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The Buffalo Bills’ streak of playing competitive football against their opponents came to a resounding halt in Minnesota on Sunday. The Vikings came within a Brett Favre interception of reaching the Super Bowl last season, and their expectations were high coming into this year. Along with the Dallas Cowboys, they have been one of the biggest disappointments instead, to the point where it resulted in the firing of the head coach, Brad Childress. Obviously, under interim coach Leslie Frazier, the team is rejuvenated, and back playing at the Super Bowl contender level of last season. The Bills ended Favre’s day three plays into the game when rookie Arthur Moats leveled him from behind, injuring his shoulder, but backup Tarvaris Jackson came in and, after a pick-six interception by Drayton Florence, settled down to lead the Vikes to 38 unanswered points and a 38-14 win. The Bills were their own worst enemy in this game with 5 turnovers and numerous penalties. They were physically overwhelmed on both sides of the ball for the most part, and the game announcers talked about how Minnesota RB Adrian Peterson, nursing an ankle injury, begged the trainers and coaches to let him play. Small wonder, since a game against the Bills’ defense this year is all but a guarantee of a 100 yard game by the opponents’ running back. Peterson not only rushed for over 100, he also ran for 3 touchdowns. For the most part this season, the Bills’ offensive line has stayed intact, with a few exceptions. In this game, however, it looked like a scene out of the 2009 season. Starting guard Eric Wood was inactive with an injury, and center Geoff Hangartner was injured during the game, forcing Wood’s replacement, Kraig Urbik, to move to center. Then Urbik got hurt and Andy Levitre had to move to center. Ed Wang, a rookie tackle, saw his first action of the year, taking Levitre’s place at guard. The line, even before the injuries started mounting up, was getting beaten badly by the Vikings. Ryan Fitzpatrick was under intense pressure all day long and had probably his worst game since becoming the starter. It was one of those games that they just needed to get through and try to survive physically, then forget about as they try to regroup for next week’s game. One of the most disappointing parts of this game was the play of the defense. Leodis McKelvin had an awful day, getting beaten numerous times, getting called for an interference penalty, and losing a fumble on a kickoff return. McKelvin was a high first round draft choice, and the expectation should be that by now he be a major team leader on the defense and a playmaker. If Darrelle Revis traps opposing receivers on “Revis Island” and shuts them down, then by comparison McKelvin Island is a vacation retreat for opposing receivers. Also, when the Bills look to upgrade the defense next year, they need to look at adding some team speed. Players like Marcus Stroud, Chris Kelsay and pretty much all of their linebackers look old and slow in pursuit of opposing quarterbacks and runners. There’s no question that every player on the team is playing hard and giving all he has, but the current talent on the roster isn’t good enough to take this team into a winning era.

Week 12 turned out to be the most successful week so far this season as I managed to pick 13 winners out of 16 games, pushing the overall mark for the season so far to 106 games picked correctly and 69 wrong. Here are the week 13 choices:

Houston at Philadelphia – this week’s Thursday night matchup. The Texans rebounded to knock off Tennessee last week but just aren’t good enough to beat an Eagles’ team that will be looking to get back on track after losing to the Bears. Philly wins at home.

Buffalo at Minnesota – the Bills lost an unprecedented third game in overtime last week, all of them 3-point losses. Minnesota’s energy level is much higher with new coach Leslie Frazier, but I think the Bills will pull a mild upset this week and win on the road.

New Orleans at Cincinnati – the Saints are clicking on all cylinders again, while the Bengals are a sham. New Orleans wins big behind a monster game from Drew Brees.

Chicago at Detroit – Chicago continues to rise in the NFC, but the Lions always play them tough. This should be a very close game, but in my opinion the Bears have matured to the point where they’ll win a game they need to against a weaker opponent. The Bears to win in a low-scoring game.

San Francisco at Green Bay – the 49ers kept their division title hopes alive with a win on Monday night, but those hopes will get dashed this week in Lambeau Field. The Packer defense will make QB Troy Smith’s life miserable  and Green Bay will win.

