Tag: Colts

Report card: Bills top Colts, 27-24 in Wild Card

Report card for Buffalo Bills in Wild Card win vs. Indianapolis Colts.

The Buffalo Bills knew they were going to get some tougher competition come playoff time. That’s exactly what happened with the Indianapolis Colts on Wild Card weekend.

The Bills did take home the 27-24 win, but the Colts certainly made them work for it.

Following the Bills’ first playoff win in 25 years, here’s how Bills Wire graded Buffalo out in this week’s report card:

Report: ‘Fear’ that Bills could have lost Zack Moss for playoffs

Update to injury suffered by the Buffalo Bills’ Zack Moss.

The Buffalo Bills win against the Indianapolis Colts didn’t cone without some injury issues. In that 27-24 victory against the Colts, Buffalo running back Zack Moss suffered an ankle injury

Early in the fourth quarter, bodies landed on top of Moss. The running back was carted off the field leading one to believe it was a tough injury he suffered. Per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, that might just be the case as he reports there’s “fear” the rusher’s postseason could be over:

Moss only had 21 carries on seven carries in the win vs. the Colts. He had four catches for 26 yards as well.

Since the middle point of the 2020 season, Moss has gradually started to take over as Buffalo’s No. 1 rusher, slightly edging out Devin Singletary in terms of snaps played most weeks. Without Moss, Singletary will lead a backfield that could include TJ Yeldon and Antonio Williams.

Singletary had three carries for 21 yards against Indy.

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National media reactions to Bills’ first playoff win in 25 years vs. Colts

National media reactions to Buffalo Bills first playoff win in 25 year vs. Indianapolis Colts.

The Buffalo Bills opened Wild Card weekend in the NFL with the team’s first win in the postseason in 25 years. Buffalo topped the Indianapolis Colts, 27-24.

With such a rare occurrence taking place, attention nationwide was caught.

With that, here are some of the national media reactions to what went down in Orchard Park during the Bills’ win over the Colts:

Ian Rapoport, NFL Network

Adam Schein, CBS Sports

Mike Giardi, NFL Network

Damon Amendolara, CBS Sports

Liz Gonzales, Barstool Sports

The Checkdown

PFT, Barstool Sports

Jeff Kerr, CBS Sports

Ross Tucker, CBS Sports

Sigmund Bloom, Football guys

The MMQB

Sam Acho, Former NFL LB

Dan Orlovsky, ESPN

Kyle Brandt, Good Morning Football

Chris Harris, Chargers CB

Matt Bowen, ESPN

Field Yates, ESPN

Trey Wingo

Nick Wright, FS1

Spotrac

Dan Graziano, ESPN

Mike Wells, ESPN

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Bills Wire Wild Card Player of the Game: WR Stefon Diggs

Buffalo Bills Wire’s Player of the Game vs. the Indianapolis Colts in Wild Card round is wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

The Buffalo Bills (finally) showed up on Saturday, winning their first home playoff game in 25 years, with a victory over the Indianapolis Colts, 27-24. It was a slot start, but the Bills pulled it off in the end in part due to our Player of the Game.

Most responsible for helping the Bills put points on the scoreboard was wide receiver Stefon Diggs against the Colts. 

It certainly wasn’t the most electric offensive gameplay that we’ve seen from Buffalo, but Diggs made things happen when given the opportunity. He hauled in six catches for a big 128 yards and a touchdown.

Buffalo awaits the unfolding of the rest of this weekend to determine who they will host next week in Orchard Park, but that team will certainly be aware of the Diggs heading into the divisional round.

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No Hail Mary repeat as Bills stop Colts’ last-second attempt

Micah Hyde insured the Bills weren’t getting burned on a last second play again.

The lowest point of the Buffalo Bills season, was perhaps back in week 10, when a last second Hail Mary by the Arizona Cardinals handed the Bills a 32-30 loss heading into the BYE week, dropping them to 7-3.

In fact, that was the last time the Bills have lost a game period.

While the play, then coined the ‘Hail Murray’ was plastered all over the Internet and TV nationwide, only adding to the heartache of Bills fans, the team took that moment and grew from it.

Fast forward to the first round of the playoffs and the Bills were faced with an eerily similar situation, only this time it ended with a victory.

