ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes, James Cook scored on a 5-yard run and finished with 120 yards rushing, and the Bills leaned on a balanced offensive attack in a 31-7 win over the Broncos in an AFC wild-card playoff game on Sunday.
The second-seeded Bills methodically wore down the Broncos by scoring on six of their first seven drives in building a 31-7 lead in a game where they finished with a 23-minute edge in time of possession.
And the Bills didn’t flinch after rookie Bo Nix capped the Broncos’ five-play game-opening drive with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Troy Franklin.
With the Bills leading 13-7, Allen broke the game open with a 24-yard TD pass to sliding running back Ty Johnson in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-1 with 3:06 left in the third quarter.
“I’ve been saying it all year long that Ty Johnson’s the best third-down back in football,” Allen said. “The things that he’s able to do for us, the way we communicate, him in the pass game, blocking and running the ball. He does it all. I’m so happy for him, so proud of him. He made a heck of a play. It was fourth down, no point in holding it and taking a sack there. They played man (coverage), and I just gave him a chance.”
On the Bills’ next possession, Allen completed a 55-yard pass to Curtis Samuel on the first snap of the fourth quarter.
The five-time defending AFC East champion Bills advanced to the divisional round for a fifth straight postseason, and will face the third-seeded Ravens next weekend.
The Ravens routed the Bills 35-10 in Baltimore early this season. The outing will mark the second playoff meeting between Allen and counterpart Lamar Jackson after the Bills defeated the Ravens 17-3 in the 2020 divisional round.
“Well, they got after us earlier this year,” Allen said of facing the Ravens again. “So we’ve got a lot of film to watch. It’s a great team. It’s a great quarterback, obviously with Lamar and what he’s able to do. He’s one of the most dynamic, if not the most dynamic, quarterback in the league. He’s so fun to watch. But I’ll be watching their defense this week, so that’s our focus.”
Cook became the Bills’ first player to top 100 yards rushing in a playoff game since Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas had 158 yards rushing in a 1995 wild-card playoff win over the Dolphins.
Allen finished 20 of 26 for 272 yards and increased his playoff total to 23 passing TDs, breaking the franchise record of 21 held by Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.
The seventh-seeded Broncos were outclassed in their first playoff appearance since their Super Bowl-winning season in 2015.
Nix finished 13 of 22 for 144 yards. The Broncos punted four times and turned the ball over on downs twice.
And the Broncos’ attacking defense was kept at bay by an Allen-led attack that was more than content in gaining small chunks of yards on lengthy time-consuming drives.
The Broncos, who had an NFL-leading 63 sacks this seasons, sacked Allen just twice in an game where the Bills punted once.
Trailing 7-3, Cook scored the go-ahead TD 2:03 into the second quarter to cap a 13-play, 81-yard drive. All three of the Bills’ first-half possessions featured 11 or more offensive snaps.
The Broncos had little response in a first half that ended with them trailing 10-7 after Wil Lutz banked a 50-yard field-goal attempt off the right upright as time expired. The miss was Lutz’s first since Week 10 when his 35-yard attempt was blocked to preserve Kansas City’s 16-14 win.
Lutz had since converted 41 consecutive attempts — 13 field goal and 28 extra points.
Including the playoffs, the Bills improved to 13-1 at home since a 24-22 loss to the Broncos on Nov. 13, 2023. The only loss came to the Chiefs in the last year’s divisional round. The Bills are 16-5 all time at home in the postseason.
The Broncos dropped to 2-7 in the wild-card round, with all seven losses on the road.