(Sports Spectrum) A season Buffalo Bills fans have long been waiting for stayed very much alive on Saturday. The Bills held on for a 27-24 wild-card playoff win over Indianapolis, marking Buffalo’s first postseason victory since 1995. And it came in the first playoff game to take place in Buffalo since 1996.
This year’s Bills won the AFC East for the first time since 1995, as they finished the regular season 13-3 and earned the AFC’s No. 2 seed for the playoffs. Buffalo had been 0-6 in the playoffs since a 37-22 win over Miami on Dec. 30, 1995, a streak that included two postseason losses in the past four years. The fact that the Bills are now regular playoff participants is a big deal, considering they were absent each season from 2000-2016, but finally getting a victory is an even bigger deal.
After losing a 16-0 third-quarter lead last year in a 22-19 overtime loss to Houston in the wild-card round, Bills fans were on edge as the team nearly squandered a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead on Saturday. But instead, Buffalo closed out the victory, its seventh consecutive win this season and longest winning streak since 1990.