I want you to visualize something as you read this.
Pretend you don’t know the results of Sunday’s matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions. Pretend you didn’t see Dan Campbell try an onside kick with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter in a 10-point game.
If I told you that Jared Goff threw for 494 yards (8.3 yards per attempt), five touchdowns, and had zero interceptions, you’d think his Lions won in a rout, right? That is essentially a perfect game from a starting quarterback. It is tantamount to playing flawlessly.
I see no fault in it. That’s an obvious Lions blowout win on paper.
Well, dearest readers, the Lions wasted this Goff effort and lost. Why?
Because for as perfect as Goff was, NFL MVP favorite Josh Allen (430 yards from scrimmage, two passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns) might as well have been levitating for the Bills. That’s right, Allen was even better than Goff in a performance where he had five touchdown passes and nearly 500 passing yards.
I mean … Allen’s leading receiver was Ty Johnson! No disrespect to Johnson, but the Bills shouldn’t be beating the NFL’s best team on the road when he’s the leading receiver! Also, Allen’s defense couldn’t get a single stop and was basically in prevent mode for most of the afternoon.
None of that mattered.
No one would deny the guy wearing the No. 17 Buffalo jersey on Sunday. Allen was out there making casual basketball-style passes to his playmakers in the fourth quarter, folks.
He is not of this world:
A holding penalty wipes out a Josh Allen chest pass TD pic.twitter.com/Sz9RXuc4Tw
— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) December 16, 2024
Goff was great and literally made NFL history in the process, but Allen was on a different plane of existence. That was the difference in a decisive Buffalo victory:
Jared Goff becomes the first player in NFL history to throw for 400+ yards, 5+ pass TD and 0 INT in a LOSS pic.twitter.com/dBM65O7slX
— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) December 16, 2024
The Lions are banged up on defense and really need to get healthy. There’s no need to panic about losing to Allen’s Bills. Detroit will be right there in January, regardless. This is just one of those days where you tip your cap to Allen, who, at all costs, was not going to lose.
