Drama with 28 seconds left
Bills’ shot at luck prevents the first Christmas fairy tale
December 24, 2023, 10:06 a.m
Just seconds before the end of the game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Buffalo Bills secured an important success in the NFL – and thus prevented a real Christmas miracle. Bills quarterback Josh Allen sets an NFL record. The Steelers are closing in on the Bengals.
In the USA they like to talk about the “Christmas miracle”. This year the first one almost happened shortly before Christmas Eve, because the Buffalo Bills, who are still hoping to win their AFC East, were long behind against the Los Angeles Chargers, who had already been eliminated. The team from California fired coach Brandon Staley nine days ago in frustration due to a miserable performance this season and installed Giff Smith as interim coach: an extremely surprising move, because the 55-year-old had never coached an NFL team before, not even once as an offensive or defensive coach, but ultimately just the outside linebackers.
However, the Bills have now prevented Smith and the Chargers’ Christmas fairytale and have recorded an important victory in the race for a place in the NFL playoffs despite a weak performance. On Saturday (local time), after many mistakes, the team around quarterback Josh Allen narrowly won with 24:22 (14:10) against the Chargers and achieved their ninth win in the 15th game of the season. The Bills want to reach the finals of the American Football League for the fifth consecutive season.
Allen also impressed along the way. The 27-year-old playmaker threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Davis and ran into the end zone twice himself. In total, Allen scored 40 touchdowns this season – he became the first player in NFL history to do so in four seasons in a row.
Steelers surprise Bengals
Shortly before the end, things got dramatic – and Buffalo’s kicker Tyler Bass and not Josh Allen became the match winner. With 28 seconds left in the game, Bass hit a 29-yard field goal to make the final score 24:22. Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker had previously made three of his five field goals in the fourth quarter and brought Los Angeles back into the game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers also maintained their minimal playoff chances; after a 34:11 (24:0) home win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Steelers drew level with the Bengals in the AFC North with a record of eight wins and seven defeats.
Mason Rudolph, actually only the Steelers’ third quarterback behind the injured Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky, started an NFL game for the first time in more than two years and impressed with two touchdown passes and a total of 290 yards thrown.