BILLS, QB ALLEN SHOW THEY’RE THE REAL DEAL
Jones stands by his man after Buffalo tramples Cowboys on U.S. Thanksgiving
It’s seldom wise to draw sweeping conclusions from a single football game.
I’m going to do it anyway. So here are three from Buffalo’s gigantic 26-15 upset win in Dallas on Thursday.
One, the Buffalo Bills are back. And they’re for real. They’re getting better each week and they showed it against America’s Team.
Two, second-year Bills quarterback Josh Allen is playing like a top-shelf NFL performer.
Three, 10th-year Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has got to be done, no matter how much Cowboys owner/gm Jerry Jones remains in blind denial.
On the latter point, Cowboys fans lost their minds afterward on social media when Jones — in an epic 28-minute post-game scrum with reporters — backed Garrett to the hilt.
This, after Jones earlier in the day told a Dallas radio station that “you won’t find anybody that knows how to do all of the things to coach football any better than Jason Garrett does. He’s a master.”
After the game, an emotional Jones stood firm with reporters.
Jones even said he believes this 6-6 Cowboys team — which is 0-5 against winning teams in 2019 — can reach the Super Bowl.
“I’m looking forward to winning four or five straight and helping write a story that they’ll talk about: ‘It looked like you were down and out,’” Jones said. “I mean that. That’s the way that I’m operating. Every decision that I make over the next month will be with an eye in mind to get us in the Super Bowl — now.
“And I would normally say, ‘You’re really smoking something.’ I normally would say that. But I know the (locker-) room. And I see the room. And I’m the one that OK’D and put the coaches that are in that room in there. And I believe in this group.”
Exactly why becomes harder to grasp by the week. After Dallas scored a touchdown on the opening drive of Thursday’s game at AT&T Stadium, the
Bills took over the proceedings, scoring the next 26 points until Dallas scored a late TD against a prevent defence.
It was as one-sided as all that. The Cowboys are fortunate to be in the NFL’S worst division this year. At 6-6 they remain atop the NFC East, barely ahead of a staggering 5-6 Philadelphia team that plays at lowly Miami on Sunday.
So, Garrett is safe? Yes, Jones repeated afterward. Garrett’s contract is up after the season and Jones didn’t talk about renewing it.
“I’m just not going to make a coaching change,” Jones said of the here and now. “I wouldn’t (fire Garrett now) for love nor money. It would give us a zero chance (to make the Super Bowl).”
The Super Bowl? Yes, that’s the sound of Cowboys fans across the continent sighing in unison.
Garrett kept dropping statements at his post-game news conference that couldn’t have made Cowboys fans happy. In tipping his hat to the Bills, he continually pointed out his own shortcomings. Bad teams do lots of bad things against good teams, is basically what he was saying without realizing it.
A far better-coached team, which has a far better chance of doing that, is the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills proved to a snickering continent, and a cautiously hopeful fan base, that their renaissance this season is no fluke.
The Bills are 9-3 for the first time in 23 years, and for the first time all season, looked like a team worthy of its lofty record on Thursday.
The defence harassed Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott throughout, a rarity behind his usually strong offensive line. And after the first couple of drives, the Bills reduced Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott to a non-factor.
“This isn’t the same Buffalo team that you’ve seen in the past,” CBS colour commentator Tony Romo said late in the third quarter.
Bills fans are as shocked as anybody, believe me. Talk about a fan base that deserves it.
Allen, after an up-and-down first couple of months, is really getting it together.
He no longer commits weekly gargantuan gaffes. His mind is calming so much in the pocket now that, at one point in the second quarter, he just stood there, trusting his blockers to hold off a substandard Cowboys pass rush, while he waited for his receiver to get open before rifling the ball.
Allen missed on only five of 24 passes. He amassed 231 yards and one touchdown through the air, plus 43 yards and another touchdown on the ground.
He’s a dual-threat force, weekly. Not in the league of Lamar Jackson, but better than most fans probably believed before Thursday.
The Bills are still a ways behind the 10-1 New England Patriots in the AFC East, but now have the first of two AFC wild-card playoff spots practically locked up. The closest to them are the 6-5 Pittsburgh Steelers.