Bills' high-scoring offense takes flight in traveling to play Jaguars in London

2023-10-07 00:17

Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills' high-scoring offense is taking flight across the Atlantic for a “home” game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday

JACKSONVILLE (2-2) vs. BUFFALO (3-1) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London.

Sunday, 9:30 a.m. EDT, NFL Network

OPENING LINE: Bills by 5 1/2, according to FanDuel SportsBook.

AGAINST THE SPREAD: Jacksonville 2-2; Buffalo 3-1.

SERIES RECORD: Tied 9-9.

LAST MEETING: Jaguars beat Bills 9-6 on Nov. 7, 2021, in Jacksonville.

LAST WEEK: Jaguars beat Falcons 23-7; Bills beat Dolphins 48-20.

JAGUARS OFFENSE: OVERALL (15), RUSH (19), PASS (11), SCORING (20).

JAGUARS DEFENSE: OVERALL (17), RUSH (8t), PASS (22), SCORING (12).

BILLS OFFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (8), PASS (7), SCORING (2).

BILLS DEFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (20), PASS (4), SCORING (2).

TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Jaguars plus-4; Bills plus-6.

JAGUARS PLAYER TO WATCH: TE Evan Engram. The seventh-year player is QB Trevor Lawrence’s safety valve, and tied for the NFL lead among tight ends with 25 catches and second with 232 yards receiving. He faces a defense that has limited tight ends to 14 catches for 112 yards and no TDs this season.

BILLS PLAYER TO WATCH: CB Dane Jackson. The fourth-year player is expected to step back into a starting role in replacing Tre’Davious White, who will miss the remainder of the season after tearing his right Achilles tendon on Sunday. It’s a familiar spot for Jackson, who started 14 games last season, when White was recovering from a torn right knee ligament.

KEY MATCHUP: Josh Allen versus Josh Allen. The Bills quarterback has been sacked a combined four times in his past three outings, and coming off a season-best performance with 320 yards passing and four touchdowns, and another TD rushing. The Jaguars top pass rusher is tied for the NFL lead with six sacks — the most by a Jacksonville player through the first four games of a season. In their only other meeting, Allen had a sack and intercepted Allen.

KEY INJURIES: Jaguars WR Zay Jones (knee) returned to practice after missing the past two games. ... Return specialist Jamal Agnew (quad) sat out last week but has been practicing. His replacement, rookie WR Parker Washington, injured his knee on his only punt return last Sunday and didn’t practice Wednesday. ... Starting LB Devin Lloyd (thumb) is recovering from surgery and didn’t make the London trip. ... Bills defensive end Von Miller is in line to make his season debut after spending the past 10-plus months recovering from a torn right knee ligament. Miller resumed practicing on Wednesday and is listed as questionable on Buffalo's final injury report. ... Miller's potential return coincides with the Bills ruling out starting defensive end Greg Rousseau (foot). ... S Jordan Poyer is set to return after missing one game with a knee injury. ... Starting CB Christian Benford has been limited by a shoulder injury, but is expected to play and listed as questionable.

SERIES NOTES: The teams have split their past seven games since Buffalo enjoyed a three-game winning streak from 1998-2003. ... The Jaguars' 9-6 win over Buffalo on Nov. 7, 2021, marked their first victory on North American soil since a 2020 season-opening win over Indianapolis. Jacksonville defeated Miami three weeks earlier, but that game was played in London. ... The Jaguars are 2-0 in the playoffs against Buffalo, including a 10-3 win in the 2017 AFC wild-card round in the Bills' first postseason appearance since the 1999 season.

STATS AND STUFF: This will be the 35th regular-season game in London. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has hosted six games since the $1.6 billion facility opened in 2019. The stadium was custom built with an NFL field below the Premier League team’s moveable soccer pitch. The NFL has a contract to stage at least two games there per season through 2029. ... The Jaguars are 5-5 in London overall and 1-0 at Tottenham. Their other nine games were played at Wembley Stadium. ... Jacksonville becomes the first team to play consecutive games outside of the U.S. after beating Atlanta at Wembley. ... The Bills are 0-1 in regular-season games played at London following a 34-31 loss to the Jaguars on Oct. 25, 2015, at Wembley. The win was Jacksonville’s first at London after dropping the first two outings of its annual series of games there. ... Jaguars QB Lawrence went 23 of 30 with a touchdown to have a season-best 105.8 passer rating against Atlanta. He’s had a passer rating of 90 or better in two of three games at London. ... RB Travis Etienne has combined for 234 scrimmage yards in two games in London. ... Edge rusher Allen had three sacks against Atlanta, to become the NFL’s first player to have three or more in an international regular-season outing. ... Since entering the league in 2017, Jamal Agnew leads the NFL with seven return touchdowns — four punt returns, two kickoff returns and one field-goal return. ... The Bills are the NFL’s first team to win three straight outings by 28 or more points since Buffalo did so over the final three weeks of 2020. The 1942 Bears are the only team to win four straight by 28 or more points. ... Buffalo leads the NFL in having outscored its opponents by a combined 84 points. ... QB Allen posted his 21st outing with 300 or more yards passing, 10th with four TDs passing and fourth with five scores against Miami. The game also marked the second time Allen hasn't turned the ball over this season. ... Allen’s TD rushing was the 40th, tying Jack Kemp for third on the NFL quarterbacks list. Cam Newton leads the list with 75 TDs rushing, followed by Steve Young (43). ... WR Stefon Diggs enjoyed his fourth career three-TD outing and third with Buffalo. His 33 touchdowns receiving with Buffalo rank sixth on the team list, and one behind Bob Chandler. ... Since 2019, the Bills are 19-14 in the regular season when allowing 20 or more points. The team was 12-67 in that category from 2011-18. ... With 448 points, kicker Tyler Bass is one of just three NFL players since 1950 to score that many through his 53rd regular-season game behind kickers Harrison Butker (489) and Wil Lutz (452).

FANTASY TIP: With the Jaguars likely placing an emphasis on slowing the Allen-led passing attack, Bills RB James Cook has an opportunity to continue producing in the run and pass game. The second-year player ranks third among running backs with 411 total yards (296 rushing, 115 receiving), and scored his first TD of the season last week.

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