Orchard Park, NY - Just a month ago, the New England Patriots were the AFC's No. 1 seed. After only one day after the season, they are exhausted, swept away by their own bad timing and the Buffalo Bills, who delighted in casting it on their loathsome rival on a cold night, which has stunned Frozen fans. did nothing to dampen the festivities. If the Bills started the season as the biggest threat to the Kansas City Chiefs' prominence in the AFC, the first day of Super Wild Card Weekend presented another potential hurdle. The Cincinnati Bengals announced the arrival of another young quarterback – Joe Burrows – against the Las Vegas Raiders to challenge Patrick Mahomes. It's a delicious prospect that Mahomes, Burrow, and Josh Allen will fight over the convention for the next decade. Maybe Mac Jones will eventually join them. But Saturday's games sent the Patriots back in their rebuilding and the Raiders in another franchise overhaul.

Winners

Cincinnati City: The largest crowd in Paul Brown Stadium history saw three Raiders false starts in the first quarter, never sitting down and never giving up. It felt like an exorcism of decades of futility and helped Bengal to their first playoff win in 31 years. Bengals coach Zack Taylor gave the game ball to the entire city.


Joe Burrows: CJ Find video of Burrow's second-quarter in-stride rope near Uzoma, who whispered just past Devine DeBlo's ear for a 29-yard advantage. Or the acrobatic, leaping touchdown pass as he was about to go out of bounds (let alone the fact that it should have been deflected because of an inadvertent whistle). Or his mind got mixed with Ja'mar Chase, who took nine catches for 116 yards. Burrow was 34 of 24 for 244 yards and two touchdowns in his first playoff game and his calm post-game demeanor shows that this is exactly what he was hoping for. The rest of us should expect the same. A top five quarterback now plays for the Bengals.


The Bills: His mishandling of the Patriots is a wonderful reminder of what an excellent job of team building has been done at Buffalo since 2018, when the Bills had a rookie Josh Allen and those players were being paid a lot of money. who were no longer in the team. Bill is the new boss of AFC East, and it was hard not to feel like he was delivering a message with this stomping. But since losing the AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium last year, the Bills have been talking about being the King of Heads of AFC Hill. The Bills have won five in a row, but two of their best performances of the year came in their last two games against the Patriots - the final two games of the regular season were real clashes at home against the Falcons and the Jets. It's time to play this way next week against an even bigger opponent than the Patriots - possibly the Chiefs again.


Josh Allen: He rifled the pass, he broke ankles, there was nothing the Bills quarterback couldn't do Saturday night. Allen was a one-man wrecking crew—throwing for 308 yards and running for 66 more—but collectively the Bills' offense was unstoppable. He scored a touchdown on each of his four properties in the first half, going out to a 27–0 lead. Running out for the lead was a point of emphasis for the Bills, who wanted to force the game into the hands of Mack Jones. What happened. Then they kept on walking. The Bills have not gone against the Patriots since the beginning of the third quarter of the first meeting between these teams this season. The Bills finished with a perfect offensive performance, scoring touchdowns on every single drive until he took a knee. Bills defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said of the offense, "It sounds like some Pop Warner stuff. Maybe you did it on Madden."


Micah Hyde: The Bills defense detracts from an excellent overall defensive effort as one of the most athletic and timely plays you will ever see. With the Bills leading by a touchdown, but the Patriots swinging the ball on their first right of the game, quarterback Mac Jones had the Patriots first on the Bills' 34-yard line. He made a pass towards Nelson Agholor, dragging the left edge down - wide open - into the end zone. Hyde had an angle and ran to the spot where Aghor would have met the pass. Tracking the ball all the way, Hyde made a Willie Mays-style catch, converting a sure touchdown into a jaw-dropping interception that ended the Patriots' early momentum. The offense of the Patriots never regained its rhythm.