ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen’s sore right foot feels better, and the Bills quarterback’s mind is refreshed as Buffalo prepares to open the playoffs on the road for the first time in six years.
With the exception of a game-opening handoff in a regular season-ending 35-8 win over the Jets on Sunday to extend his starting streak to 135 games, Allen got the weekend off to rest and spend time poring over video to assess his season.
What stood out most, Allen said upon returning to practice Wednesday, were the plays he missed.
“You’re sitting there like, ‘God, I stink.’ It’s like, ‘What am I thinking here? What am I doing?’” he said with a laugh.
Allen was hardly that bad.
The eighth-year starter and reigning MVP finished second among quarterbacks with 39 touchdowns (25 passing, 14 rushing) and led five fourth-quarter comebacks — two when trailing by double digits. At 29, he became the NFL’s first player to have a hand in 300 touchdowns before turning 30.
Nevertheless, Allen's self-scouting was beneficial in showing areas where the perfectionist QB can improve ahead of the playoffs. Buffalo (12-5) visits AFC South champion Jacksonville (13-4) in a wild-card game on Sunday.
For Allen, there’s footwork to address. He saw times where he forced passes instead of checking it down to an open receiver. And he took a career-high 40 sacks, reminding him of the benefits of throwing the ball away.
Allen practiced fully for the first time since hurting his right foot in a 23-20 win at Cleveland on Dec. 21. He'll be facing a Jaguars defense that ranked first against the run and finished second in the NFL with 22 interceptions.
“Every team that we’re playing here on out is a good team and it’s no different this week,” Allen said. “I have this extra emphasis on points are at a premium in the playoffs and just trying to do everything I can to give us points."
There’s plenty on the line for Allen and a Bills team has fallen short in the playoffs over the past six years.
Allen has a 7-6 postseason record and has advanced to the AFC championship game twice, both losses to Kansas City. The Bills are also 0-5 on the road in seven playoff appearances since coach Sean McDermott took over, starting with a 10-3 loss at Jacksonville in the 2017 wild-card round, a year before Allen's arrival.
Not including two neutral-site Super Bowl losses, the Bills have lost eight straight road playoff games since winning at Miami in the 1992 AFC championship game. That skid is the NFL’s second-longest behind the Detroit Lions, who have dropped 12 straight postseason road games.
“We’re not focused on what’s happened in the past,” Allen said. “Our job is to play the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1 o’clock on Sunday, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
In 13 playoff games, Allen has averaged 258 yards passing, combined for 33 touchdowns (25 passing, seven rushing and one receiving) and turned the ball over six times, with four interceptions and two lost fumbles.
“This is how he is every year at this time of year. He’s very dialed in, very focused,” McDermott said.
It was coordinator Joe Brady’s idea to have Allen spend last week studying video.
“I thought it was something to put on his radar, just to refresh some things,” Brady said.
“I thought he did an outstanding job of being honest and truthful,” he added. “I think it helped both physically and mentally.”
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Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) congratulates wide receiver Joshua Palmer (5) after the Bills scored a touchdown against the New York Jets in the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen (17) scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Syrian authorities warned civilians to leave a contested area in the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday and opened a corridor for them to evacuate for a second day as clashes intensified between government and Kurdish forces.
The government of Aleppo province gave residents until 1 p.m. local time to evacuate in coordination with the army. State news agency SANA, citing the army, said the military would begin “targeted operations” against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid half an hour after that deadline.
The military later issued a series of maps with the areas under evacuation order.
An Associated Press journalist at the scene heard sporadic sounds of shelling as civilians streamed out of the area Thursday morning. Nearly 140,000 people have been displaced across the province, according to Aleppo’s Directorate of Social Affairs and Labor.
“There’s a large percentage of them with difficult medical issues, elderly people, women, and children,” said Mohammad Ali, operations director with the Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo.
The SDF has said that at least eight civilians were killed in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, while government officials reported at least seven civilians and one soldier have been killed in the surrounding government-controlled areas in the fighting that broke out Tuesday. Dozens more on both sides have been wounded.
Each side has accused the other of deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure.
Clashes intensified in the afternoon, with exchanges of shelling and drone strikes, and tanks could be seen rolling into the contested neighborhoods.
St. Ephrem Syrian Orthodox Church in Aleppo city was hosting about 100 people who had fled the fighting. Parishioners donated mattresses, blankets and food, priest Adai Maher said.
“As soon as the problems started and we heard the sounds (of clashes), we opened our church as a shelter for people who are fleeing their homes," he said.
Among them was Georgette Lulu, who said her family is planning to travel to the city of Hasakeh in SDF-controlled northeast Syria when the security situation allows.
“There was a lot of bombing and loud noises and a shell landed next to our house,” she said. “I’ve been through these circumstances a lot so I don’t get frightened, but my niece was really afraid so we had to come to the church.”
Hassan Nader, a representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Aleppo said about 4,000 were staying in shelters in the city while tens of thousands had gone to other areas of the province, and the ministry was working with NGOs to supply them with food, medicine and other necessities.
The clashes come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen. In April, scores of SDF fighters left Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh as part of the deal.
Officials from the central government and SDF met again on Sunday in Damascus, but government officials said that no tangible progress had been made.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
In the city of Qamishli in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, thousands of protesters gathered Thursday, chanting, “SDF, we are with you until death.”
Sawsan Khalil, a protester in Qamishli who was displaced from Afrin in Aleppo province in a 2018 Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces there, called for the international community “to feel for the Syrian people who have been killed for no reason” in Aleppo.
Izzeddin Gado, co-chair of the Qamishli City Council accused the government forces of “following a foreign and regional agenda from Turkey.”
The SDF has for years been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration in the U.S. has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
A U.S. State Department official said in a statement Thursday that the U.S. “is closely monitoring the situation” and urged “restraint on all sides.” It said U.S. envoy Tom Barrack is trying to facilitate dialogue between the two sides.
“All parties should focus on how to build a peaceful, stable Syria that protects and serves the interests of all Syrians, rather than pushing the country back into a cycle of violence,” the statement said.
Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that the “operation is being carried out entirely by the Syrian Army” while Turkey is “closely monitoring.”
“Syria’s security is our security,” the statement said, adding that “Turkey will provide the necessary support should Syria request it.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described the SDF as the “greatest obstacle for peace in Syria.”
The United Nations expressed concern at the violence and called for de-escalation.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Andrew Wilks in Istanbul and Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria contributed to this report. Sewell reported from Beirut.
Residents flee the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighbourhoods after clashes erupted Tuesday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Demonstrators chant slogans in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during a protest in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hogir Al Abdo)
Residents flee the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods after clashes broke out on Tuesday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Syrian government soldiers sit on their armoured personnel carrier (APC) following clashes with Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A car burns during clashes between Kurdish fighters and Syrian government forces in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
An aerial view shows Syrian residents in vehicles, queueing to flee from Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods after clashes broke out on Tuesday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
