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Lorenzo’s Locks: best bets for Sunday’s NFL division games
SportsPulse: Two GOATs fight in Bayou while the Browns head to Kansas City. Lorenzo places his two best bets for Sunday’s divisional round games.
USA TODAY
ORCHARD PARK, NY – For almost the entire season, Buffalo Bills have shot in the wings of the most prolific attack in the franchise’s 61-year history, simply outperforming defeated opponents along the way.
On Saturday night, in the AFC divisional round match against Baltimore, with Josh Allen and the attack struggling to find any rhythm most of the way, Bills had to look to their defense, and that came with a performance for a eternity.
Completely strangling the dangerous Lamar Jackson and taking him out of the game at the end of the third quarter with a concussion, the Bills defense stole the show and scored a 17-3 victory that takes them to the AFC championship game next Sunday.
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Now the Bills wait to see who they will play with – either the Chiefs in Kansas City or, if you can believe it, the Browns here at Bills Stadium.
The main play was obviously made by cornerback Taron Johnson. With a 10-3 loss, the Ravens were on their way to what looked like a tied touchdown in the third quarter when they found a third and 9th goal.
Jackson stepped back to pass, had time, but the Bills’ defense zone had everything covered. Instead of taking off and running, which he usually does, he tried to hit a pass on tight end Mark Andrews. Bad idea.
Johnson stepped forward to intercept him a yard deep in the end zone and then ran 101 yards the other way while the crowd of 6,700 went crazy.
It was undoubtedly the biggest move, but throughout the night the defense appeared strong, until the end, even when reserve defender Tyler Huntley – who had just been called up from the training team – gave an incomplete pass to the fourth goal in the end zone with 2:40 remaining.
This became only the fourth game of the year in which Bills failed to reach 20 points, and it was only their second victory in those four games, the other against the Jets.
It is safe to assume that no one saw this game coming, especially what we saw in the first half, a 3-3 draw where Jackson had more passing yards than Allen (123-120), but that was the situation.
Allen never seemed comfortable, and given that offensive coordinator Brian Daboll called 25 pass passes for just one race, this was not a good development for the Bills. They needed Allen to be smart, and he wasn’t.
He had 23 of 37 with a touchdown and no interception. The Bills ran for only 32 meters.
Without a doubt, the windy night was a factor, as well as for the team’s players. Each team lost two field goals.
So now Bills will be playing for their first trip to the Super Bowl since after the 1993 season. That game marked their fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance – all defeats.