1. Bills reached these five milestones in their playoff victory
With the win against the Colts, the Bills continue their historic season and get their first playoff win since 1995. Here are five other milestones that were reached during the Wild Card game on Saturday.
- Neither team committed a turnover on Saturday. It marks Buffalo's second playoff game ever in which there were no turnovers (also in Super Bowl XXV, 1/27/91 vs. N.Y.G.) This is the fourth time the Bills did not commit a turnover in a playoff game (others: 12/26/64 vs. Chargers; 1/27/91 vs. Giants.; and 1/9/93 at Steelers)
- Buffalo closed out the first half against the Colts with a 96-yard drive which ended with a five-yard touchdown run by Josh Allen. The touchdown drive was the longest in Bills postseason history, eclipsing the previous long of 93 yds, which took just one play, a TD pass from Daryle Lamonica to Elbert Dubenion, 12/28/63 vs. Boston.
- The two teams combined for 869 total yards (Colts 472, Bills 397) which are the third-most in a Buffalo playoff game (behind 1,038 vs. Miami 12/30/95 and 923 vs. Miami 1/12/91) 397 total yards are eighth-most by the Bills in postseason franchise history.
- Josh Allen completed 12 straight passes in the third and fourth quarters which is a new Bills playoff record. The old mark was nine, and it was last reached by Jim Kelly vs. Dallas, 1/30/94 in Super Bowl XXVIII.
- In his second career playoff game, Matt Milano had a team-high 11 total tackles. Along with 12 total tackles in last year's playoff game at Hou. (1/4/20), he became the fourth Bill since 1974 with 10+ tackles in back-to-back playoff games. He joins Cornelius Bennett (3-game streak between 1/30/94 and 1/6/96), Darryl Talley (1/15/94 & 1/23/94), and Shane Conlan (1/6/90 and 1/12/91) in Bills history.
2. Dion Dawkins had full confidence in Micah Hyde and defense during Hail Mary
The Bills have now won seven straight games going back to Week 12, with the team's last loss coming in Week 10 against the Cardinals. That game in Arizona with the Hail Mary at the end of the game was a huge turning point for this Bills team. After that, the team went into their bye week understanding that they never wanted to lose like that again. With the Colts winding up for a Hail Mary at the end of Saturday's Wild Card game, Dion Dawkins wasn't nervous at all and knew Micah Hyde and his defense was going to make a play.
"Ya know, this time I was happy that it was going up there," Dawkins stated. "Our guys practice it every single day, I see it every single day in practice. I don't want to speak for future days, but they practice for it not to happen. When it went up, I was less stressed because my dogs are prepared for this moment. As you see, Micah went up and tomahawked that ball down like he was a starter on the volleyball court. That was a double-hand, tomahawk spike as a statement like it wasn't happening again."
3. Bills overcome field position struggles to win Wild Card game
The field position battle is something that the Bills excelled in throughout the regular season. In the last three weeks of the season, the Bills average starting field position was at their own 33-yard line in Week 17, 23-yard line in Week 16, and the 33-yard line in Week 15. Against the Colts on Saturday, the Bills average starting field position was their own 15-yard line which was the worst of any game of the season. Buffalo had five of their drives start inside the 15-yard line and three of those were inside the six. Cole Beasley talked about the struggles of starting drives deep in their own territory and how they know that has to be worked on for the Divisional round.
"Any time you start off backed up in your territory, it's tough, especially inside the five," Beasley explained. "You don't want to have a bad situation turn into a worse situation. You can't turn the ball over, because they're going to get points pretty much. You don't want to get a safety either, so, you've kind of just got to do your best to get out of there, then you can really run your offense. ... It's hard to run your normal offense backed up like that. We've got to do a better job next game of trying to start off with better field position to help us out."
