ORCHARD PARK, New York – Adversity finally caught up with the Buffalo Bills, who were left exhausted and defeated as they capped an emotionally draining season with two wins short of their Super Bowl ambitions.
Cannot draw on motivational inspiration from injured teammate Von Miller, who shows off the Super Bowl trophy he won last year in the locker room this week, or injured safety Surprise performance by Damar Hamlin The Bills delivered a dud at the stadium on Sunday 27-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in a divisional playoff game.
“Cheer up,” said coach Sean McDermott to his players afterwards. “Even though it hurts, I’m proud of them for how they handled the ups and downs and the adversities they’ve faced with class this year.
“They will take that with them, but at the moment it stings. I wish it was a different result.”
The Bills were floored from the start, seemingly consumed by a two-month span in which they watched in stunned horror as Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati on Jan. 2 after their schedule was interrupted at two Winter storms and showed signs of fatigue all in one sloppy 34-31 playoff opening win about Miami last week.
The Josh Allen-led offense began with two three-and-off possessions in which she gained 11 total yards.
And Buffalo’s bend-but-don’t-break defense completely unraveled while Joe Burrow rushed for his first nine tries for 105 yards and two touchdowns as the Bengals held a 14-0 lead by 3:47 in the first quarter set up.
It was a hole too big to climb out for a hobbling defense.
Miller has been out since November with a knee injury. And Buffalo has spent much of this season playing with a patchwork secondary missing starting safety Micah Hyde (herniated disc) and Hamlin, his backup. Jordan Poyer, another starter, played through a series of injuries.
“Regardless of the fights or not, we wanted to see this through to the end,” said left tackle Dion Dawkins. “It definitely hurts a little bit more to know that this particular group has been through so much and that chapter is closed.”
The Bills, whose three previous losses this season were decided by a total of 8 points, have had an eight-game winning streak. They also fell to 13-2 while hosting an NFL playoff game.
Although the Bills’ playoff run set a single-season record with 13 wins, it ended in the divisional round for the second straight season. Last year, the team was frustrated after a 42-36 overtime loss to Kansas City that saw Buffalo gamble away a three-point lead in the last 13 seconds of regular time.
Against Cincinnati, the Bills couldn’t come up with much of an answer.
They had a season-low 10 points and allowed the Bengals to rack up 30 first downs — the most since they conceded 30 to the Chiefs in the playoffs last year.
Receiver Stefon Diggs felt emotional when he was spotted leaving the Bills’ dressing room with much of his kit shortly after the end of the game. He had to be lured back by a teammate and was present at McDermott’s post-game speech, which was all that mattered to the coach.
“He’s a competitive guy. What makes him good is what you’ve seen,” said McDermott. “It hurts. I wouldn’t want a man who didn’t hurt.
“We risked everything out there and tonight it wasn’t good enough.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed or redistributed without permission.
