Spotlight on Taylor as Bills, Colts clash
NEW YORK: The focus will be on whether Philip Rivers can outperform Josh Allen when the Indianapolis Colts visit the Buffalo Bills in tomorrow’s AFC wild-card contest but perhaps the bigger barometer of a possible upset lies on the feet of Jonathan Taylor.
The Colts’ rookie is fresh off a monster game as he leads the seventhseeded Colts (11-5) into the match-up with the second-seeded Bills (13-3) at Orchard Park, New York.
Taylor completed the regular season by rushing for a franchise-record 253 yards and scored two touchdowns on 30 carries in a 28-14 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has gained 741 yards over the past six games while displaying the form that had the Bills impressed leading up to the 2020 NFL Draft before Indianapolis tabbed him in the second round with the 41st overall selection.
Perhaps the lone hindrance is the shoulder pain Taylor is dealing with after his workhorse outing. He was a limited practice participant on both Tuesday and Wednesday but maintains he will be at full strength.
“Anytime you get 30 carries in a game, you’re going to have nicks and bruises,” Taylor said.
The Bills have had plenty of play-off hurt over the past quarter century — having lost their last six play-off contests since last winning a postseason game following the 1995 season.
Hopes are high that the drought will end after Allen emerged as one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks this season.
Allen set franchise records of 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns as well as helping provide a new identity to a rising squad that posted the franchise’s best victory total since 1991, with the latter club advancing to the Super Bowl.
It is victories and postseason achievements that drive Allen, not gaudy statistics or MVP chatter.
“As quarterback of the team, your job is to move the ball and to score points,” Allen said. “So, when we’re not scoring points, that’s my biggest fear. It’s putting our defence in a bind if we’re not moving the chains on third down, again, that puts us behind the eight ball and we’ve got to punt the ball away.
“That’s what drives me. That’s what motivates me. I fear letting the guys who drafted me, this front office and this organisation, down.”
This is the 39-year-old Rivers’ first season with the Colts but this contest could also be his last — either with the team or for his career.
Perhaps that is why Rivers (4,169 yards, 24 touchdowns) is feeling that extra dose of urgency.
“Certainly, I wanted to be part of a play-off team and a team that has a chance to win a championship,” Rivers said after Sunday’s game. “I definitely found out early that I was on that kind of team.”