Bills vs Dolphins

Allen's roller coaster day, defense shows toughness and rookies shine in playoff debut.

He became the first Bill since Darick Holmes and Tim Tindale to score a rushing TD in their playoff debuts (vs. Mostly young players years ago never played or maybe your first-round pick played, so now, the day and age of the NFL is these young players are going to be counted on to play and contribute." The playoffs are about who steps up in the biggest moment and sometimes those contributions can come from unexpected places. Buffalo didn't trail the rest of the game. Allen started off on fire going 9 of 11 for 141 passing yards and a touchdown in the first quarter as the Bills opened up a 17-0 lead. The Bills limited Miami to 3.3 yards per play, 231 total yards and 4 for 16 (25%) on third down conversions. But just as Allen had head-scratching plays, he also showed why he's still one of the best in the business late in the game. Again, Buffalo's defensive unit kept Miami out of the end zone and forced a field goal. In the second quarter, Allen tried to hit John Brown deep downfield on a similar play that he scored on last week, only this time Allen was off target and Dolphins CB Xavien Howard picked him off. He also joins QB Matt Ryan as the only players ever with at least 300 passing yards and three TD passes in three consecutive postseason games. Coming out of half time, the Dolphins had a free rusher right in the face of Allen on a first down play. He had thrown just one interception in his playoff career coming into the day; on Sunday that total jumped to three.