by Tony Fiorello

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 5: Head coach Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills walks the sideline during a game against the New England Patriots during the fourth quarter at the Gillette Stadium on January 5, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The Patriots won 23-16. (Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
Welcome to the 2024 NFL season’s Wild Card Weekend. Here at Buffalo Sports Page we will attempt to inform and educate our readers about the upcoming playoff games and what each team might do to emerge victorious.
One of the AFC’s wild card games will take place at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York as the Buffalo Bills will face the Denver Broncos. Here’s what you should know:

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - NOVEMBER 10: Bo Nix #10 of the Denver Broncos talks with head coach Sean payton during the final minute of the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on November 10, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)
BRONCOS’ OFFENSE HAS SOME WEAPONS
After years of employing head coaches who were better suited as coordinators (Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio and Nathaniel Hackett) and having underwhelming win-loss records as a result, Broncos general manager George Paton and owners Rob Walton and Greg Penner had enough. To bring credibility back to their franchise, they hired former Super Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton from the New Orleans Saints two years ago to bring one of the most explosive attacks in pro football to the Mile High City.
After two years of experimenting with Russell Wilson, Payton and company moved on (with a giant salary cap hit to boot) and drafted Bo Nix from Oregon this past spring. Nix possesses good ball placement with a strong arm (and is an aggressive downfield thrower but will take checkdowns) and has executed passing concepts with defined reads.
Nix is also intelligent – he called his offensive line’s pass protections in college – mobile and has good pocket poise but will sometimes bail out of a clean pocket. He also doesn’t like to climb up in the pocket to escape pressure, instead he’ll try to roll out to his right side.
For the most part Payton’s passing game, while at its core a West Coast offense, is built through having big, physical targets who can get open over the middle of the field, especially on deep in-cuts, or “dig” routes. Payton has employed such players before like Marques Colston, Jimmy Graham and Michael Thomas, and 6’4” wide receiver Courtland Sutton certainly fits the bill. The speedy Marvin Mims Jr. is the wideout opposite him and is dangerous in space (the Broncos will use him in motion and even line him up in the backfield to create mismatches). Another speed merchant is rookie slot receiver Troy Franklin and Adam Trautman is the starter at tight end.
Running back Javonte Williams is underrated by most across the NFL. A short, sturdy running back who has good balance and vision, Williams can take a pounding between the tackles and can also make plays in the passing game. Ditto that of backup Jaleel McLaughlin, who is used liberally on checkdowns and screens, and on inside runs, misdirection plays and draws. Denver’s starting offensive line is made up of Garett Boles – who was victimized by multiple holding penalties early in his career, but has since improved – Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz and ex-San Franciso 49er Mike McGlinchey.
Additionally, Payton likes to have his offense line up in base personnel with a fullback and tight end split out wide with their top two wideouts in the slot to create mismatches against linebackers and safeties. He will also use post-wheel route combinations (or any type of vertical routes) to clear out zone defenders deep while his running backs pick apart linebackers underneath on option routes, and also likes four-by-one sets to defeat man coverage and vertical shots down the field off play-action.
Denver ended the 2024 season 19th in total offense, 20th in passing, 16th in rushing but were 10th in scoring, seventh in red zone percentage and allowed the third-least amount of sacks in the NFL.

CINCINNATI, OHIO - DECEMBER 28: Ja'Marr Chase #1 of the Cincinnati Bengals lines up for a play against Pat Surtain II #2 of the Denver Broncos in the second quarter at Paycor Stadium on December 28, 2024 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
DENVER’S DEFENSE TALENTED
One of the Broncos’ ex-head coaches, the previously mentioned Joseph, is back in Denver to run Payton’s defense and he leads a 3-4 unit that has some talented parts. Joseph usually prefers to use single high coverages (Cover One and Three) on the back end and bring various blitzes up front, but he’s tried to mesh his preferred schemes with the approach used by former Broncos employees Fangio, Ed Donatell and Ejiro Evero.
Relying on a four-man pass rush with stunts, twists and slants and two-deep safety looks often, the system heavily employs well-disguised hybrid coverages that feature man and zone concepts – especially Cover Four, or “quarters”, with each defensive back dividing the field into fourths and matchup principles to take away vertical concepts. While the Broncos are a base 3-4, Joseph (and his predecessors before him) will also mix in dime versus the pass, and he does a great job with safety and coverage rotations in long passing situations.
