'What is he doing?:' Josh Allen remains Buffalo's cheat code

A lot changed on the Bills' roster in 2024, but not what matters most. Nobody's going to hold back the quarterback this season. We recap Week 1 of the NFL season inside, Giants to Panthers to Lions.

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ORCHARD PARK, NY — The entire stadium was engulfed in gloom, in fear of an unknown. What’s typically an all-day party resembled a morgue when a visiting team that won four games last season, a team that traveled 2,000+ miles to play these Buffalo Bills, took a commanding 17-3 lead. Head coach Sean McDermott began to pace. And pace. Back and forth, the head coach walked along the white boundary. Head down, one hand on his hip, he spoke into his headset. Looking for answers.

Underneath the dreary overcast, “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire blared and nobody cared. Nobody was buying the artificial energy. After an offseason of reinvention, a transition is expected for these Buffalo Bills. But certainly not a double-digit deficit to the Arizona Cardinals with 2 minutes and 40 seconds left in the first half.

Then, the ball was placed in the hands of Josh Allen.

The quarterback promptly led one touchdown drive, carving up Arizona with his legs and arm. On third and 6, he spun out of the pocket and floated a completion to Khalil Shakir who pinballed upfield for 19 yards. The capper was a seven-yard score in which Allen drove a shoulder directly through a defensive back. A truck-stick of a collision that was necessary.

After halftime, Buffalo got the ball back and he led another drive. On third and 11, Allen avoided a linebacker’s kill shot with a deft sidestep, sprinted outside and — a split-second before taking a hard hit to the midsection — he found James Cook for 25 yards. The capper here was a third-and-10 touchdown strike to Mack Hollins.

The game might’ve been tied on the scoreboard but it was effectively over.

No contender experienced roster turnover to this extreme. Gone are bastions who helped lift this franchise from the dead. Names like Diggs, Morse, Hyde, Poyer and White and there’s a lot the Bills need to sort out before the games that actually matter in January. But the reason all can still view the Bills in such Super Bowl-or-Bust terms was evident again in the 2024 season opener. After months spent figuring out how a throng of receivers would replace Stefon Diggs, how two new coordinators would call plays and whether the likes of Greg Rousseau, Terrel Bernard could ascend as stars, Sunday’s 34-28 win over the Cardinals was a booming reminder that the Bills still run through the one person who brought this organization back from the dead more than any other.

The identity of this team is clear because it’s always been clear.

Not a damn thing matters if Josh Allen is healthy, and untethered. Until he breaks down, the team’s championship window remains wide open. Any suggestion otherwise is alcohol-induced. Soon enough, this same muted crowd was screaming the lyrics to “Mr. Brightside” and Allen saved his best individual effort for second and goal from Arizona’s 6-yard line with 8:44 left. Face-to-face with Budda Baker — one of the most unconscious hitters in the NFL — Allen gripped the ball with one hand, told the other 10 players to put their phones in Airplane Mode and took flight.  

Teammates were still in awe afterward.

“I didn’t think he was about to hurdle,” says cornerback Rasul Douglas. “I’m like, ‘What the… ?’ That was so fast. I don’t know how his mind processed that. I thought he was going to give one little move and try to beat him to the outside and he’s in the air. I’m like, ‘What is he doing?’”

Nobody overthinks the acrobatics anymore.

“That’s him,” Douglas adds. “That’s how he plays and you can’t take that away from him.”

Nine different players caught a pass. Everybody can finally shut up about Keon Coleman’s yellow jacket now that he’s playing football. His first impression was solid.

Rousseau had the best game of his career. If the 6-foot-6 edge rusher keeps this up, the rest of the defense will follow suit.

All fine storylines to track. All of which is also the equivalent of sprucing up the basement with a call to Stanley Steamer or having the exterior of your home power-washed. Allen is the franchise. The general manager always understood that fact. Brandon Beane knows his career is forever linked to the Wyoming quarterback, hence his sensitivity to that “overrated” poll. Sean McDermott, conversely, has not always viewed his team through the quarterback and it has puzzled those around him in the past.

The final month of the 2023 season, that started to change.

The first game of this 2024 season was a very promising sign.

Granted, the New York Jets’ defense resides in a different weight class than Arizona but compare this Allen vs. that Allen. He was hesitant from the jump last season. Unsure when to throw, when to run, he turned the ball over four times and lost to Zach Wilson. This season started with a bad fumble and the Bills barely possessed the ball up to that final drive to end the half. But right when this game could’ve gone sideways, Allen was virtually perfect the final 32 ½ minutes. In all, he finished 18 of 23 for 232 yards with two passing touchdowns and another two rushing scores.

