ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — We've heard for over a month that "Ot might be chilly" in Orchard Park for the Bills' playoff run. But other conditions on Saturday night certainly didn't help, either.
"It was tough. Josh [Allen] tried to take a couple shots down there. It wasn't a steady wind. It was inconsistent, but it was inconsistently gusting," head coach Sean McDermott said. "So it was hard to tell how to spin the ball out there."
But the elements didn't keep the Bills from moving onto the AFC Championship; Buffalo handled the Ravens in a 17-3 win that featured a heavy dose of the passing game despite the elements.
Josh Allen attempted 37 passes Saturday night. By comparison, the whole Bills team had only 16 carries. The Bills' signal caller connected on 22 of those throws for 206 yards and a touchdown.
"It was just one of those games where we kind of had to figure it out," wide receiver Stefon Diggs said."I always say I can't imagine how hard it is [to be a quarterback], so I just try to be there for him, make plays for him, and give him that confidence that he can chuck it around."
Diggs hauled in eight catches for 106 yards and scored the Bills' only offensive touchdown of the night. After a slow return from injured reserve, John Brown also added eight catches for 62 yards.
"Two guys that consistently do their jobs. John [Brown] was able to come back to me on a couple plays," Allen said. "It's going to take everybody... and we understand that. We can't just rely on one guy to do their job."
One unit did its job while the offense searched for its rhythm: the defense. Despite seeing the field for over 10 minutes more than the offense, Leslie Frazier's unit held up their end of the bargain as Baltimore tried to grind out the clock and keep the ball out of the Bills' hands.
"The way teams are attacking us they're trying to keep us off the field," offensive lineman Jon Feliciano said. "I think we're just coming together and we have to keep going."
"We can score points. And it's probably smart for people with a good defense to try to play that defense and run the ball," Diggs said. "For us, we just have to take advantage of all of our opportunities, all our of possessions, and make them count."
But the lack of possession time, and the lack of a rhythm early on, didn't impact the result. The Bills are onto their first AFC championship game since January 23rd, 1994.
"Our overall offense as a whole, they stuck with it. They kept playing," McDermott said. "I thought that getting into a rhythm in the second half was important for us. And so we kept fighting. We kept playing. That's what you have to do in these games."
Buffalo has punched their ticket to keep on playing. They'll either visit the Kansas City Chiefs or host the Cleveland Browns depending on the outcome of Sunday's divisional round game at 3:05 p.m.
