JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The playoff road ended in heartbreak for the Jaguars.
The Jaguars battled to the finish but fell victim to reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen in a 27-24 loss to the Bills in the AFC wild card playoffs on Sunday at EverBank Stadium.
Jacksonville’s defense held Allen in check until the final quarter, when he threw a touchdown pass to Dalton Kincaid and then scored a 1-yard rushing touchdown with 65 seconds left.
That set the table for one final Jacksonville drive, but Trevor Lawrence threw his second interception of the game, this one to Cole Bishop, to end any hope for a Jacksonville rally. For head coach Liam Coen, it was a stinging finish to an unforgettable first season in Jacksonville.
“Yeah, I’ll take a little bit of time [to reflect]. I wasn’t 100% sure what to say to those guys in there, because you don’t really plan for what you’re going to say after the season ends. We’ll be fortunate to be able to get together tomorrow, get the guys in there, communicate, be able to swallow this one and keep it moving.”
Lawrence had a 14-yard touchdown pass to Travis Etienne with just over 4 minutes to play that pushed the Jaguars ahead 24-20.
But Allen responded. He flipped the field with a 36-yard pass to Brandin Cooks that put the Bills at the Jacksonville 20 with 2 minutes left. He scored five plays later.
The Jaguars finished their season 13-5 and will enter 2026 with far more expectations than before.
“Not even thinking about next year. I have so much confidence in this group and the staff and the direction we’re heading, but that doesn’t make you feel better about the season ending today when we feel like there was more out there for us. So it’s still really, really disappointing. Guys care a lot about it, and that’s why we’re all feeling this way.”
Missed opportunity in first half
The biggest play of the opening half may have been head coach Liam Coen’s decision to bypass an easy field goal and go for it on fourth-and-2 from the 9.
Lawrence tried to run it around the left side and appeared to convert it on a dive, but Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott challenged the spot, and the replay showed Lawrence’s knee touching the ground a yard short.
Josh Allen marched Buffalo down the field in 10 plays and plunged in from the 2-yard line to put the Bills in front 10-7. Coen said he had no regrets on bypassing the field goal in that situation.
“It’s just unfortunate. We didn’t execute plays that we needed to all the way through the game, and they came out on top because of it,” said linebacker Foye Oluokun. “Love the fight from this team all year. I love how they came together as a team all year, just sad to come up short.”
Lawrence hot and cold
Lawrence had been the top quarterback in the NFL since Week 13 (five games with more than 100 QB rating) but wasn’t at his best in the opening half.
He got Jacksonville on the scoreboard with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Brian Thomas Jr. to put the Jaguars in front 7-3 and hit Washington on a 34-yard strike over the middle on the final offensive play of the half.
Lawrence picked things up in the second half. He marched Jacksonville from its own 36 to inside the Buffalo 10, finishing the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Washington to give the Jaguars their first lead of the second half.
“It was a tough way to end this year. It’s been a fun year. It’s hard to kind of describe it, I guess, put the right words to it just because there’s so much work that’s put into any season. Then you look at the year we’ve had and some of the adversity and just the way we finished the year and the confidence we were playing with, and then for it to end, it just ends so suddenly when you have a game like that.”
LeQuint Allen forced a fumble on the kickoff on the ensuing possession, and Devin Lloyd recovered it. But the Jaguars came away with nothing to show for it after Lawrence was stopped short at the 8 on a fourth-down try.
Buffalo scored all 10 points in the opening half off of Jacksonville miscues. It connected on a 50-yard field goal by Matt Prater after Lawrence was picked off by Shaq Thompson, and Allen had a 2-yard rushing touchdown to put the Bills up 10-7 after the Jaguars turned it over on downs.
Lawrence finished 18 of 30 for 207 yards and three touchdowns.
Little’s streak ends
Cam Little had the longest streak in the NFL this year with 20 consecutive field goals, including a 67-yarder in last week’s win over the Titans. That ended right before halftime.
Lawrence marched Jacksonville from its own 3 to the Buffalo 37 with 1 second left on the clock to get in position for points. With how Little has played in the second half of the season, that should have been automatic points.
But Little’s kick curved left and just outside the left upright to keep the Bills in front 10-7. He bounced back with a 43-yard field goal midway through the third quarter to get the Jaguars within 13-10.
“It’s an honor to be the head coach of this football team. This group of guys, the organization, people that I’m fortunate enough to work with on a day-to-day basis,” Coen said.
“(It) has been it extremely gratifying to be in this role, obviously. You learn so much in your first year of doing it. To be able to self-scout and self-evaluate it in the offseason to give yourself a chance to win these type of games in the future. But putting ourselves in a position to compete like champions every day and see what that looks like next season.”
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