JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars will host the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the AFC wild card round.
Jacksonville enters the postseason riding one of the best seasons in franchise history, earning the right to play January football at home. Now comes a familiar playoff test — Buffalo, a team with extensive postseason experience and a reputation for producing big plays. Josh Allen, James Cook and the Bills’ top-ranked rushing offense come to town to face the Jaguars’ top-ranked rushing defense.
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“They challenge you in so many ways with their run game,” Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile said. “They make everybody tackle. They do a really good job in their combinations, do a good job playing with their hands as an offensive line. I think their perimeter does a very good job blocking.
“And that’s generated a lot of the big runs for them down the field, even in the screen game, which are an extension of the run game. So, it’s a challenge at every level of the defense and the running back obviously is elite. I think he does a tremendous job. Cook does a tremendous job of finding cracks. You look at some of the stuff on tape, there’s nowhere to go, and he pops through there. So, he’s an elite back and obviously the quarterback’s an elite runner as well but they have a bunch of good backs. So, they’ve really given everybody fits at this point in the season and the run game. So, it’s a great challenge for us.”
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence leads an offense that has grown significantly as the season has progressed. Lawrence’s franchise-record 38 total touchdowns were the third-most in the NFL, just one touchdown fewer than Buffalo’s Allen, the reigning NFL MVP. Lawrence joined Allen, Kyler Murray and Cam Newton as the only players in NFL history with at least 25 touchdown passes and nine rushing touchdowns in a season.
Lawrence enters the postseason with a passer rating above 100.0 in five of his last six games, the most in the NFL during that span. The Jaguars’ next test comes against a Bills defense that offensive coordinator Grant Udinski said stands out on film.
“You’re not going to be number one in pass defense without having really a great group across the board that’s highly coordinated, plays hard, great technique, great fundamentals and they’ve really mastered that scheme. They do a great job matching route concept, passing different things off, making it challenging. Not only post-snap, they make it challenging pre-snap. They present a bunch of different looks for the quarterbacks and that causes different issues that show up, whether it’s the pass game or the run game.”
News4JAX will bring you complete coverage leading up to kickoff, live streaming on News4JAX+ beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday. Immediately after the game, join us on Channel 4 for full postgame coverage as we follow the Jaguars on their Road to Cali.