National Football League

Bills vs. Jaguars became Josh Allen vs. Josh Allen, with a surprising outcome in the end

Updated Nov. 7, 2021 8:44 p.m. ET

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The name "Josh Allen" conjures up vivid pictures of the Buffalo Bills' star quarterback — and all of his impressive exploits — for most.

Allen, who was voted the league's 10th-best player by his peers in the NFL's annual preseason Top 100 player ranking, has quickly climbed into the upper rungs of the quarterback ladder. He's recognized as one of the top young talents the league has to offer, and the Bills are widely considered Super Bowl threats with him at the helm.

But No. 17 in blue and white isn't the only NFL player who bears that name.

There's another Josh Allen employed by the league. This Allen makes his living in much warmer waters than Buffalo — Jacksonville, Florida — as an invaluable playmaker for the Jaguars' defense.

It was this Allen who reigned supreme when the two met face-to-face Sunday afternoon.

Buffalo's Allen might play in more frigid temperatures at his home stadium, but in this game, he felt the icy sting of a steely defensive effort — one that rendered his normally fiery offense virtually numb.

The Bills' QB was frozen all day long, failing to create much of anything from a momentum standpoint. He was limited to a zero-touchdown outing by Jacksonville's defense, completing 31 of his 47 pass attempts for 264 yards. He also surrendered two pivotal interceptions.

One of those takeaways was thrown to safety Rudy Ford, stopping Buffalo dead in its tracks on its first drive of the second half. A 16.5-point favorite entering the matchup, according to FOX Bet's odds, the Bills were valiantly trying to right the wrongs of a putrid first-half performance, one in which they crawled to a 6-6 tie with the 1-6 Jags.

The current AFC East leaders weren't supposed to be in a close-knit contest with Jacksonville, yet life slowly seeped away from this team as the outing wore on. That process was accelerated by Allen's first interception.

It took on an entirely different pace following his second, this time to none other than Jacksonville's Josh Allen.

With two minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Bills' QB was flushed from the pocket by a raucous pass rush and hurriedly unloaded a prayer toward his running back. 

But it ended up in the mitts of his namesake, the LB's first career interception (go figure).

Jacksonville hit a field goal after regaining the ball, going up 9-6, and its defense continued to disturb Buffalo's offense in the fourth. The Jags forced a punt on Buffalo's next possession and followed that stop with a forced fumble on the drive that followed. 

Who recovered it? Just take a guess:

Jacksonville's Allen was the man of the hour again, further cementing himself as the star of the day with the huge pickup. 

The Jags got one more crucial stop on Buffalo's final chance and escaped with a 9-6 win, the team's second of the season.

Allen, meanwhile, captained the defense with a team-leading eight tackles, including two for a loss, a sack, the INT and the fumble recovery. 

He walked away with a figurative game ball for namesake purposes alone; his performance just added to the historic spectacle.

All wordplay pleasantries aside, the showing marked one of Buffalo's worst in recent memory.

The squad's six points were its fewest since Week 17 of the 2019 season, a game in which Allen attempted only five passes due to the Bills' having clinched a playoff berth. They lost that matchup 13-6 to the Jets.

To add to the calamity, Buffalo's Allen gave away three turnovers, marking the first time since Week 4 of 2019 (lost 16-10 to New England) that he hit that number. The afternoon also brought the first time since Week 8 in 2020 that he failed to throw a TD pass.

Buffalo's in the midst of a particularly undesirable slide. After scoring 30-plus points in five straight outings from Weeks 2 through 6, the Bills have managed 32 total in their previous two.

The afternoon was equally rare for Jacksonville as it was for Buffalo.

Sunday was the team's first home victory since Week 1 of the 2020 season, clipping a 10-game home skid.

Buffalo's six-point day set a record for the Jags as well, who registered their fewest points allowed since Week 13 in 2018, when they beat the Colts 6-0. And the squad's three takeaways were one more than they'd had all season (they'd mustered just two coming into the game, fewest league-wide).

But the rarest anomaly of all goes right back to the shared name.

Never before had a player sacked, intercepted or recovered a fumble from a QB of the same name. But all of those things happened Sunday. For that reason alone, Bills-Jaguars on Nov. 7 will forever be remembered as "The Josh Allen Game."

One Allen clearly distinguished himself as superior in this one.

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