Jacksonville Jaguars v.s. Buffalo Bills. What was a riveting, and oftentimes actually somewhat confusing day of football started off, fittingly, with what was maybe the weirdest but also actually the best team-for-team matchup of the entire day: Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills facing off against Trevor Lawrence’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Here are my key takeaways from the day.
1.) Trevor Lawrence is BACK. After a shaky start against in Weeks 1-3 where Jacksonville got off to a non-ideal 1-2 start, Lawrence has looked lights out in London over the past two weeks, going a combined 48/67 (71.6% completion) for 522 yards, 2 touchdowns, NO picks and an impressive 104.2 passer rating since he entered the Land of Poor Weather and Mediocre Food. More importantly he has look comfortable on the ball, pushed the ball downfield with excellent timing and anticipatory throws into zone soft spots, and not made any of the immature mistakes that marred the first half of his sophomore year in 2022.
2.) I’m starting to think that the Jaguars should just stay in London. They would actually have a fan base that a.) actually cares about the franchise, and b.) has a city of more than 1 million people. English people love the Jaguars, some would say even more than their homegrown fake-news “football” nonsense, and would embrace having the mighty Jags their full time. Also, think about how insane that home advantage would be if you forced teams to fly anywhere from 7-12 hours and face 5-8 hours of jet lag just to play one game of football and fly home. That’s worth at least 4.5 points on the spread – especially in the playoffs.
3.) The Bills, sans Taron Johnson and Tre’Davious White, have issues in their secondary. Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk rife for essentially the entire game, combining for 14 receptions and 200 yards, around 65% of Trevor Lawrence’s total on Sunday.
Despite having strong backups in Christian Benford and former 1st round draft pick, Kair Elam, the Bills were undoubtedly weakened in the passing game, eventually having to start going so far as blitzing Lawrence in an attempt to create defensive stops, despite having previously religiously stuck to a four man rush over the past two seasons, which obviously put even more pressure on the inexperienced back end.
The Buffalo Bills are going to have to figure out schematically how they can move forward without exposing their secondary if they want to keep moving forward as Super Bowl contenders in the weaker-than-expected but still loaded AFC.
4.) Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills offence will be just fine. No offences really get churning at their usual pace having just come off the plane into London, hence the moderately well-known gambling adage to be the ‘L-Unders’. Josh Allen still has the best arm in football, and even with only 22 seconds left on his own 5 yard line trailing by 5 points with no timeouts, Jags fans were still definitely a little nervous, and no one was turning off the TV yet. He really is that good.
Their offensive line probably needs a little upgrading on the exterior, and an improved #3 would help them spread the receiving load a little better, taking the heat off of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis. Other than that, they have shown the ability to roll even really, REALLY good teams. So this is a classic, “What happens in London stays in London” situation for the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen, and you should definitely consider taking them on the spread (currently -14) at home against the Giants.
5.) Jesus Christ that was an UNREAL amount of flags, especially for an officiating crew that ranked near bottom in penalties prior to the game. That was insane. Almost every play there seemed to be a sea of yellow sweeping onto the ground engulfing the turf at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. 19 – yes 19 (!) penalties were accepted between the teams, and really the whole refereeing situation was best encapsulated by this tweet:
Refs warming up to throw flags before Jacksonville vs. Buffalo #NFLLondonGames pic.twitter.com/xrmeXJjVhs
— Tucker (@tjensen29) October 8, 2023
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