gives me all three. He’s a generous guy.

 

And these aren’t just any seats. These seats are on the 30-yard line, second row, behind the right-hand end of the Bills’ bench, where the defensive linemen sit. A few hours after we walked into the stadium, the spectacular Rutgers marching band played right in front of us at halftime—they were great. A few minutes after that, James Cook would weave his way through the Jets defense right in front of us and then blaze into the end zone for the play of the day.

 

It's just a great place to watch a Bills game.

 

When we got to our seats, I stood for a few minutes, taking in the view.  Only a few thousand fans had entered the stadium. A few players were on the field, stretching and loosening up, and stadium workers continued to set up miscellaneous stuff. A Jets fan from the next section walked along his row and approached me.

 

“Can I ask you a question?”

 

I said, “sure.”

 

And then he asked the only question that matters: “What’s it like to have a quarterback?”  

 

He went on. “I mean, we really haven’t had one since Namath. Actually, I’m a Giants fan first, and both the Jets and Giants could have drafted Josh Allen. So, I want to know how it feels.”

 

He knew an old Bills fan was the right person to ask, because Bills fans had a Super Bowl run with a Hall of Fame quarterback, then 20 years of quarterback futility, and now we have Josh Allen. We’ve truly been on the quarterback roller coaster.

 

With a big grin on my face, I said, “It’s great! Having a quarterback is all that matters.” Nothing else needs to be said. I told him that I’d recently heard a Bills fan say, “The Bills used to lose games they should have won. Now, the Bills win games they should lose.” That’s how it feels to have a quarterback.

 

And then he returned to his seat, and he and I sat watching what it means to have a quarterback and what it means to have—well—Justin Fields. Fields, now in his fifth season in the NFL, looked like a rookie as he tried to figure out what to do with the Bills’ defense. He couldn’t. In three quarters of football, he had three completions on nine attempts for 27 yards and two sacks that lost 19 yards. It was abysmal.

 

The Jets couldn’t run the ball, either. Breece Hall, their star running back, managed just 29 yards on 10 carries. Fields and Tyrod Taylor, who relieved Fields in the fourth quarter, broke free on a few big scrambles, but nothing that amounted to anything.

 

Meanwhile, Allen was having a workmanlike day, finding open receivers and delivering catchable balls. Allen’s stats would have been significantly better if Dawson Knox hadn’t dropped two passes. Allen added a few of his own scrambles—like Fields, he averaged 9.8 yards per carry.

  

James Cook was the star ball carrier, with 132 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns, including the highlight-reel 44-yard gem.

 

The Bills defense, which had struggled last week against the Ravens (the Ravens have a quarterback), simply outmatched the Jets everywhere, stopping the run and the pass with equal effectiveness. Tre’Davious White returned to the starting lineup and teamed with Christian Benford, challenging the Jets receivers to make plays against two #1 corner backs. Cam Lewis filled in for Taron Johnson nicely, and the Bills didn’t miss last week’s star, Ed Oliver. Joey Bosa stepped up in Oliver’s absence, flying around the field as he did so often for the Chargers, contributing a sack and forcing a fumble. He was a disruptive force.

 

Sometime after the forced fumble, the defensive linemen sitting on the bench in front of us were enjoying the success they were having on the field. Bosa especially. He was walking around, chatting energetically with first one guy then another, demonstrating how he put hands on the blocker and pulled him forward while jumping to the side and bursting past him. He couldn’t sit down. Finally, he looked at me and the other Bills fans sitting around me and acknowledged us with a smile and wave. Here was a man who was happy to be a Bill.

 

My good-natured friend sat through it all, waiting and hoping for the Jets to give him something to celebrate, but there was nothing.

 

Late in the game, most of the Bills were milling around the sideline, watching the backups finish it up. Two boys and two girls in Bills gear and probably between five and ten years old came down the aisle and stood at the rail, trying to get the attention of any Bills player. They were blocking our view of the game; the ushers usually will move people away from there, but the game was essentially over, and the kids were having fun. They were calling out players’ names, calling especially for Josh. A lineman turned and waved at them, and they yelled back. A minute later Josh waved to them, and the four kids exploded in screams and shrieks before scrambling back to their seats to tell their parents.

 

That’s how it feels to have a quarterback.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

 

Thanks for the great post!  I was reflecting after the Baltimore victory, that at 55, I am privileged to witness likely the greatest quarterback this franchise will ever know.  Regardless of Super Bowls, accolades, etc.  He came here and made himself into an exceptional, exciting, humble player, and is just an amazing human being to boot!

[Don Otreply]

Thanks Shaw66, 😁👍

[muppy]

when I saw Tyrod Taylor on the field I had flashbacks of what we had before Josh Allen

 

You can never take away from Beane the fact he took him in that draft.

 

The rest is history and  future to uinfold

 

we are buckled in for a ride to the Championship Game and beyond this year

 

GO BILLS

[Big Turk]

It was a boring game, the kind I love to have. Game over after the first drive pretty much, you knew it was going to be a calm, easy win. The only thing you cared about was trying to get out of there healthy. Looked like a major college program taking on a D III program as a sacrificial lamb.