The Buffalo Bills never stopped believing.
Faith might be the better word, one that could be defined as belief without evidence.
There was no evidence that the Bills could stop the Baltimore Ravens and their dominant duo of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. Even as Buffalo's offense did everything it could to keep up, it seemed the Ravens were too potent.
Some fans left the stadium, resigned to their fate of having to wake up tired for a Monday morning at work after a Sunday night loss.
Others in their homes surely turned off the TV. This game had to be over, right? Three or four times, it seems the Ravens had delivered the knockout punch.
But then there Matt Prater was, about a half hour before midnight, only three days into his time in this brilliant, never-say-never city, lifted up by his teammates in a mob scene celebration that only the boldest of believers saw coming.
Bills 41, Ravens 40. A comeback that truly, to use an overused word, felt unbelievable.
"Have a little faith next time," QB Josh Allen told NBC's Melissa Stark after the game, with a smile on his face, knowing how improbable it had all been.
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There was simply no way this could happen.
The Ravens scored on their first five drives of the game, including a touchdown to start the third quarter and go up 27-13.
Baltimore would take a 34-19 lead to the fourth, as the Bills continued to fail to convert 2-point tries that seemed like they might be their downfall.
Even when Buffalo had an answer, like Allen's rushing TD to start the fourth quarter and pull within nine, the Ravens would come right back, a 46-yard Henry run to take a 40-25 lead with 11:42 left.
The score wouldn't change until 3:56 remained, an absurd deflected pass that was thrown over Dawson Knox's head, but the tight end stuck a hand up and managed to knock the ball right to a sliding Keon Coleman in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Prater extra point, down eight.
Then the play of the game, an Ed Oliver forced fumble of Henry, recovered by Buffalo.
A quick Allen QB sneak touchdown followed, but the 2-point conversion failed for a third time on a night. Down 40-38, 1:58 left, not able to allow a first down to Baltimore or the game is over.
The defense forced a three-and-out. Allen took over with 1:26 to play at his own 20.
And when he hit new guy Josh Palmer for 32 yards, then Coleman for 25 more, it was just a matter of lining up a field goal for Prater.
At 41 years old, Prater has done this a long time. But the heart races, always, in moments like these.
You couldn't tell, though. Calm, cool and collected, and right through the uprights.
Ballgame.
Brilliant.
Believe it.
Buffalo.
On a night like this, anything seems possible.
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The Bills have been dreaming Super Bowl in recent years, finding different ways to come up a little short.
But if you took a survey of the fans walking out of Highmark Stadium as Sunday night turned into the wee hours of Monday morning, every single one would say this team will win the Super Bowl.
Because now, this isn't just faith. There's evidence, a whole heaping insane comeback full of evidence.
This isn't a football team without flaws. Of course not. No team is flawless, or close to it, in Week 1.
But this is a team with moxie, with spunk, with a willingness to believe it can make magic happen even when magic seems fictional.
Allen is at the core of every Bills fan's belief, but it doesn't stop there. You don't win a game 41-40 with a mega comeback without every single dude on the field and sideline making a case that yep, you should believe in him, and him, and him, too.
There's no telling where the season goes from here. Allen's postgame message in his NBC interview was that it's just one win, and there's a lot more to come.
And maybe that's true, in a way. But this wasn't "just one win."
This was one of the most magnificent wins in the history of the Buffalo Bills.
No one's losing the faith after that.
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