Josh Allen and the Bills begin their Super Bowl quest at the overlooked Jaguars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills don’t have to beat Kansas City, Cincinnati or Baltimore to reach the Super Bowl.

The team with the reigning MVP and the AFC’s most playoff experience faces a new path, beginning with a wild-card game in Jacksonville. Although this journey doesn’t seem as daunting as those in recent years that included Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson, it might be equally treacherous.

Especially with the Bills being on the road — and the streaking and surprising Jaguars already feeling overlooked.

Allen opens his latest quest to get Buffalo back to the NFL’s ultimate stage on Sunday. That’s the way most outsiders will look at the matchup featuring the third-seeded Jaguars (13-4) and the sixth-seeded Bills (12-5).

Here’s another:

“The whole football industry is going to be watching us,” Jaguars running back Travis Etienne said. “People who haven’t been seeing us, we get to show them who we are.”

The Jaguars have won eight in a row while averaging 33.6 points a game and have derived extra motivation from being underappreciated all season, whether it’s perceived slights from national pundits or actual snubs like Pro Bowl votes cast by players, coaches and fans.

For this game, the Jaguars merely need to peek at the betting line to find fuel: BetMGM installed Buffalo as a one-point favorite at EverBank Stadium, where the Bills last won in 2013.

Buffalo also is 0-5 on the road in the playoffs under coach Sean McDermott, starting with a 10-3 loss at Jacksonville in the 2017 wild-card round. The Bills have dropped eight consecutive postseason games on the road since winning at Miami in the 1992 AFC championship game. It’s the NFL’s second-longest active playoff road skid.

“Just got to go out there and play,” Bills running back James Cook said. “You only got one game left, so every game, you just got to play like it’s your last.”

Buffalo has been at its best when Cook is, well, cooking. The Bills are 8-1 when the NFL rushing leader tops 100 yards on the ground. He’s facing a tough task against the Jaguars, who haven’t allowed anyone to reach 75 yards rushing while becoming the league’s top run defense in 2025.

“What a great opportunity for us to be the only team playing,” Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said. “Great opportunity for us to maximize what we can do and be on a platform to where people can watch our games everywhere and see what type of team we are.”

All eyes will be on the quarterbacks, and for good reason.

Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence is playing as well as anyone. Lawrence has accounted for 24 touchdowns during the team’s winning streak.

Allen, meanwhile, carried the Bills as usual — he has four fourth-quarter comebacks this season — and made the Pro Bowl for the fourth time. Could this finally be his Super Bowl year?

“Josh just wants to win,” Bills receiver Gabe Davis said. “He’s a huge competitor. And I feel like when it comes to these moments, it’s when he really shines.”

Bills kicker Matt Prater, 41, will try to play after aggravating a quadriceps injury last week.

“I just want to feel confident and feel good,” said Prater, who took over the kicking duties after Tyler Bass was sidelined by hip and groin issues before the season opener. “I’m going to do everything I can to get back and play. But we’ll see what happens.”

If Prater can’t go, the Bills have Matthew Wright on the practice squad. Wright has six seasons of NFL experience, including 14 games with the Jaguars in 2021.

There’s a common theme in Buffalo’s five losses: Allen was under intense pressure in each game, leading to sacks and turnovers. Eight sacks and two interceptions against Houston. Five sacks and two fumbles against Philadelphia. Four sacks, two interceptions and two fumbles against Atlanta. Three sacks, an interception and a fumble against Miami. One sack, an interception and a fumble against New England.

Jacksonville’s goal: Pressure Allen with a four-man rush and don’t let him scramble for big plays.

“Huge test for those guys,” Jaguars coach Liam Coen said. “I believe they’ll be up for the challenge.”

With Kansas City, Cincinnati and Baltimore missing the playoffs, Buffalo has been a trendy pick to win the AFC. Does that put more pressure on the Bills?

“Aren’t we the sixth seed?” left tackle Dion Dawkins quipped. “The whole world’s not saying the Bills. Nobody’s talking about the Buffalo Bills. So I feel like all the stress is not on our shoulders.

“We play to be in the dance. We’re dancing. Now we just need to be prom king and queen at the end.”

AP Sports Writer John Wawrow in Orchard Park, New York, contributed to this report.

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A fan cheers during the first half of an NFL football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen (17) is sacked by Philadelphia Eagles' Jalyx Hunt (58) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of the chains that have trapped humanity in shallow laps around Earth in the decades since Apollo.

The so-called translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week. Their Orion capsule bolted out of orbit around Earth right on cue and chased after the moon to nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away.

It was the first such engine firing for a space crew since Apollo 17 set out on that era’s final moonshot on Dec. 7, 1972. NASA reported that preliminary reports indicate it went well.

NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsule’s life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.

Now committed to the moon, the Artemis II test flight is the opening act for NASA’s grand plans for a moon base and sustained lunar living.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will dash past the moon then hang a U-turn and zip straight home without stopping on land. In the process, they will become the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970. They also may become the fastest during their reentry at flight’s end on April 10.

Glover, Koch and Hansen already have made history as the first Black, the first woman and the first non-U.S. citizen to launch to the moon. Apollo’s 24 lunar travelers were all white men.

To set the mood for the day’s main event, Mission Control woke up the crew with John Legend’s “Green Light” featuring Andre 3000 and a medley of NASA teams cheering them.

“We are ready to go,” pilot Victor Glover said.

Mission Control gave the final go-ahead minutes before the critical engine firing, telling the astronauts that they were embarking on “humanity’s lunar homecoming arc” to bring them back to Earth. Koch replied: “With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth. We choose it.”

The next major milestone will be Monday’s lunar flyby.

Orion will zoom 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side, at least for human eyes. The cosmos will even treat the Artemis II astronauts to a total solar eclipse as the moon temporarily blocks the sun from their perspective.

While awaiting their orbital departure earlier Thursday, the astronauts savored the views of Earth from tens of thousands of miles high. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out the entire coastlines of continents and even the South Pole, her old stomping ground.

“It is just absolutely phenomenal,” radioed Koch, who spent a year at an Antarctic research station before joining NASA.

NASA is counting on the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to a moon landing by two astronauts in 2028. Orion’s toilet may need some design tweaks before that happens.

The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis crew reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going, but not before having to resort to using contingency urine storage bags.

Controllers also managed to bump up the cabin temperature. It was so cold earlier in the flight that the astronauts had to dig into their suitcases for long-sleeved clothes.

The contingency urine bags came in handy later in the day. Mission Control ordered the crew to fill a bunch of the empty bags with water from the capsule’s dispenser. A valve issue arose with the dispenser following liftoff, and NASA wanted plenty of drinking water on hand for the crew in case the problem worsened. The astronauts used straws and syringes to fill the pouches with more than 2 gallons (7 liters) worth before pivoting to the moon.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this photo provided by NASA, a view of the Earth from NASA's Orion spacecraft as it orbits above the planet during the Artemis II test flight, on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, an Artemis program patch floating in the International Space Station's cupola, on March 30, 2026. (Jessica Meir/NASA via AP)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)