In one glorious moment, Bills nickelback Taron Johnson wrote his name in franchise history for all time.
With the Ravens seemingly ready to tie Saturday night’s AFC divisional playoff game at 10-10 late in the third quarter at Bills Stadium, Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson dropped back to throw on 3rd-and-goal from the Buffalo 9-yard line. But before the ball reached its intended target, tight end Mark Andrews, Johnson stepped in front of it for the interception. For a fraction of a second he considered kneeling in the end zone for a touchback.
Then, reconsidering, he took off and went for a 101-yard, cross-country housecall.
The defensive touchdown put the Bills up 17-3 and virtually assured their first trip to the American Football Conference Championship Game since 1993.
For the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Weber State cornerback whom the Bills took in the fourth round of the 2018 draft, it was only his third career pick, two of them this year, both returned for TDs, the other against Pittsburgh for 51 yards.
OH, HIS effort put Johnson in the record books, those 101 yards tying him with Green Bay’s George Teague against Detroit in 1993 for the longest interception return in NFL playoff history and it also deadlocked him with safety Tony Greene (1976) for the Bills’ all-time mark.
And, Johnson tied for the team lead in solo tackles with six for the game in which his TD produced the final score.
“I felt like he threw it right to me,” Johnson recalled of his historic play. “At first I was going to kneel down, then I saw all of that open grass and I figured, ‘OK, there’s only one guy I gotta beat … No. 8 (Jackson). But to have (cornerback Tre’Davious White) running with me helped out a lot, he got in (Jackson’s) way and let me go all the way.”
When did he realize the magnitude of the play?
“Right in the middle of it I thought it could be really big … it was more than last an interception to take it all the way and put points on the board,” Johnson said. “To me, the big thing was that I had to catch the ball first before I took off.”
Still, it was sweet vindication for Johnson who was benched before the loss to Kansas City (Game 6), in favor of Cam Lewis, and only returned because of an injury to his replacement.
But, clearly, he made the most of it.
“I just take it one day at a time, I had to deal with it,” Johnson said. “I can’t worry about things outside of my control … it just worked out.”
Especially Saturday night when the Bills needed it most … while prominently adding his name to the most glorious moments in franchise history.
However, veteran safety Micah Hyde maintained of Johnson’s heroics, “I’m not sure he realizes how important a play it was to Bills fans.”
But they surely do.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
