Bills Beat Lions In A Shootout And Josh Allen Is The NFL’s Best Player Right Now

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Call this one whatever you wish: The MVP Bowl between Jared Goff and Josh Allen, the Super Bowl preview between the Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills or simply a fun afternoon watching the two highest scoring teams in the NFL lighting fires and setting off fireworks.

Pick your description.

Me? 

This was the game I decided Josh Allen is the best player in the NFL. 

Josh Allen Is NFL’s Best Player

Yes, I know, Patrick Mahomes. 

But, Lordy! Allen is doing things in a combination few have ever authored.

“This is the best I’ve seen him play,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “And not surprised. When he sets a goal for himself, for the team, he’s hard to stop. People have tried. They’ll keep trying. But, I mean, just incredible. Incredible performances week after week. What more can you say?

“Every week we’re watching an incredible player play incredibly consistent week after week, and I’ll let you guys fill in the rest of the sentences.” 

Yes, that’s an opinion. One which anyone with eyes might share.

But it’s one Allen isn’t entertaining, because after this game in which Allen lifted his team onto his shoulders (again), he was something of a downer about himself.

“Still, offensively, I think, we need to find some more,” Allen actually said afterward. “There’s too many plays we left out there. I know to nitpick a game like that in which we scored 48 sounds kind of dumb, but still feel like we left some out there.”

Allen Downplays Performance

This is where I point out the Bills had the football 10 times, not counting the end of half and end of game. And they scored on eight of those. So Allen shows up like a star to the game and humble and still hungry to the press conference. 

Is this cat for real?

This was a take-flight fight that delivered 90 total points, 1,080 total yards and 12 touchdowns. And although Goff had a great game, he didn’t shine as brightly as Allen.

The Bills quarterback passed for 362 yards and two touchdowns. And he ran for 68 more yards and 2 touchdowns.

So Allen accounted for 460 yards and 4 touchdowns. And did I mention he had a touchdown pass to tight end Dalton Kincaid, which he threw as a chest-pass, nullified by a penalty?

It was a show.

And while that alone should not anoint Allen as the NFL’s best player, his most recent two games just might:

• In the last two weeks, Allen has passed for 704 yards.
• He has rushed for 151 yards.
• He has thrown 5 TD passes.
• He has 5 TD runs.
• And all that without a turnover.

Bills Want To ‘Get Better’

All of that happened at the end of the week when Bills practices were basically scrubbed because of weather in Orchard Park. The team got a full practice in only once and got in some drill work on another day.

No worries.

“I think we’ve got guys who are bought in,” Allen said. “And the run game, it sets up the pass game and vice versa. I felt like I missed a couple of throws tonight and we’ll always try to find way to get better …”

The Lions, it should be noted, are not at full strength on defense. They are without linebacker Alex Anzalone and defensive lineman Alim McNeil (knee) and cornerback Carlton Davis (jaw) left the game and didn’t return.

Both McNeil and Davis could miss the remainder of the season, coach Dan Campbell told reporters after the game.

The Bills, it should be noted, played this game with a battered secondary. Damar Hamlin did not play. Rasul Douglas did not play. And neither did Taylor Rapp,

All of them are starters. And it didn’t help when linebacker Matt Milano left the game with a groin injury.

So this was a day in which the quarterback feasted on limping defenses.

Dan Campbell Second-Guesses Himself

It was also a game in which Allen had some help from Campbell.

The gambling, aggressive Campbell decided that after cutting the Buffalo lead to 38-28 with 12 minutes to play, it might be right to try an onside kick.

And now we pause to tell you that the NFL’s new kickoff rules this year require teams to declare their intentions to try the onside kick. Well, the Bills not only recovered Detroit’s onside attempt, but Bills receiver Mack Hollins grabbed the kicked ball and rumbled down the field to the 5 yard line.

“I thought we’d the possession, I thought we’d get that ball,” Campbell said. “You know, obviously, now sitting here hindsight, after taking it down to the [five-yard] line, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that. But it is what it is.”

It was a gift for the Bills. And something of a mulligan for Allen, who threw a 5 yard touchdown pass to Ray Davis on the next play. 

“Obviously, coach felt like, I don’t know what he was thinking there,” McDermott said. “But it paid off for us.”