Josh Allen threw two touchdowns as the Buffalo Bills trounced the Denver Broncos 31-7 to cruise into the next round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday.
The second-seeded Bills underscored their status as the biggest threat to Kansas City’s hopes of reaching a fifth Super Bowl in six seasons by producing a dominant performance at their Highmark Stadium.
Buffalo’s wild card game victory sets up a blockbuster AFC divisional round clash next weekend against third seeded Baltimore, pitting Allen against the Ravens’ reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson.
“He’s a great quarterback obviously with what he’s able to do,” Bills quarterback Allen said of his looming duel with Jackson. “He’s one of the most dynamic if not the most dynamic quarterback in the league. He’s fun to watch.
“But I’ll be watching their defense this week.”
Allen finished with 272 passing yards from 20-of-26 attempts, with two touchdowns and no interceptions, along with 46 rushing yards.
Seventh seeds Denver rocked Buffalo with a touchdown on the first drive of the game, quarterback Bo Nix finding receiver Troy Franklin with a deep pass for a 43-yard touchdown to mute the home crowd.
The Bills responded with 10 unanswered points, Tyler Bass slotting a 26-yard field goal and James Cook skipping into the end zone for a five-yard touchdown.
Denver had a chance to tie the game on the stroke of halftime but Wil Lutz’s 50-yard field goal attempt bounced back off the posts to leave Buffalo 10-7 ahead at half-time.
The Bills took a stranglehold on the game in the third quarter.
Bass slotted a 27-yard field goal to make it 13-7, and after the Bills defense forced another Denver punt, Ty Johnson snagged a superb catch inches off the ground at the back of the end zone from Allen’s pass to make it 19-7. A successful two-point conversion put the Bills 21-7 up.
Allen tossed his second touchdown pass at the start of the fourth quarter, picking out Curtis Samuel for a 55-yard touchdown that took the score to 28-7.
Denver’s offense continued to be stymied by Buffalo’s defense, their impotence summed up by a failure to convert a 4th&2 situation on their next possession.
Allen and the Bills took that opportunity to extend the lead to 31-7 with Bass’s third field goal of the game.
The result also means that the defending Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, will host the Houston Texans in the divisional round.
– Hurts returns –
The Philadelphia Eagles advanced in the NFC with a 22-10 win over a disappointing Green Bay Packers in a defensive grind.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts returned after missing the past two games following a concussion and he showed no signs of rust with an early 11-yard touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love had a tough day, throwing an early interception with Darius Slay snaffling up the pick.
Even when Love did manage to get Green Bay within field goal range, with a 13-play drive in the second quarter, Brandon McManus missed the kick from 38-yards.
Love threw another interception at the end of the half and although McManus reduced the deficit with a 26-yard field goal in the third, Green Bay never looked in contention.
Dallas Goedert put Philadelphia 16-3 up when he collected a pass from Hurts and then burst towards the end-zone, delivering two stiff arms to keep Carrington Valentine at bay as he made the score.
Josh Jacobs gave the Packers some hope with his one-yard rush after he had shown impressive power and strength on the previous play to break a series of tackles and make 31-yards.
But that was the last productive moment from the Packers with two Jake Elliott field goals wrapping up the win for the Eagles.
Hurts threw for 131 yards and two touchdowns while running back Saquon Barkley had 119-yards on 19 carries.
“No matter how it looks and there’s some things we can work on, improve on, the defense did a hell of a job and we got the win,” said Barkley.
Later on Sunday, in the NFC, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Washington Commanders.
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