This approach has been gaining in popularity in recent years throughout the NFL. According to Smart Football’s Chris B. Brown, “It’s the most important defensive scheme of the past decade…. At first glance, Cover 4 looks like an anti-pass prevent tactic, with four secondary defenders playing deep. But therein lies its magic. The four defenders are actually playing a matchup zone concept, in which the safety reads the tight end or inside receiver. If an offensive player lined up inside releases on a short pass route or doesn’t release into the route, the safety can help double-team the outside receiver. If the inside receiver breaks straight downfield, it becomes more like man coverage.
“This variance keeps quarterbacks guessing and prevents defenses from being exploited by common pass plays like four verticals, which killed eight-man fronts. The real key to Cover 4, however, is that against the run both safeties become rush defenders (remember, the outside cornerbacks play deep). This allows defenses to play nine men in the box against the run – a hat-tip to the 46’s overwhelming force.”
Denver’s secondary is the strength of this unit. and cornerback Patrick Surtain II has become every bit as good of a defensive back as his father, Patrick Surtain Sr., was and the Broncos use him as a matchup corner. The inconsistent Riely Moss is the starter opposite him and Ja’Quan McMillian is the nickel. The underrated tandem of Brandon Jones (a good run defender) and P.J. Locke are the safeties.
The Broncos’ front seven is also vastly overlooked. Zach Allen, D.J. Jones, John Franklin-Myers, Jonathon Cooper and Nik Bonitto are the starters up front, and the latter two each had double-digit sacks (Bonitto is athletic and can be used to spy quarterbacks). This defense has one crucial weakness – at inside linebacker. Alex Singleton, who is savvy and quick, is injured and his replacement is Justin Strnad, who can blitz but can’t cover very well (hence his main responsibility, special teams). Counterpart Cody Barton isn’t a great athlete and like Strnad, doesn’t have much speed. Misdirection can be deadly versus them.
Denver ended the regular season first in the league in sacks and passes batted at the line of scrimmage, seventh in total yards, 19th against the pass, third against the run and in points allowed and tied for seventh in turnovers. They were also 8-0 against teams with a losing record but just 2-7 versus ones with a winning mark.

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 05: Von Miller #40 of the Buffalo Bills sacks Drake Maye #10 of the New England Patriots during the first quarter at Gillette Stadium on January 05, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Getty Images)
BUFFALO’S DEFENSE USUALLY ELITE, BUT UNDERGOING CHANGES IN 2024
For most of head coach Sean McDermott’s time in Buffalo, the Bills’ defense has been one of the league’s best. Points allowed (fourth in the NFL in that category in 2023), total yards per game allowed (ninth), passing yards given up (seventh), rushing yards surrendered (15th), takeaways (third), interceptions (tied for fourth) and sacks (fourth, tied for second-most in their history with the 2014 team) have generally been the categories that the Bills have excelled at over the years, with last season’s sack total being the best in the McDermott era.
2024, however, has been a year of transition for the Bills on defense. Due to age and salary cap complications, out the door are longtime veterans such as Jordan Poyer and Tyrel Dodson (Miami Dolphins), Tre’Davious White (Baltimore Ravens), Leonard Floyd (San Francisco 49ers, who had 10.5 sacks a year ago – the most of any Bill since Lorenzo Alexander in 2016), Linval Joseph (Dallas Cowboys), Tim Settle (Houston Texans), Kaylon “Poona” Ford (Los Angeles Chargers), Dane Jackson (Carolina Panthers) and Shaq Lawson.
Including names from the past such as Kyle Williams, Marcel Dareus, Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison, Star Lotulelei, Carlos “Boogie” Basham, Trent Murphy, Vernon Butler, Justin Zimmer, Efe Obada and Harrison Phillips, that’s a lot of turnover over the last eight years – none more so than this past offseason. The answer, according to McDermott, general manager Brandon Beane and new defensive coordinator Bobby Babich (who has called plays this season for the first time) is youth and cheap veterans to provide cost-effective depth.
Some of those younger players – albeit young veterans since they are in their fourth and fifth professional seasons, respectively – who have been asked to take on a greater role include Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa, who can line up both on the edge and go inside in passing situations. Da’Quan Jones, perhaps their best run-stuffing lineman, is back healthy after tearing a pectoral muscle against Jacksonville last October and is effective on T-T stunts with Ed Oliver, an excellent gap penetrator.