Speaking to the media after the game, Bills left tackle, Dion Dawkins, said he was “less stressed” this time around because of how often he sees Buffalo’s defense working on that play in practice.

“Micah went up there and tomahawked the thing like he was a starter on a volleyball team,” Dawkins added.

In a piece published this week in The Players Tribune, Dawkins touched on how that low moment against Arizona propelled the Bills down the path they are on now:

We saw Arizona celebrating on the field, after the Hail Mary. And it was just something about it, man. It was the way they were running around, hooting and hollering, like they’d won the damn Super Bowl. It was something about that. I think for whatever reason, that just struck this chord with us. Not because we were annoyed with them or anything. They won, they can celebrate how they want. Nah. It was more like: We looked at them. And then we looked at us. And I think we just had this moment of, Alright — hold up. If they’re fired up like they won the Super Bowl….. why aren’t we upset like we lost the Super Bowl?

And I think that’s when it hit us. It hit us that things are different now.

It hit us that this team, our team, these Buffalo Bills — we’ve moved on to a different place. Like, with all due respect to the Cardinals: I think they’re in a similar spot now to where we were these last few seasons. Just trying to claw and make the playoffs with an up-and-coming roster. Whereas, for us? It’s not like that now. We’re taking the long view. Every game isn’t the Super Bowl for our team.

The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl for our team.

Bills safety, Micah Hyde, who was directly involved in the Hail Mary against Arizona, wasn’t shy about having another shot this time around.

“I love that I was able to do that again,” Hyde said after the game.

“…it was a big play obviously. The game sealing play. As soon a I saw, you know, four seconds left, they had to go for the endzone, I just backed up in the endzone and said, ‘there ain’t no way this is happening again.’ I got a running start to go up there and get it. Looking back on it, I wish I would’ve done it in AZ, but hey, you win some, you lose some and when you lose, you learn along the way.”

Bills head coach, Sean McDermott, was seen pointing to the sky for a prolonged period of time after the Hail Mary was batted down and the clock hit zero.

“Looked like it was well executed by our defense,” McDermott told reporters. “I liked the look in their eye when they took the field for that last drive.”
While we will never know what would have happened had the Bills knocked the ball down in Arizona, we do know that going 13-3 and winning in the playoffs is a whole lot better than going 14-2 and losing.
Perhaps as Dawkins and Hyde both stated, that moment needed to happen for the Bills to learn from and get to where they are today… which is heading to the divisional round after getting their first playoff victory since 1995.
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The Colts’ loss to Bills stings, but the future is still bright

The Colts might have a question at quarterback, but this team is set up to be good next year.

Colts fans, sorry.

That sucked. There’s no way to make the sting of losing that game to the Bills feel better right now. Your team shot itself in the foot and came up short with multiple chances to win the game. However, this Colts team is still set up to be a player in the AFC for the immediate future.

The Colts will pick in the mid-20s in the upcoming NFL Draft and are projected to have over $60 million in cap space according to Spotrac. There is a question over whether or not Philip Rivers will retire, but considering he put together a pretty solid campaign, he might feel like putting together one more run towards that evasive Super Bowl trophy.

Even if he does decide to hang it up — or not re-sign — the Colts will have the ammunition to find a quality quarterback, whether it’s a trade or the draft. Those options are unclear right now, but they could be players for Carson Wentz (which admittedly doesn’t sound that enticing at this moment) or Matthew Stafford or trade up for one of the quarterbacks in this talent-rich quarterback draft class. They have the assets to make such a move.

At the very least, this team returns a talented core of players. Quenton Nelson, DeForest Buckner, and Darius Leonard will come back next year to anchor the team in 2021. If the Colts do decide to go all-in on 2021 with Rivers at the helm, then they can spend their resources adding premium talent at cornerback and edge rusher for their defense. That’s easier said than done, but again, they have the resources to find great talent.

Starting over next season is a tough pill to swallow, but Colts fans shouldn’t be feeling too down about their chances to get back to the playoffs next year. It’s a well-coached squad with options on how they want to attack this offseason and upgrade the team.

5 takeaways from the Bills’ 27-24 playoff win vs. the Colts

Five takeaways following Buffalo Bills’ Wild Card win, 27-24, vs. the Indianapolis Colts.

In a natural Buffalo Bills manner, things got interesting.

