Bills beat Colts for 1st playoff win in 25 years

Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes and scored another rushing in Buffalo’s 27-24 win over the Colts.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. >> The Buffalo Bills earned their first playoff victory in a quartercentur y on Saturday when Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes, scored another rushing, and Micah Hyde batted down Philip Rivers’ desperation pass for a 27-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts in a wild- card game.

Buffalo snapped an 0- 6 postseason skid by winning its first playoff game since a 37-22 win over Miami on Dec. 30, 1995.

And it came in the Bills’ first home playoff game in 24 years, with a limited number of 6,700 fans in attendance for the first time this season.

Allen finished 26 of 35 for 324 yards, with a 5-yard touchdown to Dawson Knox and a 35-yarder to Stefon Diggs.

The game wasn’t decided until the final play, when Rivers

faced fourth-and-11 from Buffalo’s 47. Rivers heaved a deep pass for T.Y. Hilton, who was surrounded by defenders in the right side of the end zone. Hyde broke through the crowd of bodies, leaping up and batting the ball to the ground.

It just so happens, Hyde was one of three Bills defenders that failed to do the same thing in allowing DeAndre Hopkins’ 43yard leaping catch in the final seconds of Arizona’s 32-30 win over Buffalo on Nov. 15.

Buffalo (14-3) has won seven in a row since that loss.

Rookie kicker Tyler Bass accounted for the decisive points by hitting a 54-yard field goal to put Buffalo up 27-16 with 8:08 remaining.

The Bills added a new entry to a season in which they’ve busted numerous slumps. Buffalo won its first AFC East title in 25 years, and matched a single-season record in victories set in both 1990 and ‘91.