Josh Allen finally had the drive.
Up in Western New York, late on Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Rams came from behind to take a shocking 32-28 lead in the closing minutes of their Week 3 tilt with the Buffalo Bills after having been down 28-3 not long before.
In a career that has so far been plagued by inconsistency at the quarterback position, a game-winning drive against the toughest defense the Bills have faced to this point seemed a daunting task for quarterback Josh Allen. Instead, after first digging himself a third-and-22 hole and then a third-and-25 hole, Allen found tight end Tyler Croft in the end zone to cap a thrilling come-from-behind-come-from-behind contest.
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Allen has played well to start the 2020 campaign, but big games against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins — two teams that can't cover NFL wide receivers — did little to assure anyone that Allen was drastically different than years prior. Sure, his deep-ball accuracy looked as though it had improved, but when receivers like Stefon Diggs get as open as they were in the first two ball games, this was still taken with a grain of salt. Then, in came the big, bad Rams sporting the same 2-0 record as the Bills.
The Rams had dealt with top quarterback Dak Prescott in Week 1, had 2020's version of Carson Wentz fall into their lap in Week 2 and seemed poised, with a new defensive scheme, to attack Allen and the Bills from the get-go.
Allen will probably never be the kind of surgical passer from the pocket that can elevate a passing offense on his own, but the Bills have surrounded him with an incredible array of different types of receivers to make his life easier.
The 2019 Bills had a full complement of … well … complementary receivers in the likes of the speedster John Brown and the shifty Cole Beasley. What they didn't have was a true “X” receiver. The offseason trade for Stefon Diggs changed that. Diggs is the kind of player who can run any route, and he gives Allen an answer against man coverage. The move has insulated the young quarterback, and it has allowed him to be the best Josh Allen he can be. And against the Rams in Week 3, we saw what that probably looks like.
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