Josh Allen leads Bills to first playoff win in 25 seasons

It took 25 seasons and a felt-like-forever final Colts drive, but the Bills finally won a playoff game.

Buffalo outlasted Indianapolis, 27-24, on Saturday afternoon at Bills Stadium in Orchard Park in the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs for its first postseason win since the 1995 tournament.

Not since the waning days of Jim Kelly and the Bills’ AFC dynasty of the 1990s had Buffalo been able to celebrate a moment like this. But it came at last, thanks to the team’s best quarterback since the Kelly era, a turning-point sequence near the end of the first half and a final swatting away of Philip Rivers’ desperation pass moments after a lengthy review on a possible Colts fumble that the officials determined wasn’t one.

The Bills had lost their previous five playoff games before Saturday’s game before 6,772 fans. It was the first time fans were allowed inside the stadium this season.

"It’s obviously new territory for myself," third-year quarterback Josh Allen said of winning a playoff game. "But it gives us a chance to play next week. Super-pumped to keep playing."

The Bills’ next opponent won’t be determined until Sunday’s AFC wild-card games between the Titans and Ravens in Tennessee and the Browns and Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Bills will face the highest-seeded team to win Sunday and Kansas City will host the lower-seeded victor.

"The perseverance of this team, it’s what this team is about," said Allen, who was 26-for-35 for 324 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for a touchdown.

The Bills were sluggish through most of the first half, trailing 10-7 against a revitalized Rivers, who was in his first season with the Colts after a potential Hall of Fame career with the Chargers. But some questionable play-calling by Colts coach Frank Reich near the end of the first half changed the momentum and allowed the Bills to capitalize.

After a 3-yard loss on third-and-goal from the Buffalo 1, Reich — the former backup quarterback who led the biggest playoff comeback in NFL history when he rallied Buffalo from a 35-3 deficit to a 41-38 overtime win over the Oilers at the former Rich Stadium in the 1992 playoffs — decided to go for it on fourth down instead of attempting a short field goal. But Rivers overthrew Michael Pittman in the end zone with 1:46 left in the half.

That was enough time for Allen to drive the Bills 96 yards for the go-ahead score. He completed passes of 37 and 19 yards to Gabriel Davis to get the Bills into Indianapolis territory, and Allen scored on a 5-yard run to the right with 14 seconds to play to give Buffalo a 14-10 lead.

The Bills never trailed again. They went ahead 17-10 with a field goal on their first drive of the third quarter, and it stayed that way when Colts rookie kicker Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 33-yard field goal.

Buffalo extended the lead to 24-10 before Rivers got the Colts within 24-16.

Buffalo then went up 27-16, but Rivers answered again, finding a wide-open Jack Doyle for a 27-yard touchdown to cut it to 27-22. The two-point conversion made it 27-24.

Rivers had one final drive to put the Colts in position to tie or win it. They appeared to run out of chances on what looked like a fumble by wide receiver Zach Pascal, but a lengthy replay review confirmed the initial call that he was down by contact.

Rivers was reduced to one final deep pass near the end zone, but as the ball arced high into the gloaming, Micah Hyde was the first to get beneath the ball and batted it down to preserve the win.

Afterward, Rivers wouldn’t speculate about whether this was his final NFL game.

"If it’s God’s will that I’m in Indy with the Colts next year, then I’ll be here," he said. "If not, I’ll be on the sideline with a ball cap on my head, coaching football."

For Allen, it’s on to next weekend after getting his first playoff win.

"We want more," he said. "One’s not good enough for us."

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”