Blake Bortles, Jaguars Survive Bills, Will Face Steelers in Divisional Round

The Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the Buffalo Bills in an AFC wild-card matchup Sunday. It was the Bills' first trip to the postseason and the Jaguars' first home playoff contest since the 1999 season.Both teams showed their rust.Blake Bortles threw a one-yard touchdown pass toBen Koyack, and the Jaguars defense throttled the Bills on their way to a 10-3 victory.The Bills stalled on their last-minute drive to tie the game, during which starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor suffered an injury. Jalen Ramsey picked off aNathan Peterman pass with 32 seconds remaining to cap off the victory.This was Jacksonville's sixth playoff win in franchise history and its first since the 2007 season. The two teams combined for just 493 total yards of offense, as both Bortles and Taylor struggled to move the ball throughout.Bortles finished his first playoff start 12-of-23 with just 87 passing yards. His most significant contributions came on the ground, where he recorded a career-high 88 yards on 10 carries.The embattled Taylor likely did not win himself any fans with his performance Sunday. He finished 17-of-37 for 134 passing yards and threw a second-quarter interception that set the Jaguars up inside Buffalo territory.The Bills offense relied almost solely on LeSean McCoy, who had 119 total yards on 25 touches (19 carries, six receptions). No Bills receiver had more than two catches against the stout Jaguars secondary.Jacksonville entered the postseason allowing an NFL-low 169.9 yards per game through the air, 22.5 fewer than any other team. Opposing quarterbacks could only muster a 68.5 quarterback rating against the Jags, which Taylor did not come close to matching."We're not the old Jags," defensive tackle Malik Jackson toldBen Shpigelof theNew York Times. "We're going to smack you in the mouth and see what you want to do about it. Then once we do that, we let you know that we smacked you in the mouth."The Jaguars will move on to face the Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday, a rematch of a 30-9 Jacksonville win in October. Ben Roethlisberger, who threw five interceptions in that contest, said earlier this week he hoped for a shot at redemption."Any game that we are going to play anybody is going to be a difficult opponent," Roethlisberger said Tuesday on93.7 The Fan (viaJoe Rutterof theTribune-Review). "For me personally, I'd love to prove that five interceptions wasn't me in that game."The Steelers should have All-Pro wideout Antonio Brown back in the fold after he missed the last two games of the regular season with a calf injury, according to NFL Network'sIan Rapoport.Prior to Sunday, Jacksonville's last playoff win came in a 2007 wild-card matchup against the Steelers.
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