Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills took care of business in the wild-card round on Sunday afternoon, as they dominated the Denver Broncos, 31-7, to move on to the divisional round.
The Bills will now host the Baltimore Ravens next week to see who will have a spot in the AFC Championship.
The Bills were the heavy favorites in this game considering rookie quarterback Bo Nix was going to play his first playoff game on the road against a veteran Buffalo squad when it came to January football.
But just like he has all season, this game began with Nix trusting his talent and launching a 43-yard strike to his old Oregon teammate Troy Franklin to put Denver up 7-0.
However, while the “Bills Mafia” wasn’t too happy about that start to the contest, they knew Allen, their MVP frontrunner, wasn’t going to let them down.
What ensued was 31 unanswered points by Buffalo, which began with a field goal and touchdown on the team’s first two offensive drives.
DERRICK HENRY, RAVENS RUN WILD FOR WIN OVER STEELERS IN NFL PLAYOFFS
The first touchdown for the Bills was scored by none other than James Cook, who co-led the NFL with 16 rushing touchdowns on the season. He capped a 13-play drive with a five-yard barrel into the end zone to make it 10-7.
Cook finished the game with 120 yards rushing on 23 carries against a Denver defense that has been one of the best in the league all season.
Thanks to long, methodical Bills drives, the first half ended with Broncos kicker Wil Lutz smacking the goal post with an attempted field goal to tie the game at 10 apiece, and that was just about as close to scoring as the Broncos would see the rest of the game.
Buffalo scored on every second-half drive except to kneel down at the end of the game, which included touchdown passes from Allen to Ty Johnson on a ridiculous throw and catch from 24 yards out, and Curtis Samuel breaking free for a 55-yard score to truly seal the victory at 28-7 as the fourth quarter began.
In the end, Allen was an efficient 20-for-26 for 272 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, while also rushing for 46 yards on eight carries.
Samuel was his best receiver in terms of yards thanks to that huge gain. He finished with 68, while Khalil Shakir had six catches for 61 yards.
Meanwhile, Nix was 13-for-22 for 144 yards with one touchdown, while also rushing for 43 yards. The Bills were stingy when the Broncos tried to establish a run game, holding the Broncos to a total 79 yards.
Courtland Sutton was Denver’s top receiver per usual, hauling in five catches for 75 yards.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Read the full article here
