Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

Buffalo Bills hysteria is alive and well, as exemplified by Channel 2’s decision to lead its 6 p.m. newscast Monday with a four-minute report on the team’s 3-0 start and a silly poll that asked fans what place Ryan Fitzpatrick and company would finish in the AFC East.
Would you believe 47 percent of the Bills fans voting predicted they would finish first, 30 percent predicted a second place finish, 16 percent thought third place was right and 7 percent thought they’d finish fourth and last.
Inspired by that foolish predictable poll (did Channel 2 think Bills fans were going to be pessimists?), I’ve decided to give my blog readers a quiz. By what percent do you think television ratings for the Bills in their 3-0 start have been higher than the 2010 Bills who had a 0-3 start? A) 20 percent? B) 30 percent? C) 40 percent? D) 8 percent?
The correct answer is D. That’s right only 8 percent.
A year ago, the Bills averaged a 31.1 rating for their first three losses against Miami, Green Bay and New England. The 27.9 for Green Bay lowered the average.
This season, the Bills have averaged a 33.5 rating for its wins over Kansas City, Oakland and New England.
Two of the three games in 2010 were on the road, which meant the 70,000 fans or so that attend home games at Ralph Wilson Stadium could watch on TV and add several potential ratings points. Two of this year’s first three games were at home when those fans are in their stadium seats. The weather was great, which also means some fans not at the stadium were enjoying the outdoors instead of sitting in front of their sets.
The New England game (34.5) actually had a lower rating than the Oakland game (34.6). The audience for the victory that broke the Pats 15-game mastery of the Bills peaked to almost a Super Bowl-like rating in the 40s in the final 45 minutes, ending with a 44.5 before Rian Lindell’s winning field goal.
That means that 44.5 percent of TV homes in the market were tuned into the Bills game at that time. The entire game had a 63 share, meaning 63 percent of people with their TVs on during the game were tuned to the Bills.
To put that in further perspective, only two prime time programs last week had ratings in the 20s, led by the season premiere of “Two and a Half Men” in Ashton Kutcher’s debut. And “Men” only runs for 30 minutes, while the Bills games run 3 to 3 and a half hours.
The Bills game this Sunday at Cincinnati should beat the season average to date because of all the Bills hoopla and the fact it is on the road when most of the 70,000 fans at The Ralph on home Sundays should be sitting in front of their sets.
And just think, it was only a few weeks ago when talk shows hosts were suggesting Buffalo now was a Sabres town instead of a Bills town.
When the Bills are winning or even competitive, they own the town until January.

* The Bills also owned the national TV talk shows Monday, with ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption” asking the same thing: Are the Bills are real? Just about everybody was positive about the Bills except for Woody Paige, the class clown on “Horn.” He said last week that the Bills were a “fraud” and predicted their demise against the Pats.
Paige, who is prone to say idiotic things just to get attention, wasn’t about to change his tune. He was critical of the Pats for losing “to a minor league team in Buffalo.”
Puh-lease don’t take Paige seriously. No one does.
On “PTI,” Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser praised the Bills, with Kornheiser saying “I root for the Bills because of my connection to Upstate New York (he graduated from SUNY Binghamton).”
ESPN analyst Cris Carter praised Bills Coach Chan Gailey, noting that he took a job that “nobody wanted.”
* A perceptive reader and local radio personality noted that the Buffalo News ran a picture of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (see above in an old photo) in Monday’s paper that had to be from a year ago because the Bills were wearing their old jerseys. He thought whoever selected that picture should get 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. But I suspect the error had something to do with the lower staffing levels in the sports department that make it harder for honest mistakes like that to be caught.
* “Horn” and “PTI” both addressed Syracuse University’s controversial 33-30 overtime win over Toledo that featured a late extra point erroneously awarded to Syracuse in regulation that gave the Orange a 30-27 lead before Toledo marched to a tying field goal to force overtime.
I happened to be listening to the Orange radio broadcast of the game and both Syracuse announcers thought the point shouldn’t have counted after looking at a replay and were pleasantly surprised that the point was allowed after replay.
Both Bill Plaschke on “Horn” and Wilbon on “PTI” thought Syracuse should give up the win. Kornheiser had the better idea – replay the game from the point SU was up 29-27 to see if their defense could hold Toledo without a field goal if it knew they needed a stop to win. Of course, that will never happen but it is the right idea.

pergament@msn.com

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