Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White (27) intercepts a pass from Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Devlin Hodges (6) intended for Steelers wide receiver James Washington (13) during the first half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

The Buffalo Bills are back in the playoffs, and this time, it didn’t take another team’s miracle to make it happen. This year, Buffalo punched its own ticket, after a 17-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of all of America on Sunday Night Football in Pittsburgh. It was the 10th win of the season for the Bills, which marks the first time since the turn of the century that the Bills reached 10 wins.

“We got the job done. We got number 10,” said Bills quarterback Josh Allen on the NBC broadcast after the game.

Now, was it easy? Of course it wasn’t. That’s been the story of the 2019 Bills season. Buffalo finds itself in close games far more often than it should — against all kinds of teams, good or bad — and Sunday night was no different. Pittsburgh quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges played absolutely atrocious football all night long, from the first interception of the night to Tre’Davious White until the final of Hodges’ four picks on Sunday to Levi Wallace in the endzone to end the game. Buffalo’s defense made the new Steelers signal caller look like the third string quarterback he truly is. White twice, Jordan Poyer, and finally Wallace all preyed on the overmatched quarterback in black and yellow, and that’s the main reason why the Bills earned the victory.

Don’t get me wrong, Buffalo still had plenty of flaws. Had they not played such an error-filled game, the final score would not have been as close as it was. Allen made a poor throw to Cole Beasley that ended in an interception — though it was not Beasley’s finest moment either. Devin Singletary continued the Bills trend of not valuing possession of the football, as he fumbled twice, one of which the Bills recovered. Even John Brown had a bad drop in the game, although he was the only Bills wide receiver who had a day worth noting, with seven catches for 99 yards, including a 40-yard catch.

Buffalo lived up to the hype at times on Sunday, and at times, the Bills were not as pretty. Still, Bills fans everywhere had to be encouraged even by the fact that the team earned the nation’s biggest stage, with the first Sunday Night Football game for the Bills in over a decade. It had been so long since the Bills made SNF that the NBC broadcast continued to show pictures from the past, reminiscing to the old days where the Bills were led by players and coaches whose glory days came over two decades ago. For fans like me, a 25-year-old Bills fan who has been following the team since kindergarten, those photos were of legends I’ve only heard stories about. Now, the Bills are finally starting to build the type of reputation for who they are now, rather than who they were more than two decades ago.

Though much of Sunday’s performance was not pretty for Bills fans to watch, the result is all that matters. Ten times in 14 tries, the Bills have been on the right side of the result this season, and that’s something worth celebrating.