They are backed up by versatile free agent pickups Austin Johnson (who comes from the Chargers after stints with the Tennessee Titans and the New York Giants), Dawuane Smoot (Jacksonville Jaguars) and Casey Toohill (Washington Commanders) along with rookies DeWayne Carter and Javon Solomon. Toohill is a special teamer who reminds some of a more athletic Trent Murphy due to his length, height and movement skills while Solomon has been compared to a younger Elvis Dumervil with his lack of height yet long arms and strength and explosiveness off the edge. Carter and Smoot, while healthy now, were both injured early in the season which led the Bills to bring back two familiar faces in Jordan Phillips and Quinton Jefferson.
Over the years Buffalo has been inconsistent in two areas – creating a consistent pass rush (last year not withstanding) and, from time to time, stopping the run. The run issues are mainly caused by poor tackling (their missed and broken tackle percentage has been among the highest in the NFL over the years), a lack of gap integrity, inefficient communication and an inability to handle motion (which causes issues with leverage, spacing and run fits). They also gave up 4.6 yards a carry on inside runs last year, 30th in the NFL. Another issue was the Bills giving up tying or go-ahead drives in the final two minutes in four of their six losses last year – meaning they struggled to close out games.
Beyond improving against the run, the Bills had also lacked an elite pass rusher off the edge who could command double teams on a consistent basis since Mario Williams was employed 10 years ago. With that in mind, two years ago Beane signed future Hall of Famer Von Miller. But Miller suffered a torn ACL after putting up eight sacks in 11 games and missed the first four games of last season while recovering on the PUP list. He’s healthy now and was on a snap count as he shook off the rust (although by his own admission he shouldn’t have played in 2023) but has provided flashes of his old All-Pro ability and speed – while his sack total isn’t high, he’s created numerous pressures as evidenced by his pass rush win rate.
Schematically the Bills’ defense mostly relies on basic zones after the snap (they’re usually among the top units in the NFL in usage of coverages with two high safeties such as Cover Two, Four and Six, although they used more single-high coverages against the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams so they could put more bodies in the box to stop the run and to limit communication) but before the snap it is complex. Safety rotations to disguise their intentions keep opposing quarterbacks guessing and selective pressure looks at the line of scrimmage and coverage exchanges are the team’s calling cards.
Those blitz looks usually happen in the A-gaps with the smaller, but smart, speedy and athletic Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard (who replaced the departed Tremaine Edmunds last year) to confuse opposing offensive lines and quarterbacks, but Buffalo rarely sends five or more pass rushers – their favorite blitz tactic besides A-gappers are four-man zone exchanges. Bernard has become a good blitzer and coverage ‘backer – his 6.5 sacks in 2023 were the most by an off-the-ball linebacker in Bills annals and he became the first NFL player since Seth Joyner in 1991 with six sacks, three picks and three fumble recoveries in a season. He is also adept at being used as a quarterback spy.
For the second straight year, Milano suffered a major injury – this time a torn bicep – but is now back and presumably healthy. When he missed time earlier this year, backup Dorian Williams picked up the slack. The Bills struggled to defend the run well last year because of a lack of experience by Williams – he displayed flashes of quickness and burst but was slow to key and diagnose at the line of scrimmage. He also took many false steps and needed to process better while in coverage, but is athletic, long and fluid, and has improved with more experience game by game.
Additional depth comes from Baylon Spector (currently injured) and rookie Joe Andreessen. Andreessen, a University at Buffalo product who hails from nearby Lancaster, showed excellent diagnostic skills at the line of scrimmage in the preseason while also displaying strong hands, a quick downhill trigger that allows him to shoot gaps well and some speed and range. It helps that the rookie played in a similar role as Milano while in college.
The Bills mainly utilize nickel personnel, as evidenced by Buffalo using five defensive backs between 90 and 100 percent of their snaps since 2020. They used more dime personnel after Milano’s injury last year with three safeties to help offset his loss in pass coverage, and that setup featured Micah Hyde and ex-Ram Taylor Rapp on the back end and Poyer near the line of scrimmage.
The Bills’ safety position is now manned by Rapp, who is better playing near the line of scrimmage, the rangy and physical but inconsistent Damar Hamlin, veteran Kareem Jackson – who brings a wealth of experience and can play in the box or on the back end – Hyde and rookie Cole Bishop, who is an underrated and cerebral athlete. Hyde (who recently re-signed with the team after weighing retirement) and Jackson are on the practice squad.