Denver at Kansas City – the Broncos have fallen a long way since winning the first 6 games of the Josh McDaniels era last season. Kansas City wins big at home to stay ahead of the red hot Chargers in their division race.

Cleveland at Miami – the young Browns have played some great football at times this year, but Miami’s defense will shut them down and the Dolphins will win at home.

Washington at New York Giants – the Giants helped their cause immensely last week by coming from behind to defeat Jacksonville while the Eagles were losing. They can’t afford to slip up here and won’t. New York to win big at home.

Jacksonville at Tennessee – the Jaguars were written off as having no chance to do anything in their division at the start of the season, but they just won’t go away. With the Titans having QB issues, I believe Jacksonville gets a big division win on the road.

Oakland at San Diego – the Raiders are usually a tough out in division games but San Diego is hitting their stride and needs to win to keep pace in the AFC West race. The Chargers win with another impressive showing by both their offense and defense.

St. Louis at Arizona – are the young Rams good enough yet to steal an NFC West crown? I’m not sure of that yet but they’re certainly good enough to knock off a fading Cardinal team. St. Louis wins on the road.

Dallas at Indianapolis – the Cowboys should have won on Thanksgiving and are a completely different team under interim coach Jason Garrett. This could be an upset considering the battered physical condition of the Colts, but I’ll go with Indy at home to win.

Carolina at Seattle – as terribly inconsistent as the Seahawks have been all year, they really still look like the only team with the chops to win the weak NFC West. This should be an easy win for them at home against the NFL’s worst team.

Atlanta at Tampa Bay – the young Buccaneers have not beaten anybody with a winning record this year, despite a surprising season. I’m going to pick them to finally do it this week against a division opponent at home.

Pittsburgh at Baltimore – the Steelers escaped the noose last week in Buffalo to keep pace with Baltimore in their division. Then again, the Bills should have beaten the Ravens too. The Ravens won the first meeting between these teams, when Ben Roethlisberger was still under suspension. I think they’ll win again at home to take control of the race.

New York Jets at New England – I honestly believe on paper the Jets are the better overall team in this matchup, especially on defense. But Tom Brady just doesn’t fail in these types of games at home. The Patriots win a close game to move ahead in the AFC East.

Sunday’s Buffalo Bills’ game was similar in a lot of ways to last week’s game in Cincinnati. In the first half the Bills were totally dominated by the Steelers, who methodically marched up and down the field and controlled the clock. The Bills offense was shut out but really had little opportunity to get anything done since they rarely had the ball. The defense wasn’t terrible but couldn’t stop anything on third down. To their credit, despite being dominated the defense only surrendered one touchdown, minimizing the damage to a 13-0 halftime deficit. The Bills missed a chance to get back in the game when they took the second half kickoff and drove down the field, only to turn the ball over in the red zone on a fumble by Lee Evans. The play of the defense, just like in last week’s game, improved immensely in the second half. They managed to get pressure on Ben Roethlisberger, taking advanatage of Pittsburgh’s patchwork offensive line to record 5 sacks and draw numerous holding penalties. Jairus Byrd came up with a turnover, and Kyle Williams continued his push toward a Pro Bowl bid with a monster game, totaling 10 tackles and 2 sacks. Ryan Fitzpatrick did another admirable job directing the offense, spreading the ball around to all his receivers. Fred Jackson  started the Bills on the road to another comeback by taking a screen pass 65 yards for a touchdown. It looked as though the Bills were left for dead when Troy Polamalu made a spectacular diving interception at his own 1 yard line to kill a Bills’ drive toward at least tying the game, but coach Chan Gailey used his timeouts well, and the defense held to give Fitzpatrick one more chance to deliver. Fitzpatrick, who continues to lock up the team’s starting QB job, did just that, driving the team to give Rian Lindell a chance to kick a game-tying field goal with 2 seconds left and force overtime.

