JACKSONVILLE Blake Bortles Jersey Black , Fla. — The NFL doesn’t do the Cinderella story often, but one is coming when the Jacksonville Jaguars host the Buffalo Bills in an AFC wild-card game on Sunday.

The question is, which is the Cinderella story?

The Jaguars (10-6) won their first-ever AFC South title, are in the playoffs for the first time since 2007 and will host their first playoff game since 1999 at EverBank Field. Jacksonville was an NFL-worst 17-63 over the previous five seasons.

The Bills (9-7) were able to snap a playoff drought that dated back to 1999, winning the sixth seed and final wild-card berth with a win over Miami in the regular-season finale.

The winner of Sunday’s game will become the playoff darling.

There are other notable storylines as well.

Jaguars first-year coach Doug Marrone coached the Bills in 2013-14 before opting out of his contract and walking away with a $4 million payout when Buffalo changed ownership.

Marrone ended up missing out on an immediate head-coaching opening and was hired by former Jaguars coach Gus Bradley to be the offensive line coach. Marrone served as the interim coach for two games last season after Bradley was fired and was promoted to head coach last January.

Buffalo’s roster has changed over significantly since Marrone left. There are only six players on the roster that played under Marrone. The Bills have also already fired the coach that succeeded Marrone — Rex Ryan — hiring first-year coach Sean McDermott.

Marrone’s exit has come up before — at his introductory press conference last January and at the league’s scouting combine a month later when he acknowledged his “mistake.” He tried to deflect questions as best he could on Monday.

“There has obviously been a lot of stuff out there,” Marrone said. “That stuff is done. It is over. I can’t put it any simpler than that. I am not going to take away from my primarily responsibility to look back on a situation that occurred three years ago. If I do that, then I shouldn’t be the coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. My job is to make sure I do the best job for this team.”

The two teams also completed a trade prior to the deadline Oct. 28, with the Bills sending high-priced defensive tackle Marcell Dareus for a 2018 fifth-round draft pick. The Jaguars had the worst run defense in the NFL when they made the move and ended up finishing 21st.

“I just told him to be smart (on Sunday),” Marrone said. “The last two games, he’s played well. He looks like he’s becoming more comfortable with the calls and what we do. Again, it’s hard to insert someone right away.”

The Bills don’t seem to match up well on paper. They rank 30th in sacks allowed and are 29th in total offense.

The Jaguars defense ranks first in the NFL in yards-per-play, pass defense and interceptions and is ranked second in total defense, sacks and scoring defense.

They could be in line for another dominant outing, especially if Bills star running back LeSean McCoy can’t play after injuring his ankle in Sunday’s win over Miami. McCoy has carried 287 times for 1,138 yards with six touchdowns this season and has a team-high 59 catches for 448 yards and two scores.

McDermott would have a tall task in replacing McCoy. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor is the team’s second-leading rusher with 427 yards and four touchdowns. Mike Tolbert (247 yards) would likely fill in for McCoy, but is a plodding runner compared to the electric McCoy. Marcus Murphy made his season debut on Sunday http://www.jaguarscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-blake-bortles-jersey , rushing for 41 yards. He has eight career carries in the NFL.

“You never replace a player like LeSean,” McDermott said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in Mike Tolbert and Murph and whoever else we put in the backfield. They did a nice job this past weekend and I expect them to do the same moving forward.”

McCoy did not practice Wednesday. McDermott did say McCoy is maximizing his treatment opportunities.

McCoy’s absence would put immense pressure on Taylor and the Bills’ 31st ranked passing offense.

“We want the best for Shady,” Taylor said. “If he’s healthy, we want him absolutely to be out there playing and giving us his all. If he’s not, we have a tremendous group of guys in the backfield that would be able to step in and carry the load. Of course, Shady’s a special playmaker. You miss him if he’s not out there, but at the same time, we can’t use it as an excuse.”

Defensively, Buffalo ranks 30th in stopping the run. That should give the Jaguars offense hope after two consecutive losses to close the regular season. The Jaguars lead the NFL in rushing offense and are fifth in scoring.

Point differential really separates the teams. The Jaguars are plus-149. That’s second best in the AFC behind New England and tied for third in the NFL. Buffalo is minus-57. There are nine teams that didn’t qualify for the playoffs with a better number.

