Of course, Damar Hamlin got the game ball.
That obvious yet meaningful post-game gesture Sunday by Sean McDermott, head coach of the victorious Buffalo Bills, put an apt capper on an incredible afternoon at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium, on an unprecedented day around the league that saw a hospitalized player honoured everywhere — which capped one of the most emotional, humanity-packed weeks in modern pro sports history, let alone just in the NFL.
Heavy stuff. Emotional stuff. Some say supernatural stuff.
Whatever your views on that, to everyone’s undoubted relief, especially the Bills’, Hamlin now appears fast on the road to recovery, after his heart stopped beating twice Monday night within an hour of sustaining a hard hit to the chest in Buffalo’s ultimately suspended-then-cancelled game at the Bengals.
Normally on the last day of regular-season action, all I’m writing in this space is how various bubble teams either succeeded or failed in grabbing the league’s final playoff spots, or in improving their seeding positions. Because nothing — not even multiple insta-firings of lame-duck head coaches — had ever superseded this end-of-season crescendo of playoff determinations.
But not this Sunday. We’ll get to the playoff lay of the land after the Hamlin dramatics.
THE HAMLIN EFFECT
“We all won,” Hamlin tweeted from his hospital bed in the University of Cincinnati Trauma Center, after his Bills teammates honoured him with a dramatic 35-23 victory over New England, which knocked the Patriots (8-9) out of the playoffs and gave head coach Bill Belichick just his third losing season in 23 years with the Pats.
“I want to give back an ounce of the love y’all showed me,” Hamlin continued, in just one of his numerous Sunday tweets, in announcing sales of T-shirts to benefit both first responders and the UC Trauma Center— which show the now familiar two-handed heart symbol and the now famous words, ‘Did we win,’ which Hamlin first spoke upon regaining consciousness Wednesday night.
It appears Hamlin is fast improving from . The Bills had announced Saturday that the 24-year-old safety, per doctors, continued to “breathe on his own, and his neurological function is excellent.”
It’s too soon, of course, to know whether Hamlin can recover to the extent he can resume his pro football career. Millions of people around the world continue to pray that he can.
The supernatural sure did seem at work Sunday in Buffalo on a few occasions, especially in the opening 14 seconds, when Nyheim Hines of the Bills returned New England’s opening kickoff 96 yards for what CBS’ Jim Nantz screamed was nothing short of “storybook!!!” as some 70,000 Bills fans lost their minds.
That might have seemed exactly what the understandably over-emotional, still-distracted Bills players and coaches needed, so as to focus on the three-hour task at hand, as it was a huge game for the Bills too.
Alas, no. The Bills offence was not sharp, and the Bills defence too often vulnerable, as New England grabbed its first lead, 17-14, midway through the third quarter.
Then what seemed like divine intervention dramatically threw momentum back to the Bills’ side for good. Hines returned the subsequent Patriots kickoff 101 yards for another touchdown, and the Bills never looked back.
It was the first time in more than 30 years any NFL team returned two kickoffs for scores in the same game.
The energy from that second lightning bolt seemed to energize every Bills player and unit. Quarterback Josh Allen began completing jaw-droppers deep and short — seven of his last 11 for 158 yards and two long touchdowns. And the defence stiffened, forcing two punts and two interceptions.
With the win the Bills finished 13-3 and clinched the AFC’s No. 2 seed, behind Kansas City (14-3). Because of a special, single-circumstance playoff provision passed by NFL owners on Friday, should the Bills and Chiefs advance to the AFC championship game, it would be played not at Kansas City but at a neutral stadium to be determined, in fairness because with the Buffalo-Cincinnati game scrubbed the Bills were denied the chance to beat the Bengals and, thus, retain the No. 1 seed by virtue of defeating the Patriots too.
Bills players afterward spoke about the emotional week, and displayed all manner of emotions all told.
Cornerback Tre’Davious White said Hamlin late in the week texted players an apology for having put them through all that. White on Sunday said that baffled him, because they were all just thinking about him, hoping and praying for his recovery. Reporter Matt Parrino of Syracuse.com quoted White as saying he couldn’t wait to the hug the you-know-what out of Hamlin.
In Buffalo’s locker room immediately after the game, via social-media video, Hamlin, from his hospital bed, even broke down the team’s huddle. Recounted an emotional Allen:
“He said, ‘Love you, boys. Bills on three! Bills on me! 1-2-3-, BILLS!’ ”
Heart-tugging stuff.
Highmark Stadium earlier had been chock full of fans showing signs and clothing honouring and encouraging Hamlin. There, as at all 16 NFL stadiums on the weekend, every white-painted digit ‘3’ on the field’s 30-yard markings was outlined in blue, to honour Hamlin, who wears jersey No. 3 in Buffalo blue.
In addition to Bills players and coaches wearing hats or shirts, or raising flags, bearing No. 3, coaches and players at other games performed various uncommon rituals to honour Hamlin too, or offer him prayers, etc., as fans elsewhere stood and cheered for him.
For instance, before the host Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers kicked off at Mile High, each team’s No. 3 — Denver quarterback Russell Wilson, and Los Angeles safety Derwin James — met, hugged and prayed together at midfield, while their respective teammates lined up on the field along the numbers, parallel to each sideline, all to honour Hamlin.
