Sunday provided a great bounce back win for the Bills as they went on the road and blew out the Carolina Panthers, 40-9. The Bills move to 5-2 on the season and keep pace with the New England Patriots in the AFC East race.
There were a lot of positives coming out of this game; James Cook’s unbelievable performance, Michael Hoecht’s debut, Khalil Shakir’s return to his old ways and some great play from A.J. Epenesa.
With all of that being said, there was one thing that stood out to me on Sunday for different reasons. It is something that has seemed off in the last few weeks and is something that desperately needs to be fixed going into next week’s game against Kansas City and beyond. That ‘something’ is Josh Allen.
Is Josh Allen Okay?
Since the second half of the Baltimore game, things have just seemed a bit “off.” Granted, the bar has been set pretty high by Allen, as he set yet another NFL record on Sunday, but Bills fans have become accustomed to a much more precise and polished QB. The last few games have looked like first and second year Allen in certain areas.
If you look at the stats alone, they don’t quite necessitate sounding the alarm. On the other hand, watching the games more closely has fans wondering if there is something up.
There are two points specifically that Allen seemed to truly improve upon throughout his career but in the last few games, we have seen some of it come back.
First are the missed throws. Allen said it himself after the game on Sunday that he isn’t trusting himself and it was evident. Multiple times Allen was forcing the ball into some bad positions and other times he missed open receivers. With the receivers struggling to get open at times, when they do, he has to take advantage.
“Gotta be better, myself in that first half, I just felt like I wasn’t getting myself into a rhythm, I wasn’t trusting my feet, I was forcing a couple of things,” Allen said. “Couple things just didn’t go our way, so I got to be better on that aspect, but found a way. I think we were pretty good on third downs today. Moved the sticks and I think still there’s a lot to clean up, which is the exciting thing.”
The other is Allen’s pocket presence/escapability/time to throw. I know that there are other factors at play here (offensive line, wide receivers getting open), but he just seems off. There have been times when he is bailing out too early from the pocket unnecessarily which has cost him the chance to find a receiver quite a few times.
When he has gotten outside of the pocket, Allen has seemed a bit more hesitant to tuck the ball and run. One play specifically on Sunday was a flashback to Allen’s early days, when he got out of the pocket to his left and instead of trying to find a receiver or throw it away, he circled a few times to try and escape but instead took a sack on third down. It just looks like Allen has been second guessing himself in these situations recently, and he needs to snap out of it heading into next week’s matchup.
Allen has obviously been the focal point of the team since he has been in the league and is an incredible talent. There is no question that he is one of the best quarterbacks in the league but if the Bills want to keep pace with the other top teams in the AFC and have a chance at a Super Bowl, Allen needs to snap out of his funk and get back to his MVP ways.