There is no denying that the play of the game was the dropped pass by the Bills’ Steve Johnson in the overtime that would have given his team the upset win. It was another example of what the Bills have been doing all season – finding new and creative ways to lose. It’s really a shame that Johnson wound up being the goat, since he has been a huge bright spot in a losing season this year for the Bills. It was encouraging to see Johnson man up and face the media after the game, and to take individual responsibilty for the loss, calling the drop inexcusable. It’s important to point out, however, that Lee Evans fumbled away a scoring opportunity early in the game, and also dropped a pass in the OT. Jackson and Leodis McKelvin both fumbled but were bailed out by teammates who recovered them (Evans redeemed himself somewhat by recovering Jackson’s fumble). Paul Posluszny and Chris Kelsay missed opportunities for sacks with poor tackling, and Arthur Moats tripped up McKelvin on the overtime kickoff when it appeared he had a chance to go the distance. Games are never really won or lost on one play, and Buffalo certainly blew a lot of other chances to make plays at various times that could have made the difference. Unfortunately, Johnson’s drop was the most glaring, and he’ll surely be crucified for it all week in the media.

Week 11 was a successful one in picking winners as I rebounded to choose 12 winners out of 16 games, pushing the season overall record to 93 correct, and 66 wrong. Here are the week 12 predictions:

New England at Detroit – the Lions usually play inspired football on Thanksgiving, but lately, they rarely win. The Patriots have too much at stake in their division race to slip up here, so I’ll pick them to pull out a win.

New Orleans at Dallas – the Cowboys surprisingly throttled the Saints last season, and are certainly playing better under Jason Garrett, but I’ll go with Drew Brees and the Saints to win a close, high scoring game.

Cincinnati at New York Jets –  the Bengals are a lot like the Cowboys and Vikings – talented teams underachieving and getting their coaches ushered out the door. The Jets keep winning close games, but that won’t be the case this week. They’ll win handily over a Cincinnati team that quit last week.

Pittsburgh at Buffalo – the Bills are finally being rewarded for a season’s worth of hard work and effort with some wins, but the Steelers are too tough of an opponent. Rashard Mendenhall should have a big day against a Bills’ defense that has struggled to stop the run all year, and the Steelers will grind out a victory.

Green Bay at Atlanta – this game is a possible playoff preview. Atlanta hasn’t gotten a lot of respect all year, but they keep on winning to stay ahead of New Orleans in their division. The Packers keep winning despite a slew of injuries, but the Falcons will win this game with a large dose of their running game doing most of the damage.

Carolina at Cleveland – it looks like the Browns picked a winner when they drafted Colt McCoy, while the Panthers continue to play QB musical chairs. Although it appears that Jake Delhomme will start against his old team this week with McCoy nursing an ankle injury, Carolina is the worst team in the NFL at this point, and Cleveland will beat them easily at home.

Tennessee at Houston – both of these teams have been disappointing this season. It will be interesting to see how the Titans react after Vince Young’s antics last week, and how the Texans rebound from a crushing loss to the Jets. The feeling here is that Jeff Fisher will right his ship, while Gary Kubiak is on his way out as Texans’ coach. Tennessee wins on the road with a strong effort from their defense.

Jacksonville at New York Giants – the Jaguars just won’t go away. Despite all the hype for the Titans and Texans, they have emerged as the team challenging the Colts in their division. They are in trouble this week, however, having to face a Giants’ team eager to rebound from the loss to Philly last week. New York’s defense will harrass David Garrard and the Giants will win.

Minnesota at Washington – those “unnamed” Viking players get their chance to express their “hatred” for fired coach Brad Childress, and I believe they will. Minnesota wins on the road against a Redskins team that is a mediocrity.

Miami at Oakland – the quarterback play will likely be awful for both teams, so the game will be won by the team that plays better defense and runs the ball. I’ll go with Miami, since they’ve played well on the road all season.

