The Buffalo Bills claimed a playoff win over the New England Patriots that won't soon be forgotten and will be looked back upon for years to come.
Sean McDermott's men headed into Super Wild Card Weekend with several questions over their heads and were just four-point home favourites over the Pats. Fans would have been forgiven for wondering how the Bills would fare under the weather and New England's gritty defence but they coped rather easily, blowing the once near-unbeatable side out with a 47-17 scoreline.
The Bills had very little trouble winning this one and it was pretty shocking to see Bill Belicheck's team get dominated in such fashion. Buffalo fans will be confident in their team's ability to go all the way and those taking to the sports betting markets in NY would not be blamed for snatching the Super Bowl odds on what's now a rampant Bills team.
The AFC East outfit went into the game 8/1 to snag the Super Bowl but, on the back of their victory, are +550 to win it. Only the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs have better odds at the moment. The Bills will have to go through the Chiefs in their next game, though.
The Bills didn't play as strongly as they should have during the regular season, losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars and getting blown out by the Indianapolis Colts along the way. They also allowed some weaker teams to remain within a shot of winning in some games and, of course, lost to some of the better ones such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans. Following their feat on the weekend, however, they have now won four consecutive games by at least 12 points and have kept things going strong since their comeback victory over the Bucs in early December.
There were also worries relating to Josh Allen and his proclivity for turning the football over. The quarterback threw a trio of interceptions against the Atlanta Falcons in the game before the last fixture of the regular season but threw a well-nigh perfect game on offense on Saturday. They scored a touchdown on every drive except for the final one in what was a remarkable showing. Allen, meanwhile, is +650 to win Super Bowl MVP after his latest outing.
The Bills' rushing attack also beckoned questions as the team seemed overly reliant on Allen to run the ball himself. Devin Singletary did not surpass 52 rushing yards in any game from October 10 through to December 12 but the running back went for at least 80 in the five games that have been played since then.
The Bills have decided to put the league on notice at just the right time but they are also heading into the biggest challenge they will face this campaign, with Kansas City their upcoming opponents at the Arrowhead Stadium. That's just how it's likely to pan out for any team in the AFC for the foreseeable future given that the Chiefs boast Patrick Mahomes.
They will be pretty confident they can take down the Chiefs this time around, though. But they are a 2.5-point underdog on the road against Andy Reid's men. The Bills beat the Chiefs when they met at the aforementioned venue earlier in the season, running out as 38-20 winners after going in as 2.5-point underdogs in that match as well.
While there's every reason to draw encouragement from this, it's worth noting that the win came during a stretch in which the Chiefs were simply not themselves. Their offence wasn't on song while their defence was strangely porous.
The Chiefs have since gotten it together and are playing like a team that has been to the Super Bowl in the last two years. They're also a team that outplayed Buffalo in last year's AFC championship game, winning 38-24. They had a 38-15 advantage with seven minutes left on the clock in that game.
The game promises to be a very good one. The Chiefs are heading into it as the favourites to win but that would have always been the case. The Bills are +225 to win the AFC and a positive result this coming Sunday will make this a real possibility.
Mahomes expects a hefty challenge from the Bills too.
"A really good football team that's gonna play really hard," the QB said ahead of the upcoming showdown. "We're expecting a fight, we're expecting a battle. They have a great offence, great defence, great special teams. We played them in the AFC Championship Game last year, we know that it's going to be another fight for us if we want to try to move on to the AFC Championship Game this year."
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