Fansided

Watch Bills fans lose their minds as Andy Dalton eliminated the Ravens (Video)

By Josh Hill

ORCHARD PARK, NY - DECEMBER 17: A Buffalo Bills fan reacts during the fourth quarter against the Miami Dolphins on December 17, 2017 at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NY - DECEMBER 17: A Buffalo Bills fan reacts during the fourth quarter against the Miami Dolphins on December 17, 2017 at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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Buffalo Bills fans are watching their team go to the playoffs for the first time since 1999, and the moment it happened was magic.

Week 17 came down to the wire, just the way we were hoping. With the NFL stacking all of the playoff implication games into the late window, everything came down to one play — with the playoff hopes of two teams resting in the hands of a quarterback on the outside of the bubble looking in.

Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals are not going to the playoffs. They, however, were in a position to knock the Baltimore Ravens off and open a path for the Buffalo Bills to clinch a playoff berth for the first time since 1999.

Buffalo did it’s part, winning in Miami. Then it needed help from Dalton and the Bengals in order to leapfrog Baltimore for the sixth seed in the AFC Wild Card picture. With just under a minute to go in the game, Dalton connected on a fourth-down throw that went the distance, putting Baltimore on the ropes and sending Bills fans to the moon.

The moment that Andy Dalton buried the Ravens on a fourth down play was captured by some Bills fans watching in a bar (or club?) as the drama unfolded.

Fans who stuck around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami stayed close to a television to make sure they didn’t miss the moment:

Even people at home were watching intently, ready to party like only Bills Mafia knows how if the miracle was pulled off. Never before have so many Bills fans openly rooted for Andy Dalton in their lives.

And of course the moment the Bills realized they were going to the playoffs:

That’s football. Bills fans gathered around a television to watch someone who isn’t their quarterback beat someone their team isn’t playing in order to clinch an ever elusive playoff berth. That’s why we love sports — the pure unbridled joy felt universally by all those people is the type of happiness so hard to achieve that you cherish it when it happens. Buffalo now goes to Jacksonville next Sunday to try and win its first playoff game since the mid-90s, but right now that’s not something to worry about.

Right now, Bills fans everywhere are partying like it’s 1999 and the feeling is so good that no one who experienced it will ever forget.

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