Plays That Defined 2021: Buffalo Bills at Tennessee Titans

[Screams into the abyss]

Welcome to Plays That Defined 2021! This ain’t your usual game recap. Here’s what to do. Pretend you’ve just written a novel and it’s time to select the cover art. You want a single picture that tells the reader what it’s all about, right? That’s the deal here. Vote for the play that best tells the “story” of this game. Which GIF is the best “cover art” for…

Week 6: Buffalo Bills at Tennessee Titans

The Buffalo Bills were coming off an exhilarating victory over the Kansas City Chiefs and looked to topple the Tennessee Titans in primetime. An exciting back-and-forth, with seven* lead changes delivered the Monday Night Hype. Buffalo looked to add one more at the end to pull away with the win but lost a game of inches.

*Eight changes if you count the score to break the 0-0 tie.

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Tyler Bass’s field goal (Q1, 6:11)

In a tight game, missed opportunities become amplified. Buffalo drove to the Tennessee five-yard line and stalled, settling for three. Not long after they’d do the same from the Titan’s ten. While the final play on our list might be the first missed opportunity that comes to mind in this game, there were more chances to change the outcome.

Derrick Henry’s 76-yard TD run (Q2, 11:31)

The second quarter was a scoring frenzy for both teams. Any time 34 points are put together in a 15 minute span, you should expect quick scores. Like a single run covering 76-yards. I don’t know if this really needed any explanation but there you go. And for those of you still complaining about the missed calls on this one, let’s at least focus our anger in the right direction.

Josh Allen’s interception (Q2, 5:04)

In that scoring flurry, Buffalo had two sustained drives. The Titans’ drives were the ones that sped up the pace. In addition to the Henry touchdown, Tennessee scored another one after this mishap.

Touchdown to Tommy Sweeney (Q3, 0:32)

While errors that gave opportunities to Tennessee are certainly a primary storyline, a tale of heartbreak only works when there’s hope in the first place. Josh Allen and company put up plenty of yards and points. Allen distributed the ball to nine different targets and had three of them in striking distance of a 100-yard day (Emmanuel Sanders, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley). The Tommy Sweeney touchdown gets the nod to illustrate that variety of targets. This was Sweeney’s only touchdown all season.

Fourth-down conversion attempt (Q4, 0:22)

[Vomiting noises]

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Not sure if we need it, but let’s vote anyway.