In winning potential Super Bowl preview, Bills reassert spot among NFL’s top contenders

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In winning potential Super Bowl preview, Bills reassert spot among NFL’s top contenders

DETROIT — Over the past month, the Buffalo Bills have beaten both of last year’s Super Bowl teams, the betting favorite to win each conference, snapped a 15-game win streak and another team’s 11-game win streak and won the AFC East faster than ever before.

And what does that get them?

“It doesn’t mean nothing,” smiling Bills linebacker Terrel Bernard said, grammar-policing himself to properly execute the double negative, “but it doesn’t mean anything either.”

The Bills proved again Sunday they can withstand any opponent and boast the NFL’s best player at any position — who also happens to play the sport’s most important position — by beating the mighty Detroit Lions 48-42 in Ford Field.

The game wasn’t as close as the gaudy score indicates. Buffalo’s offense was so dominant that Detroit coach Dan Campbell felt compelled to try a desperation onside kickoff just three minutes into the fourth quarter. Buffalo receiver Mack Hollins recovered and returned it to the 5-yard line, sending fans to the exits.

Ford Field had been thumping earlier, the rabid crowd eager for the potential Super Bowl preview between franchises that never have won a Lombardi Trophy. In a rare occurrence for the Bills, their hosts had a true home-field advantage. Bills ****** has grown accustomed to overtaking other stadiums and forcing the home team’s offense to use a silent count.

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Lions fans, however, weren’t willing to part with their tickets for this showdown. They tried to bust the decibel meter.

But they didn’t stay loud or revel for as long as they would’ve liked.

Josh Allen likely cemented the MVP Award by passing for 362 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 68 yards and two scores. He’s the first player since the NFL-AFL merger to average multiple passing and multiple rushing TDs over a three-game span. He completed passes to nine teammates, didn’t commit a turnover and wasn’t sacked.

“It’s the best I’ve seen him play and not surprised,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “When he sets a goal for himself, for the team, he’s hard to stop. People have tried. They’ll keep trying.”

The Bills gained 559 yards, the most in the McDermott era and tied for the fifth most in club history. James Cook rushed for 105 yards and two touchdowns. Ty Johnson, with five catches for 114 yards, became the first Bills running back in 15 seasons to hit triple-digit receiving yards.

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Although the Lions battled to the end and nearly recovered another onside attempt with 11 seconds left, the Bills’ dented defense — minus three-fifths of its starting defensive backfield and linebacker Matt Milano to a second-half groin injury — did enough to outdistance the NFL’s highest-scoring offense. The Lions entered Sunday averaging 151.1 rushing yards while never gaining fewer than 105 in a game. The Bills kept them to 15 carries for 48 yards.

“We got their best shot,” Bernard said. “We started off pretty strong and thought we played well overall, but that’s a really, really good team.

“We emphasized trying to stop the run, and I feel like we came out and did that right away. There’s stuff on the back end we need to clean up once they got into their two-minute offense, but a win is a win.”

Although mostly to polite applause because so many Lions fans had left, Jared Goff amassed prolific stats while operating a hurry-up offense throughout the second half. Now he’s the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for over at least 400 yards and five TDs without an interception and lose.

If that sounds familiar, you remember seven days prior, when the Bills became the first in the all-time history of ever to lose despite scoring at least six touchdowns while committing zero turnovers. Teams are 319-1 with such numbers.

“We came out with an attitude and it showed,” Bills slot cornerback Taron Johnson said. “We learned from last week. We tried to carry that chip on our shoulder, and we need to do that every week. We took it personal.”

Buffalo should pull ahead in most power rankings after winning in Ford Field without safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin (Sunday starter Cole Bishop departed with leg cramps early in the fourth quarter) and cornerback Rasul Douglas. Safeties at the end of the game were Cam Lewis, with one previous start at that position in 2022, and Kareem Jackson, elevated from the practice squad for his first game this year.

The Bills also were unable to practice Thursday because a winter storm made roads around Orchard Park impassable. They held remote meetings on one of the two busiest game preparation days. The Lions, meanwhile, were playing with extra time to rest and prepare, with their previous game Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers.

“I wouldn’t call it statement game,” Bernard said, “but any time you get to play a good team, you measure yourself. We’d seen it on tape, what they’ve done to other teams. So we just saw where we’re at.”

Again, that’s not nothing, yet it’s also not anything.

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Bernard and Johnson were reluctant to consider Detroit more than another game on the schedule, with Johnson emphasizing it’s merely the regular season.

McDermott, though, acknowledged, “you’re talking about kind of rare air up there” when it comes to the teams Buffalo has conquered along the way.

These Bills legitimately can win the Super Bowl. Their offense is good, scary good. They scored 40 points in consecutive games for only the third season, joining their 1990 (first Super Bowl) and 2021 (13 Seconds) editions. They also became the fifth team to hit 30 points in eight consecutive games, joining the 2000 St. Louis Rams, 2007 and 2010 New England Patriots and 2013 Denver Broncos, all of whom had Super Bowl-winning, future Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

The Bills will be tested over their final three games, more by themselves than the teams on their schedule.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes injured his ankle Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, possibly giving the Bills a shot to make up their two-game deficit in the standings and wrest away the AFC’s top seed. The Bills finish with two games against the Patriots and one versus the New York Jets.

The Bills better hope what happened two weeks ago in Los Angeles truly was a wakeup call because it otherwise might be difficult to get jazzed for three games against long-ago postseason-eliminated division also-rans.

“There’s a lot of ball left to be played,” Bernard said. “Hopefully, we continue to build and get better, but I think it just shows when we play our type of ball and come out ready and focused and prepared, we can beat anybody at their best.”

(Top photo of Josh Allen: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)

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