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'Our guys just made plays' | How the Bills responded early in Wild Card win over the Broncos

Jan 12, 2025 at 06:25 PM

Dorian Alerte

Contributing Correspondent

Spirits were high in the Buffalo Bills locker room following their 31-7 Wild Card victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon.

"Anytime you can win, it's a good win, especially in the playoffs," head coach Sean McDermott said. "At home, great environment, appreciate the fans, they're just incredible… I thought our players played extremely well, especially in the third and the fourth quarter, and played good complementary football. Took care of the ball, the line of scrimmage was the way it needed to be for us to win, and that's an important facet for us every week."

McDermott and the offensive and defensive lines of the Bills made it a point to say all week that the team that would win this game would win because of the trenches. Coming into the game, the key matchup was the Bills offensive line, that allowed the fewest sacks in the NFL all season long, against the Broncos defensive line that had the most sacks in the NFL regular season.

Although they did get to QB Josh Allen twice, the Bills offensive line won the matchup up front, establishing themselves early with the run game.

"There's games we gotta lean more in O line, we gotta lean more to D line, we gotta lean more in the quarterback," LT Dion Dawkins said. "Our ticket was punched today, and we knew going in coach wanted us to run the football and play physical up front."

The Bills rushed for 210 yards as a team led by RB James Cook who had 120. The front seven also sacked QB Bo Nix twice.

"Our team did a great job," Allen said. "Our offensive line did a great job of getting looks that we liked and taking advantage of it and they moved guys off the ball today. Jimbo ran the ball hard… They were in a really good position sometimes, and our guys just made plays. And that's why we got so much faith in everybody in this room."

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"Those guys don't get credit for being in the trenches, but I love them to death, and have a lot of praise for them, because without them, this train doesn't run," RB Ty Johnson said. "They're definitely the engine that makes us go."

Dawkins used another one of his analogies to describe Cook's performance as the elusive running back showed off some of his power running the football.

"He's a chef. You got to be able to cook chicken parm and you got to be able to make mac and cheese. You got to be able to do both," Dawkins said with a smile on his face.

The Bills responded quickly after the Broncos took the opening drive for a long touchdown over the top to WR Troy Franklin for the 7-0 lead.

"They had an explosive, but I feel like from the jump, we were dominating," DE Greg Rousseau said. "We were playing physical, and we've got to keep that going. It really was just a message to ourselves. We know who we are week after week and what we're capable of and what we're supposed to do out there."

"When plays like that happen, you've got to have a short memory," CB Taron Johnson said. We did a good job with that today. They didn't get much after that."

The Bills defense did not allow a single score the rest of the afternoon following the touchdown and forced multiple turnover-on-downs.

"Don't worry about stuff like that, it's gonna happen," Douglas said. "A big play will happen; a touchdown will happen. It's just something to just come over [to the sideline], talk about it, don't let it happen again."

The Bills also dominated time of possession, controlling the football for 41:43 over the Broncos' 18:17.

"You try and move the ball and be efficient on offense and then find some explosives somewhere in there and we were able to do that by getting Curtis free," McDermott said.

RB Ty Johnson broke the game open by scoring the touchdown the put the Bills up by two scores. On the play, Allen scrambled to his right and bought time behind his offensive line until Johnson became open in the endzone. Johnson then caught the ball as he was falling to the ground and managed to keep his feet in-bounds on the play.

Dawkins said he had to ask Johnson if he really caught the ball and he admitted that he knew he caught the football, he just needed confirmation that he was not out of bounds and when he saw the replay he knew for sure.

"My boy, we compete with each other," Cook said of Johnson. "He's doing a lot of the dirty work. Don't get that much praise about it. But he just does his job and take his job so serious and executes to the highest level."

The play that put the nail in the coffin was a 55-yard catch-and-run touchdown to WR Curtis Samuel to open the fourth quarter.

"I'll speak on behalf of Curtis, he probably didn't have the season that he wanted to have," Allen said. "He was dealing with a few things early on and during the middle of the year, but he kept grinding, kept being quiet, and stayed focused, and I've never lost any sort of trust in him."

With the Broncos behind them, the Bills next test will be against the Baltimore Ravens, a team that beat them earlier in the season 35-10 in Week 4.

"They got after us earlier this year, so we've got a lot of film to watch," Allen said on CBS after the game. "It's a great team, a great quarterback, Lamar, what he's able to do. He's one of the most dynamic if not the most dynamic quarterback in the league. He's so fun to watch, but I'll be watching their defense this week."

The Bills are looking forward to the challenge of playing this Ravens team again, this time at home.

"It'll be a nice week, and everyone will be looking forward to it, and they're a great football team, right," McDermott said. "They handled us pretty good the first go around and they're certainly playing well, well-coached. John's [Harbaugh] won a Super Bowl and comes from great pedigree, so it'll be a big challenge for us."