ORCHARD PARK, NY — A single smelling salt dangled from his lips like a cig. Cameras captured the sideline scene. It was only a one-score game at this point. Merely eight minutes in. But honestly? The Detroit Lions could’ve packed up their bags at this point. Josh Allen was in full desperado mode and this Buffalo Bills offense would do whatever it damn well pleased this monumental evening.
Since he first bloomed as the face of this franchise — hurdling, stiff-arming, trash-talking — Allen has clearly been at his best in full sicko mode.
Relay this viral image to tight end Jackson Hawes and his eyes get big. He’s still getting to know his quarterback.
“In his mouth?!” he says, concerned. “He’s crazy for that. That stuff can’t be good for you.”
Elsewhere, center Connor McGovern is equally stupefied.
Well, for about 0.5 seconds anyways. Such stunts are quite common.
“He’s a lunatic,” McGovern says. “But a great lunatic. … Who knows what the fuck he does. He’s one of a kind.”
Owner Terry Pegula himself could not have scripted a better housewarming party.
Game No. 1 inside of new Highmark Stadium across Abbott Road resembled a preordained spectacle. Somehow, reality surpassed the weeks/months/years of ridiculous hype. The Joe Brady effect is already obvious. Players repeatedly sing the virtues of an offensive-minded coach, a 36-year-old who sets the tone for everything. Left tackle Dion Dawkins said this offense feels “like Madden.” The Bills were correct to give Allen a seat in all nine head-coach interviews. Synergy at the top was missing. Synergy at the top has now been found. One week after dismantling the No. 1 defense in the sport, the Bills’ offense humiliated a proud team with a proud coach that also fancies itself a Super Bowl contender.
Game No. 1 at new Highmark Stadium was a 41-31 vertiginous blend of hooks… jabs… crosses… uppercuts… haymakers. All punches synchronized into a sweet science we haven’t seen in this Bills offense.
They’ve got issues to sort out on defense. Expected in a new scheme.
The level of precision on offense, however, is staggering.
When the Bills had a chance for a quick strike, Allen went for the jugular with a deep strike to wide receiver Joshua Palmer. Stick around for more, friends. This play was quarterback sorcery.
When the Bills wanted to melt clock, they bled the Lions out with a crushing 15-play, 75-yard drive that ate up 8:22 of clock. Defensive linemen, hands on hips, huffed and puffed and Allen’s two-yard plunge upped the lead to 34-17.
The gulf between Allen and the rest of the quarterbacks in the NFL gets wider.
The offensive line’s chemistry gets stronger.
The team’s WR1 (DJ Moore) went down and this train kept on moving at the same speed.
Go Long is your home for independent journalism.
This was always the upside in moving from a defensive-minded Sean McDermott to a coach who places the quarterback, instead of himself, as the center of this team’s universe. The Bills can now slam the accelerator in ways they never did before.
Veterans have not been shy in hinting that Brady’s predecessor had his thumb on the offense. All contours of the field are now open for business.
On Thursday night — with all of America watching the unveiling of a new home — the Bills put the rest of the NFL on notice.
Afterward, I asked Palmer what makes this offense most dangerous to him.
“Most dangerous?” he asked aloud. “Every position is dangerous. We have a dangerous running back room. We have a dangerous tight end room. We have a dangerous wide receiver room. We have an absolutely dangerous quarterback with a dangerous O-line. So don’t ask about dangerous.”
Fair enough.
But moments later — asked about something entirely different — Palmer returned to the subject.
“We have great position rooms on this offense and I don’t think there’s any… actually, I know there’s no weak spot in the offense, on the depth chart.”
The Lions wouldn’t argue with Palmer’s assessment, no. Brady’s unit gained first downs on 52 percent of its non-kneeldown plays (34-of-66). Allen (248 yards passing, 69 rushing, five touchdowns) and running back James Cook (135 yards on 21 attempts, one TD) took turns battering Detroit’s defense. It’s hard to imagine the injured Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph making a substantial difference in this one. Brady’s dizzying sequencing kept the Lions on their collective heels from the jump. Calling plays, he stayed two moves ahead. One play constantly set up the next.
There’s no governor on Allen.
When he spotted open acreage, he hit the gas.
When he wants to throw across his body, he doesn’t think twice.
Two of GM Brandon Beane’s maligned back-to-back top picks — tight end Dalton Kincaid (25th overall in 2023) and wide receiver Keon Coleman (33rd overall in 2024) — knifed through the Detroit secondary with ease. One’s finally healthy, one’s finally locked in. Kincaid’s 225 receiving yards are the most by the tight end through the first two games of a season since George Kittle in 2020.
Everything appeared to be such a breezy skip through the park. But there’s a reason those rushing lanes are so wide and those receivers are so wide open.
One is the synergy on the offensive line up front.
Last week, the Bills handled Will Anderson Jr., Danielle Hunter and the ravenous Texans front on the road.
