It's been an interesting couple of weeks to be a Buffalo Bills fan.
This writer will go out and jostle the branch and say it's not a repeat of 2008 or 2011. This year is definitely different.
That's not to say due to significant injuries, piles of penalty yardage and enough youth to garner Jerry Sandusky's attention this is a playoff team.
But unlike Bills Busts of yesteryear, this campaign has the feel of real change.
After a woulda-coulda-shoulda loss to the New England Patriots and a come-from-behind, 98-second rally to beat the Carolina Panthers--sans timeouts--Bills fans may never leave Ralph Wilson Stadium prematurely the rest of 2013.
Granted, this Bills team could easily be 0-2 and in the basement of the AFC East--a place many NFL pundits and pretenders would project them to be.
In fact, it's much easier to argue the Bills should be 0-2 than 2-0, where the Bills Mafia could convince anyone who needs convincing.
It doesn't matter, though.
Regardless of a playoff appearance in a division the New England Patriots have owned since 2001 (Save 2002 and 2008), the team looks much different in areas it annually repeated ineptitude.
Take EJ Manuel's closing drive in Sunday's victory: if it didn't remind you of Jim Kelly's end zone dive in Miami in '89, or Doug Flutie's bootleg past Jacksonville in '98, then you probably haven't reached puberty yet.
Stevie Johnson finally made good on a game winning touchdown pass, one he admitted afterward he'd been chasing since his drops in losses to Pittsburgh ('10), the Jets ('12) and two weeks ago before Buffalo handed Tom Brady another near miss.
Captain Fred Jackson looks every bit the 'Ole Faithful that's catapulted him up the depth chart past the likes of Marshawn Lynch and even CJ Spiller at times. In fact, while Fred's numbers didn't shine like Spiller's, Sunday's game-winning drive was every part his as it was his rookie quarterback's.
The Bills have three captains--half of the six the NFL has allotted. And for good reason: times have changed in Buffalo.
Jackson--listed as a BACKUP on the depth chart--is joined by defensive tackle Kyle Williams and center Eric Wood.
There's still room for Stevie, but he's not a cap'n. There's room for CJ. But he doesn't get a badge, either. There's an excuse for EJ--he's a rookie who missed half his preseason with knee surgery.
Even Mario Williams and his Bills breakout haven't given him a "C" on his chest, while Jairus "Pay Me Like Big" Byrd doesn't seem to be in any hurry to earn any of the $6 million-plus he's guaranteed as the team's franchise player. But don't think the fact three vacancies in the captaincy has been lost on the Bills "stars."
They want that respect.
More importantly, their teammates want them to earn it.
Carte blanche hasn't been granted like it was to Terrell Owens or even guys like Drew Bledsoe. It's a new era in Buffalo. A new front office and the right head coach in Doug Marrone.
If this writer is wrong and this staff is excommunicated from One Bills Drive in the next 24 months, he will print this column, dip it in Quaker Steak's Triple Atomic Sauce and eat it whole.
This team has accountability--something absent from a baker's dozen years worth of Gregg Williams' chicanery, Tom Donahoe's derangement, Mike Mularkey's malaprops, Marv Levy's passe, Dick Jauron's phlegm, and Chan Gailey's good intent.
All that has given way to the Guns of Doug Marrone and Marrone's March to the Meadowlands Sunday.
Don't think he won't remind his players he'd like to come back and coach there in February.
More importantly, don't think this particular group won't remind each other.
