Well, believe it or not they’re hosting a playoff game at EverBank Field Sunday when the AFC South Champion Jacksonville Jaguars (10-6) welcome in the equally stunned Buffalo Bills (9-7).
If you want to watch this one (and, let’s face it, you’re probably iffy on that), fine tune your interoceter to the CBS television network and its affiliates at 1:05 p.m. EST.
The Game: Buffalo Bills at Jacksonville Jaguars (-7)
O/U: 40.0
The History
The Bills and Jaguars have met up just 15 times since 1996 with Buffalo holding an 8-7 lead in the all-time series.
The two teams have faced off five times in the last six seasons with the Bills holding a 3-2 edge since 2012.
BUFFALO BILLS (9-7)
For the Bills and especially head coach Sean McDermott, you have to feel like this wasn’t the original plan. Certainly the decisions the team made in the preseason (trading Sammy Watkins) and midseason (starting Nathan Peterman) would bear that out. McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane obviously thought this was a rebuilding year. The rest of the trash AFC decided to suck so much, that plan changed.
Buffalo won three of their last four games and thanks to an historic choke job performance from the Baltimore Ravens, get to go to the playoffs. That’s right. In 2018 Tyrod Taylor is officially a playoff quarterback. It’s going to be a weird year.
Our friends at Duff’s are hitting the road to Cincinnati tonight with:
1440 wings
90 lbs of celery
30 lbs of carrots
6 gallons of blue cheese
9 gallons of Duff’s wing sauce
And a TON of thank you’s from Buffalo! #GoBillsSee you soon, @Bengals! pic.twitter.com/ijYi9m8r1y
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 5, 2018
First off, let’s take a look at the Bills’ injury report since that’s all anyone’s going to be talking about leading up to this game. LeSean McCoy was held out of practice Wednesday and Thursday, but did practice Friday. He’s officially listed as questionable, but there’s no way he won’t play in this game. How effective will he be? We’ll find out Sunday.
The only guy officially listed as “out” is cornerback Shareece Wright. Everybody else on the report practiced at least Thursday and Friday.
TWO. DAYS.
Retweet if you're with us. #GoBills pic.twitter.com/bKap2j1sj8
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 5, 2018
The Bills fell into the playoffs thanks to a 22-16 win over a short-handed Miami Dolphins team that used the game as an audition for quarterback David Fales as the team’s 2018 back up. Taylor finished 19-of-27 for 204 yards and a touchdown, but was sacked four times. As much as losing McCoy seemingly hurts the Bills’ chances Sunday, he was held to 10 yards on 11 carries last weekend before leaving the game with an injury.
On defense, Buffalo forced a pick and a sack and got four stops in the backfield.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (10-6)
Listen, I blame myself. I, along with plenty of other NFL writers accidentally noticed that quarterback Blake Bortles was playing the best three-game stretch of his career, all victories, heading into the final two games of the season. We all starting writing about how maybe Bortles was the franchise quarterback the Jaguars picked him to be. That he’d put his recent struggles, even being forced by head coach Doug Marrone to fight for his job in the preseason, behind him. We obviously skunked him.
Over the last two weeks, the old Blake Bortles has returned with a vengeance. He’s thrown five interceptions in two games and, against the Tennessee Titans in a pathetic 15-10 loss last Sunday, didn’t even complete 50 percent of his passes. In short, Bortles has played like complete ass.
The Jaguars defense is insane. pic.twitter.com/Za5M46t22b
— PFF (@PFF) January 5, 2018
What does that mean for this game? Who knows. There’s no way Marrone is coming in with any Bortles-centric gameplan. That means this game is all about how Leonard Fournette can run the ball, if Bortles will actually make good decisions and just toss the ball away instead of throwing stupid interceptions and how well the defense, one of the league’s best, can bottle up Taylor, one of the league’s worst.
Jacksonville will come into this game mostly healthy. Back up running back T.J. Yeldon is questionable and didn’t practice this week. Wide receiver Marqise Lee was held out Wednesday and Thursday, but dressed out Friday. He’s questionable too. Everybody else practiced and should suit up.
It can’t be understated how poorly the Jaguars have played in the two weeks leading up to this game. Their vaunted defense gave up 44 points to the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago in a loss. Last week, their offense could manage just 10 points.
At #Jaguars HQ, where WR Marqise Lee (ankle) was in uniform and back on the practice field during portion open to reporters. No sign of T.J. Yeldon (illness).
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 5, 2018
Jacksonville can’t come into this game with any real confidence. If Marrone is smart, and I think he is, then the plan here should just be to play defense, keep it simple and take periodic shots downfield on offense.
Fun Facts
The first-ever meeting between the Bills and Jaguars was in the 1996 playoffs. Buffalo hosted Jacksonville that time in the Wild Card game, with the Jags escaping Rich Stadium with a 30-27 victory as quarterback Mark Brunell out-dueled Hall of Famer Jim Kelly. Both men passed for 239 yards and a touchdown, but Brunell tossed two picks to Kelly’s one. It was running back Natrone Means that carried the Jaguars to victory with 31 hauls for 175 yards and a touchdown. It was the final game of an eight-year playoff streak for Buffalo that saw them play in and lose four consecutive Super Bowls from 1990-1993.
Current Jaguars defensive tackle Marcell Dareus opened the season with Buffalo. The Bills traded him to Jacksonville for a sixth-round draft choice in October before the trade deadline. The Jags drafted Dareus out of Alabama third overall in the 2011 NFL Draft and he started all but six games in which he was healthy in that span. Since joining Jacksonville, Dareus has played in every game but just started once. This season for both teams he’s notched 28 tackles and two sacks.
The Pick
We’re partying like it’s 1999 in this year’s playoff field, with the Rams, Bills and Jaguars all appearing for the first time together in nearly two decades. The last time the Bills were in the Wild Card game, they got stunned in the Music City Miracle on a last-minute trick kick return by the Tennessee Titans. The Titans, of course, would go on to the Super Bowl to lose to the Rams by a yard. I don’t think Jacksonville will need a miracle to knock out the Buffalo this time. Just play solid defense, don’t blitz and make Taylor beat you with his arm. Spoiler alert: he can’t. Jaguars 24, Bills 16
Last week
Straight up: 8-8
Against the spread: 2-14
Season
Straight up: 157-99
Against the spread: 126-130
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