JACKSONVILLE – There were all kinds of questions about this Buffalo Bills team headed into their AFC Wild-Card matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars, played under a mix of sun and cloud Sunday afternoon in northern Florida.
Two of the most critical questions pertained to whether the Bills would be able to move the ball through the air against Jacksonville and whether the Buffalo defence had the ability to slow down a Jaguars passing game that had morphed into one or the league’s best, driving an offence that averaged more than 33 points an outing during an eight-game win streak to close the regular season.
The affirmative answers to those two questions helped the Bills snap head coach Sean McDermott’s 0-5 record in road playoff games with a 27-24 win over the Jaguars.
The Bills’ offence this season has been atypical of one engineered by a reigning MVP quarterback, light on receiving talent and reliant on its elite ground game to set the tone and often seal the victory. When Buffalo did throw the ball during the regular season, the offence counted on catches from running backs and tight ends more than receivers.
A good part of that is because of Buffalo’s overall pedestrian receiving talent, which on Sunday featured two players signed off the street in Brandin Cooks and Gabe Davis, an undrafted free agent in Tyrell Shavers, a second-year player who’s been a healthy scratch much of the second half of the season in Keon Coleman, and Khalil Shakir, the only Bills receiver with more than 500 yards on the season and the only one good enough to maybe start for another contender.
So, what if Jacksonville’s league-leading run defence was able to shut down NFL rushing leader James Cook and the Bills ‘ground game? What if the Jags could limit the Bills tight ends or running backs catching the ball coming out of the backfield?
Did Josh Allen, nursing an injured foot, have the ability to make things work with that group of receivers?
Well, as many imagined, the Bills and Cook struggled mightily running the football, getting to the half with nine carries for just 31 yards. Tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox had just one catch each during the first half and combined for just six on the day. Overall, the Bills’ tight ends and running backs combined for just 69 receiving yards.
That left Allen had to win the game for Buffalo in a manner in which he rarely has this season. He threw 12 passes to Shakir, who caught every one of them – three more than he has ever had in a game before.
He also completed three to Cooks, including a 36-yarder in the middle of the field on a play they’d installed during the past week, which set up the winning score.
Allen was a warrior in this game, going 14 of 16 for 195 yards and becoming the first NFL quarterback ever to complete at least 80 per cent of his passes while scoring multiple touchdowns (two) along the ground.
Going to the sideline once to be examined for a concussion and another time for a hyper-extended left knee, Allen did most of his work from the pocket on this day and never turned the ball over.
When it became apparent the Bills couldn’t ride the running game, they pivoted and Allen made things work. That includes a game-winning drive that began from their own 34 with 3:58 to play, and featured a 10-yard “tush push” play from the Jacksonville 11-yard line before Allen punched it in on a one-yard run.
That score – the fourth lead change of the fourth quarter – gave the Bills a three-point lead with 1:04 to play.
The Jags had no timeouts. But with kicker Cam Little setting two NFL records this season by making field goals from 67 and 68 yards, Jacksonville needed only to gain about 30 yards to put themselves into range to tie the game.
The Bills’ pass defence, which improved over the course of the season and came in performing at a high level, limited Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence to just 88 passing yards during the first half, picking him off once.
Lawrence got rolling after halftime and was able to engineer two fourth-quarter touchdown drives but the Bills defence made him earn those, limiting their top receiver, Jakobi Meyers, to one catch for 12 yards on four targets for the game.
Meyers was Lawrence’s target on the first play of Jacksonville’s final drive, when the ball was tipped by Bills corner Tre’Davious White into the arms of safety Cole Bishop to end the game.
White, 30, had been around the ball all game, one of two players on this Bills team who was present for McDermott’s playoff head coaching debut, a loss at Jacksonville back in 2017.
Since that time he’d tore his ACL in 2021, then came back and tore his Achilles tendon in October of 2023, after which the Bills released him in a cost-cutting move following the season.
After splitting last season between the L.A. Rams and Baltimore Ravens, he told his agent there was only one team with which he wanted to continue his career: Buffalo.
It’s been a journey reaching his potential this season, often splitting time with rookie Maxwell Hairston, who missed Sunday with an injury suffered in the regular-season finale against the New York Jets.
But White was ready for the moment on Sunday, just like Cooks, Allen and the rest of the Bills were ready.
As a result, the team earned the opportunity to play in the divisional round of playoffs for a sixth consecutive season.