The 2020 Buffalo Bills season has turned into a weekly discussion about the tremendous strides being taken by third-year quarterback Josh Allen.
Just six days after producing, what might have been, the best game of his career, start-to-finish, in a win over the San Francisco 49ers, Allen gave us another reason to be excited about his present and future in the win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night in Orchard Park.
The night didn’t start well for Allen and the passing game against the vaunted Steelers pass defense. Allen was pressured, hurried, hit and basically unproductive during the first half, while completing just 10-of-23 passes for a mere 76 yards. He was also picked off once.
When the Bills passing game isn’t working, it usually means the offense isn’t scoring, and that, indeed, was the case. The Bills had seven drives in that first half and were limited to 102 yards, six first downs and one field goal.
You might have had flashbacks to the Sunday night game against Pittsburgh last season. Even though the Bills won that night and clinched a playoff spot, it was one of Allen’s least productive games of 2019.
However, there was no panic from Allen. He didn’t spiral out of control after a subpar first half. With the help of his offensive teammates, Allen looked like a different quarterback in that second half, as he picked apart that highly-rated Steelers defense. The pass protection was better, and Allen looked to his elite level No. 1 receiver Stefon Diggs to help turn things around. When in doubt, throw it to Diggs is a smart way to operate.
In the second half, Allen was 14-of-20 for 162 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Diggs was nearly perfect with seven catches on eight targets for 92 yards and one of those touchdowns.
The Bills got the ball to start the third quarter and the Allen-to-Diggs show was on.
The first play of the drive was a five-yard pass to Diggs. There was a 3rd-and-2 conversion with a six-yard catch. On 1st-and-10 from the Steelers' 32-yard line, Allen found Diggs on a short throw, but Diggs tacked on yards after the catch for a 12-yard gain. Two plays later, Diggs was open, once again, for a completion and when a Steelers defensive back fell down, Diggs turned the run after catch into a touchdown that put the Bills in front by a score of 16-7.
Allen was 5-of-5 for 50 yards on the drive with four of the passes to Diggs accounting for 42 of those yards.
After the defense forced a three-and-out, Allen and Diggs went back to work.
On the first play of that series, Allen found a wide-open Diggs over the middle for a gain of 22 yards. On the very next play, Diggs was there in the middle of the field again and broke a tackle as part of a 19-yard gain. Just like that, the Bills were at the Steelers' 16-yard line.
The drive ended with a pretty 13-yard touchdown pass from Allen to Gabriel Davis. The Bills were up 23-7, and the game was pretty much decided at that point.
The “Hey, let's get the ball to Diggs plan” actually started on a field goal drive late in the first half. Through the Bills' first six offensive possessions, Diggs was targeted just three times. Over the next three drives, which include the field goal before halftime and the back-to-back touchdown drives in the third quarter, Diggs had nine targets.
Allen was 8-of-8 for 104 yards on those back-to-back touchdown drives, and Diggs caught all six of his targets for 83 yards.
I can’t tell you how many times I have said to myself, "Thank you, Brandon Beane for getting Stefon Diggs." He is a big reason why Allen’s game has sky-rocketed to the point where he is in the discussion for the NFL's Most Valuable Player.
While Allen made the bulk of his key throws on those game-sealing drives, he did come up with some other key passes.
On the field goal drive that extended the Bills' lead to 26-15, Allen calmly stepped up in the pocket to get away from the pass rush and found Isaiah McKenzie for a 12-yard gain on a 3rd-and-10 play from the Bills' 47-yard line. On the Bills' final possession when they ate up the final 7:11 of game time, Allen kept the possession going when he beat a Steelers blitz and found a wide-open Dawson Knox for a 16-yard gain on a 3rd-and-11 from the Bills' 28-yard line.
As was the case for the entire game against San Francisco and in the second half against the Steelers, Allen looked calm, poised and in complete control of the offense.
Allen’s success can be seen on his stat sheet for the season, and can also be seen as he moves up in the Bills record books.
- Allen has 35 total touchdowns, which breaks the single-season record of 34 set by Jim Kelly in 1991.
- Allen's 323 completions are the third-most in a single-season in Bills history. He needs 53 more completions to set the record.
- His 3,641 passing yards is fifth-most in a season, and he should end up with at least the second-best total for a Bills quarterback. If the regular season finale isn’t meaningless, Allen has a very good shot at the top spot, which is held by Drew Bledsoe, who threw for 4,359 yards in 2002.
Allen and the Bills will look to add to those season totals on Saturday afternoon, as well as wrap up the AFC East title against the Denver Broncos.