Five days later, in their new home, the group dominated. There were pancakes, like this one from Alec Anderson. The team’s new starter up front who declared this group the best O-Line in football spotted linebacker Jack Campbell in his periphery and lit him up. Most impressive is how easily the Bills muted Detroit’s pressure package. Second-year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, an ex-Bill linebacker, blitzed more than he ever has — 55.3 percent — and it all only served as a kiss of death. Per Next Gen Stats, Allen went 12 of 17 for 137 yards with two TDs, scrambled five times for 49 yards and a TD and went 4 for 4 with a TD on QB sneaks vs. the pressure.
There were a slew of exotic looks. Sheppard tried to funk everything up.
But this is why the Bills made a point to re-sign center Connor McGovern in the spring.
Center and quarterback decoded everything in real time.
“So many guys know this offense in and out,” McGovern says. “It allows us to be so well communicated. They were giving us so many exotic blitzes and so many different looks and we’re talking on the sideline — or even in the middle of the game — and I’m able to turn around and talk to him and get into random stuff. This is the best communication we’ve had in years because so many guys know this offense and how everything clicks.”
McGovern makes a ton of protection calls on the line, which allows Allen to focus on what’s cookin’ outside. Right up to the snap, they communicate.
In other words? The exact opposite of how the Green Bay Packers’ makeshift offensive line operated inside US Bank last week. Coordinator Brian Flores put this unit in a blender inside ear-splitting US Bank Stadium.
It helps to have the noise on your side, too. Quarterback Jared Goff admitted the raucous atmosphere inside Highmark Stadium led to multiple pre-snap mistakes. On the bench, between series, it was so loud that O-Line coach Pat Meyer needed to crouch low and all but press his face into McGovern’s face to have a conversation.
Even then, McGovern couldn’t hear him.
This stadium is much louder than the last one, he adds. Brought him back to all of his “whiteout” games at Penn State in front of 100K fans.
At one point, Hawes said the Bills spammed the same exact running play to Cook three times in a row. “Finding the defense’s weaknesses,” he says, “and just going from there. It’s really simple. If we’re kicking ass? I think we ran the same run play three times and got like 60 yards out of it.”
Another reason everything’s so crisp? Multiple players went out of their way to single out unsung heroes on Brady’s staff.
The Bills lost Aaron Kromer to retirement, but McGovern sites assistant offensive line coach Austin Gund as the mastermind behind Buffalo’s pass-protection plans. In fact, he’s fairly certain that Gund sleeps at the Bills facility five nights a week. He watches a borderline unhealthy amount of film to hunt for tendencies in defenses and prepare all linemen for all possible scenarios. “I don’t know how much he goes home,” McGovern says. “These coaches put in so many fucking hours here it’s insane.”
Coupled with Meyer, a Kromer disciple, nobody has felt a dropoff.
“Our philosophy is the same,” McGovern adds. “Those two are elevating us further.”
Hawes calls tight ends coach Rob Boras “a psycho.” To get the Bills ready on this short week, the 55-year-old assistant got to the office at 5 a.m. one day and stuck around until 1 a.m.
Players notice. Players want to attack their work day with the same fervor.
Coffee helps.
Fast Twitch energy drinks, too. This is Brady’s go-to beverage.
But Allen’s presence is the ultimate source of caffeination for everyone at One Bills Drive. He’s forever the reason to believe this season can end in championship immortality. Nobody makes the hard stuff look easy quite like the former MVP. Take his touchdown pass to Palmer. Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner supplied an exceptional breakdown worth your time.
On this particular play, the Lions actually do get to the QB. He has defenders in his face — immediately — and appears ready to dump the ball off to Cook on a sneak route in the flat. Yet in this same split-second? Allen somehow spots Palmer streaking free. Palmer simultaneously noticed the safety playing low and changed the angle of his route.
Allen computed everything in a fraction of a second.
Pump-faked. Released.
Touchdown.
So, yeah. Kincaid puts the state of the Bills offense best.
“It all starts with Josh back there and when he’s on, it’s awesome,” Kincaid says. “It’s kind of throughout the league, you see teams that don’t have as much success and it’s normally due to quarterback play. Having Josh makes all the difference.”
This new home is technically called “Highmark Stadium.” They’re the sponsor paying for the naming rights.
At this rate, however, those hoarse fans filling the bowl will start calling this the House that Allen Built.
Smelling salts, included.
The Bills hope this is only the beginning.
Miss our exclusive with owner Terry Pegula? Here is how the Bills stayed in Buffalo:
‘Legacy:’ Terry Pegula opens up on his mission to keep the Bills in Buffalo
ORCHARD PARK, NY — Enter the office of Terry Pegula and a football-sized dog named Lucy barks and leaps and barks and spins in a choreographed swoop of hyperactivity. She’s clearly his official bouncer vetting all visitors. One firm “Lucille!” is all it takes for the Buffalo Bills owner to calm her down and he takes a seat a…
Tyler, this is exceptional writing. Thanks for capturing a magical night
Warner was dumbfounded on that TD play. Seems as Josh is playing 4D chess and the rest are playing checkers right now. Love the red end zones. If the Bills stay healthy (Josh) you gotta like their chances if he’s going to play like this all year.