CincyBillsFan

I recommend that everyone get Sal Maiorana's history of the Buffalo Bills through the 1994 SB called "Relentless". It has box scores for EVERY Bills game played from 1960 - 1994. You can learn a lot that puts everything into perspective: First a disclaimer - IMO Jim Kelly is the greatest QB to ever play for the Bills and it's not close. Kelly is also a HOF QB. But like even the greatest QB's Kelly had his off games including a series of off games. So let's take a trip down memory lane: 1988 - the year the Bills broke through and made it all the way to the AFC championship game. Here's how Kelly started the first three games that season. All were Bills wins: week 1: Buffalo 13 Minnesota 10 - Kelly was 17/31 for 204 yards and one INT. NO TD's week 2: Buffalo 9 Miami 6 - Kelly was 15/24 for 231 yards and one INT. NO TD's week 3: Buffalo 16 New England 14 - Kelly was 21/33 for 170 yards and two INT's. NO TD's. One of his INT's was at the NE two yard line. So through the first 3 games of 1988 Kelly had thrown NO TD passes and FOUR INT's. We were 3 -0 at the time but can you imagine how this board would have reacted? Now let's jump to later in that season and see how Kelly fared against a bad (4-10) Tampa Bay team: First the Bills lost 10 - 5 and Kelly was 23/40 for 249 yards and two INT's. NO TD pass. This loss cost us home field advantage in the playoffs that year. I didn't even look at 1989 and when I flipped to 1990 - the Bills first Super Bowl year - I found this in only the 2nd game: week 2: Miami 30 Buffalo 7 - Kelly was 14/23 for 140 yards and one INT. Bottom line we are weeks away from having any reason to be concerned about Allen.

I agree and posted earlier that Bills fans have football's version of PTSS. And don't forget that right before the great 20 year slump the Bill's lost FOUR straight Super Bowls. That will shake a fan base for sure. And after a solid outing in 2019 where Allen improved and helped lead the Bills to a playoff game that they earned not one they backed into (see 2017).

I suspect that it's because while he hasn't played close to his best of 2020 he has been solid. And when they look at highlights of his TD passes they see things like the great throw to Davis against Pitt and the spectacular throw to Diggs against Miami.

This is a great point. When Rogers overthrew an open WR last night on a deep ball how many people even noticed? Those are low probability plays under the best of circumstances. Lamar Jackson looses TWO fumbles in the 4th quarter & OT directly leading to the Ravens loosing the game and no one seems to panic about his ball security. But Allen gets strip sacked by the best Defensive end in football loosing the ball at midfield and people claim that unless he solves his fumbling problem no Super Bowl for the Bills. Mahomes throws a terrible 4th quarter INT playing hero ball with a 35 - 24 lead sparking the Ravens to the win. Everyone yawns. Last night it starts raining and Goff drops a snap and then has the ball fall out of his hand eliminating any chance the Lions might make a game of it. I could go with dozens of other examples and this is only after TWO WEEKS! QB's make mistakes - ALL THE TIME. Like great pitchers and hitters QB's can go into a slump - ALL THE TIME. This obsessive worry over Allen seems weird to me.

Miami was 10 - 6 and the Pats are the Pats. And when talking about the entire season there are more then the last 6 games. Also a team may be bad but still have a very good defense - like Denver & SF. As I recall both the Rams & Seahawks were very good playoff teams that Allen eviscerated.

Last years schedule was weak? Allen and the Bills were 3 - 1 against the NFC West with their only loss being the Hail Murry and Allen shined in all four games.

Well said. And in the Miami game the offense was efficient and scored 5 TD's on 5 decent drives including a knockout blow right out of the looker room after halftime.

The numbers don't lie but their interpretation can be way off. And who says that in the fullness of the season Allen is experiencing a regression? It's more likely that we're seeing the normal variability in performance we can expect to see from Allen. Check out the stats for any of the other elite QB's not named Mahomes and you can see a fair spread from year to year. It is to be expected.

