Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott argues a call during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023, in Inglewood, Calif.Ashley Landis/The Associated Press
Josh Allen continues to reach milestones in his sixth NFL season, but he’s more concerned about getting the Buffalo Bills back into the playoffs.
Allen did his part Saturday night by rushing for two TDs and throwing for one, but it took a 29-yard field goal by Tyler Bass with 28 seconds remaining for the Bills to escape with a 24-22 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Allen became the first player in NFL history with four consecutive seasons of 40 combined touchdowns and the second quarterback to reach 50 career rushing scores.
“It’s tough because when you’re playing a team with nothing to lose, that’s a dangerous team. We gutted it out and we found a way,” said Allen, who completed 15 of 21 passes for 237 yards with an interception. “This is our playoffs. It didn’t matter how we get them done, just get them done.”
The Bills (9-6) have won four of their last five. Buffalo’s playoff chances got some help earlier in the day when Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati.
Indianapolis and Houston are both 8-6 and hold the tiebreaker over the Bills by virtue of a better conference record. If either team loses, Buffalo would control one of the AFC’s final two spots heading into the last two weeks of the season.
Buffalo fell behind 10-0 early in the second quarter but rallied from a double-digit deficit to win for the fourth time since Sean McDermott became coach in 2017.
The Bills turned the ball over three times to keep the short-handed Chargers in the game in their first outing under interim coach Giff Smith. Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco were fired on Dec. 15, one day after the Chargers were pummeled 63-21 at Las Vegas.
“(The Chargers) were doing some things that they hadn’t shown (this season). They came in well-prepared,” McDermott said. “I thought our guys settled in and responded. We did a good job in the red zone and had some big plays on third down to help us out.”
Cameron Dicker kicked a career-high five field goals and Easton Stick passed for 210 yards for Los Angeles (5-10), which has lost six of seven.
“I think we went into this game thinking it was going to be a heavyweight fight, and we wanted to have a chance at the end for a knockout,” Smith said. “We were going to play it a little close to the vest. Get points on the board and give ourself a chance to win, and that’s the way it went. Came up a little bit short.”
Allen had four completions on the 13-play, 64-yard game-winning drive, including a 15-yard reception by Khalil Shakir on third-and-4 at the LA 28 line with 2:29 remaining. Shakir got up after making the catch and ran to the end zone, and officials signaled a touchdown, but a replay review determined he was down by contact.
“As an offense we want to score a touchdown and put them in an even more difficult situation. Obviously not scoring there allowed us to run down the clock down and they wasted their third and final timeout,” Allen said.
Allen leads the league with 40 total touchdowns (27 passing, 13 rushing). His 2-yard run off right tackle with 38 seconds remaining in the second quarter gave the Bills a 14-10 lead.
Allen had a 1-yard sneak late in the third quarter — his 51st career rushing TD — to make it 21-13. Allen benefited from a late push by running back Latavius Murray.
Gabe Davis, who had not caught a pass in the past two games after having six receptions for 105 yards against Philadelphia, had four receptions for a season-high 130 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to get the Bills within 10-7.
Allen scrambled right and found Davis open downfield. Davis hauled in the pass at the Chargers 19 and beat linebacker Kenneth Murray into the end zone. It was Allen’s second-longest completion of the season.
STICKING WITH IT
Stick, making his second NFL start in place of the injured Justin Herbert, was 23 of 33 passing and rushed for a touchdown.
The fifth-year quarterback directed the Chargers to scores on two of their first three drives. He rolled right and scored from 1 yard out early in the second quarter to give Los Angeles a 10-0 lead.
Stick took advantage of a short field after Amen Ogbongbemiga recovered a fumbled punt by the Bills’ Deonte Harty.
“We were able to get the ball into the end zone and take the lead, that’s the way that you want to play it. We just have to consistently execute better so that we feel better at the end,” Stick said.
THAT’S GRAND
James Cook finished with 70 yards on 20 carries and became the first Bills running back to reach 1,000 yards since LeSean McCoy in 2017.
INJURIES
Bills: LB Terrel Bernard missed part of the first quarter due to a non-contact foot injury. … S Damar Hamlin (shoulder) missed part of the first half but was cleared to return. … RB Ty Johnson (shoulder), S Micah Hyde (neck) and DE A.J. Epensesa (rib) were inactive.
Chargers: WR Keenan Allen missed his second straight game and DB Deane Leonard his fourth consecutive, both due to heel injuries.
Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from swimming Thursday.
The gold medallist in the women’s 100-metre butterfly at Tokyo’s Summer Games in 2021 made the announcement in an Instagram post alongside a photo of her swimming as a child.
“The little girl above would have never dreamed this is where her love of swimming would take her,” Mac Neil wrote. “I am so grateful for all the memories, people, and places I have gotten to experience just through swimming.
