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"He makes plays that I've never seen before" | Josh Allen's heroics secure playoff-clinching win for Bills

1217 From the Locker Room

Just when it looked like the first half was over, Bills quarterback Josh Allen was there to prove otherwise.

With eight seconds left until halftime, Allen found himself in a tough situation with time ticking down to make a play and not a lot of options for the ball to go. But RB James Cook dug Allen out of that position and got open in the end zone for a buzzer-beater touchdown which gave the Bills a 21-13 lead heading into the second half.

"It's either a really good play or a really stupid play," Allen said. "I'm just thankful he (Cook) came back to the ball and made a play on it. I threw it and in my head, I'm like I know I wasted too much time. I know zero seconds on the clock and I just kind of slid on the ground and I just laid there and waited for cheers. Thank God cheers came because you've got to have points before the half."

His head coach wasn't sure what to think in the moment and joked in his postgame comments that Allen was fortunate the play went in the Bills' favor.

"Run it down to 0:00 on the clock and throw a touchdown, right," McDermott laughed. "He's lucky he threw a touchdown pass right there, or else I would have probably flattened his tires, maybe, after the game. He'll learn from that one, and maybe I'll learn a little bit from it, too."

Even though Miami flipped the scoreboard in their favor 29-21 with 16 unanswered points throughout the third quarter and less than five minutes into the fourth, there was plenty of time left for Allen to do what he does best. This time that entailed moving his offense down the field with a 44-yard run, his longest sprint this season.

"(Ken Dorsey) called the quarterback draw there and just trusted the angle that I was running on and found a way to scoot by," Allen said. "That's really all it was, just like Forrest Gump."

That 44-yard gain put the Bills at Miami's 13. Four plays later, Allen found TE Dawson Knox in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown that brought the Bills within two points of the Dolphins. So, what's next for Allen?

A successful two-point conversion that the QB's athleticism allowed him to pull off. Although it was originally in question if he made it across the goal line — and whether it happened before his fumble. Replay showed that Allen somehow managed to jump over a handful of bodies and land horizontally in the air with the ball just over the plane.

"Right when it happened," Allen said on when he knew conversion was good. "I thought I was in, I stood there with my hands up but it's a game of inches. I'm just thankful we got it over."

Allen, the team's leading rusher, threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns. Outside those numbers, he converted three 3rd downs on the final drive that led to Tyler Bass' game-winning field goal that put the Bills ahead 32-29 with no time remaining.

"He makes plays that I've never seen before," Knox said of Allen. "Sometimes you kind of turn into a fan while you're watching him. Unfortunately, I was under a 300-pound three-technique on that play that he reached the ball over on the two points, so I didn't see it till we saw the jumbotron … You're just like, oh, there's Josh being Josh again. He's the best quarterback in the league, the best football player in the league. So anytime you got him on your team, you got a chance to win."

Saturday night marked Allen's third career game with 300+ passing yards and 75 rushing yards, and he joined Michael Vick (3) and Russell Wilson (3) as the only other players to do so. He also tallied his 171st career touchdown, which tied him with Dan Marino for the most total touchdowns in a player's first five seasons.

Tre White feeling fortunate to make impact plays again

CB Tre'Davious White was the last Bills starter to take the field in his fourth game back from his ACL injury that he suffered just over a year ago. White described the opportunity to be competing with his teammates again as a blessing, as every game is one step closer to getting back to where he was before the injury.

"I've been out of football for a whole year, so I've been doing it my whole life," White said. "So, it's been a process like I said, and it's been a journey. It's still ongoing too, but like I said before, the support and the treatment that I've been getting for the last year has been next to none, and without the support and the training staff and the strength conditioning staff, I wouldn't be where I am now."

White took 100% of the defensive snaps against the New York Jets last week and again on Saturday night vs. the Dolphins. The CB was 1-on-1 with Dolphins' top wide receivers Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, which isn't an easy task given their speed and ability to make plays.

The CB got his hands on the ball to break up multiple passes, had three tackles on the night, and was inches away from intercepting Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa. While his presence was felt beyond those stats, being in positions to make game-changing plays is a testament to White's on-field progress. And he credits the other 10 Bills defenders on the field for allowing him to make these plays.

"You see our front four? Those guys get after the quarterback," White said. "So, I think that it's a mixture of both rushing and coverage. You can't have tight coverage if you don't have a good rush. Our front seven is next to none in the league … those guys get after the quarterback and make the quarterback make some ill-advised throws, so I was just fortunate enough to be around the ball."

White shared that it hasn't been easy to continue his rehab journey while also focusing on the ball to better his craft. But that doesn't stop him from going into every practice or game with his best foot forward so he can get back to 100%.

"I'm not where I want to be. It's still a work in progress too," White said. "I continue to work and do rehab each and every day on top of the football stuff too. Once I got back into football, the rehab got kind of harder because I got to kind of lay back on it and kind of focus on football too … I've got a lot a lot of support around me so it's okay."

A Buffalo winter wonderland

Allen described the third quarter as a lull for the Bills offense, but the script flipped in the fourth quarter coincidently when the snow finally started to fall. But the impact of snow was felt before then as some fans sitting in the lower bowl threw snowballs on the field early in the action.

The game had to be briefly delayed as the officiating crew warned the crowd that continued snowball throws onto the field would result in a penalty against the Bills.

"I've never heard the announcer say please listen to Josh Allen, stop throwing snowballs," safety Jordan Poyer said. "That was crazy. That was the first time I've ever heard that."

"A little wild. I don't necessarily condone the snowball throwing, especially if it could cost our team," Allen added." Love that fans are having fun though. And again, we won the game so not too mad about it now."

Snowballs were sporadically flying through the air since the opening kickoff, and Bills Mafia was ready to celebrate any Bills touchdown with a burst of snow thrown into the air and onto the field. But the anticipated snow over Highmark Stadium came just in to celebrate the 32-29 win over the Dolphins and a ticket punched to the playoffs.

"It's an electric night man, and fans are excited the snow is on the ground," Poyer said. "I did get hit in the back with a snowball. They're out there having fun. We're trying to put on the show. It was electric, especially once the snow started coming down, and then obviously T-Bass going in for the game-winner. It was awesome."

Check out the best reactions from the Bills win over the Dolphins in order to clinch their fourth consecutive playoff berth.

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