Bills escape a major scare, hold on to defeat Dolphins
QB Jones vaults Giants vs. Vikings; Bengal beat Ravens
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills opened the season with Super Bowl aspirations.
One week into the playoffs, their objective remains in sight — but barely.
Allen shrugged off a threeturnover outing, and the three- time defending AFC East champion Bills avoided a major collapse by rallying to pull out a 34-31 victory over the AFC’s seventhseeded and injury-depleted Miami Dolphins in a wild-card playoff on Sunday.
In acknowledging he was hardly at his best, Allen said all that mattered was the final score.
“One-week seasons, man, that’s it,” he said. “All that matters is surviving and advancing. Doesn’t matter how we win, it’s if we win.”
The “if” part of the equation hung in the balance until the final minutes of a game in which the Bills squandered a 17-0 lead against an opponent that limped into the playoffs by losing five of its final six and was down to its third-string quarterback, rookie Skylar Thompson.
It wasn’t until Allen’s fumble was returned 5 yards for a touchdown by Zach Sieler 61 seconds into the third quarter to put the Dolphins up 24-20 that the Bills offense finally reawakened.
Allen threw two touchdown passes over a span of 3: 11, with Cole Beasley scoring the go-ahead TD with a 6-yard catch, before Gabe Davis extended the lead to 34-24 with a 23-yard TD reception.
“That’s just playoff football for the most part. All the games I’ve played in the playoffs, I don’t even know if we’ve had a blowout,” Beasley said. “The thing is you’ve got to keep your foot on the gas. You can’t ever get complacent. You gotta play consistent. We were a little inconsistent tonight. We can’t do that going forward.”
The game wasn’t decided until Buffalo’s defense, which forced six punts and two turnovers, stopped Miami as it turned the ball over on downs on its final possession.
The Dolphins extended their run of playoff loses to five. Miami’s most recent playoff win was a 23-17 overtime victory against Indianapolis on Dec. 30, 2000, in the wild-card round.
Sunday’s other games
Giants 31, Vikings 24: Daniel Jones passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns and ran 15 times for 79 yards in his first career playoff game for New York, a victory against Minnesota in the wild-card round that gave the Vikings their first loss in 12 one-score games this season.
Saquon Barkley rushed for two scores, including the tiebreaker midway through the fourth quarter. The Giants’ defense finished off the franchise’s first playoff win since the Super Bowl 11 years ago by swarming tight end T.J. Hockenson after a 3-yard catch on a pass from Kirk Cousins at midfield on fourth-and-8, and the Vikings turned the ball over on downs with 1:44 to go and no timeouts left.
Isaiah Hodgins and Daniel Bellinger had touchdown receptions for the Giants, who advanced to play No. 1 seed and division rival Philadelphia in the divisional round next weekend.
“We did what we wanted to do, come out with a win,“Barkley said. ”Celebrate on the way back, watch film, learn from it and get ready for Philly.”
Jones became the first quarterback in NFL history to hit these thresholds in a postseason game: 300-plus
passing yards, two- plus passing touchdowns and 70plus rushing yards.
“I’m impressed. I’m not shocked because he’s been doing it all year. He’s really been balling,“said Barkley, who had 109 total yards on only 14 touches. ”He’s a special player. This is where you can create your legacy in the playoffs, and what a way to start it off.”
Cousins went 31 for 39 for 273 yards and two scores, plus a rushing touchdown to cap the game’s opening possession, the tooshort throw to Hockenson at the end his only mistake.
“This is probably the toughest loss of my career,” said Cousins, who had by far the best record of his 11 years in the league
Bengals 24, Ravens 17: Sam Hubbard returned Tyler Huntley’s fumble 98 yards for a tiebreaking touchdown in the fourth quarter, helping Cincinnati beat Baltimore Ravens.
Facing third-and-goal at the 1 with about 12 minutes left, Huntley tried to go over the top of the line for the goahead score. But he was stood up by Germaine Pratt and stripped by fellow linebacker Logan Wilson. The ball went right to Hubbard at the 2, and the defensive end took off down the field for the longest fumble return for a touchdown in NFL postseason history. It also was the longest go-ahead TD in the fourth in the postseason. Baltimore drove to the Cincinnati 17 in the final minute, but Kevin Zeitler was flagged for holding and Huntley threw incomplete to the end zone on the final play.
Next up for Cincinnati (134) is a trip to Buffalo for a rematch of their Week 17 game that was canceled after Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field.