“I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life journey, as I embark on discovering who I am outside of swimming.”
The 24-year-old from London, Ont., earned a complete set of medals in Tokyo after helping relay teams to silver and bronze medals.
Mac Neil’s five gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, were the most by a Canadian athlete at a single Pan Am Games.
She was fifth in butterfly and was a member of two women’s relay teams that finished fourth at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.
“Anyone who I crossed paths with never, ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics,” Mac Neil wrote. “It’s still surreal to be able to say I’m a two-time Olympian.”
She completed her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year.
Born in China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil, Mac Neil’s mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons because of the family’s backyard pool.
Mac Neil’s 2017 diagnosis of sport-induced asthma — which can be triggered by the swimming staples of heat and chlorine — forced a switch from longer distances to sprints.
Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly two years later.
The nearsighted Mac Neil, who doesn’t wear contacts or prescription goggles, has seen multiple times a meme of her squinting hard at the scoreboard in Tokyo as she tried to decipher her result.
“I like to think it helps because I can’t see where other people are and I’m able to focus on my own race,” Mac Neil said before the Olympic Games in Paris. “That was definitely the case in Tokyo.
“I got that meme sent to me at least three times in January even though it’s been three years since.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Serbia and Albania are set to co-host the men’s Under-21 European Championship in 2027 in a soccer project that aims to overcome political tensions.
UEFA said Thursday only the Serbia-Albania bid met a deadline this week to file detailed tournament plans. Belgium and Turkey had declared interest earlier in the bidding process scheduled to be decided at a Dec. 16 meeting of the UEFA executive committee.
The Serbian and Albanian soccer federations teamed up in May to plan organization of the 16-team tournament played every two years that needs eight stadiums to host 31 games.
Albania soccer federation leader Armand Duka, who is a UEFA vice president, told The Associated Press in May that “it’s a 100% football project” with “a very good political message that we can get across.”
Weeks later at the men’s European Championship held in Germany, historic tensions between the Balkan countries — which in soccer included a notorious drone incident at a Serbia-Albania game in 2014 — played out at separate games involving their senior teams.
An Albania player was banned for games by UEFA for using a megaphone to join fans in nationalist chants, including targeting Serbia, after a Euro 2024 game against Croatia. Fans of Albania and Croatia earlier joined in anti-Serb chants, leading UEFA to impose fines for discrimination.
UEFA also fined both the Albanian and Serbian federations in separate incidents at Euro 2024 for fans displaying politically motivated banners about neighboring Kosovo.
After historic tensions were heightened by the 1990s Balkans conflicts, in 2008 majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo declared independence for the former Serbian province. Serbia refuses to recognize that independence and considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood.
An Albanian fans group daubed red paint on the federation offices in May when the cooperation with Serbian soccer for the Under-21 Euros was announced.
“We did have a few negative reactions from fans, mainly, and some interest groups,” Duka said then, “but not from the Albania government.”
UEFA has shown broad support for Serbia and Albania under its president, Aleksander Ceferin, who is from Slovenia.
The next annual congress of UEFA’s 55 national federations is in the Serbian capital Belgrade on April 3, and an executive committee meeting in September 2025 will be held in Tirana, Albania.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s mayor has revealed the terms of the deal negotiated with the city’s pro basketball team for a new $1.3 billion arena downtown.
The agreement reached earlier this month calls for the Philadelphia 76ers to finance the entire project, with no city funding involved. There is, however, a provision that would let the NBA team make annual payments in lieu of taxes averaging $6 million per year. The agreement also calls for a $50 million investment in businesses, neighboring communities and the city’s schools to blunt the project’s impact, Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a news conference Wednesday night.
“I truly am proud having made this decision and negotiated an agreement that will definitely ensure that our Sixers are staying home right here in Philadelphia, where they should be,” Parker said.
City officials also released drafts of the nine bills and two resolutions needed to authorize the project, including measures that allow the city to acquire the arena property and change zoning rules. Parker said her administration would hold a series of town halls in the coming months where residents could discuss concerns about the proposal.
Team owners say their planned “76 Place” project would improve a struggling retail corridor near City Hall and capitalize on the city’s public transit. They also have vowed not to renew the lease on their current space, a circa 1996 arena in the city’s South Philadelphia sports complex, when their lease runs out in 2031.
The proposal has drawn significant opposition from activists in the city’s Chinatown area, who fear it would disrupt or displace residents and businesses. They say the city has ignored concerns that the project will increase vehicle traffic in their pedestrian-friendly neighborhood and force vulnerable residents — older people, low-income families and new immigrants — to move out. Parker on Wednesday renewed her pledge to preserve the area, which is just over a block from the proposed arena site.
If ultimately approved by the City Council, demolition work in the area would begin in 2026 with construction starting two years later. Officials hope to open the arena in time for the 76ers’ 2031-32 season.
