The game: Bills at Patriots
The beer: Ipswich Red Dwarf Ale
The result: Loss, 35–31
The record: 11–3
The Survivor: Savannah, 5–2–1
The headline: “Got mad and cried when you knew it was won.” – Tad, “Jinx”

The commentary: That’s what happens when you go into the home stretch with a big advantage of then—ptooff!—you leave the competition with opportunity to spare. Oh, are you stuck on the Bills game? I’m talking Survivor for the first time in years.

Sophi. Blue Sophi. Soph. You’re winning 8–0–0 if you used your “Knowledge Is Power” advantage to steal Rizzo’s immunity idol. Hell, you might even have taken his or Savannah’s place in season fifty. But instead? But instead! You fail to relieve Steven of his block-a-vote and out yourself as the weak, safe player I suspected you to be all season long. Frankly, you got two more winning votes than you deserved, though you did handle yourself well in the finale. Sheesh, though, imagine taking Rizzo’s idol two weeks earlier. I’m not sure you even have the depth to regret that.

Once Rizzo was out it was Savannah’s to lose, unfortunately. Is there a past winner more disliked by fellow castaways than her? I appreciate people deciding that, on paper, she deserved the title over Sage—someone I did like until she and Kristina lost their minds in removing Steven—and Sophi but I don’t know how anyone stuck to that after a poor overall tribal showing. I can only assume other veterans will see through her shallowness come February even before Rizzo rats her out as the forty-nine winner—maybe during one of his unprecedented post-vote, pre-read speeches? How was that allowed? Twice??

On to Buffalo. (Do we have to?) My man Oliver “Ollie” Connolly was beside himself with bad Bluesky juju at halftime, the good guys up 24–7:

Sunday, December 14, 2:27 PM EDT
The Bills remade their defense to be faster and more versatile on passing downs against the best of the best in must-have-it games.

You heard it here: the Pats are the best of the best. Drake Maye: MVP. TreVeyon Henderson: Offensive Rookie of the Year. Etc.

They had zero pressures in the first half against the Patriots. Oh, and they also cannot stop the run anymore.

Welcome to the AFC East!

One of the most stunning things about the Bills development is how wrong they were about their own theory of their team. They were one of the first to lean heavily into extra linemen and marrying 12P…

Is that like one of those multi-sided dice used for D&D? Anyway: careful.

…with spread concepts. But they pivoted in the opposite direction on defense. They were ahead of league-wide trends on offense… and just thought no one else would try to replicate it against their own defense.

Rats. Even I, a fool, was all “Slow your roll, motherfucker, this is the Bills we’re talking about” in a futile reverse-jinx effort. The Bills close it to ten points in the third, driving, and I revert to the default pussy setting of all Boston sports fans—if the Bills score here it’s a game again and ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod. Some people say a loss is good for a team following ten straight wins, to relieve pressure and whatnot. I say an exposure of your team’s terrible defense is good for a fanbase as the pressure ratchets up. It sucks that they lost, sure, but the division title—if not the number-one seed, even with a Broncos loss to the Jaguars today—is a lock unless Maye gets hurt or the team forgets to pack their cleats for the closing Jets and Tua-less Dolphins games. Tonight in Baltimore is gotta-have-it for, I don’t know, morale, but not for the big picture. I’ll still revert to pussy mode should they lose.

Up next: Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December. Cheers!