For the two quarterbacks involved, there is more at stake on Sunday night for the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens than simply a place in the AFC Championship game.
For several years now, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have resided firmly within an elite group of signal callers ranking somewhere behind Patrick Mahomes in the NFL’s pecking order, jostling for position with the likes of Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert to be considered the best of this generation’s rest.
This season, Allen and Jackson are the runaway MVP contenders. They have been the best quarterbacks in the league. Jackson, a two-time MVP already, has edged out Allen to earn a place on the All-Pro first team, with the Bills star voted into the second team. And as the same group of 50 journalists who make-up the All-Pro ballot also determine the MVP, there’s a strong chance the Ravens man will claim the NFL’s most prestigious regular-season individual honour for a third time.
Those votes have already been cast, with the winner to be announced the week of the Super Bowl. Sunday’s showdown will have no bearing on the MVP trophy’s destination. But for the winner, it will be legacy-shaping – shaking accusations of sub-par play-off performance and, if Super Bowl success follows, seeing them take a seat not behind Mahomes but rather alongside him in the highest echelon of current quarterbacks.
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Buffalo Bills vs. Baltimore Ravens - Sunday, Jan 19; 6:30pm ET / 11:30pm GMT / 12:30am CET (Sunday)
Allen and Jackson have met in the post-season once before – a 17-3 divisional round victory for the Bills in 2020 – and they will almost certainly meet again in the future. But it’s difficult to imagine the stakes ever being higher due to where both players currently sit in their respective career trajectories, MVP rivals who each stand in the way of the other’s long-awaited playoff breakthrough.
“When we’re older, we’ll probably laugh about it, but right now, it’s serious,” Jackson bluntly told reporters of his budding rivalry with Allen. “I’m not laughing with you.
“Don’t get me wrong, there’s no problem or nothing like that, but we’re competing with each other. I’m trying to beat you; I’m not trying to be your friend.”
Determining which of the two has performed better this season is likely a matter of personal preference, so closely has each mirrored the other’s excellence.
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Jackson has followed up a 2023 MVP-winning campaign with, by some measure, the best season of his career. His growth as a passer – the final lingering technical nit-pick among his dwindling detractors – has been astounding. He threw 41 touchdowns in the regular season, five more than his previous best and the second-highest mark in the league.
And he accounted for just four interceptions, a figure bettered only by Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers (three) among all quarterbacks to have thrown for at least five touchdowns.
Jackson was once again lethal with his feet, too, rushing for 915 yards and a further four scores.
Like Jackson, Allen also eradicated the biggest remaining doubt over his game this year – turnovers. The Bills powerhouse threw 18 interceptions in 2023. He’s shaved that down to just six this season, while also slinging 28 touchdowns and scoring another 12 as a runner.
And Allen can lay claim to some of the most highlight-worthy moments of the season, such as when he was credited with both throwing and receiving a touchdown in the same play against the San Francisco 49ers in a snow-blanketed win in December. He became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw, catch and run in a touchdown in a single game that week.
These are two of the most talented quarterbacks of this or any generation meeting at the apex of their powers. As per CBS Sports, Sunday night will be the first time ever that two starting quarterbacks with at least 40 regular-season total touchdowns and fewer than 10 total turnovers have squared off in the playoffs.
There is, of course, a chance that neither player is the determining factor at Orchard Park this week. When the two teams met in Buffalo in September, it was Ravens running back Derrick Henry who was the star attraction, rushing for 199 yards and a touchdown in Baltimore’s 35-10 victory. Jackson threw for a conservative 156 yards that day, while Allen mustered 180 yards and no touchdowns.
And in James Cook, Buffalo have a running back capable of stealing the show, too. He’s racked up 1,000 rushing yards for the second successive season and is tied with Henry and the Detroit Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs for the most rushing touchdowns in the league this past regular season (16).
But in the NFL, quarterbacks are always the centre of the story. And history is written by the victors. The outcome of this showdown between Allen and Jackson will shape how their outstanding individual seasons are remembered. One will remain a nearly man. The other stacks a new level of playoff success onto his pile of impressive accolades.
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