DANTE LASTING
Sports Editor
For Bills fans, Thanksgiving night felt more like Christmas.
The Buffalo Bills beat the Dallas Cowboys 26-15 on Turkey Day. This was the ninth time the Bills have played on this holiday and their first win since 1975.
Before the game, the national media counted the Bills and picked the Cowboys to win the game. All those people were proven wrong, because the Bills played possibly their best game of the season so far.
On the biggest stage of the decade, the Buffalo Bills silenced all the doubters by shutting down the Cowboys’ number one ranked offense. Dallas scored on their first drive of the game and then in garbage time when the game was pretty much locked up. The Bills defense kept the Cowboys offense out of the end zone on eight out of the 10 drives that the team had. The Bills defense ended the night with three forced fumbles, four sacks and an interception. The number-three-ranked played like it on Thursday and was a big reason for the win.
This game was the most-watched Thanksgiving game in 27 years with an average viewership of 32.5 million viewers. The Buffalo Bills offense put on quite a show for all those people. Josh Allen played a tough and smart game of football. Cole Beasley had his best game as a Bill, catching six passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. This meant so much to him because it was a revenge game against his former team who he had been with for the first seven years of his career. He has a great opportunity to make this his best season of his career.
More history was made on the offensive side of the ball. John Brown became the first Buffalo Bills wide receiver to throw for a touchdown. The beautiful trick play went 28 yards, and Brown threw a perfect pass to rookie running back Devin Singletary.
The performance on Thursday should provide a boost in confidence for the team as they have the toughest stretch of games yet to come. The Bills have taken care of business, finishing 3-1 in their first three-quarters of the season. They now stand at 9-3 for the first time since 1996.
The next four games are at home vs. Baltimore, away at Pittsburgh, away at New England and home vs. the New York Jets. On Sunday night, the NFL announced that they moved the game versus the Steelers from a 1 p.m. time slot to Sunday night football on NBC. This will be the first time the Bills will play on SNF since 2007. The Bills will have back-to-back primetime games as the next week they play the Patriots on a special Saturday night game on NFL Network.
The game on Sunday against the Ravens will be a huge matchup and the toughest test for the Buffalo Bills. The Ravens are riding an eight-game win streak, with over half of the wins coming against teams with a winning record. The Bills defense will have their hands full with trying to contain and stop MVP candidate Lamar Jackson. For Bills fans, it is crazy that this late in the season the division is still up for grabs, but with the Patriots losing on Sunday they still have a chance. If the Buffalo Bills want any chance of winning the division for the first time since 1995, they need to beat the Baltimore Ravens at home on Sunday.
The Bills will play the Ravens at New Era Field on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. on CBS.