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Coming into Sunday, the Buffalo Payments had not received a street playoff sport since 1992, and Josh Allen had by no means led a game-winning drive within the postseason.
Each of these streaks are actually over.
The Payments scored an upset victory Sunday, knocking off the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-24 in a back-and-forth bout in Florida. Allen led a nine-play, 66-yard drive to place Buffalo forward for good with 1 minute and 4 seconds left within the sport.
On the Jaguars’ following possession, Trevor Lawrence threw an interception on the drive’s first play, ending any hopes of a comeback.
Allen was the story — and was sensational — in a sport Buffalo entered as a slight underdog. Along with by no means main a game-winning drive in a playoff sport, Allen walked onto the sphere Sunday 0-4 on the street in his postseason profession.
And within the first half, Allen took a beating from the bodily Jacksonville protection. He wanted to be checked for a concussion after one play, seemingly damage his knee after a landing run, and likewise jammed his finger on a teammate’s helmet for good measure.
None of it finally mattered. Allen completed the sport 28 of 35 for 273 yards and one landing, surrendering just one sack. He additionally ran the ball 11 occasions for 33 yards and two scores, together with the game-winner.
“Feels good,” an understated Allen instructed reporters after the sport. “Identical time, simply means we get one other sport.”
Allen’s stellar effort was summed up in a single play on the Payments’ go-ahead drive. On a primary and 10 close to midfield, Allen was staring down a free rusher when he uncorked an ideal go to Brandin Cooks down the sphere, whilst he absorbed an enormous hit. The 36-yard completion put Buffalo in scoring place, and Allen discovered the tip zone 5 performs later.
Allen outdueled Lawrence, who completed the common season as one of many hottest quarterbacks within the league. Lawrence led Jacksonville to 9 straight wins earlier than Sunday, and in his final six video games had 19 complete touchdowns and just one interception.
Buffalo’s protection, nonetheless, restricted Lawrence to solely 207 yards and likewise intercepted him twice. The turnovers performed a key position, because the Payments received regardless of averaging fewer yards per play (5.5 to six.6), dashing for fewer yards (79 to 154) and committing extra penalties (seven to 2).
Conversely, Allen and the offense capitalized on their alternatives. Allen transformed a number of fourth-down makes an attempt by way of quarterback sneak, and led scoring drives after Lawrence’s first interception in addition to a Jaguars turnover on downs within the second quarter.
Whereas Allen has nearly all the time been nice within the postseason, he has struggled to recover from the hump largely as a result of different nice quarterbacks within the convention.
Allen has by no means made the Tremendous Bowl regardless of main his crew to the playoffs in every of the final six seasons earlier than this one. Within the final 5 years, Allen has solely misplaced postseason video games when the opposing quarterback was Patrick Mahomes (4 occasions) or Joe Burrow (as soon as). The final three losses to Mahomes additionally got here by a complete of solely 12 factors.
In his playoff profession earlier than Sunday, Allen led all quarterbacks with no less than 10 begins in touchdown-to-interception ratio, complete yards per sport and complete touchdowns per sport. As nice as he’s been, Buffalo has been unable to interrupt by, echoing the crew’s run of 4 straight Tremendous Bowl losses within the early Nineties.
On Sunday, Allen confirmed he may will his crew to victory even with a middling protection, a dashing assault not at its finest, a pedestrian receiving corps and a sizzling sign caller on the opposite facet. With Mahomes, Burrow and even Lamar Jackson all watching this postseason from house, this may very well be the yr Allen’s greatness is lastly the deciding issue for Buffalo.
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