Josh Allen doing Josh Allen things, and why we need it

[Ray Stonada]

Last night the real Josh came out from all the low-positive, gloomy vibes of this season. The game became about him slinging it and creating and guess what: we scored 44 points. Yeah, he had two picks that turned into 3 points for TB. So what?

 

Few points:

 

1) The offense we tried to play for most of the season, featuring Brady's play designs for 5 yard patterns, was boring and awful. Turning Josh into a glorified game manager is moronic and frankly depressing. Today we let Josh and to a lesser extent Cook get going, instead focusing on how to unlock Coleman by force-feeding him. Today Brady also got in a rhythm finally and made some great timely play calls.

 

2) No one on this offense needs the ball unless they get open... even Kincaid should not be featured. It just distracts Brady trying to serve each player their own special plays. Feature JOSH ALLEN with a hefty side of James Cook, our best most explosive players by far. Mix in downfield passes and don't forget Shake-n-bake Shakir down there. Forget the low upside plays, like WR screens--it doesn't give us numbers when the WR who would be blocking for the RB is getting the ball. Run out of the 11 formation more, so we threaten the pass, instead of letting teams know we are running with Hawes and Gilliam on the field.

 

4) More than the score, the game and the team felt better emotionally than it has for weeks. We left it on the field and won a game-of-the-week shootout. Our defense is not capable of holding teams, but we can get some timely turnovers and win this way much easier than playing ball control as if we had a run defense. The biggest thing is we need to clamp down on D on third-and-long--it's about making big plays and getting our O back the ball. 

 

5) McDermott better get some beta blockers, cause this is who we need to be. This is what gives us our swagger, what makes us unique. We have the NFL's equivalent of Paul Bunyan, and a damn good running back. Let them rip.

 

GO BILLS!

[Ray Stonada]

Ps "Sunday marked Allen’s second career game with 3-plus passing TDs and three rush scores. The only other player to do so was Otto Graham in the 1954 NFL Championship Game."

 

One guy in the history of the NFL did it, and now Josh did it twice. Think about that. 
 

The crazy thing is, Josh is such a nice guy that he accepts it when the coaches try to turn him into a practice squad QB handing off and feeding Keon Coleman and Curtis Samuel. He just says, “okay, coach” and tries his best. We love that Josh is a cool and good, but the coaches gotta recognize they have a Marvel character playing QB, not Clark Kent. 

[Buffalo Ballin]

OP's post is nice. Our defense better get stops on 3rd downs somehow to make Josh Allen's genius miracle worker stuff mean anything.

[GunnerBill]

Some thoughts:

 

On #1 - nobody wants Josh to be a glorified game manager. But the reality is this time runs it better than it passes it for the most part. That is because our weapons in the pass game struggle getting open. That is a bad Buccs secondary we played today and so unlike other games when Brady dialled up the deep shots, particularly on play action Josh went deep rather than checking down which he has been doing. I think he checked down once to Cook over the middle. Every other shot play he threw deep. He hasn't been doing that because guys haven't been open and I think Josh has been a bit safe in challenging tight windows.

 

On #2 agree nobody here is a featured peice. I think running out of 11 occasionally to keep teams honest isn't the worst call but the Bills run it best in big personnel. They need to get out of the pitch obsession and get back to the trap and off tackle runs. When they ran some traps in the 4th Quarter Cook was back to churning out 5 plus most carries.

 

On #3.... it's missing

 

On #4 agree the D can't hold people. The 3rd down defense was a step back yesterday but partly because they lost too many 1st and 2nd downs. Generally since McD took over playcalling it has been much improved on 3rd down. Let's hope they get back to that next week.

 

On #5 I don't understand but sure 😂. On a serious note - I have always thought Josh is better when the ball is in his hand, he is high volume passing and can get intona rhythm. That said last year he won MVP in a more balanced offense. I do think the last few weeks other than when laser focussed vs the Chiefs he has looked a bit lazy in his fundamentals as a lower volume passer. So there is something finding an appropriate balance.

Edited 1 hour ago by GunnerBill

[Ray Stonada]

 

45 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

On #3.... it's missing

 

On #5 I don't understand but sure 😂. On a serious note - I have always thought Josh is better when the ball is in his hand, he is high volume passing and can get intona rhythm. That said last year he won MVP in a more balanced offense. I do think the last few weeks other than when laser focussed vs the Chiefs he has looked a bit lazy in his fundamentals as a lower volume passer. So there is something finding an appropriate balance.

 

Thanks Gunner, always appreciate your thoughts. And, ha! I skipped number 3! Whoops. 

 

I totally agree with your point above... balanced offense is great in theory, but Josh needs to get into a rhythm and then he's unstoppable. I see no problem with Cook getting 20 carries a game and Josh passing/running 35 times. But up the urgency and tempo and let him go to work.

 

PS I was in London for the Chiefs game and went to the Fitzrovia Belle (top end of Tottenham Ct Road), awesome place to watch a game... lots of Buffalonians and met lots of fun Bills fans from the UK too.