Josh Allen rushed for two touchdowns and Lamar Jackson coughed up two turnovers as the Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Ravens 27-25 to book an AFC Championship matchup with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Scrutiny of Jackson's playoff record will only increase as he falls to 3-5 in the postseason, but while he threw an interception and lost a fumble in the first half, he also helped the Ravens come back from a 21-10 halftime deficit to give them the opportunity to tie the game with a minute and a half left.
Jackson's second touchdown pass of the night, a 24-yarder to Isaiah Likely, pulled Baltimore within two points of Buffalo, but veteran tight end Mark Andrews — who had lost a fumble earlier in the fourth quarter — dropped the resulting two-point conversion pass from his quarterback .
The Bills came back from the onside kick and ran out the rest of the clock to end a three-year Divisional Round elimination streak and set up another playoff meeting with the Chiefs.
Buffalo has been eliminated by Kansas City in three of the last four postseasons, including the AFC title game four years ago.
Statistics leaders
Baltimore Ravens
- Passage: Lamar Jackson, 18/25, 254 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
- rush: Derrick Henry, 16 carries, 84 yards, 1 TD
- Receiving: Isaiah Likely, 4 catches, 73 yards, 1 TD
Buffalo Bills
- Passage: Josh Allen, 16/22, 127 yards
- rush: James Cook, 17 carries, 67 yards
- Receiving: Khalil Shakir, 6 catches, 67 yards
Allen had two rushing touchdowns in the first half to help Buffalo build an 11-point halftime lead, and Ray Davis also scored on the ground – his in response to Baltimore scoring on the first play of the game.
The Ravens got off to a great start when Jackson capped an eight-play, 73-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman. But the Bills answered right back with an impressive 11-play, 70-yard drive to tie things up.
Two plays later, Jackson was picked off by Taylor Rapp when he looked for Bateman again only to bring down his receiver with his deep throw downfield.
Buffalo failed to capitalize and score off the turnover, but they would capitalize on a Jackson fumble — the ball was forced by Damar Hamlin and picked off by Von Miller — on Baltimore's next possession, Allen turned it into his first of two rushing scores.
Justin Tucker and Tyler Bass each made a pair of field goals in cold and snowy conditions in Buffalo, the latter putting the Ravens back within eight of their opponents in the third quarter.
Derrick Henry then cut that deficit even further with a five-yard rushing TD later in the same quarter, and Baltimore — not for the last time — failed to convert a two-point attempt to tie the game.
Bass' two field goals, the first a clutch 51-yarder, would come on either side of Terrell Bernard's froced Andrews fumble, again extending the Bills' lead to eight.
Jackson and the Ravens battled until the very end, creating a flurry of scoring in the final two minutes of the contest, but Andrews will be left rueing another mistake as, when wide open, he failed to pull off two points. tie the game.
What's next?
The NFL Conference Championships is on Sunday, January 26 – live on Sky Sports NFL – with the Philadelphia Eagles first hosting the Washington Commanders in the NFC title game at 8pm, followed by the Chiefs from 11.30pm.
Super Bowl LIX takes place on Sunday, February 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, live on Sky Sports NFL.