All of the faith Bills Mafia holds in the Buffalo Bills’ postseason chances rests on Josh Allen’s shoulders. After all, his wide receivers have been largely unproductive, he’s been sacked too much, and his run defense is shaky and inconsistent. Even his top-ranked run game was snuffed out by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Nonetheless, Allen powered the Bills with his first fourth-quarter comeback victory in the playoffs to pick up his first road playoff victory, the first for the franchise since 1992. In doing so, Allen proved why the faith Bills Mafia has in him isn’t misplaced.
The Bills didn’t trail for long against the Jags, despite the game having seven lead changes. But when they did, Allen played as perfectly as Bills fans have come to expect.
Josh Allen was unsurprisingly unstoppable when the Buffalo Bills needed him most
When Allen and the Bills were trailing on the scoreboard in Jacksonville, Allen was nearly unstoppable. As Pro Football Focus pointed out, Allen was 14/16 passing with a 133.5 passer rating, totaling 195 yards and all three of his scores when trailing the Jags.
The Jags only started one drive with a lead, and it happened to come when Allen didn’t even get the ball. The Jags took a 7-3 lead in the second quarter and immediately got the ball back after a Ray Davis fumble on the following kickoff. Allen responded to every other Jaguars scoring drive with one of his own.
All this, despite Allen getting thumped multiple times in a highly physical game. Allen had two players practically land on his head, forcing him into the medical tent for concussion evaluation. He then hit his throwing hand on a lineman’s helmet and later tweaked his knee on his first rushing touchdown. Allen was hit three times and sacked once in the pocket, but that undersells how much punishment the star quarterback endured throughout the contest.
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Still, Sunday’s playoff win helped keep the faith alive in Western New York, as Allen put on another show with his Superman cape draped over his back. Certainly, credit goes to his receivers for stepping up despite injuries and the season-long theme of underwhelming production.
But for Allen to endure the punishment the Jaguars’ talented defense poured out and come up clutch drive after drive is just another example of how special of a talent he is. Playoff Josh Allen is here, just as Bills fans expected. And as long as that guy is in the game, the Bills and the Mafia have eyes for Super Bowl LX.