Kansas City at Seattle – I just can’t pick the unpredictable Seahawks to win, even though they’re usually better at home. I think the young Chiefs are better and will stay in the AFC West hunt by winning here.

Tampa Bay at Baltimore – like the Falcons, the young Buccaneers are having a good season and not getting much respect either. They’ve surprised everybody, but haven’t won any games against big-time opponents yet,  so I’m going to take the Ravens at home to win.

Philadelphia at Chicago – suddenly this is a matchup of two of the top teams in the NFC, after both looked like also-rans earlier in the year. The Eagles, with Michael Vick on fire, are much better offensively than the Bears, but Chicago’s defense is coming on strong and may be the best in the league right now. I’m going to pick the Bears at home, based on a hunch that Chicago will find a way to at least contain Vick.

St. Louis at Denver – the Rams are progressing nicely this year, and I feel they are a little further along than the Broncos in their development, but at home Denver shuts down Sam Bradford and wins.

San Diego at Indianapolis – both of these teams use the same formula for winning – the quarterback against the world. San Diego is in the middle of it’s annual playoff push, but they get derailed a bit this week as the Colts outscore them at home in a high scoring game.

San Francisco at Arizona – amazingly both of these teams still have a chance to win the weak NFC West division, so there’s a lot at stake in this game as the loser would be pretty much out of it. Despite disappointing games week after week, I still think the 49ers are better and will win this prime time game.

While watching the first half of the game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, this thought crossed my mind – the Bengals are one of those teams that is really aggravating. They have loads of talent on their roster but not much character. They don’t play well together as a team because they have a bunch of individuals who are in it for themselves and don’t play for each other, but are good enough to put out a strong effort against a team with one win in order to avoid embarrassment. And, of course, they have to pound their chests and celebrate every play they make whether it’s a big one or a 2 yard gain or on defense, a tackle 20 yards downfield. The Bills, on the other hand, don’t have a lot of overwhelming talent, but even in this losing season getting a good effort out of them was never a problem. Even through all the adversity this year they’ve played for each other, hung together as a team and never lost faith. They didn’t do much right in the first half in this game, turning the ball over, not stopping the run again and generally not stopping anything on defense. They fell behind 28-7, and after a gift of time from Referee Ed Hochuli’s crew right at the end of the half gave the Bengals a chance to kick a field goal, looked hopelessly out of it, being behind 31-14.

However, as they’ve done all year, the Bills hung together, and exploded in the second half to shut out Cinci on defense while outscoring them 35-0 to pull out an unlikely win that might be that elusive “signature” win that propels them to more success as this season winds down. Ryan Fitzpatrick has had highs and lows in pretty much every game since he took over the starting quarterback job, but never have they been as well-defined as they were in the 2 halves of this game. He threw a pair of miserable interceptions in the first half but looked like Peyton Manning in the second, directing 4 scoring drives, 3 of which ended with TD passes to Stevie Johnson, the team’s emerging young star. Fred Jackson was steady throughout the game, rushing for 116 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the defense, porous throughout the first half, held the Bengals scoreless in the second. Even when the Bills allowed the Bengals to keep drives alive in the fourth quarter by allowing 2 fourth down conversions, it wasn’t a terrible thing, as they forced Cinci to use a lot of time while earning every yard. Coach Chan Gailey has made a lot of mistakes and errors in judgment this year, but he’s done a good job of keeping the players focused and believing in his plan, and it’s great to see him rewarded with a couple of wins in a row.  The Bills face a tough task in hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers next week, and will have to somehow figure out how to avoid the turnovers they’ve experienced all year if they are to have any chance to win. One other thing Gailey has certainly accomplished so far this year – has the Bills’ offense been this entertaining at any point in the last decade? They are a long way off from having the players on their roster they’ll need to compete at a championship level, especially on defense. But they’re building a strong foundation for future success, and it’s nice to know that when that success comes, there is ample leadership in the locker room to keep the team grounded and maintain a high level of accountability among the players. In other words, they won’t be paper tigers like the Bengals.