ALLEN PARK -- The Lions and Bills have combined to win 10 games this season. Both have been bounced from their division races, and only Detroit even has a shot left at the wild card. Its odds are currently at 3 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight.

These teams just aren’t very good.

But there is one intriguing strength-on-strength matchup to watch: The league’s best running quarterback against the league’s best defense against running quarterbacks.

The Lions have allowed just 62 rushing yards to quarterbacks this season, despite facing some good ones. Russell Wilson was held to 15 yards on two carries, down from his season average of 23.6. Mitchell Trubisky had the best rushing day by any quarterback against this defense, and was still held to 18 yards, down from his season average of 35.1.

Detroit was especially good against Cam Newton. The Panthers signal-caller is averaging 39.3 yards on the ground when he’s not playing Detroit, and rushed for at least 23 yards in each of those games.

The Lions held him to 2 yards.

“Just trying to make the guys aware, ‘This guy is going to pull the ball down and he’s going to run with it,’” defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni said. "Just trying to make the guys up front make the guys in the coverage understand, ‘Hey, if he breaks the line scrimmage, we have to try to go minimize the damage.’ But, other than that, I think that’s probably about it.”

Pasqualoni makes it sound like some easy feat, but it’s not. Not when you’ve faced Newton, who has the second most running yards by a quarterback in the league. And Trubisky, who has the fifth most. And Wilson, who has the eighth most. And Dak Prescott, who has the ninth most.

That’s four of the top nine guys -- all of whom were held below their season averages.

But the challenge grows this week, with Josh Allen on deck.

The rookie made headlines during the draft cycle for his big arm, which drew comparisons to Matthew Stafford. Lost in all that hoopla was his running ability, and the Bills have exploited it this season to the tune of 490 yards. That leads all quarterbacks, even though he’s also missed four games with an elbow injury.

In eight career starts, Allen has 464 rushing yards on 62 carries. For comparison, Kerryon Johnson has 480 yards on 89 carries in seven career starts,.

“Obviously a very dangerous guy,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. "He’s right up there with a lot of the other great running quarterbacks in the league right now. We’ve seen a couple this year, but he’s doing a phenomenal job right now of just turning those really nothing plays into some really big or just huge plays for the offense. So, it’s a big challenge for us, and he’s doing a good job of recognizing the coverage that’s behind it. So when those receivers aren’t open and the DBs have their back turned and he can find space to get out and run, he’s taking advantage of it in a big way.”

That’s been especially true lately. Last week, he rushed nine times for 101 yards against the Jets. The week before that, nine times for 135 yards against Miami.

The Lions, by the way, have had two 100-yard rushers in the last half-decade combined. And they haven’t had a 100-yard rusher in back-to-back games since Kevin Jones did it in 2004.

Allen almost did it in three straight games, finishing with 99 yards on 13 carries against Jacksonville.

“I’ve seen a lot of good quarterbacks that can pull the down and run, (but) this guy is really something,” Pasqualoni said. "He’s big, he’s got really good speed, he’s got good vision. He’s their leading rusher, so he’s just very impressive. He’s got a strong arm, he can throw the ball. There’s plays on that film where the ball is going 70 yards in the air.

"So he’s a handful, there’s no question about that.”