By Conor Perrett
The first game of three on this Thanksgiving evening didn’t disappoint, the Bills winning a closely-contest affair with a walk-off field goal in Detroit.
Josh Allen’s three-touchdown performances snapped the three-game winning streak of the Lions fell just short.
First Quarter
With a packed Ford Field the game started off with some defence, as both offences started with a three and out.
The crowd soon had something to cheer about when the Lions scored on a 13-play 53-yard drive. Jared Goff had a clutch fourth down QB sneak in the red-zone which set Jamaal Williams up for a two- yard rushing touchdown.
It didn’t take Josh Allen long to respond, when he replied with a drive up the field that swiftly finished with a 19 yard touchdown pass to Isaiah McKenzie.
Going into the second quarter tied 7-7, Detroit looked to be putting a nice drive together as they crossed midfield, until Ed Oliver forced a fumble on Jamaal Williams. Buffalo continued to go through their rhythm on offence with two third-down conversions, and a cool as you like Josh Allen scrambled to stroll into the endzone for a 14-7 lead.
ADD CLIP
The Lions weren’t going to go down quietly and kept up with the pace, when Jared Goff found an open Amon Ra St Brown at the 1 yard line on fourth and goal. Just before we could get to the halftime show, Buffalo managed to add a field goal to send us into the half 17-14.
Third Quarter
The Bills started the half with the ball but when reaching the redzone, Josh Allen got picked off by line-backer Alex Anzalone. Allan has had some problems with turnovers in the red zone as of late and got caught out again for the second turnover of the game.
The roller-coaster of a game didn’t stop there when Ed Oliver immediately got himself a TFL and sack to force a safety for the Bills.
With the game starting to get away from Detroit, a sack on third down from rookie James Houston allowed them to get the ball back. A big Williams run got the offence into the redzone, but a DeAndre Swift drop and missed field-goal resulted in 0 points from the drive.
With the teams going through the motions, the Lions got themselves in great field position when Kalif Raymond returned a punt to the 35 yard line.
The drive continued into the last quarter where Detroit found themselves on a first and goal at the Bills’ 10-yard line. A five and four yard run got them to the one-yard line, where a well protected pocket gave Goff time to find DJ Chark running across the middle. A successful 2-point conversion from Swift then meant for a 22-19 ballgame.
Ford Field was rocking, but were soon silenced when Allen found Stefon Diggs for a touchdown. A missed extra point came at the wrong time though and made it a 3 point game.
The Lions offence got the ball back down 25-22, with 2:40 left and three timeouts. A screen pass to Swift looked like the wrong call when he was met five yards behind the scrimmage, but a missed tackle let him get 14 yards on the play.
Just crossing midfield, a 4th and inches stood in front of Detroit. But a perfect sweep hand off to St Brown resulted in 6 yards. Another 14 yard St Brown’s catch set the Lions into field goal range, where Micheal Badgley hit a 51 yard field goal to tie it up.
With 0:23 seconds left, Allen put his Superman suit on and fired a 36 yard pass into Diggs. A few QB designed runs set up for a 45 field-goal, where Tyler Bass knocked it between the sticks to win the game for Buffalo!
Final Score: Bills 28-25 Lions
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