ORCHARD PARK–Let’s pick up where we left off 15 weeks ago, after the first week of the 2025 National Football League season.

You, faithful reader of this column, will recall that the Buffalo Bills came back from a second-half — indeed, a late-fourth-quarter — deficit for a 41-40 win over the Baltimore Ravens.

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With that in mind, how many times have we seen second-half comebacks this season?

Whatever the number is, the answer to the question is, “More than we wanted.”

It’s almost advisable to tune in after halftime and spare ourselves the frustration.

Sometimes we have needed to watch from the first possession of the second half. Sometimes not.

But the second half has often been the magical one.

An exception occurred in Cleveland. We had what should have been a comfortable lead at halftime yet won by only a field goal.

Then again, as the saying goes, a win is a win.

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Which brings us the games we didn’t win.

We started the season favored in every game, so each loss has by definition been a disappointment, even though we didn’t expect to run the tables during the regular season.

Nevertheless, the games in Miami and Atlanta, where we shouldn’t have lost, hurt, especially because neither game was ever that close.

What was worse was that we looked like we didn’t really believe in ourselves. In life, that often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Miami and Atlanta, it appeared to do just that.

If you need proof that even one bad game can have its consequences, please consider this. If we had won in Miami, then–all other things being equal–we would now be the top-ranked team in the American Football Conference.

Accordingly, we would control our own destiny for having a first-round bye in the playoffs, plus home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

Ouch.

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Instead, we’re now the sixth seed with two weeks to go in the regular season.

True, we can win the AFC East.

True, we can be the top seed.

And true, no one will want to go up against us in the playoffs. Why? Because when we’re at the top of our game–that is, when we play as well as we can–no one can beat us.

In other words, no team can beat the Bills at their best. They’re indefatigable.

Or let’s put that more precisely: No team should beat the Bills at their best, and it’s unlikely that any team would.

The phrase “at their best,” however, is key.

If we aren’t at the top of our game, then any given game is anybody’s game, and no one would, or should, be surprised if we came up short.

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Nevertheless, as the sixth seed among seven AFC seeds, a home-playoff game would be unlikely. The only possible home-playoff game would be an AFC championship game against the seventh seed.

The current seventh seed is the Houston Texans, which have a good team, as we found out the hard way during a trip to Texas this season.

But please don’t bet the whole ranch on the sixth and seventh seeds making it to a conference-championship game. Don’t even bet the main house. You can bet the outhouse if you want to. You can even bet a pair of outhouses. But not much more than that.

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It’s no secret that what has really hampered us this season is not confidence but injuries.

On that front, we’ve had a hard time getting a break.

Yet players are returning to the field, and we seem to do our regular-season best during December and January.

And the whole Bills team–coaches and players–are not just committed but determined. You can just see it.

So far, so good, this December, with two regular-season games to go at the current stadium.

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At Hilary and Randy Elf’s wedding reception, the bride, a Los Angeles native, was publicly asked if she’d be a Bills’ fan since she was moving to Western New York. Mrs. Elf had long since decided the answer was “yes.”

(c) 2025 BY RANDY ELF