It reportedly had been three years and three months since a Bills player last returned a kickoff for a touchdown, before Hines did it twice on Sunday.
It really was Day 3 around the NFL. What a week!
FINAL AFC PLAYOFF SEEDING
After 1) Kansas City (which walloped Las Vegas 31-13 Saturday) and 2) Buffalo, the AFC playoff order goes as follows:
- 3) Cincinnati (12-4), which fought off AFC North rival Baltimore 27-16;
- 4) Jacksonville (9-8), which edged Tennessee 20-16 Saturday night, only thanks to a late fumble-return touchdown;
- 5) Los Angeles Chargers (10-7), which lost a meaningless game at Denver, 31-28;
- 6) Baltimore (10-7), which plays again at Cincinnati this coming weekend;
- 7) and Miami (9-8), which got in by virtue of New England’s loss at Buffalo, and an ugly win over the visiting New York Jets in a battle of third-string QBs, 11-6, thanks to a last minute field goal and game-ending safety off a failed Jets lateral parade.
The Pittsburgh Steelers (9-8) took care of their business, rallying to thump the awful Cleveland Browns, 28-14, but Miami’s win ended their season, by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaking loss, a mid-season Sunday-night defeat at the Dolphins.
So, In the coming weekend’s three AFC NFC wild-card games, the Dolphins will play at the Bills, the Ravens at the Bengals and the Chargers at the Jaguars.
The NFL had not released the wild-card matchups schedule by mid Sunday evening.
EAGLES FINALLY SECURE TOP NFC SEED
Philadelphia sure made it interesting, but they avoided finishing the season with three straight losses and thus avoided coughing up both the NFC No. 1 seed and NFC East division crown, and also avoided plummeting to the No. 5 seed, by hanging on to defeat a diluted New York Giants roster, 22-16.
The Eagles (14-3) were in command throughout until late, when the Giants rallied to make it nail-bitingly close at the end. The Eagles needed to recover an onside kick to seal victory.
If they’d lost, the streaking San Francisco 49ers (would have snagged the No. 1 seed, for the Niners (13-4) crushed the Arizona Cardinals 38-13. As it was San Fran got the No. 2 seed.
The worst performance Sunday by a playoff-bound team was put forth by the Dallas Cowboys (12-5), who got blown out 26-6 at Washington by a Commanders team quarterbacked by third-string rookie Sam Howell in his NFL debut. How?! Only Dallas could fall so flat.
Minnesota (13-4) got the No. 3 seed after crushing Chicago 29-13.
Tampa Bay (8-9) lost a meaningless game at Atlanta, with the No. 4 seed already locked up. The Bucs pulled Tom Brady and other important starters by the third quarter in a 30-17 loss.
The Giants (9-7-1) could neither improve nor drop from their No. 6 seed, hence star players such as QB Daniel Jones and RB Saquon Barkley did not even dress.
The last NFC playoff berth, the No. 7 seed, was determined in Sunday night’s Detroit at Green Bay game. Seattle’s 19-16 overtime win vs. the Los Angeles Rams improved its record to 9-8 and eliminated the Lions (8-8 before Sunday) from playoff contention. The last berth would go to the Packers if they beat Detroit, otherwise a Lions win, or tie, would send Seattle to the post-season instead, to play at San Francisco this coming weekend. And Detroit’s 20-16 upset victory indeed put the Seahawks in the playoffs.
In the coming weekend’s other two NFC wild-card games, the Giants will play at the Vikings, and Cowboys at Buccaneers.
THE NO. 1 OVERALL DRAFT PICK GOES TO …
Chicago!
The Bears ‘earned’ it by virtue of their loss to the Vikings, coupled with Houston’s insane late comeback victory at Indianapolis, 32-31.
Chicago finished 3-14-1, Houston 3-13-1. The NFL team with the worst record in the 2022 regular season is awarded the 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick.
The Texans just had to play dead one more time to pick first overall this coming April, but head coach Lovie Smith afterward made no apologies for never saying die, not even after blowing leads of 10-0 in the first quarter and 24-14 late in the third quarter, before Indianapolis rally to take a 31-24 lead with 3:33 left.
Texans QB Davis Mills, who was alternately fabulous and dead-eyed awful, drove then drove the Texans 83 yards in 14 plays to score a crazy Hail Mary touchdown with 50 seconds left (28 yards on a 4th-and-20) that drew Houston to within 31-30.
Smith opted to go for two and the win, and Mills completed it for a 32-31 Houston lead.
Colts QB Sam Ehlinger could move Indy only to near midfield before time ran out.
“You play to win (all your lives but) forget that?,” Smith said. “Lose the game on purpose? I think that would be a hard one to get back. (Players) wouldn’t expect me to say that. I didn’t. Each week our game plan has been to win the game. It’s kind of as simple as that.”
No matter, seven hours after the game the Texans fired Smith — the club’s second consecutive one-season-and-out head coach, after David Culley.
John Kryk writes a weekly newsletter on NFL matters. That’s where you can first see his straight-up picks each week. You can have the newsletter automatically dropped into your email inbox on Wednesdays simply by signing up — for free — at https://torontosun.com/newsletters/
@JohnKryk
Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis. Care for a wager? Head to our sports betting section for news and odds.
Post a Comment