ORCHARD PARK — Josh Allen stepped up, then stepped back and then rolled to his right. Off-balance and on the run, Allen fired a rocket to Dalton Kincaid streaking across the back of the end zone.
Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Touchdown.
The Highmark Stadium crowd showed their appreciation by serenading Allen with chants of M-V-P. He got the same chant three more times during the first half as the Buffalo Bills throttled the Jacksonville Jaguars, with Allen crafting a masterpiece in a 47-10 win.
Josh Allen throws 4 TD passes and the Bills roll to a 47-10 win over the unraveling Jaguars
Allen went 23 of 30 for 263 yards and four touchdowns — running for another 44 — as the Bills scored on all five of their first-half possessions to take a 31-point halftime lead and scored on their first six possessions overall. The quarterback staked an early claim to the MVP with his second four-touchdown performance in three games.
Completing a pass to 10 different receivers — two shy of the NFL single-game record — Allen carved the Jaguars with little resistance. Kincaid caught his first touchdown pass of the season, then Khalil Shakir dipped, ducked and squirmed into the end zone, followed by Keon Coleman catching the first touchdown pass of his career and Ty Johnson getting into the mix before intermission.
Allen became the first player with four touchdowns in the first half of a Monday Night Football game since Ben Roethlisberger threw five for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 5, 2007.
Defense rattles Lawrence
While Allen couldn’t be stopped, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was seeing ghosts in his third consecutive dismal performance to start the season. The former No. 1 overall pick went 10 of 22 for 59 yards and an interception in the first half.
Lawrence, who threw for 315 yards against the Bills last season, never appeared comfortable in the pocket. The low point came when Lawrence had a clean pocket, a wide-open Brian Thomas Jr. streaking across the middle of the field and Lawrence sailed the ball right into the hands of safety Damar Hamlin, who recorded his first career interception, setting up a 24-yard touchdown pass from Allen to Coleman.
Lawrence finished 21 of 38 for 178 yards and a touchdown and he was also sacked four times before being yanked in the fourth quarter. A.J. Epenesa, Ja’Marcus Ingram, Von Miller and Casey Toohill all recorded sacks, while the Bills weren’t any more gentle with backup Mac Jones, with rookie Javon Solomon registering a sack-fumble in his first NFL game.
Redemption
The Bills’ rout was reminiscent of a 41-7 thumping of the Tennessee Titans during Week 2, which was coincidentally the last time the Bills won on Monday Night Football and had lost four of their last five dating back to 2021.
Many of those Monday Night losses were heartbreakers, from Allen slipping on fourth and 1 in Tennessee in 2021, to the 14-10 loss to the New England Patriots later that season. Then there was Allen’s three-interception overtime loss to the New York Jets in last year’s opener and the 12-men-on-the-field call that gave the Denver Broncos a second chance.
Buffalo was also able to rinse out some of the sour taste left by two losses to the Jaguars in the previous three seasons. There was the 9-6 debacle in 2021 and the 25-20 stinker in London last season, but they scored more points in the first half than both games combined.
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