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Buffalo Bills: Accepting the good with the bad with Josh Allen

By Brandon Croce

(Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images) /
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There is no question that Josh Allen is one of the more exciting quarterbacks in the league and Buffalo Bills fans are going to have to accept that means taking the good with the bad.

The Buffalo Bills drafted Josh Allen in the Top 10 last year with the hope that he can be the team’s franchise quarterback for the foreseeable future. While he still hasn’t even played a full 16 games in the league, there is unquestioned improvement.

He has increased his completion percentage to 64.1% this season from 52.8% last year and has led the team in two fourth quarter comebacks in three games.

The concern though for Allen is he has yet to play at a high level over the course of an entire four quarters. The issue, especially the past two weeks, has been after halftime for the second year quarterback.

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Through the first three games, Allen has played significantly better in the first half compared to the second half. He currently is completing 68.5% of his passes, for 531 passing yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions (both came against the Jets) in the first half.

However, in the second half Allen is not nearly as sharp, completing only 54.5% of his passes for 219 yards with one touchdown and one interception. In Week 3 against the Bengals, Allen only threw for 63 yards in the second half with 56 of them coming on the final drive.

Allen’s desire to never give up on plays is also something that will need to be addressed by the coaching staff. In Week 3 against the Bengals, Allen costed the team potentially three points in the first half when he scrambled backwards trying to make a play and couldn’t throw the ball past the line of scrimmage. This resulted in an intentional grounding penalty that knocked the Bills out of field goal range.

In the second half, Allen had a similar play where the pocket collapsed almost immediately and because of his ability to scramble he was able to keep the play alive. He should have tried to just throw the ball away but instead tried to make a play that resulted in an interception. The Bengals capitalized with a touchdown that cut the Bills lead down to seven.

These are only two examples of poor decision making by Josh Allen and for every bad example, fans can point to two great plays he made that keep drives alive or put points on the board. The focus needs to be for the coaching staff to make sure Allen continues to provide more good than bad.

While Allen’s play sometimes keeps games closer than they should be the good news is as long as he is under center on that final drive, he can lead this team to a victory. He does not buckle under pressure and his confidence doesn’t wane, even if he is struggling at that point in the game.

While the Buffalo Bills have to feel good about the ability to comeback in these games, the question remains if they have only been able to do this because of the quality of their opponents. The first three teams the Buffalo Bills have played currently have a combined record of 1-8. Next week against the Patriots, the team likely won’t have the chance to struggled for a quarter and half and still have a chance to win the game.

While his ability as a passer has only been discussed, and this is certainly only part of Allen’s skill set and his ability to scramble has to be taken into account, Allen’s development as a passer needs the most improvement. This is the part of his game that can catapult him into that top tier of quarterbacks in the NFL.

Next. Bills' takeaways from Week 3 win over Bengals. dark

Based on what fans have seen through three weeks, there is no question he can get there. However, until he does Buffalo Bills’ fans are going to have to except Josh Allen will wow them, with both good and bad plays.

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