The swagger, the ability to turn nothing into something and the mesmerizing throws.
Josh Allen put together perhaps his most complete game of the season. Allen almost willed the Buffalo Bills to a win over the team with the best record in the NFL Sunday.
Almost.
The Bills had the one-loss Philadelphia Eagles on the ropes. At times they dominated the Eagles, as Allen produced 339 yards passing and two touchdowns, while running for a season-high 81 and another two scores.
But in what has become the theme of the season, the Bills couldn’t close the door after holding a 10-point halftime lead and didn’t have enough left in a 37-34 overtime loss.
Now the Bills head into the bye week 6-6, likely needing to win all of their remaining five games to sneak into the playoffs. A month ago or even a few weeks ago a performance like Allen’s would have been encouraging, but moral victories sailed away long ago.
“Against a good football team, we came in here and played well,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “We just have to continue to work on finding plays, finding plays down the stretch. Obviously, (it) wasn’t enough.”
It took a few drives, but by the end of the first quarter, Allen looked like the old version of himself, the one Bills fans have been clamoring for all season. With a first down from the Philadelphia 9-yard line in the second quarter, Allen took off on a quarterback draw, bulldozed a defensive back at the goal line and flexed before letting Eagles fans in the end zone know what was on his mind.
Allen finished the first half with a laser to Stefon Diggs, who was blanketed between two defenders. Allen had two receivers open underneath for first downs and made the wrong decision. But it was the kind of bad decision Buffalo will live with because the 14-yard touchdown throw was one few other people on the planet could make.
“Effort was there, execution was there,” Allen said. “We just have to make a couple more plays and there’s a couple we wish we had back.”
The Bills accumulated a season-high 505 yards of total offense — out-gaining the Eagles by 127 — and ran 27 more plays. They went 13 of 22 on third down and ran for 173 yards in the game, but miscues allowed the Eagles to creep back into the game.
Buffalo was penalized 11 times for 80 yards, all of which came in the first half, as did three of their four punts in the game. Back-to-back penalties fizzled a drive that reached the Eagles’ 29 and ended in a punt
A questionable intentional grounding call — compounded by a missed horse-collar tackle on Allen — knocked the Bills back from the 3 yard line to the 16 and Tyler Bass’s field goal attempt was blocked. Another missed field goal by Bass led to an Eagles (10-1) touchdown after mustering just 95 yards of total offense on their first eight possessions.
Of course, Allen forced a pass to Diggs that was intercepted — for the eighth game in a row — and turned into a go-ahead touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts to Olamide Zaccheaus on third and 16.
And then there were two throws into the end zone in which the receiver wasn’t on the same page as Allen. One to Trent Sherfield in the first half and another to Gabe Davis on third down in overtime.
“It’s that simple, we’ve been running it for four years,” said Davis, who had six receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown. “Mistakes happen and we both made a mistake by not being on the same page.”
Diggs had six grabs for 74 yards. Hurts, who went 4 of 11 for 33 yards in the first half, finished 18 of 31 for 200 yards and three touchdowns, while running for 65 yards and two scores, including the game-winning 13-yard romp in overtime.