MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.—“How about that?” Bills GM Brandon Beane said in the winners’ locker room 20 minutes after midnight this morning. “Start of the day, we could have been the 2 or 8 seed—home for the playoffs or no ticket to the dance. And this happens. Crazy.”
What happened is despite losing to the Jets and Patriots and Broncos, despite firing the offensive coordinator in November, despite being the AFC’s 10th seed as December dawned, despite vital defensive pieces Tre’Davious White and Matt Milano being lost for good in midseason, and despite Josh Allen turning it over three times in the Bills’ first six series Sunday and Allen throwing short of the end zone with no timeouts as the first-half clock expired … and that is one heck of a list of “despites” … the Buffalo Bills won the AFC East at Hard Rock Stadium and earned the 2 seed in the AFC playoffs. Two home playoff games, in other words, if they win the first Sunday against the Steelers.
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
“Four more,” Stefon Diggs said to Beane walking out of the locker room. “Gotta get four more.”
Four more would win the Super Bowl. Four wins over, let’s say, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore and the best the NFC has to offer (San Francisco? Dallas?) in Super Bowl LVIII. Of course, the Bills have been close to that before, so let’s not go there just yet.
But Buffalo is one of the three or four most dangerous teams in the tournament, warts and all. The quarterback turns it over too much, but the quarterback is one of the best players in the sport, and time after time he makes up for an unwise throw by throwing his body over the first-down stripe or throwing a beautiful ball 60 yards downfield. I can tell you this: Josh Allen’s teammates and his coach love him, and the levels of that love shone through with 3:12 to go Sunday night. Buffalo up 21-14, trying to bleed the clock, two more first downs win the game. But it was third-and-13 at the Buffalo 34-, and if they failed to convert, Miami would get the ball back with plenty of time to tie the score.
Allen rolled right. It looked like he never intended to throw the ball. Now it was big-play time in Firebaugh, Calif., as a kid, or at Wyoming as a collegian, and Allen wanted the ball in his hands. He always does in the big moments. So he turned upfield and ran.
“That,” Allen told me on the field afterward, “is a situation where coach [Sean McDermott] is screaming, ‘Get down!’ and ‘Slide!’”
“No I wasn’t,” McDermott told me. “There’s no stopping him when he’s of that mindset. He knew what was on the line—everything. He was going to run through a brick wall for the first down right there.”
Allen continued. “Understanding how the game was going, I had to put the shoulders down. Had to find a way to get the first. I love to get that first down.”
I said to Allen, “You’re the type of guy, not that you don’t trust your teammates. But you trust yourself to make that play, to get those 13 yards.”
“Absolutely,” Allen said. “Absolutely. I want the ball in my hands at the end of the game. That’s how it’s been for my entire career. That’ll never change.”
***
So Allen’s a big-play machine, of course. But I thought the Bills won this game because of the flotsam and jetsam of their complete roster. And it’s why they may be able to withstand a big injury or two, even though they’ve already done so.
Bill Parcells used to spend so much time churning the bottom of his roster. Back in his days coaching the Giants, even when the Giants were winning big, he’d have director of pro scouting Tim Rooney bring in four or six or eight players for workouts Monday and Tuesday, just so the team could have an updated “Ready List” of players weekly if injuries struck. I asked him why he was so paranoid about the depths of the roster. “Because every year you’re going to have games decided by the 48th player on the roster,” he said. “You want to devote time to finding the best players possible down there. They’re crucial to success.”
The Buffalo contributors Sunday night:
- Cornerback Christian Benford, a sixth-round pick in 2022, picked off a Tua Tagovailoa throw targeting Tyreek Hill on the first series of the game. Benford’s salary: $870,000.
- Wide receiver Trent Sherfield, the former Dolphin, Buffalo’s fifth receiver, was playing significant snaps because Gabe Davis went down with a leg injury. With four minutes left in the first half, Allen fired a pass toward Sherfield in the end zone. It ricocheted off a helmet high into the air and looked like it might go out of the end zone. Sherfield caught the ball as he fell out of the end zone, each foot barely staying in contact with the ground. Touchdown. Sherfield’s salary: $1.42 million.
- Returner Deonte Harty brought back a punt 96 yards early in the fourth quarter, knotting the game at 14. Harty’s salary: $2 million.
- Receiver Khalil Shakir, with the score still tied at 14 midway through the fourth quarter, took an Allen pass 28 yards to the Miami three-yard line, setting up the winning touchdown. Shakir’s salary: $870,000.
- Running back Leonard Fournette played a different Lenny than he has in his NFL life. On fourth-and-one with four minutes left at the Buffalo 35-yard line, the December free-agent signee grabbed Allen from behind and, in his personal Tush Push, thrusted Allen forward for a two-yard gain and the first down. “This is a different role,” Fournette said post-game. “I’m older. Just anything I can do to give us a chance to help us win a game.” Fournette’s partial season salary: $289,400.
Those five players—total salary: $4.17 million—were crucial in Buffalo winning the AFC East Sunday night.
“It says a lot about our team,” Allen said. “Those guys, some of them, might be a little frustrated about their roles or their playing time. But you don’t see them upset. You just see them with the attitude of, ‘What can I do to help us win?’”
Vital trait for a championship team.
“It’s a hard ingredient to find anymore,” McDermott said. “Good teams have that. The good teams I’ve been on have that. But it’s a hard trait to find.”
Last point about the 2023 Bills: You can find fault with Allen and his penchant for turnovers. But this team will go as far as Allen takes them. There’s not a single guy in that locker room who begrudges Allen for taking the game into his hands in the fourth quarter, figuring he trusts himself more than he trusts anyone to make a play with the game on the line. It’s a gift to have that quarterback. It’s the gift that gives Buffalo a good chance in every game it plays for the rest of this season, and for seasons to come.
Read more in Peter King’s full Football Morning in America column.