HAMLIN’S BILLS REMAIN IN HUNT FOR SUPER BOWL
CHeereD on by Damar Hamlin from his home, the Buffalo Bills scraped past the Miami Dolphins 34-31 to continue their quest for Super Bowl LVII. Hamlin, the 24-year-old safety who suffered a cardiac arrest two weeks ago on the field against the Cincinnati Bengals, was rumoured to be attending yesterday’s game at Orchard Park.
But after visiting team-mates on Saturday, Hamlin tweeted before kick-off: ‘My heart is with my guys as they compete today!’ elsewhere on wildcard weekend, Trevor Lawrence rebounded from the worst half of his nFL career to lead the Jacksonville Jaguars to a miraculous 31-30 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. Lawrence, the no 1 overall pick of the 2021 Draft, threw four interceptions in the first 29 minutes of his first play-off game as the Jaguars trailed the Chargers 27-0 with 49 seconds of the first half left. It was then that Lawrence kicked into life. He threw for four touchdowns in the next 31 minutes on four consecutive drives as the Jaguars roared into the divisional round in improbable fashion. Lawrence, 23, said: ‘You couldn’t write a better script to win a game like that, so it makes it more special, but I don’t want to do that again.’ The Jags comeback was the third largest in play-off history since 1970.
Only the Buffalo Bills — who recovered from a 32-point deficit against the Houston Oilers in 1992 — and the Indianapolis Colts — a 28-point disadvantage against the kansas City Chiefs in 2012 — had come back from bigger holes. Lawrence threw to evan engram on a nine-yard connection with 24 seconds left in the first half. He then found Marvin Jones Jnr, Zay Jones and Christian kirk on the Jaguars’ next three possessions.
He also ran in for a two-point conversion from the one-yard line before kicker riley Patterson sent TIAA Bank Field wild with a 36-yard field goal as time expired. elsewhere, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy helped the Francisco 49ers past the Seattle Seahawks. Trailing 17-16 at half-time, the niners rattled off 25 unanswered points in the second half to ease to a 41-23 win.
Purdy became the seventh rookie quarterback since 1970 to win a post-season game. He completed 18 of 30 pass attempts for a career-high 332 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.