The Buffalo Bills begin their quest to capture an elusive Super Bowl title this weekend when they host the Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon at Highmark Stadium. This is the seventh trip to the playoffs under Sean McDermott, and for the third year in a row as the second seed in the AFC, but his regular season success hasn’t translated into playoff success. That lack of success is what continues to draw the ire of Bills fans toward McDermott.
Unfortunately, according to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell’s playoff prediction, the Bills will again fall short in the divisional round, but this time against the Baltimore Ravens. Barnwell has the Bills defeating the Broncos 34-21, but losing to the Ravens 23-20.
The Bills begin the playoffs hosting the Broncos and regarding this matchup, Barnwell wrote, “The Broncos thrive by getting pressure, as they rank 17th in QBR allowed when their pass rush doesn’t get home. Allen is a pressure eraser, though, taking sacks at the league’s lowest rate. The average quarterback sees his QBR decline by nearly 34 points when pressured. Allen’s QBR is more than 12 points better when he’s under duress. He finished with the highest QBR under pressure in a season since ESPN began tracking the metric in 2009 (85.3).”
In a potential Bills versus Ravens matchup, Barnwell wrote, “The Ravens aren’t going to have the same success they had against Allen earlier this season, but they’re a tricky matchup for the Bills star and have been excellent over the past month. If the right version of Baltimore’s defense shows up and Milano can’t hold his own, Buffalo is in serious danger of getting run over by Henry yet again.”
We’ll find out if McDermott and the Bills can take that next step and overcome the apparent playoff hurdle that has plagued them over the previous five seasons.
