ORCHARD PARK — Buffalo Bills are rejoicing at the idea Ken Dorsey won’t be calling plays against the New York Jets on Sunday.
A change, whether it was now or at the end of the season, was coming and probably necessary. The Bills offense, while statistically good, had become stale, devoid of big plays and it wasn’t improving.
Since Dorsey called a gem in Buffalo’s 48-20 win against the Miami Dolphins in Week 4, the Bills have been outscored 41-10 in the first quarter. There hasn’t been any tangible change, capped by an offense that committed four turnovers and four drops in an uninspiring performance that led to a 24-22 loss to the Denver Broncos Monday.
But here’s bad news: it doesn’t matter who calls the plays if Josh Allen doesn’t play better.
Allen went 15 of 26 for 177 yards, two total touchdowns and three turnovers. He tied his fewest completion total in 19 games, extended his interception streak to six games and now leads the league with 11 interceptions.
Not every interception is the same, but Allen’s have been costly. Sixteen of his 40 interceptions since 2021 have come in opponents’ territory — seven in the red zone — and 14 have led to touchdowns.
More frustrating is that many of the interceptions are throws that shouldn’t leave his hand, including one in the last minute of the first half that led to a Denver field goal. Teams live with mistakes from players the caliber of Allen, but at some point there needs to be urgency to improve.
“I’m still confident. But it’s no secret the clock’s ticking,” Allen said about Buffalo’s playoff odds Monday. “Gotta have some urgency now.”
What?
Urgency was necessary four weeks ago when the Bills decided to sleepwalk through the first half against the New England Patriots and lost to an inferior opponent. After losing to the Cincinnati Bengals a week ago, beating an inferior opponent like the Broncos should have been urgent.
Something has been off with Allen since he began talking about his age and the need to take care of his body during minicamp. And then there was the talk about practicing low-positive ahead of a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On Monday, Bills coach Sean McDermott said Allen’s confidence isn’t where he would like it to be.
The Allen who has been a trash-talking force in the NFL during the previous four seasons has been absent for most of this season. Whether it’s Allen, coaching or management, he seems determined not to run often.
And when he does throw, every attempt feels like an adventure, with little ability to learn from previous mistakes.
The first play after James Cook’s opening-play fumble, knowing the Bills needed to get on track, Allen tried to thread the ball through a keyhole and got lucky Broncos linebacker Josey Jewell couldn’t tap his toes inbounds. Having gotten away with it earlier, Allen tried again when McDermott used his timeouts on defense in an attempt to get points before halftime and couldn’t get away with it a second time.
Even McDermott had enough and chewed out Allen on the sidelines. Firing his hand-picked offensive coordinator less than 12 hours later is a signal to Allen that he needs to play better.
“I believe in the truth, I believe in honesty, and so I had seen enough yesterday of turning the ball over and so he was going to hear it,” McDermott said. “I don’t believe in jading the truth, because I don’t think you grow from it. Even though those conversations are hard once in a while, they gotta take place.”
Dorsey and quarterbacks coach-turned-offensive coordinator Joe Brady can’t choose where Allen throws the ball, but some of his struggles come in the way he’s being used. Dorsey’s offense was predicated on finding plays that beat whatever defense they’re playing each week instead of having a core philosophy that forces the defense to adjust to them.
Allen has proven to be more effective playing up-tempo this season, and whether it was Dorsey or McDermott, the Bills have refused to do so consistently, despite seeing the results when they do.
The Bills went no-huddle on 42.3% of snaps, accounting for more than half their 369 yards of offense and averaged 8.4 yards per play, 2.3 yards more than plays they huddled. For his part, Allen went 8 of 14 and accumulated 136 of his 177 yards in no-huddle.
Buffalo has tried to make Allen a precision passer in an offense dependent on perfect execution, but that’s not his game. Allen is a brute force who thrives off-script and that’s what the Bills should lean into.
So many of Allen’s mistakes come when he seems like an animal attempting to break out of a cage and is desperate to make a big play. Fifteen of his interceptions since 2021 have come on third down and the Bills average 10 yards to gain on plays he throws a pick.
Brady can’t change the offense at this point in the season, but he can emphasize what works and throw out what doesn’t. He can use more motion, fewer two-by-two sets and do things to get receivers mismatches instead of trying to find the perfect solution for each defense.
There is still enough talent to make the Bills a viable offense and Allen is still a top-five quarterback. He leads the NFL with 19 touchdown passes, third in completion percentage at 70.3% and fourth with 2,600 yards, but the highs need to be more prevalent than the lows.
Dorsey was the common-sense choice to succeed Brian Daboll and the guy Allen wanted. As Buffalo’s quarterbacks coach from 2019-2021, Dorsey had as much to do with Allen’s rise as any other coach. And while Dorsey struggled, Allen didn’t do his buddy many favors.
Allen has had these stretches before, but nothing quite this drastic and the Bills need him to be the $252 million investment to be the franchise player.
“Running plays is one thing, but how you run them as another and the pride you take in doing things the right way,” McDermott said. “And so it’s never just one thing, but you got to evaluate the total the total package.”