Buffalo Bills Get The Best Out Of Josh Allen And Stefon Diggs At Precisely Right Time

This one ended exactly as everyone might have expected: with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and receiver Stefon Diggs embracing in victory on the sideline.

Diggs and Allen got game balls after this hotly contested contest against the feisty Detroit Lions.

But how they got there -- how they took the Buffalo Bills there on Thursday afternoon -- was the unreal part.

"Great to see Josh and Stefon connect there," Bills coach Sean McDermott said afterward. "That's what great players do, they step in big moments and they make great plays in big moments of games like this."

Josh Allen To Stefon Diggs In Clutch Moments

The Bills eventually outlasted the Lions because Allen threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Diggs with 2:40 left to play to give their team a 25-22 lead. And when the Lions tied the game at 25, the Buffalo duo responded again.

With 23 seconds to play and the ball at the 25 yard line, Allen threw a 36-yard fireball down the middle of the field to Diggs, who was between two defenders.

Diggs not only caught the ball but called a timeout immediately after he was tackled. Allen added a few more yards running the football to set kicker Tyler Bass for the game-winning 45-yard field goal as time expired.

Clutch all the way around, folks.

"No panic," Allen said of the situation. "We had 23 seconds left. We trust the guys we put on the field. Some guys may have taken a knee but we were going to be aggressive."

All this happened late. It happened despite neither Allen nor Diggs putting up particularly impressive numbers.

Allen completed only 24 of 42 passes (57.1 completion percentage) for 253 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. His passer rating was a below-average 80.8.

And Diggs, among the NFL's most productive receivers, finished with only 77 receiving yards on eight catches. Much of the day, in fact, was frustrating for Diggs; he caught barely 50 percent of his targets.

"We didn't get off to the best start, but you keep rolling with the punches, things aren't going to be perfect," Diggs said. "Things that happened weren't perfect but we figured it out."

But when the game needed to be decided?

When the Bills needed to take a fourth-quarter lead?

And later when the Bills needed a game-winning drive?

Allen to Diggs was unstoppable.

"In those moments, in the biggest moments I feel the most comfortable," Diggs said. "I put a lot of time into my craft and my job, I love it so much. So in those moments I lean on myself to be a warrior and be a leader, make that play, be the spark.

"This team is easy because the guys rally behind me, my quarterback rallies behind me. In the biggest moments, he's like this: 'I got you. I"ll give you chance.' So let's go, I'm ready."

This is not new to the Bills. They have come to expect this.

"When we have the ball, I expect them to get into range," Bass said after he booted the game-winner. "And that's what happened."

Allen to Diggs was the recipe for Buffalo's success this game.

But were there rough moments? Yes. Allen threw another red zone interception, his fifth of the season inside an opponent's 20-yard line.

Did it come in a game that included a worrisome injury? Absolutely. Von Miller left in the first half with a sprained knee and McDermott offered no update on it postgame.

Bills Sweep Consecutive Games In Detroit

But amid that the Bills own Detroit.

"That's two wins in five days," McDermott told his team afterward. "Snow, rain, two plane trips, man, guys going down, guys stepping up. That's a helluva job."

They're the first team to win consecutive games at Ford Field since the Lions did it in 2016 and that's kind of amazing because, you know, Ford Field is home for the Lions.

But Lions have been pretty bad for a while and so the Bills completed their back-to-back sweep of games by defeating the Lions, 28-25 on Thursday. The Bills won at Ford Field on Sunday when they had to move their game against the Cleveland Browns from Buffalo to Detroit because of a massive snowstorm in Western N.Y.

So Motown belongs to the Bills.

"We dealt with the snow, came here to Detroit, got the win," said Jordan Poyer. "Then we came back to Detroit and got the win again."

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