Josh Allen has been nearly perfect for the Buffalo Bills this year. He's a legitimate MVP candidate at the season's midpoint. He's operating Joe Brady's offense as well as he ever has. But he clearly wasn't at his best on Monday night.
The Bills cruised to a comfortable victory over the Minnesota Vikings, but Allen posted one of his worst performances of the season. It wasn't entirely his fault, though. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores can give any quarterback fits, and Allen's teammates didn't always give him the support he needed to finish plays.
If anything, the Bills should be encouraged that they won by multiple possessions without a stellar Allen performance.
Bills didn't need much from Josh Allen to beat Vikings in Week 9
This was a tale of two halves for Allen. He struggled to complete anything beyond the sticks early in the game. While he made a couple of tight-window throws, most of his first-half production came on short passes.
The Vikings were putting pressure on Allen almost every time he dropped back. Buffalo insisted on running play-action passes, but Minnesota's blitzes put Allen under fire almost immediately. He took multiple sacks on those plays and had to use his legs to extend a few of them.
Allen's biggest mistake of the day came on a throw to D.J. Moore in the end zone. Moore beat his defender on a deep post and had acres of space in front of him. But instead of leading Moore vertically into that space, Allen threw the ball to the inside. That allowed Byron Murphy Jr., the backside cornerback, to close the gap and make the interception.
What should have been an explosive touchdown became a turnover.
Allen's only other deep throw of the first half could have been picked off, too. He let the ball rip under pressure, overthrew his receiver, and nearly put the ball right into the hands of a defender.
The superstar QB turned things around on the last drive of the first half, though. He hit Moore on a long throw to the left sideline, then finished the drive off with a touchdown pass to Keleki Latu from outside of the pocket.
He continued his solid play into the second half, though Buffalo didn't need much from him at that point. The Bills leaned on James Cook as they closed out the game, giving him 16 second-half carries. Minnesota's offense was unable to move the ball all night, so Buffalo felt comfortable draining the clock.
Josh Allen's Week 9 grade: B-
This wasn't a bad performance from Allen, but it certainly didn't match the level he had set so far this season. He made a few uncharacteristic mistakes and seemed to be flustered by some of Flores' blitzes. The Bills were still able to cruise to victory, but those mistakes could be much more costly in the playoffs.
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