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.