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Unlike the vast majority of NFL quarterbacks, he does not require a clear-cut No. 1 wide receiver or a lights-out defense to succeed. Buffalo can orbit around Allen — and contend. For 27 ½ minutes, one team was ready for the football season, one was sleepwalking. And as the offense started to string together first downs, teammates did the “double-dip” mental math. Once Allen heats up — by air, by ground — he’s Larry Bird stepping up to the free-throw line.

By now, players expect Allen to course-correct such a game.  

TD here. TD to start the second half. There were no doubts in their mind.

“Things were looking gloomy in the first half,” says defensive end A.J. Epenesa, sporting a Bruce Smith-themed t-shirt. “But when we were in that position to double dip, we were all on the sideline like, ‘Calm down, take a deep breath, we’re going to score here, get the ball at half. It’s going to be tied up.’ So that was kind of our mentality. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low, just stay the course. We believe in our defense, but we also believe in our offense. To have that confidence in them settles those nerves.”

Initially, Buffalo’s reconfigured defense had zero answers for Kyler Murray. The former No. 1 overall pick scooted freely when required to dump off short passes that ruptured into larger gains. What’s encouraging to Douglas is that — in that moment — everyone understood what needed to change. “When we look at each other,” he says, “we know what’s going on.” On the sideline, he told the unit’s bearer of the green dot, Bernard, that the Bills needed to play man coverage and pressure Murray. The linebacker confirmed that’s exactly what new DC Bobby Babich was saying on his headset.

With a little more pressure, the Bills started making Murray uncomfortable. Perhaps that’s why the skittish quarterback missed Marvin Harrison Jr. wide open on the final drive. We’re having a very different conversation today if he sees the rookie streaking downfield and hits him.

But whereas Allen was in the zone, Murray had completely lost his mojo.

Says Douglas: “They came out and they gave us everything they had — everything they had. They didn’t have anything left after that. And we knew that.”

This performance does not belong in the team’s Louvre. Buffalo committed nine penalties for 65 yards and legitimate red flags on defense will linger. In three days, the Bills will play at Miami where Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, De’Von Achane present a much different challenge than Greg Dortch, Michael Wilson and James Connor. This will be a completely new speed. Growing pains are a guarantee for the new bodies in this lineup. Once this team gets to January, they’ll need more contributions from their draft classes. Kansas City has uncovered playmakers in all rounds, and it’s shown through back-to-back playoff runs.

For now, with one leap, Josh Allen reminded everyone that the team runs through him.

He dinged his hand on that horizontal TD run and said afterward that he feels fine. As of this writing, X-ray details hadn’t been released but everyone should know the deal. These Space Jam plays have had an element of risk since Allen hurdled Minnesota’s Anthony Barr in his first career win. Everyone should accept the work hazard 104 starts in. Center Connor McGovern admits he doesn’t enjoy seeing Allen trampoline his 6-foot-5, 237-pound body into harm’s way because he fears injury each time. But McGovern also had the best seat in the house for that touchdown vs. Baker and admits it’s both damn fun to watch and has an effect on the entire team.

There’s no holding the quarterback back anymore.

“You can’t,” McGovern says. “He’s Josh. He’s going to do it.

“It builds that belief and that fire in you.”

Adds wideout Mack Hollins: “Him being willing to sacrifice himself to go score and put points on the board, it is the trickle-down effect. Everybody wants to fight and put themselves out there to get a win.”

And Epenesa: “When you have a quarterback like that that’s willing to do everything for the win? It gives confidence to the whole rest of the team. He’s the leader of the team. And whenever you have your leaders doing that and showing that they’re giving their everything, it’s motivating for everybody else as well.”

The holistic Hollins who walks around barefoot and refuses to use utensils dismisses the phenomena of “momentum.” But the effect sure felt real on Sunday because it didn’t matter that Arizona took the next kickoff back for a touchdown. The ball was back in Allen’s hands. When he’s reading coverages so clearly, when he’s taking off to run with this sense of timing, all that matters is that he’s got the ball last.

To Douglas, “momentum is a drug.” He felt everything shift the Bills’ way much earlier.

