ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — For the previous two weeks, the Buffalo Payments have tried to hold on, even when doing so felt infeasible. Since Damar Hamlin collapsed on the sphere on Jan. 2 after going into cardiac arrest, the Payments have performed two extra video games, every time with one thing on the road.
After a 34-31 win towards the Miami Dolphins within the wild-card spherical on Sunday, the crew will play on.
As they push ahead, the Payments have been buoyed by the regular progress their teammate has made. After they took the sphere on Sunday, lastly underneath sunny skies, they did so underneath the most effective circumstances since Hamlin’s medical emergency in a sport towards the Bengals. After every week in an intensive care unit in Cincinnati and two extra days in a Buffalo hospital, Hamlin was capable of watch Sunday’s sport at house.
“Supporting from house as I concentrate on my restoration,” Hamlin wrote in a social media put up shortly earlier than the sport started. “Nothing I would like greater than to be on the market with them!”
In some methods, Sunday’s sport felt like extra of a typical playoff environment, with indicators taunting the rival Dolphins intermingled with these exhibiting assist for Hamlin. It didn’t begin with fairly the identical magic because the earlier week, when, on the primary play since Hamlin’s collapse, Nyheim Hines returned the opening kickoff 96 yards for a landing.
Extra on Damar Hamlin’s Collapse
On Saturday, Matt Milano, the Payments’ All-Professional linebacker, posted to social media a photograph that appeared to indicate Hamlin visiting the crew amenities for the primary time since his collapse. Hamlin was smiling and becoming a member of fingers with Dean Marlowe, the participant who changed him within the beginning lineup. Within the sport’s first quarter, Marlowe intercepted Dolphins quarterback Skylar Thompson, serving to the Payments construct an early 17-0 lead.
Final week, the Payments cleared the emotional hurdle of taking part in their first sport since Hamlin was taken off the sphere in an ambulance. This week’s problem, although — and the challenges awaiting them for the remainder of their postseason run — can’t be underestimated. The playoffs are an exhausting gantlet even in the most effective of circumstances, not to mention for gamers who witnessed a teammate struggle for his life throughout a nationally televised occasion.
The Payments have been double-digit favorites for this wild-card matchup towards a crew they’d crushed by solely 3 factors almost a month in the past. However the final time these A.F.C. East division opponents met, Tua Tagovailoa was the Dolphins’ beginning quarterback. Tagovailoa didn’t make the journey to upstate New York on Sunday, sitting out his third sport since struggling his second identified concussion of the season, after slamming his head towards the turf throughout a Christmas Day sport towards the Inexperienced Bay Packers.
However even with Thompson, their third-string quarterback, on the helm, and with main rusher Raheem Mostert out and receiver Jaylen Waddle injured in the course of the sport, the Dolphins mounted a robust problem towards the Payments.
Early on, the Dolphins seemed overmatched. On the Payments’ second drive, receiver Stefon Diggs beat prime Miami cornerback Xavien Howard downfield on a 52-yard catch deep in Dolphins territory. Then, Dawson Knox caught a 6-yard landing go from Josh Allen in the identical nook of the top zone the place Payments legend Fred Jackson had led a pregame “Let’s Go Buffalo!” chant, carrying Hamlin’s No. 3 jersey.
Marlowe’s interception adopted two performs later.
However Miami erased the Payments’ early lead thanks partially to 2 interceptions of Allen, and early within the third quarter, the Dolphins took a 24-20 lead on one other Allen turnover. Security Eric Rowe got here across the finish of the Payments’ line unblocked and jarred the ball free, then defensive deal with Zach Sieler recovered it for a landing.
A turning level for Buffalo got here halfway by means of the third quarter, when Payments security Kaiir Elam intercepted Thompson, who was backed up in his personal finish zone. The Payments scored off that turnover and adopted with one other landing, Allen’s second and third of the sport.
Allen completed with 352 passing yards on a 23 of 39 efficiency.
The Dolphins stayed in it almost till the top. After Miami did not convert a fourth down at midfield simply outdoors the two-minute warning, the Payments lastly secured the win, albeit anticlimactically. Buffalo ran the ball twice to arrange a third-and-7 run, and after a prolonged assessment, officers upheld the spot for a primary down that allowed the Payments to kneel out the clock.