Josh Allen Leads Bills Back To Promised Land
Week 15 brought a little Saturday NFL football mixed in with all of the college football conference championship games, and Josh Allen must have been feeling inspired by all the titles on the line.
The Buffalo Bills quarterback led his team to a resounding 48-19 win over the Denver Broncos, giving Buffalo its first division crown in a quarter-century and extending Denver's postseason drought.
Along the way, Allen made some history of his own. Here are three takeaways from the Bills' big win.
1. Josh Allen can do it all
Buffalo scored four offensive touchdowns on Saturday, and all four involved the Bills' franchise QB, as Allen threw for two and ran in two more.
That brought his career totals to 60 passing touchdowns and 25 rushing, placing Allen in some pretty lofty company.
Allen displayed his absurd arm throughout the game, dropping pinpoint dimes and uncorking bombs with equal aplomb.
And his performance was made more impressive by the fact Denver entered the game as the eighth best pass defense in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders.
On the day, Allen finished with 359 passing yards and 33 more on the ground, to go with those four scores. And most importantly, Buffalo got the win.
2. A long time coming
With the victory, the Bills are back where they haven't been in 25 years – since the days of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Bruce Smith.
In fact, it's been so long since Buffalo won the AFC East that their current franchise quarterback, the 24-year-old Allen, hadn't even been born the last time it happened.
1995 was also the last time the Bills won a playoff game, as they knocked off the Miami Dolphins in the Wild Card round that year. The team has only made the playoffs at all five times since, losing in that same round on each occasion.
Fast forward to 2020, and Buffalo is currently +1200 to win the Super Bowl, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the fifth shortest odds in the NFL, according to FOX Bet.
3. Liberty and justice for all
While bullet No. 1 above already celebrated Allen's spectacular day, no recap would be complete without mentioning perhaps his most eye-popping play.
True, it didn't count because of an offensive holding penalty, but Allen's absurdly smooth Statue of Liberty trickeration is a clip you can watch all weekend long.
Now, the Bills will get a couple extra days of rest to enjoy their win and division title before they take on the former kings of the AFC East, the New England Patriots, on Monday, Dec. 28.