Buffalo and Miami did their greatest to attempt to comply with up what occurred in Minnesota. The third sport of Saturday’s NFL triple header in the end failed as a result of when the Vikings determine they’re going to play a drunk soccer sport, it’s Frank the Tank taking his first sip of booze.
Yet, Bills-Dolphins featured extra lead adjustments, simply as many ties, and Bills Mafia singing “Let It Snow” within the fourth quarter as soon as the flakes lastly confirmed up. And as soon as the snow began in Buffalo, so did Devin Singletary. On the ultimate drive of the sport, the working again greater than doubled his carries, going from six to 13, and gained 36 of his 42 yards on the night.
A pair Josh Allen completions and a 21-yard PI name made up 50 of the opposite 86 complete yards on the 15-play, practically six-minute drive that Tyler Bass capped with a game-winning discipline purpose as time expired. The win clinched the Bills fourth-straight journey to the postseason and stored them within the driver’s seat for the one-seed within the AFC.
The win wasn’t as simple as the ultimate drive regarded, with the house group taking an eight-point lead into the break solely to see Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle, and Tyreek Hill flip the script within the second half and go up eight themselves with slightly beneath 12 minutes remaining within the sport.
Allen, who was phenomenal as soon as once more, then went 75 yards, discovered Dawson Knox for six, after which transformed the two-point attempt himself to tie it at 29 all. He completed with 304 within the air, 77 on the bottom, and 4 passing touchdowns.
When a group is as revered as Buffalo, we search for flaws as a result of they’re so tough to search out, and my one hangup is the working sport. This was the ninth time in 14 video games that Allen has led the group in speeding, and that’s why I made it some extent to guide with Singletary.
He was on his was to being an afterthought Saturday, however when the situations made dropping again to move dangerous for the ultimate minutes of the competition, Singletary bought hard-earned yards to arrange or convert third downs, and even went to floor — versus the endzone — permitting the Bills to run the clock all the way down to 4 seconds for the walkoff kick.
Buffalo has three losses on the 12 months. The first was that flukey Week 3 sport in opposition to the Fins after they ran 90 performs to Miami’s 39 and misplaced. The second got here in opposition to the Jets and would possibly’ve been Allen’s worst displaying of the season. The third was that batshit loopy Minnesota matchup that might’ve been the sport of the season had the Vikings not broke the NFL report for largest comeback Saturday.
Above all else, the factor that has impressed me essentially the most about Buffalo is the resiliency. From Week 11 to 13, they received thrice in 12 days, together with two Thursday video games and a weather-forced house sport in opposition to Cleveland in Detroit. Starting security Micah Hyde is completed for the 12 months, and his secondary associate Jordan Poyer has been banged up all season. No one would blame the Bills in the event that they have been 10-4 or 9-5 as an alternative of 11-3.
Even although Buffalo is sitting the place lots of NFL followers thought they’d be at this juncture of the season, it hasn’t all the time been fairly. Winning if you’re the hunted is difficult, and it’s much more tough when luck isn’t in your nook.
I’d congratulate the Bills on one other journey to the playoffs if I believed it meant something to them. The postseason might have glad the group and its followers 4 years in the past. Not now. Not anymore. And they deserve further credit score for that.
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