“Whoever’s got it at that point can use it to their advantage,” the veteran cornerback says. “Once it shifts? It’s hard to get back. I’ve been playing football for a little bit, and I’ve seen momentum come and evaporate. And it tried today. They tried. They got a kickoff return. But everybody on the sideline was like, ‘We’re good. Offense is going to go out there and — no matter if they get points or not — we’re going to win the game.”

Diggs scored two touchdowns in Houston. Refreshed, he could have a monster season. But for one game at least, the Bills looked fully capable of spreading the ball around. The motto inside the wide receiver room is that “everybody eats.” Hollins scored his first NFL touchdown since he was with the Raiders in 2022, but insists he doesn’t care who scores. This passing game isn’t funneling through one player. This sentiment is the same team-wide, too. Douglas says the Bills will need to rely on everyone this season, including the “janitors” and the “lunch lady” and maybe even security guards who won’t kick him out on this team.

All a product of the roster’s major offseason surgery.

A formula like this only works if you’ve got one of the best quarterbacks in the sport.

“He’s that pillar,” McGovern says. “We’re able to build the team around him. If he’s confident, we’re all confident. If we’re feeling good, he’s feeling good.”  

Next up? A team that also expressed its full belief in a quarterback. Tua Tagovailoa got the bag this offseason and, well, so did just about everybody around him.

Miami is all-in. But Miami is also 2-11 against this quarterback.

Clear your calendar for Thursday night.

Daniel Jones, uh, returns.

About that leap…

… what was THAT?

With Eli Manning, Lawrence Taylor, Bill Parcells, Phil Simms, Tom Couglin and many othe legends past watching on as part of the franchise’s 100th-year celebration, the New York Giants resembled a team from the Gettleman-Judge era in a 28-6 loss to the Sam Darnold-led Minnesota Vikings. Daniel Jones averaged only 4.4 yards per pass attempt, while throwing one pick-six and another bizarre interception into the end zone. Facing no pressure, in a clean pocket, he let it rip into double coverage nonetheless.

My gut reaction to this gut punch for the G-Men is that we’ve seen good teams lay eggs in Week 1. The 2024 season is not lost.

But on the heels of a 2023 season from hell, I get why fans filed out of MetLife Stadium in the third quarter. This season could capsize. Playcalling was mostly bland. A pass rush designed to be one of the best in NFC accumulated all of one sack and two quarterback hits as Darnold — written off as a Jets bust in this same stadium — completed 19 of 24 passes. Least inspiring of all? Jones’ return. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores had a veteran quarterback seeing ghosts. That’s not ACL-related.

Everyone saw why the Giants tried trading up for Drake Maye, and gave themselves a two-year out in that controversial contract. But nobody in-house could’ve expected a performance this rotten. Game No. 1 was essentially the team’s worst fears brought to life.

The temperature now turns up. Jones will need to bounce back against a shoddy Washington Commanders defense that just surrendered 289 yards and four touchdowns to Baker Mayfield. It only took one game for a pack of fans to wait outside the players’ exit to heckle Jones to his face.

I still believe three years’ worth of cleanup at Giants HQ won’t burn as easily as fans were burning Jones’ jersey in the parking lot. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll did a lot of work behind the scenes to get to this point.

Any quarterback can bring a team down with him, but deep breaths are required for all.

For now.

Everybody PANIC

If a team should be worried after one game, it’s the Carolina Panthers.

Forget JV. The Panthers were a seventh-grade squad wobbling onto the varsity field in a 47-10 curbstomper to the New Orleans Saints. Let’s repeat that again: the New Orleans Saints. A team that’ll likely win seven or eight games resembled the ’07 Patriots from the opening kickoff. Obviously, the Panthers were the worst team in the NFL a year ago but they’re fresh off an offseason of finding alleged solutions for quarterback Bryce Young. Count ‘em up: Interior protection at $100 million (Robert Hunt), new weapons (Diontae Johnson, Xavier Legette) and — above all — a whisperer of quarterbacks in Dave Canales.

For this? Young looked worse than he did as a rookie. The former Alabama star stumbled into his blockers, threw more incompletions (17) than completions (13) and had a pair of interceptions.

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Protection wasn’t ideal but all quarterbacks drafted first overall should have a trump card. That was the excellent point of concern raised by David Yost, the college offensive coordinator who has coached the likes of Jordan Love and Justin Herbert.

When chaos breaks out — against linebackers who run 4.4s and 4.5s — what do you rely on? What is your superpower?

