PITTSBURGH — There will be no last-second miracle from Andy Dalton and Tyler Boyd necessary this time for the Buffalo Bills.

Sunday night, Sean McDermott’s team took care of securing an AFC wild-card playoff berth on its own by marching into Heinz Field and knocking off the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-10 in front of a national TV audience on Sunday Night Football.

With a 10-4 record, the Bills secured their first double-digit win total since 1999 and just their second playoff berth in the last 20 years, though both have come in the three seasons McDermott has been the head coach, the other in 2017 when the Bengals’ Dalton and Boyd gave them a stunning assist that pushed them in.

They also locked up the No. 5 seed in the playoff bracket because no other team can catch the Bills, even if they were to lose their last two games at New England and home against the Jets. This almost surely means the Bills will face either the Kansas City Chiefs or Houston Texans in the opening round of the playoffs the weekend of Jan. 4-5.

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This was a tremendous night for the Bills as they were making their first appearance since 2007 on “Sunday Night Football” which is now considered the NFL’s weekly showcase game, far surpassing Monday night in prestige.

It was yet another opportunity for the Bills to prove who they are on the heels of their coming out party on Thanksgiving Day when the largest turkey day audience in nearly 30 years tuned in for their dismantling of the Cowboys. 

It certainly wasn’t as pretty or entertaining as that game in Dallas, but the guess is no one in Bills Mafia cares all that much about the lack of style points.

The game played out exactly as most had predicted, both defenses making it terribly difficult for the offenses, but in the end, the Bills twice took advantage of great field position to score, and then put together an efficient fourth-quarter drive to win the game.

Their only score of the first half came courtesy of an awful 22-yard punt by the Steelers which gave the Bills a drive start at the Pittsburgh 40. Josh Allen took a sack on the first play, but he rescued the possession by hitting John Brown for 10 yards to convert a fourth-and-6. 

From there, the Bills completed the drive as Devin Singletary converted a third and short, then broke a 14-yard run which set up Allen’s one-yard touchdown keeper.

The Steelers answered with a 49-yard Chris Boswell field goal, and that was it for the first-half scoring thanks to the Bills’ defense forcing a Steelers fumble inside the Buffalo 10. 

At the half the Steelers had 64 yards of offense, but they gained 69 on their first possession of the third quarter as the Buffalo had its worst series of the night. Tre White was burned for a 29-yard gain, Micah Hyde was faked out of his cleats during a 17-yard James Conner run, and finally Levi Wallace whiffed in the open field as Conner caught an 11-yard TD pass from Devlin Hodges to put Pittsburgh up 10-7.

But the defense made amends when White picked off a Hodges pass and returned it 49 yards to the Steelers 18.

Of course, some utterly ridiculous play calls by offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, two of them runs to Frank Gore, sabotaged that great chance to take the lead, and the Bills had to settle for a tying Stephen Hauschka 36-yard field goal with 12:23 remaining.

After a defensive stop, the Bills took the lead for good when Allen hit Brown for a 40-yard gain on the first play of a six-play, 70-yard drive, and then ended it with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Kroft with 7:55 left to play.

The Steelers made one last push when Hodges completed a 32-yard pass to James Washington, and they eventually drove to a fourth-and-7 at the 23 as the two-minute warning arrived.  

Here, Hodges threw one into the end zone for Deon Cain, but Jordan Poyer played center field better than Willie Mays and made the interception.

Of course, this being the Bills, it can never be easy. They were able to whittle almost nothing off the clock, so the Steelers regained the ball after a punt with 1:31 to go, and quickly were in Buffalo territory, but Hodges ultimately threw his fourth interception of the night, in the end zone, Wallace doing the honors, to seal the deal.

Follow the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Sal Maiorana on Twitter @salmaiorana.

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