At the boundary cornerback spots replacing White and Jackson are Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas and they are backed up by the tall and physical Ja’Marcus Ingram and Kaiir Elam, who has underwhelmed so far as a pro. Douglas, an ex-Green Bay Packer and Philadelphia Eagle, has great size and length, is versatile and a gambler – he can take chances because he understands route combinations very well (he led the NFL in takeaways last year with six after he was acquired). Slot corner Taron Johnson remains elite – especially in in the quickness and tackling departments – and he’s backed up by tweener Cam Lewis, who can also fill in at safety.
McDermott and Babich have been experimenting with some tactical tweaks in the wake of so many players nursing various bumps and bruises. Against Detroit, they used some different fronts, matched personnel instead of rolling out strictly nickel and blitzed and loaded the box far more often. It may be the norm going forward, as they limited Detroit to just 48 yards rushing.
2024 saw the Bills end the regular season 11th in points allowed, 12th against the run, 17th in total yards, tied for 18th in sacks and 24th versus the pass. They were also 29th in third down percentage and gave up the most completions, yards and touchdowns in the NFL on screen plays. However, they were third in takeaways and were fifth-best in allowing plays of 20 yards or more.

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 05: Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills talks to teammates during the first quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on January 05, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
BILLS’ UPPER-ECHELON OFFENSE ALSO RETOOLING IN 2024
For five consecutive seasons, the Bills have boasted one of the NFL’s elite offenses for the first time since the K-Gun was running roughshod over the league more than 30 years ago. Led by quarterback Josh Allen’s improved processing skills, ball placement, patience within the pocket and touch on passes and a cadre of gifted pass-catchers, those factors allowed Buffalo to become one of the most feared attacks in pro football (last year Allen was fourth in passing yards and tied for fifth in passing touchdowns while tying for third in rushing scores – leading the league in total yards and touchdowns in the process. This year Allen was ninth in passer rating and rushing touchdowns and tied for seventh in passing scores).
In 2023 the Bills were sixth in scoring, fourth in total yards, seventh in rushing and eighth in passing. They were also fifth in red zone efficiency, yet their offense performed poorly over a six-game stretch where they averaged just 20.5 points per game. It resulted in then-offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey getting the boot in favor of quarterbacks coach and former Carolina Panthers play-caller Joe Brady.
Like their defensive counterparts, the Bills are going through changes on this side of the ball because of age, the salary cap and a new coordinator. With Brady taking over the role full-time, the biggest philosophical question on offense for Buffalo will be how to retain elements of what made them so good in the first place while adding in new and fresh concepts.
Between 2018 and last year, Buffalo’s offense was an Erhardt-Perkins system brought in from New England by then-coordinator Brian Daboll. It was built upon concepts involving option and crossing routes from the slot, downfield routes from the outside, run-pass options (especially in the red zone), designed quarterback runs to take advantage of Allen’s mobility and alignments that create favorable matchups and some trick plays with jet/orbit motion and sweeps. It was mostly out of “11” personnel groupings (one back, one tight end and three wide receivers) and “10” personnel (one back, no tight ends, four receivers) – and would also go no-huddle from time to time to limit the opposition’s defensive calls.
The Bills’ multi-receiver sets were traditionally their offensive calling card. In 2020 they used four wide receivers or more 155 times – the second-most in the NFL at the time – and they utilized someone in motion on 43 percent of their offensive snaps, a huge increase from their 25 percent rate in 2019. Daboll, now the head coach of the New York Giants, also called for a passing play on 64 percent of their first downs, according to ESPN Stats and Information (no team with a winning record in the prior 20 years did it more than Buffalo) and that rate continued in 2021 and ’22 with “11” personnel used on nearly three-quarters of their plays.
Daboll’s successor, Ken Dorsey, got away from some of those concepts and tried to rely on the talent at his disposal winning one-on-one matchups instead of having the scheme help them get open. Once Brady was promoted, the Bills returned to them. He also included more under-center formations and play-action (which can still stand to increase after being a top-four team in run-fakes in 2020 and ’21), pre-snap shifts, motions and designed passes to running backs and route combinations with defined reads for Allen so he can play within timing and structure.
Brady got his start in the NFL working for the New Orleans Saints and then-coach Sean Payton. Payton himself came from a melting pot of a background including stints running the Erhardt-Perkins scheme for Bill Parcells in Dallas and learning the West Coast offense from Jim Fassel in New York with the Giants and from Jon Gruden during their one-year stint together in Philadelphia in 1997, so Brady will bring a similar approach to the table while likely keeping some things the same in Buffalo.
