There may be no greater sign of respect for the Bills’ offense and Josh Allen this season than Dan Campbell’s decision at the 12-minute mark of Sunday’s game.
Campbell’s Lions had just sliced through the Bills’ defense in 2:02 on five plays to make it a 10-point game. So Campbell, unconventionally, took his only shot at keeping the ball away from Allen. He called for an onside kick.
In years past, such a decision might catch the winning team off-guard. But in the NFL’s new kickoff format, the kicking team must declare an onside attempt. And the greatest suspense wasn’t whether Detroit recovered the ball but whether Mack Hollins would score after tipping the ball up to himself, finally tackled at the 5-yard line.
“I thought we’d get the possession; I thought we were gonna get that ball,” Campbell told reporters. “It was one of (Jake) Bates’ best kicks that I’ve seen him have. That thing took a good jump on us and Hollins made a heck of a play on it. Obviously, now sitting here in hindsight after them taking it down to the 3-yard line, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that. But it is what it is.”
And as crazy as it seemed, I can’t really blame Campbell for trying something. After all, his team nearly recovered a second try — after Jared Goff’s fifth touchdown pass of the day made it a six-point game — with 12 seconds left, with Taron Johnson holding on to the ball at the bottom of a huge scrum.
Since the rule change, kicking teams had a recovery rate of 8.6% on onside tries this season entering Sunday. It only felt like the Detroit defense had as much success in stopping Allen.
The Bills had the ball 12 times Sunday and scored six touchdowns and two field goals. They only went off the field without points after a missed Tyler Bass kick, the end of the first half, one punt and the final play of the game, an Allen kneel-down. So Detroit succeeded twice, at most, in keeping Buffalo without at least a good chance at scoring.
Allen’s extraordinary day saw him throw for 362 yards — 156 to running backs, including 114 for Ty Johnson — and run for 68. He ran for two touchdowns and threw for two.
As an offense, the Bills’ 559 total yards were fifth-most in franchise history, and the most since Christmas Eve 2016, a 34-31 overtime loss to Miami and the most in a regulation game since 2000.
Even when Allen made a mistake (and they were extremely rare), like slightly overthrowing a wide-open Dawson Knox late in the fourth, it went his way with an awesome Knox catch, tipping the ball up to himself.
Even plays that didn’t count belonged on a highlight reel, like the two-handed chest pass — somewhere between the NBA and the Dr. Pepper Challenge — that nearly ended the game with a touchdown to Dalton Kincaid, only to be called back for holding. Seemingly every time Allen escaped the pocket, something huge happened.
“We work on it,” Allen said afterward. “Scramble drills (have) gotta be one of our best plays and our receivers know that and they’re just finding ways to get open when the play breaks down a little bit and trying to extend plays when it’s not there and we’ve had some success on it.”
Like a reverse-image mirror of last week’s trip to Los Angeles, both teams scored more than 40 points, But this time it was Allen’s team only-so-comfortably ahead all night and holding on at the end.
The raw numbers won’t show it much, but Sunday counts as improvement for the Bills’ defense, too, especially considering the injuries to its secondary. They made Detroit punt on its first two possessions, exactly the kind of start to allow Allen to grab the lead and stay in front. They produced the game’s only turnover, Christian Benford knocking the ball out of Amon-Ra St. Brown’s grasp in the third quarter. And they generated just enough pressure (three sacks) to keep Goff from further torching a depleted secondary.
With three divisional games ahead they’re sure to be favored by double-digits in each, this win puts the Bills on track for a 14-3 season, anything less being a disappointment. And they remain that “object in the mirror closer than it appears” to the Kansas City Chiefs, who play two playoff teams on short rest and with Patrick Mahomes dealing with an injured ankle. The Steelers’ loss to Philadelphia also puts Buffalo on track for no less than the No. 2 seed, barring an upset.
