The Denver Broncos still don’t know exactly what time they’re playing, but they do know who their opponent will be this Saturday. Quarterback Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills outlasted the Jacksonville Jaguars, 27-24, as a late interception by safety Cole Bishop stymied a final Jacksonville drive to tie or win the game.
Saturday night’s game against the Bills will bringing back some painful memories. The Broncos got schooled by Buffalo in their loss in the wild-card round last year, 31-7, as Denver scored the opening touchdown but did little offensively after that.
Instead it was Allen who shredded the Denver defense, but the Broncos will face a different version of Allen this year. He’s been hobbled by a foot injury, and an injury to his throwing hand seemed to hinder some of his throws. Allen still dons the Superman cape when necessary, though, and against Jacksonville he went 28-for-35 for 273 yards and a touchdown pass. He also added two scores on the ground as the Jaguars shut down Buffalo’s vaunted running game, limiting James Cook III to 46 yards on 15 carries.
None of that will matter on Saturday, though, other than Allen’s injury status. What will matter for the Broncos will be Nix’s ability to improve on last year’s playoff effort, when he produced just 146 yards passing while going 13-for-22.
The performance of Denver’s defense will matter, too. They need to duplicate what Jacksonville did by limiting Cook, but the Broncos will need to keep force turnovers and keep Allen from taking over the game. Limiting Allen is about keeping him in the pocket and getting him on the ground when the opportunity presents itself, and that’s a different job than just racking up sacks.
The Broncos will also need to be more aggressive on offense, and they’ll need to step up and score points, too. They went just 2-of-7 in the red zone in their last two games, which made coach Sean Payton “a little salty” in practices lastweek.
“We want to be aggressive, we obviously want [that], and we will, take our shots,” Payton said to Jeff Legwold of ESPN after one of those salty practices, and he believes Buffalo will be aggressive as a prospective road underdog. “We’ll be aggressive in how we call these games.”
Consider this game a litmus test for Nix and the defense. They were playoff novices last year, and they got beat accordingly. This year they’re the top seed in the AFC with a 14-3 record, and this is their opportunity to step up and prove they really deserve that elite designation.