As one of many NFL’s finest groups all season, and a authentic contender to emerge from the NFC and seem in what could be the franchise’s first Super Bowl, Detroit has usually overmatched opponents with physicality and aggression on its approach to a 12-1 report.
Yet early in Sunday’s fourth quarter, one resolution appeared to point a uncommon admission from the Lions: They merely couldn’t cease the opposing quarterback, they usually knew it.
With Detroit trailing the Buffalo Bills with 12 minutes remaining however inside 38-28 after having scored a landing, coach Dan Campbell referred to as for an onside kick, one of many high-risk calls that has made him well-known for his aggression and aided Detroit’s turnaround. The reasoning was apparent to anybody who has watched the NFL for the previous month: Having any hope of slowing down Buffalo required preserving the ball away from quarterback Josh Allen.
Instead, Buffalo receiver Mack Hollins recovered the kick by tipping the ball to himself earlier than returning it 38 yards to the doorstep of the top zone. One play later, Allen threw for a landing, his fourth complete landing of the day. Buffalo went on to win 48-42.
A sport billed as a possible Super Bowl preview ended as an announcement win for the Bills and strengthened Allen’s case to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award.
Two weeks after he grew to become the primary quarterback in NFL historical past to throw, obtain and run for touchdowns in the identical sport because the Bills beat San Francisco and one week after he made extra historical past in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams by turning into the primary participant to throw for 3 touchdowns and run for 3 extra in a single sport, Allen continued his torrid run handy the Lions solely their second loss.
On the street in Detroit, the place the Lions had allowed opponents solely 20 factors per sport, Allen threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 2 extra scores. In his final three video games alone, he has accounted for 14 touchdowns. To put that in perspective, that’s yet one more than the New York Giants, the league’s lowest-scoring staff, have produced of their final 9 video games.
The Bills (11-3) have scored 40-plus factors in three consecutive video games for the third time in franchise historical past, becoming a member of the 2021 and 1990 groups.
Allen has by no means been named the league’s MVP, and this season he has produced not solely enormous numbers but additionally huge moments that would persist with voters. Buffalo has used his arm and legs to knock off a one-loss staff (Detroit) in the identical season {that a} fourth-down conversion by Allen beat beforehand undefeated Kansas City.
Buffalo scored touchdowns on its first three drives Sunday and failed to attain on its fourth solely as a result of it missed a area objective. In the second half, the Bills scored on 5 of their six drives earlier than they ran out the clock on their closing play after a second onside-kick restoration. It was sufficient to beat Detroit regardless that Lions quarterback Jared Goff threw for 494 yards and 5 touchdowns.
The final three weeks have proven vulnerabilities that make the Bills fallible, from questions on coach Sean McDermott’s clock administration choices in a loss to the Rams to considerations about their protection after Goff’s huge sport. (The Lions averaged 6.8 yards per play.) But what Buffalo does have is Allen, who has stood aside from even the league’s finest gamers, and Sunday he helped differentiate his staff from one other of the NFL’s finest.
