ORCHARD PARK — Regardless of what you believe in, whether you’re religious or not, there are times it feels as though a Higher Power is looking over certain moments in life. 

One of those moments was the first play of Sunday’s Bills game against the Patriots at Highmark Stadium, where Buffalo defeated New England 35-23 to clinch the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs. 

Fourteen seconds into the first game the Bills played since safety Damar Hamlin nearly died on the field in Cincinnati after going into cardiac arrest Monday, Buffalo kick returner Nyheim Hines was taking the opening kickoff to the house, 96 yards, and a stunning 7-0 Bills lead. 

Highmark Stadium was already an emotionally charged place, filled to capacity and electric because everyone was there to honor Hamlin, who remains in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital. 

But when Hines busted that kickoff return, the place was off the rails. 

“You want the truth?’’ Bills quarterback and team leader Josh Allen said afterward. “It was spiritual. It really was. Bone-chilling. It was special.’’ 

Asked where it ranked among the top plays he’s ever witnessed, Allen said, “I can’t remember a play that touched me like that in my life. It’s probably number one. You can’t draw that one up, write that one up any better.’’ 

The only moment that could top that Hines kickoff return — the first of two he took the house in the game — came after the game when Hamlin, via video, broke the team down in the locker room. 

“He got the game ball as well as our trainers and our training staff,’’ Allen said of the people who saved Hamlin’s life Monday night. 

Allen, who threw three TD passes in the game, matching Hamlin’s Buffalo uniform number, admitted to apprehension among the players having to suit up so soon after Hamlin’s injury. 

“At the national anthem, I know some guys had tears rolling down and a feeling of uncertainty of what it would feel like to go back out there,’’ Allen said. “But Nyheim put that to rest.” 

Bills head coach Sean McDermott conceded after the game that he didn’t know what to expect from his players on Sunday after such a trying week. 

“Going into the game, I wasn’t sure how the players were going to handle it,’’ he said. “I felt like I had a pretty good control on how I was going to handle it, but you never really know just because it was a unique situation for us. To come out on the first play there it was kind of surreal watching Nyheim score.“Then, I was more concerned — I guess it’s just coachspeak — about the next play and the next three quarters and how it would go.’’ 

It wasn’t easy for the Bills, as the Patriots, who essentially needed to win the game to avoid elimination from playoff contention, tied the game at 14-14 by halftime and took a 17-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter. 

That’s when Hines delivered his second kickoff return for a TD — this one from 101 yards — for a 21-17 lead the Bills would never relinquish, becoming only the 11th player in NFL history to take two to the house in one game. 

Playing the game was therapeutic for the Bills. Getting the win was a mere bonus. 

“It’s been a tough week for our whole team,’’ Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White said. “Anytime you have guys who are that close and they see something like that happen … for me to see it, to see how everything transpired from the hit to him getting up to him falling to everything, it’s something I can’t unsee. 

“Every time I close my eyes, it replays. I try to watch TV, every time the TV goes to commercial it’s the only thing that’s on my mind. Hopefully, we’ll never have to go through this again. But Damar is one of the most resilient, honest, pure people I know. 

“We got a text from Damar at 2:31 in the morning. What he said was: ‘I’m thinking about y’all. I’m sorry I did this to y’all.’ For him to check on us when he’s the person going through what he is going through, it just shows what type of character he has. It shows what type of person he is. Hopefully, we can just get him back. I just want to hug the s–t out of him.”