Bills defeat Patriots for Damar Hamlin to lock up AFC No. 2 seed, will host Dolphins in playoffs
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — With all the emotion that was surging through Highmark Stadium Sunday afternoon, there was no way the Buffalo Bills were going to lose to the New England Patriots.
And they didn’t. Of course they didn’t.
Fueled in the days leading up to the regular-season finale by the incredibly good news that fallen teammate Damar Hamlin was stabilized and showing marked improvement almost by the hour, the Bills breathed a collective hurricane-force sigh of relief, then took the field as energized and motivated to win as they’ve been all season.
No one more so than one of Hamlin’s newest teammates, Nyheim Hines.
Hines, who came to the Bills from the Colts at the trade deadline, electrified the usual sellout crowd and a huge national TV audience by returning the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.
And then in the third quarter, with the Bills listing a bit against a fired up New England team, he did it again, this time going 101 yards for a go-ahead touchdown which ultimately sent the Bills on their way to a tense, hard-fought 35-23 victory.
The win enabled the Bills to lock up the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs with a 13-3 record. And with the Patriots losing and the Dolphins defeating the Jets, it means Miami will come to Buffalo next weekend for a wild-card game while the Patriots clean out their lockers for the season.
As the No. 2 seed, if the Bills beat the Dolphins in what would be a rubber match for their season series, they will also be home for the divisional round, quite likely against the No. 3 seed Cincinnati Bengals.
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If they were to survive that, they will either host the AFC Championship Game if the opponent is not Kansas City, or will play the Chiefs at a neutral site, with the most talked about venue being Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium.
Once the inactives were released for the 1 p.m. games, it was clear that the Bills were going to need to win to secure the second seed because there would be no help coming from the Ravens in Cincinnati.
The Bengals were declared AFC North champions as soon as the game with Buffalo was canceled, and that meant that the Ravens had almost nothing to play for in their game at Cincinnati.
With quarterback Lamar Jackson still out, the Ravens protected backup Tyler Huntley and started third-stringer Anthony Brown. They also sat star tight end Mark Andrews, running back J.K. Dobbins, cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Brandon Stephens, and guard Kevin Zeitler.
The Ravens waving the white flag, though, ended up not mattering to the proceedings in Buffalo, though, thanks mostly to Hines.
New England gave the Bills all they could handle, but the difference was the two returns by Hines which flipped the script in Buffalo’s favor.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills beat Patriots for Damar Hamlin to lock up AFC No. 2 seed
