ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) – If you’re looking to sum up Josh Allen’s night against the Patriots in the Wild Card round, this pretty much does it: he had more touchdowns than incompletions.
Allen looked like an absolute super star and MVP in the Bills’ dominating 47-17 win over New England on Saturday. He threw for 308 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. He also only had four incomplete passes on the night in a near perfect game.
“Obviously we know this team pretty well, it’s the third time we’ve played them. That’s a good team we just played and the way we came out and executed was good to see,” Allen said after the game.
The Bills did not punt at all during the game and ended all seven drives with a touchdown. The 47 points were also the most ever scored in a game against Bill Belichick as head coach, playoffs included. Not to mention this is the second straight game against New England the Bills haven’t punted at all, the first being Buffalo’s 33-21 win at Gillette Stadium three weeks earlier.
“I think it just kind of goes back to last week of practice that we had, guys were dialed in, we practiced hard, we put together a really good game plan, Daboll lit it up just the play calling and our guys went out there and made some plays,” Allen explained.
Things started rolling right away for Allen and the Bills offense as they put up 300 yards of total offense by halftime. Even when things didn’t go according to plan, it seemed to work out for the Bills. Look no further than their first touchdown of the game.
It looked like Allen was going to throw it away but instead, floated a pass to the end zone and Dawson Knox made a giant leap to catch it for a touchdown.
“That’s what I was trying to do,” Allen said laughing.
However, that’s not how they drew it up. In fact, Allen didn’t even know what happened until he saw the replay on the jumbotron.
“Honestly I thought I threw the ball away. He made an unbelievable play but I got hit and I got up and was going back to the huddle. I think it was third down and as I was going back to the huddle, I was going off the field basically and everybody was celebrating and I had no idea what was going on,” Allen said.
“I sat down and go what happened? And nobody could tell me an explanation, I hadn’t seen the video on the screen yet and it took about three and a half, four minutes for them to finally put it up on the screen after we kicked the PAT. I was like holy crap I did not mean for that to happen but Dawson was in the right place at the right time and made an unbelievable play.”
One of the storylines for this offense has been how many weapons Allen has in the passing game and that was apparent in this game with the way he was able to get so many different guys involved. Knox had two touchdowns with Emmanuel Sanders and Gabriel Davis each ending with one.
And he even hit an offensive lineman for a score, no not Dion Dawkins, but rookie Tommy Doyle just as everyone expected (kidding, obviously).
“I’m sick for Emmanuel Sanders because he’s played 100 years in this league and tonight was his first playoff touchdown, Tommy Doyle plays one game and gets a touchdown as a frickin lineman so it sucks for him but I’m glad his first touchdown was with us,” Allen joked.
The Bills also kept the momentum going in the running game with Devin Singletary ending with 81 rushing yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. It just goes to show the versatility and ability of Allen to hit multiple options outside of the obvious, biggest target of Stefon Diggs.
It’s really pick your poison when it comes to stopping this offense if you’re an opposing defense. Even Isaiah McKenzie had a couple big plays, you just never know whose number will get called on any given play which is something that’s huge for the Bills as the postseason continues.