On paper, the Week 9 game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars seemed to be an outright mismatch.
Entering the game, the Bills were 5-2 while the Jaguars were 1-6. Buffalo was favored by 14½ points at Tipico Sportsbook, and the number went even higher elsewhere.
Undaunted, the Jaguars went out and delivered arguably the biggest upset win in franchise history with a 9-6 victory.
It was one of those hard-fought defensive games where one team wins in the trenches. The Jaguars made it extremely hard for Bills quarterback Josh Allen to get his offense going early, and the difficulty continued all afternoon.
Entering the Buffalo game, the Jaguars defense ranked last in the NFL in total yards allowed, third-down defense and takeaways. Despite those rankings, they have a pretty decent run defense. They currently rank third in the league in opponent yards per rushing attempt, only allowing 3.8.
To that point, Jacksonville limited Bills running backs to 22 rushing yards. When Allen looked to pass, the Jaguars greeted him with disguised looks and a variety of blitzes.
Let’s explore the game film and analyze three key areas where the Jaguars outperformed the Bills.