Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson will take the MVP debate to the field

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A grinding, struggle of a playoff game had cracked open into full-fledged celebration, and the chants cascaded from the Highmark Stadium stands. “M-V-P! M-V-P!” roared the crowd, the muscular soundtrack to Buffalo’s love affair with Josh Allen. As Allen retreated to the Buffalo Bills’ sideline, someone handed him a long jacket that, when wrapped around the shoulders that carry a region’s emotional welfare, looked more like a superhero’s cape.

The NFL’s most valuable player might have been on the field Sunday afternoon during the Bills’ comprehensive, 31-7 first-round victory over the Denver Broncos. He will definitely be there next weekend, when two supernova quarterbacks collide in the AFC’s divisional round. Allen and Lamar Jackson traded the title of MVP front-runner all season. Voting is complete. They will settle their rivalry three weeks before the announcement, on the field. The winner will earn something better than trophy: a trip to the AFC championship game.

“This is what everyone’s been waiting for, right?” Bills Coach Sean McDermott said.

A playoff victory can rarely be considered a soundcheck, but the fourth quarter had not reached its midpoint Sunday before the Bills and Baltimore Ravens sharing a field became too tantalizing not to contemplate. In their own distinct style, Allen and Jackson combine brilliant passing and unstoppable running in a way few, if any, quarterbacks have in NFL history. They turn the astonishing routine.

Allen and Jackson have combined for 27 victories this season, both operating at the peak of their immense powers for durable franchises that have been bumping into a Patrick Mahomes-shaped ceiling for years and believe this is the January they will break through it. Each will have to go through the other for the chance.

“It would be cool to sit with the eagle eye and just look, because it’s gonna be one of those ones,” Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said. “The world is going to get blessed with greatness.”

All season, Allen and Jackson have volleyed incandescence. On Saturday night, Jackson passed for an efficient 175 yards, ran for 81 and threw two touchdown passes in a win over the Steelers. Allen responded Sunday with 272 yards and two touchdowns on 20-of-26 passing, plus 46 yards on the ground. Both benefited from bruising running games and stifling defenses, but both held playoff games in their hands.

“Two of the best guys in the league,” Bills wideout Khalil Shakir said. “Obviously, 17 being the best player in the league,” he added, referring to Allen.

The Bills beat the Ravens, 17-3, in the 2021 divisional round, the only prior playoff game between Allen and Jackson. But their meeting in late September will hover more prominently. “They put a thumping on us,” Allen said.

On “Sunday Night Football” in Week 4 at M&T Bank Stadium, Derrick Henry ran for an 87-yard touchdown on the Ravens’ first snap, Allen passed for only 180 yards and Baltimore won, 35-10. It remains the Bills’ only regular season loss by more than a touchdown in the last three seasons.

“We remember,” Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver said. “It was at their house. Now, they’re coming to us.”

It will be a joy for fans and a chore for defensive coaches. McDermott acknowledged Jackson’s dynamism demands a distinctly grueling week of preparation. Sitting behind a table at his postgame news conference, his mind drifted to the coaches’ offices across the parking lot.

“I’m trying to figure out if I need to go back over there now,” McDermott said.

McDermott still had work to do because the Bills dominated both with and without Allen. The Broncos actually took the first lead, scoring an opening-drive touchdown on rookie quarterback Bo Nix’s thunderbolt of a 43-yard pass to fellow rookie Troy Franklin, his teammate a year ago at Oregon.

While the Bills’ defense regrouped on the sideline, their offense began a day of bulldozing the Broncos. The Bills rushed 44 times for 210 yards, led by James Cook’s 120, and possessed the ball for more than 41 minutes. They deployed a sixth offensive lineman on nearly a quarter of their offensive snaps. On one early run, the Broncos corralled Cook after six yards, and a scrum of Bills linemen — “a little energy bubble,” Dawkins said — shoved him ahead for another 10 yards.

The Bills’ grinding offense both enabled them to control the game and, paradoxically, prevented them from separating. They ended the first half with just three possessions, and deep into the third quarter they led only 13-7.

Facing fourth and one from the Broncos’ 24, McDermott eschewed a field goal that could have pushed Buffalo ahead by two scores and put the game in Allen’s hands. Allen took a shotgun snap, rolled right and scanned a field of covered teammates. As Allen hopped and patted the ball, running back Ty Johnson performed the choreographed chaos of a scramble drill.

Johnson’s prescribed pattern had been an out-breaker to the left. When Johnson saw Allen buying time on the other side of the field, Johnson turned up field and “replaced” — he ran into the first open area he saw, which was the middle of the back of the end zone. On his way there, Johnson locked eyes with Allen.

As defenders closed in on him some seven seconds after the snap, Allen whipped a pass toward the goalpost. Johnson saw the ball in the air and spotted wideout Amari Cooper in the area. “I was kind of nervous, because I didn’t want a collision into him,” Johnson said. “But I was like, ‘S---, someone’s gotta go to it.’ ”

Johnson accelerated, slid and stuck out his hands, which may be affixed with Velcro. He cradled the ball a fraction of an inch off the ground, his feet hovering over the end line, still sliding across the turf. It seemed an impossible catch: Wasn’t his foot out of bounds? Could he really have full control of the ball?

“Oh, I knew I caught it,” Johnson said. “I had full confidence.”

Replay officials validated Johnson. Allen’s two-point conversion pass extended the Bills’ lead to 21-7. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Curtis Samuel leaked uncovered down the left sideline, and Allen found him for a 55-yard touchdown. Buffalo had sealed the game with the day’s longest play to a wideout who’d made 31 catches all season, another indicator of the Bills’ multidimensional approach.

“That’s kind of the mentality we had all year,” Allen said. “Everybody eats.”

The crowd rained “M-V-P!” chants after the touchdown. They will echo in Buffalo all week, until Jackson and the Ravens come to town, and the matter can be decided on the field.