Maybe we’ll just have to get used to the fact that Josh Allen will frequently giveth and occasionally taketh away.
Buffalo’s third-year quarterback was at his best/worst on Sunday afternoon at Bills’ Stadium.
The scenario that unfolded seemed to portend a pair of franchise records for both teams.
NEVER had the Bills blown a 21-point lead, ditto the Los Angeles Rams whose history didn’t reflect a comeback from as many as 25 points down.
Both those things happened, but they will require an asterisk because the finish merely rendered them mere footnotes in a tense and fantastically entertaining game.
Yeah, Buffalo frittered away a 28-3 margin via L.A. scoring 29 straight points.
But the Rams’ 32-28 lead, fashioned in a span of barely 15 minutes against a Bills defense that surrendered an embarrassing 478 yards, left too much time for a Jekyll and Hyde Allen.
The “Good Josh” was rediscovered with 4:30 to play, and made everybody forget the “Bad Josh.”
When it was over, Buffalo, courtesy of an 11-play, 75-yard Allen-engineered drive, moved to 3-0 and is still on the NFL’s shrinking list of unbeatens.
For the 10th time in 30 starts, he had fashioned the game-winning drive, eight of them fourth-quarter comebacks and that’s a statistic which can’t be dismissed as mere coincidence.
Against the Rams, “the play” of the Bills’ final possession was a clutch 22-yard, just-enough completion to wideout Cole Beasley (6 catches, 100 yards) … on 3rd-and-22.
The game-winner was a pretty 3-yard touch-toss to backup tight end Tyler Kroft, who caught his second TD of the game.
FOR THE third straight game, Allen’s numbers were lights out.
Against L.A., he was 24-of-33 passing for 311 yards with four touchdowns and an interception.
On the season, he’s 81-of-114 passing (71 percent) with 10 touchdowns, that one pick and a gaudy passer rating of 125.0 And after not having a single one in his first 27 starts, he now has three straight 300-yard passing games. Plus, Sunday’s effort was made without No. 2 wide receiver John Brown, who missed the second half with a calf injury and didn’t have a catch.
Also, for the second consecutive game, his rushing was kept to a minimum — four carries for eight yards — though he had a 1-yard scoring run.
But, there were also some Allen blemishes that could have cost Buffalo the game.
THE FIRST came with Buffalo leading 28-10 in the third quarter.
Allen forced a deep ball to Kroft who pushed off, leaped up and made the catch. But before he hit the ground, Rams safety John Johnson got his hands on the ball and the two hit the ground seemingly with simultaneous possession, which normally means it belongs to the offense.
That would have been moot for the Bills as Kroft was called for offensive pass interference, but officials ruled Johnson had intercepted and the NFL explained it was the right call. So instead of Buffalo having 1st-and-27 at its own 9-yard line, the inspired Rams got the ball at their own 41 and went on to score the second of four straight touchdowns to take the lead.
Then, in the fourth quarter with Buffalo clinging to a 28-25 lead, the Bills totally botched a drive with a chance to pad the cushion.
They were at the L.A. 30 with a first down when the first of two sacks in three plays by Aaron Donald and a false start created 3rd-and-22. His second sack caused a fumble which L.A. recovered.
When Allen was called for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of the play, the Rams had the ball at the Buffalo 37 and six plays later were ahead.
But, as he has for a third of his career as the Bills’ starter, Allen once again had something left with the game on the line and made us forget about the “Bad Josh.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@olean Times Herald.com)
