2020 Long Island EFL Week#6 Buffalo Bills (2-3) vs Denver Broncos (2-3) (Playoff Hunt Game)

[Long island EFL]

    BUFFALO 21  DENVER 24

DENVER CRUSHES BUFFALO'S PLAYOFF HOPES 24-21 IN THE TERRELL DAVIS SHOW WITH 3 TD'S AND 386 RECORD SETTING YARDS!

 

 THE COUNTDOWN

 (2-3) COACH BILLY O'C (14-7)

This Long Island Electric Football game between the Buffalo Bills (2-3) and the Denver Broncos (2-3), has come under the microscope because this game could be one of the keys to making the playoffs. If we went back to the Buffalo Bills championship team of 2017,  they were an awesome force in the playoffs, taking the league by storm and eventually winning the LIEF-Super Bowl as a Wild Card team. And then, the next season through the Draft, with an improved team build up in the AFC draft, the Bills didn't even make the playoffs in 2018. We never thought a team would be as good as Buffalo after that record-setting 2017 Super Bowl. We thought Buffalo might be a two or three-peat champion, but we couldn't have been more wrong. At the end of the season the league will purchase 175 new player bases for the upcoming 2021 Draft. Several teams stand to gain the competitive edge in next season's competition; #1 San Francisco,#2 Jacksonville, #3 Cleveland, #4 Houston, #5 Kansas City, #6 Minnesota, and #7 Las Vegas. At the moment, San Francisco will earn three first round Draft picks. We take the top 25-30 player bases from the Draft, but sometime out of all of those bases we only get 10 bases who can perform, or try to perform in the league. In this case we purchase an additional 100 player bases until we can get the number we need. Like all leagues, only the best survive the January LIEFL Draft.

Great players have changed the league, Jimmie Giles from Tampa Bay, Isaac Bruce from the Rams, Jerry Rice of the 49ers, Don Hampton of the Bears, Miami's Jason Taylor, who led the Dolphins to the AFC Championship, the Packers front line, and the Broncos, along with the Saints, just to mention a few, all benefitted from a great 2020, Draft. The league's own strength took itself by storm with 25 out of 32 teams currently still alive in the playoff hunt in 2020, due to a tremendous 2020 Draft. That is the sign of a very good league. We are in Week#6, and we cannot predict the 14 teams who will make the playoffs, but it's great competition. Billy O'C's Rams (4-1), Dolphins (3-2), Colts (5-1), and these Bills (2-3), may make the playoffs, which means that Alternate coach, Joe "Bino" will have to play against O'C.

Although this game will be much tougher for Coach Billy O'C's Buffalo Bills than for Coach Paddy Brannigan's Denver Broncos, this year has been filled with surprises and upsets! Anything is possible! In the 1981 season, Buffalo lost to the Denver Broncos 23-13 in the AFC Divisional Championship Game, and in the 1982 season, the Bills spoiled a perfect (14-0) Denver Broncos season in the AFC Divisional Game, 28-27! That is one for the history books!

 

2020 AFC EAST	W	L	PF	PA	TDS	HOME	AWAY	DIV	CON	NFC
NY Jets (1-6)	3	2	71	76	9	3-0	0-2	1-1	2-2	1-0
Miami (7-3)	3	2	74	68	9	1-1	2-1	2-1	3-1	0-1
Buffalo (6-4)	2	3	72	75	9	1-1	1-2	1-1	2-2	0-1
New England (4-3)	2	3	74	83	10	1-2	1-1	0-1	2-1	0-2
Totals:	0	0	0	0	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0

    (2-3) COACH PADDY BRANNIGAN (10-12)             

2020 AFC WEST	W	L	PF	PA	TDS	HOME	AWAY	DIV	CON	NFC
LA Chargers (6-2) X	5	1	100	89	16	3-0	2-1	2-0	3-1	2-0
Denver (4-3)	2	3	94	93	13	2-1	0-2	0-0	1-2	1-1
Las Vegas (5-4)	2	4	86	96	11	1-2	1-2	0-1	1-2	2-1
Kansas City (1-6)	1	4	63	68	9	1-1	0-3	0-1	1-3	0-1
Totals:	0	0	0	0	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0

