WGR

‘I’ll start with the Bills and the continuing evaluation of rookie quarterback Josh Allen. Sunday was a good bounce back for the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. The Detroit Lions didn’t want Allen to beat them with his legsm so they went with a scheme designed to keep Allen in the pocket and “make him be a quarterback”. Allen was able to do just that, while putting together a fourth quarter comeback victory at home for the second time this season.’

‘Allen was 13-of-26 for 204 yards and a touchdown and adding a rushing touchdown and 16 yards on 9 carries. Keith Ford led the way for Bills running backs with 14 carries and 46 yards after Marcus Murphy left the game in the first half due to injury and did not return. Murphy had 11 carries for 35 yards. Robert Foster recorded his third 100-yard receiving game of the season, reeling in 4 catches for 108 yards and the game-winning touchdown.’

‘How can anyone come away not liking the way Allen performed Sunday? Unless you’re simply “box score scouting,” I’m not sure how anyone can come away from this one not impressed with the way he threw the ball, his leadership and command, and of course the result thanks to a fourth quarter comeback.’

‘So, regardless of how he plays these last three contests, Allen might not change anyone’s minds about his progress to this point, but what these games do is give the coaching staff, and Allen himself, more information and film to use as they continue to build him.’

‘The veteran QB had been participating in practice on a limited basis for several weeks, but was still not cleared to play in any games. That changed Friday, yet McDermott would not commit to Anderson or Matt Barkley as the backup to Josh Allen Sunday when his team plays the Detroit Lions.’

‘“I think he’s been accurate. There are certainly throws he’s been working on that we have to continue to develop. He’s not a finished product. This is just X-start in his career, so there are plays, there are throws that he wants back. There are throws I want back. The important thing is that he’s committing to improving it. I think, by and large, his accuracy, he’s giving guys opportunities on the ball to make plays and you saw that this past week and we’ve got to make them.”’

‘”I think it’s been decent, when you consider that the Bills need help along the offensive line, they need to upgrade their receiving corps. Surrounding talent matters a great deal for a quarterback’s development. When you look at Allen and what he’s had to do… the offense is taking an approach, ‘We’re going to encourage him to run, and if that means that maybe includes eschewing the first or second read that he could have hit, but he can gain 10 yards, or 20 yards, or 50 yards, then let’s do it.'”‘

‘“The good part is that Matt’s done a really good job,” he said of the team’s 2017 fifth-round pick. “I thought he really grew this year. We’ll miss him. I look forward to getting him back in the offseason. It’ll be by committee potentially, and we’re still working through that. We’ve got certainly Lorenzo [Alexander] could fill that role, and then some other guys with respect to Deon [Lacey] and Corey [Thompson] and potentially Julian [Stanford], so we’re still going to work through that.”’

‘The game was also riddled with injuries, as the Bills lost LeSean McCoy, Chris Ivory and Matt Milano for the game, while Stephen Hauschka was also banged up end the end of the first half. The Jets lost running back Isaiah Crowell for the game in the first half.’

‘In a nutshell, the Bills offense moved the ball but couldn’t finish drives over the final three quarters. The defense collapsed giving up touchdowns to the Jets on two of their final three drives and for the second straight week the Bills special teams were horrible.’

‘Just look at Buffalo’s drive charts. In the first half they had an 11-play TD drive, a three-play fumble drive, a seven-play touchdown drive, an eight-play field goal drive, a two-play interception drive and a 12-play blocked field goal drive.’

‘Bills’ linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said after the game that you don’t notice special teams until they cost you. Well, they certainly cost the Bills in this one. The special teams’ units may have had their worst day of an already bad season overall. There were plenty of issues. A blocked field goal. Another missed field goal. Then two huge kickoff returns against (and another that was eventually called back) that cost a ton of field position and made it easy on the Jets to score ten points. The Bills also had an illegal formation on another kickoff. It was an especially bad day for the special teams.’

‘With the release of Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes this past week, the Bills clearly signified they are going with a youth movement at wide receiver. With Cam Phillips being promoted to the 53-man roster on Saturday, that means three rookies are among the six active wideouts on the roster. Phillips, Ray-Ray McCloud and Robert Foster. Two are in just their second season, Zay Jones and Isaiah McKenzie, who is questionable to play with a toe injury. Then there is seventh-year pro Deonte Thompson, as well.’

‘The Clemson product, taken by the Bills in the sixth round of this past draft, made the team’s initial 53-man roster back in September, but was inactive the first two weeks of the season, watching helplessly from the sidelines as the offense struggled in losses to the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers. McCloud finally got his chance to see the field, making his NFL debut against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3. He then suited up the next couple weeks against the Green Bay Packers and Tennessee Titans, and even had a big catch and run on the final drive against Tennessee to help put the Bills in position to kick a game-winning field goal.’

‘“Any coach I ever played for, they know, I feed off mistakes,” McCloud told me this week. “I’ve had some of my best games off mistakes. On the first play of the game, before halftime. Some of those were the best games ever of my life. I was upset about it, like ‘dang, it’s time to show up now.’ I never got an opportunity later in the game to show that, but everybody learns from it. I made that second mistake before, and it was behind me 10 minutes later and it was time to move on and grow up and that’s just part of the game.”’