The Buffalo Bills annihilated the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night, prevailing 47-10 in a game that was nowhere near as close as the final score. (And even calling it "nowhere near as close as the final score" is kind of an understatement.)
Josh Allen continued to make his case as the best player in the NFL not named Patrick Mahomes, slicing and dicing the Jacksonville defense from the very start of the game. Allen went 23 of 30 for 263 yards and four scores, completing passes to 10 different receivers and touchdowns to four of them (Dalton Kincaid, Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir and Ty Johnson). There was never a single moment where he was not in complete control of the proceedings.
Allen and Co. got started early, putting touchdowns on the scoreboard with each of their first five drives. Those possessions totaled 10 plays for 70 yards, 11 plays for 65 yards, 8 plays for 68 yards, 5 plays for 41 yards and 5 plays for 64 yards. They barely broke a sweat working their way up and down the field. It took until the fourth quarter before they came away from a drive without a score. By that point, they led by 27 points.
Things were not much different on the other side of the ball. Trevor Lawrence was 10 of 22 for 59 yards and an interception in the first half, and that stat line barely captures how inept Jacksonville's offense looked. Lawrence only got anything going once the game was well out of hand, and even then "got anything going" doesn't really describe what the offense was doing anyway. It merely moved the ball for a couple of drives against the passive resistance of a defense playing in "just waste some time" mode. And that defense still got stops except for one possession. Adding injury to insult, wideout Gabe Davis got left the field late in the game after he was hurt while blocking on a bubble screen with the Jaguars down by 37 points.
The biggest moment of the night came late in the second quarter when Lawrence overthrew a wide-open Brian Thomas Jr. on a crossing route, and the ball fell into the waiting arms of Damar Hamlin. 630 days after Hamlin's heart stopped on the field in a Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals, he came away with the first interception of his career. The pick set up Buffalo's fourth touchdown of the evening, which all but confirmed that the game was over even before the first half itself was over. The Bills only added to their lead from there.
Here are a few more things to know about the game.
Why the Bills won
Where do we start? With the aforementioned Allen, who played one of the best games of his career? With Cook, who continued his electric start to the season? With Sean McDermott's defense, which suffocated Jacksonville's offense to the point of surrender until the game was more than out of hand? Take your pick. Any of those reasons will do.
Why the Jaguars lost
Embarrassing offense and even worse defense. They might as well have not even gotten off the plane.
Turning point
It's tempting to just write "the opening kickoff" here, but we'll go with a real turning point. On their first possession of the game, the Bills quickly drove into Jaguars territory but then just as quickly faced a fourth-and-3 at Jacksonville's 44-yard line. Sean McDermott did not even hesitate for a moment when deciding to keep his offense on the field to go for it. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady dialed up a beautiful play and Allen hit Khalil Shakir in the flat for a big gain; six plays later, James Cook found the end zone to give the Bills the lead. They never looked back.
Highlight play
Buffalo's offense was the big story in this game, but we can't go with anything else here other than Damar Hamlin's first career interception, which fittingly came on a "Monday Night Football" game.
Did Lawrence overshoot his receiver by about 15 feet and deliver the ball right into Hamlin's waiting arms? Yep. Does that matter in any way whatsoever? Nope. What a moment!
What's next
The Bills are 3-0 and riding high atop the AFC East. They have a huge showdown with the Baltimore Ravens slated for next week.
The Jaguars are 0-3 and in serious trouble. They travel to Houston to take on the Texans next week; and if they lose that game, some people in their building could be looking for new jobs.