The favorite motto of the league is, "Nobody is safe on Game Day" which means you always have to be on your toes with every team in this league because these coaches are playing for a prize, the upset, and the victory just as much as they are playing for pride! Proof of that was last week when the (1-3) New Orleans Saints upset the Denver Broncos 17-14, in Denver, embarrassing them on their home field. Paddy Brannigan walked off in shock! Broncos running back, Terrell Davis has to find his fire at this point or the Broncos will be looking at another year of rebuilding, instead of playing in the post-season. It's been 28 years since Denver has seen a post season game in the LIEFL. Davis has been exceptional. He is ranked #3 in the AFC in all-purpose yards with 40 carries and 1347 yards, with 11 touchdowns, six of them 100-yard kick returns. He can be very dangerous, but he needs this Broncos line to come to work and play the entire game. Buffalo is not a team or coach to sleep on. O'C has found a way to keep all of his teams at the same fierce competitive level, win or lose, he's coming to play. 

In the meantime, Terrell Davis has had an explosive year for Denver but the real question is did he hit his peak? Nothing really needs to be said about OJ Simpson he's going to come to play no matter what but this is Buffalo's opportunity to turn things around with the extremely challenging schedule they've had, but beating Denver at home will be a huge challenge but not impossible.

Historically in the Long Island Electric Football League the Denver Broncos in the'70s were a powerhouse, but as we research further into our league we compared the new player base bottoms to the old and believe it or not, there is some noticeable wear and tear on the prongs of the TTC bottoms. It is possible that those player base bottoms wear out after time and as they lighten in weight the new bottoms have the advantage weighed down. "Our league watches for any advantage coaches try to get with the player bases, extra paint, and any form of cheating at all," said LIEFL Rules Commissioner Pete Porcelli, a former Pro football player in the Arena League. Porcelli played his college ball at Emporia State, Nassau CC, and CW Post.

 

In a 32 team league it's extremely difficult to transform every single team all at once, so over the last five years, every single team in the Long Island Electric Football League has been worked on as though they were a new team competing for a championship. "This year already, 25 teams have remained competitive to Week #6. That's actually incredible! It makes for enormous competition. Of course it's not the NFL, but we can see the improvement standards of the league consistently grow. I think that's what commissioner every league strives for," said LIEFL Commissioner and Professor of Communication, William O'Connell.

 

Denver Broncos Coach, Paddy Brannigan said, "When you're playing for money and makes competition meaningful, lifelike, and we have high standards in terms of the rules. It does make a difference. People take a league a little more seriously when it comes to winning and losing. The statistical data that we use within the league is also very helpful. We see it each week and we can follow the competition and their stats, players to watch, and even the accurate standings can be helpful. For me I know OJ Simpson's work in the league. He is a legend, so we know we have our work cut-out because he can beat you with one play under pressure. Keeping accurate information and data helps us to project, predict, and follow the results of each team's transformation."

 

Long Island Sports Hall of Fame Inductee Andrew Slawson of Slawson's Corner said, "The fact that Miami were AFC champs last year and we are seeing the result of the 2020 drafts go to work, the dimension of competition has changed because teams continue to improve and when you see that happening in a league, it makes for a very exciting electric football league. These Broncos are a perfect example of a team who has made a comeback. They slowly, over the last three seasons, have changed their defensive and offensive schemes and running back, Terrell Davis is right at the top of the game in this league. I'm actually surprised that the Broncos have lost three games, but that's the beauty of the league. I think the only team that has played dominant football in this league, and I wouldn't even call it dominant, is the Los Angeles Rams. They serve as perhaps the best example of teamwork. Yes, they have stars, but they seem to get the job done in the trenches when they need it most and that's what makes the Rams special."

 

 PLAY BY PLAY: 

The excitement of this game brought the opening kickoff of a full House to their feet as Broncos running back, Terrell Davis returned the ball 43-yards! And on first down Davis took a stunning 57-yard touchdown into the end zone to put the Denver ahead 7-0 on an explosive run, with 13:12 left to go in the half! What a run!

This is a do or die situation for both of these teams. The season has slowed up to keep up with the due date of November 15th to complete the regular season games, as Buffalo's OJ Simpson explodes on the Bills opening kickoff for 72 yards, to the Denver Broncos 28-yard line. The next game on the Week#6 calendar is the Los Angeles Rams against the tough AFC East New York Jets!

