Bills' brilliant trick play becomes a footnote as magic turns to misery for Buffalo

Bills' brilliant trick play becomes a footnote as magic turns to misery for Buffalo originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

It had a chance to be the play that made all the highlight reels, the moment that turned the Bills' season into a magical, fate-filled run to glory.

Instead, it becomes a footnote.

The Bills faced fourth-and-27 on Thursday night, down four to the Houston Texans, game on the line. And they called for some trickery.

Josh Allen lofted a pass about halfway to the marker to Joshua Palmer, crossing the field right to left.

Crossing just in front of Palmer, left to right, was Khalil Shakir.

Palmer flipped the ball to Shakir, a backward lateral, a bit of a hook-and-ladder, and Shakir was off.

Shakir raced past the first-down marker, Buffalo still in business.

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But then the Bills couldn't score the touchdown.

Gabe Davis got one foot down, not two, on a jump ball, and that was as close as Buffalo got.

The game essentially ended when Allen threw an interception a few plays later while three different Bills pass catchers were on the turf, having fallen down all in the same moment or two.

The lateral play will still be a cool one to look back on.

But it'll also serve as a reminder of what could've been. The Bills are 7-4, still very much in the playoff picture. That, though, was a play you use to make a statement, to shock people, to make magic.

It worked, too. That's the biggest bummer. The trick play worked. But the normal stuff the Bills used to try and score didn't come through.

And so Buffalo flew home with a loss, having pulled out the specialty play, seen it come through and then not finished the job.

It would've been a heck of a lot more fun for Bills Mafia if that magical moment meant a win.

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