The first game of the season – feels like Christmas when you’re a football fan. Months of anticipation, all leading up to the first meaningful game since December. Looking at the schedule you undoubtedly had this game as a win for the Bills – on the road, against a playoff-caliber team and thousands of their crazy fans in a stadium in which the Bills had never won. From watching the preseason you surely knew that E.J. Manuel would play a solid game, score two touchdowns and record a higher QB rating than Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady or Andrew Luck. You had to know that if the going got tough the Bills would find a way to win.

OK – so maybe you weren’t quite that optimistic and confident about Sunday’s game – I’ll admit, I sure wasn’t. Someone at my house predicted the Bills would win and New England would lose, but that person is my 9-year-old son who doesn’t watch football (if he continues to dispense such football wisdom I may have to start putting some money down on his predictions).

The preseason wasn’t just bad, it was nightmarish. Kiko Alonso’s second season ended with a knee injury and the Bills didn’t simply look bad in five preseason games, they often looked like they had no business being called a professional football team. The preseason is the preseason and it’s a time to learn new things so you don’t expect a young team like the Bills look like world-beaters in August, but it would have been nice to see some sign of progress – something, anything. Instead, the team often looked worse than they did in 2013. In the spotlight was Manuel and his poor play put him under a microscope with pressure increasing daily and fans and front office people freaking out (I think that’s a fair term to describe management’s decision to hire Kyle Orton a week prior to the season and give him $11 million over the next two seasons - $3 million guaranteed this year).

In order to convince people the sky wasn’t falling, many people wrote off the preseason as just that – the preseason. The Bills would certainly look better once they reached the regular season, game-planned for specific teams and opened up their play book. As much as I wanted to believe that, years of pain as a Bills fan told me there was no way the Bills were going to look good out of the gate.

And so with chicken wing oil heating, I sat down on Sunday afternoon to watch the Bills begin their season. They lost the coin toss and when Chicago deferred, ended up receiving the opening kickoff. A short Bills drive in front of a hostile crowd would only amp up the fans and the Bears defense – it could get ugly fast. Sure enough, a run for two yards, another run for two yards and a third down pass thrown behind Scott Chandler lead to a quick 3-and-out (it wasn’t a terrible pass and Chandler probably should have caught it, but it was off target). After a punt the defense got its first work of the season – in 4 plays the Bears marched 66 yards down the field and scored an easy touchdown – man, this was going to be a long game.

Surprisingly, the Bills battled back with a 7-play, 71 yard drive that culminated in a really nice looking Manuel touchdown run. Manuel completed all three of his passes on the drive for 49 yards – he looked pretty good and the touchdown run was a beautiful call by coordinator Nate Hackett.

The second quarter saw two Chicago turnovers converted into points by the Bills. A Brandon Marshall fumble was recovered by Preston Brown and lead to a 50-yard Dan Carpenter field goal. A pretty interception by Corey Graham, filling in for the injured Stephon Gilmore, lead to Buffalo’s second touchdown – another nice play call from Hackett to use misdirection on a 7-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Spiller.

At the half I kicked back for some wings and reveled in the stats the Bills had posted. Up 17-7 (two scores!), Manuel was 10-12 for 97 yards with a touchdown run and a touchdown pass and a QB rating of 128.1. He had completed passes of 25 and 32 yards. The Bills were 2-2 in the red zone. Defensively the Bills had shut out the Bears since their first drive. Things were good – but things can (and usually do) go bad in the second half.

The second half was all setup for a typical Bills fail. Chicago would get the ball to start and would have some momentum. The Bills defense held, but the Bills offense came out and went 3-and-out. Chicago drove 57 yards for a field goal and suddenly the game was back to a 7 point Buffalo lead. Manuel was intercepted on his next drive and Chicago converted for the tying touchdown. With just over four minutes to go in the game Buffalo managed a field goal to go ahead by 3, but the Bears still had time to drive for the win.

Stop me if you’ve seen this before – Buffalo nursing a small lead late in the game, on the road with their opponent driving. Usually the best you can hope for is a tying field goal, because a touchdown by the bad guys is going to win it. Now throw in a couple of third down conversions and a bizarre “he was holding but we’re going to pick up the flag” call by the officials and you could pretty much write the usual ending to this game.

Thankfully the Bears had to settle for a field goal and it’s off to overtime we go. The Bills naturally lose the coin toss, and again you’re thinking the inevitable loss has merely been delayed – valiant effort by the Bills, but this is still going to be a big fat “L”. And here’s where we find a glitch in the matrix – Chicago runs four plays in overtime and is forced to punt. The Bills get the ball back and actually start to move the ball – a 13-yard run by Spiller, and 20-yard pass to Mike Williams and before you know it the Bills are down to the Bears 39-yard line. Just a little further and Carpenter might be able to try for the game winner – he’s got a good leg. Then out of nowhere, Fred Jackson, the oldest running back in the league, puts on his cape and activates his stiff arm of steel and runs 38 yards down to the 1-yard line – if the Bills don’t find a way to screw this up they are going to win! Manuel takes the snaps, kneels between the hash marks, time for the game winning kick. In the ultimate cruel joke to long-suffering fans, the Bills somehow get a delay of game penalty that backs them up – I guess they guys on the sidelines had no idea the kick was coming and they better get the right people on the field and ready. Fortunately, even with an additional 5 yards this is a chip shot and Carpenter put the ball through the upright – BILLS WIN!! BILLS WIN!!

I’m still amped up at the win because it’s a HUGE win. The Bills are a young team – they have looked OK in the friendly confines of Orchard Park, but downright terrible on the road. If you ever want to win more than 8 games you have to learn to win on the road when the crowd is against you, not for you. Winning on the road, against a solid team, on opening weekend, in front of a loud and hostile crowd is a huge learning event for the Bills. It should be a tremendous confidence builder – they know they can do it, now they just have to go out and continue to do it. You couldn’t ask for a bigger confidence builder this early in the season and the Bills got it.

The game also has to be a huge confidence builder for Manuel. He has to know how much pressure was on him and just how down on him most media and fans have been with his poor preseason play. The coaching staff seems to have shielded him from any sort of blow to his confidence (not bringing in any real competition or big name as a tutor, never speaking negatively about him, always insisting he was progressing and showing good things) – one had to wonder whether the kid had a glass ego and had any business being an NFL quarterback if he couldn’t take any heat.

Manuel showed what he can do on Sunday. He didn’t light up the stats. He didn’t make any ESPN plays of the week. He didn’t single-handedly put the team on his back and get the win. No, Manuel played a solid game. He was efficient. He managed the offense. He didn’t look like a deer in the headlights. He looked poised under difficult conditions. He made some nice throws and limited his mistakes. In short, he did what he needs to continue to do if the Bills are going to take the next step this year. You can complain about individual plays or mistakes Manuel made on Sunday, but I find it difficult to ask for more from a second year guy in his position. I finally saw something from Manuel and I liked it.

The win wasn’t without its issues – the Bills still gave up 427 yards of offense and were flagged for 108 yards in penalties. They allowed Jay Cutler to throw for 341 yards and the running game to yield 4.8 yards per carry. They were only 4-12 on third down conversions. But none of this matters today. What matters is the Bills didn’t find a way to lose, even when everything lined up for a loss. What matters is that young players learned they can play with anyone, even on the road. What matters is that E.J. Manuel showed what he can do as a steward of a good team. What matters is that the Bills won.