Buffalo Bills: LeSean McCoy buries the Colts in OT blizzard

The Buffalo Bills kept their playoff hopes alive with a win on Sunday and improved to 7-6 before a trio of division games.

Aside from the football players, and before we start recapping the Buffalo Bills performance, there are other people who deserve respect and acknowledgement.

The CBS crew did a great job and any one who works outdoors on field level deserves a raise if they were assigned to this game.

As awful as the conditions were, CBS did a great job with the camera work, the first down line, informing where the ball was, everything.

It was a great broadcast and all Bills and Colts fans should be thrilled they were even able to watch it.

More from Empire Writes Back

• Caesars New York Promo Code: Win $250 Bonus GUARANTEED on ANY Bet!
• Last Chance Caesars Promo: Claim $1,250 Bonus for ANY MLB Bet!
• Caesars New York Promo Code Gives TWO Chances to Win Betting on Your Yankees!
• PointsBet New York Promo: FIVE $100 Bonus Bets to Back the Yankees or Mets!
• Caesars NY Promo: $1,250 Bonus to Celebrate the Return of Judge!

People with snow blowers and shovels who maintained the field and made it safe as possible,  well done.

The Buffalo Bills Twitter showed them respect too:

The fans who were at the game also deserve credit. Buffalo is known for snow.  People in and around Western New York are used to the snow.

But to sit around for 60 minutes plus overtime in 20 degree weather while getting buried by snow, is a whole new level of diehard.

Respect and thank to any one else who made the game, field, and stadium playable for the players and everyone watching the game.

Now with all thank yous aside, the football game may have been just as crazy as the weather.

If you read my column you’ll notice I like to take stats and break down what I think they mean.

However, the snow was crazy and so hard to play I don’t think any stat is justified beyond the final score.

Instead of raw analysis, it is more justified to just walk through the craziness of the game sequence of events by sequence of events.

To get a sense of how crazy and emotional this game truly was, scroll down my Twitter timeline and see my live tweets as I watched this game.

The Bills went into the game looking like they would win. It then looked like they would lose.

Nathan Peterman looked good in the first half before getting hurt.

The conditions were harsh but he did not turn the ball over and was still somehow close on his throws, even throwing a TD to Kelvin Benjamin.

With Tyrod Taylor already inactive, the Bills had to dig deeper down the depth chart.

Joe Webb came in for the rest of the game at QB.

After a Colts TD in the 4th quarter things got exciting.

The Colts, playing for essentially nothing besides getting out of Buffalo, went for two. It appeared they had gotten it and the 8-7 lead.

However, a questionable offensive pass interference call negated it and forced the Colts to kick a far extra point.

In came Adam Vinatieri, who seems born to kick footballs in the snow, to attempt the kick. He drilled it after a gust of wind literally pushed the ball through the uprights.

Webb had one last chance to lead a game winning drive.

He then threw a horrible pick testing real obvious coverage.

The Bills seemed destined to lose the game.

But Vinatieri missed a potential game winning goal late, and both teams headed to OT.

OT was a back and forth slug fest.

After Coach McDermott very questionably punted the ball way on a late 4th down the Bills had to rely on talent to win.

Even though it worked out, McDermott by no means should have punted on a 4th and 1 to give the Colts the ball back that late in OT.

In the snow and horrible weather, “playing for the tie” is the last thing the players want to do, both sides should want a winner.

In the end it was a LeSean McCoy elusive TD run that walked off the game for the Bills late in OT. Shady was by far the MVP of the game.

The win is big for the Bills in many ways.

It looked as if they were going to lose and then they hung on somehow.

Blizzards and snow in Buffalo are inevitable.

Every Bills player needs to be ready for games like the one on Sunday.

The Buffalo Bills are the only team in the NFL who “have to” win and be the most prepared for games in full on snow storms.

The team, knowing that, celebrated in the snow by doing snow angels and throwing the snow up with the fans.

Bills football at its absolute finest.

Sunday’s game was the Bills’ advantage and therefore a must win.

Big picture though, the Bills’ win kept their playoff hopes alive.

Buffalo got a lot of help Sunday. They now are very much capable of the playoffs if they keep winning.

Next: Zay Jones is fascinating

It was an absolutely crazy game that every one watching will never forget.

Next week, the Bills will play their last home game of the season as they host the rival Miami Dolphins.

It’ll be hard to top the roller coaster sequence of events that was the “blizzard game”. But if the 2017 Bills have taught us anything, Next week’s game vs the Fins probably will.