Their biggest transaction on offense in the spring was trading the aging Stefon Diggs to Houston. Diggs, while never a burner on the outside, was an exceptional route runner who specialized in making contested catches and operated well out of bunch and stack formations – leading him to re-write many of the Bills’ single season receiving records.
In addition to Diggs, Buffalo has let veterans like Gabriel Davis, John Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley, Isaiah McKenzie, Jamison Crowder, Trent Sherfield and Deonte Harty walk over the years. Many of them were productive, but nothing can last forever – hence the overhaul of the Bills’ wide receiver room in 2024.
The Payton offense is built through having big, physical targets who can get open over the middle of the field, especially on deep in-cuts, or “dig” routes. Payton has employed such players in those roles before like Marques Colston, Jimmy Graham, Michael Thomas and Courtland Sutton, and the drafting of rookie Keon Coleman from Florida State fits the bill for Brady. Coleman, whose game evoked comparisons to Colston, Brandon Marshall and Anquan Boldin coming out of college, brings size and physicality to the boundary ‘X’ position with good body control and strong hands to make contested catches and has some run after the catch ability. He does need to work on his speed, quickness and ability to beat press coverage, but in time he may improve in those areas.
While not a burner at the position (like free agent pickup Mack Hollins, who has similar skills), Coleman will be accentuated by speed in the form of Curtis Samuel, a poor-man’s Mecole Hardman who can line up both in the slot and outside the numbers and take handoffs. That speed was needed since Buffalo was just 28th in the NFL in plays of 20 yards or more last season according to Trumedia, and shifty third-year pass-catcher Khalil Shakir returns to man the slot with his quickness, sure hands and savviness to get open versus zone coverage.
This group had been struggling to beat man coverage at the beginning of the season, and while Brady used more ‘rub’ concepts and bunch and stack alignments to help in this regard Buffalo was lacking a true replacement for Diggs. Enter five-time Pro Bowler Amari Cooper, who was acquired from the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a third-round draft pick in 2025. Cooper, who is making less than a million dollars this season, fits what the Bills need both financially and on the field – boasting size, speed, excellent route-running and vertical ability and is deadly on in-breaking patterns over the middle.
Tight end Dawson Knox is joined by second-year man Dalton Kincaid, and their diverse skillsets should allow the Bills to throw curveballs at opponents with multiple tight end sets. Kincaid lived up to the hype with 73 receptions a year ago, the most of any Bills rookie and surpassed Pete Metzelaars for the most catches by a Bills tight end in one season. He also became the fourth rookie tight end since 1960 with 70 or more catches in a year.
The Bills’ offensive line is composed of Dion Dawkins, David Edwards, Connor McGovern (taking over at center for the departed Mitch Morse), O’Cyrus Torrence and Spencer Brown. This crew – which last year became the first unit to start every game in a regular season for Buffalo since 1989 – along with fullback Reggie Gilliam has mainly executed outside zone runs along with zone-reads, pin-and-pull concepts, traps (especially with Dawkins as the puller), counters, sweeps, split inside zone/duo and sprint draw plays sprinkled in for running back James Cook. Cook, who had a breakout season in his first campaign as the starter, is backed up by physical rookie Ray Davis and ex-Jet Ty Johnson provides valuable depth with his receiving skills.
The starting front five had been iffy in providing push in the running game and in pass protection over the last couple of years but has since become a strength. In the past, most of the team’s rushing production came from Allen’s legs and few came from their backs – the Bills’ rushing attempts per game in 2022, 18.2, was last in the NFL but that number jumped to the highest in the NFL after Brady was promoted. In 2023 Allen was taken down just 24 times overall in 17 regular season outings, the best mark in pro football, and the team again led the league in least sacks allowed with just 14 this year (tied for the sixth-least since 2000).
Buffalo has also carried over their trend of using an extra offensive lineman to help in the running game. Now that Edwards has moved into the starting lineup, that extra guy is Alec Anderson, and the Bills had the highest rate of offensive snaps with six linemen on the field – with most of them being called runs, and were near the top of the NFL in yards per carry and yards per play with six linemen.
Another area the Bills needed to clean up is protecting the ball. Over the last two years they were one the league’s sloppiest teams – Allen had 14 interceptions and 13 fumbles in 2022 and Allen led the NFL with 18 interceptions last year. This year Allen cut down on his interception total significantly with just six – a sign of progress in this regard (Allen became the third signal caller in NFL history to start a season with 10 touchdowns and no picks through his team’s first seven games).
