It can never be easy for a Bills fan. Our patience, faith, and trust has been tested time after time, ultimately ending in the predictable disappointment. Yet, we return each and every September with the faith that this could be our year. As the season progresses, patience runs thin typically because playoff hopes have vanished weeks before the season is even over. Once the off-season arrives we put faith in an organization who hasn’t done much of anything for 15 years. Sunday, Peyton Manning will test the patience, faith, and trust of our defense just as the Bills continue to test ours.

For the first time in a long time the Bills have entered December with a winning record and a slim chance of making the playoffs. Slim not because of their record, but because of the massive challenge the month of December presents. Three games against three of the best quarterbacks of all time, and three games on the road. It all starts in the Mile High City come Sunday at 4 o’clock. If the Bills have any plans of making any type of playoff run this season, it needs to start in Denver. The Broncos are built to win with a stingy defense and a well-documented high power offense. The Bills will need to win at least one out of the next two games to have any chance of making a late charge. It would be great to watch this team beat the Packers at home next weekend, but winning in Denver would give them 5 wins in the conference, something they will need once the season is all said and done. Vegas gives us little chance. The Broncos are heavy favorites as they look to win their fourth straight AFC West Division title and make another run deep into the playoffs.

The Bills haven’t played a meaningful game in December since 2004 and this game could be the kick start Bills fans have been waiting for. I will admit that it has been very difficult to allow myself to even dare to think we can beat the AFC champs in their own backyard. However, now that the game is here I am prepared to throw logic out the window and believe the organization can do the impossible.

Why not? The Bills have been in every game this season. The defense has made sure of that. One thing the Bills certainly have going for them is that Manning has had little experience with this front seven. In fact, Manning has only played the Bills 11 times in his historic and first ballot Hall of Fame career. None of those games really stand out to me. If the Bills want to win this game it needs to be remembered as the game we stopped Peyton Manning. The Bills have been tough on grass and I trust they recognize the magnitude of this opportunity and look to take full advantage of it. When Denver has gone down it started up front. Good luck to any team trying to stop Mario and the rest of the Bills defensive line including the almighty AFC champs.

It has become very difficult to depend on the Bills inconsistent offense all season. Injuries to CJ and Fred have slowed down a running game that many felt would be the Bills strength. Denver is well aware of our weaknesses and will look to put pressure on Kyle early and often. Pulling off the impossible has to include a steady diet of Dixon and Brown, but the Bills can’t stop there. Orton won’t have much time to go down field against this defense meaning that he needs to utilize each and every option possible. MarQueis Gray showed up in a big way last week during the second half. That’s right. A tight end made not one but two big plays in the second half of a Bills game. Big plays down in the Red Zone on Sunday are a must if the Bills have any chance. I have faith someone named Gray or Chandler will come up with those plays late in the game when we need it most.

Patience has always been the key to some of the biggest wins against the Broncos in Bills history, and Sunday will be no different. The ‘92 AFC Championship game is proof of that. The Bills high powered offense fail to get in the end zone testing the patience of Bills fans all afternoon. I watched the game with my brother as he laid in Mercy Hospital with complications from appendicitis. It didn’t stop him from screaming at the top of his lungs as Carlton Bailey caught that Jeff Wright tip and ran it in for six. The Bills fought Elway and the Broncos all day long holding them to only seven points. Of course my brother and I would have loved to watch the Bills blow out the Broncos the same way they had crushed the Chiefs a week before. Thankfully, we remained patient, had faith, and trusted that the defense would make a big play when we needed it most. We can only hope to have a defining moment against the Broncos like Bailey’s pick six in 92. Clearly, this game isn’t the AFC Championship but it is the biggest football game this city has had in 10 years.

Fans have patiently waited for a game like this for a long time including me. Now, the Bills finally have an opportunity to go out and prove they are a team that can compete and win with the Big Dogs. Fans continue to have faith that one day our team can do something nobody thought possible. Trust that Sunday is that chance. Patience, faith, and trust have gotten all of us this far. Why not believe that they can go out there and prove everyone else wrong? We have patiently waited. We have faith that they can do it. Now, we must trust that they are ready for the challenge.

Relive the 1991 Buffalo Bills season | AFC Championship vs Denver begins at 41 minute mark