USA Today

‘The AFC championship, for much of the night, wasn’t close.’

‘In roughly 14 hours after the game ended, Blessings in a Backpack received 5,500 individual donations from Bills fans totaling nearly $150,000, according to chief marketing officer Nikki Grizzle, who got her latest update around 1 p.m. ET.’

‘Jackson couldn’t lead the Ravens to as much as a touchdown against a much-maligned Bills defense that kept him bottled up in the pocket for much of the night. And when Jackson drove the Ravens to their best opportunity to score a touchdown in the third quarter that might have tied the game, the game changed just like that.’

‘The Bills will need to continue winning games like this, while also seizing the opportunity presented with New England’s post-Tom Brady transition, before power is truly shifted. Yet with a third playoff berth on the horizon in coach Sean McDermott’s fourth season, they sure seem to be trending in that direction.’

‘Norman, 33, has played in three games with the Bills, including two starts. He’s broken up a pair of passes, forced a fumble and recovered two while recording 18 tackles (16 solo). The 2015 All-Pro had spent the last four seasons with Washington, but the organization cut him in February.’

‘”Honestly, the fans built this entire movement,” Reid said in the video. “We built this movement. The team is now embracing it. It’s surreal. It’s like a dream come true. We’ve always said: ‘Mafia means family’ so it’s investing in each other and building each other up and supporting the team and all of that because in Western New York, the Buffalo Bills are the extra family member in every household.”‘

‘If the game is played Tuesday, it would be only the second contest since 1946 to be played on that day of the week. The Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles played a Tuesday game in December 2010 after a blizzard forced postponement of their previous date.’

‘“The mentality changed,” McDermott said. “Leslie dialed up some good defenses in the second half and the guys responded.”’

‘During the outage, CBS broadcast the action from the Broncos-Steelers game while it worked to resolve the issue.’

‘Since Byron Brown took office as Buffalo’s mayor on Jan. 1, 2006, the New England Patriots are 25-3 against the Buffalo Bills. For the last two decades, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the rest of the Pats dynasty rolled over their AFC East rivals with little resistance.’

‘Diggs, 26, had a turbulent run in Minnesota. A fifth-round pick out of Maryland in 2015, he quickly exceed expectations and became one of the league’s most dynamic threats. In a divisional playoff game against the New Orleans Saints in the 2017 season, his 61-yard, last-second touchdown vaulted the Vikings to the NFC championship game in a play later labeled the “Minneapolis Miracle.”‘

‘Allen largely has shown flashes in his second season, but he has lacked consistency as a passer. Saturday, however, he did a much better job of using his legs to enhance his passing game. But Allen’s made costly mistakes that prevented his team from putting the game away.’

‘When quarterback Josh Allen does well, the Bills typically do, too. Look at Allen’s numbers in the 10 victories Buffalo posted (64.9 % completion rate, 7.4 yards per attempt, 15 touchdowns, six interceptions, 95.9 QB rating) compared to his numbers in Buffalo’s six losses (48.6 % completion rate, 5.5 yards per attempt, five touchdowns, three interceptions, 67.8 QB rating). Obviously, a quarterback’s performance is a big predictor of success in any given game, but if Allen is able to find checkdowns and avoid forcing throws, the Bills’ chances of pulling off the upset should be much higher.’

‘”Football meant a lot to him, it was very obvious,” said Laycock, who made McDermott a graduate assistant at W&M in 1998. A year later, he was a 25-year-old at the bottom of the professional rung on Andy Reid’s first Philadelphia Eagles staff. “There wasn’t any question in my mind that he had what it took to be a coach — the work ethic, the intelligence, the ability to get along with people, decision-making, all those things.”‘

‘The Bills’ No. 32 jersey was never one of their three officially retired numbers, but it was always synonymous with Simpson, who was drafted first overall in the 1969 draft by Buffalo and spent nine years with the franchise. Simpson is on the Bills’ Wall of Fame.’