USA TODAY International Edition
Allen signals no major changes
Quarterback confident in Bills’ play, execution
ROCHESTER, N. Y. – When he has the opportunity, Bills quarterback Josh Allen is just like any other football fan.
If he’s not playing or practicing or watching film in preparation for the next opponent, he’ll chill out at home just like any other card- carrying member of BillsMafia and watch whatever game happens to be on his big screen.
Because they are national TV and prime- time darlings, the Chiefs are a team Allen got to see perhaps more than any other, so he knows exactly what he will be up against Sunday night in the AFC championship game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
“I’ve watched enough of their games this year just as a spectator at home on the couch when they’re playing on Monday night or Sunday night or whatever the case is, and they play really good football,” Allen said of the defending Super Bowl champions.
Allen also played against the Chiefs this season and learned up close and personal how good they are. That happened to be his worst game as he threw for just 122 yards, completed 51.9% of his passes and averaged 4.5 yards per attempt, all season lows in what became the season of his life.
The Bills lost 26- 17 that rainy night at Bills Stadium as Allen was outplayed by Patrick Mahomes. And the thing about that game is the Chiefs’ normally explosive passing attack
wasn’t even much of a factor. The Bills loaded up to defend Mahomes and his army of weapons and held him to 225 yards, one of his lowest outputs of the year, but that left Buffalo vulnerable to the run and the Chiefs piled up 245 ground yards, which led to them possessing the ball for nearly 38 minutes.
It just illuminated for Allen the fact that Kansas City can get it done on offense whichever way it has to, and it ratchets up the pressure Sunday night because Allen knows he may have to outgun Mahomes, unlike last week when he really didn’t have to do that against the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
“The pressure is that to win the game you’ve got to score more than them and that’s exactly what it is,” Allen said. “They do such a good job of moving the ball and scoring, and it could be two plays over the top or it could be a 15- play drive where Patrick is just finding his outlets and using their RPOs.
“Their sights are the same as ours, one team is going to win and one team is going to go home, so we have to do everything in our power to make sure we’re the team surviving.”
That first Kansas City game was a strange night in many ways for the Bills, and they’re a different team now than they were in mid- October.
They were still missing guard Jon Feliciano in that game and his return soon thereafter has helped solidify the offensive line.
Tight end Dawson Knox was out, and so was linebacker Matt Milano.
And while wide receiver John Brown played, he was a shell of himself as he could not run due to an injury.
Buffalo’s defense was in the throes of misery, having just allowed 42 points to the Titans in their first loss, and by the end of the night the Bills ranked 23rd in total yards allowed, 25th in run yards allowed, 24th in pass yards and 21st in points.
And the Bills’ offense was also in a rough patch, a three- game October stretch that saw them score 16, 17 and 18 points, their only sub- 20 games until last week’s 17- 3 win over the Ravens.
None of that is the case for the rematch with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. With the exception of running back Zack Moss, the Bills are about as healthy as they could possibly be, their defense has played very well throughout the second half of the season and into the playoffs, and the offense remains as dangerous as ever.
“They showed a couple different things on defense, stuff we weren’t expecting, and I think we’ve gotten a lot better since that game,” Allen said. “They’d probably say the same thing, so it’s two good teams that are going to go out there and compete and it’s going to be a four- quarter dogfight and we know that.”
Naturally, both teams are going to alter their game plans ever so slightly because they’ve already seen each other. But Allen said that while the Bills recognize the magnitude of the moment, they aren’t going to be doing anything drastic because there’s no need to.
“We’re not going to change who we are,” he said. “We understand that we don’t have to be anyone different ( than) who we are. If we can go out there and execute and play the game the right way and trust each other and play complimentary football, odds are the result will be pretty good.”