On to Arrowhead: Buffalo Bills prove built for January, Lamar, now one win from Super Bowl LIX
These Bills, "a group of mutts," didn't flinch against a pair of unicorns. The gameplan worked and the brotherhood, they say, is real. Next up? Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — The league’s odds-on MVP sat in a state of bewilderment. Lamar Jackson still had his pads on and a winter liner pulled over his head, as if waiting for this playoff game to continue. Seated inside his locker, he stared ahead — at nothing in-particular — perhaps imagining an alternate universe in which he gets to overtime and wins one of these playoff games. To his right sat quarterbacks coach Tee Martin on a stool. They chatted in a low hush as a herd of cameras packed the congested visitor’s locker room.
For the next 12 months, fair or not, Jackson will be hounded by allegations that he’s a playoff choker. And it’s obvious whom everyone in this room is waiting to see, of course: Mark Andrews. Nobody in franchise history has scored more touchdowns than the Ravens tight end, but it may not matter. There’s a chance he’s always known in the city for dropping the 2-point conversion that could’ve sent this game to overtime.
Football can be cruel.
The team inside the other locker room — the Buffalo Bills — has suffered from the sport’s inherent cruelty more times than they’d like to recall. So, no. Nobody here is wondering what might’ve happened if Andrews doesn’t endure the worst fourth quarter of any tight end in NFL history. Nobody here is making apologies. Heading into this divisional round playoff game, the perception was that the Ravens were the bully that shoved teams around.
“I don’t give a damn about none of that,” running back Ty Johnson said. “At the end of the day, the results are the result. Whatever you want to call them and call us, the results are the result. We’re playing another week and they’re not.”
Baltimore out-gained Buffalo, 416-273, converted 7 of 10 third downs, averaged 7.3 yards per play and never punted. In all of 1 minute and 56 seconds, Jackson drove the Ravens 88 yards in eight plays that final drive. Flanked by the likes of Tylan Wallace, Nelson Agholor and Anthony Miller, the QB nearly authored a legacy drive. His 27-yarder to Wallace — rolling right, across his body — was remarkable.
But these playoff games almost always tip on two or three plays, and that was the case in the Bills’ 27-25 win at Highmark Stadium. In the frigid cold, the Ravens were careless. They turned the ball over three times, suffered ill-timed drops, committed penalties.
All while the Bills, conversely, played an extremely clean game.
When the NFL rolls out its red-carpet event and hands Jackson his third MVP award, highlights from his 4,172-yard, 41-TD season will play. He is the most exhilarating player to watch in today’s game. Yet, the event will ring hollow again because it’s also true that in the most important game of the season, the opposition dared Jackson to beat them. The opposition actively chose for Lamar Jackson to decide the outcome. Which is not normal. Usually, a defense would want to schematically entice anybody but the MVP of the league to make plays on the field.
Inside the winners’ locker room — their ticket to the AFC Championship Game punched — Bills players were frank: They wanted to put the ball in Lamar’s hands.
Head coach Sean McDermott instructed the defense to sell out on Derrick Henry and the Ravens rushing attack to win first down and make Baltimore one-dimensional.
“When he starts throwing it, obviously he’s capable of doing it,” defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “He can extend plays, do all that good stuff. But that’s the mode we really wanted to get him in. Make him win the game by himself. Throw it to his targets. And I think our guys on the back end, they make it hard, too.”
In the first half, the team’s Canton-bound running back, the 245-pound Derrick Henry, mustered all of 21 yards on eight carries.
Buffalo knew that Jackson was at his best when he’s able to play off the running game. Eliminate Henry and you can blunt the quarterback’s superpowers. To execute, the Bills played a true 4-3 front much more in this matchup. If the Ravens trotted their 300-pound fullback onto the field, Patrick Ricard, the Bills replaced a DB with linebacker Dorian Williams.
“We wanted to really sell out on the run and if the pass came, the pass came and we’ll take care of that when we needed to,” defensive tackle DaQuan Jones said. “But our big thing was stopping the run and making them one-dimensional as much as possible.”
All week, the question was which team was most-equipped to handle the frigid temps in the forecast. Dealing with the Ravens’ mammoth bodies wouldn’t be fun, but the Bills are the team forever forced to cope with erratic weather from mid-November on. This season alone, Sean McDermott’s crew has played in lake-effect whiteouts, arctic blasts and rain. Visiting teams can talk about protecting the ball all week. John Harbaugh surely did. But when you’ve got no choice but to do your job in every conceivable weather condition imaginable, you naturally train yourself to protect the ball.
The last 1 ½ years, the Bills have made a concerted effort to evolve into an offense built to win these games at home in the playoffs. Finally, they can lean into their own wintry elements.
One team thinks it’s ready. Two hours before kickoff, the Ravens posted an 11-second clip of Andrews warming up in a cutoff shirt with the words: “A little snow doesn’t bother @Mandrews_81.”
One team knows it’s ready. The Bills had no problems holding onto the ball and the Bills, plainly, do not shoot themselves in the foot. Their turnover differential for the season is now a whopping +27. No other team is even close.
Years past, you’d certainly assume the Bills lost by 10+ points if told Josh Allen threw for only 127 yards.
This edition looks as comfortable playing football in the cold for three hours as its fans do drinking in it for 15. McDermott’s visions for this unit all along came to life.
Buffalo finished with 147 rushing yards on 36 attempts with all three scores on the ground. On one, Allen carried 6-foot-4, 338-pound Travis Jones into the end zone.
“That’s what we are. Gritty. Grimy. Hardnosed football,” Johnson said. “Put the ball down, punch you in the face and drive people off the ball to create a new line of scrimmage. That’s what you want to do in these cold games, especially with a little bit of weather. Protect the ball. And the run game’s going to be key. Our O-Line, they don’t enough praise but they did a hell of a job today, especially in the first half, moving people.”
