A few quick notes from having attended Pats-Bills in Buffalo:
* Lots of excellent tailgating in the lots; tip of the hat to the tailgate organized by Patriotsny.com (Dean and Tom) -- great food, great fans.
* The Bills' practice fieldhouse was open pre-game, a SUPER place to hang out and stay warm, with all kinds of cool displays, info booths, former players signing autographs, pre-game radio broadcast, interactive NFL Experience-type things for kids, TVs showing earlier games, etc. The Patriots DEFINITELY should be doing something like this with the Dana Farber Fieldhouse.
* The stadium was packed and rockin', VERY loud. The Bills fans were manic and a bit in-your-face to myself and my buddy until we went up 14-0 midway through the first quarter and reality finally set in. There were loud chants of "Cheaters! Cheaters!" early, which quit after a while. When we went for it deep in Bills territory on fourth down in the second half instead of kicking field goals, the chanting turned to "Ass-holes! Ass-holes!"
* Midway through the fourth quarter, the place was on its way to emptying out except for Pats fans, and there were a LOT of us there, many with signs. One group had a big, professionally made banner that had the helmets of both teams, one on each end. The Bills helmet had a big "X" over it and the sign read "10 and 0, Here We Go!"
* After the Patriots scored touchdowns, guys on the kickoff team would point and wave at groups of Pats fans in the end zones and got them cheering. The cheering for the Pats was pretty loud at times. I'd say there were a good 5,000 Patriots fans at the game, maybe more.
* Overall, I'd say that Bills fans are good folks, they are extremely passionate about their team. Except for a few jerk-y gestures toward us by some drunken kids, things were reasonably civil.
* Ralph Wilson Stadium is yet another example of how the layout of other NFL stadiums holds in crowd noise, unlike Gillette. The place is old, though, and the concourse is too jammed to comfortably negotiate at halftime. As I reported last year, one really nice perk (that security doesn't allow at Gillette) is you can gather in the first rows of the lower bowl to watch warm-ups no matter where your seats are located, as long as you get to your own seats prior to kickoff.
* It was cold, in the upper 20s during the game, but wind was minimal and if you dressed warmly, the weather was no problem. Some brief snow flurries before the game sort of added to the atmosphere where you felt, "Yeah, NOW we're in the stretch run."
I'll try to issue a similar report from the Ravens game in a couple weeks.
Report from the Bills game
Linear Mode
