The Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers are set to face off tonight in blustery conditions. With temperatures in the upper-20s expected, and wind gusts of up to fifteen miles per hour looking to drop the wind chill to around 20 degrees, it certainly won’t be a comfortable night. Is it the coldest game we’ve seen at Highmark Stadium? No, not even close. However, it’s the first true “winter” game for the 2024 season and this year’s Bills group.

San Francisco is dealing with a lot on the injury front, as star left tackle Trent Williams and star pass rusher Joey Bosa are both out. The 49ers are also missing starting corner Deommodore Lenoir, offensive lineman Aaron Banks, and defensive lineman Jordan Elliott. Quarterback Brock Purdy missed last week’s game with an injured shoulder, but he’s playing tonight.

For the Bills, the team is inching closer to full health. Linebacker Matt Milano is back, as is right tackle Spencer Brown. Tight end Dalton Kincaid is set to miss his second straight game thanks to a knee injury, and Keon Coleman will miss his third straight game thanks to a wrist injury. Overall, however, Buffalo is trending in the right direction as it relates to their health.

How will quarterback Josh Allen look in his first game since his engagement to singer/actress Hailee Steinfeld? Can the Bills lock up their franchise-record fifth straight AFC East Division title tonight? Will the Bills rely on their running game, or will they let Allen sling it through the elements? We’re a few hours away from finding out the result, but we’ll have to trust the process in the meantime.

Your first-half thread is here, friends. Please remember to be civil to each other. Remember to toggle the comments to “oldest” for that classic game-thread feel. And, most importantly, remember to enjoy the game wherever it is you’ll be watching.

Go Bills!

The banner above Michael Malone was impossible to ignore. So the coach from Queens fixated on it as a physical representation of his ambition in a new city.

“I remember early on, first year, you look up at the rafters and you see all the great names,” he said. “And you see ‘432’ staring at you. And there was a little part of me always, a competitive side of me, that said: ‘I’m gonna break that record. I’m gonna break that record.’”

For 10 years, Doug Moe’s 432 wins literally loomed over Malone, an increasingly difficult milestone to chase in the modern NBA. But when Malone looked up at the Ball Arena rafters last Monday, for the first time, he was no longer chasing it. With a 127-102 rout of the Lakers, he had passed Moe’s all-time record for the most regular-season wins by a Nuggets coach.

Now a banner of his own is in Malone’s future.

“When I first got here, growing up a son of a coach, you know that job security is something that doesn’t kind of go with our profession,” he said. “And that’s why my father tried to talk me out of becoming a coach.”

“He’s a really passionate guy,” Nikola Jokic said. “He likes to win. He doesn’t like to lose. (The record) is something that’s going to be there for a long time, probably.”

Malone’s only previous stint as a head coach had ended a fraction through his second season in Sacramento. Even his late father, whose accomplished career in the NBA spanned multiple decades and multiple championships, lasted just one year in his only head coaching job. Before the Nuggets played in Toronto this October, Malone retold the story of watching Brendan Malone’s Raptors shock the 1995-96 Bulls. “Great memory,” he said, pausing for comedic effect. “And then unfortunately, obviously he got fired.”

Needless to say, there was very little reason to believe 432 wins with any one franchise would be attainable when Michael took over the Nuggets in 2015. That didn’t stop him from envisioning it during a 33-49 season.

If someone had told him at the beginning that he would eventually become the franchise’s winningest coach, how would he have responded?

“Damn right,” Malone said, grinning.

He’s now the fourth-longest tenured coach in the league, behind San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Golden State’s Steve Kerr. With 473 wins between Sacramento and Denver, he ranks 43rd in league history and eighth among active coaches.

“That’s a byproduct of having a tremendous coaching staff, outstanding players and the support of our front office and ownership group for 10 years,” the 53-year-old said before Denver hosted the Knicks last Monday. “So I never take that continued belief lightly, because I know how the profession can be.

“… For my daughters to move here in third grade and fifth grade and to go all the way through high school, that’s incredible. And that’s why this place has become home. And I couldn’t ask for a better position with better people and a better city, and we truly love it here.”

What happened next was a fitting example of Malone’s competitive fire that helped him win 433 games in 56 fewer tries than Moe. The Nuggets allowed 145 points in a loss that night, their worst defensive performance of Malone’s tenure, and the coach proceeded to rip his team’s effort in a passionate postgame news conference. Any talk of the franchise record was suddenly in the distant past. It was back to business as usual.

“He keeps everybody accountable,” longtime point guard Jamal Murray had said a few days earlier, “which I love the most.”

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Partaking in a comedy of errors at MetLife Stadium, thanks to a historic play by Leonard Williams, the Seattle Seahawks somehow went into the break only trailing the New York Jets 21-16 despite a litany of special teams gaffes.

Turning in one of the worst special teams performances by an NFL team in recent memory, kick returners Dee Williams and Laviska Shenault both lost fumbles in the first half, Seattle’s kick coverage team allowed a 99-yard touchdown to Kene Nwangwu, and Jason Myers had a point after attempt blocked. One of the aforementioned fumbles set up a short touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Isaiah Davis, pushing New York out in front 14-0 before the end of the first quarter.

However, the second of those unfortunate fumbles turned into points for the Seahawks. Moments after Shenault coughed up the football after tripping up on his own and the Jets recovered, Rodgers didn’t see Williams dropping back on a zone blitz and the veteran defender reeled in a pick, following a caravan of blockers down the sideline for a 92-yard interception return for a touchdown, instantly cutting the score to 21-13.

Aside from Williams’ outstanding effort, Geno Smith cut into an early 14-point deficit rolling out to his left and finding rookie tight end AJ Barner for a 12-yard touchdown to open the second quarter. The veteran quarterback completed nine out of 16 passes for 87 yards, including two 25-yard completions to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that set up Barner’s touchdown.

While Ken Walker III wasn’t able to get untracked in the first half with just 16 rushing yards on seven carries, Zach Charbonnet produced 18 yards on two carries, providing Seattle with a bit of balance on offense.

The Seahawks were able to tack on three extra points inside the final five minutes when Rodgers’ fourth down pass attempt at midfield to Davante Adams wasn’t caught through the ground. Benefiting from excellent starting field position as a result, Myers booted a 54-yard field goal just over the crossbar in a rare positive special teams play to trim the deficit to five.

For the half, both Seattle and New York converted on just three out of seven third down opportunities, including Rodgers misfiring on a potential touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson, and neither offense eclipsed 160 total yards for the half. Despite stellar play by both defenses, however, mistakes on special teams and Rodgers’ pick six turned this into a surprisingly high scoring affair through the first 30 minutes.

In addition to his interception return, Leonard Williams also took a point off the board early when he blocked a point after attempt following Rodgers first touchdown pass to Davante Adams. Unfortunately, the Jets were able to get that point back by converting a two-point conversion with a Breece Hall run on the next drive following Dee Williams’ lost fumble on special teams.

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