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It took a day longer than Bills Mafia had expected, but the Buffalo Bills are moving along on the road to Super Bowl 58.
In a wild-card game delayed more than 24 hours by lake effect snow and wind conditions, Josh Allen passed for 203 yards and three TDs as the Bills withstood a late comeback by the Pittsburgh Steelers to win 31-17 on Monday afternoon. Allen also rushed for 74 yards and his team’s other score, a 52-yard sprint through Pittsburgh’s defense in the second quarter.
Buffalo led 21-0 midway through the second quarter before Pittsburgh mounted its charge, sparked by a blocked field goal that led to a touchdown. But the Bills hung on, their triumph cemented by Allen’s 17-yard TD strike to Khalil Shakir midway through the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got a resilient group, the veteran leadership that we have I really think it’s unmatched in the league,” Allen said on the CBS broadcast following the game. “I just appreciate the guys.”
They will next host the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs in next Sunday’s divisional round, Buffalo’s victory also sends the Houston Texans to face the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.
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The win was the sixth in a row for the Bills, whose late-season rush enabled them to snatch the AFC East crown from the Miami Dolphins. Buffalo, one of 12 teams to never win the Super Bowl, advances to the divisional round for the fourth consecutive season. The Chiefs have eliminated the Bills in two of the past three postseasons.
Meanwhile, the Steelers suffered their fifth consecutive playoff defeat, dating to the 2016 AFC title game. And they could be entering an offseason of massive uncertainty, head coach Mike Tomlin, per an NBC report, set to weigh his future with just one year remaining on his contract. Pittsburgh’s coach since 2007, Tomlin is currently the league’s longest-tenured head coach following Bill Belichick’s departure from the New England Patriots last week.
The Steelers got a late-season jolt from third-string QB Mason Rudolph (229 yards, 2 TDs passing Monday), though that also served to spotlight the struggles of starter Kenny Pickett, the team’s first-round pick in 2022, who suffered an injured ankle midway through the season. Rudolph is scheduled to be a free agent in March.
There were plenty of big moments for the star signal-caller, who ripped off the second-longest scoring run by a quarterback in NFL playoff history with his 52-yard scamper. But this didn’t feel like the all-Allen effort that the Bills have occasionally counted on to carry them, with youngsters like Dalton Kincaid and James Cook stepping up to lend a hand. And wide receiver Khalil Shakir came up with a distinctly Allen-like second-effort on a fourth-quarter touchdown to help ice the game.
Nice showing from a crew that trudged through the snow to get a frigid viewing of a playoff conquest. Was there ever any doubt that these fans would turn out, though? And now they get another home playoff, with the chance to avenge that stunning loss to Patrick Mahomes and Co. two years ago.
It’s hardly an ideal matchup to take on a red-hot team with this caliber quarterback for Mahomes’ first playoff road game. But the Chiefs will have a two-day rest advantage going into the showdown – and they have plenty of reason of confidence given their postseason history.
For all the consternation about the team’s quarterbacks this season, this disappointing unit really appeared to reach its breaking point without T.J. Watt, giving up 245 yards in the first half. A group that was overly reliant on takeaways (27 total) to sustain it can’t afford the kind of breakdowns it had Monday, such as the coverage lapse on Kincaid’s first-quarter touchdown.
No reason to sound the alarm about the overall performance. But the loss of linebacker Terrel Bernard might prove insurmountable for a unit that has already lost linebacker Matt Milano, cornerback Tre’Davious White and cornerback Tre’Davious White. The middle of that defense could be mighty vulnerable against the Chiefs and, if necessary, the Texans or Ravens – all teams that know how to attack that area of the field.