“Bryce just looks so little,” Yost said, “He looks like the receivers he throws to, the little slots. It’s like, ‘OK, what’s his special ability that’s going to overcome?’ He is lacking your normal NFL quarterback stuff.”

He continued:

“Can he process and just think at such a higher level that you can overcome just being average? Average in the NFL is still phenomenal, but average at the other things — athleticism and arm talent. Can you overcome that with what you can do between your ears? I don’t know where else it comes from for him. With Kyler Murray, it’s his ability to escape and extend plays and make things happen. Baker Mayfield, he’s never seen a throw he doesn’t think he can make. And when he plays with a chip on the shoulder, he’s a special guy.

“What is your superhuman thing?”

That full column, icymi:

C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young, a tale of two quarterbacks

Everything in Carolina is a stark contrast to what’s happened with the Houston Texans and C.J. Stroud. With an assist from the Cleveland Browns, they’ve built a powerhouse around a quarterback who does possess a special trait that HOF’er Kurt Warner dissected in full.

Never forget what the Panthers mortgaged for Young:

• Wide receiver D.J. Moore

• 2023 first-round pick (No. 9 overall)… Bears trade down one slot for tackle Darnell Wright.

• 2023 second-round pick (No. 61 overall)… Bears trade up five slots for cornerback Tyrique Stevenson.

• 2024 first-round pick (No. 1 overall)… Bears select quarterback Caleb Williams.

• 2025 second-round pick.

This is where everyone must again resist the urge to overreact to one game. The Panthers will exhaust this investment in full — as they should. But this loss was the ugliest of them all, this franchise has volatile ownership in David Tepper and 0-17 sure appeared to be within the realm of possibility against the Saints.

No Huddle

• Fresh out of handcuffs for a driving violation, Tyreek Hill lit up the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 20-17 win for 130 yards on seven receptions with a touchdown. Nothing fazed the Dolphins in the opener. The Jags were two yards away from taking a commanding 24-7 lead with two minutes left in the third quarter when running back Travis Etienne fumbled. Moments later, Hill raced to an 80-yard touchdown and Jacksonville’s offense completely deteriorated. The Jags managed just eight yards of offense the rest of the game. That’s the effect Hill still has on teams. Give him a crease and he’ll flip a game.

• When do the “Start Penix!” chants begin in Atlanta? (Only half-kidding.)

• New England (arguably the worst team in the NFL) upset Cincinnati (arguably the best) as 7.5-point underdogs, 16-10. An outcome, of course, that sounds absurd. But this all starts to make sense when considering Zac Taylor is 1-10 through the first two weeks of a season as head coach, Tee Higgins missed the game with a tweaked hamstring, and the Bengals had a slew of missed opportunities: one Mike Geisicki TD overturned, one Tanner Hudson fumble on the cusp of the goal line and one Charlie Jones fumbled punt return deep in his own end. Cincinnati is too talented on offense for this swoon to last long but Jerod Mayo’s team did signal a blueprint to all future opponents: Run the ball and keep Joe Burrow off the field. The Patriots gained 170 yards on the ground and the Bengals only ran 48 plays to New England’s 65.

• If this version of wide receiver Jameson Williams is here to stay, it’s hard to imagine how anybody will stop the Detroit Lions offense. This was already a coordinator (Ben Johnson) and a quarterback (Jared Goff) capable of surgically picking defenses apart. A field-stretcher takes this unit to another level. Dan Campbell hasn’t been afraid to bench and/or outright release players who screw up. In Detroit’s thrilling overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams we saw why the head coach continued to stand by Williams last season. Williams caught five balls for 121 yards and, as noted here, he humiliated Tre’Davious White so badly off the line of scrimmage that the cornerback tried to tackle him. Silly physical gifts.

• With Jordan Love now recovering from an MCL injury, the Lions have a chance to gain separation in the NFC North. Yes, the Packers received good news on that knee but the difference between three weeks and six weeks could be the difference between making and missing the playoffs.

• Will Levis committed the worst pick-six we’ve seen in years. Tennessee was leading Chicago, 17-16, with 7 minutes left when he attempted a one-handed flick of a throwaway on third and 6. The aforementioned Stevenson easily took it to the end zone. The takeaway: Such horrid quarterback play on this opening weekend of the NFL season should bring a sense of peace to all teams that do have a QB.

• Do the Jets have such a quarterback? We’re about to find out. Aaron Rodgers faces the San Francisco 49ers.

Miss our plans for the 2024 NFL Season? It’s all right here: