Bills Break Through

After 17 long years of suffering, the Buffalo Bills are finally heading back to the playoffs.

The Bills ended the longest playoff drought in professional sports on Sunday after beating the Miami Dolphins by a score of 31-27, while the Baltimore Ravens lost to help the Bills sneak into the playoffs as the No. 6 seed.

Back when Sean McDermott was hired, he plastered the words “Playoff Caliber” all over the building. He even made t-shirts and repeated the phrase throughout offseason work. Most rolled their eyes at the 2017 Bills being anything resembling playoff caliber. When they traded Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby and Marcell Dareus in a span of a few months, it was easy to think they had an eye on 2018 and beyond.

Somehow McDermott’s Bills bucked conventional wisdom. They started the season 5-2 and then went 4-2 in their final six games, including a win over the Miami Dolphins in the season finale.

But it wasn’t until the Cincinnati Bengals completed an upset of the Baltimore Ravens that the Bills clinched their first playoff berth since 1999. Despite a second-half comeback from Joe Flacco and company, the Bengals held on to win.

The Bills came out of the gate fast. They scored on their first possession, and Tyrod Taylor finished the first quarter 8-for-9 for 111 yards and a touchdown. However, the offense cooled down considerably after that. Still, Taylor was arguably the Bills’ best player in this game. Taylor finished 19-for-27 with 204 yards and a touchdown. He also had a few big runs.

LeSean McCoy had just 10 yards on his first 11 carries in this game. The Dolphins’ bottled him up in the running game but he did manage to shake free for 22 yards on two catches. To make matters worse, McCoy had to be carted off the field with an ankle injury early in the third quarter.

After just one series, the Dolphins replaced Jay Cutler with backup quarterback David Fales. Miami wanted to evaluate whether Fales could be their long-term backup. Fales was brutal for most of the afternoon. His accuracy was suspect, and the Bills had little trouble limiting him. Cutler may not have been much better, but the Bills caught a break with Fales coming into the game.

The Bills snapped the longest playoff drought in professional American sports, passing the most dismal of torches to the Cleveland Browns — and Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners — now that a 17-year run of spending January at home has come to a close.

It was 1999 when the Bills last clinched a playoff appearance — an era in which Bill Clinton was United States president and Wade Phillips was Buffalo’s head coach. But the perpetually underwhelming AFC East contenders weren’t — and still aren’t — alone in trying to end one of sports’ worst streaks.

Here’s a look at some of the longest active postseason droughts across all major sports (Bills fans, note Buffalo’s absence after almost two decades of disappointment):

1. Seattle Mariners, MLB: 16 seasons
2. Cleveland Browns, NFL: 15 seasons
3. Miami Marlins, MLB: 14 seasons
4. Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA: 13 seasons
5. Sacramento Kings, NBA: 11 seasons
6. San Diego Padres, MLB: 11 seasons
7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NFL: 10 seasons
8. Chicago White Sox, MLB: 9 seasons
9. Carolina Hurricanes, NHL: 8 seasons
10. New York Jets, NFL: 7 seasons
11. Chicago Bears, NFL: 7 seasons
12. Phoenix Suns, NBA: 7 seasons
13. Buffalo Sabres, NHL: 6 seasons
14. Philadelphia Phillies, MLB: 6 seasons
15. Arizona Coyotes, NHL: 5 seasons