The Buffalo Bills’ long-awaited playoff appearance might not.

On first-and-goal from the Jaguars 1 http://www.thelionsfootballauthentic.com/jahlani-tavai-jersey-authentic , coach Sean McDermott and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison elected to call a run-pass option instead of asking quarterback Tyrod Taylor to either run it in himself or hand it off to running back LeSean McCoy against one of the most vulnerable run defenses in the playoffs.

”I want a running play,” McCoy said. ”It was a play I was lobbying for the whole time and it didn’t work out …”

Instead, Taylor lofted a fade pass toward the left corner of the end zone where Kelvin Benjamin was whistled for offensive pass interference on All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, pushing the Bills back 10 yards.

The drive stalled from there and Stephen Haushka’s 31-yard field goal was all the Bills had to show for their 18-play, 71-yard drive that took 8:06, their only decent drive all game.

McDermott also botched the end of the first half by calling pass plays on second-and-6 at his 14 (incomplete) and the next down (5-yard completion to Zay Jones in which he was pushed out of bounds).

Instead of taking a knee and heading to the locker room with a 3-0 lead, the Bills gave the Jaguars the ball back with enough time to get into field goal range and score and gain some momentum heading into the locker room.

The Bills’ curious play call, however, paled in contrast to the series of odd calls by referee Jeff Triplette’s playoff crew in Kansas City, where the Tennessee Titans overcame an 18-point halftime deficit to shock the Chiefs 22-21.

”Horrible way to start the playoffs,” tweeted Mike Pereira , the former NFL officiating chief turned Fox sports analyst. ”I hate to say it, but this was not a good performance by the crew. Teams and fans deserve better.”

A day later, Pereira praised both Tony Corrente’s crew in New Orleans and John Hussey’s crew in Jacksonville T.J. Hockenson Jersey , adding, ”Yesterday is a memory. I feel bad for Jeff Triplette. He is a great man who was part of a crew that did not have a good game. I feel bad that he is retiring under this cloud.”

After Marcus Mariota caught his own deflected pass for a touchdown Saturday, Triplette explained that the Titans quarterback was an eligible receiver because he had lined up in the shotgun formation rather than under center.

There is no such rule in the NFL.

Whenever a defensive player deflects a pass, every offensive player is allowed to catch the ricochet, including the quarterback and it matters not where he lined up when the play began.

Then, there was the very quick whistle that negated a fumble recovery by Justin Houston after fellow linebacker Derrick Johnson sacked Mariota in the second quarter.

Mariota fumbled a split-second after contact, but Triplette said the QB’s forward progress had been stopped before the fumble.

Forward progress is usually called when a running back is stopped and defenders are piling on him or several defenders drape a quarterback.

Hardly ever is it applied when a QB is going to the ground on initial contact by a single defender.

As a judgment call, Chiefs coach Andy Reid was helpless to throw his red challenge flag, and Ryan Succop kicked a field goal on the next play.

”The defender hit him and he was driving him back,” Triplette said after the game.

The officials had one more gaffe in them, one that was corrected on replay review.

The crew initially called a fumble on Titans running back Derrick Henry late in the fourth quarter, signaling touchdown when Johnson scooped up the ball and rumbled into the end zone as fireworks lit up the sky.

The replays showed he was down before the ball came loose.

Before wild-card weekend began, there were several notable calls concerning the Cincinnati Bengals.

Bills fans giddy over Buffalo ending the longest playoff drought in North American pro sports made a surge in donations to Andy Dalton’s foundation , their way of thanking the Bengals QB for his role in the Bills’ first invitation to the postseason party in 17 years.

Dalton’s foundation received more than $300 http://www.thebroncosfootballauthentic.com/dre_mont-jones-jersey-authentic ,000 in donations after the Bengals beat the Ravens 31-27 in the regular-season finale when Dalton threw a 49-yard TD pass with 44 seconds left to eliminate Baltimore and open a spot for Buffalo.

”I think I’m the hottest guy in Buffalo right now,” Dalton said.

While the Bills’ long streak of playoff futility is over, the Bengals’ streak continues. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season, the sixth-longest streak of postseason futility in NFL history. They’ve lost all seven of their playoff games since that season, including an NFL-record five straight first-round defeats from 2011-15.

The Bengals missed out on the playoffs for a second straight season, going 7-9. They won their last two games, knocking the Lions and Ravens out of the playoff race.

That was enough for owner Mike Brown to give coach Marvin Lewis a two-year extension and two more chances to try to get the Bengals that playoff victory that has eluded him for 15 seasons.

Lewis has the second-longest active coaching tenure in the NFL, behind only Bill Belichick’s 18 seasons with New England.

Unlike Belichick, who has won five Super Bowls and made two other appearances in the title game, Lewis is 0-7 in the playoffs, the worst such coaching record in NFL history.

In Denver, John Elway thought long and

LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw’s comeback from a third back injury in three years will continue Thursday afternoon when he faces the Chicago Cubs in the finale of a four-game series.

It is the last time the Dodgers and Cubs will meet in the regular season, but as the last two National League Championship Series have shown, a high-profile series in October is a possibility.

Thursday’s afternoon game at Dodger Stadium is also the end of a jammed-packed run that will see the Cubs and Dodgers face each other for the seventh time in 10 days. Each team has beaten the other three times after the Dodgers earned a 7-5 victory Wednesday.

Kershaw (1-4 http://www.cardinalscheapstore.com/byron-murphy-jersey-cheap , 2.94 ERA) has already had two disabled list stints this season. He missed nearly four weeks in May with left biceps tendinitis, and after only five innings of his return from that injury, he hit the DL again with a lower back strain.

In his return Saturday at New York against the Mets, Kershaw gave up two runs on five hits over three innings, as he was held to 55 pitches. He was supposed to have a minor league rehab start that day, but a poor weather forecast for their Triple-A Oklahoma team led the Dodgers to shift gears.

While Kershaw is expected to get more leeway Thursday, he still figures to be on a pitch restriction that manager Dave Roberts will determine.

“I feel 100 percent,” Kershaw told ESPN this week. “It’s just a matter of building up pitch-count wise and just make sure we’re getting to that 110-, 120-pitch count limit.”

Kershaw is 5-3 with a 2.64 ERA in nine career starts against the Cubs.

Kershaw will square off against fellow left-hander Jose Quintana (6-6, 4.26) on Thursday. Quintana has not thrown 100 pitches in any of his last six starts and has completed six innings once in four June starts.

Quintana has not won a start since May 31 while posting a 4.15 ERA over 21 2/3 June innings. He has not given up an earned run in two career starts against the Dodgers, but is 0-1 against Los Angeles

The Cubs have scored 14 runs in two nights after hitting coach Chili Davis held a meeting with the offense. And while the improved offense was much needed, the Cubs are 1-1 in those two games since the meeting.

Now comes a matchup with Kershaw, who is never a pushover, whether he is coming off an injury or not.

“I’m still looking forward to Dre'Mont Jones Jersey , as we get more mature in the batter’s box, that we chase less,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I like homers just like everybody else does, but there are so many other ways to score. Industry-wide, that’s probably everybody’s biggest problem. I want power and I want that little dumper to the right side.”

For the Dodgers, it has been all about power in June. They hit three more home runs Wednesday and now have 51 in June, two short of the club record for a single month.

Joc Pederson, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger hit home runs Wednesday. Pederson has a major league-leading 10 home runs in June, Muncy has nine and Bellinger has eight.

The Cubs are 1-6 on their eight-game road trip to Cincinnati and L.A. and are 3-9 in regular-season games at Dodger Stadium since the start of 2015.