Can flip script vs. Patriots and Belichick?
Bills young quarterback is 0-3 against the Pats with a passer rating of just 56.4
ORCHARDPARK,N.Y. —Tohelpprepare for his first game of the season against the Patriots, Bills quarterback Josh Allen put on the film from last year’s pair of games. It wasn’t pretty.
“Looking back at last year’s tape, especially the first game, it’s not fun. Just knowing some of the mistakes that I made,” Allen said on Wednesday. His Bills (5-2) host the Patriots (2-4) in a pivotal AFC East clash on Sunday.
Allen has gone 0-3 in his career against the Patriots, which isn’t much of a surprise considering how good Bill Belichick has been against young quarterbacks throughout his legendary career. Allen’s passer rating against the Patriots is 56.4 and he’s completed just 48.4% of his passes for three touchdowns and five interceptions against New England.
After his second game against the Patriots in Week 4 of last season, Allen arrived at the realization that he had to become a different quarterback — or at least change his approach. He threw three interceptions in that game and eventually exited with a concussion because of a blow to the head suffered after scrambling from the pocket.
Instead of trying to do everything, which usually resulted in negative plays like turnovers, sacks, or huge chunks of lost yards, Allen promised general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott he was going to stop thinking home run first. Instead he wanted to start working from the bottom up instead of the top down.
Since that game, Allen’s thrown 33 touchdowns and just seven interceptions in 19 regular season games.
Allen, who’s on pace for 1,770 passing yards after the catch — he has 1,331 YAC yards in 2019 — explained that taking what the defense gives him is something he’s had to get used to.
“The kind of mentality change that I’ve had (is about) trusting the guys underneath and allowing them to catch the ball and create some positive RAC (run after catch),” Allen said. “If that’s what we got to do, that’s what we’ll do. I’ll adjust. When we’ve got big plays that present themselves, we got to make sure that we capitalize on them. It’s a game plan that I’m willing to work with. It’s still football and we got to find ways to move the ball and win the game.”
The addition of no. 1 receiver Stefon Diggs has helped Allen put up some eye-popping numbers in 2020. He ranks fifth in the NFL with 16 touchdown passes and his 84.2 QBR rating is third in the league behind just the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers and the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes. Allen was an MVP candidate after the first four games, but the loss of receiver John Brown in the last three games (he played hurt against the Chiefs and didn’t have a single catch) has taken air out of the Bills’ deep passing game. They’ve failed to score more than 20 points in the last three games after going over that mark in their first four.
Allen thinks Brown, who is set to return against the Patriots, could help the Bills get their downfield aerial attack back on track.
“I think the vertical presence that he has — the speed and the quickness that he has — he’s able to run some really good in-breaking routes. He’s another matchup that you have to focus on,” Allen said. “You can’t just play man to man and roll somebody to Stef. You got to worry backside what John’s doing too. Having another guy like John, who I trust implicitly and a guy that’s gonna work his tail off and play for the team. It’s always great to have a guy like that out there.”
With Brown out two of the past three games, Allen has leaned on veteran receiver Cole Beasley, who’s on pace for a career season again in his second year in Buffalo. He’s caught 39 passes for 470 yards and two touchdowns through seven games. Beasley arrived between Allen’s rookie and sophomore season, and he’s watched him develop rapidly ever since.
Beasley said the Patriots game Allen referenced back in September of 2019 really did change things for the 24-year-old passer.
“I feel like after that game he started playing a lot better in those situations where he’s scrambling and trying to find guys to make plays. Helearned a lot from that game,” Beasley said. “It’s great to see a guy react that way. They can either go in the dumpster or they can get better from it. He’s the type of guy that got better from it.”
Beasley said all players have bad games like Allen against the Patriots.