Sophia Michaels
The Buffalo Bills are a pretty vanilla football team, which has worked out pretty well for them this season. Buffalo was rock solid all year, going 10-6 and securing a spot in the Wild Card, giving the franchise its second playoff berth this century.
While the team made it to the postseason in 2017, their one game was a gross affair in which they did not score a touchdown against the Jaguars. That won’t be the case this time around, as the Bills put together one hell of an opening drive to take an early lead on the Houston Texans on Wild Card Saturday thanks to some trickery.
Buffalo marched the ball down the field effortlessly on its first handful of plays, and facing a second-and-6 from the Houston 16, the team decided to go deep into the playbook and bust out a trick play. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll called for an end around out of the pistol, which led to Josh Allen flipping the ball to John Brown. With the defense focusing on Brown, Allen slipped behind everyone, which gave the receiver an easy throw and the quarterback his first career touchdown reception.
Again, the Bills like to run the ball and put Allen in positions to make smart throws, so it was fascinating to watch them throw this sort of haymaker so early (although Brown did throw for a touchdown earlier this season). There’s a lot of football to go in this one, but this is quite the start for the underdog.
Written by: Uproxx