In fact, the Bills tied the league record for fewest turnovers in a season with just eight (with the 2019 Saints). They became the first team ever with less than 15 sacks allowed and fewer than 15 turnovers in the same season. Buffalo ended the 2024 regular season second in points scored, 10th in total yards and ninth in rushing and passing, and also became the first team to ever have 30 passing and 30 rushing touchdowns in one season.
While punter Sam Martin and kicker Tyler Bass have been excellent in the past, Bass has been a bit shaky lately. When Martin was named the NFL’s Special Teams Player of the Month in December 2023 – the first Bills punter to do so since Brian Moorman in November 2006 – and Bass collected the same honor earlier in the year, it was the first time both Bills specialists have won the award in one season.
But Bass’ field goal percentage took a dip last year and he hasn’t been great in 2024. To improve he will need to get over whatever is impeding him, but he did hit a franchise-record 61-yard field goal to beat Miami and is eight-for-eight on field goals in the last minute of the fourth quarter or overtime in his career.
McDermott and Brady cost themselves a win against the Texans while trying to throw three successive times within their own three-yard line with less than a minute to go and no timeouts. With Houston having all three of their timeouts, three straight runs would have forced Houston to burn them to get the ball back – meaning they wouldn’t have had one to use to stop the clock to set up a game-winning field goal, which happened. According to ESPN, the Bills became the only team in the last 45 years to be tied or winning in the last minute of the game, inside their own five-yard line and threw three straight passes.
They also botched three situations against the Rams – declining a penalty midway through the game that likely would have forced L.A. to punt, calling a running play when trying to tie the game late (and wasting a timeout in the process) and having just nine men on the field on the final play when trying to return a punt. They’ll need to learn from these miscues going forward.

FOXBOROUGH, MA - JANUARY 05: Buffalo Bills running back James Cook (4) carries during a game between the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills on January 5, 2025, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
12 STATS TO MUSE OVER
· The Bills have compiled a road winning percentage of .653 (32-17) since 2019. Conversely, since 2020 Buffalo has the best home record in the NFL – 40-9 including playoffs.
· The Bills also have 11 straight home wins, the second-longest streak in team annals behind a 15-game stretch between 1990-91, and they went undefeated at home this year for the first time since ’90.
· Allen is one score away from surpassing Thurman Thomas for first all-time in Bills annals in rushing touchdowns. He’s also had 40 combined scores for the fifth straight year – no other quarterback has done it more than three times (Drew Brees from 2011-13).
· According to Trumedia, the Bills faced man coverage on 32.7 percent of their snaps last year – the most in the NFL. However, heavy usage of man coverage isn’t foreign to the Bills’ offense. It’s been a staple against them over the last five years (48 percent in 2019, first, 35 in ’20, fifth, 33.3 in ’21, fourth and 29.3 in ’22, fifth), and it’s been no different in 2024 as they have gone against man coverage on one of the highest figures in the NFL.
· Buffalo also faced eight-man boxes 32 percent of the time, the most in the NFL according to Cover 1’s Erik Turner. It’s a stark contrast to the last four years in which they went against them 16 percent of the time in 2020 (32nd), 18.6 in ’21 (27th), 20.4 in ’22 (20th) and 19.9 in ’23 (19th).
· Miller is vying to be the second player to win a Super Bowl with three different teams (Matt Millen was the first).
· Cook has tied O.J. Simpson for the most rushing touchdowns in one season by a Bill (16 in 1975) and also tied Baltimore’s Derrick Henry and Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs for the most in the NFL. He’s also found the end zone from 40 yards away four times this year on the ground – no other Bills running back has ever done so.
· The Bills scored 30 points or more 12 total times in 2024 (tied for the second-most in one season all-time) and have become the highest scoring team in franchise history. Buffalo has also become the first team ever with 30 passing and 30 rushing touchdowns in one season.
· January 12 will mark the 33-year anniversary of the only other time the Bills and Broncos met in the postseason – the 1991 AFC Championship Game, in which Buffalo won 10-7.
· McDermott is 11-4 all-time against rookie quarterbacks. Payton, meanwhile, is 1-5 on the road all-time in the playoffs.
· This year’s Bills are the first 13-win team to have one or fewer players named an Associated Press All-Pro.
· Buffalo tied the franchise record for wins in a season with 13and are 15-5 all-time at home in postseason play.
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