Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen: NFL legacies on the line for two QBs in Baltimore Ravens-Buffalo Bills playoff matchup | NFL news
Two of the NFL’s leading running backs — both of whom have yet to win a Super Bowl — can get one step closer to that ultimate goal as Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen meet in the playoffs.
As the Kansas City Chiefs eye an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl triumph, Jackson and Allen have often been the collateral damage left over from their five-year dynasty.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Jackson and Buffalo Bills QB Allen were drafted in 2018, a year after the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes that fueled their meteoric rise to the top of the NFL.
Mahomes has led the Chiefs to four of the past five Super Bowls, winning three of them, and while Jackson matches him for league MVP honors in that span (two) and Allen is the heavy favorite to win his first this season, the two have too often fallen where did Mahomes thrive: in the playoffs.
Jackson is 3-4 in the playoffs, Allen improved to 6-5, but neither can keep up with Mahomes’ 15-3 record.
One of their records will be improved this weekend, as Jackson’s Ravens and Allen’s Bills meet in an AFC Divisional Round game in Buffalo – live on Sky Sports NFLSunday, 11.30pm – but others will write another ‘L’ in the playoff loss column.
“This is a legacy game [for Jackson and Allen],” Sky Sports’ said Neil Reynolds on the latest episode of the Inside The Huddle podcast. “They both struggled in and out of the Divisional Round.
“Lamar Jackson is 1-3 in the divisional round or later and Josh Allen is 1-4.
“Their Super Bowl window is open, but Patrick Mahomes is waiting there ready to spoil the fun if necessary.
“One of these quarterbacks has to win a Super Bowl sometime.”
And indeed, Mahomes could once again be lurking as the winner’s prize, with the Chiefs set to host the Houston Texans – live on Sky Sports NFLSaturday, 21.30 – in the second match of the divisional round of the AFC.
While Mahomes and Kansas City are the top seed in the conference and have such a Super Bowl pedigree, the 2024 season was a strange one in which they lost 11 of their 15 wins by just eight points or less.
They ranked 17th in yards per game (327.6) – Baltimore tops the class at 424.9 – and 15th in points per game (22.6), compared to Buffalo’s second-best mark in the NFL since 30.9, while the Ravens are right behind them with 30.5.
Sunday’s matchup is also the first in playoff history between two backs who have recorded more than 40 TDs and less than 10 turnovers in a season (Jackson: 45 total TDs, nine giveaways / Allen: 41 total TDs, eight giveaways ).
That’s why this divisional round meeting between the two is so highly anticipated because while the Chiefs may be waiting for a winner, could the Ravens and/or Bills finally prove too much for Mahomes and company?
“I think the team that wins this game could win the Super Bowl,” he said Sky Sports’ Phoebe Schecter, former Bills coach.
“Both of these teams have struggled with their identity at times in the postseason. Lamar and the Ravens have openly said they should have run the ball more [in playoff loss to the Chiefs] last year, and we saw the struggles of the Bills.
“This game is so hard to pick because both of these teams are phenomenal in so many different ways and these backs are so massive in big moments.
“It’s funny in Buffalo because this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Their defense is what worries me the most, but I’m going to go with the Bills to win this game.”
Watch Baltimore Ravens v Buffalo Bills in the Divisional Round of the Play-Offs, live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday, starting at 11.30pm.