Still, the Jaguars have shown a penchant lately for turnovers — the stat that will be above all others on Sunday. Quarterback Blake Bortles has thrown five interceptions the last two games and the team has committed seven turnovers in that span.

“Everyone realizes it’s your last chance,” Bortles said. “If you lose, you go home. It’s over. So there’s no reason and no excuse to not play as hard as you can every single play, but I think our guys do that on a weekly basis anyways and I’m excited to go out there for this opportunity.”

The Jaguars finished

Four of the five teams that gave up the fewest points during the regular season are the last four left with a shot at the Super Bowl, something that had never happened since the NFL-AFL merger nearly a half-century ago.

And three of the four toughest to gain yards against are still around, too.

Still think that all a team needs to succeed in the modern game is an elite QB? Go ahead and take a close look at Sunday’s matchups for the conference championship games.

Sure, Tom Brady (assuming his injured right hand is good to go) and the New England Patriots will be playing for the AFC title Leonard Fournette Jersey Black , just like they always do, but they’ll be going up against Blake Bortles and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Over in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles will send Nick Foles out to face the Minnesota Vikings and Case Keenum, hardly a marquee matchup between quarterbacks, and one set up by injuries to other signal-callers.

What this quartet of teams does have in common is solid defense, showing once again that while everyone is paying so much attention to one side of the ball, it’s the other that might truly matter the most. The more league rules and officiating tend to favor offenses, the more figuring out ways to slow that down is imperative.

”When you have a defense that can shut that type of firepower down,” said Brian Robison, a linebacker on the Vikings defense that ranked No. 1 in yards and points allowed, ”it allows you to win ballgames.”

Minnesota gave up 15.8 points per game. Jacksonville was No. 2 at 16.8, followed by No. 4 Philadelphia’s 18.4 and No. 5 New England’s 18.5.

”There’s teams that have really good defenses that aren’t talked about,” Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. ”We’re one of them.”

It’s the first time since the 1970 merger there has been that sort of defensive dominance among the NFL’s final four. The closest was at the end of the 2010 season, when teams that ranked No. 1 (Steelers), No. 2 (Packers), No. 4 (Bears) and No. 6 (Jets) in points allowed reached the conference title games.

”The most heralded guys on the field are the quarterbacks. So I would say Womens Terrell Suggs Jersey , nine times out of 10, your detail goes into your offensive planning and things like that,” said Jacksonville’s leading tackler, Telvin Smith, who returned a fumble 50 yards for a touchdown last weekend. ”Offense sells tickets, and defense wins championships. I’m happy I’m on the defensive side.”

He is part of a young, talented and speedy D that rose to prominence quickly via a combination of shrewd drafting (linebackers Smith and Myles Jack, defensive ends Yannick Ngakoue and Dante Fowler Jr., cornerback Jalen Ramsey) and free-agent signings that panned out (defensive lineman Calais Campbell, cornerback A.J. Bouye, safeties Barry Church and Tashaun Gipson).

Take a look at the rankings in various regular-season categories related to defense, and you can’t miss the Jaguars. That helps explain how they made it this far with Bortles, whose 84.7 rating ranked 22nd among QBs with at least 100 pass attempts and whose 13 interceptions were exceeded by only six players.

Campbell tied for second in NFL with 14.5 sacks, while Ngakoue added 12 and led the league by forcing six fumbles. Bouye tied for third with six interceptions, while Ramsey, Gipson and Church each had four. As a unit Youth Luke Kuechly Jersey , the Jaguars were No. 2 in yards allowed at 286.1, trailing the No. 1 Vikings (275.9), with the Eagles (306.5) at No. 4. The Jaguars were also second in sacks and total takeaways, while they topped the NFL with seven defensive TDs.

Exceptional defense can carry a team far: In nine of the last 10 seasons, the No. 1 or No. 2 team in points allowed participated in a conference championship game. The exception was 2015, when the Seahawks led the league in that category but lost in the divisional round, and the Bengals ranked second but lost in the wild-card round.

”Now it’s down to, `May the best defense win,”’ Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham said. ”We each get to showcase what we can do.”

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AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell in Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Kyle Hightower in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Mark Long in Jacksonville, Florida; and Rob Maaddi in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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