One interception, one fumble and the Bills forced Jackson to play on their terms.
Granted, we’re having a totally different conversation today if the Ravens push this game to overtime and win.
As the game tightened, it was fair to question if Buffalo was getting too conservative offensively. It’s still strange to possess a talent like Allen and not allow that talent to aggressively drive the ball downfield. After one 34-yard strike to Khalil Shakir on the Bills’ first offensive possession, Allen rarely took any shots deep.
Then came McDermott’s decision to kick a 21-yard field goal with 3:29 to go, rather than end the game right then and there at the 3. He opened the door for Lamar theatrics. Thus, the overarching plan to Let Lamar Beat Us nearly backfired in a massive way. When the head coach sat down with Go Long ahead of the postseason, he knew another split-second, late-game decision was looming. He vowed to learn from past playoff losses and analyze each decision individually.
In the end, every point counted. Be it Tyler Bass’ 21-yarder or his 51-yarder earlier in the quarter.
Let’s also remember that Allen would’ve had 93 seconds to drive Buffalo into field-goal range even if Andrews catches that pass.
For once, the football gods did not smite the Bills.
The inevitable Bills-Chiefs game is now upon us. Was there any doubt? Of course these teams will meet with a ticket to Super Bowl LIX at stake. This marks the fourth time in five years they’ll face off in the postseason. Replays of playoff failures past will loop all week: the 2020 AFC title blowout, “13 Seconds,” Bass’ Wide Right. Yet, when coaches tell us that every team is different, it’s no cliché. Rosters churn. Coaches leave. The Bills have evolved — a ton — the last five seasons.
Schematically, sure. But they’ve evolved most off the field.
The most interesting conversations had after this win had nothing to do with how to stop Jackson and Henry, rather how these Bills are constructed to their core.
Take it from DaQuan Jones, the hulking defensive tackle with a “Warning: Beware of Dog” hat perched in his locker. This is his 11th pro season, and he’s spent the last three in Buffalo.
“The first thing that pops to my mind is having just a group of mutts,” Jones said. “Mixed dog breeds out here. All forming together and bonding and working off each other and I think that’s what works. We gel really well together on offense and defense. I hang out with Sam Martin so much and hang out with offensive guys. Vice versa. We’re a very tight-knit group. And it's not just two guys doing it or one guy doing it or the offense staying with the offense. We all intermingle. This is probably the only team I’ve been on where every teammate event or teammate function or a Halloween party, a Christmas party, where everyone shows up. I think that matters.”
Epenesa has been around for all four Chiefs defeats. He’s seen how seasons collapse at the hands of Patrick Mahomes.
Asked what makes this team different, he struck the same chord.
Through all of roster turnover last offseason, Brandon Beane and McDermott created a group that’s only grown tighter each week.
“This group is resilient. They’re tough and we’re about each other,” Epenesa said. “Not that we haven’t been in the past, but I think this year — more than others — we’re about each other. We have a lot of love in this locker room. We have a lot of guys that care about each other. They want to play well for the man next to him. And I think that’s not seen everywhere in the NFL. And I think when you definitely get to this time of the season, it starts getting longer. Guys are seeing other people on vacation. Rookies, this is the longest season they’ve ever had.”
Epenesa nodded toward rookie Javon Solomon, correctly pointing out that rookies just finished their “21st week” after only playing 12 in college.
The best teams, he continued, stick together through such a grind.
Drawing this Point A-to-Point B line is never easy. It’s hard to measure what this all means when the ball’s kicked off. But for all of the incessant film breakdowns spamming ESPN and NFL Network and your social-media timelines all week through the playoffs, these relationships matter most.
Having a schematic plan for Jackson or Henry or Mahomes is only the start. The manic ebbs and flows of a football game are bound to test players mentally.
Championship teams must be built on something stronger for those fourth-quarter moments that decide and define games. Legacies.
“The mindset of not letting your brother down,” Epenesa said. “And there’s a huge difference between playing to win and playing to not make mistakes. But when you’re playing to not let your brother down and your teammate down, that’s another step in the direction of accountability. It makes you want to do more, be better. Because if I let him down? I don’t want to do that. It makes me feel sick inside if I do something like that. A lot of guys have that personality trait here on this team. It means a lot to them.”
That’s a trait always seen in the last team standing.
These Bills will surely get the Kansas City Chiefs’ best shot. They always do.
This has been the team and the quarterback standing in their way all along. Another duel is only fitting. The Bills are dying for the first Super Bowl title in franchise history; the Chiefs are trying to become the first ever to win three Super Bowls in a row.
An hour and a half after this game concluded, the party still raged in the parking lots. Fans set fireworks off, hooted, hollered and threw back more beers in the icy cold. Meanwhile, the lights were on inside the coaches offices at the fieldhouse and you couldn’t help but wonder if McDermott was already plotting for Mahomes… and Reid… and Kelce. Again. Week No. 22 is next.
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ICYMI:
GREAT writing & fun to read....Now the Uber Driver is ready to pick up the inebriation celebrators, per Tyler noting: "Fans set fireworks off, hooted, hollered and threw back more beers in the icy cold."
Your best to date, young man. Loved the defensive strategy analysis—it worked. Adding three late proved to be the winning decision, as someone predicted it would be in the game day chat.
Rich Eisen pointed out today that all of this weekend’s winners were out gained in yardage but committed zero turnovers. Playing clean games was key, and remains the key. I KNOW FOR SURE that most of the country will be rooting for Buffalo’s Mutts on Sunday.