 

On first down, Simpson bullied his way ahead for a 9 yard gain, to the Denver 19-yard line, just a yard shy of the first down. On second down OJ Simpson again rushed his way 12-yards to the Denver 7-yard line, making it first in goal for Buffalo. On the very next first down Simpson could only gain one yard as Denver's defensive lineman, Karl Mecklenburg came in and made a huge tackle at the six yard line. The Broncos defense is evenly matched with Buffalo's offense. On second down, Denver came up huge, and OJ Simpson was tackled at the 12-yard line for a loss of six yards, forcing a third down pass play for the Buffalo Bills. And rookie Ray Brown broke open at the one yard line and scored a touchdown from 12 yards on a Jim Kelly touchdown pass to tie the score 7-7, with 4:08 left to go in the half!

Wow! Terrell Davis did it again! Davis flew scorched the Bills special teams unit with his 7th 100-yard touchdown return of the season, as he explodes to give Denver the lead with 2:31 left to go in the half on an amazing run, 14-7, Denver! This one is turning into a spectacular game

Davis is having a dream season as the Broncos rebound at home! Denver learned lots of lessons last week in their home loss to New Orleans. It is a game they should not have lost, but in this league on any given Sunday anything can happen as the first half comes to a close with OJ Simpson running for the first down! 

At the start of the second half, OJ Simpson took the ball to the 42-yard line of Denver for a 14-yard pickup for the Bills. And on first down again, Simpson ran for eight yards through the Denver defense. On the very next play Simpson took the ball in from 32-yards away into the end-zone to tie the game at 14-14 with 13:31 left to go in the game! Spectacular!

 

This battle was on fire! It's just what we expected from two high-powered high octane offenses on both sides! On Terrell Davis next kick return, he took it 59-yard to the 41-yard line of Buffalo. Davis got busy right away with a 23-yard first down to the Bills 19-yard line. What a game! Both of these teams knew this might be their last meaningful game of the season. Either one of them will most likely be eliminated from the playoffs hunt. Imagine, two teams like this on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs, two outstanding football teams regardless of their records! They've both been in every single game of the season as the competition heats up to an entirely different level, as we watch Davis pick up six more yards, tackled by Marcel Dareus. The Broncos offensive line pounded the Bills defense. And this time Davis blasted through the hole, taking it in for a 13-yard touchdown run to give the Broncos a 21-14 lead, with 8:09 left to go in the game in an amazing game! There was a roar in the room as Davis scored his third touchdown of the game, and his 14th touchdown of the season!.

 

On the following kickoff OJ Simpson ran 44-yards, but Randy Gradishar hit him hard to make the tackle with 6:27 left to go in the game! The Bills will try to kill the clock as coach Billy OC is looking at defeat if he doesn't manage this game properly. It's unlikely that Buffalo would be able to kill 6 minutes. On first down, Simpson ran for 14 yards as he was stopped by Denver defensive lineman, Neil Smith at the Broncos 42-yard line. Holy cow! On first down, OJ Simpson edged  around the right side of the field for a 42-yard touchdown scamper into the end zone to tie the game at 21-21, with 3:27 left to go! The anxiety and stress along with the excitement set in.

 

As the clock wound down, Terrell Davis exploded again, this time for 79 yards on the kick return! What a game for Davis as he took the ball to the Buffalo 21 yard line with 52 seconds left to go in the game! This might just be the last play of the game as the clock wound down to the final seconds.

 

On first down Davis ran for 3 yards to the Buffalo 17-yard line. On the next play is the clock had seconds remaining and the Broncos kicked the game-winning field goal to win the game 24-21 in a stunner! This Denver victory may have just ended the Buffalo Bills 2020 season! The Denver Broncos (3-3),  came up huge at home by doing everything right! Terrell Davis was nothing short of spectacular in this game and if he can have another game like this next week, the Broncos would be a primed playoff team! What a heart-breaker for Buffalo as Billy O'C goes to (14-8), and Broncos coach, Paddy Brannigan jumps in the air, celebrating a Denver shot at the post-season run! 

 

The Denver Broncos are back in the saddle as running back Terrell Davis had record setting day for the Broncos, with five rushes for 102 yards, with two touchdowns, one a 57 yard touchdown run, and four kick returns for 281 yards, with a 100-yard kick return for a touchdown for the blazing back! Davis totaled 9 carries for 383 yard, with three amazing touchdowns!  That brings him to a league leading 1730 yards with 14 touchdowns! He is just 270 yards shy of becoming only the second player in Long Island EFL history to reach 2,000 in a seven game season! He will be hard to catch in the AFC! Denver plays Las Vegas in Las Vegas next week!  OJ Simpson ran for 133 rushing yards with three touchdowns, and he had 160 yards on kick returns, totaling 293 yards on nine carries for the Bills, as the Bills complete the 2020 season at home against Miami!