DETROIT — He sold a perfect pump fake, slipped past a pair of pass rushers and charged toward the 10-yard line as Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch closed hard. And then, in an absurd and audacious act of spontaneity, the dude who is currently the best football player on the planet flipped a two-handed chest pass over Branch and into the waiting arms of Buffalo Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid, who, naturally, was standing alone in the end zone.
For a second or two, Josh Allen soaked up the moment and prepared to celebrate, for what seemed like the 832nd time over a scintillating seven-day stretch.
“I was hoping,” Allen said later as he sat at his locker, recalling the Touchdown That Got Away in the Bills’ 48-42 victory over the Lions at Ford Field. “Then I turned around and saw the flag. And when it’s in that spot, it’s usually not a good sign.”
Sure enough, Allen’s would-be TD pass with 2:50 remaining was negated by a holding penalty on Buffalo guard David Edwards, costing the seventh-year quarterback a Brett Favre-like submission to his eventual Hall of Fame induction reel. Don’t grieve for him, however. By then Allen had done enough to keep the Bills (11-3) in the hunt for the AFC’s top playoff seed and to burnish his increasingly strong MVP candidacy.
It got called back but we have to show you this alley oop from Josh Allen 😂
📺: #BUFvsDET on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/LKS1TszKMk— NFL (@NFL) December 16, 2024
And that’s not even doing him justice.
“He’s just got a special aura about him,” said Bills edge rusher Von Miller, a future Hall of Famer in his own right. “I’ve played with some great ones — (Matthew) Stafford, and of course Peyton (Manning) — and he is one of those guys. I’m witnessing something different right now, and I can’t put my finger on it.
“Let’s just say it’s a special moment in time.”
Allen, who completed 23 of 34 passes for 362 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for another 68 yards and two TDs, is making memories on a relentless basis.
A week after nearly willing the Bills back from a late 17-point deficit in a 44-42 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams — one in which he was responsible for all six TDs — Allen took things up a notch, defeating a quarterbacking rival and fellow MVP contender, Jared Goff, who threw for 494 yards and five touchdowns without turning over the ball.
There are a lot of adjectives being thrown around when attempting to describe Allen, but my favorite came courtesy of Bills running back Ty Johnson as he prepared to leave the stadium Sunday night.
“He’s mythical,” Johnson told me, shaking his head for emphasis.
So powerless did the Lions feel to stop Allen that Detroit coach Dan Campbell, never known for playing it passive, elected to attempt an onside kick with 12:09 remaining after his team closed to within 38-28.
Campbell took some heat after the Bills’ Mack Hollins gathered the kick and raced down the left sideline to the Detroit 5-yard line, setting up Allen’s touchdown pass to running back Ray Davis on the next play. But really, by that point, it was apparent that kicking deep would have only prolonged things.
With Allen on a heater like this, there aren’t a ton of great options, other than having someone steal his helmet or tie his shoelaces to the bench.
“What he’s doing is mind-blowing,” Bills tight end Dawson Knox said. “Sometimes I turn into a fan on the field, just watching him. I’ll be yelling at him, ‘Slide, slide, slide!’ and he’s running over dudes. He’s so fun to play with. It’s hard to describe, but when he makes those plays on a constant basis every weekend, it’s just crazy. It’s like the abnormal becomes normal.”
Allen — big, strong, fast, athletic, rocket-armed and accurate — has been a menace to opposing defenses for a long time. Yet because he has never taken the Bills to the Super Bowl, partly because he plays in the same conference as Patrick Mahomes, there has been a sense of unfulfilled promise when assessing his greatness.
The Bills, having already clinched the AFC East, will have a chance to help Allen erase that perception come January and February. In the meantime, it’s hard to make a case that anyone in shoulder pads is playing better — or doing as much for one team as Allen is for his.
On Sunday, Allen made a month’s worth of Are you kidding me? plays. Five minutes into the game, on third-and-5 from the Detroit 30, the quarterback drifted all the way to his right while being chased by Lions pass rushers, pulled up near the sideline and, while being hit, threw back across his body and fired a 24-yard low strike to Johnson between three defenders.
That foreshadowed a similar sequence that began a Bills drive with 3:01 left in the first half, after the Lions had closed to 21-14. Allen, again chased all the way to the right sideline, uncorked a 64-yard missile to wide receiver Keon Coleman, who had slipped behind Detroit defensive back Khalil Dorsey.
KEON IS SO BACK.
📺: @paramountplus & @NFLonCBS#ProBowlVote | @keoncoleman6 pic.twitter.com/0d8KkW84TS
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 15, 2024
Nine Bills receivers caught passes Sunday — all but the most prominent among them, October trade acquisition Amari Cooper, who was shut out.
Don’t expect there to be any grumbling or dissension, on this Sunday or any other. That’s not how the 2024 Bills roll.
“That’s kind of the mantra of our offense this year: Everybody eats,” Knox said. “You never know when the ball’s gonna come your way, and everybody cheers for everybody else when they do get their opportunities.”
If Allen seems unencumbered — “Free,” as one Bills coach puts it — there’s a good reason for that. When the Bills traded star wideout Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans last April, it left them without a marquee receiver, but it made Allen’s workplace reality a lot smoother.
According to several Bills sources, the once close connection between Allen and Diggs began to fray late in the 2022 season. Diggs wanted to be targeted more frequently and chafed when Allen didn’t get him the ball. Allen, in turn, became frustrated by the receiver’s penchant for freelancing, believing he couldn’t count on Diggs to be where he was supposed to be on certain routes.
All of this led Allen, who some of those same Bills sources describe as a “pleaser,” to feel compelled to force the ball to Diggs. Allen also tried to make sure he delivered an ample amount of balls to Buffalo’s No. 2 receiver, Gabe Davis, with whom he was close. Davis signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a free agent last March.
Now, Allen simply goes through his reads and finds the open man — or, when no one’s open, uses his exceptional athleticism and improvisational ability to buy time until he finds someone open.
“Josh is soooo much more relaxed,” another Bills coach said. “Before, with all the drama, it was like he became exhausted.”
As a result, what was once Allen’s stigma — forcing the ball, being reckless and committing costly turnovers — has been all but erased. He has thrown just five interceptions in 14 games, with two lost fumbles.
While no longer as generous to opposing defenders, Allen takes care of his teammates in extraordinary ways. His house serves as the team’s social headquarters, which Bills players say is a huge reason for their locker-room camaraderie.
“Everybody comes over — it doesn’t matter what time or what day,” Miller said. “It’s Buffalo — what else are you gonna do?”
Miller, the Super Bowl 50 MVP who habitually hosted Denver Broncos teammates in the mancave he dubbed “Club 58,” said Allen’s house “reminds me of (that) house.”
Unlike Miller, however, Allen tends to restrict his flamboyance to the playing field. After the game, following X-rays to his right shoulder (Allen told reporters that “everything checked out, so all good”), he dressed quietly at his locker with little fanfare.
When I told him about Miller’s depiction of him as the center of the team’s social fabric, Allen smiled and said, “I don’t host like he does. Not like that.”
Right now, Allen is hosting a weekly highlight reel that is only becoming more eye-popping with each passing Sunday.
Even if, on this particular Sunday, his most brazen highlight didn’t actually count.
(Photo: Jorge Lemus / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
