Josh Allen's Throws Vs. Houston: Who's To Blame?

The Buffalo Bills expected a tough fight from the Houston Texans, but they seemed to get a far tougher one from their own offense. Numerous players made gaffe after gaffe, and half the offense deserves blame to one degree or another. The question is, between Josh Allen and his playmakers, who holds the bigger responsibility for the extremely flat first half? We're going to look at each of Josh Allen's pass attempts to determine where the biggest issue lay.

Series 1

With the first possession of the game, Buffalo intended to come out swinging. The opening slate ended after three plays and a few yards.

Throw #1 - Josh Allen overthrows Mack Hollins at the sideline, an uncatchable pass that seemed as much a throwaway as a target.

Throw #2 - Allen targets Kincaid in tight coverage down the sideline, but in decent position on the defender. Josh is on the run, heading downfield, and overthrows him, dusting his fingertips. The miss ended the series, and Allen had running room. He opted for a difficult ball to Kincaid, leaving Buffalo with a three-and-out.

Series 2

Buffalo finds itself starting on 1st and 20 after a solid defensive showing and a holding penalty.

Throw #3 - Josh adjusts in the pocket and fires one deep to a wide open Mack Hollins, who was wide open and would have gone for the score. Hollins loses the ball in the air, slows down to find it, then has to attempt a diving catch after he sees it too late. Hollins drops it, flat out.

Throw #4 - For his first completion, Allen checks it down to Cook, who takes it for 24 yards up the middle and picks up the first down. It was the kind of play Josh and the offense had excelled at being consistent with to start the season, and seemed to put the Bills back on track after their rocky start.

Throw #5 - Cook runs the offense up to the 10 yard line, then the first pass play is a collapsed inside screen to Curtis Samuel, which is blown up for a sack. Josh had nowhere to go and the pressure was immediate. Then, a false start from Coleman puts them at 3rd and 20.

Throw #6 - Josh is pressured quickly again, and throws the ball out the corner of the end zone where Keon Coleman couldn't hope to get even close to it. The were better options on the play, but with the pressure in Allen's face it seemed as good as the team could get in the moment. Buffalo settles for a field goal.

Series 3

Following a great drive by Houston for a touchdown, the game was on.

Throw #7 - Allen was pressured quickly on the rollout and threw it away.

Throw #8 - After an inside run and a false start, Buffalo were on 3rd and 11, an obvious passing down. Josh has Coleman rushing to the sideline, but puts in on his fingertips at the boundary, when he had enough separation to get it to the body. Allen's slight overthrow ends the drive, giving the ball back to Houston. Allen is 1/7 at this point, his only completion a dumpoff to James Cook. The Houston pass rush had been effective, but Allen has proven to be better in this situation time and time again.

Series 4

After Houston scores on a deep shot to Nico Collins, who was playing like the NFL's best WR, the Bills took the field down 14-3.

Throw #9 - Josh drops back, and has to scramble for a first down. His first throw of the drive was a scripted throw to Curtis Samuel, bleeding to the sideline on a screen. It goes way overhead. Samuel wasn't ready, but even if he was, the pass was nigh uncatchable.

Throw #10 - Josh Allen scrambles, and launches it across his body to Mack Hollins, in the middle of the field, who cannot stop in time and the ball hits the deck behind him. More blame resides on Josh than Mack, as he could have put the ball much closer to his target, and it would have been a comfortable first down, maybe much more. The drive ends as a result, despite having both an open receiver and the running room necessary to pick up the first down with his legs instead.

Series 5

Houston is stuffed by Damar Hamlin and Terrel Bernard on fourth down, and the Bills escape a red zone possession with no points allowed. The offense takes over on the 16-yard line. Down 14-3 with just under 8 minutes left in the half, Buffalo has an opportunity to shape the end of this half.

Throw #11 - The Bills open with a screen to Curtis Samuel in motion, who loses one yard on the play as the blocking collapses immediately. It was only Josh's second completion of the day. Allen was 1/9 until this point.

Throw #12 - A short scripted pass to Kincaid with a blocker, and he picks up 8 yards.

Throw #13 - Josh hits Mack Hollins in the chest on a short curl route for a first down. James Cook then runs twice to make it 3rd and 6.

Throw #14 - Josh steps up comfortably, and hits Mack Hollins in the chest again, wide open on a crosser with blockers, and Hollins rolls downfield for 21 yards.

Throw #15 - Josh on a designed rollout crosses his body to give James Cook the ball in a failed screen, where he's immediately hit for a loss of 7.

Throw #16 - Josh passes short to Ray Davis, as he hits a checkdown that's immediately blown up for a gain of 4.

Throw #17 - On a scramble as Allen flees his collapsing pocket, he targets Kincaid, who is coming back to the ball. Allen puts it out of bounds and Kincaid doesn't make the reaching toe-drag catch, as he bobbles it and its ruled incomplete. Allen needed a routine throw and made Kincaid have to attempt an incredible catch instead. Ball placement a running issue at this point, as the tight end would have comfortably caught the ball for a first down if the ball was a remotely sensible one.

Series 6

A clutch stop by the defense gives the ball back to Buffalo with three timeouts and 1:02 on the clock. With some good plays under their best, finally, it feels like Buffalo has a chance to score something, anything, here and make the game manageable heading into the second half.

Throw #18 - Josh throws to the sideline with Kincaid coming out of his break, but the TE doesn't get his hands up. The throw was a little too high, but still just a straight drop.

Throw #19 - Dalton Kincaid leaks deep up the seam, and has a step and a half on his defender, a slower linebacker. Josh Allen significantly underthrows it and turns what should have been a touchdown, or at minimum a 35+ yard gain, into a near-interception. Kincaid had no chance at the ball, and Buffalo was lucky that the linebacker in coverage simply dropped it. Buffalo finds itself on 3rd and 10.

Throw #20 - Buffalo's final offensive play of the half comes as Josh rolls out to the sideline and launches it directly into the hands of a defender again. It's fortunately dropped, but it's unclear who Allen's target even was on the play. Buffalo was lucky to punt the ball, after spending only 19 seconds with it. It was their third 3-and-out of the game.

In Summary

By our count, Josh Allen's opening salvo totalled to 2 drops, 9 misses, 1 true throwaway, 6 scripted plays/checkdowns, and 2 actual solid completed plays by Allen. Even discounting the drops, which were admittedly significant, the quarterback play from the Bills in that first half was abysmal.

Buffalo made solid adjustments to get back in the game quickly in the second half, but poor passes and failed catches were still a consistent theme through the remainder of the game. Josh Allen finished the outing a miserable 9/30 for 131 yards and a touchdown. There was little separation from his receivers, and nothing was working in the short area, but it was a position that he himself had put the team in. The depleted defense was playing incredibly effectively, and yet the Buffalo Bills couldn't take advantage. The loss was the result of several factors, but Allen was most assuredly one of them.

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