I think that Bills fans have the equivalent of football PTSD. First the Bills lose FOUR straight Super Bowls with a team loaded with all pro and HOF talent. Then the Bills go into a 20 year equivalent of football purgatory. Now we have our franchise QB, Head Coach and GM and a roster loaded with talent and the negativism is off the charts for some people. And a lot of that negativism is aimed at Allen as it has been since he was drafted. Now to be clear this is a minority of Bills fans but they're vocal. So what if they're just a little bit right and Allen plays well but not like he did in 2020? Well let's look at Rogers and Green Bay to get an idea: In 2019 GB went 13 - 3 and made it to the NFC championship game. In 2020 GB went 13 - 3 and made it to the NFC championship game. But look at Rogers: In 2019 his QB rating was a solid 95.4 and his QBR was a good but not great 52.5 In 2020 his QB rating was an outstanding 121.5 and hi QBR was an excellent 84.4. And he won the MVP. Rogers 2020 season was much better then his 2019 season but the team achieved the exact same thing. Allen can slip some this year if our Defense and running game improve.

First off he was a lot better in 2019 then he was in 2018. So combining those two years is not justified by the way he played. For example in 2018 Allen had 10 TD passes and 12 INT's. In 2019 he had 20 TD passes and 9 INTS. And through the first two games of 2021 he hasn't looked anything like he did in 2018. IMO Allen is operating about halfway between 2019 & 2020. Yesterday he had 3TD's (yes he scored on his run) to 1 INT. To use the word "terrible" to describe Allen's first two games is just as big of an exaggeration as saying he played "great". And please with the he could have had "3 or 4 INT" stuff. Mahomes had one INT and could have had 2 more. Every week QB's almost throw INT's - so what?

I guess I'm an old fart who has seen everything in my life as a Bills fan. And it's not concerning when I've only seen it for 2 games. And even in these two games Allen has shown flashes of his 2020 self. Were you concerned during that run last year where the Bills only scored 16, 17 & 18 points and Allen looked pretty average at best? And this coming right after 4 games in which Allen couldn't be stopped. Go back and look at the Bills awesome run from 1988 - 1993. There are games where Kelly, Thomas & Reed could barely move the football. We all remember the point and yardage machine that was the K-Gun when it was firing on 8 cylinders but in reality they had 5 to 6 offensive clunkers a season during that run. It comes with the game.

This is the right thing to take way from the first two weeks of the 2021 season.

You simply can't compare week to week games in the NFL. Transitive properties don't apply to football.

Great game.

Throw the ball and it's a walk in TD.

As some Bills fans worry about the offense do you think KC & Baltimore fans are worried about their defenses?

That's not how I saw them. The 2nd one was when the Ravens were in KC territory and the 1st one was just a bad throw.

In the 2nd half - but he was awful in the first half - 2 INT's including a pick six.

Check out the stats today - a lot of QB's are throwing INT's! Of course one of the few who didn't is none other then Tyrod Taylor!

No but it does have to be more then 2 or 3 games. Last season Allen started on fire and so did our offense and then Allen got dinged and we had four average/bad offensive games in a row. Arizona was a tipping point then the offense got hot for the rest of the season. The point is that a 17 game season is a marathon not a sprint.

But it's only been two games. If Allen and the offense are still playing like this after 8 games then yea we have a problem and we're not winning the SB this year. But after only two games - I'm not concerned.

The Big 12!

Mahomes is the best QB in the NFL but damn his receivers and TE's produce massive amounts of YAC. This is an area we need to improve.

True but in a backhanded way this is also contributing to why Allen and the passing game have struggled. Teams are selling out 100% to stop the pass and are getting gashed by the Bills on the ground.

Against a very good Indianapolis defense IN THE PLAYOFFS Allen went 26/35 for 324 yards and 2 TD's. He also rushed 11 times for 54 yards and a TD. That's a total of 378 yards and all three Bills TD's. I would say Allen did not struggle in that playoff game. Allen did not struggle in the Baltimore game. He played as well as any QB could given the windy conditions. And for sure he outplayed Lamar Jackson in that playoff game. The narrative that Allen has "struggled" in the playoffs is BS IMO. Even in his two losses Allen played average, not great, but he was hardly awful in those two games. Pretty small sample size don't you think?