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.
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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