But all that matters in the end was a win when the final whistle went. The Bills made that happen on Saturday, as Buffalo kicked off the NFL’s Wild Card weekend with a 27-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Some sloppy play mixed in with some big ones from both teams created a great show from the neutral standpoint. Not exactly the case for those in western New York, but the victory will be savored nonetheless.

With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills’ win over the Colts:

Bills quarterback Josh Allen. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Another slow start for Bills

The Bills haven’t had a problem with slow starts all that much this season. But as of their last two games now, it was. In Buffalo’s season finale against the Miami Dolphins, of all 56 points scored, none of them up went up on the board in the first quarter. Against the Colts, it was a pure lack of possession issues, but early problems still lingered around for Buffalo.

In the first half, the Colts had the ball for almost 10 minutes more than the Bills. Indy’s time of possession was 19:41 to Buffalo’s 10:19. Helping the Bills there was three of their first five drives on offense going down as three-and-out drives.

Another big problem attributing to this struggle for the Bills was a tough time with field position. Combined, the opening half saw the Bills’ average drive start at their own eight-yard line. That’s not the end all, be all, but that does make things a bit tougher. Returner Andre Roberts took one kick out of the end zone as a part of that problem. He didn’t get back to the 20, but the same thing continued even when the Bills defense forced a punt.

Somehow though, the Bills did escape the first half with a lead. Miscues by the Colts played a huge part in that, from their turnover on down near Buffalo’s goal line, to penalties by Indianapolis’ defense keeping the struggling Bills offense on the field.

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Bills defeat Colts, Chiefs will learn divisional playoff opponent tomorrow

The Chiefs will have to wait another day to find out their divisional round opponent.

The Kansas City Chiefs will have to wait another day to find out their opponent for the divisional round of the playoffs.

The Buffalo Bills have defeated the Indianapolis Colts 27-24 in the first AFC game of wild-card weekend. It’s the first time that the Bills have won a playoff game since the 1995 wild-card round. The Colts were the No. 7 seed in the AFC and had they won the game, they would have been the team that Kansas City would have faced in the divisional round. That means former Los Angeles Chargers QB Philip Rivers won’t be coming to Kansas City for the playoffs, at least not this year.

The Chiefs will play the lowest remaining seed of either the Cleveland Browns (No. 6), Baltimore Ravens (No. 5) or Tennessee Titans (No. 4). The Ravens are the only team out of this group to be favored to win their game. They’re listed as three-point favorites over the Titans according to BetMGM. That’d make them the likeliest opponents for the K.C. in the divisional round.

Baltimore is also the only possible opponent that the Chiefs have played during the course of the regular season this year. Their last game against Cleveland came in Week 9 of the 2018 season. Kansas City won that game 37-21 on the road with a big performance by Travis Kelce. Then, their last game against Tennessee came in last year’s AFC Championship Game. That rematch would make for some drama in the early goings of the playoffs for the Chiefs.

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Bills RB Zack Moss carted off with injury vs. Colts

RB Zack Moss was injured vs. the Indianapolis Colts in Wild Card round.

[jwplayer 8uqrr7JY-ThvAeFxT]

(Update: 3:31 p.m.): The Bills quickly announced the Moss was doubtful to return with an ankle injury.

Previous coverage:

The Bills are down to running back Devin Singletary against the Colts. In the Wild Card round matchup, running back Zack Moss had his leg twisted up as he was tackled earlier in the fourth quarter.

Moss dropped the ball, but was ruled down on the play. Moments later, a cart came out for Moss and he was taken into the locker room.

Bills Wire will provide updates as they become available.

Without Moss, only Singletary remains at running back for the Bills. Backup TJ Yeldon was named as an inactive prior to kickoff while undrafted rookie Antonio Williams is on Buffalo’s practice squad.

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WATCH: Bills’ Josh Allen turns running play into pass TD

Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen throws touchdown pass to TE Dawson Knox vs. Indianapolis Colts in Wild Card.

That’s one way to do it.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen had a ridiculous looking play for his first-ever touchdown pass in the playoffs.

In the first quarter against the Indianapolis Colts, the Bills went up 7-3 early as Allen called his own number. The QB rushed the ball but as Allen does, he improvised.

Allen, stuffed at the line, flipped the ball in the air and somehow tight end Dawson Knox came down with the touchdown catch.

Check out the crazy score that only Allen could pull off here:

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